Chapter Thirty-Seven

'Cause you could be the one that I love

I could be the one that you dream of

Message in a bottle is all I can do

Standing here hoping it gets to you

Chapter 37

Nephele's POV

I stand from my chair with force, the scrapping of the metal against the rough stone flaw making everyone turn and face me with surprise – as if they weren't just bitching about me as if I weren't here.

"Look, we get it, Chaos is a major problem and blah blah blah." I sneer at the two red head girls who speak another language between them. I had Lucifer translate what they were saying – and lets just say the words flying out of their mouths were not nice.

"What is a major problem, is that if we do not stop her now, she will continue to come back and come back until she has what she wants. And what she wants is exactly what you don't want: total annihilation of everything you hold so dear. She wants complete power over the realms and she is willing to go to the ends of the universe to get it."

"Hvernig gerir at effect oss?" (How does that affect us?) Asks a red-haired man standing in the corner of the room, "Vér hafvrætki germeðr þinn striith, né gerflestrr ór oss viljar part ór þat." (We have nothing to do with your war, and nor do most of us want any part of it.)

I look expectantly at Lucifer as he relays what the man said. I almost burst at the seems with anger. What does these people not understand? It is basic numeracy in terms of what is happening, what is going to occur, why that impacts them.

Lucifer wraps a hand around my leg, fingers running the delicate flesh on the inside of my lower thigh to calm me down. I shift in comfort, then smile in discomfort as the eyes of the room snap towards his placement. In an instant he dropped his hand, sensing my thoughts and the eyes of the room.

I smiled internally but took a deep breath and stood straight, turning to the pepper-hair man who had just spoken. In all its entirety, I hated this.

"My mother wants to rule whatever you call this-"

"Our Universe," A blonde girl with blueish skin pipes in. She looked young and pretty, and I don't think she meant to be rude in her interruption and more so just intended to be informative. With a painful slit to the heart, she reminded me of Angelina.

I had lost so much already. I didn't want to lose more.

I smile at her in appreciation, and quickly carry on before someone else can interrupt me.

"-rule our known Universe. She will go to any lengths to rule it. She will kill everyone who remains, anyone who opposes her rule of authority, after she has taken the throne. She will slaughter each and every one of you in this room, behead you, and probably hang in it a trophy room..." I pause for dramatic effect.

"If you do not fight now, you will fight later. If you fight later, you will lose. Later she will have me on her side – and I will not know any different. You either fight now and stop her completely, or you surrender. There is no alternative."

There was silence around the room until a man with dark hair and golden clothes spoke up.

"谁说有别的办法呢？你？你怎么判断呢？你只有18岁的人类世界你对我们的世界、政治或习俗没有任何经验。你无权代表我们说话"

(Who said there was no other way, you? How do you judge? You are a mere 18-year-old with no experience in this world. You have no knowledge of our customs, our politics, our world. You have no right to speak on our behalf-)

Lucifer let out a cold yet nuintelligable sound that halted the man in his tracks. I look of fear passed through his eyes, as if he was scared that he had spoken too soon or spoke of too much. Except that fear was aimed to Lucifer, making me think what he said had led him astray to be on the bad side of the Devil.

I looked at Lucifer in need for translation once more as he sneered at the man who stopped speaking after receiving a glare from Lucifer.He sighed at the ground, forehead wrinkles curling in anger before translating what the man said.

I turned my nose up at the man, understanding that in a way he was correct but also almost losing my cool at the way someone so old can be so ignorant to change. He must have seen change throughout the millennia he was alive and yet he was denying such thing to occur here.

I was about to speak up for myself my father stepped in.

"I know." Every single pair of eyes panned across towards him as soon as the words fell from his lips. Some in surprise that he spoke at all, others in discontent, and some just oddly staring; their face devoid of emotion.

"I know what she is like. I know what Chaos will do too each and every one of you." He pauses once more, emphasising his words and letting the daggers laced within the words sit at their throats.

"I know how she will torture your loved ones; I know how she will burn your children; I know how she will slaughter your soulmates." He spoke with vigour and power, and I watched as the men draw their lady counterparts closer to them as he spoke the last line.

"If you think for a minute that this problem is isolated to the Realm of Hell alone, you are wrong. If you think that she will stop at the Realm of Hell, you are wrong. If you think that she will not come after each and every one of you unwilling to surrender your titles, you are wrong.

The only way to prevent what is going to happen whether you like it or not is to fight. We have been at war for centuries, and not one person in this room though that it was going to end like this? We have had threats, we have the oracles tell us the threats, and most of you wish to remain adamant that nothing is going to occur? Humans are meant to have their heads in the sand, not the Gods."

