There was a ringing in my ears.

  My vision was blurry.

  I could see Missolis—at least, I thought it was her—I wanted to shout at her, to call for help, but I couldn’t make the words. I saw other demons come rushing in from the temple room, but I couldn’t tell if they were friend or foe until one pulled out a sword and pointed it toward the rebels.

  I had severely overestimated my impact on Gadriel. I thought that seeing me, the real me, would somehow bring back the angel in her, remind her of who she was before she was Hekata, but I’d been foolish. I shouldn’t have turned my back on her.

  The demons swarmed Missolis and the others, disarming them and tying their hands behind their backs. At sword point they marched the rebels past me and into the temple room. A moment later, Gadriel—or rather Hekata—bound my hands and pulled me off the ground. By the time I’d recovered my senses, I was being pushed through the door into the temple room; just in time to watch the pilgrims we’d followed in disrobe and reveal the armor they had been wearing underneath.

  All this time, the pilgrims had been soldiers. Abaddon’s soldiers.

  How had they known?

  Two more demons carried Malachi into the temple room, his head lolled back and the arrow he had been shot with still stuck out from his chest. They brushed angrily past me to get him into the center of the room and tossed him into the throng of rebels who fell over themselves trying to catch him. This earned them raucous, roaring laughter from the demons who had just captured them.

  Including Gadriel.

  “Don’t do this,” I said to her, though I was sure I was slurring my words.

  “Don’t do what, angel?” she asked. “Dutifully serve our Overlord?”

  “This isn’t you. The Gadriel I know would never do anything like this.”

  “My name is not Gadriel. The angel you knew was left at the bottom of the Pit. Move.”

  “Where are you taking us?”

  “You’ll see. Now move!”

  Gadriel shoved me and made me walk. I was joined by Missolis, Etari, and Kainon who were all also being marched ahead of the rest of the rebels through the temple room. Abaddon’s demons laughed as we filed out, pointing at us, jeering at us. I felt entirely helpless, even if my hands weren’t tied up, there was nothing I could have done; no amount of Light would serve me against so many foes, and even if I could escape, that would mean leaving the others behind, and where even would I go?

  My only hope of getting out of Hell was sealed shut.

  The demons lead us all out of the temple room, through a corridor, and then out into the giant courtyard we had passed on the way in. The courtyard that had been full of hundreds of training soldiers, but they weren’t training anymore.

  Instead, they stood quietly, waiting, arranged in their battalions. As I looked around, I noted hundreds more of them arranged on balconies overlooking the courtyard. All waiting and watching as we were brought in and lined up in front of a wide, raised dais at the far end.

  The silence was unnerving—the laughter in the temple room had been obnoxious and humiliating, but it was preferable to the thick tension in the courtyard air. It seemed like they were waiting for us, as if a show was about to begin and we were to be the guests of honor. I looked toward Gadriel for any sort of reassurance her expression might give me and found myself staring at her familiar smirk—only this time it wasn’t lighthearted, there was no knowing smile behind it, just malice.

  My heart sank even further.

  As soon as they had us all in position, a loud cheer broke out behind us. We were suddenly pushed to our knees and our faces forced into the dirt below. I just managed to turn my head enough to get a look at the demon who had stepped out onto the platform above us.

  He was enormous.

  He had skin the texture and color of burnt coal—soot black, but gray and flaking off in places. An inner fire glowed through the many cracks in his skin and caused more pieces to burn and flutter off. That same fire could be seen through his hollow eye holes, and around them was the worst of the damage—entire chunks of his cheeks fell away as he moved, only to instantly refill and begin smoldering once more. From his forehead sprung two, gigantic, heavy-looking bull’s horns, with two smaller horns sprouting just beneath them, a pair of wings easily fifteen feet wide opened behind him, and his prehensile tail lashed violently at the floor.

  When he spoke, it was with the booming bass of an erupting volcano or the shaking of the Earth itself. And when he spoke, everyone shut up and listened.

