Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

Azazel

H olding the piece of paper as if it might grow teeth and bite me, I stared at the official seal of Lucifer at the bottom, which marked it as a direct means of communication from the King of Hell himself. The last time he’d personally summoned me was when he’d replied to my RSVP to the Fall Festival, ordering me to bring Zoe along and present her to him.

This time, there was no mention of Zoe. No further details other than a request—a command, really—to come see him.

My gut drew tight with dread and foreboding.

Given our contentious history and the precedents of the past, Lucifer summoning me to him most certainly didn’t mean anything good. I had a hunch what it might be about, and I was already laying out a line of defense and potential contingency plans. I’d just sent off a note to Daevi, with the request to inform Naamah as well. Bringing into the loop the two females who had the most influence on Lucifer and might argue on my behalf seemed like the wise thing to do.

Whether an objection from Naamah might actually save my neck when push came to shove was debatable, but I’d try anyway.

I called for my five most trusted warriors—well, most trusted after the ones I’d sent as guards for Zoe—and then we left in a flurry of wings to make the long flight to Lucifer’s palace.

Just like during those recent times I’d visited Zoe in the palace, I took note of the lack of patrols and checks at the border to Lucifer’s territory, one of the most glaring signs of his negligence. His domain used to be the most heavily guarded, with the strongest army, his soldiers well trained and loyal. Together with Lucifer’s power level, that had always been an effective deterrent to any potential aggressors.

Now, I could slip inside the territory, along with an entourage, largely unseen and most definitely unchecked.

In glaring contrast to when I’d landed in the main courtyard of the palace after Lilith had summoned me to pick up Zoe eight years ago, when there’d been dozens of guards and staff controlling the many visitors, we now touched down on the ash-flecked white stone without a single demon coming to ask us our business. The place was deserted, the roar of the dragons above us the only sound.

Consequently, we strolled into the palace without an escort, free to explore the seat of Lucifer’s power and do what we willed.

With each step, my blood boiled at the lack of security, at the obvious dereliction of his duty as lord over this domain. The sheer neglect and apathy apparent in the abandonment of all necessary precautions and regulations galled me to no end—mostly, but not exclusively, because it put Zoe in harm’s way.

But there was a part of me that took personal offense at his obvious carelessness. I’d grown up in this court, had been raised in the shadow of Lucifer’s overwhelming power and authority, and the proper respect for what it took to lead an entire territory and the whole of Hell had been drilled into me over and over. The kind of weakness he was showing now with this negligence? If one of the archdemons had displayed anything like this, Lucifer would have personally deposed them, making an example of them in the process.

The youth I’d been at his court bared his teeth inside me at seeing the vulnerability evident in my grandfather’s behavior, for Lucifer had been the one who’d taught me that strength was everything, to always keep my guard up, to anticipate threats before they arose, and to take care of my reputation like I would any other piece of my armor, because that was what it was.

And now he was failing at those very same lessons, making a mockery of how ruthlessly he’d once drilled them into me.

We reached the private wing of the palace, and yet again, no one checked us. I was an archdemon with an entourage of powerful warriors, but our presence here didn’t raise any eyebrows, let alone prompt any attempt to halt me for questioning.

No fucking wonder that Zoe had been attacked with impunity.

My nostrils flared as I clenched my jaw and raised my hand to knock at the door to Lucifer’s room. A combustive cocktail of anger, frustration, dread, resentment, and worry churned in my blood, and I had to forcefully rein in my power and don the mask of cold indifference I’d perfected over the millennia.

At Lucifer’s call, I nodded at my warriors to wait for me in the hallway, and then I stepped inside.

The draft from the door falling shut behind me stirred the single candle that sat on a side table to Lucifer’s right, and its light flickered precariously for a moment. His face half wreathed in shadows, Lucifer raised his chin as he managed the feat of staring me down from his seated position.

At his feet lay a familiar hound, her tail wagging as she beheld me.

I didn’t dare greet Vengeance, however, not when keeping all my attention on the factor of uncertainty that was Lucifer seemed to be the more prudent choice.

I inclined my head and bowed from the waist, my skin prickling with the awareness that I was—if only for a second—baring the back of my neck to a supreme predator. But even archdemons had to display a level of submissiveness to the King of Hell when meeting him personally.

At least I didn’t have to go down on a knee anymore since I’d climbed up in rank.

