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Death

I can't possibly listen to another word she says, the rage is growing and I know it's about to burst. She sees this, the cats eyes flash with alarm knowing when a lion will pounce.

"I did it selfishly at first. I have to admit I wanted to see her fall but I saw the girl that I used to be in her. She had the same desperation, the same look of utter disgust for what she was becoming. That used to be me and it hurt to see her fall, when she killed that human I could practically hear her cries from where I stood. Hundreds of miles away and I heard the pain it caused her to lose a part of your humanity. Don't hate me because I tried to give an ounce of it back."

I shook my head, "You are mistaken it was your actions, the way you have laid out this so called plan to give her, her humanity." It only takes one step forward, one step closer to ending the demons life. "You have dragged her to the very destruction that will end the little humanity she has remaining." My words are nothing but deadly whispers, I see how they cut deep into Bastet's skin. She knows what she has done was not the way to free the human.

Every step they have taken as led her to the one person that will destroy anything innocent and whole. Lilith. A succubus. The first succubus to manipulate the ways of man not with the seduction of her voice but with body and mind.

I watch as tears fill and spill onto her cheeks, she's feeling real pain now. It radiates off of her, seeping onto my skin, sympathy does not come. She was wrong to lead her to the one person who will do the very opposite of help.

"How can we fix it?" She sputters.

Fix it. It is best now to think Adeline is already on her way to the succubus, there won't be enough time to reach her. "She's gone. Let it leave your mind." She can forget about her book, she can forget that it will ever be touched by her hands.

The strength that is needed to walk away from her is unbearable, everything in me points to her blood in my hands.

"Stop! How can you just walk away?" That's when it snapped, the very thing holding me from killing her breaks into two and I'm forcing her up in the air my hand wrapped around her throat, my wings beating powerfully behind me as we rise off the ground.

Her face is inches from mine, her small whimpers and choking sounds are pushed away as I squeeze harder. "I can rip your head off with a flick of my wrist. Don't think I won't, Bastet." I nearly choke on her name, how can someone so small inflict so much damage by speaking. "She will not survive, don't you get that. As soon as she finds out who she is and where she came from, Li-" I can't say her name out loud, it's worse to endure. "She will kill her."

I drop her body to the floor, ignoring the way her body hits with a loud thud and the sound of her hands rubbing her throat as she coughs up, fighting for air.

"She hasn't gotten there, Ulsif was taking her there. She could still be here." The harshness of her voice barely delivers the words.

"Where is here Bast! She could be anywhere right now, she could be dead for all we know." But I knew she wasn't, I still felt her. She was alive.

She puhsed herself off the floor, clutching her throat in the process, "We can track her. Have Meeksha do a locating spell. She can be found."

A flash of the map soaked with my blood crossed my mind. Meeksha had mentioned someone else on the map that she didn't know who it could have been, was it her. "Did Adeline ever reach the fey realms?"

Please say yes.

She shook her head, "That's where they met, where I lost her. She was dragged inside by whatever magick that was attached to this crystal. She screamed until I couldn't hear her anymore. That's why I had came running inside wondering where she was, it terrified me the way she screamed. I couldn't reach her." She really felt some guilt, it still didn't stop me from wanting to kill her.

If that was her then we can find her. "Get Meeksha. Tell her it needs to be done. Again."

"There." Meeksha pointed to the map, the second one we had to find that wasn't part of our realm, earth that is. "She's in the most outer region, why she would be there I wouldn't know but it will be dangerous even for a halfling like Adeline."

The small drop of blood trembled as if it was Adeline the one trembling. "We need to leave, now. Meeksha find Sovereign and Valfalls tell them to bring as many Reapers we can this is not going to end well."

I turned away, storming to the long hall, away from the library and to my armory. "Master, shouldn't we wait!" She called after me but I needed to get to her. Bastet was right with one thing, we couldn't just leave her.

The soft footsteps of Bast came fast behind me, "We'll need more than just reapers Death."

I knew where she was going with the idea, Lucifer. "He won't help." Why would he? Adeline was my problem, and She was my past.

"It was my fault that she was with Lucifer that day, he's been having her followed ever since. A part of him enjoys her company. He will help."

I stopped, troubled by her words, "It was you whenever she got into anything wasn't it. The club was a deliberate scheme to get answers, Lucifer was going to do what. Free her. You knew he couldn't, why bring her to him?"

She looked to the floor, her cheeks aflame with grief and embarrassment, "It doesn't matter anymore. He will help."

"Then go fetch him." I finish to where I was heading, leaving her behind.

The door to the armory is open, weapons and plated armor line the walls. I snap my fingers and a demon woman appears, she doesn't tremble as she chooses the armor from the walls. Her fingers carefully strip me of my clothing not seeming to notice the wings attached to my back. I close my eyes and it's her hands that strip me of my clothing, the demon's hands brush my feathers slightly and it's like she's there, tormenting me.

