Page 136 of All's Hell That Ends Well

When I glanced at Azazel, his features were harsh, his eyes promising murder as he glared at Samael.

He’d wondered about how it had been possible for the archdemons to amass their troops unseen, and now he had his answer. Samael had worked behind the scenes to undermine the security fixes Azazel and Daevi had tried to install.

Ashtaroth turned to the crowd once more. “And Samael’s impressive work right under Lucifer’s nose is more proof of our former king’s decline and negligence.” She bared her teeth, her crimson eyes sparking. “How feeble must he have been, how blind and complacent, that he would be oblivious to such subterfuge happening within his own palace’s walls?” Stepping closer to Lucifer again, she casually spat at him.

Fury roared through me, and I jerked, wanting to jump to my feet. Azazel grabbed me by the elbow and held me back.

“Zoe,” he hissed, his voice so hushed only I would hear. “Stop. You won’t help him.”

“Then what can we do?” I replied in an equally low tone while Ashtaroth continued deriding Lucifer in front of the crowd. “I told her about the power. I explained why she mustn’t kill us, and she laughed in my face. I thought maybe she’d see reason, but she thinks I made it all up to save ourselves.”

“Of course she’d think that,” Azazel muttered. “She only deals in lies and manipulation, so that’s what she expects from everybody else. And even if she considered the possibility that there’s some truth to your words, she can’t change course now. She’s riled up the crowd. She’s tied the legitimacy of her claim to the throne to her executing us. There’s too much pressure now to deviate from her plan. She needs to follow through.”

“We need to stall her,” I whispered, despair and panic gripping me tight. “Maybe Daevi and Verrin will get here soon. They’ll only be facing two archdemons now, so the odds are evened out a bit.”

“No.” Azazel shook his head, his face hard. “They won’t be here fast enough. Ashtaroth will not allow a further delay.There’s only one thing left to do.” Black bled into his storm-colored eyes. “We use the power.”

CHAPTER 39

My eyes widened. My pulse stuttered. “We’ll killeveryonein here. All those demons from your and Daevi’s territories, all the good ones from this estate”—I swallowed hard—“andLucifer.”

“I will not stand by when she kills you.” His voice barely above a growl, he took my bound hands in his. “I told you once that I would tear all of Hell apart for you. I would raze this place to the ground with everyone in it if it saved your life, without thinking twice.Youare my priority. You may think me ruthless, you may call me vicious, but it won’t change my devotion to keeping you safe.”

I sucked in a shuddering breath, my chest aching as I looked at him. Even dirt-streaked, his skin flecked with blood, his hair unkempt and dull from the dust of the collapsed room, he was the most striking male I’d ever seen. Harshly beautiful as he was, to the point where looking at him for long would stir an ache in my heart, he held my soul—however, not because of his physical perfection, but for the core of his character.

The beauty of his heart far outshone the one on the outside. When I’d first met him, I could never have guessed at the depth of his personality, at all the vulnerable and wonderful pieces ofhimself he used to hide behind the cold mask he’d had to wear for so long. I could never have foreseen that he would open my eyes and heart in ways that made me grow above and beyond myself. He was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and he loved me with a passion I still couldn’t fathom.

He’d become my home, my everything, and Iwould notlet him go.

He was right that this was our only choice. With our regular demon powers still suppressed by the shackles, we had to use the chilling force of death inside us to defeat Ashtaroth and her ilk. Azazel’s burning devotion to raze all of Hell for my sake aside, it was the hard but necessary decision in order to save everyone else beyond this hall.

My throat tight, I nodded and whispered, “Agreed.”

At least now, I went into this decision knowing the consequences—contrary to when I’d used the power earlier, when I’d meant to save Shemyaza and the others and instead had ended up killing them. This time, saving our people here wasn’t even an option, not when my and Azazel’s dying might trigger a chain reaction of death anyway.

As rational as this reasoning was, I knew there’d be an emotional reckoning for me later. I didn’t want to think about how this decision would haunt me, and yet my eyes strayed to the kneeling demons, some of whom I recognized from my time in Azazel’s territory. I saw them all so differently now compared to when I’d first entered Hell as a human. These were my kind now. My people. And when Azazel and I had agreed to succeed Lucifer on the throne, we’d also accepted responsibility for ruling them as best we could. These demons’ lives were entrusted to us.

And now we might snuff them all out.

I would bear their deaths on my conscience to make sure Azazel and everyone outside of this room lived, yes. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t feel it to the depths of my soul.

Then my eyes found Lucifer, whom I’d avoided looking at, because his death, above all, would shatter me the most. For his life to end, now, when he’d just found Lilith again, when he’d been so close to seeing her, to starting a new life—his last—at her side, it would break something fragile in me.

He caught my gaze while Ashtaroth basked in her impending glory, and whatever he must have seen on my face made his own soften in understanding. He gave me a slow, subtle nod, and it caused the first cracks in that fragile piece within me.

Heart heavy, I turned back to Azazel. He’d been looking at Lucifer, too, and the same anguish that ripped through me darkened his expression. A ping of sorrow came across the bond, though it was overlaid by determination.

“I believe we can make it,” he whispered. “We can spare the ones we want to live.”

“How?” A sob built in my throat. “It didn’t work before.”

“We just need to focus. When you used it earlier, you did so alone. Now, we’ll do it together. You and me. We can tame and direct it, I’m sure.” He grasped my hands again and kissed my knuckles. “You worked on your concentration and precision with Lucifer, and you learned to handle your new demon powers in record time. I know you can do this, too. Just follow my lead. If we set our minds on something, if we work together, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.” He laid his forehead against mine. “Faith, Zoe. You just need to have faith.”

I choked out a humorless laugh. “So you’re still holding on to divine providence?”

Framing my face with both hands, he withdrew enough to meet my gaze. “Faith in us, love. If you don’t believe in anything else, believe in us. Because I do.”

I took a shuddering breath. “Faith,” I murmured and nodded.

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