Heir of Night by Emily Goodwin
Chapter 3
“Okay,” I say, working to stay calm. “Where am I supposed to get one of those?”
“Good thing souls aren’t in short supply in Hell,” Lucifer quips. “And rest assured, you won’t be using a good one.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I shift my gaze to Julian, sure he’d look just as shocked as I feel, but his face is set like usual. “I’m going to use a soul? I—I can’t, right? That’s…that’s wrong?”
Julian’s brows furrow. “Technically, you’ll be doing it a mercy. The soul is in Hell, after all, being eternally tortured. By using it to create a portal, you’ll be setting it free from pain.”
“In a sense,” Lucifer mumbles.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Julian looks back down at the notebook.
“The soul will be set free wherever the portal leads,” Lucifer finishes. “When we return to earth, the soul will come with us. But don’t worry.” He holds up his hand to keep me from protesting. “We can send it back to Hell, assuming we find it.”
“Let me get this straight.” I bring my hand to my forehead. “I’m going to use a soul that belonged to a person who did something bad enough to be sent to Hell and was supposed to remain here for all eternity, but I’ll be setting them free, and while I’m hunting down the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I’ll pencil in also hunting down an escaped Hell-bound soul in between casting a cloaking spell on you so you can run away to Vegas or where-the-fuck-ever and have a playdate with humanity and my usual day-to-day survival from demons and angels alike.”
“I love the enthusiasm,” Lucifer exclaims, and I glare at him.
“Fine,” I huff. “I wouldn’t know who I was anymore if my life got any less complicated.”
“We can find another way out,” Julian says, but even I know he’s only saying that to make me feel better. We could find another way out, I’m sure of it, but not one as fast and safe as this route. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to go home,” I say. “What’s one more damaged soul back on earth compared to the damage the Horseman will create?”
“True,” Julian agrees. “As long as you’re sure.”
“I am. Let’s do this.”
“Come with me,” Lucifer says, going through the dark library. My heels click against the stone floor, and my dress swirls around my feet as I hurry after Lucifer. I really miss my usual black leggings and combat boots right now.
We exit the library through a secret door disguised as a shelf, stepping into yet another dark hall. There are no lights in here, and I flick my fingers, bringing the ball of bright blue light with me. We walk several paces down the hall and then go up a winding spiral staircase.
I’m out of breath when we finally get to the landing and slow as I continue to follow Lucifer. I knew this castle was big from looking at it on the outside, but it feels like we’ve been walking for miles. That, or I’m just way more human and out of shape than I’m used to.
I can’t really say I took being a Nephilim for granted, since I didn’t know I was one in the first place, but feeling more and more human as the days go on just plain sucks. We keep walking for what feels like another half mile.
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to come in,” Lucifer says when we finally stop in front of the threshold to another grand staircase. The same gothic architecture flows through the entire castle, but this room is different. Instead of gray stone floors, polished white marble gleams under bright light, streaming down from a gold chandelier. It’s not lit with fire, but I don’t think this place is exactly wired with electricity, yet something glows inside the bulbs.
“Oh, okay,” I say, still peering through the archway.
“You can come,” Lucifer says. “But the regular angel can’t. This is archangel territory. He won’t make it inside.”
“Are you sure I’m enough to make it inside?” I ask skeptically.
“You have enough archangel blood in you to close the gates. You’re one of us.” Lucifer’s hand lands on my back. “Just don’t touch anything, okay?”
“As long as there’s no flashing buttons, I should be good.” I give him a tight smile and glance at Julian, who nods. Lucifer and I walk together through the archway, and the enchantment that prevents anyone but archangels feels like we’re walking through freezing cold mist. The sensation passes after only a second or two, and when I turn, I see Julian standing just feet from us, looking worried.
“I’m fine,” I assure him, but he doesn’t respond.
“He can’t see or hear us anymore.” Lucifer adjusts his collar. “Neither can demons if they were to enter the hall. Yet another fail-safe. You’ll come to find Hell is very secure.”
“Stop trying to convince me to stay. I revoked my Queen of Hell status, remember? And besides, wouldn’t it be really obvious that Hell had a new ruler? It would be a giveaway to my murderous aunts and uncles. They’d fly right down here and kill me.”
“Not if they thought you couldn’t escape.” Lucifer shrugs. “They can lock you up just as they did to me.”
