Chapter 34

CHAPTER34

AZAZEL

“Ipromise,” I said to Zoe, unwilling to acknowledge the possibility that this might be the last I’d look upon her. “I’ll come for you.”

And with a hurried kiss, I took my leave, lifting off into the battle-ravaged sky, my muscles screaming at me, my wounds pulsing with pain. I’d recovered enough to fly, but I felt the strain of my injuries with every beat of my wings.

I resisted the urge to glance back down to the ground, to where Zoe likely still stood watching me. Doing so would prove a distraction I could ill afford.

All my focus had to be on maneuvering through the air without getting engaged in a fight before I reached one of the archangels. Fear for her safety still clawed at me, and it went against every one of my instincts to leave her behind, unguarded, while I flew away.

But I had to trust that she’d hide herself well.

As long as she managed that, I’d find her again.

A flash to my right alerted me to an incoming attack, and I spiraled to the side to evade the strike. The angel who’d targeted me spun in the air, obviously aiming for another attack, but I closed my wings tight and shot down like a bullet, far away from my challenger in a matter of milliseconds. Once I’d put enough distance between us, I opened my wings again and soared higher on powerful beats.

I didn’t have time for duels with common angels. The sooner I got close to one of the archangels, the better.

All around me, magic sparked as the highest ranking angels and demons clashed again and again. Lightning threaded through the air, whirlwinds of fire whipped the clouds of smoke and ash, a heavy charge of electricity and heat pressing down on me. I scanned the pairs of fighters dotting the dark sky, and I zeroed in on a familiar face. Daevi.

My grandmother was here, likely called to arms by Lucifer’s decree, now holding one of the archangels at bay.

Evading bolts of lightning, I shot forward until I’d reached the two warriors locked in battle over the crumbling remains of a once proud skyscraper.

With gritted teeth, I threw myself into the fight, attacking the archangel—Uriel? I wasn’t sure—in order to buy the precious seconds I needed to get my message across to Daevi.

Lilith was killed by a group of rogue demons and angels in order to force Lucifer’s hand and cancel the deal with Heaven, I spoke without preamble into her mind while we both fought Uriel. But there is a way to end this. Lucifer wants a pardon for Naamah. Heaven doesn’t know it yet. We must inform the archangels and suggest they strike a new deal to halt the fighting and reinstate the truce. Getting a pardon for Naamah is the only way to stop this war now.

I saw how Daevi’s movements faltered as I hurled this information at her, and it occurred to me that maybe she hadn’t known about Lucifer’s pardon plans.

Naamah was her only daughter.

How do you know this?Daevi asked as she blocked a strike from Uriel.

I’ll explain later, I shot back while I engaged the archangel from the other side, drawing her attention away from Daevi for a moment. There’s no time now. Just trust me with this.

Daevi didn’t answer, just kept on fighting Uriel with grim determination.

Please, I added, swallowing my pride and the potent cocktail of emotions about the complicated relationship to my grandmother. Help me. Parrying a strike from Uriel, I added more quietly, Help her.

Achieving a pardon for my mother was not only a device to broker a new deal, it was also the only way to maybe, finally allow her shattered mind to heal.

Daevi’s energy oscillated wildly, though it didn’t slow her down, testament to her strength as an archdemon. Strands of her gleaming black hair had come loose from her tight braid and now whipped around her face, her brown skin flecked with ash and blood.

Seconds ticked by while we both took on the archangel, keeping her busy blocking and responding to our attacks. The power Uriel kept sending out in waves and flickering lightning flayed open my skin, made my eyes bleed. I blinked the blood away, refusing to let up, at the same time fearing my plea was going ignored by Daevi.

If she didn’t help me, I had no hope of reaching and informing another archangel. This close to one of them, I’d had to confront the bitter truth that their power would kill me if I engaged one on my own—I’d be dead before I ever got the chance to tell them about the pardon plans. The only reason I was still alive in Uriel’s vicinity was the fact that most of her attention was locked on Daevi, the bigger threat.

The skin on my hands was completely flayed off. Blood glistening on raw muscles and tendons, I gripped my sword tighter as Uriel’s power ate through my fighting leathers. My face burned.

This was not going to work. Daevi would not—

“Parley!” Daevi yelled and withdrew, holding her sword horizontally in front of her, ready to block but less likely to attack. White flames whispered over her wings, effectively making them look like angel wings for a few seconds.

My heart a drumbeat in my chest, I let up at the same time, flying back a few paces and raising my sword horizontally as well, flashing my wings to white.

Uriel hesitated, her own blade still lifted in attack position, her energy vibrating with an aggressive edge. The light of the fires exploding in the sky painted her ebony skin in shades of dark red and orange. Her face twisting, she hurled a bolt of lightning toward Daevi.

Daevi blocked it with her sword and a wall of hellfire, but made no move to retaliate. “Parley!” she shouted again. “I swear to cease fighting in order to speak.”

The rush of relief through me was only tempered by my anxious anticipation of Uriel’s reaction. If she didn’t accept…

“Parley,” Uriel called out and raised her sword in the same gesture as she held her position in the air with mighty beats of her gold-dusted white wings. “I vow to rest all arms to hear you speak.”

The corrosive power in the air lessened, the burning on my face subsided.

“Archangel,” Daevi began, hovering in a respectful distance to Uriel. “I do not want this war. Few of us do. It is the work of a conspiracist group of demons who colluded with likeminded angels. They knew killing Lilith would push Lucifer over the edge. However, there is a way to stop this madness. Lucifer has been considering asking for a pardon for his daughter, Naamah. If Heaven lets her ascend, a new deal could be struck with him. We can end this war. I respectfully ask for your assistance. Let your brethren know of Lucifer’s intentions to pardon Naamah, and use this knowledge to offer the Morningstar a new deal.” Daevi lowered her sword to the side. “My grandson and I will retreat to give you leave.”

