Page 34 of The Road to Hell

I nodded.

Eliza barely paused. “And you actually think it’s awisechoice?”

“It’s theonlychoice,” I grumbled.

“That’s not a strategy, Lily. That’s suicide.”

I sighed. “Yes. Rath has already stated his opinion on that.”

Eliza chuckled. “It’s cute when you call him Rath. But I digress. My point is, you’re not thinking clearly. You’re letting your fear of failure drive you instead of figuring out what went wrong last time and learning from it.”

She leaned forward, her voice quiet. “Rathiel was right when he said Lucifer would never let you just stroll up to him, blade in hand. You’ve told me he’s the Devil. Satan. Lucifer. He’d bury you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I bit out.

“And let’s say youdidmanage to kill your father,” she continued, ignoring me. “Then what? You think his fallen would just turn their loyalties to you?”

My mouth twisted as I considered that.

“No,” Eliza said. “You’ve stated again and again that their loyalty is to him. If you killed Lucifer, they’d want you dead even more than they do now, right?”

“Most likely,” I begrudgingly admitted.

“Okay… So, I only see one course of action here.”

I frowned. If she thought she could convince me to forget my plan?—

“Let’s hunt the fallen first,” Eliza said.

Her words stunned me into silence.

“Finally,” Vol muttered. “I was beginning to wonder if any of you had a brain.”

I ignored the imp’s commentary—as I often did—and met Eliza’s gaze.

“How many fallen remain?” she asked. “Just the six that we fought yesterday?”

“Just the six,” I repeated, laughing under my breath. “Six is more than enough.”

“But there aren’t any others hiding away down here?”

“No,” I said. “They’re all that’s left. And Rathiel, but he’s?—”

“Firmly on team Lily,” Eliza concluded. “Fine. Thenthat’syour strategy. Take out the fallen first. Weaken your father by culling his strongest warriors. The hellspawn are still numerous, but when Lucifer falls, I suspect they’ll look to whoever takes the throne. You take out his fallen, and you cripple him.”

My whole body stilled the second Eliza finished making her suggestion. Not only because she was right, but because a damn lightbulb had just clicked on in my brain.

The fallen weren’tonlymy father’s warriors. They were also the essence my father required to build his hellspawn ranks.

I stared at Eliza, stunned completely into silence while this thought—and the resulting plan—took shape in my mind. If we took out the fallen, my father wouldn’t be able to create any more hellspawn. It wouldn’t diminish his current numbers,butit would keep him from creating more. And without that ability, we couldfinallycut down his forces without him replenishing them.

“Eliza, you are a freaking genius!” I announced, excitement bursting within me. I leaned forward and dragged her into a bone-crushing hug.

“Naturally,” she said, laughing. “That’s why you brought me, after all, but I think I might need more context here.”

I pulled away and beamed at her, my nerves dancing with anticipation. “The fallen!”

“Yes, the fallen. We’ve established that part,” she said slowly, as though speaking to a child.

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