Chapter 15 - Exposures
Lilith:
My heart stutters, and my stomach drops when I come face-to-face with Lucifer. Standing beside him is the demon Azazel and my son, Fallon. Of course, my son would be here. As if everything hasn’t gone to shit already, my son gets to witness my stupidity up close.
“Lucifer…I—” I sputter, but Lucifer halts my explanation before I can continue.
“I thought you had changed after I removed the darkness from your soul. But it seems that Fallon is right, and you will never change. This whole time I was investigating the darkness, you were planning on taking back its power,” he sneers.
I shake my head and take a step back, “It’s not what you think, Lucifer. I was trying to harness the power for another reason.”
Lucifer arches a brow while Fallon and Azazel scoff derisively. They don’t believe what I’m saying, and I can’t blame them after how suspect I’ve been acting. It’s not like I have a sparkling history with either male anyway.
“I told you we couldn’t trust her, father! Lilith’s a coldhearted manipulative bitch, and that’s all she will ever be.” Fallon growls.
Cain stops beside me and takes my wrist, “You don’t have a bloody idea what you’re talking about. Lilith was not trying to stop the power from spreading.”
Lucifer jeers, “And why would I believe another liar. What was your name again? Cain?
Before Cain can reply, his body is thrown across the room. Lucifer’s killing expression meets mine as he uses his power to restrain Cain against a nearby wall. However, Cain is undeterred when he uses his powers to release himself and blasts Lucifer against the ground.
Lucifer roars and partially shifts into his devil form.
Cain growls, his eyes glowing like emerald flames, his lips pulled back around his razor-sharp fangs and his fingers extending into claws.
Both males collide like freight trains, making everything around us quake. They roll on the ground, growling and punching. Cain pushes Lucifer’s body off him and jumps on Lucifer’s chest with an angry roar, “Do you really think you can kill me?”
Fallon and Azazel rush to the males and forcefully break them apart.
“This is not why we’re here, father!” Fallon mutters sternly.
Lucifer’s eyes glow like onyx as he raises his hand and points an accusing finger toward Cain, “Does Lilith know who you are? Have you told her?”
I turn my gaze to Cain, “What?”
Lucifer doesn’t take his eyes off Cain as he moves around us, “I remember you now, Cain, brother of Abel and son of Adam and Eve.”
My eyes snap up to Lucifer as sharp pain slices through my chest, “What did you say?”
Cain tightens his grip and opens his lips to speak, but I bat his hand away and move back until I’m creating some distance between the males and me.
Lucifer gives me a cold look, “It seems that your…boyfriend is as faithless as you are, Lilith. I guess I’m not the only one who was made to be a fool. This is Adam and Eve’s, son.”
My stomach churns with dismay when Cain steadily replies, “He’s not lying, Lilith. But it’s not what you think…I—”
Lucifer interrupts with a snort, “I think both of you are frauds who deserve each other. Tell me, Lilith. What did you hope to gain by doing this? Did you plan on killing me again? Did you want to kill our son?”
I shake my head, “No, that’s not—”
“Quiet!” Fallon grits out, his chest heaving with rage and his fists tightening as if he wishes to strike me. His chest vibrates, and his breaths are harsh as he glares in my direction.
Lucifer places his hand on Fallon’s shoulder with a calming hush as he looks down at me, his obsidian eyes boring holes into me, “If you weren’t planning on betraying us, then why didn’t you tell me that you were coming here? Why did you hide all of this from me? Or that your boyfriend is a Divinity Guard?”
He narrows his eyes toward Cain again, “Yeah, I also know who you work for, you tosser.”
Cain hisses, “Lilith knows that I’m here to take the Tenebrous’ powers to the Divinity Pantheon rulers, you wanker.”
Lucifer cackles, “It’s more likely that you’re using her to get the power and that you’re going to slay her after you attain it. I’m sure that the Divinity Pantheon knows that killing Lilith is the only way you’d be able to harness the power completely. Or did they not order you to exterminate her?”
At Cain’s guilty expression, I take another step back. Though Cain had threatened me in the past, I never thought he had planned something so nefarious.
Cain growls as he moves aggressively toward Lucifer, but before they can do anything, the ground begins to tremble, and the siphon begins to spark.
“Look!” I point to the ground around the siphon. The dark scorch begins to widen across the grass, tendrils spreading through the meadows until they’re mere feet from us. At that moment, I realize that the tendrils seem to be searching for me. Without a thought, I move away.
Lucifer frowns, “What are you doing?”
Keeping my eyes on the veins, I continue to back away, and they continue to follow. “It’s following me.”
Everyone gasps, their eyes going wide, when they notice the slow spread of the strands moving toward her.
“What have you done?” Azazel scowls.
I glace at Lucifer, who gives me a disgusted snarl and waves his hand in front of us. Within seconds, we’re flashed out of the island and into Lucifer’s fortress. I fall to my knees, a heavy feeling settling around my neck. Looking down, I see that there’s a metal cuff around my neck. I try to pull it off, but when I touch the cuff, my hands burn. Hissing with pain, I face Lucifer, “What is this?
Lucifer glares down at me from his throne, the demon and my son standing on each side of him.
“Do not bother trying to remove them. Those cuffs are forged from celestial metal. Oh, and they also neutralize your remaining powers. You’re as helpless as a human now.”
Gasping with dread, I search the room, but Cain is nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Cain?” I yell out, trying not to let dread overwhelm me.
Lucifer crosses his arms in front of his chest and scowls, “If I was you, I’d worry less about your lover and worry more about myself.”
I clench my teeth and gaze steadily into his eyes, reasoning that Lucifer wouldn’t do anything to Cain or he’d bring the wrath of the Divinity Pantheon rulers upon him.
I don’t even know why I care, considering that Cain lied to me. However, seeing that I’m just as awful, I can’t really cast stones.
Lucifer stands up, snapping me out of my morbid thoughts, “I tried to help you, Lilith. After everything that happened to you, I thought that perhaps there was some humanity left in you. But it seems that I overestimated you once again.”
Fallon glares down at me, his lips turned into a jeer, “You are an irredeemable, faithless being, Lilith. All you do is bring pain and desolation everywhere you go,” he gestures to Lucifer, “and it seems that your biggest advocate now sees you for what you are.”
Tears gather in my eyes with every word that comes out of his lips. Just when I thought Fallon couldn’t hurt me anymore, I see that I was wrong.
“You can’t do this, Lucifer!” I continue to struggle against my restraints, but it’s of little use.
Desolation spreads through my mind, nearly crippling me with each admonishment coming from his lips. I lose all will at that moment. I can see that I will always be a dreadful bitch in my son’s eyes no matter what I do. I also realize that he’s correct. I might be trying to make things right, but it seems every time I do, I make things worse, and everything goes to shit.
Once again, I open my lips to argue, “You don’t understand. I had to go with Cain and find a way to harness the powers. If I don’t—”
“I said enough!” Lucifer roars.
“Because of your treachery, you give me no choice but to sentence you to death. Until your execution, you will be incarcerated into the furthest reaches of hell.” Lucifer coldly discloses my sentencing, “May, the Creator, have mercy on your soul because I know we won't.”
As soon as he finishes his sentence, my body becomes weightless, and I’m flashed to a dark room with no windows or walls. Slamming my fists against the walls, I call out and beg for Fallon and Lucifer to listen to me, but the only responses I hear are the echoes of my cries. It seems that my time has finally come to an end.