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“GET OUT AND STAY OUT IF YOU know what’s good for you,” Uriel shouted.
He shoved me out of the gates of the White City and left with the other angels that had accompanied him not too far behind.
I hurried back to the gate when they left, determined to at least try to get back into the White City. I didn’t want to leave him alone. I couldn’t leave him alone.
Not only did I have reason to believe that Princess Edelweiss was going to be furious with me if I left him behind, but I was never going to be able to forgive myself.
No, if I couldn’t save King Victor, telling the princess wasn’t going to happen. I would just wallow in my guilt and maybe tell the boys about it, but probably not. I didn’t know that I wanted to bother them with this problem if it could be helped.
My hands wrapped around the golden bars of the gate and I began to try to pry it open when I felt a wave of electricity course through my body, forcing me to jump back from the gate.
I growled as I watched the angels still strolling away and turned and picked up a decent-sized rock from the side of the path. I set it on fire before throwing it over the gate, watching it land into one of the ponds nearby and fizzle out. It was a shame I always wanted to see this place go up into flames, but of course, nothing bad ever happened to the angels.
Those things were reserved for us - the undesirables and untouchables.
“I’ll be back, mark my words!” I called out, not talking to anyone and not expecting anyone to listen to me anyway. Almost in response to my promise, the sound of gospel music and the Holy choir singing filled the air and I couldn’t help but flinch at the suddenly elevated volume. I didn’t know what I was expecting - trying to ignore anything that held any truth to it was the angels’ favorite past-time.
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I KNEW I COULDN’T DO anything else to help King Victor and I wasn’t about to stay in Heaven just to watch them all gloat about how they now had the king of Hell as their “prisoner”, so I ended up giving in and teleporting back home. I felt awful leaving him behind, but that meant that I would have to go back sooner rather than later to get him back and make sure that this would never happen again.
There was no way that I had enough power to kill all of the angels on my own, but unfortunately for the angels, I knew that my brothers would be willing to help me if I asked them. I just had to convince myself to ask them and involve them in all of this mess...
The Palace of Sins was quiet - too quiet when I arrived in the foyer, but it didn’t take long for the sound of someone screaming to echo in my eardrums and throughout the house. I didn’t have much time to think before the sound of chaos breaking out upstairs sounded throughout the entire palace.
“Lucifer, where are you?” I heard Elton and Lachlan call in unison.
My heart sank when I heard the pain in their voices as if they’d already called out for me several times, and, without wasting another second, I teleported upstairs.
I followed the sound all the way to Edelweiss’s room where I found my brothers and her guard fighting against two other angels - two other angels that I probably knew better than any of the others: the two archangels, Gabriel - better known as my “replacement” after my fall - and Michael.
I didn’t hesitate to help them, only briefly glancing back as the Angel Hunters appeared. Edelweiss’s bedroom was a makeshift battleground, filled with flying fists and magic spells. When Gabriel and Michael’s gaze fell on me, apparently just then realizing that I was then, they left. Though not before letting us know that they would be back for the princess before we knew it.
I ran my hand through my hair and rolled my eyes, “Cowards,” I mumbled.
This felt like another way for them to prove to us that they were better than we could ever be.
I watched as Roscoe made his way over to check on the princess (who seemed relatively unscathed other than the fact that she was trembling in fear) before looking around to look at everyone else.
Only when I did that did I see Griffin on the floor, curled up in a fetal position. His face was coated with silent tears as he held his stomach. Immediately, my mind jumped to one of the only reasons that it could’ve been, but I tried to push it out of mind until Pierce and Sylas walked over to Griffin.
He wasn’t crying out in pain, but I could see him shaking and hear a soft whimper coming from him now and again. Griffin had a higher pain tolerance than most demons. He spent a lot of his time in school playing sports and getting into trouble in some way, shape, or form and that always came with some kind of injury.
Pierce crouched on the floor and gently took Griffin’s hand away from his stomach to reveal a massive and deep gash in his side. A black liquid was spilling onto the floor.
“Is that...?” Lachlan started, moving to stand beside me while Elton stood on my other side.
“What else would it be, genius? Of course, it’s blood,” Wyatt replied irritably.
He was the only one of my brothers still in his demon form, but if I knew him (which I hoped I did), he would stay in it until he was sure that we were no longer in danger. Wyatt would never admit it (and would try to kill me if I tried to suggest it), but we all knew that we were just as important to him as he was to us. I was even tempted to argue that he held us over his own needs, but it was going to be a cold, cold day in Hell before he would agree with that.
Sylas groaned and looked at me, “Is there any way that we can help him here?”
I knew what he was trying to get at, but I shook my head.
Pierce looked at the two of us, then, “I hate to say it, but if we don’t get him to the hospital soon, we may be needing to start taking applications for a new prince of Gluttony.”