Bound By Lucifer by Aiden Pierce
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jessica
The River Styx – Past
It would be impossible to guess how long we’d spent crossing the river of souls. Time had no meaning here. There was nothing but the stretch of crimson sky ahead, the blood-red waters below, and the hallow moans of the sullen souls floating alongside our boat. Their cries had long since faded to nothing but white noise, buzzing in the back of my skull.
My only comfort was the fact that the river of souls did not go on forever, and eventually, we’d cross over to the other side.
“We’re lost,” a masculine voice gritted in my ear, his words raspy from lack of water. I looked over at the sullied celestial, our new king.
The moment I watched the celestial pull himself from the Ninth Circle’s frozen lake, his clothes burned away from the heat of the fall, his muscles bulging, and his skin steaming, I knew he was the one.
The man from my niece’s vision. What I didn’t anticipate was the kind of effect he would have on me. His scent was so damn good, like ash and aged leather and sinful male. His hypnotic eyes were molten gold, hotter than the lava pits in the Sixth Circle.
I kept telling myself that I chose to go through hell with him, rebuilding it layer by layer simply because it pissed Abaddon off.
My husband wasn’t happy. A celestial of all things stole his crown, and he was probably currently under the impression he’d stolen me too. Even if I’d already left the archdemon long before Lucifer fell.
But Abbadon was a sadistic monster, and leaving him wasn’t so easy when I knew he’d eventually find me again. How lucky I was that this time when he tracked me down, he’d found me with another male. One that had kicked his ass to the brimstone, took his crown and spurred a new era of Hell.
But I would be lying to myself if I said following the new king up through the layers was simply a “fuck you” to Abaddon.
There was something else, something deeply instinctual pushing me to follow Lucifer and the path he was haphazardly hacking for himself with a machete and an unholy vendetta. It was something more profound. Something deeper.
Maybe it was the fact that the moment I laid eyes on him, my beast went eerily silent. I savored the peace, though it made me wary. It was almost like she was in there, quietly plotting. Waiting.
“We’re not lost. For the millionth time, we’re going in the right direction. In the very least, we’re bound to cross the path of the ferryman soon, and he can take us to the other side.”
Lucifer pulled himself up from where he’d been lying at the bottom of the skiff and propped his back against the wood paneling, his eyes narrowing into golden slits. “Oh yes, the ferryman. Our savior.”
The celestial’s upper lip curled. “You know the only reason I agreed to take you with me is because I thought the Queen of Hell would know her way through her own realm.”
He’s lying, my beast told me, taking me by surprise. When it had come to the new king, she hadn’t been extraordinarily quiet.
My insides did a somersault. Was he lying? Had he taken me along for different reasons other than as a guide? If so, he hadn’t exposed those reasons yet. So far, he had just complained a lot and made a ton of sarcastic jokes about my navigation skills, or lack thereof. He was lucky he was three times the king than Abaddon. It made his sarcasm easier to deal with.
“I never wanted to be queen,” I murmured as I wrapped my arms tightly around my legs, drawing my knees up beneath my chin. My gaze dropped to the worn boards of the skiff’s hull. “Abaddon never has been a big fan of listening to other people’s opinions or desires.”
I felt the celestial’s eyes pinning me there against the boat’s railing, weighing me down. “What kind of woman doesn’t want to be queen?” he asked.
Despite the mire of ugly emotions unfurling in my chest, I let out a dry laugh. “Queen must be something different in your realm than it is here. For me, there was no fanfare or crown.” The archdemon had picked me from a crowd of females. I didn’t get a choice in the matter. My coronation was me getting bent over a rock while the rest of the realm watched. It was an ugly, brutal memory that made both me and my beast shrivel on the inside. All these years later, it still made us feel small and helpless. And I couldn’t talk about it. Not even with Nyx. Even though deep down, she had to know what I was going through. She had been there that day, as helpless as I to do anything about it.
It was supposed to be some big honor. For me, all it had been was humiliating.
Maybe that’s why I had followed Lucifer deep into Hell. Ever since the first of The Three Fates had gleaned his arrival, with their first breath, I had allowed myself to hope. It didn’t matter how sarcastic he was or how much hatred he carried in his heart for his father. When I looked at Lucifer, I allowed myself to hope.
He nudged the tip of my boot with his, a gentle ask for my gaze. I looked up at him, suddenly feeling extremely tired. This time it had nothing to do with being adrift on the Styx with no food and water and everything to do with the burden of my ex-husband tormenting my thoughts. Lucifer’s golden scrutiny scraped over me. I had no real way to tell, but I somehow knew he wasn’t reading my thoughts but rather the misery on my face.
“Should I have killed him when I took his crown? When you’re kind is killed, they don’t come back here, yes?” he asked in a silken whisper.
I blinked at him, surprised by the tenderness of his tone. He was the ever avenging celestial. I knew that much because his primary mission was to get out of here and get his wings back from his father. Cleaning up the Underworld was just something to do on the way up. Not once had I seen his gaze burn with vengeance on my behalf.
My parched lips curved with the ghost of a smile. “No. Only the souls of the mortal kind are brought here. And thanks for the offer, but death’s too good for him. I’d rather Abaddon stick around and watch you be the king he could never be.”
The celestial’s eyes glittered with mirth, and for a second, the dark bags under them seemed to disappear with his smirk.
“You’re not like any female I’ve ever met before.”
My heart beat like a drum in my chest. Oh, The Fates, he was gorgeous, even with his greasy hair that hung in strings, even with his dry and flaking lips, and gaunt cheeks beneath the thick scruff of his beard. He was beautiful, and no amount of filth could desecrate his God-given charisma.
“Well, if the celestial women are anything like you, I don’t believe that,” I grinned back at him.
His chest, half exposed with the ties of his shirt undone, shook with a grim chuckle. “Believe me, no one in Paradise is like me. Especially not the females. They are delicate and chaste. Not exactly my type. Except for the Valkyries. But no one dares touch them less they come equipped with cocks forged from the same stuff of Thor’s hammer.”
I gave a nervous laugh as I felt a tug in my lower belly. For some reason, his words sent a flame of heat through me. “So…maybe it was The Fates’s plan all along for you to end up here if there is no hope of finding a mate for you in Paradise.”
His smile slipped from his face in a blink, and immediately the scathing scowl resumed its post on his chiseled features. “It’s nothing but the cruelty of my father that landed me here. I have a mate. A human, my ward.”
I didn’t expect his words of how he’d been the first guardian tasked to guard a human and that he had bedded her and, in doing so, been made into an example as what would happen to all other celestials who broke the rules. But he’d never mentioned the fact that she was his mate. Certainly not his true mate. All shifters bound to another carried a scent upon them, and Lucifer had no such mark on his flesh.
“And you love her, this Eve?”
His brows pulled together in a troubled frown, and suddenly, he looked incredibly exhausted. “Yes,” he murmured after what felt like another eternity had come and gone on the River Styx.
He’s lying, my beast growled with that same accusation.
Shut up. It’s none of our business, I admonished my true nature, hating her for her perception. But I couldn’t deny the little hints my instincts were picking up. He was lying, the poor bastard. Because part of him seemed pretty damn intent on believing the lie he was telling both of us.
And like the nosey bitch she was, my beast decided that it was her duty to help pull him from his lie. Because at that moment, my body did something it never had before. Something that only happened to females when their true mate was near.
There in that little skiff with no more than a few feet of room between us, marooned out in the Styx’s open waters, I went into heat.