It wasn’t a sound that woke me, more the sense of her presence in the room. My eyelids fluttered open, and I stared up into the arched stone columns that supported the high ceiling. Glancing to each side, I found Cas and Alex cuddled against me, and I recognised the heavy weight on my feet as Sam’s wolf form snored away at the end of the enormous bed. I shifted slowly to sit upright, looking around the shadowy room for what had woken me, and it was then I saw her. She stood near the open archway that led out onto the half-moon balcony. I could barely make out her face, but she beckoned me over.
Assuming she hadn’t wanted me to wake the guys, I made a rather undignified scramble as quietly as possible over the bedclothes, grateful that one of the guys had pulled a t-shirt over my naked form before crashing into bed with me. It was black and hung to mid-thigh, with a smoky, leathery scent on it, and I knew it belonged to Cas. Making sure the back hem wasn’t somehow tucked into my knickers, I walked towards the Queen of Hell.
Following her out onto the balcony, I looked over the city of Dis. Even at this late hour, golden torches burned all over the city, and for a moment, it was as though the starry sky lay below me, each tiny pinprick of light a mirror of those that burned above Earth. Here, though, the sky stayed dark and impenetrable.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Her voice was low and harmonious, like the rich sound of a cello. The skin on my arm tingled as she came to stand beside me, gazing out at her city.
“It’s stunning,” I agreed, studying her as subtly as I could. I had been introduced to her and Samael earlier. All dressed up for the ball, they had certainly looked like royals. He had been tall, even taller than Cas, with dark skin that was nearly black, but he had gold and silver eyes like Euriel, and huge golden wings. He had worn black robes with gold embroidery, and the power that radiated from him had been unsettling, to say the least. Lilith, on the other hand, had been tiny by comparison. She couldn’t have stood more than five feet and a couple of inches. She had no wings, but two dark, dainty curved horns that twisted into the air. Her ebony hair, which had been covered with a golden net and many jewels, now hung long and thick down her back, and her face, which had been covered by a sheer black veil, could clearly be seen now. Her features showed her Middle Eastern origins, but after millennia without feeling the warmth of the sun, her bronze complexion had begun to fade to a translucent pale shade.
Dark eyes glittered from her pale face, her deep brown pupils ringed with gold, and she turned them on me now. “I felt we should talk, you and I.”
“Okay,” I replied, feeling slightly uneasy. What did you talk about with the Queen of Hell?
“Come, let us go somewhere more private.” She turned to the side of the balcony, and my mouth dropped open as the creamy stone seemed to melt and then reharden to form a sloped walkway that curved into the darkness below. She glided down the path she had just created, her silky black dress drifting behind her, and I followed, feeling about as graceful as a chicken.
The path led down into the gardens, and for a few minutes, we wandered through the high black hedges until we came to a space full of trees with thick, trailing boughs laden with lilac flowers and long, dark leaves. The scent in the humid air was incredible and pungent. Lilith guided us to a pool where a small fountain bubbled quietly, and pale pink lilies drifted on the water’s surface. To my surprise, instead of taking a seat on the bench near the pool, she wandered out onto a low wooden walkway and lowered herself to the planks, hitching up her skirt and dangling her slender white feet into the water. Glancing up at me, she smiled and patted the walkway next to her.
“Come sit. The water is lovely and cool.” Not daring to disobey her, I sat next to her and swung my legs over the edge. She was right. The chilled water felt amazing in the stifling heat of the night.
“Why is it so hot here?” I asked.
“In Sheol? I suppose because we’re closer to the centre of the earth. We’re protected, of course, but there are areas where the fires of the core are allowed through, and the heat moves through all of Sheol.”
“Allowed through?”
She nodded. “In Gehenna, there are huge open pits of flame and molten rock. Samael and I may rule over Sheol, but Gehenna is only our protectorate. We cannot seal up the flames. We do not have the authority.”
I stared at her. “God keeps them open?”
“To deal with those he wants punished, yes.” She stared out over the dark water. “I know you are new to all of this. Most demons and departed human souls dwell in Sheol, either in Dis or Pandaemonium or out in smaller towns and villages, but after souls are judged, there are a few that no one can deny are inherently evil. The Lord Judge of Souls does what he can, but there are some even he cannot avoid sending to that fate.”
