“I concede. You win,” he tells her.
Her eyes widen, but he siphons out. I turn around just as he lands back in his seat, leaning his head over on Lamar’s shoulder.
“Wake me if it gets interesting,” he tells Lamar, who pats his head like he’s done something special.
“He really should have been made with more pride,” one of the twins says as he wrinkles his nose in disappointment.
“Get your ass back down here and fight me, Manella!” Paca shouts.
“No thanks. Too tired,” Manella murmurs sleepily…before he starts snoring.
Unreal.
As the roses get cleaned up, Lilith appears below, smirking as she holds up her fingernails like she’s trying to show off her purple polish.
Paca sucks in an indignant breath. “Purple is my color,” our psychotic girlfriend says in a very angry tone…because her priorities are such a pain in the ass.
“She wonders why I’m so pissed all the time,” I say on a frustrated groan as I lay my head over on my arms. “I don’t know if I can watch this one if she’s going to be this reckless the whole time.”
My knees bounce as I listen to the first crackle of power, refusing to look. I really wish I knew what fucking bug crawled up her ass to make her think we deserve this torture.
Chapter 8
GAGE
This is the worst fucking day we’ve had in Hell…at least in this lifetime.
Paca’s really pissed about the absurd volume of roses that Lilith gets showered with…from what seems like over half the audience.
The air heats, and Paca’s hands come up to her throat, as an airy, dark mist consumes the space around them.
“What the actual fuck is that?” I snap.
“I don’t know. I’m not watching this one,” Jude growls.
I glance over to see him literally ducking his head, keeping his eyes closed, as he radiates nervous tension.
If he thinks it’s bad for him, he should feel what it’s like when you fucking love the damn reckless, vengeful girl who hasn’t even told us our crimes yet.
Everyone knows we’re being punished.
We simply don’t know why.
My eyes flick back over to Paca as she drops to her knees, mouth wide as her eyes bulge, and she claws at her neck like she can’t breathe. I had no idea Lilith had this weapon in her arsenal. Paca went in unprepared, because no one wants to talk about the power of the Royals. Not even Lamar would prepare us as much as we needed to be prepared.
“Envy is a consuming poison to the human heart. Concentrated in Hell, where Lilith is strongest, it’s a true, toxic poison,” Lamar states from behind us.
“That would have been useful information before the battle,” Ezekiel snaps, glaring back at Lamar.
“I instructed him to not give you any deep counsel,” Lucifer says, as he shushes the skull like it’s talking to him.
I don’t know what’s up with him today. He’s even crazier than usual.
“When his children fight, he…loses a lot of balance,” Lamar says when he sees me staring at the fallen angel with a black soul.
He swallows thickly when the Devil cuts his solid black eyes toward us and grins in the creepiest possible way.
I cut my own gaze away, shivering as the creeped-out chill slithers up my spine.
Just as I return my attention to Paca, even though it’s painful to do, there’s a powerful explosion, and flames block the view below.
“What’s going on? What’d I miss?” I gripe, leaning forward as much as I’m allowed.
Fucking Devil. Why is not surprising that he loves our torture?
He even laughs a little when he sees me struggling to get closer to the edge, trying to see through the flames.
“Paca’s not going to be able to take Lilith down so easily,” Lucifer says around a cackle. “She’ll be humbled this time for sure—”
The flames clear all at once, and Paca is standing over Lilith with a smile as she wrings out her hand. Lilith is unconscious on the ground, face bloodied like she’s been physically pummeled.
Lucifer’s smile falls as he stops speaking, and his eyes go flat as his lips thin.
“She’s been holding back in her sessions with Rafael, then. How is she powering up this quickly?” he growls, glaring over at us as though we’re also keeping secrets from him.
My eyes move back to Paca, mostly because I can’t help myself. The smug look in her eyes as she stares up at us is enough to make my own jaw grind.
Is this our punishment for doubting her?
“I bet you wish you’d bought me roses now!” she calls up.
“I’m going to fucking strangle her,” Jude snaps, still not looking, as he stays slumped over with his head buried in his arms.
Paca kicks a foot up on Lilith’s chest and raises two fists in the air, sending the stunned crowd into a steady roar of applause. It’s unsurprising to see Hell’s favor is fickle for its champions.
“Apocalypse! Apocalypse! Apocalypse!” the bloodthirsty, savage crowd chants.
“She’s not wrong,” Kai states flatly, drawing my attention as he turns to look back at Lamar. “Can you open a portal and dump roses out there on our behalf?”
Lamar gives us a dead look. “You seem to misunderstand how my powers work.”
“I don’t understand your powers at all,” Ezekiel points out. “Can you do it or not?”
