Lucifer coughed as if to remind the god that he had a plan for me as well.
The evidence became solid right in front of me—this god and the devil had always worked together.
The Great Merge was a monkey show, a war game they played before breaking and ending worlds.
“Celeste,” Lucifer said. His voice was like dark music that no human could create. It sent chills down my spine, yet it was enchanting beyond measure. “Do you know your own history?”
I sneered, yet a curious part of me wanted to hear his version.
“There’s a prophecy about you, about the birth of one of the most powerful beings to ever exist. It says you’ll tear the universe apart,” he said, ignoring my attitude. “I ignored the prophecy for too long since I didn’t think it was possible that you could exist. A demon and a god can’t and shouldn’t mate since they’re opposing forces. Offspring can’t be produced from such a forbidden union, yet you were conceived, born to the world, and blossomed to power. You defy the fundamental laws of the universe and rules of all the gods.”
The elemental had warned me that both the demons and the gods would either make me their weapon or make sure I was dead, as I was possibly the biggest threat to their status quo.
My heart rammed into my rib cage, yet I adapted a relaxed pose, ready to attack.
“And you didn’t come from just any demon and god,” Lucifer continued. “You were born of the true King of Titans and Queen of Fallen Angels, the two most powerful beings of those opposing forces. The gods’ and demons’ royal blood flows in you. My former queen cloaked your power to keep you from the attention of the world. She even exiled herself to a place no one could search for her to hide you from me.”
Until the Ritual of the Blood Rune broke the seal in me.
“You should have no fear of me, Celeste,” said the silver-tongued devil. “I’m not a god, and I detest their race.” He spared Ares a glance, and Ares smirked like a savage wolf. “I am not wary of the unknown or of dark things. What the gods fear, I embrace. And I have use for you in my realm. I’m going to bring you home.”
Terror infused me, and panic choked me.
Once he’d brought me to Hell, he would make sure that the old Marigold died and Celeste rose in her place. I would never see my mates again, or if I did, it would be worse. I would be the ultimate weapon against them.
My blood turned cold as a glacier.
“You got the wrong girl, dude,” I said. Wrath and fear burned hot and cold in me at once. “I’m not fucking Celeste.”
Ares laughed, doubled over.
“Has anyone ever called you ‘dude’ in your entire terrifying existence, Lucifer?” he asked. “No one has ever dared to curse in front of you either, yet your niece—also your stepdaughter—defied all of your rules, as she did mine within seconds of our first meeting. I told you she’s a spitfire who has no reverence for anything or anyone. She thinks she’s at the top of the food chain.”
“Isn’t she?” the devil said softly, his green eyes, which looked just like mine, never left me. “She knows her birthright.”
While the two punks fixated on me, they abandoned sucking the remaining energy from the elemental. The realm’s color stopped fading further.
“Return the power you stole from the elemental,” I demanded. “You have no right to take what’s not yours. The elemental is just as ancient as you.”
“Yet you do not know his name,” Lucifer said with a mocking smile. “He’s called Septum, the elemental of magic and time. He left the deep Void, where your father was imprisoned and your mother visited, and stepped onto Earth—exiling himself permanently. Since he couldn’t return to the Void, he built the Realm of Ever. Septum should blame himself for his curiosity. We’ve been looking for him for an eon, and then he summoned you to take a look at you and appease his stupid curiosity again, and thus exposed himself to us.”
So these two evildoers had combined forces to force their entry into Ever and sap the elemental’s juice.
If Septum hadn’t tried to warn and opened the portal for me, they would never have found him.
“We’ve been waiting for you right here, Marigold,” Ares said. “I knew you’d come. I know what makes you tick. You’re predictable. A superior being like you shouldn’t grow attached to anything or anyone, but you even cling to your mortal friends. You’d die for them if the situation called for it. And that’s your fatal weakness. You’re too soft. You can’t even leave an ancient elemental behind. When he called, you came.”
“Not everyone is a prick like you,” I said.
Septum hadn’t lured me to the trap. On the contrary, he’d warned me to run.
Child, you can still run, Septum said.Let me hold them off with the last of my magic.
No, I won’t run. I can—wecan—take them down with our combined forces, like what they did,I told the elemental.Just tell me how to merge my demon and Titan powers.
You’ll need to mate with all of your true mates to ignite the Living Flame, Septum said.The five of you make the complete ring of elemental forces.
Fuck! Fuck!