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“REMIND ME AGAIN. WHY ARE WE here?”
As King Victor and I walked the golden streets that led through the White City, I wished we could teleport straight to the Celestial Palace so that we didn’t have to spend more time here than was necessary. However, the White City had a teleportation barrier around it and the closet to it that we were able to get was already about an hour’s walk from the front gates of the City. I also wished that we were able to have that kind of security in Hell. It would’ve made everything so much easier, but Gavin had restrictions over Hell that prohibited us from doing anything like that.
He didn’t like Hell, but that didn’t mean that He didn’t want to control everything He could and that King Victor often went along with it so as not to start fights where it could be avoided.
“We’re trying to talk Gavin into giving up the war,” King Victor replied. He didn’t look at me as he spoke, keeping his eyes to the road below us.
“You can’t convince me that you believe that’s going to work.”
“I do!”
When I looked at him, King Victor sighed.
“I need to try, Lucifer. This can’t keep going like this and you know that just as well as I do.”
I didn’t want to admit it, but I knew he was telling the truth. We were losing more lives than we could keep up with and soon, we wouldn’t be able to resupply at all unless we pulled a Gavin move and started forcing those that had no business going battle into the military. There was no chance of King Victor doing that.
If we didn’t make a deal with the angels, the entirety of Hell would likely be wiped out. I was just worried what kind of deal Gavin would want to make in exchange for ending the war - I doubted He was going to just say that Edelweiss couldn’t become the queen of the Middleworld.
“I can’t help but wonder,” I mused, “Why aren’t you just letting this go? It’s not like she wanted to be queen anyway.”
I knew that he had dreams - huge dreams - about unifying the three realms and the species together, but I didn’t see the point in holding onto those dreams any longer.
King Victor ran a hand through his hair.
“Because I think Eddie has more power than anyone else to make a real difference in this world - I saw that power in her when I first saw her in the nursery here and I still see it now. If anyone is going to become ruler of the Middleworld and make a difference in the way we all see each other, I’m convinced it’s going to be her.”
I shrugged a little, “You can have her become the queen of Hell if you ever retire. You don’t have to make her do something as dangerous as that.”
King Victor shook his head, “See, I feel like if I did that, it would be a waste of her potential.”
I couldn’t believe that this man was still thinking about going through with this.
Sure, I wanted to see the relationships between all of the species, and the three realms change just as much as the next person (mostly for King Victor and my brothers), but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Some things couldn’t be changed. Just like how I couldn’t be turned back into an angel even if I wanted to be, the relationship between us and Gavin was too far gone to ever be mended.
Everyone knew that demons and angels could never mix. I tried to tell King Victor that when he insisted on taking Edelweiss to the demon hospital in Las Vegas (the city that was above the “capital” of Hell and the Palace of Darkness) and later when he decided to adopt her as his own, but he didn’t want to listen to anything I had to say.
“You put too much faith in people, King Victor,” I mused, “Remember who you are - people aren’t going to be as nice to you as you think they’re going to be because of who you are. That’s just the way life goes.”
I thought he knew that, but I was wrong.
“Lucifer, I thought I told you before that you can just call me Victor,” King Victor chuckled warmly before speeding up when he finally saw the Celestial Palace in the distance.
“Hey, did you just ignore everything I said?” I protested, having to quicken my pace so that I could catch up with him again.
King Victor laughed again and shook his head, “No, but I do think that-”
I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him when I heard a familiar voice coming from somewhere nearby. I looked around, trying to track it down and groaned when I still wasn’t able to.
It was Uriel. He, like the other archangels and Gavin, was a massive pain and my and the other boys’ biological brother. To be honest, I would’ve preferred to deal with all of my brothers hyped up on sugar for eternity than deal with Uriel.
“Uriel, I know you’re here. Show yourself,” I called.
