Nurturer of Nightmares

Seth

Seated on a plush office chair, I nervously watched Zeella pour a glass of wine, the Sin of Lust seeming quieter than normal tonight, his fingers shaking slightly. He was distracted enough that he had forgotten to tie me up, because I was free of bindings, although his door was locked.

Zeella was shaking, and it didn’t appear to be from fury or fear. It was something else. Adrenaline, maybe.

Because of Destiny, and what she’d said.

I’d heard the servants gossiping about it, how she’d plunged the room into darkness and shouted about Zeella’s wife hating him, the secrets he’d kept from the court, how he wanted to become King of Hell, rather than just a Lord of it.

He downed the first glass of wine, before shaking his head, placing the bottle back on the shelf and reaching for something stronger- whisky.

He poured himself a knuckle of it, and then downed that, too. Clicking his fingers, two of his Guardians rushed in at the summoning, and he turned to them, demanding, “I’ll need a report on the damage Desterium has done to the Manor, both physically and mentally. Release a statement that all gossip will result in a Severing, and an exile from the Manor. When you’re done with that, bring me a report on what Lilith and Abel are doing to Desterium down there.”

His voice seemed fractured, Destiny’s words clearly finding their mark, and I winced. She knew how to shred someone apart with her words just as well as with her claws. Hell knew she’d done it to me plenty of times…

She’d begged for Zeella to spare me, not knowing that it didn’t appear the Lord of Hell had any particular plans for me, since I was still just sitting here, waiting. I’d been Severed alongside Destiny, so maybe he viewed that as a sort of punishment for now, the blood still running down my back and pooling in the chair, ruining the velvet covering.

Staring down at the bottle as his Guardians left the room, he plucked up the glass, tossing it onto the floor, where it smashed into thousands of glittering pieces. Swigging from the bottle, he glared at me. He was far from drunk, but his eyes were glazed over, deranged.

“Are you going to have as much of a smart-ass tongue as your Connected?”

“That depends,” I replied back, “on what you say to me first.”

Rolling his eyes, he took another swig from the bottle, and then laughed madly, saying, “It doesn’t matter anyway. Once she’s been broken, she’ll be sold to Lazarus, and you’ll be tossed into the wastelands beyond.”

I had nothing to say in reply to that, no words that could change his mind, but I did have a question- Several questions- “Why?”

Raising an eyebrow as he took another, longer drink from the bottle, he said, “Why what?”

“Why sell her to Lazarus? Why hate her in the first place? She loved you, once, so what the Hell happened?”

“She didn’t bend to the Manor.”

“Neither did your wife,” I dared to say, and his lip curled up slightly, revealing teeth that weren’t sharp, but still just as much a threat as Destiny’s were in the same position.

“My wife was killed for not bending to the Manor. I nearly lost my entire family that day.”

“Destiny did lose her entire family that day.” When Zeella remained silent, I forged ahead, adding, “I know how her mother died, what she did, and I know how Destiny found her. And I know how you reacted afterwards.”

“Do enlighten me, then,” he drawled sarcastically, waving his hand as though to welcome me onto a stage, “Since you know so much about my family and its dynamics.”

“Destiny lost Sarah because she took her own life. She lost Reanna when she fell ill. She lost you when your wife died. The only person she had left was Cain.”

“Ah, Cain, the brat. I should have killed him the first night he stood up to the Manor. Maybe then Destiny would have stood a chance at becoming a decent bride for Lazarus.”

“Lazarus seems to like her and hate you. Funny that.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, torturing an all-powerful God’s future bride doesn’t seem like the best way to get on good grounds with him, does it? I hate you for everything you did to her, so imagine how Lazarus feels.”

“Lazarus is a Dark God. He understands why we must do it. Otherwise, Destiny will simply continue to refuse the Manor. No Manor, no bride.”

“Why not just marry Lilith or Lyna to Lazarus, then? Destiny won’t spare you even if she wins that fight. She’ll kill you. Lilith or Lyna, however…” I didn’t care if my suggestions spun the war into their favour. I simply wanted Destiny to be safe.

I’d bargained with Abel for Destiny’s life, once, so why not bargain with Zeella, too?

What would Zeella want, though?

“Lyna isn’t powerful enough, and Lilith washed her hands of Lazarus and Nazareth over a billion years ago. Desterium and Reannatiel would have been perfect, but Sarah didn’t agree with the idea of arranged marriages. That opinion only worsened when Genevieve visited centuries ago, only a freshly-minted Queen.”

“Genevieve visited you all? Why?”

“Said she wanted to see the baby known around Hell as the ‘World-Killer’. We had an emissary from Hell visit, too. Genevieve took Sarah and I into a room, and cautioned us against the End of Days prophecy, said Desterium was destined to be with someone else, not one of the Gods. I suppose she meant you,” he sneered at me, and I smirked arrogantly, the expression nothing more than an act to hide the fear coursing through my veins. Zeella was becoming more deranged the more that bottle of whisky vanished down his throat.

