Chapter 4

Seth guided us to a hill with a series of benches overlooking a hazy realm. Inside of it, I could spot swirling spirits wrapping around a massive tower and a murky river in the background.

The Netherworld.

Seth didn't have to tell me what I was looking at. This was a holding place for the afterlife, or perhaps more accurately, a precursor to a real afterlife. This was a place where Necromancer mages used the souls captured there.

I felt horrible for the mortals subjected to this place. And yet, after what Lucifer had done, it was probably one of the only realms with any mortals left.

It made it valuable in more ways than one, and Seth knew it.

Seth sat on one of the benches and I wanted to summon a throne for myself so that I could tower above him. I even tried to make one with a flourish of my hand, then felt stupid when I remembered Balthazar had all my magic.

Hendrik chuckled at me as if he found me cute, then bit his lip until he drew blood. A beautiful throne with gold spirals appeared a moment later.

I sat in it and turned toward an amused-looking Seth, choosing to face him instead of this realm of his that he wanted to intimidate me with.

I wasn't impressed. I'd spent a year in the afterlife and I had come back.

"So, you want to make a deal?" Seth asked, this time to me as he tilted his head. His dark eyes seemed to peer straight through me and invade my soul. I pressed a hand over my chest as if I could protect it from him.

Logan sat at my feet as I considered Seth's request. My shifter Virtue wasn't in his wolf form, but he still wrapped his arm around my leg and leaned into me, similar to how he would when he wore his fur.

Dante sat on the arm of my throne and pulled out his magicked blade, then a stone to sharpen it from one of his belts. His scars had stopped bleeding, making me wonder what had happened to him and Hendrik in Hell's Heart.

Hendrik seemed different. More pensive and hesitant as he took one of the benches. He leaned back into it, spreading his arms over the rail to appear like the uncaring Dark Mage he had always been.

But this time, it was a ruse. Something had unlocked in him and he was having trouble stuffing it back into a box. He gazed at the Netherworld strewn behind us, its reflection caught in a haunting look in his dark eyes.

If I didn't know better, I'd say he didn't want to be here.

And perhaps he didn't even want to remember this part of his past. I wasn't sure if that comforted me or made me even more apprehensive about making a deal with Seth. Anything that had Hendrik worried was cause for concern.

Asher mimicked Logan's stance, taking his place on my other side as he trailed his arm around my calf. His fingers dimpled into my muscles and he slowly massaged an ache that had started to throb there. My whole body hurt, which could be a normal mortal thing. I had no idea. Regardless, the incubus relaxed me with his skilled fingers.

It felt right.

Logan didn't seem to mind Asher touching me, but my other Virtues glowered. Still, we needed to be united against Seth, so they kept their opinions to themselves.

For now, I was grateful to be human. It meant I wasn't able to hear all their competing thoughts cluttering up my head until I couldn't even listen to myself think. Perhaps being mortal had its perks.

"We have a problem, Seth. And so do you," I said in response to his question about whether I wanted to make a deal. First, I would inform him of why it was in his best interest to listen to us.

Cole had brought me here because he knew Seth could help. He eyed me with expectation while he crossed his arms and stood opposite me, forming a small circle with all of us. His horns glinted against the mysterious, greenish light of this realm, seeming to fight against it with his inner fire. Shadows unfurled behind him, revealing phantom wings he had lost in sacrifice to me.

He would assist me with this negotiation if I asked for it, but I was the Champion. It was my responsibility to guide events to our favor. I still had power over fate to sway it one way or another.

Balthazar had told me that nothing could change that. Not my mortality. Not losing my magic or anything else.

I was still destined to stop Calamity, so it was important that I believed I could.

I was, after all, part angel, even if I'd lost my magic. I needed to believe it to make it true.

Fake it 'til you make it, Lils.

It was what Olivia would have said. I missed her. I missed Yuri and my friends at the Academy.

But that was exactly why I was here. I needed to make the world safe for them.

"And what problem is that?" he asked with a glint in his dark eyes. He knew he had the upper hand in these negotiations.

"When Calamity is done with us, you know where it's going to go?" I asked, inserting a dramatic pause before continuing. "It's going to come for you."

He barked a laugh as if that was preposterous. "Don't be silly, little girl."

Logan snarled at his comment, making the Dark Mage lick his lips. Regardless of how powerful he was, even a wolf shifter like Logan could probably get a good bite or two in before being incapacitated. Especially with how many powerful Virtues surrounded us. I took note that Hendrik had chosen a bench to fully surround the Dark Mage, leaving Cole standing on the other side. They would act if Seth became aggressive.

