Hells gate box set, p.22
Hell's Gate Box Set, page 22
part #1 of Hell's Gate Series
“Stand back.”
I waited until Levi and Ashliel had stepped away, then swept my hands through the air, red magic swirls sparking from my hands. The rock face began to crumble away, the clatter of falling rocks echoing throughout the chamber. Coughing, I waved the dust from my face and tucked my nose into the crook of my elbow to stop from breathing it in.
“It’s a door.” Levi said, when the dust had settled. “A pretty impressive-looking one, at that. Is it made from steel?”
We all moved closer to examine it. It had to be at least ten feet tall, and five feet wide. On the inner border was a plain raised edge, framing the door. In the center, there was a symbol—a dragon within a circle. There was no handle. But more of the fabric I was sure belonged to Dad’s robe poked through the edge, caught between the door and the frame.
“It’s a seal.” Ashliel was running her fingers over the dragon symbol. “I’ve heard of them, but never seen one.”
“A seal?” I reached out and touched the door, running my hands over it.
“Seriously, Lucy, did you not read the instruction manual for this place?” Ashliel tossed her flaming hair over her shoulder, her face revealing her exasperation.
“Of course I read it.” I couldn’t lie. I had read it—once, when she’d first put it together for me. But did I remember any of it? That was the question she should have been asking.
Because the answer to that was no, I did not. I’d been too busy managing the day-to-day of Hell to remember all of its little intricacies and nuances. It seemed Ashliel hadn’t forgotten any of it, though, and that was why I hired her in the first place—and loved her for the friend she was.
“Remind me,” I prompted.
After blowing out a breath, she spoke almost without breathing. “There are four seals, each represented by a horse. The white horse will release the white horseman, who symbolizes pestilence. He will rain down disease and plague on the earth. The red horse will release the red horseman, who symbolizes war. He will unleash mass slaughter on the earth. The black horse will release the black horseman, who symbolizes famine. The earth will starve. And finally, the rider on the pale horse will bring death.”
“Wait,” Levi said once she’d run out of steam. “So what you’re saying is, if we break this seal to open the door, we’ll be releasing one of the horsemen? He’s in there?”
“The horseman isn’t behind the door,” I replied, “but the act of breaking the seal will call him forth.”
“Why create the horsemen in the first place? Who did it? And why?”
I shrugged. “A safeguard.”
“Okay, so you think God is behind the door?”
I looked at the ratty piece of fabric poking out between the door and the frame. “I think he just might be,” I said sadly. “He’s been missing all this time, and we’ve only just noticed. What sort of daughter am I, that I didn’t notice my dad was missing for thousands of years?” Tears coursed down my cheeks as a wave of emotion both powerful and debilitating pounded through me.
“You were busy.” Levi was only trying to help, but his words were hollow. I was busy. What sort of fucking excuse was that? I was worse than the humans. I should be burning in the pit for my neglect.
“Lucy, you didn’t notice because your brothers covered it up, remember? You still got messages from Heaven. They let you believe they were coming from God. You are not responsible for this,” Ashliel pointed out.
“But he’s here. In my realm. And I didn’t know.”
“That’s it exactly. You didn’t know.” Levi pulled me against his chest, I let him hold me, soothing my raw emotions.
“Yeah, well, you two can stand around all sooky la la and shit, but in the meantime, we’ve got God trapped behind a seal,” Ashliel snapped. “I think that’s more important than your feelings.”
I sucked in a breath, shocked at Ashliel’s harsh words. My hurt must have shown on my face, because she threw up her hands. “What? I always have and always will say it like it is! Don’t wimp out on me now, Lucifer. Get your shit together. It’s not like you to be all emotional like this.” She said the word emotional like it was poison on her tongue.
Levi stiffened, then growled, “Back off!”
“No. No, she’s right. I don’t know why I feel so incredibly emotional right now, but she’s right. Let’s focus. If we break the seal, we’ll be putting a chain of events in motion that no man, angel, demon, or god can halt. Or so they say.”