“I had Coppyrdeen tell me something similar when I Time-Jumped,” I offered up slyly, noting the fear in his eyes at the mention of the Fae Princess’ name, “Maybe your prophecy is destined to fail after all?”

“Destiny and you aren’t a good match. No child of yours will be powerful. A child between Destiny and Lazarus would be known as an Anti-Angel.”

“Destiny and I’s rather powerful child would beg to prove you wrong.” I didn’t know why I said it, having no reason beyond wanting to prove him wrong, but it had the right effect. His eyes widened, the bottle cracking in his hand as he did the math in his head, and a moment later, he was scrambling over the table, leaping at me with a vicious snarl, the bottle of whisky spilling onto the floor. I threw myself from my chair, rolling out of the way of his grasping hands, my arms and feet cutting on the glass on the floor. I’d fought Ancients, Demonic-beings, Demon Lords, Archangels, even Destiny herself, but I’d never had to fight Zeella.

Foolishly, and what I’d hoped he wouldn’t notice for the entire conversation we’d had, was that he had left a dagger on his desk. Two, in fact.

I only needed one.

While Zeella scrambled to pick himself up from the tangle of furniture he had knocked over by throwing himself at me, I grabbed the dagger from the table. I’d killed Danla and Seraphina with a single dagger, surely I could do the same with Zeella!

I only had a second or two to line up the shot, dozens of memories of training in the Academy and the war camp rushing back to mind, and I pulled my arm back, closing one eye.

Zeella was plucking pieces of glass out of his arm, and I threw the dagger.

Somehow, he heard the sound, ducking just in time to avoid it plunging through his eye, instead sending it into the wall behind him.

He turned to look at it for a moment, and I grabbed the second dagger, lifting it into a defensive position, my feet sliding automatically. How many times had I been in this position, preparing to fight for my life? This was no different. It was just a more difficult opponent.

A much more difficult opponent.

Zeella snarled, his powers snaking across the floor, and I shouted out, my own shakily tossing them away from me. I’d forgotten that he had powers!

Striding forward, he held out his hand, his power forming a sword there, and I gulped. A dagger against a sword weren’t fantastic odds, especially as his powers wrapped around my arm, pulling it behind my back viciously. I held onto the dagger for dear life, hearing the bone in my arm snap, and I bellowed in pain, my fingers splaying wildly. Zeella towered over me, his powers wrenching me to my knees, allowing him to grip my throat in warning.

“If you’re not just talking shit, Seth, and you and Destiny really do have a Dejinna together, it would be highly advisable that you tell me where it’s being hidden.”

“Not a chance. I’m not ruining my family just because you’re afraid of whatever powers our daughter may or may not have.” Reni hadn’t even been born yet! She didn’t exist, technically!

“Well, someone in your family is going to die very soon if you don’t start talking! I can either get an answer from you, or I can get an answer from Desterium! Either way, one of you is going to suffer the consequences!”

“I’m not telling you shit, and neither is she! But guess what, even if you marry Destiny to Lazarus, and they have that Anti-Angel together, that child will always have an older sibling to contend with!”

Even if Reni ended up being the younger sibling to the Anti-Angel, as much as it pained me to think about Destiny having a child with another, especially if it was against her will, Dane would still be older!

“Destiny’s power could be genetically random,” I warned, forcing a smirk to my face as he pressed that sword to my throat, “Our daughter may end up more powerful than whatever Anti-Angel is born! What then?”

Zeella’s powers wrapped around my broken arm, tightening on the wrist until I heard the bone groaning, and he leaned in, hissing, “Then I kill your daughter, hm? A nice ending to whatever abomination of a family you and my daughter stitched together.”

Clicking his fingers together, the two Guardians from earlier stormed in, the key to the door in their hand, and Zeella said, “Take Seth down to the Dome, and begin throwing him through whatever simulations are still working in that dilapidated building. After that, continue with what I told you to do, but in addition, I want you to tell some of the patrols that we’re looking for a Demonic-being child, only a baby. They’ll be known as a Dejinna. Female, either black or blonde hair, blue, black, or brown eyes, and light skinned. When you find it, kill it.” The two Guardians, upon hearing the description, swung to me, taking note of the blonde hair and blue eyes I had, and silently matching the other descriptions with Destiny. I knew what they were thinking, the both of them doing the same math that Zeella had earlier, and I widened my smirk for them, simply saying, “You’ll never find her.”

Let Zeella embarrass himself with imaginary searches for our unborn daughter. It didn’t matter. Even if they somehow managed to find Reni as an adult, she seemed powerful enough to kill them.

The two Guardians stalked forward, gripping me under my arms and aggravating the wound left by my broken arm, and dragged me out of the room, Zeella clenching his fists.

As the door closed, I saw him grab another bottle from the shelf…