Lamar sighs heavily. “No. I purchased those roses and preloaded them for this event to cheer on my man like a good boyfriend does,” he tells us primly, throwing that dig in there. “It’s common courtesy to bring your champion roses, no matter what era,” he drones on.
I scrub a hand over my face, turning back to face Paca, as Lilith is carried off by her newest harem, who’ve come to collect her.
“I can’t believe we’re all fucking panicking about not buying roses and talking about it this fucking much!” Jude snaps, lifting his head to glare down at our petty, childish, hell-spawn girlfriend, who is walking with a sassy gait.
“Cain, show no mercy,” Lucifer says in a cold tone.
He hugs his skull to him, still glaring below.
“Didn’t plan on it,” Cain states as he stands, stretches, downs his final bottle of booze, pops a few questionable pills, snorts a line of something, eats his eighth burger, and finally disappears from sight.
I wonder if we’ve been witnessing the embodiment of gluttony power-up on all his favorite binge-worthy things.
“This is all insane,” Ezekiel whispers to me, cutting his eyes around. “She gets sucked in too easily to Hell’s antics.”
I nod, but then I shake my head. “She learns more about her powers when she’s in real combat where she doesn’t trust the opponent,” I point out.
“She doesn’t trust anyone but us,” Kai dutifully reminds us.
“I expected more of a challenge from Lilith,” Jude says, not acknowledging our conversation.
“Clearly, since you covered your eyes like a little bitch boy in a horror movie,” the twins state in unison.
Jude cuts a glare toward their smirking faces, as they fist bump each other and waggle their eyebrows.
“Seeing Death cower in fear was more entertaining than the fight. I hope you do it again, considering I’m greedy and enjoyed that immensely,” the embodiment of Greed tells us.
“I was embarrassed for you,” the other twin says with a shudder, proving, possibly for the first time, that they don’t have one coherent mind they share. “Have some pride,” the embodiment of Pride adds.
My lips twitch when I worry Jude’s head is going to blow off his shoulders with the visible fury that is vibrating his body. His jaw tics, his fists clench, but he forces himself to return his attention to the arena, same as the rest of us.
Cain is stepping under the shower of roses being provided for him, lifting his arms to signal for the crowd to cheer louder for him. He needs as much praise as he does other things, it seems.
“Gluttony is fierce in battle. Considering it has more influence over the world at current, aside from Greed and Pride, it shouldn’t be so easy for my secretive daughter,” Lucifer bites out. “A daughter who fails miserably at deception but has fooled me into believing her weaker.”
“I think she just relies too heavily on muscle memory, and is recording each new subconscious action she can later reuse on purpose,” Pride points out. “It’s a shit battle plan.”
“Cain won’t give up the praise of the crowd so easily, though. He’ll go all out,” Greed states, smirking. “Then it’ll be our turn.”
A knot twists in my stomach, and I slink down in my seat, forcing myself to watch, even though I’d like to shield my eyes.
“We tried to stop her. We used our best manipulation tactic, considering it’s Paca, and she walked away like she wasn’t tempted,” Kai tells us, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
This. Is. Miserable.
Utterly miserable.
I know it’s Hell, but…this is the worst it’s been so far.
My knee bounces as Paca merrily struts in a circle, not paying any attention to her opponent as she hums the Super Mario Brothers theme song.
Cain catches a bottle of booze that’s thrown at him and scratches his balls as he drinks it, eyes on her like he’s considering how much of a power surge he needs.
This doesn’t look like a bloodthirsty battle between ruthless siblings. It looks like a bad comedy routine that mocks Hell.
“I can’t tell if she’s overconfident or simply her reckless self,” I snap.
“Neither would be considered a compliment, and we’re in enough trouble, apparently. Keep your mouth shut,” Ezekiel gripes, glaring over at me as though I’m going to somehow make this worse than it is.
“No fighting, boys. The Horsemen need a certain unity, or things get a little toxic,” Greed informs us a little too smugly. I don’t look back at him as he adds, “And we wouldn’t want the vicious audience and underground tribe getting bold enough to rush the arena when your girlfriend is frozen in her physical form, fatigued from her concentrated bursts of power, and trapped below, now would we?”
Paca stops dancing in a circle, which is what ceases our own argument. Cain carelessly tosses the empty bottle over his shoulder, and he smirks when it shatters.
Two gold, ornate daggers appear in his hands. They both have gems that begin to glow red as he tilts his head, still smirking at Paca.
With a quick spin move, he flings the daggers, and as Paca throws up a wall of fire to shield herself, the gems get brighter and brighter as they near it.
Just when I think they’re going to collide with the fire wall, they stop and stab into the ground.
It’s almost anti-climactic…for a second.
“Ooooh, he’s damn serious. Going big right off the bat,” Pride says as though he’s excited.