Broken Wings (Hidden Wings Series Book Two) (31 page)

“Fine,” he huffed. “How will you know when to send the army?”

“
I will be sending Ash with you as well. I will assemble my warriors, and as soon as Ash contacts me, we will come.”

Lucifer whistled
, and in a few moments we heard a loud caw. A huge black raven came swooping down and landed on his arm. It had eyes, the same crimson color as Lucifer. Lucifer kissed its head. “Take good care of him, Ethon.”  

“I will,” Ethon said
, stepping forward. The large bird hopped onto his shoulder, and then he turned and left the room. I assumed it was to get the others.

Great. Azza
h. He was definitely going to cause a stir in the house.

“So
, what about the wall of protection? If any of the Fallen enter the house, the shield will come down. Right?” I questioned.

Samuel’s eyes widened and he seemed to be glaring at me. Did I say something I shouldn’t have? Was it the fact that the house was covered by protection?

“So it seems that you do have had some help from above?” Lucifer asked in a snide way.

“Yes. When the Midway found ou
t that the Nephilim were being slaughtered, they sent a few Guardians to help the last survivors. They put up a dome of protection to cover the house.” Samuel’s words flowed and there was no hesitation, only sincerity.

Lucifer glanced over to me and then back at Samuel.

“Well, I will make sure that Azzah and Bane are on full alert. Be aware that they are only going for the protection my son. No one else is of my concern. Not you, or your daughter, Samuel. Ash will be my eyes. He’ll alert me once Lucian is close. It has been a long time since I’ve seen or heard the name of that deceiver. This is something I will gladly take care of soon.” His eyes seemed to burn brighter, with a deep seeded hatred toward his ex-Fallen partner.

But look who was calling the kettle black. Wasn’t the whole Fall because he was just as
, or even more, deceitful and treacherous? Whatever. He can keep his hatred and whatever else was buried in his shriveled, black heart. I never expected him to do this for anyone other than himself anyway.

I was surprised he even had an ounce of love left to take in his brother’s son a
nd make him his own. Our whole mission was to get to him, and to have him help us defeat Lucian, and it worked. After this, I wanted nothing to do with him.

The door pushed open and Ethon came walking in with Azza
h, whose hand was thickly bandaged, and another very large man. He was also huge, darkly tanned, with bulging muscles. He was bald but had black eyes, and a dark mustache and beard. He looked really scary. They all came walking towards us and stopped in front of Lucifer.

“M
aster,” they both breathed, bowed their head, and then knelt down at his feet.

These two men looked like they could kick Lucif
er’s ass all over Hell and back, but they were bowing at his feet. Weird, but I guess that was their way of keeping things in order. There must be a very dark side to Lucifer that I had not seen yet. A side that had these two huge brutes cowering at his feet.

“I want you two to escort Ethon, Samuel
, and his daughter Emma back to the mortal world. Lucian has issued an order of execution on all Nephilim. Keep a watchful eye at all times. He will strike at the most unsuspecting of times, and his goal is to wipe them from existence. These two will be your top priority. I will be assembling the warriors together, and awaiting Ash’s details. If you fail, and either of them is injured, you will feel the pain of my wrath for all eternity. Guard them with your life.”

“Yes, master,”
they answered bowing a little lower. A few moments later they stood.

“Ethon,” Lucifer spoke.

“Yes, father.”

“It is imperative that you protect yourself, above all others. Do not put yourself in harm’s way.”

Ethon didn’t say a word
, but just bowed his head.

I knew Lucifer was putting up a front
, randomly throwing my name onto the
save them
list just to satisfy Ethon, and I was pretty sure that his goons already knew the exact reason they were going. It wasn’t to protect me. This was about Lucifer’s revenge, and keeping Ethon alive.

But,
to Hell with them. I had my own Guardians back home, who I loved and trusted with my life, and who had proven themselves. I had no doubt that each one would do whatever it took to keep me and Alaine alive.

In my world,
Ethon was getting the shorter end of the stick, but then again, he was also well trained to fight. I guess that evened it all out.

“
Take the porthole in my chambers,” Lucifer said firmly.

“Yes, master
,” the goons answered in unison, and then bowed again.

“Thank you, Father. I will see you soon,” Ethon said,
placing his hand on his father’s shoulder, and in turn, Lucifer did the same. They regarded each other with a nod.

No hug
. Wow. That sucked. But why should I expect anything more from the Devil?

Ethon glanced
at us and gestured for us to follow.

I paused, not sure if I should say goodbye to Lucifer or just walk out
.

“
Bye,” I said, and then quickly followed after Ethon. I didn’t want to say thank you, because he wasn’t really doing us a favor, and his part in all of this came with a very high price.

Samuel followed right behind me, and I wasn’t sur
e if he even said goodbye. I really didn’t care.

We walked through the huge cavern, which looked way more enchanting than it should have, and stopped in front of a huge set of sparkling silver doors.
Engraved within it were large snakes. Two large gargoyles sat on either side of the door, glaring at us as we stood there. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up standing so close to them. As we passed, I swore that I saw their eyes following us, but when I turned, they were still frozen. Creatures in their stone prisons.

As
we entered the room, it was something I imagined a King’s quarters to look like. Black, silver, and red velvet was everywhere. It was gorgeous and breathtaking.

This was Hell?