“To what do I owe the honor of your summons, Your Grace?” I asked as I straightened, keeping my voice calm and respectful.

He regarded me with quiet menace for a moment before he whispered, “Do you wish to supplant me?”

I blinked and kept a tight leash on my power. “I beg your pardon?”

“Do you have designs to undermine my rule and take my place?”

“I do not,” I said in a clipped voice. “And I swear to the truth of that by our shared love for my mother.”

Something flashed in his eyes. “Then perhaps you are not familiar with the territorial laws of this realm? Though that would raise the question of how you have made it to the position of archdemon without knowledge of our basic rules and regulations.”

I ground my teeth, irritation spreading like an itch over my body. I hated standing before him, hated having to endure his interrogation, his prodding and poking that was all too reminiscent of the times he’d called me to the carpet as a youth at his court. I’d put two thousand five hundred years of distance between that past and the here and now, and yet it seemed as if the millennia and all the experience and maturity I’d gained in the meantime melted away in an instant the moment I once more stood before my grandfather.

I was a boy again, grappling for words and the strength to keep my chin up in the face of a public lecture, trying so hard to be the kind of demon that would earn praise instead of ridicule, and failing over and over.

I’d never been good enough. The very way I’d breathed had seemed wrong.

His eyes glinted hard as he pinned me with a cold look. “I asked you a question.”

I barely kept the sneer off my face. “Yes, I know the territorial laws of this realm.”

“And yet,” he said, leaning forward, his black hair swallowing the light, “you deliberately station your warriors in my palace, violating the sovereignty of my domain. If you do not intend to supplant me, and if you are well aware of the rules regarding territorial integrity, then why would you run the risk of incurring my wrath? Is it hubris…or imbecility?”

Fury was a rabid beast snapping at my control, warring with the familiar feeling of humiliation his words caused. Always, always, he would doubt my competence, poke at my pride, and insinuate ineptitude. As if I were a blundering idiot.

But I wasn’t. I was an archdemon now, was no longer that boy who’d flinch at the slights thrown by his grandfather. I had worked my way up with grit and blood and an inner fire fueling every grueling step up the ladder, and I had earned my fucking place so high up in the hierarchy that only Lucifer himself outranked me.

My power fairly vibrated in the air, so strong that a humming sound filled the silence. I clenched my jaw and met his gaze head-on, squared my shoulders, and lifted my chin.

“Speak,” Lucifer ordered. “Or have you lost your tongue along with your wits?”

Something inside me snapped. I’d meant to lay out the arguments and explanations I’d prepared to defuse the impending conflict, to be diplomatic and conciliatory. But—by the heat of Hell—he brought out the worst in me. While the insults of others rolled off my back without impairing my ability to play the game and keep my mask in place, he could make me lose my cool within seconds.

“So concerned you are about my warriors’ presence in your palace,” I said, my good reason and fear of consequences burning to cinders in the flames of my fury, “claiming a violation of the integrity of your territory, yet you are the one who allowed the security of your domain to crumble. If keeping your lands safe from intrusion were truly so important to you, you would have invested in actually running your estate and ruling your court instead of withdrawing to your quarters and letting your authority become a thing of myth and tales of the past.”

He narrowed his eyes, his energy becoming whip-sharp. “You dare?—”

“Yes, I do,” I snapped, the already thin thread of my patience for this subject tearing in two. “I dare tell you the truth right to your face, just as I dared send my soldiers here to protect Zoe because you sure as fuck wouldn’t!”

The air stilled. He didn’t seem to breathe. Vengeance sat up with a whine and tucked her tail.

“I don’t know who is left to give you counsel,” I said, my voice rising in the chill of the room, “whether you are now surrounded by nothing but spineless sycophants who’d eat your shit and tell you it’s the finest delicacy because they fear you too much to speak true?—”

Lucifer’s eyes widened the tiniest fraction.

“Or worse yet,” I continued, “by those who intend to encourage your negligence and use it for their own benefit and therefore will not tell you when you falter. What I know is that I will not hold my tongue when it comes to this.” I clenched my hands into fists, my chest heaving with my rapid breaths. “I will not mince my words, not for this. Because it is Zoe’s safety that is on the line, and she will always come first.” I made a harsh cutting gesture to emphasize my point.

Lucifer’s stare could have incinerated a lesser demon. “I should take your head for this.”

