“It makes sense, Lilith,” he murmured against my cheek. “I’ve missed you too.” He pulled back, and his own eyes looked glossier than usual. His voice was rough, and that tightness in his jaw seemed to have intensified.
“I’ve missed you so much that sometimes I am grateful that Yahweh gave me a thousand years without your memory because I don’t know that I would have survived that long without you by my side.”
The song began to slow down, and he expertly moved us closer to the throne as the final notes trembled around us.
He brought us to a halt and turned to face the massive crowd of demons. They had also stopped dancing and had turned their attention to us as if waiting for a speech of some kind.
I scanned the crowd and frowned as reality seemed to flicker in and out of focus around us. Suddenly, the great hall disappeared, and I saw a brief flash of a bustling city street. The phenomenon only lasted a moment before I found myself back in our dining hall. Ramel squeezed my fingers gently when I tensed and leaned over to murmur in my ear.
“The veil is thinning. We’ll begin to get more and more frequent flashes of Heaven and Earth.”
“Can they see through to Hell the same way?” I wondered out loud.
“Most humans are blind to such things, but the angels can see us.” He gestured to the crowd of demons still watching us, and I gaped as several angels in boththeir winged and human forms stepped through holes in the air where the veil was thinnest.
“We usually call a truce on Samhain,” Ramel explained. “It’s too easy for us to step into each other’s domains. It makes more sense to just agree to party instead of fight when the worlds are so closely intertwined.”
“This is unbelievable,” I whispered, running my fingers through the air in front of me and marveling at how the threads of reality seemed to shimmer and sparkle beneath my fingertips. It was as if I were strumming the strings of a harp.
He slid a hand around my waist and gently tugged me closer to his side, dropping a soft kiss on the top of my head.
“The night has only just begun,” he said ominously before taking a small step forward.
“Demons and angels!” He addressed the room, and everyone fell deathly silent. Shem appeared on my left, a mischievous smirk painted on his face. Ramel paused and glanced at me, excitement causing his eyes to burn beneath the candlelight.
“In the shadows of the Samhain moon, I present to you your lost queen.” Ramel’s voice boomed through the room, demanding rapt attention from every single demon and angel in attendance.
“Now free from the unjust purgatorial grasp of Yahweh, Lilith will reclaim her throne.”
My heart was pounding in my chest. The room was so quiet, and Ramel’s words were so heavy I was struggling to come to terms with the reality of what was happening.
This wasreal.These demons were truly going to crown me as their queen. I swallowed, suddenly missing the days when my biggest problems had been making rent.
Shem stepped forward and took over. Ramel waved his hand in the air before him, and my eyes widened as a crown of black flowers materialized out of thin air. He moved to stand behind me as Shemhazai addressed the waiting crowd.
“For thousands of years, we have suffered through Yahweh’s reign.” Shem’s voice cut like a guillotine through the silence, and several of the angels in attendance physically winced.
“He nearly eradicated the mortals, trapped our queen in His bowl of nothing, and turned our king against her. He trapped our words and used us as pawns in His sick games.”
His anger was palpable and contagious. It spread like a virus through the audience, and I saw his rage reflected back at us in many of our guests’ faces.
“Tonight, Lilith will ascend into her true power, and we will end Yahweh’s reign once and for all. He will be punished for His sins, and we will relish in Hissuffering!”
Cheers exploded from the demons in attendance. The angels began to shuffle, eyes darting back and forth restlessly. This wasn’t just a coronation; this was a declaration of war. Knowing that Samhain was usually a truce, the weight of Shem’s words buzzed through me. This night was more than just me reclaiming my throne; this night marked the beginning of Ramel and Shem’s final stand against God.
A potent cocktail of pride and fear rolled through me. I straightened and held my head high, looking out at my soon-to-be subjects with a growing sense of responsibility.
They weremine.They wereall mine,and I would do whatever needed to be done to protect them from Yahweh.
The dining hall flickered in and out of focus again. This time, instead of the mortal realm, I caught a glimpse of Heaven. I thought I could see a silhouette of a man standing by what I knew was the pit that held Yahweh’s Sorter of Souls. However, before I could get too close of a look, reality shivered back into focus again, and I was back in the House of the Fallen.
Once the cheers had died down, Shem continued. “Ramel, Lilith’s Reaper of Death and Keeper of the Scythe, shall crown her.”
I felt the tiny hairs on my head brush against the crown of deadly flowers as Ramel lowered the piece onto my brow. Once it was settled, he wrapped his hands around my hips and pulled me firmly back into him, biting down on the side of my neck hard enough to make me gasp.
“Mine,”he growled into my ear as the demons erupted into another explosion of cheers. I shuddered and leaned back into his chest as he glared out at the audience over my shoulder. I knew he was giving them a silent threat. I was his, and he would kill anyone who threatened me. Now that we had access to a scepter, no one was safe from Ramel’s wrath.
“Bow down, citizens of darkness, and hail the return of Lilith, our eternal queen. Let the flames of Hell burn through Yahweh’s repressive restraints, and from the ashes, a new era will dawn. A reign born of temptation andfucking damnation!”
