When Adele crash-landed in Hell's Court, the irony of being placed in a theater instead wasn't lost on her. She was livid before she ever managed to say a single word.

"Lucifer," Adele gritted out as her eyes adjusted properly to the light.

There sat the judge in the second floor box—Lucifer, the epitome of Pride, illuminated by a grand white halo. It was embedded with red irises and slitted pupils where the prongs of a wheel connected to the outer circumference. Its heavenly glow was pure against her swept-back hair. Black waves were a contrast against the crimson glow underneath, like the underside of her hair was on fire.

Where there were two eyes, there sat four atop them, slitted and blinking down at them with her chin upturned. She raised a set of black nails to her jawline, the smile still curling on her lips.

Adele's words, however few, flew out the window when her eyes adjusted properly to the light and gathered the familiar figure to the left of Pride's box.

Ero.

While the ghost of familiarity still lived in Ero's appearance, so much had changed in just five years. The shadows no longer lurked where divine light shone, and shine it did. Her purple hue was tempered with blues and dotted with starlight along her hair.

Her eyes, from what Adele could see, were dense with sorrow.

To Ero's left sat Wrath's box. It had been five years since Adele last saw Myka in Avalon's domain, and five years since Myka came into Wrath's power. The golden tinge to her freckled face and tangle of antlers had magnified. Tusks now protruded from her jawline, and her shoulders were broadened by her sharp, metallic apparel—like she was on the frontline of a war.

Somehow, Myka managed to smile and wave. The moment she did, though, her eyes snapped to someone across the theater—

Their names appeared to Adele as though she'd known them all her life closely, personally, intimately. The possibility that they knew her just the same crashed in. Her mind, body, and soul was stripped bare before them all to examine, detest, and spit upon.

It was a miracle Adele was still standing, and she blamed this on the sliver of contempt fusing her spine with steel at the presence of Pride's eyes glancing over her.

Lucifer's eyes, red through her nonexistent irises and bloody through her scleras, lifted ever so slightly. A sharp, pierced brow quirked up. Her halo spun and steadied only when her chin ticked to the side. Her gaze lifted from Adele just long enough to settled on her right—Bellie, the Prince of Gluttony.

Adele took a breath. It seared her chest with white-hot coals that pierced through the delicate fabric of her lungs.

Ragged from nerves, Adele felt as though she'd succumbed to a coma before her bar exam and was only just now waking to realize the exam was in two minutes and she'd forgotten everything she ever learned.

Her memory was still scrambling, passing hands one-by-one until the entire theater had seen her for what she was. An asshole—until Ero.

An asshole—until her grandmother died.

And now she was just a sister who wanted Lenny back.

Fear percolated across her right side. Turning, tentatively, Adele glanced over Jane's head to where Death sat watching.

Death's long, limbering legs crossed, slowly, at Adele's attention. Clawed nails curled along the edge of her face paint and the growing curve of a jaw-splitting, cheek-tearing grin of needled teeth and bruised, purple muscle.

Opposite Death to their left sat Nature, who, upon first glance, appeared the least lively of them all. A mere skeleton shrouded in a robe sewn and stitched with sinew and bone. Her mask melded into triangular, stunted horns that tipped to the side.

Without eye holes on Nature's mask, Adele couldn't see if their gazes met, but she felt her gaze like fingers pressing a migraine just above her eye sockets.

A hollow hum vibrated around them. It pulsed like the beat of a heart.

At last, Lucifer uttered four simple words:

"We are in agreement."

Just as Ero had predicted, no more than ten seconds had passed before Lucifer's attention was drawn away from Adele and Jane. And then, only twenty to come to a consensus.

"This... sister of yours. Valentine," Lucifer went on, resting her chin upon the backs of her knuckles. Her pinkie curled up along her rising smile. "Judging from Ms Doe's memories, Valentine indeed interrupted her ascension."

"So I don't belong to Death?" Jane said.

