The Angel ran off while Lucifer spread his wings, clasped me tightly to his chest, and launched us off his balcony. Below us, the Host filled the streets, armed angels rushing toward the gates and battlements. I'd thought the walls around Heaven's city were silly; who would attack the Host? It turned out that I had been the silly one.

  Lucifer landed on a lookout above the main gate. He took my hand and led me over to the edge of the battlement. I looked down at a force that extended as far as I could see. I didn't recognize them, despite Lucifer's insistence that these were friends of mine. But then I heard a shouting, and I focused on a group further back in the ranks. They all stared directly at me, but I couldn't hear what they said. Still, something inside my chest ached at the sight of them.

  Strong men. Each one a prime example of male beauty. Each one different. Muscles bulged on some and ran sleekly on others but all of them radiated power. Strength of body and magic. I couldn't see their eyes from that distance but their hair attracted my attention; sinfully dark, brightly golden, and vivid auburn. Skin from palest cream to sun-kissed umber stretched over their magnificent bodies. I was fascinated. Then a man stepped up beside them with a woman on his arm; a woman with wings.

  “I know those people,” I whispered.

  “Of course, you do.” Lucifer lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it adoringly. “They betrayed you and now, they've come to kill you.”

  “They have?” I asked in horror.

  “I will give you some of my magic to use to fight them,” Lucifer offered. “Will you take it from me?”

  “Yes,” I said immediately as I turned to him.

  Lucifer smiled triumphantly “Then we shall prevail, Elaria.”

  Lucifer held my face between his hands and stared down into my eyes. The night sky of his irises opened to me and rained down magic into my own. I accepted it gratefully, pulling it through my eyes and down into my chest to add to my power. My magic stirred inside me and rushed up to meet this newcomer. They sparked and spiraled together as I gasped through the bliss of their union.

  “Now, you're ready,” Lucifer said firmly as we turned to face our enemies. “Make them bleed, my dearest one.”

  “As you wish, my brightest star,” I murmured.

  Lucifer's magic, now my own, rose to my command and created music in the air around us just as the armies began to launch a combined magical and physical attack against the city's defenses. I stood firm as the stone beneath me shuddered, all of their sparkling javelins and glittering blasts falling short of where we stood. They would never touch us; I'd make sure of it.

  The song I'd chosen—Ramsey's “See You Bleed”—rolled out over the front line of soldiers, and they began to scream. The jagged drag and scratching sound of my song filled them as I worked the words to its deadly chorus. Then I pointed down at the doomed soldiers and delivered their death. Blood poured from eyes, mouths, and ears as bodies fell to shudder on the ground.

  Soldiers scrambled to pull their brothers-in-arms back out of my reach as I continued to sing. A mind-numbing whine coasted within the slam of the music and then my voice climbed to meet it. The higher I went, the more blood poured across the verdant fields before us. Crimson on green. Rubies and emeralds. So beautiful.

  Lucifer laughed beside me, and I glanced over to see a shimmer of something surfacing beneath his skin. His Devil wanted out. I clasped his hand tightly, and he looked at me. I nodded. This was the time to release his darker side instead of repressing it. Lucifer smiled beautifully at me, but his lips kept widening with the expression, showing me lengthening canines as his skin turned the color of old blood and his hair darkened to pitch. Deadly horns curved back from his temples as his wings fused into leather and his cloven feet struck the stone beneath us impatiently. His tail whipped around me and curled about my calf.

  I thought victory was assured then, but as I continued to sing, a line of people moved forward. One stepped away from the others; the only man in the group. He was singing. I couldn't hear his voice, but I sensed his magic as it spread out over the army. My song bounced off his, and I flinched in shock. He didn't even glance at me; just continued to sing as he spread his arms out with his magic.

  The women he'd parted from held hands and sang a different song. Again, I was too far away to hear it, but the air around them quaked; trembling beneath the weight of their power. Energy bled from them in droves, I couldn't see it, but I could feel it. A slice of fear shot through me as the collected magic zipped across the distance and hit me in the chest.

  I swayed as Satan roared, his bulging arm going around me to hold me up. The Devil's hand speared out, and a company of angels soared over the walls. Screaming began anew, but I couldn't focus on what was happening below me; I was too consumed by what was going on inside me.

  My song stuttered beneath the weight of another. Voices echoed in my mind; sending music through my body and into every cell. Lucifer's magic battled the interlopers inside me, but he had to shove more power into me to evict the strange assault. The alien song jolted out of me playing in the air briefly before it burst apart. I gasped in labored breaths and returned to my song, glancing at Lucifer gratefully. His terrifying face had also been terrified but his expression lightened when he saw my steady look. He nodded to me with an adoring smile, released me to stand on my own, and then focused back on the battle.

  One of the Devil's clawed hands shot out and crevices cracked the earth. People tumbled into them as the army scrambled to draw back. Freezing rain and lightning stabbed down from the sky above our enemies while we continued to stand in bright sunlight. Angels dove and slashed while soldiers below them shot arrows into their midst, and those other singers began a new song. The Host bled—several plummeting to the ground—but as a whole, they never faltered. Their god and I bolstered them.

