Chapter 12

My forehead smashed into something hard and unforgiving, instantly sending wetness gushing down my face. The rest of my body tumbled to the ground like a useless rag doll as a roar sounded in my ears. The crystal had exploded on impact, letting out all the pain it had absorbed from my mates.

In the middle of one of Hendrik's portal spells. Not a great combination.

I blinked a few times, trying to peer through the hazy darkness, but I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face.

"Fuck, did I go blind?" I asked myself.

"Lilith?" Azrael's voice croaked in surprise, making me freeze.

"Holy shit, where are you?" Samael added, sounding just as battered and worn down as his brother.

My skin crawled with the realization of where Hendrik's spell had sent me.

Right into the twins' cell.

Frantically glancing around, I dropped onto all fours and ignored the sharp pebbles under my hands. I reached out, feeling my way until I touched something soft and silky.

An angel's wing.

I barely brushed my fingers through the appendage, immediately finding broken stems and frayed feathers.

"Have you two been trapped in here the whole time?" I whispered as a sinking sense of dread settled low in my belly.

Strong fingers wrapped around my wrist and a soft light immediately glowed where Azrael's skin touched mine.

The light was coming from me.

Samael was next to him and his finger went under my chin, lifting my face as he frowned. "You're bleeding," he informed me.

I touched my head with my free hand, wincing when I found the gash on my hairline. My fingers came back red.

Both angels stared at the blood, probably confused why it wasn't black.

"Beloved?" Samael asked as he trailed his fingers over my shoulder, then gripped it when he must have realized my wings were gone, too. "What happened? And why are you here… like this?"

I knew I wasn't a very impressive sight. I was still wearing my exercise tank top and my workout shorts. My knees felt skinned after crawling over the ragged floor, and I didn't want to look down and see the damage. "I'm here to save you!" I said with fake cheerfulness, tilting my head. My hair was still up in a ponytail and the ends tickled over my shoulder as I moved. "So, um, surprise!"

Azrael was the first to break out in a grin. "Yes. You have Lucifer right where you want him. That's why you're here, trapped in our cell with us, with no way out. That's why you're… human?" he hedged, raising one brow. "That's all part of some master plan, right?"

Well, sort of.

But it was Balthazar's plan that had baited me into this trap—one that I really needed to stop falling for.

However, I doubted Seth's crystal overloading and sending me straight to the twins had been the demon's intention. So I could capitalize on that.

Somehow.

I blew out a breath. "Right," I agreed with a nod. "Totally part of the plan."

Both angels stared at me for a moment and that was when enough light filtered into the cell that I could spot how bad off they really were.

Any joy I had at seeing them again evaporated into rage when I saw all the bruises, the iron collars, and the heavy chains attached to the metal around their necks.

Angels didn't bruise.

But there was no mistaking the bloom of purples and blacks over their skin as if they'd been beaten within an inch of their lives. Pink streaks along their bodies betrayed where they'd been either whipped or sliced open.

I leaned forward, running my fingers gently over their bodies. "Who did this to you?" I said as my voice shook with anger. "I'm going to kill them. Their heads are going to be separated from their bodies only after I've fed them their fucking balls."

"Colorful," Azra said with a weak smile. But there was no light in his purple eyes. They had dulled as if even his humorous energy had been beaten out of him. "If I said Orion, would you still want to feed him his balls? Because I'd pay money to see that show."

Samael snorted. "He's not himself, Azrael. I've told you that."

I blinked at them as they blurred and a wave of dizziness washed over me. "Orion?" I asked weakly, losing most of my fight to maim whoever had touched the twins.

Balthazar would have been my first guess. Lucifer was currently trapped in an impenetrable barrier I'd spent the last remnants of my magic reinforcing.

Orion was my only mate still infected with Calamity, and apparently that had grown worse, not better.

Guilt washed over me that I was angry at him for doing this. Maybe it wasn't his fault, but why couldn't he fight it? Half of him was a god.

Even gods lose, I thought.

I blinked down at my hands, which had begun to glow. "Seth did mention something strange about Orion shoving his sunlight inside of me. I thought he was just being crude."

Maybe he was being literal.

Azrael brushed his fingers over the glow. The cuts around his fingers melted away into smooth skin as he did so.

There was a healing effect happening, and I wasn't sure if it was because of something inside me that Orion had put there or angel magic at play.

Regardless, I allowed the twins to touch me, to activate more of the light until the cell gleamed and illuminated every broken rock.

Their cell was covered in old blood and a corner exposed raw, open dirt that the twins had clearly been using as a latrine. The power inside me cleansed them, making their feathers and their soft, dark hair shine again.

Even their purple eyes glimmered with a renewed spark.

But the gash on my forehead kept bleeding. I was just a vessel for this power. It wasn't mine.

Azrael tried to hide the panic in his eyes that the sunlight was healing them but not me.

"Beloved, talk to me," Samael pressed as I leaned against his chest. He'd dragged me onto his lap while Azrael had torn the bottom of my shirt off and was now pressing it against my bleeding head.

"I feel cold," I admitted as I let my eyes close.

"Stay with us," Azrael instructed, but there was an edge of panic to his voice I wasn't used to hearing. "Why don't you catch us up on how you became human?"

I knew he was trying to understand what went wrong so he could fix it, but it wasn't going to work like that.

I had arrogantly assumed I could just power my way through, overcome the odds, and save the world simply because I wanted to save it.

Fate didn't work like that.

Maybe my purpose had been to guide the world into a new era of supernaturals, to show Asher how to deal with his trauma so that he could do the same for the others.

He'd survived my death. Maybe he could teach them to do it, too.

My eyelashes fluttered as I struggled to stay conscious, if only just to hear my angel twins talking for a few more moments.

I had missed them so deeply that my soul itself ached.

My soul.

A flare of heat surged in my chest like a heartbeat, making me flinch. "Balthazar," I said by means of explanation to Azra's question.

Another rush hit my chest again, making me whimper as an ember sparked to life inside of me.

Then the flame began to burn.

"What's happening?" Azra demanded.

"It's Orion's sunlight," Samael responded. When he pressed his palm to my chest, he flinched away as if it had burned him. "Fuck, no. That's not just Orion's. There's something else in there, too."

My eyes flung open.

My goddess spirit.

It was waking up.

Right here. Right now.

And as the fires curled over my bones and singed my chest, I released a scream. When I looked down, I expected my flesh to be melting off my bones, but nothing of the sort was happening.

Instead, little pinpricks of light shone from inside me just like Orion's freckles.

The door to the cell slammed open, revealing the demigod who had no doubt heard the thrums of my goddess heart beating for the first time.

"My star," he said, scooping me up and out of Samael's arms. A strangled sound was cut off as a wave of icy darkness descended on the cell.

Orion was in league with Calamity, and the angels didn't stand a chance against that.

In my current condition, neither did I. My eyes squeezed shut as I readied myself to be devoured alive. Instead, Orion coddled me to his chest as he left the room and hurried away from the now closed cell door.

"Fuck, my beautiful star. You've come back home."