Page 39 of An Unexpected Ascension (A War Between Worlds #1)

The Demon

Ijust don’t love you.

Briar’s words still ring in my ears days after they’re said. They haunt me as I anxiously wait for the Gods to retaliate.

Days.

It’s been four days since Ada’s returned home and everything still remains silent. Not a word from the guards that stand outside this manor. Not a peep from the Hell dwellers down in the city. Not even an unusual howl from the Hounds echoing in the night.

It puts me on edge.

In a past life, I may have bombed Primordialis taking all the Gods down in one fatal explosion, brought the war forth and ended it without hesitation. Except two things stop me now: Lucifer getting reacquainted with Ada, and Briar.

The former has left me alone in the Great Hall where I dine in solitude and though the silence is familiar, it’s... unwelcome. I miss the daily morning banter, even the narrowed jade eyes of an angel desperate to break me.

As I sulk in front of my uneaten pastry, the doors to the Great Hall swing open in answer to my silent pleas for company.

Lucifer strides down the aisle to where our table sits, his wife in tow. Today, her eyes are brighter, her skin is cleaner, and she wears more clothes than she had before. I nod my greeting to them.

“Ada, I’d like you to formally meet my Second in Command, Lynx Cromwell.”

She smiles and curtsies, a foot sliding along the tile floor behind her. I chuckle, standing to my feet and extend a hand in greeting.

“Thank you, Lynx, for bringing me home.”

“We’re happy to have you home. This one never shuts up about you.”

I gesture to the Devil.

Her face pinkens with a blush. She seems to be in better spirits, but the centuries of torture have permanently burrowed into her in many different forms: the circles beneath her eyes, the hollowness of her cheeks, the weakness in her muscles.

I immediately have the urge to feed her.

“Please, sit. I was just getting started with breakfast. Glad to have some company.”

Lucifer slaps a hand over my back and takes the seat at the head of the table, Ada taking the one across from me, where Briar would sit if she were here.

“How are you doing?”

I ask, nearly wincing at the senseless question.

How else does one adjust after... well, after everything she’s been put through?

She only shrugs, her eyes just as hungry as her stomach, taking in the spread along the table.

“I can’t complain.”

She starts as Lucifer adds a few berries to her plate.

“I have my husband back.”

“But?”

I sense she’s leaving something out.

“But it’s Hell,”

Lucifer answers on her behalf.

I nod, contemplating it for a moment.

“Was Primordialis any better?”

Her eyes widen.

“No! No. It will just take some getting used to is all.”

She smiles at her husband, his fingers curling around hers. There’s utter relief in that gaze of his and it toys with my own heart. What would I do for the one I love? Would I wage a war?

Another entry into the room has our conversation halting. Briar stalks over to us, her black leather sucking the light from this very place as she claims the seat next to me. My skin sizzles at her nearness, though I don’t say a word for fear she’ll only try to rip my heart to shreds again.

“Briar Fenton,”

she introduces herself and offers a hand across the table.

Ada meets it with a weak squeeze.

“You must be Lynx’s soul mate.”

She smiles at the two of us.

Her assumption tickles me, a smirk playing on my lips. I try to fight it, desperate to avoid the blatant denial from the angel, but she merely brushes it off.

“I’m sure it’s good to be home.”

“It is.”

“You probably know this already, but your husband here is hardly the Devil everyone fears, the man is entirely too soft for Hell. I assume it’s all your doing, Ada.”

She smiles warmly at her.

The first bit of affection she’s let slip in the last week.

“So Lynx has told me time and time again,”

Lucifer mutters to himself, sipping at some tea.

“My husband has never been anything but fair and kind. Ruling an entire world wouldn’t change that. Even if that world is Hell.”

Ada squeezes Lucifer’s fingers, a silent conversation held between them with just a simple look. The sheer intensity of it forces my gaze away as if I’m intruding on something too private.

Instead, I bring my gaze to the angel.

“Soul mate, huh?”

“I’m not trying to make the Devil’s wife uncomfortable with correcting her assumption.”

“No?”

A smile breaks across my face.

“That’s very telling.”

“How so?”

Lucifer’s throat clears, interrupting our side conversation.

“I’m throwing a soiree. In celebration of my wife's return.”

My gaze snaps to the Devil’s.

“A party? Here? You’ve never.”

He stands, pulling Ada with him.

“There’s no better time than now.”

“A party?!”

I growl again, alone with Lucifer in the war room.

“Look, you and I both know the Gods are coming. What better way than to fill this place to the brim with our awaiting army.”

“We’d be cattle herded for the killing!”

I throw my hands up in exasperation.

Lucifer slides a crystal tumbler my way, amber liquor sloshing over the edge and onto the metal table. I swallow its contents in one go.

“But the four of us would be needles in a haystack,”

he counters.

