Page 70 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“You dare,” Daevi hissed.

Ashtaroth’s gleaming red eyes traced to Daevi. “I do. Where is the lie?”

“He has been in mourning,” Daevi shot back. “As is his right.”

“Taking time to grieve is all good and well,” Abaddon spoke up. The host of this meeting leaned back in his chair, his curly brown hair tumbling around a face the color of Sahara sand, his massive shoulders lifting in a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean he can shirk his duties forever. It’s been years. His open disregard for his responsibilities is starting to become a cause for concern.”

“Perhaps it is not so much a question of willful disregard,” Ashtaroth purred, “but rather of potency.”

Daevi sucked in a breath, and I kept a tight hold on my energy, which churned inside me. Around the table, various sounds of visceral reactions were audible—Ashtaroth had just raised the idea that Lucifer’s powers were weakening. Not just his authority, but his actual, innate magic.

If Lucifer had been present, he would have had cause to execute her for that insinuation.

“You should hold your tongue,” Daevi said roughly.

“Why?” Ashtaroth leaned forward. “Will he come and punish me for my words?”

A deliberate challenge…going unheard because Lucifer wasn’t here.

Of course, her statement could be reported to him later, and he might act on it then. A few years ago, that would have most definitely been the case.

But even if Daevi or someone else told Lucifer of Ashtaroth’s disrespect, it wasn’t a sure thing anymore that he’d actually punish her. Not after years of him having withdrawn from public view and letting more and more things slide.

Ashtaroth knew this, which made her bold.

The others knew it, too, some shifting their weight uncomfortably. Lucifer had ruled Hell with an iron fist for thousands upon thousands of years, and this realm had never existed without him being the one in charge, powerful, fearsome, his authority uncontested.

Sure, he’d had to establish his rule in the beginning and had soaked the ground with the blood of those who hadn’t immediately shown the respect he demanded—be it to him or to Lilith. But even during those initial days of cementing his power, it had been an unchallenged fact that he would reign supreme, such had been his command of others, the air of dominance he carried. Everyone knew he was the one to control all of Hell, and whatever battles he’d had to fight at the start were not in question of that fact, but rather in order to enforce thelevelof respect he required of his subjects.

Daevi had spoken at length of those times when this realm had been newly born, recounting her years spent at Lucifer and Lilith’s side, which is how I’d come to know of it all. Like humans, we had our own rich history, tales of battle and blood in eons past, only the ones who’d been alive to see it were mostly still alive today, and they told the stories themselves.

At any rate, in our collective memory, there’d never truly been a time when Lucifer wasn’t the supreme ruler, and his power had never faltered.

To have that certainty challenged would be deeply uncomfortable for many of us. Like all long-lived species, we abhorred change. Especially one of this magnitude.

Others around the table didn’t seem thusly affected, however. Besides Ashtaroth, both Baal and Gadreel appeared almost eager, and Abaddon had a glint in his eye that spoke of barely hidden ambition.

Underneath the table, I clenched my hand into a fist, my magic snapping at its leash.

Part of the anger inside me was directed at Lucifer, for losing his grip on his power, his reputation, his authority. Howdarehe let himself go like this? He, who’d drilled the need into me to appear strong at all costs during those formative years at his court. Who’d sneered at me when the older, more powerful demons had once again made me the ridicule of the crowd.

Grow a spine, he’d snarled at me when I’d asked him for help.And banish that angel side of yours deep, boy. It will be of no use to you here. They will take it for a weakness.

Such had been his fixation on appearances, on presenting the world with an unassailable shield of strength and never letting it slip, only for him to now display an unprecedented dismissal of the very foundations on which he’d built his empire.

I didn’t believe for a minute that his powers were truly weakening. It wasn’t a matter of his magic losing potency—most assuredly, if he wanted to, he could still take out every single demon sitting in this room. He just couldn’t be bothered to care.

He likely still deemed himself untouchable, not realizing that it wasn’t a question of whether he himself believed that, but whether his archdemons did. Because as unchangingly powerful as he was in terms of raw strength, the right kind of trapand setup might yet see him overpowered by an alliance of archdemons.

And if Ashtaroth continued to spit her venom and sow doubts and discontent, she might just manage to make the general mood reach a tipping point. She’d still have to strike an alliance with the others to take Lucifer on, which would require enough of my fellow archdemons to set aside their differences long enough to act in unison—but stranger things had happened.

“Pride cometh before the fall,” I said softly, fixing Ashtaroth with a stare, unwilling to let Daevi be the only one arguing against Ash’s disrespect. “Underestimating him could prove to be your deadliest mistake.”

“Ah, Azazel.” Her wine-red lips—the same color as her eyes—pulled into a mocking smile. “I would have thought you the first to pounce on any sign of weakness in him. After all, you, maybe more than any of us, have such cause to bristle against his rule.”

Ignoring her jab at the way I’d suffered at his court, I gave her a cold smile. “Yet I seem to be among the few with enough sagacity not to dig my own grave.”

Something flashed in her dark eyes, and she tilted her head, the light glittering on her diamond-woven hair. “Pray tell, how is your lovely human doing? Wait, no, she’s not human anymore, is she? I heard she’s undergone quite a transformation, from human to angel to demon. And it seems our lord and master has claimed her for his own and pulled her into his direct service, far away from you.” She paused and added with a cruel glint in her eye, “You must be furious.”

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