Heir of Night by Emily Goodwin

Chapter 4

“We should go.” Julian gives my hand a tug. “Now.”

“The portal,” I rush out. “It will stay open for four minutes if I did my calculations correct, but it could stay open even longer.” I look back at the door, fear making it hard to think straight. The rituals were preformed to use the Ley line to open the gates. We suspected Paimon of orchestrating them in his master plan to take over, probably in the same way Bael did.

But only someone with archangel blood can sit on the throne.

Paimon came to Hell with a plan, and I’m guessing getting trapped inside wasn’t part of it. Though now…now he knows he’s trapped inside with me, and we all know he doesn’t want to take an actual bath in my blood. He’s going to use me, just like his buddy Bael. If his plans are to possess me or make me his demon-bride, I don’t know. And I’m not about to find out.

“If Paimon gets in and can access the portal…” I trail off, shaking my head. “Four Horsemen on the loose are already enough.”

“He’s not going to,” Lucifer calmly tells me.

“How can you be sure?”

The door rattles again, and Lucifer starts to say something, but his voice is drowned out by whispers in my head.

Caaaallll-liiieee.

I freeze, feeling cold breath on my neck.

Callie.

I tip my head to the side, knowing I should ignore this voice, yet somehow I’m unable to.

You have questions, Callie. I have answers. Answers no one else can give you.

I go to blink, trying to clear my head, but when my eyes shut, I’m unable to open them, and suddenly, I’m standing in the same spot right here in the greenhouse, but I’m alone. The shadow of a man stands behind me, and a crown made of bones sits on his head. He slowly brings a hand up, moving my hair over my shoulder and to his face, inhaling deep.

You want to know how much immortality is inside of you and if you’ll pass it along to your child. I have answers. All you have to do is ask.

Snow starts to fall around me, and my heart is racing inside my chest. I want to know. Desperately. The thought of dying while Lucas is forced to watch and then live alone has haunted me since we fell in love. Knowing he might have to watch both his wife and then his daughter age and die hurts.

I haven’t appeared to have physically aged in a few years, as my friends have pointed out. I heal faster than an average human. The only reason Lucas is able to feed off me and only me is because I’m not human. And my father hasn’t completely unlocked all of my angelic powers yet.

If I do end up being immortal in some sense, that will mean I will stand by Lucas and be forced to watch Elena grow old and die. The unnaturalness of that terrifies me, but the unknown scares me even more. If I knew, I could prepare. I could make sure every day counted. And maybe I could—

“Callie!” Julian’s hands land on my shoulders, shaking me and pulling me out of the trance. My eyes open, and I suck in air, realizing that I hadn’t taken a breath since I first heard the whispering. “Callie!”

“He’s in her head,” Lucifer growls, turning toward the door. He sweeps his hands out in front of him, summoning a line of hellfire. It crackles and pops, raining red embers down on the floor. “Get her out of here!”

Julian steps toward the portal, and in the back of my head, I hear Paimon whispering and then get a flash of three humans possessed by demons. They’re standing in the woods, holding knives in one hand and ropes in the other. Harrowing screams resound from the trees, and blood starts to seep out of the bark.

“Wait!” I cry, pulling Julian back. “He’s…he’s trying to piggyback off the portal somehow.”

“He’s not getting in,” Lucifer repeats, eyes glowing with anger.

“No, it’s…it’s…” I close my eyes. “It’s making me take us somewhere else. Somewhere that’s not my home.”

“Concentrate,” Lucifer hisses, and I nod. “We don’t have much time.”

One look at the herbs makes my heart skip a beat. More time must have passed than I realized while Paimon was in my head. The herbs are almost nothing but ash. Once the magic is gone, the actual plants will burn, and we’ll only have seconds to get through the portal.

The doors rattle again, and the pane of glass in the window nearest us shatters. Lucifer spreads his wings at the last second, shielding me. The glass bounces off his white feathers, clattering to the stone floor.

“We have to go,” Julian says, grabbing my hand. “Now.”

I hold out my hand for Lucifer, closing my eyes once he takes it. “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” Instead of thinking of the house, my mind goes to Lucas.

To his arms around me.

The feel of his cool skin.

His non-beating heart beneath his muscular chest.

How safe I feel with him. How loved.

Heis home.

Tightening my grip on Lucifer and Julian’s hands, I step forward, going through the portal. The world swirls around, and it takes everything inside of me to keep my concentration on Lucas and not what could go wrong. The portal is a magical manifestation of my own creation, and my fear can make it take a dark turn we’ll never be able to come back from.

Callie.

My name is spoken aloud again, but it’s not a demon calling for me. It’s Lucas, and he has no idea he’s guiding us back to him. The spinning sensation gets faster and faster, feeling much like the first time Michael flew me out of the bedroom on North Orchard Street.

