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Chapter twenty-two

I shifted instantly, landing among the coven trainees Mal was currently torturing. Her eyes instantly flashed to mine. A sly smile grew.

“You knew,” I whispered in disbelief. “After all this time … you knew.”

She clapped her hands, dismissing the witches and warlocks in the room, leaving us alone as she slowly approached me.

“And what exactly are you accusing me of knowing?” she asked, walking forward until we stood eye to eye.

“That day when you agreed to help me find the pit in Lucifer’s lands. You said, ‘Hell had never had a queen before.’ You knew, even then. How?”

She laughed, looking away. “I’ve waited for you for a long time, sweetheart.” The tone of her voice changed in that moment. Gone was the formal and uptight Malphasia I had grown to care for. In her place stood a woman with a fire blazing within her spirit.

“What are you?” I asked.

“Oh, I am a demon”— she cocked her head —“of sorts. In your history books, the name I go by is Lilith.”

My heart dropped. “Impossible.”

She smiled. “Now, of all people, you should know there is nothing that is impossible at this point.” She nodded towards a room in the front of the training arena. I followed her, needing answers. Once the door was shut, I examined her closely.

“Lilith, as in the Lilith that was Adam’s first wife?”

“Oh, no honey, I was never married to that buffoon. I was created during the same time as him, though. I wasn’t taken from his rib, as was his dear, sweet Eve. I was like him: my own creation, perfect in every way.”

My head was spinning. How many more twists and turns was my life going to take? “Does Deus know?”

She huffed with amusement. “No. He believes I’m his faithful assassin, which I am.”

“What do you want?”

“The same as the rest of you. For Lucifer to suffer. To watch as he loses everything he risked so much for. I want to be there when he is banished from this precious earth once and for all, never allowed to return. I want to make him pay for his lies and empty promises. For his seductive manipulations and his corrupt schemes. I want to watch as everything he has fought for is taken from him.”

Another woman who Lucifer had royally screwed, now ready to do whatever it took to see him pay. The list just kept growing and growing.

“I have waited for you for millennia,” she said, stepping closer to me. “I didn’t know what form you’d take or when you’d arrive, but I knew God would eventually send someone to uproot his bastard child for good.” She laughed. “And he created it in the form of a woman. Poetic justice at its finest.” She knelt before me, looking up with a large grin on her face.

“What are you doing?” I asked, taking a step back.

“I, Lilith,” she said, her voice calm and steady, “first of her kind, first of her name, hereby swear my undying allegiance and fealty to thee, Seren Lucia De Salvo, Queen of Hell, first of her kind. My sword is your sword. My power, your power. Your vengeance, my vengeance. I swear to protect your life with my own, stepping before any who mean to harm you. I am your faithful servant from this day forward. So help me God.”

She stood, that fire still blazing behind her eyes. In that moment, I didn’t know who I was more afraid of: Lucifer, or Lilith. I extended my hand to her. She latched her hand around my forearm, and I tightened my grip.

“I accept,” I whispered.

She laughed, the sound more haunting than I could have imagined.

A smooth, loving tendril reached down the mating bond, politely waiting for a response. I stretched my magic towards his, wrapping the two together.

“Where are you?” I heard Deus ask in my mind.

“God, I have so much to tell you,” I replied.

“Well, it’s going to have to wait. Satan is on his way, and he is insistent on a location you are not going to like.”

“Just tell me.”

“Montecassino Abbey. Thora believes he is trying to throw you off, get under your skin. He knows you have an emotional connection to that place.”

“Dammit,” I said out loud.

“What is it?” asked Ma— Lilith.

“Satan has agreed to meet, but he insists the location be Montecassino Abbey. Thora believes it’s a tactic.”

Lilith nodded, thinking over the new information. “This smells of emotional manipulation. I am going to have to agree with your aunt on this one. She saw straight through his shit. I can see why Beelzebub is intrigued by her. ”

I laughed. “So, I’m not the only one who thinks so?”

“Oh, no, sweetheart. The brothers already have bets as to how long it will be until your aunt inevitably invites him to her bed.”

“They obviously don’t know my aunt very well, then. They’ll be waiting a long time, if not for eternity,” I said, walking out of the room towards Nonna’s.

Lilith followed close behind. “You obviously don’t know the Prince of Gluttony very well then. He is … he is extraordinary in that department.”

I side-eyed her. “You and Belz?”

“And Mammon.” She shrugged. “What can I say, I was young and stupid once.”

I laughed, waving at passing coven members. “Did you and Deus?”

“No. I swore my allegiance to him long ago. After Lucifer, I swore to never mix pleasure with business again.”

“Why choose Deus over the other brothers?”

“His power and resilience to break from Lucifer. I knew that if any of them were going to aid in the Morningstar’s demise, it would be Asmodeus. And I was right,” she said, turning her eyes to me. “His power will be the key to what I have waited so long to witness.”