Gates of Paradise - By Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,4

ironic that her legendary beauty had not been enough to keep her twin by her side.

No, she had never been enough for Abbadon, which was why they shared this burden. She had loved him once, more than he had ever loved her, and the rejection still stung, but now it was like the buzzing of a gnat, a flea bite, inconsequential, annoying at best, merely a hairline crack in an otherwise formidable fortress. She had been living with it for so long - his worship of Gabrielle, casting his lot with that...Abomina - No, she couldn't call her that anymore....With Schuyler. There. Mimi could not bear to think her name even if they were adversaries no longer. Schuyler had won, for sure. Not that it mattered.

It was too late to think of what might have been. She had committed to this task, and she would see it through. She looked out the window, the landscape a monotonous gray rock, the red-hot cinders from the Black Fire the only light for miles. It seemed like centuries since she had felt sunshine on her face, even though Jack had assured her they had been in Lucifer's service for only a few months, and that when they reached aboveground it would be right around New Year's.

Do you think we'll find it? she sent to Jack.

I hope not.

Don't, she warned, alarmed at his cavalier attitude. They might hear.

They can't hear us, Mimi. I told you. Not when we talk like this. The bond allows us that privacy at least.

He was her twin. The same dark star had birthed them. Bound to each other from the beginning. Sealed in blood and fire.

The bond was the reason they were slaves to the Dark Prince in the first place. Its unbreaking had cost them an internship in Hell. Divorce lawyers had nothing on Lucifer. Mimi was appalled and yet amused at the same time. Was it worth it? They were playing a dangerous game. If Lucifer suspected they were false...She shuddered to think of the consequences. He held their very souls captive unless they delivered. They would pay the ultimate price if they did not.

Whose idea was this, anyway? Mimi remembered how close she had been to destroying Jack, holding her sword aloft, ready for revenge. She could have struck him down. It was so tiring being good. Sacrifice just wasn't her style.

Oh, well. Too late now.

At least they had each other. Mimi would have gone mad if she hadn't had Jack to lean on. Their former commander had kept himself scarce. Lucifer was always thus, Mimi remembered - aloof, withdrawn, prone to seek his own counsel. And once they had returned to the dark fold, they had been surrounded by old comrades and enemies. Angels with whom they had fought side by side. Angels they had betrayed during that last terrible struggle for dominion of Paradise. Needless to say, they had been given a chilly reception.

That first night back in the underworld they walked in to find a hostile crowd at the local watering hole. She and Oliver had frequented it during their sojourn, but the management had changed, and the place was not what it was.

"Look, everyone - it's the ones who lost the war for us," Danel had said. He had been one of their oldest friends, a warrior, tall and golden and proud, beautiful as ever except for the ugly scar that bisected his face. Now he sneered at them. "If it wasn't for you..."

"Traitors. Thieves. Turncoats," came the silky voice of the angel Barachiel. "Welcome to the underworld. You will find you are right at home here." He smiled.

"You are kidding yourselves if you think you can return to his service so easily," hissed Tensi, a formidable avenging angel who had led the charge from the left flank all those millennia ago, when the world was young.

But in the end the angels left them alone. They still feared Abbadon's hammer, still cowered at the flaming sword of Azrael.

"We have no place here," Mimi had said to Jack later in their private quarters. The twins had merited a lavish suite in the palace, a rival to the ducal estate that Kingsley had once called home. "Michael and Gabrielle never trusted us - and neither does this sorry lot."

"They will come around. They have no choice."

Jack had turned out to be right. While the Silver Bloods were strong in number, they were also fearful and scattered. They still remembered the power of the