Slowly, the darkness starts to give way, and I can feel sunshine on my face. The portal spits us out in my front yard, and Julian holds onto me, keeping me from falling.

“You did it, kiddo.” Lucifer dusts off his suit and looks around before beaming at me. “You brought us home. Your mother would be proud.”

It takes me a few seconds to gather my bearings. “Lucas,” I whisper, blinking away the dizziness as I start toward the door. “Lucas,” I call again, voice a little louder. Heels clacking on the stone steps, I’m not even on the porch when Lucas opens the door, dark blue eyes wide as he stares at me, getting burned instantly from the sun.

“Callie.”

My heel catches on the custom doormat with a big letter K in the center, and I stumble into Lucas’s arms.

“Callie,” he repeats, holding me tight against his chest.

“You’re burning,” I say, feeling the heat of his skin burning on my own face.

“I don’t care.” He looks into my eyes, needing to be sure I’m here, actually here, and that I arrived in one piece. Then he kisses me, holding me as tightly against him as he can. His tongue pushes into my mouth as we stumble back into the house. The door closes behind us, and I hear Julian and Lucifer move into the foyer.

“It’s her!” Kristy shouts, and I break away from Lucas, tears rolling down my cheeks. “She’s back!”

“I’m so sorry,” I tell Lucas as another tear makes its way down.

“It’s okay,” he says softly, cupping my face. The burns on his cheek are healing already, but the smell of charred skin hangs in the air. “It’s okay, my love.”

My familiars shadow around me, and Scarlet bounds through the house and over to her previous master.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Lucifer greets the hellhound. Everyone rushes into the foyer, and Lucas kisses me again. Things are right how we left them, but it feels like a lifetime has passed. In truth, we’ve only been gone for a few hours, yet so much has happened in that time.

“Callie?” Abby calls, and the sound of Penny’s innocent babbling grows louder as my sister runs into the foyer, along with the rest of my friends.

“Let her fucking breathe,” Eliza huffs to Lucas. “Or get a room.”

With a growl, Lucas pulls his lips away from mine and drops to his knees, hands on my stomach. “Elena,” he whispers.

“She’s fine,” I promise and rest a hand on his head, curling my fingers through his hair. “I think she likes teleporting like that.” I put my hand over his, moving it to where Elena is kicking. Lucas smiles, eyes still full of fear, and stands back up. “Hey, guys,” I say and look at my friends’ stunned faces.

“Oh, darling girl.” Tabatha comes over with tears in her eyes. “You had us all quite worried.”

“I know, and I’m sorry about that.”

“What…what happened?” Nicole vacillates, eyes flitting from me to Julian and Lucifer. Right. They give off a sense of divinity to humans. Kristy, who hasn’t seen Lucifer since the night I killed Bael, is staring at my uncle with wide eyes.

“Paimon,” Julian starts, cutting right to the point. “He was the one who opened the gates of Hell. Callie and I got there just in time to prevent any more demons from escaping. She closed the gates.”

“How?” Tabatha asks, slowly shaking her head side to side. “How did you make it out in one piece?”

“Lucifer,” I say, turning to look at my uncle, who’s still kneeling down petting Scarlet. “He came down and saved us from being torn apart by demons, which was all the time I needed to close the gates.”

Everyone stiffens, making the tense air increase tenfold. Lucifer is family. I trust him and care for him, just like he trusts and cares for me. Lucas is on the fence, I think Julian is slowly accepting Lucifer as an ally, but to everyone else, he’s the fucking devil.

“So, the gates,” Grace, one of the witches from our coven, starts. “They’re closed?”

“Closed and locked,” Lucifer answers, standing up and brushing dog fur off his expensive suit jacket. “No one is getting in or out for the time being.”

“How did you get out?” Tabatha asks, knowing there’s way more to this story.

“This.” Lucifer reaches inside his jacket and pulls out my mother’s notebook. I didn’t know he grabbed it, and the sight of my mother’s handwriting almost does me in. “I assumed you’d want this. It does me little good, anyway.”

“Thank you.” I take the notebook from him and run my finger over my mother’s name.

“It smells like your blood,” Lucas says and then takes my hand, holding my palm up and looking at the gash in my skin. “You’re hurt.”

“Archangel blood did the trick to close the gates.” I curl my fingers against my palm. “It’s just a small cut.”

“Can’t he heal you?” Lucas eyes Julian.

“Allow me.” Lucifer strides over and takes my hand in his. My skin feels warm for a moment, and when he lets go, the cut is gone.

“All better,” I say, holding my hand for Lucas to see. Silence falls over everyone, and I make the mistake of looking around. This is worse than being the center of attention while I open presents. Eliza catches my eye, and I see just how terrified she is—and she can see how I’m terrified too.

“Here I was thinking you brought another cousin back for me to corrupt.” She smirks at me from the base of the stairs.

