Darrak clutched on to the prince, knowing he wouldn’t loosen his talons until they were both in midfall. This could only end one way now. Both of them would have to be destroyed.
He hoped there was another plan in place in the universe because Hell would soon be without its prince.
“No one would choose this of their own free will.”
An image of Eden went through his mind then, holding a baby in her arms.
His
baby.
He didn’t want to give her up, so it looked as if Lucifer was right. He’d chosen this path, but it wasn’t because he felt he had any other option.
The thought was enough to make him lose both his concentration and his footing. Suddenly there was nothing behind him. He clawed at the ground, at Lucifer, at anything, but it all crumbled away.
And then he was hanging on to the side of the Void just as he’d done earlier.
Rinse and repeat.
“Good-bye, Darrak.” Lucifer straightened up, brushed himself off, and turned away.
“Who’d give up everything to rule this place?” Darrak snarled up at him, only raw anger now giving him the strength to continue holding on. “You would, that’s who. Why don’t you remember that? You gave everything up—you gave up Heaven—in order to help keep the balance down here because you knew it was the right thing to do.”
Lucifer froze and looked over his shoulder at the demon swinging above the gaping black hole of the Void. “No. I was cast out of Heaven for having a different opinion of how the world should be. Because I despised humans.”
“Bzzz. Wrong. You did it to keep the darkness from expanding and destroying those humans you claim to hate, along with everything else. You agreed to this, and now
you’re
the one who’s going back on a promise.”
Lucifer’s expression darkened. “You lie.”
“You’re experiencing memory loss. Maybe one of those other lords poisoned your mind with something in an attempt to take over your throne. Maybe your memories were damaged through years of being stuck down here in the pit as you controlled the shadows and maintained the balance. I don’t know. But you agreed to do this and now you forget. Now you’re looking for an out. Well, I’m your out, Lucifer. I’m willing to do it, just as you once were. But you can’t have Eden’s energy, too. I won’t let you destroy her.”
“
You
destroyed her, not me,” Lucifer spat back. “You’re the worst thing to ever come into that woman’s life.”
Darrak struggled to hold on. “I thought that once, but now I don’t believe it. This was all meant to be—and it’s all led to this moment. Right here and now.”
“You’re in no position to argue right now, incubus.”
“I’m not an incubus. I’m a demon.
And
I’m an angel. I’m the very first of my kind. And I’m willing to be the next Prince of Hell because it’s obvious that you’re too selfish and cowardly to keep doing the job you originally agreed to.”
Lucifer crouched down in front of Darrak and stared into his face. Darrak couldn’t read his expression—it was cold and dead.
“Thank you for your opinion.”
Lucifer pried Darrak’s talons away from the rock until he had nothing left to hang on to. Scrambling for a handhold that he no longer had, Darrak began to fall backward into the hungry mouth of the Void.
“Watch out!” Ben shouted. “Sandy’s dangerous now.”
Eden flicked a look at him. “No kidding.”
Sandy’s gaze moved to her amulet. “Maybe I won’t kill you, after all. We’re almost in the same boat, Eden. You and me, black witches. We could cause a lot of damage together.”
“What, you want to start a girl band or something?”
“Something like that.” She glanced over at the unconscious body of Eden’s father. “He’ll wake up soon. He’s not going to be happy.”
“Your point?”
“An angel like him will destroy you. He won’t care if you’re his daughter, all he’ll see is evil. You’re dangerous. Can’t you feel it? Your soul is nearly as black as mine. Trust me, when that happened, the world opened up like nothing I ever could have imagined. All of that power at my fingertips.”
Eden hated to admit it, but she did feel it. That darkness, that power, so much of it, like a bottomless ocean. So addictive, so perfect. It felt right, and that, by far, was the scariest thing of all.
“Don’t listen to her,” Ben growled. “She’s evil.”
Eden narrowed her gaze at him. “Not sure I should listen to you, Ben. You and my mother sent Darrak to Hell.”
“He survived,” Caroline spoke up.
“No thanks to you.”
Ben had the decency to look guilty. “We were wrong, I see that now. But I tried to change things, I tried to make things better.”
