Chapter 48

Lillian

The crowd was larger this time. There were too many of them to have just been the councilmen and their significant others. Satan must've invited more people. He was an evil, conniving bastard, trying to intimidate me with an audience. Unfortunately for him, they were going to enjoy a public showing of Satan's humiliation after I kicked his stupid trial in the ass.

He was on a stage like the one from the first trial, but this time, he was sitting on a chair. It looked like a smaller version of his throne—-I'd seen pictures of it, but it was no less ornate than the real deal. It was gold-plated and covered with all sorts of shiny jewels. There were two large rubies stacked on each other, the bottom one smaller than the top one, on each side of the back of the throne.

He sat with one leg over the other, both arms on the arms of the chair, but one hand in the air. He was trying to look intimidating and annoyed, and I applauded him on the effort, but I wasn't that scared little human anymore. I was the woman who was going to save Hell from him, even if it took me a thousand years.

I took one look at his fiendish glare and gave him a devilish smile of my own, along with a nod of acknowledgment. His face twitched more than once as he worked to keep his composure. I was under his skin. Good.

"Search her for anything she might cheat with," I heard Satan tell one of his guards as we got close.

"Don't fucking touch her," Keir said to the guard as he moved ahead to stand in front of me.

Nicolas and Aiden came to either side of him, ready to defend me along with him.

I reached up and put my hand on Keir's shoulder, making him turn to look at me. "Let's get this over with," I reminded him.

He contemplated for a second, no doubt running through the possibilities of what could happen if the dagger, the pill, maybe even both, were found in the search. I was thinking about the same thing, but at this point, it was hopeless to fight their father. I just wanted to be on the other side of this, going home with my men and being one step closer to becoming a demon.

"Lillian…" he started to speak, but I shook my head.

"We would be wasting valuable time fighting this." I gave him a small nod, hoping to silence his fears. We had no choice. His game, his rules.

"Smart girl you have there, sons ." Their father was watching with impatience. "I suggest you listen to her. Either she's searched, or she admits defeat and we can all go home after I remove her head from her body. I might even bag it up for you so you have something to remember her by."

His crowd snickered.

"I'd never let you touch her," Keir gritted out.

"Neither would we," Nicholas and Aiden followed up together.

Their father snarled. "I've taught you three better than this. Defying your father, King of Hell? No doubt this whole thing is your stupidest stunt to date." He stood and walked to the edge of his stage, asserting his clear dominance. "Either my guard searches her, or I do." His eyes flicked to me, looking at me like I was a gross piece of bubble gum he found on the bottom of his shoe. "And if I search her, I won't be touching her. She'll be required to strip right here in front of the crowd."

"Fuck you," Aiden yelled at his father, who barely gave him any notice.

Before the princes could make things worse for us, I pushed my way between Nicholas and Keir, putting myself in front of the guard.

"Search me and get this over with so I can go home." I huffed and kept my eyes on their father the entire time, not the guard about to put his hands on my body.

If he hurts you, I'll kill him .

I tried my best to not react to Keir's protectiveness, but a smirk crept up anyway. I just hoped it added to the unintimidated image I was portraying, and it must have, because their father's blood-red eyes were glowing with an even greater fury than before.

I'm okay, but you three need to keep your shit together before you get me killed. They're his rules here. He's only doing this because he's intimidated. He's scared, even if he doesn't quite know it yet.

I heard Keir snort behind me. The thought of our girl, our little ole human pet, being the one our father fears kind of turns me on, princess.

The guard started with my legs first, patting up the right one, then the left. I tensed as he got to my hips, his hands moving to reach behind me, right where the dagger was hidden. He touched the small of my back, slowing down when he reached the outline of the dagger. The designs stopped the outline from showing, but there wasn't much they could do to hide the hardness of the handle and blade.

"Bring him to his knees," the guard whispered to me before moving his hands back around my ribs and finishing his search around my shoulders.

I was stunned and tried to remain still and unaffected by his words.

What the fuck did he just say to you? Did he threaten you? Did he feel the dagger? Does he know it's there?

He knows I have it; he felt it. He said ‘bring him to his knees'.

The guard turned around and shook his head at their father, who frowned deeply. He'd obviously been expecting to find something. He narrowed his eyes at me, like he was trying to read me, but I just matched his glower, fighting the urge to throw my middle finger in the air.

Satan stood and faced the crowd. "The human is ready to begin the second trial. She will use that rowboat," he pointed at a small wooden boat with two wooden oars, "to paddle to the middle of the lake, where she will dive down and attempt to steal a hippocampus egg." He eyed us before saying, " Anyone found to be helping the human cheat will be punished to the most extreme degree possible."

I saw Ida in the crowd, my eyes immediately drawn to the woman who'd been my saving grace even before her help with the trials. She didn't even spare a glance in my direction, her eyes trained on the king.

"Let the trial begin," Satan announced, making the crowd noisy with whispers of predictions of what was to come.

The guard who'd patted me down gestured in front of him for me to go. I turned to give the princes one last smile before walking down to the boat sitting on the edge of the lake. The water was glistening, but it was dark, like the evil it housed under its surface. The worst part was the boat wasn't sitting in the water; it was up on the rocky shore.

I turned around to see the king himself looking on with a pleased expression.

Fuck. You , I muttered to myself.

Focus. Be safe, princess. We are watching.