  It was clear who this demon was.

  A towering Overlord who lived up to his reputation.

  Abaddon. The first.

  “Welcome, rebels,” he roared. “Welcome. How are you enjoying our hospitality so far?”

  This earned a round of laughter from the demons assembled. Abaddon raised his hand, and the laughter ceased in an instant.

  “Time is short, so I shall make this brief,” he continued. “There will be no flaying today, no murder, no torture. I know this may disappoint most of you, but there is a reason we are all assembled here; all of us, loyalist and traitor alike, brought together under one roof—so to speak.”

  Abaddon scanned the crowd. I could’ve sworn his eyes fixed on me. “My glorious subjects, we are about to bear witness to the greatest thing to ever happen to the Kingdom of Hell. Lucky are we who have made it this far, so as to experience the magnificent return of the brightest star in the night sky; a sky that was taken from us so long ago.”

  As he spoke, a small pinprick of Light had begun to form behind him. It slowly got bigger and bigger until the circle could be seen from all corners of the courtyard. The demons closest to the dais shielded their eyes, and even Abaddon himself had to move to the side as it grew.

  “Today we witness Lucifer’s return to Hell!”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The Light grew exponentially bigger, until it was no longer just a circle suspended in mid-air, but a shimmering tear that encompassed almost the entire length of the dais. Gadriel grabbed hold of one of my shoulders and warned me to keep still. I had been struggling against my restraints, and she had noticed.

  Missolis caught my eye, and with the subtlest of gestures, guided my gaze toward Kainon. He was almost free of his restraints, somehow. One of his hands was fully out of its shackle, and he was working at the other one.

  I swallowed hard. If Lucifer was coming, then we needed to get out of there.

  “Gadriel,” I whispered. “Please, Gadriel… if it’s you in there⁠—”

  Gadriel slapped me across the back of the head. “I will not tell you again,” she snarled, “that is no longer my name.”

  “Hekata… fine. I’m begging you, don’t do this. He’s going to vaporize us.”

  “It’s what you deserve.”

  “You don’t believe that. I know you don’t believe that.”

  “Whatever sniveling, mewling thing you think I am—if that creature ever existed, she is long gone now.”

  “You were never that. You were the angel who fought for love, you were sent to this place for love. Love is not a weakness; it is a strength. That makes you one of the strongest angels I have ever known.”

  “Shut up,” she snarled. “One more word out of you, and I’ll slice your tongue out.”

  I had to get through to her. Gadriel was still in there—I could feel it. She remembered me, she remembered Medrion, but I knew time moved differently between Heaven, Earth, and Hell. What was a few months to me could’ve been actual centuries for her; many, many lives lived down here in Hell. It was no surprise she felt no connection to her old life outside of the rage she felt for Medrion.

  I opened my mouth to try my luck with Gadriel once more, but my voice was drowned out by a crackling boom from the tear. It sent a shockwave of sound and Light throughout the courtyard, whipping my hair as it passed, and forcing the assembled demons to shield their eyes.

  Abaddon threw himself to one knee. “Kneel, you fools!” he roared toward the crowd.

  Everyone around me fell to their knees, still protecting their eyes from the blinding Light that filtered through the tear. The rebels were hit the worst; I could see Missolis trying to angle her head away from it, but we were too close, and steam was starting to come off the top of her head. It was affecting me quite differently though, the Light was invigorating me, sending little jolts of power into my body.

  Finally, the tear stopped expanding. It was massive, a hundred feet wide and thirty feet high, and at its center… a tall shadow. A person was emerging, their body a dark, looming silhouette against the shimmering, bright backdrop.

  Only, the closer the shadow got, the smaller it got, and the Lucifer that emerged from that portal wasn’t the towering beast depicted in the murals in the temple. This angel bore the humble countenance of a man of average height and build, and if not for the golden halo and the two pairs of fluffy, white wings, he could’ve been mistaken for a strangely good-looking… accountant, or something.