“But you escaped, though…maybe…maybe they want you to escape,” I say, thinking out loud. “I mean, if they wanted you really truly trapped, wouldn’t they be able to? There are a lot of archangels but only one of you. If they wanted to keep you locked up forever, wouldn’t they have done it?”
“I’m not sure what your definition of forever is, but centuries alone in a god-forsaken place makes you realize where that phrase god-forsaken comes from, if you know what I mean.” He flicks his eyes up. “Thanks for that, pops.”
“I do, and I don’t think it’s fair that you’re stuck here.”
Lucifer’s pace slows, and he turns, looking at me with pinched brows. “Yet you want me to stay.”
“Someone has to, and I don’t know what the solution is. I’m sorry, okay?”
“I know you are, and…and thanks.”
I run my hand right above a golden railing as we go up the stairs. “Who locked you up the first time?”
“Most of my siblings at the direction of our father.”
“And the most recent time?”
“Your loving father and our sister Haniel.”
“My father?”
“I don’t blame him,” Lucifer says, but I’m not quite convinced. “He had to follow orders or others would suspect something was up.”
“Haniel,” I echo. “How many aunts and uncles do I have?”
“You have fift—fourteen—aunts and uncles.”
“Right. Remiel is…is…hidden down here somewhere?”
“Not anymore,” Lucifer informs me. “The story of Bael killing him was believed by the others, and his body was recovered.”
I go up a few more stairs, mind whirling. “You know, I thought getting knocked up by my vampire husband would be the most unbelievable thing that would ever happen to me, but being here and having this conversation takes the cake.”
Lucifer chuckles. “It’s not the life any of us imagined for you,” he says softly. “From the first time I held you in my arms, I knew you were something special, just like your mother.”
His words hit me right in the heart. Right, Lucifer helped my parents hide me after they asked him for help. “Thank you, again. I also never thought I’d be thanking you as much as I have.”
“We’re family, Callie. That matters to me.”
“Me too.”
He looks at my stomach for a second. “Speaking of family, how are things with those horrible Martins? Did you think about how you want to torture them yet? You might not be the queen, but if I’m here by the time they check in, I’ll give you free reign.”
“I haven’t thought about how I’d torture their souls, but I, uh, have thought about various was to get revenge.” I smile, though I know I shouldn’t. “Not that long ago, I crashed Scott’s engagement party and slipped everyone truth potion. There were a lot of politicians there, along with so-called friends. Though I doubt they are friends anymore after I asked everyone what their honest opinions on Scott were.”
“Clever,” Lucifer tells me with a grin. “You’re more brain than brawn. Never underestimate the power of psychological warfare.”
I almost laugh, but recent events are way too sobering. The Horseman War is on the loose, and that game is right up his alley. “Lucas says I’m too merciful on them. The Martins, I mean.”
“You are.”
“What am I supposed to do, though? Turn Scott back into a cat and actually follow through with getting him neutered…and declawed on all four feet?”
“Ohhh, in a twist of events, physical torture may be your thing after all.”
“What can I say? I’m a double threat.” We make it up the stairs, and a fire suddenly starts in a large fireplace before us, lighting up the area. There are seven small doors, looking almost out of place in the grand hall the fancy stairs lead us to. A large book is on display in front of the fireplace.
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask softly, feeling myself drawn to it. My gaze zeroes in on the book, and I hear indiscernible whispers around me. I can’t tell what they’re saying, but I can feel them.
Desperate.
Scared.
Angry.
Sorry.
“It holds the names of everyone you’ve made a deal with, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” Lucifer tells me. “Never mind that. It’s of no concern to you.”
“Right.” I tear my eyes away and look at the doors. “The souls are in there?”
“They are.” He sweeps his hand out. “After you.”
Picking the door that’s closest to us, my heart speeds up when my fingers close around the cast-iron latch. It opens with a creak, and the whispers get louder. What I was feeling wasn’t coming from the book. It’s coming from in here.
From the souls.
“Fuck,” I mumble, blinking to help my eyes adjust. The souls move around inside little glass spheres, appearing as glowing ethereal mist. Most glow dark red, and I can feel the hate and rage coming off in waves. Others are a darker blue, some are jet black, and a few don’t glow at all.
“Would you like to pick or should I?” Lucifer asks, but I’m already striding forward. I reach for a soul that’s blood red, mist hitting the glass over and over.
“Do they know where they are?”
“Eventually. Some deny the fact that they are in Hell for an impressive amount of time.”
