Colin had been in exactly one car accident his entire life, and it was one car accident too many. Some teenager hadn’t been paying attention and hadn’t hit the brakes in time. Colin had been eight or nine when the crash occurred, and he could still remember the flailing out-of-body sensation. How his neck, head, and shoulders had jerked forward, only to be caught and restrained by the seatbelt. How his brain seemed to slam against the inside of his skull, and pain had shot down his spine, across his shoulders, and up the sides of his throat.
It was a sensation one didn’t easily forget.
Now, looking at Savina—his demonic half-sister—Colin felt he might as well be in that car all over again. His sluggish mind was still trying to decrypt the bit of lunacy she’d spouted. It wasn’t working.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to have all his faculties in order to deliver the only answer that mattered.
“No.”
Savina’s eyebrows winged upward. “No.”
“That’s right.”
She stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t think you understand. I am offering you the chance to rule in Hell.”
“No, I got that part.” He tore his hand through his hair—or tried to. He still wasn’t used to his haircut. “I’m just saying no.”
Savina frowned, looked to Sera, then back to him. “Then I don’t understand,” she said. “This is what you were made for. This is the reason God allowed the deal to be forged at all. It is why you were touched. Your destiny is to bring down Belial.”
“And I’ll help,” Colin agreed, calmer than he figured he had any right to be. “But that’s where it ends. I’m not interested in taking dear ol’ dad’s spot in Hell. No thanks.”
Savina stared at him for a long moment, the confusion in her eyes slowly fading to anger. “Dethrone Belial, and someone just as bad will take his place. It must be you.”
“And here we are again. No.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t wanna live in Hell!” Colin snapped. “And I’m not exactly qualified for the job.”
Savina grunted and tore off in the opposite direction in a fast, furious pace. She made it maybe five steps, then whirled back around, this time focused entirely on Sera. “You understand, don’t you? You know what is at stake.”
“Yeah,” Sera replied in her make no sudden movements voice. She still hadn’t put the sword away, which was indicator enough the situation remained volatile. “And excuse us if we don’t fall for the whole ‘no, really, we’re the good guys’ bullshit. I’m old as fucking dirt.”
“So am I,” Savina snapped. “Come on, Sera. You know me. I am not your enemy.”
“Says she of the creepy carnival magic,” Colin muttered. “And really, barricading the highway and chasing me like a deranged hell bat doesn’t exactly instill a lot of confidence.”
Savina glared at him. “How many times do you need me to apologize?”
Colin looked to Sera. “Did you hear an apology?”
“Can’t say I did,” she replied.
Savina rolled her eyes. “I am sorry. Satisfied?”
“Over the moon,” he said. “Still not going anywhere, though.”
“Why not?”
Seriously? She was asking?
Colin crossed his arms. “Because when I picture my dream home, it isn’t surrounded with fire and brimstone.”
“As a king—”
“I don’t care what I’d be. I’m not getting onboard with this crazy ass plan.”
Fire danced behind Savina’s eyes. “You do not know what you are saying.”
“I think I do. You want me to charge into Hell, guns blazing, and take out one of the devil’s highest paid lackeys.” He gestured to himself. “Me.”
“Stop me if I am repeating myself,” Savina muttered before pinning Colin with a glare and saying loudly, “You. Are. Touched. By. God. You have an advantage no one in Hell has ever had. You are the best chance we have at removing Belial from power.”
“And that part I have no problem with. You lose me at the whole take his place and reign supreme thing.” Colin scrunched his face up and waved a hand at her. “You seem organized and a little homicidal. Why don’t you take Dad’s place?”
Savina blinked, then shifted her gaze to Sera. “Does he have a learning disorder of some sort?”
“Don’t look at me,” Sera replied. “I’m on his side.”
“Then you are both crazy.” Savina turned back to Colin. “I can’t take Belial’s place.”
“Why not?” he fired back. “You said that someone just as bad would come. If you’re not just as bad, why can’t you manage it, huh?”
“Hell is not for people like me. You must be willing to torture. True torture. The sort that would give Hitler nightmares.”
Colin spread his arms. “I look like I’m willing to torture?”
