You are mine

Dyvian's POV

I expected my father. I did not expect them.

Stepping into the chamber, I felt it immediately, the strong presence of power, so ancient it coiled around my skin like a warning.

My father’s magic. The kind that never needed to be loud, only present, a quiet pressure reminding you that you were lesser.

But it wasn’t just him.

Aunt Maya sat to his right, fingers tapping against the armrest of her chair, her slightly wrinkled eyes already locked onto me like a predator sizing up wounded prey.

Leaning against the table, Yovina smirked lazily and amusedly, as though my presence served as the evening's entertainment. And then there was Raguel, my father’s most loyal demon, the one who had always watched me like I was a tool waiting to be sharpened.

I felt uneasy.

This wasn’t a meeting. It was an ambush.

Despite the disappointment that was settling in my bones, I forced my expression to be neutral and unconcerned. I should have known.

Only a few hours before I left the Underworld, my father told me about his plan. I had naively, stupidly, hoped that it would just be him and me so I would know what to do next.

I forced myself to swallow the bitterness in my throat. "You've got to be joking." My voice was level, but i was genuinely angry as my eyes moved from one face to another. “I thought you summoned me, not… this.”

Yovina pushed away from the table and clicked her tongue. "Disappointed, Dyvian?" She tilted her head as if she was happy with my reaction. "Don't be. It's touching, really, our little reunion."

I didn't rise to the bait. I turned to my father, my mouth thinking with displeasure. "Why are they here?"

Azrakel didn’t answer right away. He simply looked at me, and that was worse than any immediate response. His words had always been shallow compared to his silences. A reminder of power, of how little my thoughts mattered in his grand scheme.

Then, finally, he spoke. "Because this concerns all of us."

I let out a slow breath. I knew then that I wouldn’t like what came next.

Aunt Maya scoffed, her fingers curling as if resisting the urge to strike me down where I stood. "You always were an arrogant little bastard." She spoke with hatred in her voice. "I should have made your illusion a nightmare instead of a dream."

I felt the memory more than I saw it, the suffocating sensation of being trapped in a world she crafted with Avaris, a world where her victim was nothing but a prisoner in my own mind. I had torn my way out of it once.

I would never let her do it again.

I met her gaze, my mouth twisting with threat. "And yet, I’m still here. Breathing. Doesn’t that just eat at you?"

A flicker of rage passed through her features before she smoothed them over. But I knew I had struck something deep.

Yovina chuckled. “Oh, don’t stop now, Madam Maya. He’s overdue for a proper punishment.”

I turned my glare onto her. "And you're overdue for shutting up. You know I don't expect this from you out of all people, Yovina?"

Her smirk widened, almost laughing. "Still pretending you have a choice?"

I had nothing left to say to them. I looked at my father again, my patience worn thin. "If you called me here just to let them throw their little tantrums, I’ll leave."

Azrakel’s voice was calm. "You won’t."

It wasn’t a threat. It was a fact.

I hated that he was right.

He was like that, doesn't stress him too much since he knows I have no choice than to stay.

His gaze pinned me in place, heavy —but I had spent my entire existence learning to read him. Something was different. His usual cold indifference was still there, but beneath it, there was something sharper.

"This is about my Father, The Great Lucifer," he finally said. "His awakening draws near because that Key must be found."

The words chilled me to my core.

I exhaled slowly, tilting my head back, trying to force some semblance of control over the panic curling in my gut. "And you expect me to do what, exactly?"

Azrakel leaned forward, his voice unwavering. "You will bring me the key."

A laugh escaped me, but it was hollow. "You’re serious."

Aunt Maya scoffed. "What’s funny? Did you think you’d get to keep running?"

Running. That was what they thought I had been doing.

They didn’t understand—none of them ever did. I had never been running. I had been surviving. And now they wanted me to step into something I couldn’t come back from.

My fingers twitched, my energy coiling at my fingertips. I shouldn’t have come.

I clenched my jaw. "You still think I care about your plans?"

Azrakel studied me with that same unreadable stare before he finally murmured, "You will."

Then, I felt pain.

A fiery force struck my chest, black magic seeping like poison into my flesh. Heat blazed through my veins, causing my knees to buckle as I stumbled.

My father’s voice remained the same. "This is just a reminder, Dyvian. You are still mine."