Page 124 of The Road to Hell

“I nearly died,” I stated matter-of-factly.

Levi bowed his head. “By now, we must assume Lucifer is livid. You’ve stolen not only Rathiel from him, but now Calyx. And you’ve killed Tavira, Zera, Gremory, and Raelia. This is more than enough reason for him to come looking for you personally. Again.”

Rathiel stiffened at my back, and his hands found my waist, pulling me closer to him.

“I might advise focusing first on your army,” Levi said. “To give you protection in numbers, before you take on the last three fallen. Seeking them out could bring you right into Lucifer’s path. Should that happen, we may not be enough to protect you from him.”

This time, my hand found Rathiel’s and I clutched it hard. My heart sputtered in my chest at the thought of my father getting his hands on me again. But after a few deep breaths, I nodded.

“Agreed. So, tell us, you’re the one who built the rebellion last time. Where do we start? What do we do?”

Levi’s mouth spread into a wide grin, and beside me, Eliza cleared her throat.

I shot her a glance, stunned to see the siren a bit red in the face. How…interesting.

“That’s the best part,” Levi said. “We don’t need to raise a rebellion. We need toresurrectyour old one.”

Everyone inside the tent fell silent as they digested that suggestion.

“Elaborate,” Rathiel said.

Levi studied Rathiel, then glanced at me. “This is Hell. Souls don’t move on from here. They don’t get peace. They stay.” He let that sink in before continuing, voice low but charged with certainty. “The soldiers who fought for you, the ones who died believing in you, their souls didn’t just disappear. They’re still here. Trapped.”

His jaw tightened. “I’ve visited the battlefield where Lucifer massacred your forces and I’ve felt their presence. I believe Lucifer is tormenting them. Punishing their souls for betraying him. For siding with you. If we can free them, we can bring them back.”

I frowned. “I don’t understand. How would we bring them back? They’re dead, are they not? They don’t have bodies. Those have long-since rotted. Right?” Or was I forgetting something?

“How does your father create hellspawn?”

My frown deepened. “He takes the souls of the newly damned, infuses them with the essence of his fallen, and forges their bodies somehow.” I shrugged a bit sheepishly. “I admit, I don’t know how he does that part.”

“I know how he does it,” Rathiel said, his voice dark. “We’ve seen it firsthand.”

I turned to face him fully, awaiting his explanation.

“Lucifer forges their bodies from Hell itself, in whatever way he envisions. Much like I have control over blood, and Calyx over nightmares, Lucifer himself has control over the entire realm. He uses the raw materials such as obsidian, stone, lava, forges them a body, then fuses the soul to the physical form. What Lucifer wants more than anything is to create. He sees himself as God. But he cannot simply create from nothing. He makes use of the raw materials here, and crafts the body completely to his own whims. Some end up monstrous, others eerily human—it truly depends on his mood.”

“So you’re saying he quite literally sculpts them from Hell itself?” I said.

“Yes,” Rathiel confirmed. “And then he binds the body and newly infused soul together permanently. The soul becomes trapped inside a prison of Lucifer’s own making, reforged, reshaped. He doesn’t give the hellspawn a choice in what they become. They just…are.”

Eliza paled slightly. “That’s… horrifying.”

“That’s Lucifer,” Rathiel murmured.

A sick weight settled in my gut as I let the information sink in. My father had spent eons perfecting the art of taking something intangible—something once human, once celestial, once free—and forcing it into an existence of his own design. His own control.

And now Levi wanted to use that same method to bring back my fallen soldiers?

I turned toward him, unsure how I felt about this.

“That’s how he does it,” Levi said. “And that’s how we’re going to bring your rebellion back.”

“And you intend to ask Lucifer to do this for us?” I said with a breathy laugh.

“Lily.” His voice was steady, firm, and entirely terrifying. The way he looked at me, I didn’t need to be a genius to see where he was going with this.

I immediately threw my hands into the air, knowing exactly what he meant to say. “No.”

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