Page 109 of Blood

They’re here.

Relief has me sucking in lungfuls of air, and all I want to do is throw myself into their arms.

“Are you even listening to me?” Lucifer cocks his head to the side curiously as I brush at my wet eyes with the back of my hand.

“I’m just so grateful you guys are okay. I-I would’ve been sad if you died,” I manage to choke out.

Lucifer’s expression instantly softens at my words, and he kneels down until he’s at eye level with me. His gaze briefly zooms in on my mates’ hands caressing my skin, anger expanding his pupils, before he focuses back on my face.

“Do you remember anything that happened, Violet?” he asks gently.

Something about his tone zaps the residual heat from my body. Not even my mates’ presence around me can replenish it.

I shrug helplessly as the surrounding coldness seeps deeper into my bones.

“I remember being angry. I thought Zeus would hurt Cal, and I just...snapped, I guess.” I shake my head minutely as I struggle to grapple with my missing memories.

“Somehow, you were able to summon the souls of the damned and convince them to do your bidding,” Lucifer explains. And though he’d already told me that, this is the first time those words really register in the tumultuous whirlpool of my brain.

“I...what?” I turn to stare at my hands—speckled in blood and gore. I half expect to see one of these so-called souls crawling out of my pinkie finger. “What is that?”

“They are souls that are too dangerous to be normal demons, too horrid to be allowed free to roam Earth, too evil to be anywhere but imprisoned in Hell’s most secure prison.” Lucifer gently places his hand on my knee. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

My pulse thuds a rapid rhythm against my skull, drowning out all other sounds.

Wordlessly, I shake my head.

“Your powers... They go beyond what even I can do, Violet. The prophecy was right when it claimed you would take the throne from Zeus. No other monsters can come close to holding an inkling of your power.” Lucifer shakes his head in grim disbelief, though I detect a spark of pride in his eyes, the color so much like my own. “Those souls came when you called, and they dragged Zeus back to Hell with them. He’s gone, Violet. Trapped. He’ll never hurt you again.”

“I didn’t mean...I didn’t even know...” I’m shaking my head from side to side as I struggle with what I want to say.

“You just need to learn how to handle your powers, Violet.” Dimitri’s warm breath fans over the back of my neck.

“I’m dangerous,” I whisper, continuing to stare at my hands in heady disbelief.

How could I have done something like that? Me? I’m just...Violet. I can’t even control Hellfire, for fuck’s sake. I shouldn’t be able to summon the souls of the damned. That seems way above my damn paygrade.

“Don’t say shit like that,” Vin snaps, anger coating his words. “Every time you’ve used that power, it’s been when you were in danger. It saved your life. Twice.”

I still can’t wrap my head around it. Questions shove at one another, each one demanding my attention, and I settle on the most important one. “Zeus is truly gone?”

“Trapped in Hell’s worst prison with no chance of escape,” Lucifer tells me with a tiny nod.

“And it looks as if the battle outside has stopped too.” This comes from Frankie, who stands at one of the huge oval windows overlooking the town. His brows furrow at whatever he sees there. “It appears as though, when Zeus was tugged into Hell, the runes lost their power. There are a lot of confused and very angry monsters down below.”

It’s...over.

It’s really, truly over.

I don’t know what I expected when I arrived here today, but it wasn’t this. I suppose a miniscule piece of me thought I would leave Mount Olympus in a body bag. That may be macabre thinking, but it’s the truth. I thought my destiny was fated to end in death—my death. The pages of my story were written in blood, each letter meticulously crafted in bright red ink.

But I’m alive.

My mates are alive.

My parents are alive.

Why does this feel too good to be true?

---