Hell's Revelation (Book 3)

Chapter 28

"The problem, as far as I can see it, with this dramatic flair and desire to be the superhero is the fact that you put far too much fair in what you think you know."

Lucifer grinned like a cat as he glided past the parting crowd and stood with his peers in front of his throne. On the surface he still looked his usual cool,calm and confident self, but I stared closer and could still see the dust from the Pits staining his clothing, his hair a windswept tangle as it fell out of the tie at his neck, and the maniacal glint in his cold eyes that made me more nervous than he'd ever done before. No,this wasn't a good sign, not at all.

"You put all of your trust in prophecies and what is written. You believe you have power here only because of a theory you've managed to concoct between this merry band of unlikely companions. And yet you've still not managed to learn that prophecies have as much basis in fact as fairy tales. And the only theory that you've actually managed to prove has been my own."

With a flourish Lucifer folded himself onto his throne, crossed his long legs and grinned even more broadly at my look of bewilderment.

"What is he talking about?" Lucas hissed in my ear, not the only one of us to be growing agitated at the sudden change in dynamic of this meeting.

"He means,"Beelzebub chimed in with a wheezing cackle, "that you've all been played for fools."

"But we thank you for furthering the grand plan, truly we could not have succeeded without your help." Belial's tone was sarcastic and hollow as all of the Faces made their way back to their seats upon their thrones and stared down at us with pleased expressions. They were like the cats who go the cream, only these cats were really lions and they'd tasted blood.

"I think we might have screwed up here somewhere, Love," Frank said, voicing all of our concerns aloud, his voice ringing around the room uncomfortably loud although we'd all come to realise it no longer mattered what we said or who heard us say it. There was no way we were saving this moment.

I felt my power crumble as a muttering of dissent rippled through the ranks of demons and I shook my head. "No, Frank. We didn't screw up, they screwed us over."

"What the fuck is going on!" Lucas hissed with increasing urgency in my ear and I could sense Jesse's tense presence at my back.

He was shaking as I turned my head to glance at him, his lips moving in a quiet muttering and I could just about make out the words he was saying over and over again; the very same ones I was beginning to think myself.

"It's a trap, we shouldn't have come here...My Dad is going to die and it's all for nothing."

I grimaced. He was right, I should have listened to him in the first place. Now Malick and his father were goodness knows where putting into action exactly what we were trying to prevent from happening, and our whole big plan to bring down Lucifer with the help of the other three Faces as backfiring big time.

"They're all in this together," I muttered, shaking my head as a cold sweat settled over my whole body. They'd played with us all, used us as pawns in their game and we'd done exactly what they'd wanted us to do.

"Bingo!" Lucifer chuckled in a sing song voice, "and we really much thank you for the breakthrough in our study. Without your help we'd still be no closer to our goal."

"The Requiem ritual, the prophecy, my death, everything. You planned it all, the four of you planned all of it. Why? I don't understand what this is all about, why go to so much trouble, put us through this whole ordeal and for what? To have me brainwash every demon in Hell for you? Well you're plum out of luck there because I will never make them believe anything you want. They're mine to control not yours."