I imagined Lucifer, forever burning in a lake full of fire, but this was plush and expensive. He was actually living in luxury, the totally opposite of what I’d thought. He was living a good life down here in the depths of the Underworld.

Ethon walked
over to a large oversized mirror on the wall. It was about ten-feet tall by six-feet wide, and framed in the brightest silver. Ethon waved his hand over the mirror and it began to shimmer, and then started to take on the effect of water.

“Samuel, where is our destination?” he asked.

Samuel gave the exact coordinates to Alaine’s home.

Ethon began to speak in a
different language, and within a few moments the water in the mirror began to shift, and swirl round and round.

“Samuel, you and Em
ma should go first since they’ll be expecting you. I’d hate to go through and get my head whacked off before I could explain.”

“That’s fine,” Samuel answered, and then turned to me
, offering his hand. “Are you ready, Emma?” 

“Yes,” I answer
ed. I was excited that we were finally going back to Alaine’s, and out of the Underworld. Out from this constant nightmare. I took in a deep breath and grasped tightly to Samuel’s hand.

Chapter 19

We stepped closer to the mirror and I started to see the front doors of Alaine’s house. They were unmistakable. I’d never seen another set of doors with Angels carved into them with such detail or precision, and it actually warmed my heart.

Samuel
stepped forward pulling me closer, and I remembered what Kade told me. One step will take you from one world into the next.

I squeezed
Samuel’s hand and I took that step.

We landed
on the front driveway of Alaine’s home. It was daytime, and the sun was shining brightly above us. A few seconds later, Ethon was standing behind us with the huge raven on his shoulder. He immediately sent the raven into flight.

A
fter a few more seconds, the two goons appeared. I figured I’d nickname them the goons because that’s exactly what they looked like. I definitely wouldn’t say it out loud or around them, because they could easily smash me with a finger, or… at least Azzah could with his stump.

The thought
of it made me laugh inside, but hey, at least his hand was re-attached and could heal back. He was lucky. He totally deserved losing it for trying to kill us.

“Let’s go,”
Samuel said, walking up to the front door.

I suddenly became nervous, and wasn’t sure why.
My stomach twisted and turned, and although I was glad to have made it back, and couldn’t wait to see Alaine or the others, I was anxious to see Kade.

As we walked up the stairs, Henry opened the front door.

“Oh, for goodness sake! You’re home!” he said in his awesome English accent. His hand covered his heart, and he was gaping at me like he’d just seen a ghost. He stepped forward and hugged me tightly. “I’m sorry. We were all beginning to worry, and were thinking that something horrible had happened to you. It’s been such a long time.” He peered behind me, and a sudden look of bewilderment flooded his face.

“What are you talking about Henry? We’ve only been gone a few days
,” I giggled. He had to be joking, although he didn’t look like the type that would make jokes.

“No, Emma. You’ve
been away for a little over four months,” he answered. His face was dead serious.

“
What?” I laughed out loud, but when he didn’t laugh back, I glanced over to Samuel.

“
He’s joking right? We haven’t been gone that long, have we?” I asked.

He nodded slowly.

“But how?” I questioned.

This had to be a crazy joke
. There was no way that we were gone for four months. I knew we’d only been gone for a week, maybe two, tops.

I quickly recapped the events.

The first day we’d traveled to the porthole, and then made it into Hell. That’s the same day that Kade was injured and sent home. The next day we’d traveled through most of the levels and when Samuel and I were injured, we spent a few days at the gate of the Grimlocks. Then, we battled the Hell Hounds, and rested there for a day. Then, it was through the gates and back home.

Just thinking about all we’d been through seemed like
some weird twisted dream, but as I glanced at Ethon and his goons standing behind us, the proof was there. It wasn’t just a dream. It was just the continuing nightmare in my twisted reality. I was glad I would be seeing Alaine and Kade again and have some type of normalcy back in my life.

“
Emma, time here in the mortal world is much different from that in the Otherworlds. Time slows there, and runs at a much faster rate here. Haven’t you heard the term - a thousand years is like a day?”

“Yes
, but I didn’t think it was true,” I exhaled.

I was beside myself. Four
months? We were gone for over four whole months? Now I knew why Henry’s face went pale when he saw us. He was genuinely shocked.

But if four
months had gone by here, then that meant that Kade was probably well into his healing. At least I hoped he was.

“Come
. Come inside,” Henry motioned. “I will immediately alert Alaine of your presence.”

We all entered
the foyer and then into the large front room. I glanced up the stairs, and just as I did Courtney rounded the corner.

She froze, her eyes wide with wonder and confusion. T
hen her eyes found mine, and they widened even more.

“Emma!” she yelled, bounding down the stairs, heading
directly for me. I didn’t know what to do so I held out my arms to welcome her.

She was really
excited to see me, and I had no idea why.

She jumped down the last three stairs and ran to me,
wrapping her arms around me, practically sent me flying backward.

If Ethon
didn’t put his hand on my back, pushing me forward, I would have ended up on my backside. But his touch also sent an electric jolt through me. Thankfully he pulled his hand away as soon as I regained my balance.

“Emma!
You’re alive! Oh my gosh! Caleb and Kade told me the whole story! The story of how brave you were. I was so worried that you weren’t going to come back. We were all beginning to think that you and Samuel had been killed,” she said hugging me tightly, and then she pulled back with a scrunched up nose.