Her hands slip as I shudder, "Master. Did I hurt you?"

My eyes snap to the blood red eyes of the demon, no ounce of blue in them, "No. Continue and make it quick." I snap.

She quickens her strides and soon she fastens the sculpted chest plate to my body. The ancient words scribed into the metal spread through my bones the blood shed that has soaked in the metal have spread far along my skin. It was a pleasant distraction.

The woman takes the cloak from the chest, memories from the beginning haunt me as she hands it to me, its deep black color does not even penetrate the dark, it blends and completely disappears. The fabric is still as its been before, it falls to my feet the hood covering all features, the true image of Death.

"Master." The sound of Daxt makes me turn, the way he says my name as if a question.

"What is it?"

"Bastet has send word, he will bring whatever is needed. That is all she has said.She waits for you by the gates." His large eyes reflect the wings behind me.

"Thank you. Prepare the dungeons, advice Meeksha to get ready for healing it will be needed."

I race down the halls, winding through the dark passes and finally reach the outer gates to where Bastet stands clad in golden and bronze armor.

I open the portal with one word, "Apertum." Knowing the destination I leap through landing under a darkened sky. She controls this realm, it fits her mood and it is a black hole of nothing. "She will be expecting us if Adeline is here already. Adeline won't be able to shield her mind from one of her seers and she will want to know everything."

The smells of burnt flesh and rotting corpses, scattered remain of skeletons run along the forest line. The trees seem alive but not organic, they have been corrupted into who knows what.

"What is this place?" I had almost forgotten she was here for just a brief second as I gazed at the empty sky, there are no stars, no sun to light the way.

"She was banished here long ago, to live in darkness for an eternity. She has control over the way it looks and feels, she chooses to have corpses litter the walk ways and have the sky to be empty. She revels in the darkness and enjoys being in it, this place is what she looks like and how she is on the inside." I step forward, the sound of bones crushing under my feet does not halt my steps. "We have to move, she must know that we are here."

Bast runs to catch up, her weight never breaking anything under her, "I've heard the rumors, that she was banished to live here alone but why. No one seems to know, only the ones that were there at the time. Like you."

I sigh, I was not in the right mind to speak of this, "Not now Bast. We need to hurry." I pick up the pace not waiting for a reply. Seeming to jump out of the shadows, a building leeks from the darkness.

"This is it." I shout behind me, Bast runs ahead of me touching the gate with one hand, she jumps back when the gates swing open.

Two greater demons cackle as Bastet scurries backward, "Well, well. If it isn't the Angel of Death. I've longed to bury my hands in your chest and rip out your heart."

A smile spreads along my lips, "I would reply with the same threat but you have no heart to rip out."

The second one laughs, the sound is unpleasant, it's a choking gurgling noise that leaves his throat. "If you are here Angel with wings attached the rumors and whispers must be true. You've come to retrieve the blue eyed Halfling." He growls. "I wanted to taste the blood that ran from her body as she lay dying on the floor."

My heart lurches me forward, the loud shout of rage leaves me as I summon my Sythe that cleanly meets the demon's throat, my body hitting his as my grey wings fold around me. His head rolls back, the second demon has no time to react as my right wing flings him to the ground. Before I can turn and cut off his head Bast launches on his chest driving her khopesh sword through his skull. She then grips his horn that protrudes from his head and hacks in off with her sword. Wiping it off generously with a cloth hanging from his arm she places it on the belt that carries her dagger and Khopesh sword.

"It is necessary, let's go." She stands leaving the dead demons behind her. I wipe the black blood from my face and carry on to the long path that stops near the cobble stone walls that seem to have all the depth in the world but it's cast in shadows.

"We have to wait. Everyone should be here by now."

We can't wait anymore, we've already wasted too much time. "You stay here and wait for them. Order them to surround the place, no one must come in after me unless I call for you. She knows we are here there is no need to hide but post look outs on the walls and have the brute of the force at the entrance and at the rear. Sovereign will know what to do. Listen to him." I walk ahead, alone.

"Are you sure?" She calls still unsure what to do with herself.

"You've done enough." I clipped, it shot out like a bullet and I know it hit hard. The massive doors are pushed open revealing an empty entrance and corridor. I reach the middle of the foyer, stepping into a large puddle of water as I enter. Ignoring the sound of my feet hitting the puddles, I search the darkness, finding no one insight. Neither do I see this Ulsif, the one that took Adeline here in the first place. He must be true to his warlock nature, a coward.

"This way." My head turns to the voice, the shadow beside me moves and slithers away quickly underneath double doors to my left. I follow it, shoving the doors aside I see a flash then a scream that shouts my name. "Follow it." The shadow whispers again.

I race ahead, the hallway seeming to never end until finally I'm at an opening, several steps lead to a landing and down below is Adeline.

************

Almost there my lovelies, here's a present for the New Year. 

xoxoxo

-Ash