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She sat back down heavily and gestured toward the seat beside me, inviting me to sit. “You must understand, we are desperate to find a way out of this place.”
“I honestly wouldn’t have guessed by the way your people live. I don’t know what I expected of Hell, but definitely not cities.”
“Survival, Sarakiel. What we have here is a hovel compared to the Citadel. We have some small comforts, but make no mistake—this is Hell. From the moment you claw your way out of the Pit; the pain, the suffering, the heart-wrenching loneliness. It’s enough to drive most mad. You, however… you are unharmed.”
“I was able to use my Light to heal my wounds. From what I’ve been told, that’s not the norm.”
“No, it is not. We are not able to heal damage done to our bodies. It remains, lingers—it scars and marks us as demons, enabling the transformation into what we have all become. You can hardly blame me for believing a savior had come at last, able to not only endure, but also heal the pains of egress.”
“So, every single demon down here had to dig their way out?”
Missolis nodded. “Dig through the walls. It’s that simple, and that difficult. Many angels don’t make it through, and with no Light to sustain them…”
The pile of bones.
I shuddered as I thought of all the angels who had not made their way out, and I wondered if I would have joined them had I not heard Azaroth’s voice on the other side. That thought was quickly kicked aside and replaced by images of Gadriel; a quiet flash of wings, a pair of inquisitive eyes, a lip curled into a grin.
Had she made it out? Or were her remains counted among the bones I had landed on?
As much as I hoped she was not dead, I wasn’t sure that becoming a demon was a kinder fate. Missolis certainly didn’t seem to think so.
“I don’t suppose we can go back out that way? To get into Heaven, I mean.”
“There is no going back into the Pit; the path a demon carves through it closes as soon as they emerge and there is no way to dig back in, though some have tried.” She paused, examining me once more, but this time with curiosity rather than disdain. “How did you end up in the Pit?”
“I did promise I would tell you, but I’m afraid you won’t believe me.”
“I will believe a great many things, Sarakiel.” Her eyes lowered. “Try me.”
There was so much to tell, I wasn’t sure where to start. Did I start on Earth? Did I mention Abaddon? It seemed logical to start at the beginning, but I figured it was easier to start at the end and work backwards as more questions came. “It was Lucifer.”
She didn’t immediately react to that revelation either. “Go on.”
“I went to the Pit to try stop an insane Archangel from absorbing his essence. Instead, the Archangel freed Lucifer. Lucifer killed him and threw me into the Pit.”
“So, it’s true.”
“What’s true?” I frowned.
“Lucifer escaped his prison.”
“You already knew?”
“We’d heard rumors from the demons still loyal to him, but we’d put it down to blind fanaticism. Now that you’ve confirmed it…well, it puts us in a precarious position.”
I cocked my head, wordlessly questioning her.
“Think about it,” she continued, “The majority of the demons here were sentenced to the Pit for joining his rebellion. They’ve been biding their time, amassing their forces and hoping for his return. My rebels rejected God, and then also rejected Lucifer. We are stuck in the middle, and likely will be the first to fall at the hands of Lucifers army. Our need to escape has become even more urgent, Sarakiel.”
An army of demons set loose upon the world. The thought sent a cold chill up my spine as I recalled Lucifer’s words; he’d wanted a Lieutenant, and he thought he had found one in Abaddon—my Abaddon.
They will call you King of the Ashes.
That was what the Oracle, Ariuk, had told him before turning on me to deliver his final prophecy: I would be the one to end his reign. At the time I had believed it, but the Tyrant—Abaddon—was not the same angel he was back then. The Guardian who had defended Helena’s bastion and tried to stop Medrion with his own life couldn’t possibly raze the Earth, could he?
“I have to go back,” I said.
“Back?”