  But as I sang, my heart stuttered and a horrible ache filled my chest. That other song may have been extricated but it had already done its damage. A seed blossomed inside me. Lucifer's fruit had freed my mind of worry but a bitter harvest now ripened in my soul. I could feel it growing, begging to be picked. One bite and I would be destroyed. Or possibly saved. I simply didn't know.

  Even unpicked, the offering inside me tempted me and tightened my throat with tears. I didn't know who to trust, but I had a sinking feeling that I had been tricked. I pushed the feeling down, but my song wavered.

  “Fire,” Lucifer growled as he slashed out a hand and stopped the rampant rain. “Give them your flame, Goddess of Fire!”

  Goddess of Fire. Oh, I'd forgotten about that brilliant ember waiting in the shadows of my soul. The forgotten seed that could counter the one placed inside me by those other spellsingers. I reached for it and started a new song. When the Devil demanded fire, there was only one kind that would satisfy him.

  “Hellfire” by Barns Courtney seemed like the perfect choice. The rampant, raging beat pulled the lyrics from me and cast them over our enemies. I took the words and made them my own. Lucifer's cold light lurked inside them; a deadly departure from emotion. The stillness of a killing hand. I sang about the Devil who stood beside me and the one he'd put in my soul; calling forth our magic to fill the music as it also empowered us.

  The Devil's malignant laughter echoed out of him as I refueled him with my spell. His clawed hand slid through my hair possessively before he looked down at me with a brilliant smile. Keeping his stare on mine, he waved his hand out and the land began to shake. I smiled brighter as I launched my own attack; blasts of fire shooting up from the crevices he'd opened.

  “Fall back!” A familiar voice shouted.

  My stare shot across the army and landed on a man striding through the fleeing ranks; a man too large to be human, witch, or even shining one. His body rippled with magic and magnificence; his dark hair flew wildly around his ferociously beautiful face, and his eyes shone with powerful magic. God magic.

  The words died on my lips.

  I knew him. I loved him. I had lost him, found him, and then cut him apart. I had banished this part of him and yet, there he stood with it inside him once more. My husband and fiance. Darkness to my Light. Water to my Fire.

  As soon as I thought those words, a tidal wave formed out of thin air and washed over the fiery cracks. The army pulled back as this man stepped forward alone. He came within reach of our walls and stared up at us defiantly.

  “Release my wife now!” He roared.

  “She's not yours any longer,” Satan snarled back.

  “Yes, she is.” The man—no; the God—set his forceful stare on me and something shook my heart. “She will always be mine. As I will always be hers. Fight him, Elaria!”

  “Darc,” I whispered.

  “No!” The Devil raged and tossed his hand toward Darcraxis.

  Light beamed into Darc's chest and flung him through the air to crash down hundreds of feet away. I flinched and jerked against the stone wall before me, but the Devil pulled me back. Something cooled my raging thoughts, and I went limp.

  I began to sing again.

  Fire burst into life around the fallen god, but he got to his feet determinedly and waved his hand in an arc around himself. The flames died beneath a focused fall of rain. Darcraxis lifted his head and narrowed his gaze at Lucifer before he glanced over his shoulder. Four men strode up to stand beside Darc, and I felt an echo of what rang through them. They were pooling their strength; shoring up Darc's magic with their own. Darcraxis shimmered until his skin turned midnight. His eyes became burning sapphires in his skull, and his body thickened.

  “He will not take you,” Satan assured me. “The walls aren't just physically strong, they're warded with my magic. That's why none of them have breached our defenses yet.”

  My whole body trembled.

  The Spellsingers strode up behind the men and the God in their midst. They started to sing again.

  “Elaria?” Lucifer asked just as darkness fell over us; a black so complete that I couldn't see the hand I lifted before my face. “That fucking bastard!”

  Light flared around us and pushed outward; battling the Darkness. Vicious sounds pierced the thick veil; the war raged on despite the dark. Music rose around us but my song lay dead in my throat and my heart beat rapidly in my chest. I turned to stare at the monster beside me and simply cried.

  As if he could sense my sorrow, Satan slowly turned to face me. His fury cooled as he stared at me, and his expression fell into horror.

  “Elaria?” His voice wavered.

  “My heart is being torn into pieces,” I whispered. “Why does it hurt so badly, Lucifer?”

  “My dearest one,” he murmured brokenly.

  “I'm hurting people I love,” I choked on my own voice. “I gave up pieces of myself to prevent this very thing, but here I am again. I can't be trusted with power. Please, take the magic back. Take it all, Lucifer. Turn me to dust if you have to, just make it stop.”

  The Devil wailed; a mournful, chilling sound that echoed through the light and dark until everything went still. He fell to his knees before me and bent his head as his wings slumped into forlorn heaps behind him. I closed the small distance between us and clutched his head against my belly as if I could protect him from his own pain. Satan's tears soaked my shimmering dress as I stroked the darkness from his hair. As his inky tresses lightened to starlight, his skin paled and feathers sprouted over his wings. A slow, torturous transformation clawed its way over his body. When it was complete, Lucifer trembled within my arms.