"Oh, you certainly belong to her at the time of the incident and every moment after," Lucifer said, a lilt of amusement on her tongue. She tipped her head to the side, curiously, and said, "That is, until you dealt with Ero's demon. All this to say Death owes you nothing."

She still belongs to Ero, though, Adele wondered, a hand cupped to her chin. Whether or not the Sins heard wasn't a question so much as it was a statement, but none of them graced her with a reply.

"As for the loss of reincarnated demons," Pride went on. "The losses are nearly two hundred. Bellie lost more than the rest of us, and she's requested the acquisition of your soul."

"What! No way!" Jane shouted.

"Jane," Ero hissed.

Jane thrust her arms up and over to Death, yelling, "But what about Death! Shouldn't I go back to her?"

Bellie's face which, until that point, had been a husk of pitch black shadows, was abruptly slashed in two by a stark, jagged, glowing red line. It was nothing but a crimson silhouette of a mouth saying, "She doesn't want you, pest."

"You've caused me quite a bit of trouble," Death said, patiently, from the side. Her claws dragged along her brow. Her smile didn't part even as she spoke. "Quite honestly, I'm exhausted."

With the gentleness of bones grating, Nature said, "We understand."

The sound ripped a shudder up both Adele and Jane's spines.

"I don't agree to this!" Jane blurted, eyes wild and desperate. She looked to Ero and then to Avalon, who sat obscured in the box above Lucifer. "I didn't—I didn't know what I was doing. Doesn't that count for something?"

"Yes, stupidity," Bellie sneered.

Jane pointed to Myka, who shrugged and said, "Yeah, but they accept that from me."

"We do," Nature agreed.

Jane's head fell back, groaning, hands ruffling her hair into every direction. "You're just saying that because she'll start a war!"

"Would not!" Myka said, only to grimace off to the side when Avalon shot her a glare from the upper booth. "Okay, maybe I would. But I've got a good thing going here!"

As Lucifer sunk her forehead into her steepled hands, Bellie slammed a hand onto her railing. Neon-red slashes cut up from where her eyes may have been and they flanked into lightning-strikes of horns. "Yes. We all know you're getting laid for once."

Myka's face went fiery with gold flecks. "Crude! And not to mention rude!"

"I thought we agreed not to bring that up," Abaddon chided in a light, sing-song tone from Bellie's right. It was the Prince of Acedia, of Listlessness, of Sloth.

Abaddon, while quiet, hardly appeared disinterested. She had taken to crossing her arms, long black hair tied back in a bun, and her eyes drifted intently from Myka to Bellie.

"She started it!"

Myka stuck her tongue out. "You all came to that conclusion on your own."

"You may have figured out how to lock away memories, but you've been dating for five human years, imbecile."

"Language," Lucifer chided. "The toddler knows not her limits."

But Myka was ablaze. Before they could go on with their cat fight, Adele cleared her throat.

"You've seen we have the rest of the demons. Do these account for any of the damages we could repay?"

"I counted thirty," Abaddon said.

"Fifty-two," Ero corrected.

It hadn't occurred to Adele how much time Ero had spent in Jane's head. How ridiculously meticulous Ero was. It wouldn't surprise her to know that, through Jane's memories, Ero had become an expert in Adele's living situation.

How embarrassing, Adele thought, meeting Ero's eyes.

Ero's cheeks went violet, and to avoid the stares of her colleagues, she opened a book directly in front of her face.

"This settles a portion of the damages," Pride agreed, slowly. She dragged her eyes from Ero and pointedly looked at Adele and Jane rather than Bellie, whose eyes were on the brink of setting her entire box ablaze.

"This doesn't change the fact that Death doesn't want you anymore," Pride said. She gestured above her and to the left, lingering on Ero and Myka. "You must agree to a transfer or risk eternal damnation. Nature is put off by you, and Envy and myself aren't interested."

"Abaddon, then?" Jane suggested.

Abaddon seems... tolerable, Adele agreed.

"Indifferent is more accurate," the Prince confessed. "You'll do more harm than good in my company. That's what the others fear."

"I'll be good! So good!"