I smiled at Keir, who was watching me with an expressionless mask, trying to hide his worry, trying to be strong for me.

I'll be okay. See you soon.

I grabbed the bow of the boat and began dragging it along. It was heavy, but I was stronger now than I had been weeks ago, thanks to Aiden. I pulled with all my might, my back to the shore, until my feet hit the water.

I froze.

Fucking hell. It was freezing cold. The water wasn't but a few inches above my ankles, and I was shivering. Doubt washed over me as my heart began to race, trying to rush warmth to my extremities.

I shivered, wiped my nose, and grabbed the boat again, yanking it into the water. My body stayed painfully tense as I went further into the water, waiting until I was deep enough to get into the boat without it hitting the bottom.

I grabbed the oars, placed them in the notches on the side of the boat, and began rowing. The crowd of people grew smaller until I couldn't make out any individuals, the shoreline shrinking along with it.

The middle of the lake wasn't a short row, and I had no idea how long I'd been rowing by the time I reached what seemed like the middle. It was eerie out here. The water was barely moving, the calm stillness of it adding to its sinister, deep blue color.

I stood, taking several small breaths before facing the bow of the boat so my back was to the crowd. I shook my hands out to my side, making a show of calming myself down in case Satan was watching me from his stupid travel-sized throne. When I felt like it was clear what I was doing, I hugged myself, rubbing my arms like I was warming myself up before taking the dive. I reached into the pocket with my right hand, drawing out the tiny green pill Keir had hidden there earlier.

I had twenty minutes.

I placed the pill in my mouth and swallowed it. I waited for something to happen, but nothing did. I didn't feel any different, didn't grow gills, nothing.

Fuck. What if it doesn't work at all?

I began to panic, feeling it tingle across my chest, threatening to take hold as I stood out here all alone.

It's going to work. Breathe, princess. You're okay.

He continued to reassure me through our bond. I'd never been more thankful he could hear me. My shoulders relaxed, the ringing in my ears stopped, and I could breathe without feeling like my chest was going to split open.

I love you .

I love you too, Lillian .

I didn't let myself think anything else as I dove into the water. I couldn't push it off anymore; the pill's time was ticking.

When my body hit the water, I gasped. I couldn't move, couldn't swim to the surface to find reprieve. The suit was insulated, but not enough. Fuck . I kept taking steady breaths to calm myself down, reminding my body it wasn't actually frozen, just freezing its ass off.

Wait. I was breathing … under the fucking water. I grabbed my throat, shocked it wasn't burning for oxygen, and took in another breath, stunned I was able to breathe easily, like I was still on the boat, surrounded by air.

I looked around me, but it was too hard to see anything. It was dark, too dark. None of the light from above the water broke through the surface.

I wasn't sure how I was going to find a nest without being able to see, but I started swimming. It was the only thing that made sense. Keir had told me they made their nests deep down, among the rocks, as protection.

Not long after I'd begun my descent, I saw a hazy glow coming from below. That had to be something worth checking out. I immediately started swimming in that direction.

I should've asked for a watch. I had no idea how long I'd been down here, no idea how far down I was, and no idea how much time I had left.

The glow got brighter as I got closer. It was coming from the rocks, like they'd been painted or something was growing on them.

That was when I saw the rocks. They were underwater mountains. I couldn't see the bottom of the lake, but these tall, pointy rocks were massive, creating a crazy landscape for all sorts of creatures. There were fish of all varieties of sizes and colors swimming among the plants, and a few starfish laying around. I even saw an octopus crawling down one of the rocks, headed right for a crab.

It was beautiful down here.

I scrambled to grab a large boulder as something zoomed past me in the water. I watched the creature get close to a flattened surface of rock, where a bunch of colorful coral had grown. As it got closer to the glowing surface, I realized it was who I'd been looking for.

It looked exactly like the one Keir had shown me in the book, only its color was more green than blue. It made a weird clicking noise before stooping toward the coral bed, and I realized it was examining an egg. A hippocampus egg. I looked around but didn't see any other hippocampi, or nests, for that matter.

This was it. This was my one chance.

The hippocampus suddenly shot up, looking around like it had heard or seen something. My stomach dropped. It knew I was here.

It swam away quickly, in the opposite direction, though, so I waited a few more minutes before deciding it was really gone.

I tried to move quickly, heading right for the rocky nest. The egg was unlike anything I'd ever seen. It was colorful, covered in all shades of blues, reds, and greens. If I looked hard enough, I could have sworn I saw the outline of something inside it, but it was still too dark down here, even with the glow around me.

I carefully wiggled my hands under the egg and pulled it to my chest. The shell of the egg felt more like stiff Jello that had been sitting in the fridge too long. The egg was large, like holding a small child. I even felt the baby inside move. I silently told it I would keep it safe as I started swimming, praying I would come up to the surface near my boat.

My body was being pushed to the brink as I swam up, not used to being put through this sort of torture. I couldn't imagine how hard this would have been had I not been training with the princes. My legs were burning, and the heavy egg wasn't helping. I couldn't tell how far away the surface was; it was like staring at a fucking illusion, like I was right there but never breaking through.

I stilled as a strange noise echoed around me. It took me a second to recognize it—the clicking noise from the hippocampus. I looked around but didn't see anything. It was too fucking dark.

I started swimming up again, but I saw it from the corner of my eye.

Charging right for me.