“So they say?” Levi sounded surprised. “So you don’t even know if that’s true? About the seals and the horsemen?”
“Let’s go back to the office and do some research. Let’s try and find out exactly what we’re dealing with here, how we break the seal, and what the repercussions will be, if any.” It pained me to leave, but expanding the dimension had tired me, and what I’d said was true—we were all just guessing at what was going on here. All except for Ashliel, I was pretty sure her database of a brain had pulled up the correct information. We just had to dig a little deeper to get all the answers.
“Agreed,” she said, leading the way back to the elevator.
We were standing in my office moments later. Levi crossed to the window and admired the view of the new zone, while Ashliel slipped into my chair and began typing something at my console. As an afterthought, she said, without looking at me, “You might want to get cleaned up. You’ve got blood all over your face and your robe is filthy.”
“Oh. Right.” Glancing down, I realized she was right. The black silk robe I’d worn to the chamber was covered in dust and had damp spots of blood down the front where my nose had bled. I debated for a second. Go shower and dress, or use my magic? The shower was very tempting, but time was of the essence, so with a wave of my hand, I cleaned myself up. In seconds, I was dressed in black leather pants and a red halter top, my hair once more in pristine condition and falling in waves down my back.
“Urgh. Shouldn’t have used my magic.” I clutched my stomach, a wave of nausea rolling through me.
Levi was by my side in a micro-second. “You okay?” With his arm around my waist, he guided me to the sofa, and I flopped down, less than graceful.
“Must have used too much magic today. I just need to rest, I’ll be fine.”
“Is there anything I can do? How do you replenish magic?” Sitting by my side, he clasped my hand in his, worry evident on his face.
“Rest is all I need,” I assured him.
“I’ve never seen you pale before.”
That caught Ashliel’s attention, and she swiveled to eyeball me. “He’s right. Shit, you look awful. Pale, with a hint of…green?” She cocked her head, considering. “Yeah, definitely green. So, this is what happens when you use mofo amounts of magic. Interesting. I’ll make a note.” Turning back to the keyboard, she continued typing.
I chuckled. When Ashliel said she’d make a note, that was precisely what she’d do—add it to the Hell Handbook, which was now several tomes in length.
“Found anything yet?” I asked her.
“Kinda,” she muttered, her head moving up and down as she read the screen, then typed, over and over.
I was exhausted watching her, so I shut my eyes and let my head rest against the back of the sofa. I’d never felt so wiped out in my life. I was almost totally drained of magic, and I didn’t like it, not one bit. Thankfully, I wouldn’t need to increase Hell’s dimensions again any time soon. Once we got Dad out from behind the door, he’d get Heaven back in order, retrieve his lost souls, and I could convert the new zone into prison quarters, as I’d initially intended to do with that part of Hell. While that would require some magic, it would be nowhere near as much as I’d used today.
I must have dozed for a little while, for I jumped in surprise when Ashliel announced, “Got it!”
“You do?” I sat up, running my hands over my face and smoothing back my hair. I felt marginally better. My magic must be returning.
“I think this is the first seal. It was created when this dimension was being made. There’s no way anyone would have gotten it past God otherwise. Whoever made it must have used the first seal to trap God, then went on their merry way creating as many as they liked.”
“How many seals are we talking?” Levi asked.
Ashliel shrugged, “Seven are documented, but there could be more.”
Seven. But Ashliel had only initially known about four. Who had set these seals?
“And how do we break the seal?” I asked. “What happens when we do?”
“According to this—” She indicated the screen. “This is the first seal which, when broken, will release the first horseman. The first horseman rides a white horse and will release disease and plague on Earth.”
“Why on Earth? Why not here, where the seal is?” I asked.
“Because these have been set up specifically to target—and hurt—God. And disease and plague are not going to harm you or your demons. But they will hurt the humans, and they are just as precious to God.”
“Man, someone sure must hate him,” Levi muttered, shaking his head.
I noticed she hadn’t answered the first part of my question. “How do we break it, Ashliel?”
“We need the blood of a righteous man.”
