I almost want to scratch my head and shout out a warning to Paca at the same time, but I’m too confused as to what is going on.
Until the whole ground quakes so hard that even Paca is staggered by it, tripping backwards. Her ass slams against the shaking ground. Even the stands quake and rattle, despite the fact we’re shielded from the power.
“That’s my boy,” Lucifer states with his evil grin in place.
Still confused, I watch as the ground starts shifting, breaking apart, and Paca struggles to get her feet under her long enough to attempt keeping her balance.
Those glowing gems only grow brighter, as dark shadows begin emerging from them.
The steady roar of the quaking ground is only disturbed by the whirring of those rapidly emerging shadows that seep into the ground, disappearing from sight.
My heart is in my throat, because if the twins are excited, this could be bad.
“Paca! There are shadows doing something nefarious!” Kai shouts like it’s a good warning.
Paca curses when she’s knocked down again, the lava of hell’s tail seeping through the cracks.
She glares over at Cain, but her eyes widen as those shadows suddenly emerge into one giant shadow creature right in front of her.
It’s all I can do not to yell when it slams down on top of her, and she vanishes from our sight behind the thick veil of darkness.
Chapter 9
KAI
If she survives this, Jude is going to punish her, Gage is going to do something sappy, Ezekiel will do something pathetic, and I’m going to fuck her into a coma so that she can’t do it again any time soon.
This is hell—metaphorically and literally.
The crowd waits with a collectively held breath, as Paca’s agonized screams fill the air. They’re not sure if she’s faking the screams or if she’s in real pain, given how this evening’s battles have gone.
She hasn’t faked any of it. She’s just held back and let them hurt her.
She’s not deceptive, but she can be fucking tactical.
“She wants to learn to take a hit, but she doesn’t know what these hits do to her,” I grind out between clenched teeth, cringing when I hear the next scream, as Lucifer forces us to remain in our seats, watching this without concern to how painful it all is.
Biting down on my fist to keep in my own pained sounds, I watch, waiting on her to do something only Paca could do in this situation.
The shadow swells, only seeming to grow in power, as Cain laughs manically, his black eyes going wild as the wind begins to whir. The ground continues quaking, the roar of the wind grows louder, and the shadow seems to only grow stronger.
“More! More! More!” Cain shouts, almost seeming to lose his mind to the throes of power, as he lifts his arms high and lets his head drop back.
As it all builds, the stands lift higher and higher, raising us farther above the growing storm.
The twins start laughing uncontrollably, as though this is the funniest shit they’ve ever seen and enjoy it wholeheartedly.
“C’mon, Paca. Do something! Fucking fight back!” I shout, feeling my entire body shaking with worry, since I still can’t even see her.
Fire races out from under the shadow, and the twins stop cackling.
The lava brewing under the broken plates of the ground suddenly spews straight up as though it has come to life under her authority. The scent of sulphur blankets the air so thickly that it almost staggers the senses.
“Fire and brimstone…that’s not good,” Pride states quietly.
“She’s advanced that much without me knowing?” Lucifer snarls.
Hope tries to swell in my chest, and I sit up a little more. All four of us look on with bated breath and nauseating anticipation.
Manella is the only hell-spawn who has returned to the seats behind us, and I hear Lamar waking him up.
Cain’s eyes widen just as the flames shoot heavenward, blazing through the center of the arena, and almost blinding us with how close it is.
Lucifer leaps from his seat as the heat of the flames force us to lean away.
“She broke through a piece of my seal again,” he growls.
His eyes close, and the flames quickly cut off, hitting just under the center of the stands, as though there’s a glass wall blocking them from raising that high again.
Cain is still visible, though he admittedly looks worried now.
The shadow melts away, and through the flames, we see a grinning Paca still on her hands and knees, eyes a piercing red as she lifts her head and stares over at her brother.
Cain stumbles back a step, almost tripping. With a simple wink, power explodes from her, and the flames rush into his mouth the second he tries to gasp.
It occurs to me that she’s been fighting Rafael in purgatory. We’re in Hell.
The difference is daylight and dark.
We wanted a way to make her stronger. I had no idea this was her way of doing the same thing, simply because of how reckless it was from the beginning.
“This isn’t punishment,” Ezekiel says quietly to me. “Not telling us her plan was punishment, but that’s possibly for never believing in her,” he guesses.
“She took the full brunt of his power,” Pride is saying from behind us. “That alone will weaken her for us. Stop fretting. You’re embarrassing me.”
Discord between the twins is a positive sign.
For the first time during this nightmarish ordeal, I watch with interest instead of dread.