She nodded at me and withdrew a few more paces, not turning her back on Uriel. I did the same.

Uriel remained hovering in place for a few seconds, the wind from her wings whipping her tight braids to and fro. Then, she nodded once before she pivoted and launched herself higher into the air, reaching the outer ring of the main battle between Lucifer and several other archangels.

I kept scanning the area for stealth attacks by angels as Daevi approached me.

“A word,” she said and signaled me to follow her.

We landed on the remains of a building jutting out into the sky, our backs protected by another pile of rubble behind us. Eyes the color of mahogany rooted me to the spot, and at once, I was a young demon once more, tensing under the assessing gaze of his grandmother.

“It was a coup, then,” she said, more question than statement. “Who was it?”

“Destatur and Enaia. Possibly more on our side. I don’t think it was limited to those two.”

She nodded and threw a quick glance at the still raging battle high above us. When she looked back at me, sadness darkened her eyes.

“She was merely a means to an end for them.” Her jaw worked as she looked to the side. “She deserved better.”

I inclined my head, well aware that Daevi had loved Lilith as well. They’d had a cordial relationship, untainted by jealousy. After all, Daevi had shared Lilith and Lucifer’s bed many times over the millennia. Naamah was a result of one of those passionate meetings. As far as I knew, Lucifer had never been with someone else without Lilith being involved.

And while Lilith had never borne children, it was an unspoken understanding that each and every child conceived from those shared affairs was, in a way, hers as well. She’d always treated them as if they were her own.

“How do you know about the plans for a pardon?”

Daevi’s question drew me back to the present. I quickly explained about Zoe’s discovery at the palace, knowing Daevi would not censure Zoe for any snooping done. Not when it turned out to be the key to maybe ending this war before it ravaged the world.

Daevi’s brows drew together, and she lowered her gaze. “He never told me.” She shook her head. “I knew he was struggling with her condition, as was I. But I never would have guessed he’d go so far as to consider a plea to Heaven.”

“Doesn’t feel so good,” I dared say in a targeted push, allowing my still simmering hurt to make itself heard, “to be left in the dark about something of personal concern to you, does it?”

Eyes of rich, red brown flicked back to me. For a moment, she just held my gaze, the air charged between us. “You are justified in your anger,” she finally said. “That is as much as I will say. Everything else has been spoken already.”

I pressed my lips together and clenched my jaw. Daevi would not bend further, and I knew it would be a moot point to argue this any more. She’d already apologized, she’d backed me and Azmodea when we went to see our mother, and she’d listened to me now when I’d asked her to help deliver the message about the pardon plans. There’d be no further acknowledgment of the hurt caused by lying about Naamah for thousands of years.

Just then, a major explosion of power shook the air. Fire and lightning gripped the sky, spreading outward from the center of the fight high above us. A shockwave of energy followed, blasting us against the pile of rubble at our backs. Daevi threw up a wall of hellfire, blocking the worst of it with her own power, shielding me in the process.

I wasn’t sure I’d still be standing if it hadn’t been for Daevi.

When the dust settled, we looked out over a landscape of destruction. A crater gaped where streets and buildings had been before, right underneath the epicenter of the battle between Lucifer and the archangels. Everything surrounding the direct impact zone was flattened, buildings reduced to rubble, a wasteland of devastation, a tapestry of war.

And there, a few yards above the canyon ripped into the city, hovered Lucifer. Power dripped off him, palpable even from this distance, but it had lost its edge. His chest rising and falling with his rapid breaths, he lifted his head and looked upon the group of archangels holding their position across from him, their stances defensive but not threatening. Behind Lucifer, his archdemons lingered, watching, waiting.

For a moment, Lucifer closed his eyes, and a shudder went through him. When he opened his eyes again, a pulse of power went out from him, but this time, it wasn’t one of violence. Instead, when the wave of energy rolled over us, his dark voice echoed clear in my head.

Cease all hostilities and retreat to Hell. By order of your lord and master, no more blood shall be spilled.

Out loud, he said, “A new truce has been decreed. I will uphold the terms agreed upon as long as you uphold yours.”

An archangel I recognized as Gabriel spoke up. “We will await her arrival at our gates.”

The breath I’d been holding left me in a rush, too many emotions tangled too tightly in my chest for me to make sense of in this moment. One, however, rose to the fore—fear.

Sharp, acidic fear for the one person that held my heart, my soul, my future.

Zoe.

“I need to go,” I said to Daevi.

She nodded at me. “Hellspeed.”

Turning my back on the historic scene playing out, I shot into the air, rushing toward the spot where I’d left her, anxiety curdling my blood.

That shockwave had been terrible, with enough power to raze entire city blocks. She’d been farther away from it than me and Daevi, and I could only hope against hope that she’d come out of it alive.

I landed amid the ruins of what was once the building where I’d last seen her, my heart pounding fast. “Zoe!”

No answer. Smoke curled around me, sparks and flecks of ash floating on the breeze stirred up by my landing.

I pivoted on my heels, flying to the top of a pile of rubble. “Zoe!”

Nothing moved amid the debris.

I beat my incipient panic into submission so I could focus on the connection I had with her. Always, I’d felt her presence, a faint energetic bond between her heart and mine, forged in the moment we’d spoken our vows, strengthened over time as we grew into our love.

Without fail, it would lead me back to her.

My muscles tensing in concentration, I grasped for that connection, that bond, the pulse of her presence that I’d come to cherish so much, that had filled the darkest places in my soul.

I grasped, and felt nothing.

Because it was gone.

Without fail, it would lead me to her.

Without fail…unless she was dead.

I fell to my knees, and the anguish raging through me tore its way out in a scream that shattered the ruins around.