The snakes hiss and snap at Taz, but one growl from Morax and they instantly calm. Morax clearly doesn’t want them provoking Taz into slicing his head off his neck.
“Hands on your head and drop to your knees,” Taz orders.
The Ophidian does that too, though he has a manic grin on his face that makes me uneasy. “Not the first time you’ve said that, huh, Pride?” he mocks.
Luckily, Taz doesn’t rise to the bait, and he’s careful to keep his blade pressed tightly against Morax’s throat. “Tell me why you want Delta.”
Freaky white eyes snap up to me from the ground. “Because of her bloodline, of course.”
Taz nods. “Because she’s half Abdicated Pride and half Angelic Legion?”
The Ophidian lets out a laugh that sounds more like a hiss. “You don’t know, do you?” He looks to me next, and when he sees the confusion on my face, it makes more of that unnerving laugh fall from his lips. “Oh, this is evenbetter.”
Taz doesn’t enjoy being out of the loop, and I have to admit, I’m with him on this one. He leans down, wrenching Morax’s head back with a vicious yank of his snakes, making the creatures hiss and shriek. “Tell me!” he demands, the blade cutting into his skin and sending a dark trickle of blood down his throat.
“Yes, she’s half Heaven, half Hell,” Morax tells him, his voice slightly strained from the angle Taz is holding him. “But she’s so much more than that.”
Iceman and Jerif slip in beside me, just in time for me to send my guys an uneasy look.
Morax settles his eyes on me again. “Funny how your mother hasn’t told you. But then, she always did like to keep family secrets.”
I don’t know what to make of that, and it’s obvious that Taz doesn’t either.
“What were you going to do with Delta?” he asks again.
“Use her, of course,” Morax says with a slight lift of his shoulder. “Heaven, Hell, the Mortal Realm...it’s all wrong. Untapped. Wasted. I’m going to change that. My new realm is ready to take over, and she’s going to help me do it. You all will be kneeling to me very, very soon. Now, hold still.”
Morax’s voice has that eerie edge to it again, and in the next breath, I can’t move.
No one can.
Terror slams through me as Morax climbs to his feet and dusts himself off. He takes a step toward me, and I know I’m beyond fucked. I thought that Taz was immune, but it looks like I was wrong.
“You dare to fuck with free will...Ophidian?” Tazreel snarls, only it’s not Tazreel’s voice that shreds out of his throat. It’s Lucifer’s.
I blink, and Tazreel’s body somehow unfreezes while the rest of us are still completely stuck.
Morax’s focus snaps to the Prince of Darkness who seems to be wearing my sperm donor’s body at the moment. “Late to the party, as usual,” Morax snarks evenly, but I notice his body is stiff and his snakes writhe like they’re agitated...or nervous.
“I know what you’re doing,” Lucifer says with a head shake and disappointment in his eyes. “I thought you were smarter than that. But then again, I also thought you were dead, so go figure.”
“Oh, Bearer of Light, you’ve gotten complacent in your old age. I think it’s time for new management,” Morax declares as he steps back, careful not to let the Tazreel-wearing-Lucifer get too close.
Lucifer smiles and tsks his tongue, casually and very subtly, moving closer to me and pushing Morax further away. “I may not be able to physically set foot in the Mortal Realm to teach you the proper lesson that you deserve, but then again, I don’t have to.” The Devil himself pauses for dramatic effect. “The realm you created against the Accords—the one you thought you’d hidden and have been exiling demons to without permission—is being purged by the Angelic Legion and Hell’s army as we speak,” Lucifer explains casually.
Morax’s face goes from calm and unaffected to furious in a single millisecond. He takes a threatening step toward Satan, but then seems to think better of it. His milky-white snake eyes flash to me, and I see the realization dawn on him that Lucifer has expertly herded him too far away from me for him to make a grab and run.
Thankfully, I can sense movement returning to my limbs too, so whatever Morax did is wearing off.
“Off you go now, Ophidian. This is once again a game you simply cannot win. Run while you can, because you’re officially being hunted by the wings of HeavenandHell...and now you have no army,” Lucifer coos at him like it’s just the saddest thing he’s ever heard. Meanwhile, his eyes screamwhen I find you again, you’re going to wish I never had.
“I’ll see you soon, Little One,” Morax aims at me, the look in his eyes making my blood run cold. “The Adversary isn’t always watching like you think.”
With that, Morax’s mud-colored wings rocket him up into the sky, and he quickly disappears. I can’t track where he goes, and I’m surprised that he doesn’t aim for the mausoleum portal and what remains of the demons who retreated from the fight.
“Niece!” Lucifer commands, pulling my focus back to him. “Taz is going to pass out when I give him back his shell. As soon as he wakes, tell him I need him in Nihil. And tell Nefta to stop fucking around and explain what you are,” he orders. “I’ll see you soon. Hopefully with good news.”
Lucifer winks at me, using Tazreel’s eye, and then a shudder goes through him. Just like that, Lucifer leaves Tazreel’s body, and he collapses to the ground, out cold. I stare at him on the blood-soaked ground, and then my eyes track over to Nefta who’s still lying at the base of the cracked tree. I see my Guardians making small, jerky movements, trying to fight off the last of the power that Morax used on us.