  “I can't hurt you anymore,” Lucifer lifted his face to whisper to me. His hand went to my cheek, and I leaned into the touch. “I choose love, Elaria. Take the Devil from me. Cut him from my soul and free us both.”

  My mind went clear in an instant, and I gasped as I clutched his shoulders to keep standing. The world seemed to wait on my answer as I struggled to catch up to what Lucifer had done to me and what he offered me now.

  “Lucifer,” I said gently. “I don't have the blade to cut away the Devil. Not here.”

  “Yes, you do, my dearest one,” he said softly; sadly. “I gave you all you needed when you accepted my magic.”

  “But I thought that made me vulnerable to you?” I shook my head. “You can take my magic now.”

  “It works both ways,” he confessed. “Take my devil and set him free. You don't have to keep him inside you; just release the magic.”

  “You may not be a god when I'm done,” I warned him.

  “I know.” He stood up and faced me bravely; connecting his stare firmly to mine. “Do it.”

  I called to the Devil and saw him rise inside Lucifer's eyes. A glowing cord blazed between us; one end hooked in my magic and one attached to his. I pulled Satan forth, and Lucifer fell violently back to his knees. His body shuddered and he screamed in agony, but he kept his gaze locked on mine. My vision brightened; a haze covering it. I realized it was Lucifer's magic pouring from his eyes into mine. I was doing to him what he'd done to Aza.

  You don't have to take it all, Kyanite was suddenly back with me.

  Ky! Help me. I don't want to kill him.

  Why the fuck not? RS growled. He tried to kill everyone you love.

  The Devil inside him did, I argued. The Devil he's giving up.

  Focus on that energy alone, Kyanite instructed. I'll watch with you. Now, start to let it flow through you; release it into the air. It will disperse without a host to hold it.

  I continued to pull on Lucifer's magic, the horrible ache of ambition rolling through me with an acidic burn of hatred. I reeled under the hunger and clawing greed; shook with the evil that Lucifer had tried desperately to control. How had he fought this? I could barely withstand it, and I was merely letting it pass through me.

  Stop! Kyanite cried. His Light is leaving him.

  I jerked away from Lucifer, breaking our stare, and gasped as I bent over. The last of the Devil left me, and I vomited with its departure as if I could spew out anything it might have left behind. That hook that had held us together went with it, freeing my magic. A cool hand crept over my back as I spat to clear my mouth. It swept back my hair, and I looked up at Lucifer.

  He shone radiantly; with magic and purity of purpose.

  “Hey, you,” I whispered roughly over my raw throat.

  “You did it,” Lucifer said as he helped me stand. “You saved me again. And you left me my godhood.”

  “I had some help.” I smiled gently. “Kyanite directed me.”

  “Then I am in his debt as well.” He glanced out into the wall of darkness that loomed before us, pulsing as it waited. “Peace!” Lucifer's voice cracked through it. “Everyone stand down! We come to parlay!”

  The darkness receded and revealed my lovers, family, and friends. Cerberus stood behind the line of my men with my parents, the Spellsingers, Odin, Raphael, and... Eva? Okay. I guess the electric witch had proved herself to Odin; enough that she now stood at his side. Everyone stared up at us warily.

  I stepped to the wall and called down to them, “Lucifer has given up the Devil! I took it from him at his request. There is no need to fight. He wants peace.”

  “Bring Elaria down to us and then we can talk about peace!” Slate shouted back.

  Lucifer stepped onto the wall and then helped me up beside him. He held his arms out to me, and I went into them without hesitation. Blinding white wings extended as he stepped off the wall with me clasped tightly to his chest. His wings caught the wind, and we glided down to land before my lovers. The Host alighted behind us with just as much wariness as my men faced me with.

  “Lucifer had me under his control,” I said to them. “But he saw what hurting you did to me and he let me go.”

  “I couldn't hurt her anymore,” Lucifer said as he lifted his chin. “I cast out my devil; allowed Elaria to take him from me and release the magic harmlessly. I cut myself in two as she once did to save you.”

  “Because you didn't want to hurt her?” Darcraxis asked as he searched my eyes. “Is that really you, Elaria? Or is this a trick?”

  I went to stand before Darcraxis, and he laid his hand against my cheek as his godly body shrunk to a more human size.

  “Is that really you, Darcraxis?” I teased him. “How did you get your magic back?”

  “Eva helped me.” He glanced back at the witch. “While the others gathered to travel here, she pulled me aside and told me she could penetrate the orb of light.”

  “Why would you do that?” I shook my head. “I thought you wanted to live without the magic?”

  “I wanted you back more,” he said gently. “But it's not permanent. Eva was only able to pierce your old magic enough to allow me a sip of mine. I don't know how long I'll have with it, but my godhood is temporary.”