“He did,” Leena insisted. “I was being held prisoner by the Malleus and he freed me. Took him long enough, but he did it.”
Eden looked over at her ex-roommate. She had wondered where she’d gone after being chased away by Darrak. “I still have the key you left behind. Never had a chance to check that locker.”
Leena nodded. “Uh, remind me to get that back from you. You know, if we all live through this morning.”
Sandy laughed. “Listen to them, Eden. They’ve all betrayed you in some way. Abandoned you, too, when you needed them the most. You should kill them for what they’ve done to you and Darrak. That’s all it would take for you to give in fully to your magic. You could have whatever you wanted, then.”
All it would take to turn her soul black was to murder any one of the people in this room. But murder wasn’t in Eden’s true nature. Had it been in Sandy’s? Or had Oliver forced her into this?
“Don’t listen to her, Eden,” Caroline said, her voice tight. “You’re better than this. Don’t give in to the darkness. You can fight it.”
Eden’s gaze snapped to the young brunette tied to the chair to her left. “Can I, Mom? Really? Having you on my side is such a nice change from the first thirty years of my life when you treated me like a burden.”
“Oh, get over it, will you?” Caroline snapped. “I made my share of mistakes. So what? You’ve turned into a great woman anyway. So pull your head out of your ass and do something to prove that.”
Eden really hadn’t been expecting an apology so she wasn’t disappointed.
Sandy rolled her eyes. “Let me get started, Eden. You’ll see it isn’t that difficult at all. Let me kill Ben for you.”
Sandy grabbed Ben and energy flowed down her arms. “Good-bye, lover.”
A muffled yell escaped Ben’s throat as he thrashed around in the chair. Whatever Sandy was doing was hurting him badly.
“No!” Eden grabbed hold of the witch, digging her fingers in hard enough to make the witch flinch as she pulled her away from Ben to face her instead.
“Maybe I will kill you after all.” A second later, Sandy’s hands wrapped tightly around Eden’s throat and her dark magic shot through Eden’s body.
Luckily, she’d already put up a shield to protect herself—a shield that was quickly slipping.
Sandy squeezed tighter. “You’re either with me, Eden, or you’re against me.”
“I’m sorry.” Eden gasped for breath. “I guess . . . I’m . . . against you.”
Black magic flowed through her hands and shot like lightning directly into Sandy. Sandy screamed, raised up off the floor so she hung there for a moment, suspended in midair, then she flew backward against the wall.
Her open, glossy eyes stared up at the ceiling.
“Damn it,” Eden said, her voice shaky. “I didn’t mean to . . . to . . .”
“She’s dead,” Ben managed.
Yeah, that. She didn’t mean to do
that
.
The witch had been too close and Eden’s magic too strong. Not a good combination to allow Sandy to walk away in one piece.
Eden quickly moved around the room to untie all three of the prisoners. Then she moved back from them until her back hit the wall. She needed the support or she thought she might fall down to the floor.
“You did the right thing, honey,” Caroline said. “She was going to kill you. Kill all of us.”
“I know,” she replied softly.
“Are you . . .” Ben began. “Are you okay?”
Eden shook her head. “You all need to get out of here while you still can.”
“Eden . . . your necklace . . .” Leena approached her.
“No. Get out of here. Now! Run!”
After a short hesitation, the three did what she asked without saying another word.
Eden didn’t have to look down at her amulet to have the truth confirmed. She’d gone over the line. She’d killed a mortal with black magic—even if it had been accidental. Even if the witch she’d killed had deserved it. Even if it had been in self-defense.
She’d killed her.
And Eden’s soul was now black.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Darrak saw his life flash before his eyes. It was a short flash for such a long life, but really, the only good things had happened recently. It was more of a slide show, really.
He’d tried. But it hadn’t been enough.
I’m so sorry, Eden.
His last thoughts.
Well, his last thoughts until someone grabbed hold of his wrist.
He looked up with surprise, a surprise that only grew when he saw that it was Lucifer who held him over the Void by his thick, demon wrist.
Before he had any time to truly register this, Lucifer tossed him up over the edge. It was a strong enough throw to land him about a hundred feet away. He lay on his back, looking up at the blank, black velvet sky over this part of the Netherworld.