  The demons were all looking at him now, slack-jawed and entirely stunned. I remembered the disappointment I’d felt when Lucifer revealed himself to me as being the absolute snake everyone said he was. I could only hope these war-hungry demons, clad in armor and ready for battle, were just as disappointed that he wasn’t the largest most muscle-bound monster in all of existence.

  “What’s up, guys?” he asked, raising his hands as he came into view.

  Nothing. Not even the hint of a murmur from the demons around me.

  “How the Hell is everybody doing down here?” Lucifer chuckled at his own joke. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I’ve been working on that for millennia.” Another long pause. “Oof, tough crowd.”

  I didn’t know how to feel as he stood there, casually cracking jokes. He looked so unassuming, so unthreatening, like a beautiful flower laced with poison. I was ashamed to admit that I was afraid of him; he had used me and discarded me, and I should have been angry but still I only felt worthless in his presence. I shrunk a little, hoping he wouldn’t spot me, but I knew I stuck out like a sore thumb.

  “Lightbringer,” Abaddon finally said, bowing deeply. “The Kingdom of Hell welcomes you.”

  “Aha,” Lucifer said, perhaps a little curtly. He looked up at Abaddon, who towered over him even on his knees, and then nodded to himself. “And this is the good-looking bunch of loyal demons I’m here to spring out of the joint, huh? Not bad. Not bad at all.”

  “They are yours to command, my liege. Say the word, and they will obey you. Such is the oath they have taken, by fire, and blood, and pain, and⁠—”

  “Right, right. I get it. Loyal, dutiful, ready to kill and die at my command, yada-yada—listen guys,” he directed himself at the army assembled ahead of him, “I know you’re ready for war and all that, but there’s so much more waiting for you up there, alright? I mean, there’s sun, there’s surf, there’s food—and there are so many people just waiting to be tortured by an actual demon. It’s wild. They spend so much time torturing themselves, we’d be almost helping them by doing it for them—outsourcing, if you will. So, forget this strict military B.S, and how about we get on up there and just have ourselves a good time, huh?”

  “Don’t you want to inspect—” Abaddon tried to speak, but Lucifer cut him off again.

  “Nah, I’m not into all that; that’s what my right hand is for.”

  Another creature emerged from within the Light, and my heart stopped. This creature was larger than Lucifer in every way: tall, broad shouldered, and with a wingspan that rivaled Lucifer’s own. The Light shone off his bare shoulders and chest, highlighting his substantially large horns; thick horns that rose out of his temples, curled around the curve of his head, and then tipped up toward the sky again.

  Horns that were far larger than the last time I had seen them.

  “Abaddon…” I breathed.

  He came up beside Lucifer, his arms crossed in front of his chest, a giant sword strapped to his back. His body was marked, run through with glowing red lines just like his namesake, only these were less vibrant and looked more like scars than cracks.

  I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to stand up, run toward him and slam my fists against his chest until I was exhausted. But I also wanted him to pick me up, kiss my forehead, and tell me it was all ok. I wasn’t going to get that from him, I knew it just looking at him—his entire demeanor was different, his marks far more pronounced and worn almost like a badge of honor.

  He was closer to a demon now than even the Tyrant had been.

  “I’m gonna let my lieutenant Abaddon here take care of the troops, and the torturing, and the war, and all that,” said Lucifer. “So, let’s get this show on the road and get the Hell out of here?” Another chuckle. “Get the Hell out of here. Hah! I didn’t even plan that one!”

  “My lord,” said Abaddon the first, “This isn’t⁠—”

  “Look, I need you to take a seat, okay?”

  “But—”

  “What have you been doing down here this whole time? I mean, what have you actually been doing all this time?”

  “I have prepared and trained this army for you.”

  “Oh, really? Do you have any idea how long I was trapped, staring into the literal asshole of the universe while you played kings and queens down here?”

