I slowly took my hand away from her mouth, letting her take several sobbing breaths. She crashed into me like a landslide, her arms sliding out from the robes to wrap around me and squeeze tightly.
I allowed her to remain there until her sobs were stifled, although precious minutes were passing.
“You’re really here, you’re here, you’re here,” she chanted under her breath, then stiffened in my grasp. “You have to go. You can’t be here!”
Vyra looked up at me wildly, her hair a tangled halo around her head.
“I’m taking you with me.” I gripped her hand. “We’re going. Now.”
Vyra clasped her hands around mine, squeezing hard. I had to yank the Spear away so she wouldn’t accidentally touch it and be immolated on the spot. “He’s changing bodies, Melisande. He left the Dragon, and he’s trying to get a greater demon body. You’ve got to go tell the others. I think Lucifer is bringing him a Prince this time-”
“We already know.” I tried to tug her along, but she seemed frozen in place. “Azazel’s been watching. Vyra, please, let’s go now. This is the only chance we have.”
Lucifer would definitely see my tracks, if he hadn’t already. Every second counted, and yet she seemed so traumatized, like she couldn’t comprehend that help was here right now and ready to go.
I tugged on her again, and she nodded. “Right. We have to go. We’re going.”
She took a step forward, and I reached under my collar and yanked out the amulet Azazel had given me. “I have a portal-”
A comet plunged out of the sky, crashed into the shelf, and sent us flying backwards, away from each other. I kept my grip on the Spear, but almost lost the amulet. Only the string kept it from flying out of my hand and vanishing into the heaped ashes.
Lucifer’s quicksilver eyes gleamed as he looked at me, straightening up from his crouch. “You again.”
He hefted a body off his shoulder and dropped it on the ground. It was just like the Princes: beautiful, with long black hair and bronzed skin.
Then I realized it wasn’t a corpse. The body was still breathing.
“Come get him, Father,” Lucifer called, but he never looked away from me. The smile that stretched across his lips was like nothing I’d ever seen on his face. “I was hoping I’d get a second chance at you.”
His wings spread out again, the black feathers gleaming like an oil spill. I had a split second to make my choice before he charged.
I couldn’t bury the Spear in him. No matter what he’d done, I would save him too, or die trying.
I jerked the Spear aside and released it as Lucifer exploded towards me, planting his palms in my chest.
I flew through the air, my breath erupting in a harsh burst, and skidded to a halt only feet from the edge of the chasm. My lungs felt like they’d been hit by a train as I struggled to draw in a breath. Lucifer was between me and the Spear now. “Don’t you know me?”
“Why would I care?” Lucifer’s head tilted to the side, like the question genuinely confused him.
Vyra crouched fifteen feet away from us, digging under a drift of ashes. With a cry of victory, she lifted a scythe and got to her feet, knocking her cloak aside as her own wings spread out.
The cry became a short, shrill scream. She tried to take flight like a panicked bird, but Lucifer was at her side in an instant, gripping her by the shoulders and dragging her over to me.
I saw what had made her panic, and almost felt like screaming myself.
It was exactly like the waking dream I’d had of Lucifer.
A dying demon crawled over the rocks towards us, and even as we watched, it seemed to come apart at the seams like a broken rag doll, spilling to the ground in rotting pieces.
A pitch black, humanoid thing climbed out of the body and crawled over the ground toward the unconscious greater demon, leaving an oily slick in its wake, flies buzzing around its tar-like mass.
The head rose when it saw us, those eyeless sockets seeming to focus right on me, but the allure of the body in front of it was apparently too great to resist.
I felt Satan’s power spilling out of his essence, raw and unfiltered by his form. Bile rose in my throat, and I gagged, curling up on myself. My bones ached from the power coming off him.