Page 93 of All's Hell That Ends Well

The entire first week, I’d been on high alert, my guard up, expecting Lucifer to revert to his old behavior toward me. By the second week, when Lucifer had welcomed an influx of my warriors and courtiers to temporarily step in and take over tasks and positions that had been abandoned, the adamantine wall of my emotional armor slowly started to crack.

Time and again, he involved me in decisions and jobs that required trust and appreciation. He almost treated me like his second-in-command. That position, too, had been abandoned for years, apparently, though Zoe had mentioned that Samael had claimed to have taken over.

Looking at the things Lucifer requested I handle, it seemed my grandfather disagreed. The duties I’d been carrying out for the past two weeks practically made me his right hand.

I had yet to mention that, as honorable as the position might be, it was incompatible with my being an archdemon.

I would stay and help Lucifer reestablish his authority and get his house in order, but I did have my own domain to return to and govern. I’d fought too hard for my position of archdemon to then relegate myself to being Lucifer’s right-hand demon. The little boy I’d once been might have dreamed of this, but I’d long grown out of that wish. I appreciated the independence and sovereignty my role as archdemon brought me far more.

For now, to be able to remain in Lucifer’s territory and assist him, I’d handed things over to my own second-in-command, whom I trusted to be able to run my estate and the day-to-day tasks of ruling an archdemonacy. Verrin was a highly capable seraph who’d served under me for nigh on a thousand years, following me in rank as I’d climbed the hierarchy, and she’ddone a perfect job holding down the fort during the time I’d spent in Heaven recently.

With her at the helm in my home territory, I’d been free to aid Lucifer in the monumental task of tackling the mess that had become of his domain.

Because it wasn’t just his palace that had fallen into chaos and disrepair. The neglect had trickled down into other parts of his territory, with demons taking liberties without fear of punishment, the rule of law breaking down in some areas, and higher-ranking lords warring beyond what was proper. There had been annexations of land and seizures of resources that weren’t backed up by regulations, and the conflicts arising from that had thinned the ranks of Lucifer’s demons…because in spite of long-held traditions and laws, without anyone to rein them in, they’d started killing each other.

In response, Lucifer had indeed bathed in blood.

His wrath had cut through the lands, drenching the black soil in crimson, and by the end of the first week, he’d added dozens to both his wing collection and the rows of prisoners chained beneath the glass floor of his entrance hall. He’d also hunted down those demons who’d left their posts at his court, who’d taken Lucifer’s yearslong lethargy as permission to abandon their duties and simply pack their things and go somewhere else. It spoke to their lack of character that they’d run as soon as no one supervised them closely anymore.

Most of them, he was able to locate, and he dragged them back and painted the floor of his throne room with their blood before he demoted them to the lowest of tasks. A few, though, he wasn’t able to find, no traces of their whereabouts. It was like they’d vanished into thin air.

Notably, those were the demons who’d always been the most loyal to Lucifer.

With so many of his people either missing or having proved unreliable, there was a dearth of competent demons to fill important roles. In a show of trust and as testament to their age-old bond, Lucifer had accepted Daevi’s offer to transfer a good number of her own staff and warriors to Lucifer’s service, until younger talent could be nurtured and promoted from Lucifer’s own ranks.

For as soon as Lucifer had started taking back the reins, I’d not only sent out word to my own domain to set up management for my absence, but I’d also contacted Daevi to let her know that Lucifer had come out of his apathy. She’d arrived a day later with much of her senior staff, ready to give counsel and resources to her former lover and father of her child.

When I’d later offered to lend him some of my staff and warriors as well, he’d accepted, much to my surprise.

With the support of two archdemons, Lucifer had brought order back to his territory in the span of two weeks. Repairs on the palace had started. Resources had been reallocated. There was a buzz in his halls, a new sense of purpose, woven through with threads of fearful respect.

They were, once more, afraid of him, displaying the kind of dread and deference that powered empires.

And the most subservient of all, the most eager to please and prove himself, was the demon who currently strode into the throne room, trailed by two chained prisoners.

Samael went down on one knee in greeting to his father, his silver-white hair sliding forward as he bowed his head. When he rose again, his gaze tracked to me for a moment, and with a flash of darkness in his blood-red eyes, he inclined his head.

My nostrils flared slightly. “Bow,” I said succinctly before he could utter a single word.

It wasn’t the first time he’d shown me disrespect by not greeting me properly. As an archdemon, I outranked him, and asimple incline of the head was not a sufficient show of deference. I’d run into him twice in the weeks that I’d been here, and each time, he’d tried to get away with a veiled insult delivered in the greeting.

Hell would freeze over again before I’d let that slide.

Muscles feathered along Samael’s jaw as he stared at me for a second, then he sketched a shallow bow.

Not enough.

“Lower,” I purred. “Or do you have a back condition?”

He sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, his teeth clearly gritted hard. But he did bow lower, all the way to the angle that was appropriate given our difference in rank.

Oh, how it must have galled him.

And how it stroked all the parts of me that still bore the emotional scars from the way he’d sneered at and mocked me when I’d been but a youth at Lucifer’s court, Samael a full-grown adult. He’d been one of the worst. Merciless and relentless in his cruelty. He’d been an up-and-coming demon, a favored child of Lucifer’s, who’d made it a sport to pick on the powerless scapegoat of the court.

I would never tire of making him bow before me now.

Even with the head start he’d had of being older and further up in rank, I had surpassed him, had reached the position of archdemon, while he remained a seraph under another’s command. Petty it might be, but I lived for those moments when I was able to rub my success and triumph in his face.

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