After my prompt, Uriel allowed himself to be revealed to us, but he wasn’t the only one. In an instant, King Victor and I were surrounded by angels of varying ranks. Most of the “big name” angels were there except for, of course, Gavin and some of their companions were Seraphim and Dominions, and I even spotted some Cherubim in the mix. Most of them, though, I recognized from the Corps of White Nightmares.
The Corps of White Nightmares (what a stupid name that was) was a program previously started by God when He was still king, but Gavin (unsurprisingly) continued to endorse it even after the beginning of His reign and His father’s dormancy.
Their sole purpose was to do what they all assumed that the Angel Hunters were for - hunt and kill all of King Victor’s followers, though only after taking them to Heaven and torturing all of the information that they could out of them.
Coming from a fallen angel - the original fallen angel who was originally cast down to Hell to be a torturer - the CWN was a sick and twisted group of monsters. I hated them when I was meant to be on their side and I still hated them. Their leader was the worst of all of them. That was Brayden Parker, a Seraphim and one of Gavin’s favorites other than Gabriel.
I looked up as a man broke through the crowd. I knew as soon as I saw his massive wings who he was. I only knew one other angel that had the wingspan that he did and that was his biological daughter, Princess Edelweiss Sullivan.
He was holding his hand up to display the Lux he had, but I wasn’t scared. Those things couldn’t hurt me and there was no way in Hell that I was going to let them harm Victor. I moved in front of the king, ignoring his protests as I began to talk to Brayden.
“We want to talk to the King,” I told him, “That’s all. Once we do that, we will get out of here.”
Uriel chuckled darkly, “You won’t do any such thing, Dear Brother. You see-”
“I am not your brother,” I hissed, “We might be blood-related, but you’re nothing to me.”
Pierce, Sylas, Griffin, Gus, Elton, Wyatt, and Lachlan were my brothers - they were annoying, but they were my brothers nonetheless. Those seven were the only ones that I would ever claim as my family. I didn’t care what any of those pathetic angels had to say for themselves. The time where blood meant nothing had arrived long before this and wasn’t going to pass any time soon.
“Oh, come on, Samael,” Uriel began, but I didn’t let him continue before I interrupted him again.
My heart stopped as I stared into Uriel’s eyes. For a single instance, I was back in Heaven as an angel. My brothers were angels, too, and we were all happy. I knew it was false - even we were in Heaven and angels, we were never happy. Every day was but a miserable broken record and I could count the number of times that had seen them smile on one hand without using all of the fingers.
“I don’t go by that name anymore.”
Not even the brothers that I claimed called me that anymore. I wasn’t going to allow an archangel to get away with it.
“Too bad,” Uriel mused, “Last time I checked, it’s still your middle name, so consider it as I’m calling you by your middle name.”
He wasn’t wrong. When we left Heaven and changed our names, my brothers and I all kept our angelic names, though we put them in the middle name position instead.
“Let us go and talk to Gavin,” I sighed, “I’m not interested in this conversation.”
Brayden inched closer to me, “Are you sure about that? What if we just... oh, I don’t know, killed Satan right here and now?”
I glanced back at King Victor as Brayden talked. I couldn’t read his features, but I had a good feeling that he was more upset about the name than he was letting on. King Victor worked too hard to make sure that he wasn’t anything like his father to be called Satan by a couple of angels. Especially not one of the angels that contributed to all of the princess’s problems and eventually expulsion from Heaven.
As I continued to listen to the angels taunting us, I felt a warm sensation begin to grow in my palm as a blade appeared in the hand that I was using to hold King Victor behind me to stop him from doing anything stupid.
“Now, just come peacefully, hand over the Defect, and this will all be over before you know it,” Brayden mused, “Just a few quick torture sessions and then you’ll be dead. It’ll be easy as-”
“Never.”
I didn’t allow Brayden the ability to finish his statement before I launched myself towards him. Make no mistake: King Victor and I would not be going peacefully and we would not be “handing over the Defect”.
That “Defect” had a name and I would be damned if I let anything happen to her on my watch.