“And again, we have circled around to the fact that you have been touched by God. Were I to attempt to rule, I would be overthrown in a blink. You, though…” Savina poked Colin’s chest hard enough to hurt. “No one with any sort of power in Hell has ever seen a holy being before. They will be scared to look at you, let alone touch you. Your reign would instill an era of peace in a corner of Hell. Do you have any idea what that could mean?”
Colin waited.
“Hell is worse than your worst nightmare,” Savina continued. “And not just for the people condemned to burn for all eternity. For me. For your brothers and other sisters, and all of Belial’s servants. For every creature down there with a shred of humanity, a second might as well be a thousand years. To bring peace to any part of Hell would be a revolution. This is not about what you want. It is what has to be done.”
Savina’s eyes were wide, expression animated, everything about her open. The scowl that had twisted her lips earlier had vanished. Colin didn’t want to feel any part of him melting—he didn’t want to feel warmth or empathy for this woman. He didn’t want to understand her pleas, and he didn’t want to want to help her.
He didn’t want to be in this position barely twenty-four hours into the knowledge of what he was. He hadn’t even wrapped his mind around his heritage. Now he was supposed to take on all of Hell?
Fuck, he needed to sit down.
But his body didn’t obey. Instead, it ordered his mouth open, and the only question worth asking tumbled out. “What about Sera?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Colin saw Sera jerk her head toward him.
Savina shrugged. “What about Sera?”
“Sera and I are a package deal.”
Beside him, Sera tensed but didn’t say anything. Colin did his best not to read too much into it.
Savina shook her head. “Not possible. She’s an angel—”
“Fallen Angel,” he and Sera corrected together.
“Whatever. She can’t come to Hell. She wouldn’t survive there.”
“She’s right,” Sera said. “Only beings with demon blood can enter Hell and survive. And…Colin, you don’t want to go there.”
He snorted. “Is it that obvious?”
“I mean it. No matter how benevolent a ruler you’d be—”
Savina pinned Sera with a hard glare. “Watch yourself, angel.”
“—it’s still Hell,” Sera concluded, her tone calm. “It’s still fire and brimstone and torture. You don’t belong there. If you ask me, nobody does.”
Long lost sis seemingly abandoned any semblance of control. The space separating her and Sera dissolved and, completely unmindful of the sword, Savina slammed her hands against Sera’s shoulders and shoved her back.
“You selfish girl!” she screamed. “When exactly did you forget that he is not yours? He’s made for things greater than you, greater than all of us. He belongs to the world.”
Colin’s feet pushed him into movement before his mind could catch up. It was instinct, pure and simple. He was between Sera and Savina in a heartbeat, his hands closing around his so-called sibling’s wrists and shoving her back with more force than even he thought himself capable.
“I choose Sera,” he said. “I will always choose Sera. Thanks, but no thanks, sis. Afraid I’m going to have to pass.”
Over the years, he’d heard numerous metaphors to explain what it looked like when someone approached the proverbial breaking point. Each and every one of them seemed appropriate now. Savina was the picture of a livewire just seconds from detonation. Her hands shook, her pale cheeks flushed, her lips were twisted in a sneer, and her eyes darkened with the onslaught of a storm.
And when she spoke, her voice was soft, but with just enough undertone of menace to make every cell in his body prepare for the inevitable crash.
“This isn’t a discussion. It isn’t a choice. The only choice you have, Colin, is if I leave your little girlfriend whole or in several pieces.”
“Colin, run,” Sera snapped.
“No.” And then Savina had brandished a sword of her own. A nice, meaty-looking thing that she pulled out of her front pocket like people carrying medieval weapons in their pants was the latest fashion trend. “He is right where he needs to be.”
“What is it with you people and swords?” Colin demanded, then turned and ripped Sera’s blade from her hands. “Can I borrow this?”
“Colin!”
Savina blinked at him, her gaze flicking between his face and the weapon he brandished. “What are you doing?” she asked. Then she looked at Sera. “Is this a joke?”
Sera didn’t answer, rather seized Colin’s free hand and tugged. “Colin, you can’t—”
“She won’t hurt me.”
Of this, he was certain. His sister might view Sera as disposable, but she needed Colin alive.
Savina shrugged and raised her blade, her incredulity having been exchanged for acceptance. “You are coming with me, one way or another. Whether you can walk or not is up to you.”
A long rip broke through the otherwise still surroundings. Then wind beat at his back in time with rhythmic swooshing, and he knew Sera was in the air in all her angelic glory.
