His realm had to go.
And now he had pushed the itinerary. I chuckled. "Not smart," I whispered.
Grabbing a bit of power from the flow, I lashed it out at Raphael. When the cage had broken, he'd lunged for his girlfriend and son. "None of that, now."
I wrapped the power around him and lit it on fire. He screamed as his skin blistered. He tried to lash out at me, but our combined power was still stronger than his with Lucifer's. I deflected his attempt to break my hold on him and walked forward. "I told you that your behavior would determine how you died. And you brought my daughter to me, finally. We can make sure she's safe and whole now. And your entire plan..." I sighed and held out my arms. "I know you can't enter Hell yet but let me tell you how it looks."
Bending over, I used the magic to lift him into the air and lay him on his back on an invisible table of air. I put my mouth next to his ear. "It's like it never happened. Hell is full of demons. All of them, back where they belong. And the humans don't know it ever happened."
He struggled against my bonds.
I looked down at him and considered how I might hurt him. He needed to suffer as I had while I worried about the safety of my daughter.
"Dad!" The little boy's voice broke my intensity. I remembered who I was.
Of course, I was Lilith, Queen of Hell. I could be cruel, cold, and a little bit insane. It would've been all too easy to have tortured him until his death.
But since my last Earth cycle, I was something more as well. I was now a mother.
And that little boy's cry reached me. I couldn't murder his father in front of him.
But that didn't mean I couldn't murder his father at all.
With a wave of my hand, I created a box around both of us. It was impenetrable and soundproof. His son wouldn't ever know what happened here.
"Now," I whispered. The silence inside the box was deafening. Soon, Raphael's fear gave way and he began to pant harder and harder. Soon the room was filled with his fear-laden breaths. "Do you have any last words?"
He shook his head. "My legacy is larger and farther spread than you know."
I arched an eyebrow. "Your Nephilim? I know all about them."
He smiled. I couldn't tell if there was an edge of defeat to his smile or if it was something more. Maybe he'd done something I still didn't know.
It didn't matter. Enough was enough. I conjured a knife and held it in my hand, weighing the blade and letting Raphael know what was coming.
"You know it's not so easy to kill an Archangel," he said.
I slapped my forehead in mock surprise. "Oh, yeah. I forgot." I threw the knife in the air, and while he watched it turn over and over, I tied a whip of magic around his throat. With a jerk of my arm, the magic constricted and cut through his neck.
His head hit the grass under my feet with a dull thud, but there was no blood. The magic had cauterized the wound.
But that wasn't enough. He was unconscious but could have been healed.
I delved into him. I found his aura, which was so mixed with colors both good and bad that it was deep, dark gray. Gross.
Grabbing it, I yanked it from his body and held it tight while I transported us into Hell. "Asmodeus," I called.
Seconds later, my brother appeared at my side. Closing off the web of magic around Raphael's soul, I handed it to my brother. "You know what to do."
Raphael's aura pulsed, colors flashing through it as he realized he wasn't going to be destroyed. Oh, no.
He was going to be processed in Hell, like any other evil soul that had ever existed.
"Did you think you'd get the beautiful escape of oblivion?" I whispered to his terrified aura. "No, no. Enjoy our hospitality while I go take care of your little realm."
I watched Asmodeus walk away with the object of my life's biggest frustrations, then joined everyone outside the gates again.
Ariel and the little boy were crying. Mia looked furious. Lucifer glowed with his own power. He looked like he was about to spontaneously combust with the weight of it.
