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AS SOON AS I GOT BACK TO THE Palace of Sins with six of the seven younger princes (Griffin was being kept at the hospital until at least the next day), Uncle Newt whisked me and the other three Hunters away to the training ground for our session.
All four of us were a little confused considering it was Friday and that was usually our day to rest from the rigorous training schedule that we had for the rest of the week, but we all learned a long time ago that questioning Newt was rarely a good idea.
“Something’s wrong,” Finn said as we walked into the sand pit of the training grounds.
I looked over at him and watched for a few moments as he scratched at the inside of his arms. His arms were decorated with scars, but I did see a few fresh marks that I hadn’t seen the day before.
I sighed softly and looked away. I wished Finn was comfortable enough to tell us what had happened to him before Koa, Will, Oliver, and I found him that one day, but he never was. Even when King Victor asked, he just shut down on himself and then that night, it took everything I had to stop him from cutting up his arms more than he already had.
I shook the memory away as I looked up at Uncle Newt, listening to his explanation of what was going on.
“Prince Lucifer has asked us to go and try to track him down, so you all need to be at tip-top shape before we leave,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow, “When are we going to leave?” I asked.
“Tonight.”
Uncle Newt didn’t wait for us to ask any more questions and waved us away. We listened and spread out.
The boys went to do something together, but I decided that I wanted to be alone and went over to the punching bags. Usually, I started with the knife-throwing targets (after all, I was the best at anything that required an accurate aim), but not today. I just needed to get out as much frustration as possible.
I began to do anything that I could think of to beat up the red cylinder dangling in front of me. I wasn’t sure what came over me, but it felt amazing to get whatever it was out of my system.
I just couldn’t believe this was happening. King Victor was missing and - for all we knew - he could’ve been dead by the time we reached him. Then, Uncle Newt, Phoenix, and I would inevitably be forced to be the ones that had to break the news to Eddie that the one man she trusted with everything was no longer alive.
Then, it wouldn't have been anyone’s fault but those angels’. Those angels were literally the primary reason for all of the bad things in our lives. If it wasn’t for them, the Angel Hunters probably wouldn’t have even been formed.
No, we didn’t exist to “hunt” the angels, but we did exist to protect all of Hell’s inhabitants from any threat and the angels were the biggest threat to our livelihood out of all of the other species. They were even worse than the humans when the humans were still around.
The more I thought, the more I felt consumed by the tangled mess inside of me and the harder I went at the punching bag. I could hear Uncle Newt in the back of my mind scolding me for it, but I couldn’t shake that age-old saying from my mind: “this isn’t fair”.
I let out a scream and pushed the bag back with every inch of my might. I stood there for a second, not realizing until it was too late that the bag was coming back towards me. It knocked me back and I braced myself to hit the sand below when I felt two hands underneath my arms, stopping my fall.
I got back to my feet properly before looking back to see Uncle Newt standing there, watching me with concern filling his gentle, blue eyes. I didn’t know what, but there was something about Uncle Newt that always made me safe and secure. Something about him made me feel strong and brave when I didn’t feel like I could be that way on my own terms. Perhaps it was simply because he always reminded me that I was those things all on my own - that I didn’t need him to be those things.
Uncle Newt was quiet for a while before looking to where Koa, Nine, and Finn were.
“Go ahead and take a fifteen minute or so break, boys. Athena and I should be back soon,” he called before turning back to me.
“Come on, Athie,” he whispered before heading off in the direction of the exit.
I followed him out and over to a stone bench situated nearby. He said down first before patting the place next to him and starting to talk while he waited for me.
“Tell me.”
It would never cease to amaze me how Uncle Newt could be so gentle all the time, even when he was fighting someone or even now when he was giving me an order that I didn’t dare try to go against. I didn’t like talking about my feelings, but for some reason, I usually felt comfortable to talk to Uncle Newt about them. Maybe it was because he was my uncle, but maybe it was because he didn’t always give me much of a choice in the situation. There was a time where he would let me come to him, but I guess after everything in high school and after being promoted to the Angel Hunters, those options faded for him.
“This isn’t fair,” I told him, “And I know life isn’t fair, but... no one deserves any of this. Who was it that decided that the angels had to be the good guys and the demons were the bad guys, anyway?”
“The angels did,” Uncle Newt replied coolly.
I pouted and leaned back, using my wings to balance myself as I folded my arms across my chest. I looked up, taking the darkness above us.
It was supposed to be our “sky”, but of course, we weren’t allowed to have the bright colors found in the Middleworld and Heaven itself. It wasn’t like I liked those bright colors, but it was the fact that we didn’t have the option that made me the most angry. This was why so many demons and fallen had panic attacks the first time they ever went to the Middleworld or - in Nine, Will, and Oliver’s case - why some of the demons and fallen had panic attacks when they came down here for the first time.
Yes, I loved Hell - I loved Hell more than I did any other place that the world had to offer - but that didn’t mean that this place wasn’t still a cage. A bird could love their cage as much as they wanted to, but it would still be a bunch of iron bars and a locked door at the end of the day.
“Athena, let me tell you something,” Uncle Newt said as he turned around in his seat and reached up to put his hand on my cheek, “Do you remember what I always told you when you were little and those kids used to make comments about your wings?”
I thought for a minute before shaking my head. I knew that those kids used to make fun of me for my wings and the fact that I was a demon-angel hybrid, but the fact was those things never bothered me that much. There were some times where I would shed a few tears and then go and complain to Phoenix and Eddie about it later, but Uncle Newt still worried about me far too much. I mean, I couldn’t really blame him for that, but that was beside the point.
Uncle Newt sighed and looked away. He mumbled something under his breath that I couldn’t quite catch before looking back at me.
“Sometimes, people are going to try to tell you that you’re wrong - that you were made wrong and all you’ll ever be is wrong,” he began, “But so long as you know who you are and know that you’re proud of who that is, that’s all you need.”
I smiled a little and moved away, “Oh, right. I remember now...”
Uncle Newt smiled as well, “Don’t pretend like you’re a little firecracker for no reason. Sure, you came into this world punching - literally - but I did help you out some, Athie.”
He was chuckling warmly as he spoke and that was all I needed to laugh right alongside him. He wasn’t lying about the punching thing either, apparently. He loved to tell me the story of how, when he first held me in the hospital, the first thing I did was punch him square in the nose.
Apparently, things never changed that much considering noses were still my favorite thing to punch (I let Phoenix and Finn have the throat and the eyes usually, though Phoenix did also have a thing for trying to gouge out peoples’ eyes and that was never a good look). Then again, the idea of things never changing didn’t give me much hope for the other things in our life.
My smile faltered as I looked over at Uncle Newt. “Uncle Newt, why do I feel like this is all going to go horribly wrong?” I asked him.
Uncle Newt thought for a minute and put his arm around my shoulders. “Well, I don’t know,” he replied, “But I say we don’t even entertain that right now. We need all the hope we can muster right now - even if just for the sake of King Victor, Princess Edelweiss, and the eight princes.”