  “We waited⁠—”

  “You waited. Waited. You didn’t act. You didn’t come to help me. You should have been the first one to try to spring me from that place, and you didn’t. So, since you love Hell so much, you’re going to stay down here and think about what you’ve done.”

  “You can’t!”

  Lucifer rolled his eyes, turned away, and waved his hand as if he was swatting a fly. The Overlord flew across the courtyard like a bullet, and when he smashed into the Citadel it was with so much force that the wall, its supports, and the two stories above it collapsed into themselves.

  Stunned silence fell over the courtyard.

  Lucifer clapped his hands like he was dusting them off. He then turned his head and looked at the crowd of demons. “Well?” he asked, “Last one in’s a rotten egg!” and he jogged toward the portal, disappearing into the Light.

  It took a few moments for the first demon to take steps toward the Light, but when he did, others followed. Only instead of an orderly line, it was chaos. The demons began to run, to shove, to push their way past each other to get to the portal. Lucifer’s lieutenant had to lift himself up off the ground with his wings to keep from being crushed by the stampede.

  “Everybody out!” he roared, his voice carrying over the courtyard. “Move, move, move!”

  I could only watch, horrified at what I was witnessing as it all unfolded around me. Abaddon. Lucifer. The other Abaddon. Maybe I could break loose of my bindings, get his attention, let him know I was here, still alive. But my brain kicked into gear and warned me, just in the nick of time, that doing so would’ve been the worst possible idea I could’ve ever had. I had made that mistake with Gadriel; I couldn’t make it again.

  The first Abaddon’s intention had been to serve us all up to Lucifer on a plate. Lucifer hadn’t been interested in hearing anything he’d had to say, though. In fact, that Abaddon wasn’t getting up, and his soldiers were doing nothing to help him, or expose us as rebels, as traitors; they were just running, desperately trying to reach that portal.

  Freedom, it looked like, was more important to them than duty.

  The shackles around my hands suddenly undid themselves. It was Kainon—he had freed himself, then Missolis and Etari, and now me. I didn’t have much time to react. I grabbed the shackles as they fell, and in a quick, instinctual move, spun around and clasped one of Hekata’s hands before she could make a run for the Light. She looked down at me, dumbfounded, clearly too distracted by the proceedings to realize what we’d been doing under her nose.

  But it was already too late; I had shackled both of her hands together, and now she was the captive.

  “What are you doing?!” she shrieked.

  “Taking you with me whether you like it or not.”

  “You can’t do this to me, you⁠—”

  Etari came up behind her and wrapped a hand around her mouth. She tried to struggle, to scream, but her voice was muffled.

  “This one is important to you?” he asked.

  “She is.”

  “Then she comes with us, but we must move.”

  I turned around and looked at the portal, at my Abaddon, at the demons flooding through it. That portal led to somewhere on Earth, only I had no idea where I was going to end up, or if we’d be surrounded by demons when we got there, but right now only one thing mattered.

  Escape.

  I would have to reach Abaddon on the other side, somehow. Not here. Not now.

  I turned my hood up to try blending with the crowd and started running, joining Missolis and the rest of the rebels. They had Malachi in tow, and while he was in bad shape, he was at least shuffling now. To Abaddon we were just another group of demons, one of the many flooding underneath him, obeying his commands to move, to go through and get to the other side.

  I sailed underneath him and rushed through the tear, feeling like my heart tore out of my body as I jumped into the portal, leaving Abaddon behind. How had he fallen so far? I trembled to think of the things Lucifer had made him do… or worse, done willingly. But there was little I could do for him then; I had the rebels and Gadriel in tow, and I had promised them sanctuary.

  I owed them that much.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Intense brightness assaulted my eyes. I hadn’t realized how dark Hell was until I emerged on the other side of the portal. I felt like a newborn babe opening its eyes for the first time, squinting against the high, noonday sun.

  At least I wasn’t screaming like the others.