“Well, that’s easy.” Levi cut across the silence that followed. “I’ll do it. My blood should work.”
“This is fucking weird,” I muttered.
“How everything is falling into place, almost like it was planned?” Ashliel asked. “Yeah. It is.”
“Bit of a long-term plan, don’t you think?” Levi said. “You’d have to be okay with a slow game, waiting thousands of years for it to play out.”
“Do you think Destiny and Fate are involved?” Ashliel asked. “They’re good at this end-game bullshit.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. I thought they were Dad’s allies. They had a lot of input in creating Earth. Was it all a setup? And if it was, are they behind it? Or someone else?”
“You know the best person to ask?” Ashliel stood by the door, waiting.
“Dad.” I rose to my feet. We had to get Dad out of the prison he’d been locked in for thousands of years. Only he had the answers we needed.
“Wait!” Levi jumped up and grabbed my wrist. “You’re talking about destiny and fate and all that, but what if we’re playing into their hands? What if this is exactly what they want you to do? What if God isn’t even behind that door? What if it’s a trick? Or a trap?”
“It’s his robe. I’m one hundred percent sure of it,” I argued.
“It could have been planted,” Levi pointed out.
“It could have, I agree. But there’s only one way to know for sure—break the seal and open the door.”
Chapter Fourteen
Breaking the seal was deceptively simple. Levi sliced his palm open with a knife and placed it over the dragon symbol. I’d expected some sort of fanfare, the sound of something breaking, at the very least, but there was nothing. No lights flashing, no boom, or even the sound of a lock clicking open. Zero. Nada. Zilch. The door remained closed.
“Did it work?” Ashliel bounced from foot to foot, impatient.
“I don’t know. Did you feel anything?” I asked Levi, who still had his hand pressed to the door.
He shook his head. “Nope. Didn’t feel a thing. Maybe it didn’t break. Maybe it’s not my blood it needs.”
“Wait, wait!” Ashliel exclaimed. “Breaking the seal doesn’t mean the door will open. It just means we can open the door.”
“What?” I frowned. What was she on about?
“We have to open the door. It won’t happen on its own. As in, PUSH!”
She pressed her palms against the right hand side of the door and threw her weight into it. Levi joined her, placing his hands above hers, and sure enough, it started to move, groaning and screeching in protest. I joined them, and with the three of us pushing, the door slowly swung inwards.
The room inside was pitch black. I wasn’t sure if it was out of instinct or what, but Ashliel and Levi automatically took a step backwards. I stood frozen in the doorway, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. No horseman came flying out to trample us beneath the hooves of his steed, but then, we’d known the horseman wasn’t physically behind the seal. If the stories were true, we’d just released him upon the earth. I’d deal with that later, but for now, I had to see if my father was in this room.
Taking a breath, I stepped inside, and almost screamed when something touched my foot. Glancing down, I saw…was that a hand? An almost skeletal hand, resting on top of my foot.
“Dad?” Falling to my knees, I clasped the hand, running my fingers up past the wrist to the forearm, then the elbow, then up to the shoulder and across, to the head and face. In the dim light, I saw the mummified face of my father. “Oh, Dad.” Tears rolled down my cheeks, dropping onto us both.
“Is he in there?” I heard Ashliel say, but I was too choked up to answer. I’d found my dad, but it was too late. Bowing my head, I clasped the bony hand between my own, raised it to my lips, and pressed a kiss to the dried-up skin.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, my heart breaking.
Someone had trapped him here all those years ago, and I hadn’t known. Hadn’t known he was here in this tomb of darkness, slowly withering away to nothing. Only he wasn’t nothing, was he? It dawned on me that he should have been a pile of dust at the worst, or a pile of bones at the best. But he was still in one piece, sitting up against the wall. Maybe he wasn’t dead. I allowed hope to blossom in my chest, and to test my theory, I sent a bit of magic into him.