“I told you, you’re not corrupting Julian,” I retort, thankful for her distraction.

“Well then.” She flashes another smile at Lucifer. “Maybe your uncle can corrupt me.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Lucas growls, and Eliza rolls her eyes.

“As much as I’d like to stay,” Lucifer starts, “I should be going. I trust you’ll make good on our arrangement, dear niece?”

“Yes, of course,” I tell him, pulling away from Lucas.

“Arrangement?” Lucas flashes his fangs, and my heart lurches for him. “What the fuck did you force her to agree to?” He leaves my side for the first time since I’ve been back, ready to attack Lucifer, even though he knows neither of us is a match to take on an archangel.

“He didn’t force me to do anything,” I rush out, though in the back of my mind I can’t help but wonder what Lucifer would have done if I said I wouldn’t do the spell. Stop it, I tell myself. He came to Hell not knowing what he’d find. I could have been dead or dying for all he knew, and he came back. To Hell. The one place in the whole entire universe he didn’t want to be. Lucifer may be selfish and act without consequence, but he’s not evil.

He can’t be.

Because if he is…doesn’t that mean the other angels could be right about Nephilim turning evil as well?

“I said I’d help because he’s helped me, that’s all,” I try to assure Lucas, whose expression softens. Lucas can be selfish and acts without fear of consequence as well. I must get the attraction to bad boys from my mother.

“Fine,” he huffs. “As long as it doesn’t strain you.”

“It won’t.” Inhaling, I hold my hands up in front of Lucifer, setting the intention of the spell. “Light of the moon, dark of the night, I cloak you from all, and hide you from sight.” I feel the magic pulse through me. “Other angels may seek but won’t be able to find, this spell of invisibility to you I do bind.”

My hands fall back to my sides, and Lucifer smiles. “Thank you, dear niece. I will be in touch.” He reaches into his pocket and retrieves a little vial containing the power-binding potion. “Take care of little Elena Lucille.” He winks and then disappears, the sound of rustling feathers echoing all around.

“What the hell was that?” Ruby asks, and when I turn, it dawns on me that I was speaking Enochian again.

“A cloaking spell,” I say, and exhaustion starts to crash down on me. Lucas, somehow able to tell, wraps an arm around me.

“A cloaking spell for what?” Naomi presses.

“Give her a minute,” Lucas tells her and takes me into the formal living room that’s off the foyer and sits next to me on the couch, taking my mother’s notebook from me and setting it on the coffee table. For a brief moment, we’re alone. “Are you all right?”

“I’m tired,” I confess. “We closed the gates and escaped, but that’s not all, Lucas.” Now that I’m home, surrounded by everyone I care about, the weight of what really happened starts to suffocate me. Binx jumps on the couch, meowing softly. I run my hand over his sleek fur. He settles on my chest as I lean against Lucas.

“It’s okay,” he assures me. “You closed the gates, Callie. You did a good thing.”

“We didn’t close them fast enough.” My eyes meet his, throat tightening. “Demons got out.”

“And we’ll take care of it.”

“They’re not just any demons,” I whisper.

“Callie?” Abby’s voice comes from the entrance of the living room. “Are you okay?”

I blink back my tears and straighten up, putting a fake smile on my face without realizing what I’m doing. “Yeah. I’m good. Just…just tired.”

“Tabatha is sending everyone home.”

“We didn’t have cake yet.”

Abby looks at me incredulously.

“What? You guys ate it without me?”

“No, we didn’t. You…you want cake?”

I nod. “I worked up an appetite trying to save the world.”

Penny fusses, wanting out of Abby’s arms. She sets her down, and Penny toddles over, reaching for Binx. “So you don’t want people to leave?”

“I do. My usual doom-and-demon-fighting crew can stay.”

“So, uh, just kick out the ladies I’m not familiar with then?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Abby.”

Her head bobs up and down, and she tries—and fails—to force a smile before turning to leave. Lucas picks Penny up, situating her in between us on the couch. Forgetting about Binx, Penny climbs on Lucas, and my heart melts watching him play with her.

“Hey.” The floor creaks as Kristy walks into the room. “Is everything okay? Abby said you wanted the others to go.”

“Yeah.” I rub my forehead. “I’m a terrible host.”

“No one expects you to be a host right now, Callie,” she assures me. “I don’t know what happened, but things were…were hairy for a hot minute.”

“What did happen?” I ask. “After I left, I mean. I didn’t immediately close the gates, and I would say imagining Hell on earth is dramatic, but in this case…”

“Right. It’s not.” Kristy sits down across from us, watching Lucas and Penny play for a moment before continuing. “Well, the first thing we realized once you and Julian flew out of here was that the caterers were still here.”

“Oh, shit.”

