I could feel the way she would shiver in my arms when I ran my tongue over it, the heat of her skin scalding me.
I was so fucking screwed.
I sighed as I left the manor of Fraud, making my way to the cliffside. A fence surrounded a circle of roses that were frozen over, trapped in a moment of time at the rear of the manor. I approached them slowly as I opened the gate and paused at the edge of the flowers. Looking down at Margot’s sleeping face, I hoped the tonic would be strong enough to keep her pulled under thespell of peaceful oblivion. The entrance into Treachery was terrifying enough when being awake to make the jump, but to wake up in the middle of the plunge would be horrible.
I tightened my grip on her as I stepped over the roses, my heels resting on the edge before the circular hole in the ground. The tunnel extended impossibly far, feeling bottomless beneath me as I tucked Margot’s head into my chin to protect her and stepped off the edge.
The feeling of weightlessness was immediate as we plummeted down through the pit, surrounded by complete darkness. Margot began to stir in my arms but I shushed her, trying to encourage her to fall back asleep. I wasn’t sure it would be enough, what with the intensity of the feeling as darkness gave way to the bright gleam of snow beneath us, but she settled just long enough for me to land in the snowbank below. I took the brunt of the landing, cradling her the best I could, immensely grateful for the strength of the tonic Legion had given me.
The cold of the snow immediately penetrated through my pants, sinking into my bones as I hurried to stand and make my way into the manor of Treachery. Lucifer’s home was more a palace than a manor, carved out of snow and ice itself.
The Lake of Coccidus sprawled out before it, the surface frozen over eternally. It was said to have been formed from the tears He’d shed in the first century after His exile, pleading for the man He had viewed as a father to take Him back into Heaven’s embrace. It had frozen over only after His tears had stopped, only after He no longer sought his father’s approval.
A grand stairway curved up to the palace as I made my way up the shallow steps that were somehow harder to transcend than steep ones. The front of the palace was covered in arched windows of ice, the structure of the building crafted out of packed white snow. I’d often wondered if there wasanysort of structure to the building outside of something that would melt without his icy rage, but it seemed to hold even in his absence.Spires reached for the sky, the sheen of sunlight gleaming off their tips. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky overhead, a perfectly clear, sunny winter day that made the bitterness of the cold seem even stronger. The center tower and spire were taller than the others, belonging to Lucifer Himself. To the right was the spire that connected to the bedroom that belonged to me, and to the left was Zepar’s—the demon Lucifer had chosen to rule over Treachery in His absence.
In the time it took me to ascend the stairs, Margot’s nose had already turned red, her cheeks pink as I shoved open the grand front door. The palace of ice burned me as I touched it, cold sinking bone-deep as I stepped into the somehow comforting warmth within.
A fire blazed in an iced-over fireplace in the great room to the right of the foyer, the magic keeping it from melting. I bypassed it and headed up the stairs for the bedroom that belonged to me when I came to discuss business matters with Lucifer. Margot settled as we made our way up the three stories of stairs to the spire at the right of the building, the warmth soothing away the chill that might have been enough to wake her. The door to my room was already open, allowing me to bring her in and rest her on the edge of the bed as I yanked back the covers. I settled her beneath them, tucking her in gently and kissing her forehead before I turned and made my way back outdoors.
While I suspected I still had hours before she woke, I didn’t want to risk her waking up and finding me in the lake. She wouldn’t be able to come without serious consequences to her more frail, living body, and that would only piss her off on top of discovering me taking this step without her.
The frozen lake was perfectly still as I approached, my boots crunching over the snow that had frozen at the edge. I took off my boots, stepping onto the top of the ice with bare feet. I took nine steps toward the center, stopping and allowing the cold to sink into my toes through my socks. They burned with the biteof frost that would cost any human the digits in the end, but the lake warmed beneath me as the ice melted away.
It cracked, extending out through the water to reach the shore.
It caved beneath me, plunging me into the depths of icy water. It surrounded me, penetrating my lungs as my body refused to move, freezing within the waters.
Only when my eyes closed did Lucifer’s face finally fill my vision, His voice playing on repeat in my mind as He answered the call. “It fucking took you long enough,” He grated with impatience.
42
MARGOT
My face stung.
It existed only in the fringes of awareness, the haze of sleep clinging to me and refusing to let me go. I didn’t remember falling asleep, only remembered tucking myself into Beel’s chest and enjoying the feeling of his warmth pressed against mine. The safe cocoon of his wings wrapped around us had been a haven as my eyes drifted closed.
He’d pressed something to my lips, murmuring something about it helping me sleep and healing any soreness ouractivitieshad left me with. He’d promised I’d be feeling up to exploring more when I woke, so why did I feel like I’d downed an entire gallon of wine?
I peeled my eyes open as my other cheek stung, a blaze of flame kissing it as I raised a sluggish hand to touch it.
Satanus stared down at me, his eyes blazing within his cruel face. His red skin seemed deeper than it had the last time I’d seen him, his horns sharpened like weapons. His body was covered in a black armor that hinted at wartime, stained with blood, and he grunted in satisfaction when I stared up at him. “Get up. We need to go,” he barked, leaving me to look around me.
I forced myself to sit, clutching the blankets to my chest in confusion. I didn’t remember much about the room I’d fallen asleep in, but it hadn’t been this one. This one had dark furnishings againstbright white walls, a floor made from snow as I stared down over the edge of the bed. Satanus thrust a pair of boots into my chest, the force knocking the air from my lungs. I swayed, shaking off the sleep the tonic kept at the edges of my mind. “Where are we?” I asked, cradling the boots. I couldn’t bring myself to leave the safety of the bed. I’d been tucked in with care, the pillows arranged just the way I liked them.
There was no reality in which Satanus had been the one to put me here. There was no reality in which Beelzebub hadn’t been the one to do this.
“Treachery,” Satanus grunted as if my question was an inconvenience. He snatched one of the boots from my hand, pivoting me in the bed. My legs splayed out over the edge, emerging from the blankets as he shoved the boot onto my foot. “Beelzebub brought you here while you were sleeping and went to talk to Lucifer. A rebellion broke out. They’re trying to seal the gateway from the inside.”
Panic made me stand. While I slept, demons had tried to take away any hope I had of ever returning home. Any hope of seeing my friends again, of facing my family and telling them what I thought of their treachery, telling them that I would never be like them.
It wasn’t something I’d realized I wanted until that moment, but suddenly the chance of never getting the opportunity was a stark reminder of all the things I’d never lived.
I couldn’t be trapped here in this place of death.
“Where’s Beelzebub?” I asked, hurrying to my feet as quickly as I could. I scanned the room and went to the bathroom as if he might be in there, as if he would have ever allowed Satanus to be the one to wake me unless… “I need to see him.”
“He’s speaking with Lucifer in the lake, formulating a plan. He asked me to take you to Gluttony where you’ll be safe while he deals with this,” Satanus said, grasping me by the forearm. He guided me toward the door, all but dragging me as I dug my heelsin and refused to move. The memory of Beelzebub’s distrust of Satanus was like poison in my veins, sitting heavy as a warning. Of all the demons he could have sent to escort me somewhere safe, Satanus was thelastone he would have chosen.