It was all he needed. His flesh filled out ever so slightly, and he moved just a fraction, then a little more. I gave him some more magic, careful not to deplete myself, as I wasn’t fully recovered from stretching the dimension. What I hadn’t anticipated was the man’s instinct for survival. Before I could pull away or stop him, he’d caught my hands in his bony grasp and began sucking the magic from me in great, gulping waves.
“Dad!” I gasped, feeling it ripping away, draining me, dangerously so. “Dad, stop!”
“Lucy?” I heard Levi’s voice, saw his shadow falling over us as he stood in the doorway, tried to turn my head to look at him, but I was so weak.
“Levi…” I was hemorrhaging magic, my power draining too fast. I couldn’t sustain it or myself. The world spun. I could feel myself falling, then nothing—nothing but darkness.
“She’s waking up.”
I groaned, fighting to open my eyes, but it was too difficult. Wearily, I rubbed a hand over my face. Since when had my arms gotten so heavy? They flopped bonelessly to my side.
“What happened?” Surely that croaking noise wasn’t my voice?
“Your dad. He drained you.” Levi was by my side, his hand clasping mine.
I pried my eyes open with the utmost effort and squinted at him. “Right. We found him.” My lips split into a semblance of a smile. A smile Levi didn’t return. Instead, he looked…pissed off. “What?” I asked.
“We found him, all right. He drained you to heal himself, then left.”
“What? He’s gone?” I struggled to sit up, but could barely control my limbs. Levi pressed a finger into my shoulder to hold me down, indicating how weak I was.
“Relax. You need to heal. He almost killed you.”
“Where did he go?”
Levi was right. I was weaker than I’d ever been, dangerously so. I was vulnerable. This whole situation was dangerous, and again, I couldn’t help but wonder if my brothers were involved. Was this their attempt to overthrow me and take over Hell? They certainly wanted to dominate something, and since their attempt on Earth had failed, was Hell next? Trap Dad, knowing that when I found him, he’d need my magic to heal himself?
“Ashliel?” I croaked.
“She’s busy,” Levi told me. “She’s organizing extra patrols and monitoring from your office.”
“Good. But you didn’t answer my question. Where did Dad go?”
“He muttered something about Lilith and disappeared.”
I closed my eyes, thinking, although it was difficult to focus on anything. My mind was so foggy. Dad had said Mom’s name—Lilith. Was she involved, or had he said it because he’d spent his years in captivity thinking about her? Thinking about how much he loved her and missed her. Wanting her back, maybe.
“I have an idea.” Levi’s voice interrupted my thoughts. I opened my eyes to glance up at him. “Let me give you some of my magic to help heal you. I don’t like seeing you like this.”
“You don’t have magic. You’re human,” I protested, closing my eyes again. So tired. So very, very tired.
“I’m a fire demon, remember? You bound me. I’m yours. You’re mine. You’ve healed me before. Now let me heal you.”
His words sounded like they were coming from a distance. I was fading, but I clung to what he was saying, trying to claw my way back from the darkness. He’d said something about a fire demon, but we didn’t have fire demons in Hell. Did we? I was confused.
What was happening to me?
Warm lips pressed against my own. Lips I recognized, even in my dazed state. These lips were hot, just the way I liked it, and I automatically granted him access, although why he was kissing me when I was practically comatose, I had no idea.
Then I felt it—the tendrils of fire that swirled around my mouth, down my throat, splitting off into a thousand different directions and burning through my body. It was ambrosia. I couldn’t get enough! Grabbing his head with both hands, I devoured him, my tongue dueling with his while his kiss revived me.
“Enough!” he gasped, pulling away.
I growled a protest, but he caught my wrists and held firm. Opening my eyes, I knew the flames of Hell were dancing in my gaze. I could see them reflected in Levi’s eyes.
“Better?” he asked, cocking his head to one side.
“Much!” His fire had saved me. I wasn’t at full strength yet, but I was functioning. He’d jump-started my magic, just enough that it could begin repairing itself again. Without my magic, I’d not only been dying, but I’d been empty inside. There had been a void where it was ripped away, but now it was returning, almost the same as it was, but now there was something different. Had my magic changed because Levi had infused it with his own?
