Page 119 of All's Hell That Ends Well

My stomach sank with every second that ticked by, because I knew—and feared—the conclusion we’d all come to when we followed that thought to the end. Dread snaked its fingers around my spine, and my breath came faster.

Azazel opened his mouth to say something, but I caught his gaze and shook my head.

“No,” I whispered.

“Zoe—”

“Don’t.” More fear sliced into me, seeping into my veins and jumbling my thoughts. “Youcan’t.”

With panic icing my mind, I barely noticed how Azazel excused us for a moment, and then led me further away on the roof. There, in the shadow of an air vent, he pulled me into his arms and crushed me to him, squeezing me until those too-fast breaths stalled in my lungs.

He held me like that for a few dozen rapid beats of my heart, until some of the icy fog of panic cleared from my mind.

When he released me, he grasped me by the shoulders and hunched to be at eye level with me. “Breathe. Slowly.”

Just to be contrary, I sucked in a huge lungful of air.

He met my glare with an indulgent look and a small smile, which faded quickly, though, as he murmured, “It’s the only way.”

I shook my head. “There has to be someone else.”

“Who?” He raised his brows. “Naamah? She can’t very well take on the power of death when she needs to remain in the realm of Life.”

“Well, she’s not his only child, is she? He had five more!”

“Among them Samael, and the other four are nearly as rotten as he is.” His grim expression accentuated the hardness of his features. “I would trust none of them to hold and wield this kind of power. Naamah is the best of the lot, the only one who’s not self-serving and cruel for cruelty’s sake, but she’s out of the question for obvious reasons. And before you ask, my cousins aren’t better—they’re all very much like their parents. This power, in their hands…it would spell disaster. And in order to transfer this essence, they would have to be made privy to this entire conversation we just had, and they’d knowexactlyjust how powerful they would become. With any of them, there’s a high risk that they would use this force for nefarious purposes.”

I grabbed the front of his tunic. “What about Azmodea? She’s your twin. She’d be just as eligible as you, and she’s a good person. Demon. Whatever.”

He seemed to weigh that for a moment. “You’re right. She’d be physically able to hold this power, and she wouldn’t use it for evil. If you wish, I will ask her.” He laid his hand on my cheek, his warmth sinking into me. “But consider this—I am already poised to ascend the throne and rule all of Hell. With what we know now, it stands to reason that the power of death might have been the factor that has given Lucifer the advantage all this time, the aspect that made him so incredibly powerful that he’s been able to hold the throne for thousands upon thousands of years. If that is the case, then the one thing we can do to ensure that we will live long and healthy lives as king and queen is for me to take the power of death from Lucifer.”

I bit my lip. “Well, crap, you’re making a lot of sense.”

“All this time, Lucifer has had no idea exactly how powerful he truly is. He has likely only scratched the surface of the potential of this force, and it already made him the strongest and most feared demon in Hell. If he’d known how to access all of itand what he could do with it? He probably wouldn’t have had to contend with any shit from the archdemons over the millennia.”

“Because he could have just killed them with a thought.”

Azazel nodded slowly, his eyes glowing with an inner fire. “No need for battles, for armies, for personally getting involved. As Death, all he needs is a whisper of intent, and his enemies would dissolve into light.” He snapped his fingers to accentuate his point.

“That is some Thanos shit right there.” I raised my brows.

He laughed softly. “Except Lucifer doesn’t need a glove with Infinity stones to make it happen.”

I shivered, rubbing my upper arms as if to warm myself, though the chill I felt came from within. From the thought of how the world had likely dodged a huge bullet by Lucifer not knowing that he held this kind of power all this time. “I think Metatron and Shekinah had a point in not telling him.”

“Yeah,” Azazel said roughly. “Especially with how he used to be in the past. And if he’d known his true power level when Lilith was killed, he would have razed the world in an instant. With how out of it he was, he wouldn’t have cared.”

I closed my eyes and gulped. “You’re right,” I said after a moment, meeting his stormy gaze. “About taking the power. Politically speaking, youarethe best choice. I just… What if it hurts you? What if the part in you that is Lucifer’s blood is not strong enough to hold it all? You’re two generations removed from him. If this works like genetics do, then your heritage from Death is diluted twice, and that’s not taking into account that you’re half angel, which would work against that heritage to boot.”

His expression thoughtful, he considered my words. “That’s a valid concern,” he said eventually. “Though it would also apply to Azmodea as the only other option. She and I are both equally likely—or unlikely—to be able to hold that power safely, and ofus both, it would make more sense for me to take it for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Every choice here has potentially dangerous ramifications—if Lucifer keeps the power and won’t be able to reunite with Lilith, it might just erase what is left of his sanity and make him implode completely, with fatal consequences for the world. If we give this power to any of his other descendants, they might use it for evil. And if I or Azmodea take it on, there’s a risk that it could destroy us.”

I covered my face with both hands and groaned. “I hate this.”

“Hey.” He gently pried my hands off my face. His expression was far too calm for the shit we were discussing, and across the bond, I only felt a quiet reassurance, none of the dread that soured my blood. “I never thought I’d say this,” he murmured, the hint of a grin on his lips, “but I think this is a matter of faith.”

I blinked at him. “Huh?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “You know I’m not a fan of Heaven?—”

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