My fingers sweep over the glass, taken aback to find it icy cold. A vision enters my head as soon as I start to pick up the sphere, and I see a man sitting in his car watching young boys play soccer. He has one hand in his pants and is holding a camera with the other. I can sense his emotions—and his intentions. I let go of the sphere when I get another vision of the man dragging one of the little boys behind the bleachers.
It clatters to the ground, and I gasp, thinking it’s going to shatter. But it lands with a thud and doesn’t even roll.
“I should have warned you about that.” Lucifer picks it up. “Ah, let’s not pick this one.” He runs his fingers over a line of glass balls and picks one filled with blue mist. “This will do.”
“Okay,” I tell him and give one last look at the shelves. Like the library, this room seems endless. Lucifer puts the soul into a pocket inside his jacket and leads the way out. We meet back up with Julian and then follow Lucifer down yet another maze-like hall. We wind our way through the castle and stop in a greenhouse with decor that looks like it might have been updated in the late 1920s.
“Get things set up,” Lucifer tells us. “I’ll get the rest of what you need.”
“So, Hell,” I start, pulling the needle out of the notebook’s binding again, “is, uh, not what I thought it was like.”
“Everyone who is sent here has a personalized experience created uniquely based on past life experiences,” Julian says.
“You sound like you’re selling a timeshare and I might just buy,” I say back. Julian tips his head up, confused by my sarcasm. “Never mind.” I stab the needle into my forearm, just next to the spot where I stabbed myself before. I get a drop of blood and use it to reveal the spells in my mother’s book.
“That’s interesting,” I muse as I read the spell. “I recognize some of this.” I tap the page. “When I was still a student, I had to come up with an original spell, and I chose to create my own for astral projection. It’s very similar to this, but with elements of circle casting, which makes sense in a way I’d never think of.” I read the rest of the spell, hoping I can pull it off seamlessly. It’s a complicated spell, and getting just one thing wrong could be disastrous.
“Your mother was a witch when she cast this spell,” Julian notes. “You’re a Nephilim.”
I look up, needing a minute to figure out what he’s implying. “I’m more powerful than her.”
“Yes. This portal is meant to be closed after the passengers have crossed through. The spell itself seems like it would burn out rather quickly. But with your angel power, it could stay open much longer, if not permanently.”
“Fuck,” I sigh. “Maybe…maybe I can alter it.” I shake my head. “And then transport us back to the Middle Ages.” I put my hands on my head, mind racing. “Okay…so the portal will open from the place I cast the spell. What if we cast it in one of those fail-safe rooms that demons can’t get into? There has to be something all angels can get into but not demons.”
“Perhaps, but don’t forget this will be a two-way portal as long as it’s open. If we can get out, something can get in.”
“Yeah, but bad guys magically crawling to Hell isn’t necessarily a bad thing, is it?”
“It would depend on their intention.”
“Right.” I nod, wishing I could call Tabatha somehow. She knows how to tailor a portal to only let certain people in and out, though that would up the level of complication tenfold. “I’ll just…I’ll try not to supercharge the spell then. Maybe Lucifer shouldn’t give me a power boost. Separating my witch powers from my angel powers can be tricky. It wasn’t all that long ago I learned I had two sources of power.”
“Perhaps. Though if you are indeed able to use your powers from your witch side only, it shouldn’t be an issue. Lucifer cannot enhance your angelic side, only your witch side.” Julian takes the notebook from me and slowly walks through the greenhouse, gathering a few herbs. I sit in the middle of the room, trying to center myself, but just being here is throwing me. It was daylight when we walked into the castle, yet darkness surrounds the dusty glass windows, and a crescent moon shines above. It has a dark red hue, making the surrounding clouds look like they’ve been splashed with fresh blood.
Several minutes later, we have the herbs laid out. I’m reading over the spell again when Lucifer comes back, holding a black cauldron filled with the rest of the supplies.
“I trust you know what to do,” Lucifer comments.
“Yeah.” I rip a bay leaf into three parts and put it inside the cauldron.
“Remember, Callie,” Julian starts. “You’re not a regular witch.”
“Right.” I give him a wink. “I’m a cool witch.” Julian tips his head, and I laugh. “We’ll have a movie night when we get out of here. Lucas came to appreciate my love for Mean Girls.” The smile disappears from my face as I get back to work, invoking and combining different herbs. Holding my hands over the cauldron, I pull in energy from around me, a little worried I might heat up the herbs with hellfire, which would burn them beyond what is needed to open the portal.