Seth's lips twitched into a humorless grin. "Calamity won't come here. We're not of interest to it."

I raised a brow. "And what makes you so sure of that?"

His eyes wandered over me as if he knew something I didn't. "Because it seems to be developing a taste for deities. When it's done with you, there is at least one realm I can think of that would draw its attention before it resorts to the Void. Which, really, can't hold much appeal. Calamity needs the power of souls to function, and we simply don't have a lot of that to go around." His gaze flicked up again as he took in my frown. "Oh, my dear. You didn't know, did you?"

"There's nothing to know," I said with a wobbly sense of confidence. "I'm not a deity," I added for good measure.

Sure, with Kaito's help, I knew I had something divine inside of me, but that was just one sliver of my genetic makeup.

Something that we hadn't yet explained.

However, my mentor stared at me as if a piece of the puzzle finally made sense. He pinched his chin in thought before his eyes widened.

He opened his mouth as if to voice his realization, then closed it with a sigh.

Okay, maybe I could use that mate-bond telepathy thing right about now.

I was left wondering what Kaito had figured out while Seth laughed in my face. "Sweetheart, even Balthazar knew what would happen when he left you nothing except for your divine soul and the sunlight that demigod of yours shoved inside you. You'd be forced to fully access it without all those other supernatural distractions. You're going to awaken soon and discover your full potential. That makes your soul very interesting to me. I'm aware you're in need of it, though. And honestly, I have no desire to take it for myself. Not when it would draw Calamity's attention, so you can keep it. I'll even help you lock it into that mortal form of yours to keep it safe, for a price." He leaned on his elbows as his dark eyes glittered with calculated madness. "You know what my price is, don't you?"

A swallow worked down my throat. My chest seemed stiff and my lungs refused to fill up more than a sliver of air as I took in shallow breaths. Asher continued to massage my leg while Logan rumbled with an encouraging purr on my other side.

I felt all of my Virtues standing with me, letting me come to my own conclusion without intervening.

But they were here for me, however I needed them.

"You want pain," I decided as I chewed my lip. "That's the only other thing a Dark Mage could possibly want."

He licked his lips. "Correct, sweet girl."

I wrinkled my nose, not sure if I liked that nickname any better than "little girl."

Hendrik popped to his feet. "You have mine, then, Seth."

I opened my mouth to tell him absolutely not, but Dante pointed his dagger at the Necromancer with finality. "Mine as well."

"Count me in," Logan said with a feral grin.

"Pain sounds like it could be fun," Asher agreed.

"I can't ask my students to enjoy a little Blood Duty without me," Kaito said with a wicked grin.

We all went silent as Seth turned his gaze on the wingless demon.

Cole raised a brow at him in challenge. "You've wanted a pound of my flesh for a long time, Seth. If this is what it takes, then it's yours."

I winced at Cole's agreement. The pain of five of my Virtues, and whatever Asher was to me, would give Seth a lot of power to work with.

But I knew that was the only thing he would have been able to forge. He wasn't interested in my pain. I could only generate so much power in this state. For now, I was a mortal.

A mortal with an unawakened soul of a goddess, I thought to myself with a sense of wonder.

I'd died, come back to life, and been through literal Hell and back.

Divinity had been a source of power I'd tapped into on more than one occasion, but I didn't understand it. I didn't know where it came from or why Balthazar hadn't been able to take that part of me in our deal.

"He left you nothing except for your divine soul."

Maybe… my soul was my divinity. It wasn't magic. It was who I was. That part of me was immortal in a way that had allowed me to re-create my corporeal form when I'd been resurrected.

The reason I'd come back to life had nothing to do with my angelic background.

It was because of who and what I was.

A literal fucking goddess.

Holy shit.

I caught Kaito looking at me with a knowing gaze. He'd figured it out when Seth had filled in the blanks. Azra had already suspected it, but I wouldn't tell my mentor that the angel had come to the conclusion before him. They were too competitive to give Azra that kind of ego boost. He'd never let Kaito hear the end of it.

But the twins had seemed so sure. They'd gone as far as to test me. It had come out negative… but that was probably because I'd been suppressing it all this time.

Seth produced a dark crystal from his robe. It seemed to suck in the light all around it, reminding me of how a Death Lotus behaved.

He stretched out the abomination between us, waiting for me to take it and seal the agreement.

He practically purred his words. "You have yourselves a deal."