“I know you have it,” Adrian said. “The amulet. I felt the surge of power when you put it back together. Hand it over, or your healer dies right here on your doorstep.”
“Adrian, don’t be stupid,” I said, keeping my voice steady despite the panic fluttering in my chest. “You can’t use it. It’s not meant for you.”
“Of course I can. It’s pure, primal power!” he screamed, the wind around him whipping into a frenzy, tearing leaves from the nearby bushes. “And I need it to protect my coven from the monsters you unleashed. Give it to me.”
He squeezed his fist again. Patrice’s eyes rolled back in her head, her struggles weakening.
“Okay!” I shouted, holding up my hands. “Okay. Just…loosen your grip. She can’t breathe.”
“That’s the point,” he hissed. “The amulet, Ember. Now. Or I start breaking bones.”
4
DISCORD
Cinder inched closer to me, her body tense as she slipped her palm into mine. I squeezed her hand, hoping to send the silent message that if she planned to use our newfound truth magic on Lucifer, she would be sorely disappointed. It had taken every ounce of vim I could muster to heal her broken ribs from such a distance.
Power rippled in Lucifer’s aura, punctuated with spikes of disdain and rage. The fine hairs on my arms and neck stood on end, reacting to his fury, and my muscles coiled, ready to defend the woman I loved at all costs.
Even if it meant obliterating the King of Hell.
Cinder cleared her throat. “We?—”
“Silence.” Lucifer’s pupils thinned into slits, his malevolent gaze severing her words before the rest could cross her lips.
She flinched and tightened her grip on my hand, her body stiffening even more.
The king slid his gaze to me. “You fought by my side for millennia. For that, I will entertain whatever last words you wish to speak.”
I swallowed the sand-like sensation in my mouth and pried my cracked lips apart. “We found the goddess. Ruin and Seraphine had bound her in chains beneath the garden. We set her free.”
“You…” He faltered, his eye twitching, a dozen different emotions contorting his features before he recovered and lifted his chin. “I’ve had enough of your lies.”
Lucifer raised a hand, ready to strike us down, when the entire arena rumbled.
The ground beneath our feet heaved, a violent, sickening lurch that sent tremors up my legs and rattled the very fibers of Hell. Dust rained from the walls, coating the obsidian floor in a fine gray mist. A massive fissure spiderwebbed up the side of the arena, splitting the throne platform down the center.
I pulled Cinder into my chest, shielding her from the falling debris. The air grew thin, charged with a static electricity that tasted of ozone and despair. I knew this feeling. It was not merely an earthquake; it was the scream of a dying reality.
The veil between the realms was not just thinning…it was shredding.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, the shaking ceased. The silence that followed was heavier than the stone surrounding us, broken only by the settling of dust and the ragged sound of Cinder’s breathing against my shirt.
Lucifer lowered his hand, his gaze darting to the cracks in his arena. Uncertainty flickered in his eyes for the briefest of moments before his mask of rage slammed back into place. “Do you think to frighten me with parlor tricks? You cannot break this realm.”
“It isn’t us,” Cinder said, her voice trembling but gaining strength as she pulled away from my chest to face him. “And it isn’t a trick. The veil is collapsing because the balance is gone. We aren’t lying to you, Lucifer. We found the goddess, and she needs our help.”
He sneered, stepping over a fissure in the floor. “You found nothing but your own demise.”
“We freed Hecate,” Cinder shouted, the desperation in her tone echoing off the walls. “Ruin used chains forged with your dark magic to bind her, draining her power to fuel his tulpas. She wasn’t hiding from you. Not recently, anyway. She was a prisoner beneath your own garden.”
Lucifer stopped, his expression turning to stone. “Ruin was a worm. He did not possess the power to bind a goddess.”
“He possessed more power than he led people to believe.” I stepped forward, placing myself between the king and my witch. “He and the rest of your makeshift court trapped her, ensuring she would never return to your side. They planned to overthrow you.”
“Lies,” Lucifer hissed, though the fire in his eyes had dimmed to a smoldering coal. “They would not dare.”
“Oh, they dared, alright.” Cinder crossed her arms.