Cain’s eyes blaze over as the flames finish coursing into his body, and he drops to the ground as all the fire subsides, the lava drops to the pit, and the ground begins to seal back up.
Smoke smolders from his body as he sizzles, and only the slightest groan from him signals he’s still alive at all as he goes limp.
Paca, through a billowing waft of smoke, stands, staggering just barely like she’s exerted herself, and lifts one fist into the air.
The crowd bounces to its feet, and in unison, they all roar in celebration. They chant her name with twice the enthusiasm, hands raised high.
A single drop of blood drips from her mouth, the only sign she’s taken damage. It’s enough to make the dread manifest inside me once again.
“Take her down while she’s wounded, before she recovers and wins this entire damn thing!” Lucifer snaps.
The twins smirk like that single drop of black blood has inspired their belief in their skills once again, their hesitance gone.
I only briefly glimpse the look of confidence before they blink out.
Manella is watching with his own smirk, as Lucifer stands and paces off to the side, cursing the skull, ranting at it like this is all its fault. I understand why people think Lucifer was being influenced now. He seems to be under the control of someone when he loses his shit.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that skull has power over him. However, I do know better, and now I see the sort of effect Paca truly has on his balance.
He’s that desperate to keep her in Hell and not risk losing her to a battle someone else was supposed to fight. His selfish motives make her his favorite. That’s probably the real reason she didn’t bother telling him her plan before she executed it five centuries ago.
She probably knew he’d never allow it, and she wisely assumed he’d find a way to interfere.
As the twins emerge below, I take a steadying breath, put my elbows on my knees, and study Paca as she hides the pain and wipes the blood away with the back of her hand.
She grins over at them, but they just smirk back at her.
Two against one.
Two of the strongest.
Pride and Greed.
She’s wounded.
She’s visibly fatigued.
And they’ve got the Devil on their side.
“She should get to have us by her side for this one,” Jude says as though he’s trying to reason with Lucifer.
“No! No!” Lucifer snaps as he slams the skull into the ground, shattering it as he stomps on the pieces. “No! No! No!”
He then starts slapping the side of his own head, still pacing, as his eyes go wild. He clutches the edge of the balcony we’re in, and he shouts down toward the twins, as roses rain down on them and Cain gets dragged out.
“Stop hesitating! Put her in her place! Show her what a shadow of her former self she truly is!” he barks like he’s maddened.
“This is going to be ugly,” I state quietly to no one, while I steel myself for what’s to come, dreading it with everything in me.
An ominous cloud rolls overhead as though we needed any more foreboding warnings.
Chapter 10
EZEKIEL
I didn’t understand what it meant to fall in love with The Apocalypse until this moment.
The four of us were probably put through a lot of the worst torture in our former lives, and we’d likely been numbed to the feelings that accompany helplessness.
In this life, however, being helpless is new and maddening.
“One hit! One hit! One hit!” the crowd chants.
The roses for the twins are even less than the amount thrown for Hera, and they’re clearly irked by that, since they’re paying more attention to the bouquet count than The Apocalypse, who is rolling her shoulders back like she’s preparing herself to take another hit and get back up.
“Don’t take the hit this time!” I shout like it’ll do any good.
“Don’t interfere with my training!” she calls back, waving at us with a toothy smile she has no idea is bloodied black.
I grimace, and Jude shudders out a breath as he shuts his eyes and massages his temples.
He’s unsurprisingly unhinged by all this. Out of the four of us, Jude is the one who hates feeling helpless the most. It puts him at odds with her the most too.
Paca’s already scandalous, purple battle dress has been ripped up even higher on her sides than it already was. Her face is smudged with ash and scorched soil. Her blonde hair is filthy from the same.
The dress has rips and tears, showing off far more of her body than it already did, and it’s driving me insane that our shameless girlfriend doesn’t realize how much her power and appeal is driving the devious males in these stands mad with lust.
I want to kill every leering son of a bitch with my bare hands right now. If my power wasn’t stifled by the motherfucking Devil, I’d have them at war with each other.
Honestly, I’ve been trying to do it for a while. I’d like them all to be recycled by this point.
Greed distracts me from my own thoughts as he lifts his hand above his head, the tail of his long coat whipping in the wind, and a…wand appears.
“Are you fucking kidding me with this?” Gage asks as he stares dubiously at the hell-spawn, who is literally waving a wand in the air.
“Fun fact: He’s obsessed with Lord Voldemort. He swapped his weapon for a wand a while back. Don’t let it fool you. He really channels a lot of power through it,” Lamar chirps.
How is anything fun about that fact?
Paca quirks an eyebrow. “Let me guess…you two share a broom ride too,” she tells Pride, who narrows his eyes.