“Mahazael tries to avoid it?” I clearly couldn’t keep the surprise out of my voice, because she smiled at me. “Sorry, not that he seemed that bad, just…”
“It’ll take a while before the biblical teachings stop influencing you so much, don’t worry about it. Mahazael, though rather daunting, is a fair and honourable angel. He tries to avoid sending as many as he can to Gehenna, because he believes almost all souls are redeemable and the standards they are often judged by are unfair in themselves.”
“He told me that good and evil are just based on what one being believed them to be,” I murmured, remembering our conversation a few months ago.
“Indeed.”
“He still seems rather intimidating. I’m not sure I won’t be terrified when it’s my turn to come up against him,” I muttered.
Lilith looked at me. “He wasn’t always like this. He was handsome, charming, and always laughing. He never took anything seriously. In fact, he was a bit of a liability, especially when we sent him to Earth to deal with issues there.”
“Really? I can’t imagine him like that. What happened?”
Her face dropped a little. “I don’t know, to be honest. One of his excursions to Earth left him horribly scarred on the outside, but also on the inside as well, and he’s never been the same since. Not cold, but distant, withdrawn, sad.” She paused for a moment, then smiled at me again. “I can see how he might be intimidating, and to be honest, when he’s judging a lot of human souls, I think that works in his favour. But, my dear, you are not human, therefore you will never have to be judged.”
I felt like a stone had been dropped into my chest. “What? You mean because I’m a witch?” I asked, trying to hold her gaze.
She tipped her head to one side, the gold in her eyes burning brighter, and her plush mouth pressed into a firm line. “Now, Faith, let’s be clear here. On one hand, I am the Queen of Hell, and not really a person you should be lying to.” I swallowed nervously, and then she smiled again and her face softened. “On the other hand, I think you are in pretty deep, and you are lost and afraid and you don’t really know who you can trust, except maybe those glorious men in your bedroom. Am I right?”
I nodded, not sure how to answer her, and she reached out, placing a cool hand over mine.
“No one can see us here. Let your wings out, Faith.”
I took a shaky breath and did as she commanded, sighing with a strange feeling of relief as my inky black feathers stretched out behind us. She turned and ran her pale fingers through the plumes.
“Beautiful. Like a cocoon concealing that which waits to emerge.”
“Hardly waiting,” I muttered, still somewhat nervous about having them on display. “Fairly sure they’re all there!”
“No, I don’t think so,” Lilith murmured. She traced her fingertips along my shoulder and up to my face, stroking softly down my cheek. I couldn’t tell if the gesture was supposed to be threatening, comforting, or sexual. It was kind of coming across as all three.
“What do you mean?” I inquired, trying to ignore the feeling of her touch.
She brought my face around to hers and leaned her forehead against mine. “There is more to you than there is now. You have been awakened, but you are not yet complete. You fear what you are, what you are becoming, but you should embrace it. It will make you strong beyond anything you can imagine.” I held her gaze, unable to look away, and a crackle of energy ran through my body, reaching the ends of my fingers and very tips of my feathers. Her dark golden eyes bore into mine for a moment longer, and then she blinked and drew back, breaking the spell. “You cannot become what you need to be until you are whole and complete, and that cannot happen until you regain what was taken from you.”
“Amadi,” I murmured, feeling the familiar rage at his absence burn inside me.
“Yes, you need to get him back, and for that, you need my help, I think?”
“We need information that might be…. well… personal,” I hedged. She didn’t really seem like one to share.
Lilith laughed, a peal of silver bells that filled the night. “Faith, I have been alive since the beginning of mankind. I have had my creation, my first marriage, and my life analysed, discussed, judged, condemned, and even revered. Every detail down to the colour of my skin and to the sexual positions I prefer are public knowledge. What do you need to know?”
“We need to know more about Cain. We don’t know much about him after the Bible says he leaves Eden, but we heard rumours that he was your son.” I left it hanging as a statement rather than a question. As approachable as she was being, she was still a fairly intimidating person to quiz.
She frowned, stirring the surface of the dark water with one pointed toe. “Cain? What relevance does he have to all of this?”
“The main lead we have is that Shemyaza, and probably Rose, broke into the Concordia library. Every book or document they removed had one thing in common.”