“And incur your daughter’s wrath and loathing for the rest of eternity?” I bared my teeth and snarled at him. “No, you will not touch me. Naamah will never forgive you if you do. There are few things left you care about, but her love for you is one of them, and you will not risk it by harming her only son.”

He drew in a breath with a hiss, his eyes narrowing.

I’d hit him where it counted. I knew his soft spot, and I would take advantage of it for all it was worth.

It helped that I knew for a fact my mother would approve of this kind of manipulation. It was right up her alley.

“You will listen to me if not to anyone else,” I went on, emboldened by his silence. “You might have warded off others’ advice, preferring to stew in your ignorance, but you will hear my words.” I pointed at him. “You don’t even notice how much your rule is crumbling around you. You still think your word is law, that the fear and respect you founded your empire on are strong enough to secure your reign. They’re not! Zoe has been attacked in direct violation of your decree of protection. Demons are out there flouting your ordinances in a way they wouldn’t have dared eight years ago. You relied on your word alone having the power to protect her and didn’t bother to provide her with a security detail because you are oblivious to the true extent of the disrespect and sabotage that has been thriving in your court.”

A low growl emanated from him, but I wasn’t deterred. I would speak my piece and make him listen .

“I know you don’t care about her,” I said through gritted teeth, “that she is just a means to an end for you. But considering that she is the only means to your end, I would have expected you to be more circumspect, to guard her with the vigilance befitting the treasure you seek to reclaim. Because if you lose Zoe, you lose Lilith.”

Ice crystals formed in the air, and my breath fogged in front of me.

“You think I don’t know that?” Lucifer whispered harshly.

“You sure don’t act like it!” I could feel frost creeping over my skin. “It was sheer dumb luck and Vengeance’s skill that saved Zoe. You almost lost her that day!”

The ground shook. Not from Lucifer’s power—but from mine. I had to take a calming breath to keep my energy from destroying what was left of this room.

“Yet you continue to pretend that wasn’t a sign of your weakening authority. How can you be so blind? ”

His fingers twitched, black claws slicing out as if about to slash something.

“And speaking of Lilith.” My nostrils flared as I inhaled with my lips pressed into a line. “You want her back down here with you? You want to bring her to Hell, to live here once more as a human among demons? You need to clean up your house first. With the way things are, with your reputation in tatters and the vultures circling and observing your every step, Lilith will be dead within a week.”

A pulse of his power caused the air to tremble.

Vengeance whined again and slunk over to me to settle at my side.

“Zoe was attacked presumably because of her connection to you,” I went on, laying a soothing hand on one of Vengeance’s heads, “because she managed to draw you out of your isolation and pull you from your apathy. There are enough demons out there who don’t want to see that, who want to keep you withdrawn and disengaged from ruling, and they’ll regard Lilith the same as they do Zoe—as a threat to the status quo, which is your utter lack of interest in actually governing your realm. They will not hesitate to kill Lilith if it means it will hurl you into another spiral of depression and lethargy. If you want her safe, you need to secure your reign first.” I bared my teeth, my pulse beating a racing tattoo against my temples. “Get your fucking shit together, or you’ll lose her a second time as soon as she sets foot in Hell.”

Silence followed the end of my tirade, broken only by my shallow breaths and the clink of claws against stone as Vengeance shifted her weight next to me. The air was heavy with the kind of charge that preceded a storm, thickening with tension and impending violence that would soon erupt. I’d felt this a few times on Earth, with charcoal clouds darkening the horizon, right before lightning would split the sky and thunder would shake the world.

Down here in Hell, the air outside always held a charge, flashes and storms were ever present, but on Earth, a violent tempest was a different thing, a sudden force of nature that had justifiably caused humans to cower in fear of the divine power to whom they attributed the thunderstorm.

It felt like that now.

Still, I stood tall, unflinching, without a single regret over the lecture I’d just given the supreme ruler of Hell.

That didn’t mean, however, that I wasn’t apprehensive about possible consequences. The protection Naamah’s love gave me might only go so far, and with how unpredictable Lucifer had been of late, there was no telling how much he would dare to test the limits of his daughter’s goodwill.

Flexing my muscles, I braced for everything—just not for hearing him laugh.

My jaw went slack as I watched Lucifer’s face transform from a mask of hardness into an expression of true mirth. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him laugh like this, not derisively or with a mocking twist, but with genuine warmth.