He also knew the sword was not the only weapon she had on her.
If Savina was troubled, she didn’t let it show. She didn’t even glance in Sera’s direction; her stony gaze remained trained on him. “You really do not want to do this.”
“I’ll learn to live with it.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Then Savina was coming at him, a black blur of movement. Colin barely had time to register the metallic clink of his blade meeting hers before an awful screech drowned in ears, and the ground beneath his feet vanished. Space itself vanished. Something hit him in the gut—something of freight train proportions. He fell and fell and fell…only that wasn’t right. No, people did not fall sideways like this.
By the time Colin realized he was soaring through the air, his back slammed into something that should have rendered him paralyzed. A hard crack rang in his ears, chased by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground and shattering. He heard Sera scream for him, but she sounded a thousand miles away. Shards of pain radiated from his spine outward, sprinting up his neck and seizing his head with knife-sharp fingers. He opened his mouth to scream, but all that came out was a muted whimper.
He felt blindly on the ground, not remembering what he was looking for until his index finger grazed the side of something sharp enough to slice through skin.
Oh yes. The sword.
Colin sucked in a deep breath, braced himself, and commanded his neck to lift his head, despite his body’s protests. His eyes, which felt swollen shut, put up a good fight before finally conceding his demand that they open.
He found himself in a sea of shattered glass, which made no sense until it dawned on him how far he was from where he’d been a moment before. Savina had managed to send him flying into a display case.
No, he realized, shifting focus from the broken glass to the grotesque face on his left. Not just any display case.
She’d sent him exactly where he needed to go.
The thing, the shrunken head, the only hurdle between what he was and what he would become, was just a few inches away. Its mouth was sewn, its raisin skin torn from where it had collided with broken glass. Its eyeless sockets stared at him, daring him to reach forward.
Colin broke away, his stomach tripping, the taste of vomit flooding his mouth. He looked to Sera, who was in the air, firing arrows. Fighting for him.
Colin battled another wave of nausea, something within him cementing. He couldn’t help her. Not with weak, human strength.
And Savina would kill.
He had to help Sera. If Sera got hurt protecting him, he’d never forgive himself.
Colin drew in a breath, tried to ignore the sharp stab in his lung, and closed his fingers around the shrunken head.
The space around her dissolved in an explosion of white, serenaded with a horrible crackling Sera knew all too well.
Her wings retracted almost immediately, and her feet slammed into the ground hard enough to make her bones rattle. She shoved at Savina, whose expression had melted from twisted rage to blank shock, and managed to whirl around.
“Colin!”
He stood, blinking, surrounded in the shattered remains of the talisman’s display case. Even with the distance separating them, Sera saw the confusion in his eyes. His brow was furrowed, and he looked seconds from losing his lunch.
Clutched in his left hand was the shrunken head.
As though sensing her eyes on him, Colin looked up and staggered a few steps forward. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Fuck.”
He held up the talisman by the hair. “Are we sure this thing works?”
Oh, it worked all right. The thin, ropy strands of red that had decorated Colin’s face were already sealing. The few ugly purple bruises that had begun to form on his cheek and arms were at once gone.
Colin frowned, confusion replaced with concern. He lowered his arm and staggered another step forward. “Sera?”
She didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Her attention shifted from him to the wispy strands of electricity spreading in web-like patterns against a solid, invisible wall. The crackling she’d heard before intensified, signaling its warning of what was about to come.
Then Colin was in front of her, crushing her to his chest. Sera’s gaze remained on the fracturing reality behind him.
This wasn’t what was supposed to happen.
“Are you all right?” she heard him whisper.
“This isn’t supposed to happen.”
“What?”
Sera pointed over his shoulder. “That? That’s a portal to Hell.”
Colin released her and turned. His face drained, and his eyes went wide.
“Where did that come from?”
“The talisman,” Savina cried from behind, her voice triumphant. “You touched the talisman!”
“It was a trick,” Sera muttered. Her temples throbbed, her heart galloping at breakneck speeds. Every inch of her body cried out in pain, and she wasn’t sure if it was physical or not. She pulled out of Colin’s embrace and turned, fixing a glare on Savina. “What did you do to the talisman?”
Savina brought her hands up. “I did nothing.”
“Then where the fuck did the portal come from?”