“Cain.”
I nodded. “We think they are looking for him, that he might still be alive, but we don’t know why or how to even start looking for him. Maybe if we had a clue as to why they want him, it would help. Right now, I’m willing to chase down anything that could lead us to Amadi.”
She gave me a sad smile. “Even if you were to find him, how would you persuade him to leave Amadi? By offering yourself, perhaps?”
“I was his first choice,” I admitted grudgingly, a bit unnerved by how easily she could read me. The others hadn’t mentioned what would happen when we found them, and I had considered trading myself in for him. Though the idea filled me with terror, every time I had seen the broken look in Alex’s eyes, I knew I might need to go that far in order to get Amadi back.
“That would be a grave mistake. It would save Amadi in the short term, but you would probably condemn the world to its end.” Lilith reached over and took my hand in hers, squeezing my fingers tightly. “Faith, you cannot let that happen. Even if it means letting Amadi go. I don’t know anything for certain, but I feel it deep in my bones that if Shemyaza were to possess you, the consequences would be catastrophic.”
“What else can I do? The others have no idea how to banish Shemyaza back to Tartarus, and we’re not even sure how he got out in the first place, especially since Samael reassured us earlier tonight that the gates haven’t been tampered with.”
Lilith sighed. “He said they couldn’t be tampered with, not that they haven’t been.”
I stared at her. “What aren’t you telling us?”
She released my hand and rose to her feet. I clambered up as well, finding it faintly amusing that I towered over her. She was such a dainty thing, it was hard to believe everything I had heard about her.
“Do you trust me, Faith?” Her eyes bore into mine, and I nodded. “Then let’s go.” A strong breeze rushed across my face, and I heard the beat of huge wings above us moments before an enormous being touched down on the flagstones.
My mouth fell open. “Is that… a dragon?” I stared at the beast that loomed several feet above us, taking in the powerful legs and long, scale covered body. I realised my mistake a moment later as the beast’s two heads lowered for a caress from Lilith. One was the head of a lion, the other a goat. With a hiss, the tail flicked forward, and the snake head on the end bared its wicked-looking fangs at me.
I stepped backwards with a startled cry, nearly falling into the pool behind us. Lilith put her hand on my lower back, steadying me, then brought me firmly forward a couple of steps until I was within the creature’s reach. Golden feline eyes glared at me for a second before the lion head lowered. At a nod from Lilith, I raised a shaking hand and stroked the thick mane.
“Not a dragon then,” I managed to choke out.
“This is Furcifer. He’s what humans might refer to as a chimera.” She ran her hand down the goat’s nose as it regarded her with deep brown eyes ringed with gold. I gaped at her in shock, and she smiled as I grasped who Furcifer was. “This is one of my many children, and he has been with me since Samael and I came to Dis.”
“Your son…” I blinked, still unable to process it.
“Surely you know my story? I was banished from Eden because I would not submit to a being who was my equal and condemned to wander Earth alone. God sent three archangels of great power to accept my plea for forgiveness, except I refused to offer it, nor did I see what I had done wrong. One of the angels took pity on me. He returned several times to teach me how to survive, and eventually…” She trailed off, resting her face against the goat’s neck.
“Samael,” I surmised, running my fingers through the warm fur.
“Samael,” she confirmed, her eyes lighting up with love at the thought of the great being who gave up everything he had to be with her. “God was furious. He ordered Samuel to abandon me, but he wouldn’t. He chose me over God, as I had chosen freedom over Him. He cursed us both, so any children I bore would be horrific creatures, doomed to live eternally in their warped forms, and I would live as long to watch their suffering.”
She moved around the chimera, and I followed her, seeing that the creature had huge, red, batlike wings. Stepping on the wing joint, she pulled herself up onto his back and held out her hand to help me up behind her. “Of course, God being God, He forgot one very important thing.”
“What’s that?” I inquired, looking nervously around for the snake head.
She turned to face me, her expression soft. “That I was a mother, the first mother, and that my children came from my body and were created with the being I loved with all my heart. They would never know a day where they were not loved completely.” She turned back and addressed Furcifer, and with a cry, he sprang forward. In two bounds, he launched into the air, and we soared high into the dark sky, leaving the gardens far below us.