“You,” he said after a moment, leaning back in his chair, “are every bit your mother’s son.” He nodded at me, his voice bare of any scorn. “That fire, that zeal, your forthrightness, and your disregard of propriety in pursuit of that which you care about. The way you burn for those you love, your capacity for unwavering loyalty.”

His expression growing pensive, he regarded me while I stood in stunned silence, incapable of processing this change in him and the way he spoke to me.

Never had he addressed me like this.

“I did not see it before,” he said quietly after several heartbeats. “I was expecting to find him in you, to see his flaws passed on to you, and it made me miss all the ways you reflect the best of her.”

He might as well have snatched the rug out from under me. That was how floored I was. I could have handled anything he threw at me, just not this.

Shifting my weight subtly to get into a better defensive position, I eyed him with wariness beating underneath my skin. “Is this a trick?”

He lazily waved that away. “She was right about you. It shouldn’t have taken her bluntness to make me see what I’ve been blind to. To make me look beyond my anger.”

My brow scrunched in confusion. Was he talking about Naamah still?

“But she was right about something else, too.” His fingers drummed slowly on the armrest, his unnervingly intense gaze fixed on me. “I did not treat you as I should have. My sins are numerous, no doubt, and I take pride in most of them. This one, I regret.”

My eyes darted about the room, looking for the impending danger, sure that this was some kind of ploy to fuck with me, and any second now, I’d be struck down and dragged back into our old game of humiliation and threats again.

“You deserved better,” Lucifer said, his voice steady and without a shred of derision or sarcasm.

What was going on? None of this made sense.

“And if I could go back and change the way things played out,” he added, “I would.”

My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides, my entire body abuzz with the unsettling uncertainty of how to deal with whatever this was.

“I would raise you in your mother’s spirit,” he said with a rough note to his voice, “and do right by her and you.”

I’d faced a multitude of foes over the manifold centuries of my life, had found myself in and fought my way out of countless traps and snares of strategy. This one paralyzed me.

I stared at him, struck mute.

He pinned me with a glare of his own, and for a long, agonizing moment, we simply squared off with our gazes locked.

Eventually, he uttered a sound of sheer frustration. “Just accept it,” he ground out.

“Accept what?” My voice was but a harsh whisper, my nerves frayed.

“My apology!” he barked.

I reared back. Blinking several times, as if that might make this weird interlude resemble any sort of logical reality again, I shook my head and opened my mouth, though nothing came out. My brain was still processing.

“Well?” he prodded.

“I’m still trying to make sense of what you just said.”

With an impatient sigh, he got up. “Then make it make sense faster.” He made a rolling gesture with one hand. “Or mull it over while we go. It doesn’t matter.” In a murmur, he added, “She can’t say I never apologized to you now.”

I tilted my head and gave him a bemused look. Had Naamah said that to him? I’d known she talked with him about me, but I hadn’t thought?—

“And for the record,” Lucifer said as he summoned a sword and drew it out of its sheath to check the blade, “I do care for her.” Pausing for a beat, he bared his teeth in a grimace and muttered, “She did the fungus-growth thing on me, too.”

“Who?” I asked with bewilderment heating my blood.

Satisfied with the sharpness of the blade, he sheathed the sword again and fastened it to his belt, then shot me a short look while he summoned another sword, which he checked as well. “Zoe, of course. Now come on.”

“What?” My brows shot up, and I stared at him in utter puzzlement, trying to catch up with what was happening here.

“Apparently,” Lucifer said as he fastened the second sword in a sheath at his back, “I have a house to clean up.” His fathomless black eyes met mine, and he inclined his head. “And you’ll join me.”

My mouth agape, I watched him extend his blood-dripping wings, his power such a force in the room that it burned my skin.

“Come, girl.” He clucked his tongue at Vengeance. “What do you say—want to rip some demons apart?”

Vengeance scampered over to him and yipped in excitement.

“Yes?” crooned Lucifer. “Want to shred some wings and tear off a couple of limbs?”

The hound grew even more enthusiastic and danced in a little circle, which, given her size, resulted in her shoving the dilapidated furniture to the walls.

“Good girl,” Lucifer purred and scratched her middle head. Then his gaze slammed back into mine, a truly diabolical grin stretching his lips. “Let’s go bathe in blood.”