I explained about the bungee jumping and the cows and they all justgotit. They just told me I should have told them I was going to do that from the start so they didn’t panic.
And that was when I realized it. The only person I ever fit with when I thought I was human was Mom, and that was becauseshewasn’t totally human. Ifithere. I was even getting along better with the people who thought I was too much at first.Mammon was helping with my magic lessons to try to get over his fear of me and I could see why my father called him a friend.
This was home.
Epilogue-10 months later
He hadn’t said anything, but Lucifer and Lilith were together long before he ever met my mother. My mom wasn’t here anymore, and I knew it wasn’t anyone in Hell who hurt her. Abaddon confessed to his crimes and Kujosawthe rest. It was another angel I’d never be able to track down and kill. I was still dealing with that.
Lucifer and Lilith seemed to be getting close again, and I really liked her. If they rekindled their relationship, I would be happy for both of them. I wasn’t going to press or pressure untilthey were ready to talk to me about it, but Nero was shipping them pretty hard and we gossiped about it when it was just us.
They were hosting a watch party at Lucifer’s place. It wasn’t some Hell version of a sporting event. We were watching the election results. It was all the Fallen, their families, and Nero and Celix’s family.
Lucifer didn’t just invite Nero and Celix’s families because they were important to me, so they were important to him. Nero’s sister Amira was up for election and we all liked her. She was just as powerful as Nero was and a lot of Hell knew that. The more important thing was that the people who would be voting for herlikedher.
And some of the upper demons feared her now that it wasn’t against the law for her to fight back. The smear campaigns weren’t coming from her opponents. They were coming from upper demons who didn’t want someone with that much magic who wasn’t afraid to challenge the devil in charge.
Celix’s family weren’t running, but Celix’s mom knew everyone’s business. She told us there were disparities among the upper demons and the ones who weren’t rich and powerful outnumbered the ones who were. The smear campaign against Amina completely backfired.
The incubi and succubae just got pissed and were going to show up in force to vote for her and the less powerful upper demons felt like those people shat on them too. They didn’t trust them in charge, sotheywere planning on voting for the upper demon underdog.
I grabbed a drink from the bar and joined everyone on the couch. I’d learned so much more about Hell in the past ten months. I could find my way around and I’d met plenty of people. I’d gotten to know most of the candidates. I knew who I liked and who I didn’t like. The rest of us celestial beings wereconsidered citizens now, so we got to vote for everyone. I was hoping my candidates won.
“I’m so nervous. Are you sure you don’t want your kids to take over?” Amira asked.
“Absolutely not,” Lucifer said. “This is long coming. I believe you can do this.”
“And I don’t want to,” Wrathhog said.
Neither did I. Now that I had more time and was learning more about Hell, my creativity was flowing. I was writing again and having a blast. Most of my cousins didn’t want to either. Asmodeus’s kids wanted to see what life was like when they weren’t under his thumb and the rest wanted to watch their dads find themselves. Wrathhog just enjoyed torturing bad people.
“They are announcing,” Nero said, turning the TV up.
My incubus was tickled pink his sister might be in charge. He helped run her campaign. Nero was absolutely adorable, and he roped all of us into it. He would be more upset than Amira if she lost. Honestly, I probably would too, but I really didn’t think she would lose.
There were countless types of demons, so it took a while to get through the results. So far, nearly everyone I voted for won. I guess they decided to do the incubi and succubae last. Wrathhog, Nero, and I jumped up screaming to hug Amira when she won. The incubus who was elected with her was someone she liked.
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
“I expect you to be the baddest badass to ever badass,” I said.
“She will,” Lucifer said. “If I’d gone heavy handed about it and named the government, I would have chosen Amira. You can do this. Iknowyou’ll do great things. This is what I’ve wanted for so long. I have to be here to keep the gates stable, but I don’tneedto rule. I’m tired of it. I want to spend time with my kid. You’re all going to do a wonderful job.”
Yeah, Lucifer was trying to make up for my childhood, even though it wasn’t his fault. While he was catching up on everything that went on in Hell while he was gone, he was catching up with me too. I told him if hereallywanted to understand me, there were some movies and television shows he absolutely had to watch and that was why the devil personally told me he identified with Sophie Petrillo. I said I was more of a Blanche Devereaux. Because yeah, he binge watched every single season with me and laughed his ass off.
We were making our way through classic eighties horror movies. With this out of the way, we’d have more time together. I could be with my guys. I could just go flying because I wanted to.
I’d experienced a few Hell holidays now. Most of them revolved around the Fallen’s birthday, but I’m sure it puckered a few Fallen buttholes that the biggest holiday was the day Lilith showed up in Hell because she eventually created demons. Lilith Day and Devil’s Night were my favorite.
Things were looking up. Thingscouldbe close to perfect. We just took the last steps to get there.
Epilogue-5 years later
Well, Hell was nowhere near perfect, but it wasbetter.The Fallen had all realized they were much happier not ruling. They were all running businesses. Some of them liked doing that better, like Satan and Belphegor. Belphegor finally admitted he was an empath and stared gathering other empaths in Hell. Lucifer decided his ran without him just fine and left those people in charge.
Satan’s businesses had a lot of programs that fostered brilliance in communities where it might get dimmed because someone was just trying to survive. We could all agree Abaddon did a lot of things wrong, but that was one thing he got right. Lucifer put that in motion with his businesses too and then backed off again to spend time with me.
That left Beelzebub and Mammon. Beelzebub fell in love with street food once he let himself finally wander into the less rich parts of Hell. Cooking was finally what got him. He apprenticed with every food truck and dive bar in Hell until he could come up with his own recipes. Beelzebub ended up being good at it. His restaurants and food trucks were popular, and I ate there often.