Abaddon dragged a slow and steady look over to Bellie, who was seething and spitting flames.

The Prince of Acedia pursed her lips, turned back to Jane, and said, "Alright."

"Ero agreed!" Bellie shrieked, pointing a finger at Ero. "You gave her to me!"

"I gave you my word, not my action," Ero said. "Not to mention, Jane must agree to the transfer."

"I feel I shouldn't be thanking you," Abaddon said to Ero. She then glanced down at Death, who gave a dismissive wave in reply. "Alright then. Jane is mine."

"Nice!" Jane punched her fists out. She blipped out of existence.

"Oh," Lucifer said, "How unsettling."

Jane reappeared at Adele's side, her hair significantly frizzier than before. "I—That wasn't intentional, I swear."

There was a moment of complete silence as the Princes discussed amongst themselves. During this time, Jane turned fully to look at Adele, who had taken to glaring almost exclusively at Lucifer.

They'd all seen the inside of her apartment, they knew how many demons Jane had left behind. Why leave a gap like this? Why argue at all?

If they knew Jane at all—especially from Death's accounts—, they'd know she had a loud mouth. Of course she'd be willing to fight.

And what about me and Lenny?

The grating edge of Nature's voice ground forward. "I've agreed to recycle your body," she said, breathy and uncertain. "But the life she lost is the only one available to her."

Adele sifted through the possibilities before Jane ever processed a single word. "I understand," Adele said, "It's because of me and Val, isn't it? And Salem?"

"Correct," she said. Her eyes lingered on the ridges where her horns fuzed over the mask and through where her eyes may have been. "Your involvement significantly reduced her number of branches, and both you and Val have collapsed your histories by dealing with Salem."

"But we've already had a funeral—everyone knows she's..." Adele started, weakly.

"Avalon, Death, and myself have agreed to an alteration," Nature said. "Val, yourself, Jane, and Lenny—"

Myka coughed discretely.

If Nature was capable of expression, it surely would have flatlined. "And Eveline. Will return to the exact moment before Lenny died. You'll all remember everything and there, you will die instead."

"That... doesn't sound so bad," Adele confessed. She'd anticipated something more complicated.

Nature shrugged. "Your siblings and friend may suffer from a bad bout of deja vu, but it's nothing you humans aren't capable of handling."

If they were to be plucked from their timeline and placed at the node in which Lenny died, Adele couldn't help but consider the possibility of the entire week they'd lived collapsing in on itself. Would they be marked as missing persons cases, or would the branch cease to exist?

And, if it ceased to exist—

"The world will continue as expected," Ero said, hardly above a whisper. Adele broke Nature's gaze to glance up at her. "It's uncommon, but we call the branch you'll be abandoning a dead end. It's the preferred outcome, as opposed to creating paradoxes by returning Lenny to the timeline where her funeral already took place."

"And as far as we've seen, the four of you did not impact the creation of life, which makes abandoning the branch less of a concern," Lucifer said.

Fancy way to say none of us got laid this week, Adele thought, which earned her a sharp-toothed grin from the Lucifer.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Ero's eyes narrowing on Lucifer, who didn't spare her a glance away from Adele.

"Who will my soul belong to?" Adele asked.

"Me," said Lucifer, leaning into the railing. The eyes spinning in her halo steadied on Adele along with Lucifer's sharp smile. "Do you agree to the transfer?"

That's right, Adele thought as Jane looked to her out of the corner of her eye. A mortal soul can't be transferred without the mortal's consent. If they were demons, Jane wouldn't have been able to strike a deal with Abaddon.

"And Lenny lives?" Adele said.

"Of course."

Adele struggled to hold Lucifer's gaze to avoid looking at Ero. Instead, her eyes lifted to Avalon.

Avalon's attention was on the empty box seats to the left. From this distance, Adele could hardly make out the furrowed pinch in Avalon's brow in between the passing shadows of her flames. When she wasn't a skeleton, she was troubled.