“Spiritus tenebrarum noctis animos. Invoco te fortuna coeptis,” I whisper. “Spiritus tenebrarum noctis animos. Invoco te fortuna coeptis.” Heat gathers around my fingers. “Spiritus tenebrarum noctis animos. Invoco te fortuna coeptis.” The herbs ignite, causing smoke to waft up. Quickly, I create a shield of telekinetic energy, trapping the smoke as if I put a lid on the cauldron.
The herbs need to slowly char for six minutes and then be placed at six points around a pentagram: five at the star’s points and one in the middle, where we’ll stand.
“Can someone keep track of the time?” I ask both Julian and Lucifer.
“I’ve got it,” Lucifer tells me, lifting his wrists to check the time on an expensive Rolex. I draw a large pentagram on the stone floor with chalk and move back to the cauldron.
“We’ve still got five minutes.”
“And it’s going to go by slow, I’m sure.” I rake my hair to the side, fingers catching in a tangle of curls and sink onto the ground, not realizing how much these heels hurt my feet until I’m off of them. “You know, this is the most time I’ve spent with any of my paternal family members. I wish I could say it’s nice getting to sit and chat like this, but the whole being stuck in Hell thing kinda ruins that.”
“I’m sensing a but coming,” Lucifer encourages, leaning against one of the greenhouse walls.
My eyes fall shut for a moment. “But it’s still nice, because for some reason, it’s…it’s calming being around other angels, even here. It’s what drew me to you,” I say, looking at Julian. “Before I knew the truth. There was just something about the mysterious man I caught glimpses of that pulled me in. I can’t really explain it other than to say it’s like going home.”
“Divinity seeks divinity,” Julian informs me.
“Is that why I never felt like I belonged?” I twist my engagement ring around my finger. “Not even at the Academy. I was different, and it wasn’t because I was, well, better at magic than pretty much anyone in my class. It was…was something else. It makes sense now that I know the truth.”
“And yet you still don’t quite feel like you fit in on earth,” Lucifer remarks.
I don’t want to admit it, because I love my life, even with the constant danger. Lucas is more than I could ever dream of, and I never thought I’d be able to find someone as wonderful as him, who loves me completely and unconditionally. Tabatha and Evander are just as much my family as anyone I’m blood related to, and we have so many good memories today. And my friends? They’ve gone above and beyond for me more times than I can count.
And now…now Lucas and I get the chance to have our own family. He’s going to be a father after nearly two thousand years of knowing it’s impossible for a vampire to procreate, and yet here we are.
But Lucifer is right. Part of me knows I don’t belong.
“I take your hesitation as a yes,” Lucifer goes on. “And no, I’m not trying to manipulate you into taking the throne. Though here—as well as above—you won’t have to hold back. I’ve seen glimpses of you using your powers, all your powers. You are strong, and power like that isn’t meant to be bottled up. Instead of concealing your powers, you should embrace it. You shouldn’t have to hold back.”
I look at my own hands, and some of the fear I’ve recently felt comes rushing back. How easy it would be for me to accidentally hurt someone. If Lucas wasn’t a vampire who heals, if he were a warlock or even just a regular human…no. I’m not going to think about it, because Elena will be mostly human. She’s not going to heal in seconds. And I’m not going to hurt my baby.
“I spent years hiding my powers and wishing they’d go away,” I start, flattening my palms against my thighs. “And then when Tabatha rescued me from that research lab, I did get to embrace who I was. Granted, I didn’t run away on a snowy mountain and build a castle for myself, but I definitely got to let it go in terms of how I had to hold back.”
“But you are holding back,” Lucifer goes on. “You’re not allowing yourself access to all of your power.”
“Only out of fear. Using my angel powers will alert the cosmos of my whereabouts. I don’t hide who I am anymore. Most of my coven knows the truth, and sometimes I wish they didn’t. I don’t want to be treated differently because of what I am. People should be judged on who they are.”
“Wise words, dear niece.”
“Thanks,” I say and look down at the spell, Julian’s warning echoing in the back of my mind. The portal isn’t meant to stay open long for the very reasons he listed, and if only there was a— “I know how to lessen the time the portal is open.”
“You do?” Julian questions. “How?”