“Look, I can’t stand the dreaded wait any longer than you can. Especially now that Ada is home. This might even take our minds off the impending war.”

“We can’t afford taking our minds off the war!”

“Lynx!”

he shouts, then groans. Pacing before me.

“I'm desperate to distract Ada. I did all I could to make Hell as safe as possible for it being... well, Hell. And now that she’s here, all I see is such purity placed in a pit of corruption. How do I make this place her home?”

I sigh.

“Then we have a party.”

Leaving the Devil to his planning, I head for the training room in much need of a different distraction. With no one to spar against, I sit at the edge of the room with my feet dangling off the side and over the steep drop to the desecrated land.

As I sharpen the steel blade of my sword, a soft voice sounds behind me.

“Hi.”

Turning my upper half, I spot Ada approaching.

“Ada,”

I greet, climbing to my feet and away from the drop.

“I don’t mean to intrude. I was just exploring.”

“Would you like a tour?”

“Sure, I could use a good walk after days in bed.”

She blushes.

“Sleeping.”

I smirk. “Sure.”

She follows as I lead her back to the stairs and down to the second level.

“I think you’ve seen all there is on this floor.”

As we pass the Throne Room and beyond it, the war room where Lucifer now orders guards to assist with putting together the party.

On the opposite side of the corridor is the Great Hall where we just dined hours ago, so instead, we descend another level. To the left is the East Wing and to the right is the West.

“You may recognize this space. Lucifer’s lent me quarters in the East Wing, Briar resides in the West.”

“You sleep separately?” she asks.

I rub my hand over my mouth in thought, then let out a damning chuckle.

“Earlier, you called us soul mates and we’re not. Briar does not love me.”

The confession hurts no less than it did when she uttered the words just days ago.

“But you love her.”

It’s not a question.

“It’s obvious in the way you look at her.”

“Yes.”

“She didn’t deny it this morning. That must mean something.”

I shrug. “Perhaps.”

“Have you told her how you feel?”

“On more than one occasion.”

I smile bitterly.

She halts in the center of the hallway between the two wings where the stairwell descends to the next floor. Her eyes rove over the gold accented frames hanging along the wall. Pictures of her family.

I anticipate a flood of tears or even an air of dread to wash over her, but she only stands admiring the photos.

“Then keep fighting.”

“That’s what your husband said. Only, I’m beginning to grow exhausted. How does one fight a battle you may never win?”

She turns to me, a hand on the black tarnished credenza below the frames.

“What does she like?”

“I-I don’t...”

Well, shit. What does she like? I’ve known the angel for a short period of time and in that time, I’ve found a lot of things she doesn’t like, but that isn’t helpful. Then it comes to me.

“She likes to dance.”

Hazel eyes flash with delight.

“How perfect. Then you dance with her at the party.”

My hand rubs against the back of my neck.

“Only one problem.”

“You don’t know how to dance.”

She laughs.

“One hand in mine, the other on my waist.”

“I’d rather not be condemned to the dungeon by your husband.”

The demand in her narrowed gaze rivals that of her other half.

Should I make it to the other side of this upcoming war still existing, then I’m sure the pair will be a force to be reckoned with.

I slide my hand into her waiting one while my other rests lightly on her waist.

Her free palm lays gently against my chest and for a moment I wonder what this will feel like with Briar.

I’ve tasted her, felt her body writhe against mine, but never have I simply just held her hand in a dance.

“I’ll lead first to show you the steps, but then it’s up to you.”

She steps forward with her left foot, forcing my right one back, then slides her other foot sideways to the right, bringing her left back together.

I easily follow until she’s reversing the moves by stepping backward now with her right foot, sidestepping with the left and bringing her right back with the left.

And now I’m stepping all over her toes.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble.

Her laugh is as light as silver bells ringing in the wind.

“Let’s try again, but slower.”

We do. She leads several more times than she initially intended, but by the tenth my feet are moving without so much as a thought.

“Good.”

She smiles up at me.

“Now you lead.”

As I reverse all the steps in my head, I lead her along in a Waltz across the training room floor until she’s confident I have it down.

“Now, this time, add a twirl. Show her off, then bring her close.”

I mimic the moves I intend for Briar until a hand clamps down on my shoulder.

“I’d like a dance with my wife, if you don’t mind.”

The Devil smirks at me and I release Ada like her skin is made of fire.

He swoops her up in his arms, the steps she just taught me like second nature to him.

They glide around the room like two ghosts entangled in each other without a care in the world.

Leaning back against the wall, I watch them, envy them.

That love Lucifer said that come so naturally to him shows so greatly in the way he looks at Ada.

Never in my life did I ever think about love, let alone wish for it to come so easily as it does between the pair.

Yet, here I am, being taught to dance by the Devil’s wife to woo an angel.