“Not finished torturing me yet?” he asked, when Lucifer’s form loomed over him.
“Why would I want the fun to ever stop?”
A flash of fire appeared before Darrak’s eyes and then suddenly they were back in Maksim’s mansion. Darrak scrambled to his feet and swept his gaze over a scene that took his breath away.
“What happened here?” His demon voice boomed out loud and raspy. It was more than enough to fill most humans with deep fear and a loss of control over their bodily functions. He knew this from amusing personal experience.
The redheaded angel was unconscious on the ground to the left. That he was still here was enough to prove that he hadn’t been destroyed. Angels, just like demons, vanished in the human world when they’d been decimated, leaving no body behind. He figured the heavens had their own version of the Void. Or perhaps there was only one Void where all creatures lacking souls were tossed when they were gone for good.
To the right was Sandy, and she wasn’t only unconscious. Her eyes were open and glazed.
Ding dong, the witch is dead.
Ben, Leena, and Caroline were nowhere to be seen.
Eden sat in the chair where Ben had previously been tied. She looked up at him as he entered the room.
“Oh, good,” she said. “You’re back.”
“Eden . . .” He made a move to draw closer but then froze in place. His gaze dropped to her amulet. “No.”
Such a simple word for every fear and raw emotion that flowed over him in that split second. Her amulet was black.
Her soul—she must have been the one to kill the witch. Something bad happened here, something he couldn’t protect her from.
“I didn’t mean to,” she said. “But I’m not sorry I did it.”
The others—somehow she’d saved them.
But it was at the cost of her soul.
It felt as if a hand clutched his throat, making it hard to speak. “I’m so sorry, Eden.”
The smile she gave him then was enough to chill him to his very core. The coating of hellfire did nothing to help warm him against that emotionless expression, so different from what he was accustomed to. It was as if she didn’t care about what had just happened and what it meant.
A human
was
their soul. It was their personality, their warmth, their goodness, their joy. When it turned dark, so did everything else. The black of her soul wasn’t a color, it was a force that absorbed everything good.
Even a demon understood that.
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “There’s no other way this can be. I see that now.”
Darrak took her by her shoulders. His fire wouldn’t hurt her, he wouldn’t let it. “You’re wrong. I’m going to be the next Prince of Hell. I can fix this. You won’t come to any more harm, I swear it.”
Lucifer approached. “It won’t matter if I take her celestial energy now, will it?”
“Take it,” Eden said firmly. “We had a deal. It’s yours.”
Darrak had failed. He’d started out with such good intentions—destroy Lucifer, save Eden. Instead, Lucifer had pulled him out of the Void so he could return to see this. See that everything he’d done had led to losing Eden even if she was standing right in front of him.
Eden’s angel half wouldn’t save her now. It was too late.
“Take it,” Darrak growled. “Before I change my mind. Take it and I take your throne. Go back to Heaven. Find a fluffy cloud and learn to play the harp and leave us the hell alone for the rest of eternity.”
Lucifer looked at him. “For the record, I think you were right.”
“About what?”
“A very long time ago I’d agreed to do a job, one that never had an end date. No yearly assessment. No pay increase. Somebody made me forget about that. Or maybe it was no one’s fault but my own. My memories”—he held his hands to his temples—“they’re cloudy when the years grow long and there’s no one who truly understands how lonely it can be.”
Darrak rolled his eyes. “Maybe
I’ll
learn how to play a harp. Anything to block out the self-pitying whining. Seriously. Just do it, Lucifer, and get out of my face once and for all.”
Lucifer smiled. “So you, my lowly creation, no more than hellfire with a personality, are going to take over my throne, my responsibilities. You will control the shadows. You really think you’re worthy enough for that?”
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Darrak’s patience was at an end. The sooner he took over Hell, the sooner he could do something, anything, to help restore Eden’s soul. She was standing right here in front of him. She wasn’t lost to him. Not yet.
“Not yet
,” he remembered the entity using Theo’s face saying.
“But soon and forever.”
“Do it,” Darrak growled. “Now before I change my mind.”