“Six-six-six,” I explain and tap the numbers 666 that are written inside a circle at the top of the page. “When I first saw this, I assumed it was because my mother used it to get into Hell and the whole number of the beast thing was significant. Though it can’t be, if she used it to get out of Hell, and this doodle on the side of the page.” I flip the notebook around and show them. “It’s a coven symbol for Coven of the Sacred Star, which is in Massachusetts. I know that because it was one of the covens Tabatha contacted about doing the protection spell along the hot spots on the Ley line. According to what my mother wrote on her notebook, she attended Starfall Academy, which was founded by the Sacred Star Coven and was one of the first witch academies in America.”
“I still don’t follow,” Julian says slowly.
“My mother was excommunicated because she cared enough not to hurt her sister by refusing to be in an arranged marriage. A founding coven like the Sacred Stars takes excommunication seriously, so anyone kicked out would have to leave. She used this portal to go visit her sister. And here.” I point to messily written notes at the bottom of the page. “That’s the Celtic symbol for sisters. I saw that on another page.” I quickly flip through the pages, ignoring the way both Julian and Lucifer are staring at me as if I were starring in a gothic version of A Beautiful Mind.
“Read this.” My eyes linger over the words written around the sister symbol, which was drawn with black ink and is smudged with water droplets.
“Born six apart, kept six away, six is not enough, but six is all I can stay.” Julian looks up from the notebook.
“Look inside the symbol,” I tell him. “See the sixes? I know it’s a long shot, but if she was willing to use dark magic to save her younger sister, they had to be close. And if she would visit a place she wasn’t supposed to be, she had to come back. The portal will stay open for six minutes, because of how the herbs are charred. Sacred geometry has always been difficult for me to understand, but this is how it works.”
Going over to the cauldron, I hold one hand over it. “How long as it been?”
“Four minutes,” Lucifer tells me, and I wave my hand, breaking the telekinetic seal.
“Then the portal will be open for four minutes.” I look at the herbs, which are mostly black by now. Six minutes must be the longest they can withstand the heat. Any longer and they’d burn, rendering them useless. “Ready?”
Lucifer, who’s impervious to injury, picks up the smoking cauldron and puts it in the middle of the pentagram. I stand at one point and hold out my hands, casting a circle around us to contain the portal. Carefully, I scoop out the herbs and arrange them where they need to be, with the glass ball containing the soul next to the cauldron.
I have to set the intention next, which won’t be hard since I cannot wait to get the fuck out of here. Inhaling, I hold out both hands for Julian and Lucifer to take. The wound on my left palm from where I sliced my hand to close the gates is still tender, but I ignore the sting of pain I feel when Julian takes my hand.
“Ignis,” I whisper, and the herbs burst into flames. When the remains are nothing but ash, the portal will close. The fire is magical, being fueled by the powers inside the herbs rather than the herbs themselves. Inhaling slowly, I focus on my breathing to keep centered. It wouldn’t take much for me to accidentally burn the herbs up with hellfire, which would ruin the spell.
Once I’m sure I’m good, I close my eyes and imagine the big house that Lucas and I both call home. I’m standing right before the porch and feel the stone steps beneath my feet as I rush up the stairs. The front door creaks open, and that stupid balloon arch is still in the foyer. Everything looks how it did before I had Julian fly me down to Hell.
Energy swirls around us, and I hold onto my vision of the house for another few seconds before I open my eyes. Blue light shines in the center of the pentagram, so bright it’s almost blinding. It reminds me of the same magic that’s used to reveal the hidden door leading to the Covenstead.
“It worked,” I whisper, heart speeding up. My lips curve into a smile as I watch the portal grow big enough for us to step through.
Lucifer gives my hand a squeeze. “Ready to go home, kiddo?”
“So fucking—” I cut off when something bangs against the greenhouse doors.
“Lucifer!” a demon bellows, raspy voice reverberating off the walls and making the glass in the large windows rattle. “Lucifer Morningstar,” it repeats, and I jerk my head around, certain he’s right behind me. He’s whispering, yet his voice is loud. “I was once your most loyal servant. Now you protect the half-breed. Prove yourself our worthy leader once again by letting us bathe in its blood.”
Lucifer rolls his eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh, acting annoyed. It’s a classic Lucifer cover-up: be as dramatic as Eliza and make the problem not seem like a problem. But I know better, because I have a sinking feeling I know exactly who that demon is, and he’s the reason the gates were opened in the first place.
Paimon.