Another crack burst through the air, breaking away a piece of the curtain separating realities. A lick of flame whipped free of the other side and began to spread.
“It is the way home.” Savina marched forward and shoved at Colin’s shoulder. “I told you. This was never a choice.”
“Sera?” Colin’s voice shook. “Sera, what is she talking about?”
Sera shook her head. This wasn’t right. None of this was right. “No. No this isn’t what was supposed to happen.”
“So Camael wasn’t lying about that.” Savina smirked. “You really did not know.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“That the talisman was never just a talisman,” the demon said. “What good is an empowered demon heir apparent with no way home?”
“I’m not going!” Colin screamed. The terror in his eyes killed her. “I’m not going! You can’t make me go, dammit. I’m staying with—”
“Not an option,” Savina snapped. She pointed at the talisman still dangling between his fingers. “The portal only closes one way.”
At that, Colin fisted the shrunken head and made like a baseball pitcher. He was about to let it sail when Savina thumped him hard in the gut.
“Sorry,” she said as he heaved. “That won’t work. Camael engineered the talisman such that it would have to be attached to the living when it passes. You have to carry it.”
“Camael,” Sera echoed.
Savina nodded. “Yes.”
Camael.
It all came back to Camael.
“I won’t go!” Colin screamed, his voice cracking. “This is still my choice!”
“Haven’t you been listening?” Savina replied.
“I’m not leaving. I’m not!”
A beat passed, a beat that might as well have been a lifetime. What seemed like eons later, Savina’s shoulders dropped, and she released a long sigh.
“Fine. Be selfish,” Savina agreed. Then she was walking backward toward the portal, still facing them, her expression unmoved. “If you want to pretend you have a choice, that’s as far as you get. You can either follow me and ensure the portal closes, or stand here and watch as Hell consumes Earth. Either way, you’re going to end up in Hell. So you can go in like a man or wait here like a child as Hell consumes the world you love so much.” She shrugged. “I can’t force your hand, but if you choose the latter, you’re worse than Belial. He might be a twisted sack of shit, but at least that man isn’t a coward.”
Then Savina turned, broke into a dead run for the portal, and dove through one of the larger flame-laced gaps. An ear-splitting roar shook the ground as she disappeared, and the portal crackled.
Sera stared at the growing hole. The scalding hot of Hell pulsated through the aisle, already offsetting the cold flooding her veins. A dull, all consuming numb spread through her chest as the world she knew, the world she understood, crashed around her in unfamiliar pieces.
Camael. He had done this.
She understood now—understood all of it. Why she had been given this assignment. Why Camael had insisted she couldn’t see Colin after it was over. Why Savina had been on that road.
There was only one reason Camael would want this.
Sera was never supposed to succeed in protecting Colin. She was supposed to fail. She was supposed to send Colin running into Belial’s arms. With a brokenhearted demon, one touched by God, in his arsenal, Belial wouldn’t just grow in power. He might overthrow the devil. He would stand a real shot at defeating Heaven and bringing true Hell upon Earth.
Camael had planned for this all along. The talisman. The portal. Their goodbye.
Only there were things Camael couldn’t have known. That Savina would want her father dead, and that…
Sera.
Sera was an unknown. Camael thought he knew her, but he didn’t.
He didn’t know what she’d do to protect the man she loved.
Sera turned to Colin, whose eyes were glassy with tears. From the look on his face, he’d been staring at her.
“I have to go,” he whispered. “I have to.”
Sera swallowed hard. “I know,” she replied, hoping he understood. Hoping he knew.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too. Never forget that.”
Colin shook his head. “I won’t. I’ll find a way, Sera. I’ll—”
She edged on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his. He tasted like home—her home—flavored with bitter acceptance and grief. She’d take that with her. She’d take whatever part of him she could get, for however long it lasted.
It was over far too quickly. Sera broke her lips from his and offered a watery smile.
“Don’t be mad,” she said.
“Whuh—”
Her fist sank into his gut, and Colin keeled over in a surprised fit of gasps and groans. The talisman slipped between his fingers, and he must have realized her intention, for he screamed her name the second her hand closed around it.
But it was too late. Sera shoved him back, her wings pumping. And then she was in the air, soaring toward the inferno, clutching the talisman tight.
“Sera! Sera!”
Goodbye.
She closed her eyes, braced herself, and dove into Hell.