Page 101 of The Road to Hell

Had I ever really known her? Had she ever beenmine? Or had every smile, every laugh, every secret shared been a carefully curated lie, designed to keep me from seeing the truth?

My throat tightened, but I shoved the emotion down. This was not the time for that.

Instead, I turned my focus to the warriors who hadmyback.

Korrak stood like an unmovable mountain at my side, his massive brimlord frame radiating heat like a living volcano. He didn’t waver, didn’t flinch at Lucifer’s presence, his molten fissures pulsing steadily. War was all he had ever known. Hethrivedin it.

Varz stood just a few feet behind him, the netheron’s crimson skin gleaming under Hell’s burning light, his slitted golden eyes fixed ahead. Lucifer had bred the netherons for this, sculpted them for violence and bloodshed, but there was nothing calculative in his stance. He was waiting, watching for the right moment to strike.

Calder, as usual, looked unbothered. He’d loosely folded his arms and shifted his weight to one side, as if he were watching a play rather than standing on the brink of death. But I knew better. I’d fought beside him for long enough now. The moment chaos broke, he’d be the first one to move, slipping between the shadows, carving through our enemies before they even knew he was there.

Gorr prowled at my other side, a deep growl rolling through his chest. His massive body shifted restlessly, claws flexing, dark eyes locked onto Lucifer’s fallen as though he craved to crush them.

Sareth stood just behind him, her dark horns curving back, her coal-black eyes glittering with something akin to hunger. She lived for this—the game, the tension, the thrill of knowing death was breathing down our necks. But more than that, she lived forfreedom. And she had fought too hard to let Lucifer take it away from her now.

Mephisar and Sable loomed farther back, their sinuous forms coiling through the air, and black scales glistening as they waited for the command to strike.

Levi stood to my left, his golden hair gleaming like a damn beacon in the dim hellscape. He and I were the onlytruecelestials on this battlefield. And Lucifer’s gaze had shot to him more than once, assessing, calculating. Levi’s wings shifted slightly, his sword angled at his side.

And finally, Rathiel. He stood at my right, the same place he’d once stood for Lucifer.

But this time, it wasfor me.

By his own choice.

His wings stretched behind him, dark and formidable, a stark contrast to the celestial glow of Levi’s on my other side.

Lucifer took a step forward. Just one. The battlefield held its breath. His fallen did not move. His hellspawn did not shift. He was the only force that mattered. The only presence that dictated when this war would begin.

And yet—for the first time in history of Hell—he was not the only one with power here.

The rebellion had my back. They had put their trust in me, believed in me with such conviction. The presence of my generals, my soldiers, my people grounded me and gave me strength. As did their belief that I—not Lucifer—was the one worth following.

My father saw it, too.

He studied them. Studied me. And then, finally, his eyes cut back to Rathiel.

Lucifer tilted his head, his cold amusement barely masking the storm beneath. He let the silence stretch, let the weight of his attention settle on Rathiel like a blade poised at the throat.

And then, in a voice quiet but absolute, he said, “You disappoint me.”

Rathiel didn’t move. He simply held Lucifer’s gaze, his stance unwavering.

For anyone else, those words would have been enough to shatter them. Lucifer’s disappointment was a sentence worse than death. It was condemnation, annihilation. A promise that whatever came next would be painful, unyielding, unending.

But Rathiel didn’t cower.

Lucifer studied him for a long moment, his eyes gleaming with something dark, something deeply displeased.

“Tell me,” he called from across the field. “What lies did my sweet daughter offer you? Did she promise you your freedom?” A cutting smile curved his lips. “Did you truly believe I would let your betrayal stand?”

Rathiel lifted his chin and held my father’s gaze, unflinching. His defiance had struck a nerve, if my father’s thunderous expression was any indication. But he didn’t speak. Didn’t bother answering any of my father’s questions. It would be pointless to do so. Lucifer would warp Rathiel’s answers in any way he saw fit.

“You are a fool,” my father said. “And you will die alongside her.”

Rathiel’s lips curled slightly, the barest ghost of a smile. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Something in Lucifer snapped.

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