That Old Black Magic

throne than you.”

“Too bad I destroyed him then, huh?” Darrak frowned. “Wait. Does that make me the Lord of Lust now? Because my new business cards never arrived if I am.”

“If you were residing in Hell instead of playing house in the human world, then yes, his power would have shifted to you. As it is, his throne had to be manually reassigned. You know, maybe I’ll get that nice human Ben Hanson to take over for me. I’ll kill him, take his soul, make him into a demon — bingo. I’ll have myself a nice upstanding prospect to take on the shadows for the next eternity.”

“Not the first time me and Ben have competed for something we both wanted,” Darrak said. “Keep in mind, I won last time, too.”

Lucifer came toward Darrak and grabbed hold of him. Lucifer had no true power over him anymore, but Darrak realized with a strong sinking feeling that the prince’s brute strength was much greater than his own.

Lucas pushed Darrak backward toward the Void. “I don’t give second chances.”

“We’re a lot alike that way.”

“Eden will be fine without you if I shove you in, I promise.”

“How about I promise to hang on tight and take you with me?”

“Either way, you’re gone forever.”

Darrak’s eyes narrowed as he felt the edge of the cliff at his heel. “Have I asked you recently to bite me? It’s on the very tip of my tongue.”

Any remaining humor left Lucifer’s expression. “You would really give everything up to rule this dark, cold, unforgiving place for the rest of eternity? No one would choose this of their own free will, Darrak.”

Darrak clutched on to the prince, knowing he wouldn’t loosen his talons until they were both in midfall. This could only end one way now. Both of them would have to be destroyed.

He hoped there was another plan in place in the universe because Hell would soon be without its prince.

“No one would choose this of their own free will.”

An image of Eden went through his mind then, holding a baby in her arms. His baby.

He didn’t want to give her up, so it looked as if Lucifer was right. He’d chosen this path, but it wasn’t because he felt he had any other option.

The thought was enough to make him lose both his concentration and his footing. Suddenly there was nothing behind him. He clawed at the ground, at Lucifer, at anything, but it all crumbled away.

And then he was hanging on to the side of the Void just as he’d done earlier.

Rinse and repeat.

“Good-bye, Darrak.” Lucifer straightened up, brushed himself off, and turned away.

“Who’d give up everything to rule this place?” Darrak snarled up at him, only raw anger now giving him the strength to continue holding on. “You would, that’s who. Why don’t you remember that? You gave everything up — you gave up Heaven — in order to help keep the balance down here because you knew it was the right thing to do.”

Lucifer froze and looked over his shoulder at the demon swinging above the gaping black hole of the Void. “No. I was cast out of Heaven for having a different opinion of how the world should be. Because I despised humans.”

“Bzzz. Wrong. You did it to keep the darkness from expanding and destroying those humans you claim to hate, along with everything else. You agreed to this, and now you’re the one who’s going back on a promise.”

Lucifer’s expression darkened. “You lie.”

“You’re experiencing memory loss. Maybe one of those other lords poisoned your mind with something in an attempt to take over your throne. Maybe your memories were damaged through years of being stuck down here in the pit as you controlled the shadows and maintained the balance. I don’t know. But you agreed to do this and now you forget. Now you’re looking for an out. Well, I’m your out, Lucifer. I’m willing to do it, just as you once were. But you can’t have Eden’s energy, too. I won’t let you destroy her.”

“You destroyed her, not me,” Lucifer spat back. “You’re the worst thing to ever come into that woman’s life.”

Darrak struggled to hold on. “I thought that once, but now I don’t believe it. This was all meant to be — and it’s all led to this moment. Right here and now.”

“You’re in no position to argue right now, incubus.”

“I’m not an incubus. I’m a demon. And I’m an angel. I’m the very first of my kind. And I’m willing to be the next Prince of Hell because it’s obvious that you’re too selfish and cowardly to keep doing the job you originally agreed to.”

Lucifer crouched down in front of Darrak and stared into his face. Darrak couldn’t read his expression — it was cold and dead.

“Thank you for your opinion.”

Lucifer pried Darrak’s talons away from the rock until he had nothing left to hang on to. Scrambling for a handhold that he no longer had, Darrak began to fall backward into the hungry mouth of the Void.

“Watch out!” Ben shouted. “Sandy’s dangerous now.”

Eden flicked a look at him. “No kidding.”

Sandy’s gaze moved to her amulet. “Maybe I won’t kill you, after all. We’re almost in the same boat, Eden. You and me, black witches. We could cause a lot of damage together.”

“What, you want to start a girl band or something?”

“Something like that.” She glanced over at the unconscious body of Eden’s father. “He’ll wake up soon. He’s not going to be happy.”

“Your point?”

“An angel like him will destroy you. He won’t care if you’re his daughter, all he’ll see is evil. You’re dangerous. Can’t you feel it? Your soul is nearly as black as mine. Trust me, when that happened, the world opened up like nothing I ever could have imagined. All of that power at my fingertips.”

Eden hated to admit it, but she did feel it. That darkness, that power, so much of it, like a bottomless ocean. So addictive, so perfect. It felt right, and that, by far, was the scariest thing of all.

“Don’t listen to her,” Ben growled. “She’s evil.”

Eden narrowed her gaze at him. “Not sure I should listen to you, Ben. You and my mother sent Darrak to Hell.”

“He survived,” Caroline spoke up.

“No thanks to you.”

Ben had the decency to look guilty. “We were wrong, I see that now. But I tried to change things, I tried to make things better.”

“He did,” Leena insisted. “I was being held prisoner by the Malleus and he freed me. Took him long enough, but he did it.”

Eden looked over at her ex-roommate. She had wondered where she’d gone after being chased away by Darrak. “I still have the key you left behind. Never had a chance to check that locker.”

Leena nodded. “Uh, remind me to get that back from you. You know, if we all live through this morning.”

Sandy laughed. “Listen to them, Eden. They’ve all betrayed you in some way. Abandoned you, too, when you needed them the most. You should kill them for what they’ve done to you and Darrak. That’s all it would take for you to give in fully to your magic. You could have whatever you wanted, then.”

All it would take to turn her soul black was to murder any one of the people in this room. But murder wasn’t in Eden’s true nature. Had it been in Sandy’s? Or had Oliver forced her into this?

“Don’t listen to her, Eden,” Caroline said, her voice tight. “You’re better than this. Don’t give in to the darkness. You can fight it.”

Eden’s gaze snapped to the young brunette tied to the chair to her left. “Can I, Mom? Really? Having you on my side is such a nice change from the first thirty years of my life when you treated me like a burden.”