Lucifer interrupted Adele's view. In a flash of embers, she appeared before Adele and Jane, saying, "I'm a woman of my word: your sister will live the life on Earth promised to her by the Balance. Do we have a deal?"

"Adele..." Jane whispered. Her grip had turned to iron on Adele's forearm.

"If I don't accept?" Adele said.

All of Lucifer's eyes narrowed to slits. "You either accept, or your soul is forfeit to the Abyss. As a mortal, you'll never hope to reincarnate as Myka and Ero did."

Adele's chest wrenched at the memory of Avīci's cube on the ceiling of Nature's atrium in Avalon's domain. All the time Myka spent there, twice what Ero endured, unable to recall her own torture.

If her understanding of eternal damnation was true, the Abyss was what prompted people like their parents to cast their children off to catholic boarding schools. Why people prayed at all—not for love of a God, but for fear of damnation.

She may have considered herself religious, at one point. The institution, however, failed to provide the justice she sought in the courts. If salvation was as easy as believing in God, even the worst people on Earth were capable of belief.

She'd been overconfident.

In the box seats, she met Ero's eyes. They were tired but most of all, tensed with concern. Adele could only linger so long before a knot formed at the base of her throat. She swallowed hard against it, returning her attention to Lucifer's calmed, if not bored affect.

"Okay," Adele said. She put out her hand. "We have a deal."

Lucifer had gone quiet, her eyes appraising and lingering on Adele's face. Adele met her stare with equal stoicism, though she couldn't avoid the twitch of annoyance on her upper lip.

She jerked her hand again and, with a crooked smirk, Lucifer's lips parted to reveal fanged canines and a gleam in six eyes in her halo.

When she clasped onto Adele's hand, it sparked a flame that filled the air with electric static and a flare of heat. Adele's hair broke from its ponytail at the force of wind tearing away their view of the court room.

And, when Lucifer leant close, Adele could almost believe she was standing just inches away from a hearth.

"Deal," Lucifer agreed.

The weight of Adele's body dropped behind her though she remained upright, eyes fixated on Lucifer's. As the world shredded into lines, the details in Lucifer's blackout tattoos curled and shifted like black threads being woven together.

Their movement slowed and time stilled around them. Daylight blinded Adele for the moment it took her to realize that they were back at Central Park.

As momentum returned, Adele flinched at the sound of her cellphone cracking against the pavement.

She moved to step back, but Lucifer's grip pulled her in. Their hands remained fused together while Lucifer lifted her opposite hand to tip Adele's head, slowly, to face the scene in front of her.

"Your sister cannot see you," Lucifer breathed in her ear as, for the first time in a week, Adele saw Lenny's eyes open.

Tears obscured the world from her, blinded by daylight.

Lenny stood at a distance, startled by Adele on the ground. Her hand went to her chest, then her throat, a curse forming on her lips.

Jane bolted from Adele's side. She lunged at Lenny, solid and firm enough to nearly knock Lenny off her feet.

"I'm alive," Lenny rasped. Her hands dropped around Jane's waist, lifting up to her shoulder blades. "But—"

"It's okay," Jane said, pulling back. She glanced back at Adele and Lucifer, who watched from the pavement just beside Adele's collapsed body. "She's, um—"

"Tell her I'm with Ero," Adele said.

Jane's eyes lingered on Lucifer, who said nothing. The force of her grip didn't lessen nor tighten, though Adele distinctly felt like her hand was encased in stone.

"She's... Her soul is with Ero. The hearing just happened."

"Then she's—" Lenny stopped, breath coming fast. She stepped away from Jane to rest shaky fingers against her forehead. "Oh my God. Fuck."

"Follow me," Lucifer whispered to Adele, her hand tugging to the side and away. Though Adele's grip had gone limp, Lucifer's fingers folded securely around the back of her hand, her nails pressing into Adele's palm as they walked.

Adele glanced back at her sister and Jane. Passerbys had begun to react. A woman had approached them, a man claiming to be a nurse, people were shouting to call 911.

Lenny bent down, wailing into her knees.