“I took care of it,” Lucas tells me as he lifts Penny in the air. She giggles like crazy and grabs a handful of Lucas’s hair, pulling it with impressive strength.

“I can’t really describe it,” Kristy starts, tucking her hair behind her ear. “The energy felt so wrong. There was a fire.” She pauses, biting her lower lip and looking at the floor. “It was coming from the center of town.”

“The courthouse is built on an apex of the Ley line.”

Kristy nods. “We’re still not sure if any humans died, but…”

“But demons aren’t known for their compassion.”

“Right. We all gathered and cast a protection spell on the town. Melinda was able to get ahold of her brother, and things seemed okay in Chicago. And then…then everything just went away.”

“When I closed the gates.” I look at Lucas, brows furrowed. “The demons were already here. Why did they stop?”

“Their source of power was cut off,” Julian says, appearing behind us. “Or at least that’s what I’m thinking.”

“If they were already here, weren’t they most likely lower-level demons?” Lucas asks.

“Yes,” Julian answers. “They must have received instructions from Paimon, but once their method of communication was cut off, they ran.”

“But why?” I quietly muse.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lucas says. “We’ll find them, and we’ll kill them.”

“Along with the soul I set free in order to open the portal,” I add ruefully.

“What?” Lucas and Kristy ask at the same time.

Reaching forward, I pick up the composition notebook from the coffee table. “It was a spell my mom came up with when she was visiting Lucifer, because apparently, they were a thing before Michael was sent to save her soul—which he did, by the way.” I flip through the notebook, looking at years’ worth of random notes. “And apparently Lucifer has access to all the Satanic grimoires ever written…including the one my mom wrote herself.”

“Oh, Callie, I’m so sorry,” Kristy says softly.

“She had good intentions,” I rush out.

“I’m sure she did,” Kristy quickly agrees. Her tone is nothing but gentle, but her statement feels patronizing. “But it’s dark magic. And dark magic is dangerous.”

“Right. It is,” I agree and close the notebook. “I have to go to the bathroom. Stay here with Penny,” I tell Lucas, knowing he’ll follow me to be sure I’m safe. Truth is, I need a minute to myself. My head is spinning, my heart is hurting, and I’m barely able to comprehend the danger we’re all in.

And I still have to tell my friends that the fucking Horsemen are on the loose.

Dodging away from everyone, I go up the back staircase and use the master bathroom. My reflection takes me by surprise, having forgotten I’m wearing this ridiculously girly dress. Feeling almost panicked, I yank down the zipper and rip the dress off, putting on black leggings and one of Lucas’s black t-shirts instead.

“Callie.” Julian is in the hall outside my room, startling me. “We have to come up with a plan.”

“I know.” I let out a sigh and brush my hair back. “I know we do. I just, um…I just… I don’t even know where to start.”

“At the bottom,” he suggests. “Hell is inaccessible unless a portal is created, but with Lucifer not there to manage the demons, it’s only a matter of time before the seals are broken again.”

“Right. At least nothing else can get out for the time being.”

“And nothing can get in, either. Demons can’t be cast back to the pit, and hell-bound souls will remain on earth.”

“This day just keeps getting better and better.” I tip my head up, willing myself not to cry or even think about throwing a pity-party. “At least I had a nice wedding, right?”

“Right,” Julian lilts, not sure why I’m bringing up the wedding. Maybe a half-human, half-angel can only expect one uninterrupted party a lifetime. “It was very nice.”

My eyes fall shut, and I lean against the doorframe. “The bottom. Good plan. The bottom is Hell. Lucifer isn’t there, but the doors are locked. It’s not good, but it buys us some time. My cloaking spell won’t last long.” I open my eyes and look at Julian. “And I didn’t realize it until after I cast it, but you and I were still able to see him, right?”

“Right.”

“I said other angels not really thinking about it. But he’s cloaked from everyone but me and you since we were in the room with him when I cast the spell.”

“You’re right.” He narrows his eyes. “What are you thinking, Callie?”

“Honestly, I don’t really know. The cloaking spell won’t last long, and the power-binding potion won’t, either. He has more than I do, so maybe it’ll last a few weeks, but Lucifer will be back to being Lucifer in time. And maybe…maybe things can be different now. He doesn’t have to make deals to lend extra power. Practicing Satanism won’t be an excommunicable offense.”

“The power Lucifer gave you didn’t tempt or sway you because you are part archangel,” Julian says, though he doesn’t sound sure. “That kind of power isn’t meant to be accessible to humans. And, Callie, it’s not that black and white. There are other things at play here. Spirits…dark entities…things that are older than Lucifer that can tempt even the purest of heart. He may rule Hell, but he’s not in control of everything that’s dark.”

“Like the Horsemen.”

“Exactly. And I don’t think he locked them up so he could use them later. I think he locked them up because he’s not able to kill them.”