Lucifer stands up, the chair scrapping against the marble bringing the diverted attention to him. He looks at his brother, nods once, before he begins to speak with finality.

"Whether you stand with us or not, is up to you. We will either win or lose, and do not expect anything else than that premise. If we lose, you know the consequences. If we win, you can count that the consequence." He closes his mouth with a smirk, turning towards me with endearing eyes and reaching out his hand.

Although he was relatively close to still, I reached out and graciously took his hand with ease. He glided me over to him in an instant, a dangerous smile on his red lips as he headed to the door with me in clasp.

We leave the crowd of individuals in the room, gaping at his threat. He wasn't wrong for doing it; he did have a very important point. But maybe that wasn't the best way to go around it. Although this was Lucifer we were talking about – he could do whatever he wanted and most likely get away with it.

"Let us get away from these scoundrels." He sneers into the air and I innocently laugh as his hand tightens on mine.

In a second, we evaporate into thin air, leaving behind a golden room full of angry, dismissive or unconcerned Gods.

That meeting did not go well, but it did go better than expected so that is a surprising element. At least this one did not end in bloodshed.

What an improvement.

Almost refreshing instead of the blunt brutality of the gods I have met so far.

Wrapping my arms around his neck as his hands come to cradle my shoulders in his grasp, my hair freely flows around us as darkness envelopes and then disposes of us accordingly.

Beautifully destructive is what that abyss was.

Cardinal stars and raging darkness glittered in that abyss – and the one wielded its power didn't even know what it meant.

I looked into Lucifer's cruel yet softened eyes. An oxymoron in itself, his beauty was ethereal and whenever I looked at him I wanted to curse the gods for giving him good genes.

Did genetics even work like that in this world?

"Yes, they do Nephele." He seemed amuse by my thought, a lazy smile on his face. "But I think it should be me thanking the Gods for your beauty." I blushed crimson, dimples popping as my eyes fell to the floor in an instant.

Butterflies stabbed at my stomach in pleasurable pain, before disappearing to be replaced with a sense of fluttering comfort.

"That was smooth." I comment with a small smirk. He maintains eye contact for a few seconds as I reach for his gaze once more, and I watch as a flicker of something passes through his eyes but it is gone too quickly for me to comment on it.

In a second the look is replaced by the cocky smirk of the inner-devil he is, and I brace myself for his next statement.

"Not as smooth as-" He is interrupted by the clearing of a throat and the bang of the door. I jump in fright and Lucifer's hand fall to a hard grip on my waist in the instant as he pushes me slightly behind him.

He relaxed as soon as he saw it was Thanatos standing the doorway. He looked rushed, and his form was rather dishevelled as if he had just risen from a slumber and then ran here.

I sigh, stepping free from Lucifer in an instant and pacing around the library as Thanatos approached Lucifer and began speaking in a language my human form wouldn't have recognised.

"Sire, we have a problem." My concentration set itself on their words, despite the inability of my body to stop moving.

Lucifer seemed to mumble something incomprehensible, indicating Thanatos to continue. The air seemed tense, and the world rocked as words tumbled from Thanatos' mouth.

"Adam was reported to be working with Chaos."

Lilith froze in the doorway to the firelit library, the books in her hands fell to the floor as she stood silently. Violent darkness rolled off her in red waves as tears welled in her eyes. But she stood her ground, she didn't move.

I looked at her as she looked at Thanatos, waiting for more, needing more, demanding more as her whole world crumbled around her.

"By who?"

"The shadows. They came to me in my sleep again, and they showed me."

I was instantly shown images and a storyline from Lucifer – explaining what he meant.

Thanatos, being the God of carrying the dead from the realms and into Hell, could communicate with shadows. It explained the darkness I sensed around him and followed him whenever he moved. I was shown corners of rooms around the realms that harboured shadows, small pockets of darkness that seemed to radiate beady eyes and wicked smiles.

The dark then travelled to Thanatos when they had something that he might be interested in – they seemed to worship Thanatos. Their childlike nature around him – the way their tendrils reached out for comfort and they spoke in hushed whispers like they could be scolded for coming to him at the wrong time – indicated that he was a father figure to them.

"He was talking to her, bending his knee at a makeshift thrown they have set up in the middle of a battlefield. He was declaring his loyalty to her, hand on his sword and everything." He runs a shaking hand through his thick hair, making it more dishevelled from prior. "That's not even the worst thing." He whispers scarcely, eyes glancing over to Lilith who stands silently in the doorway.

The books were now in a neat pile next to her feet and I assume Lucifer had moved them mentally to avoid an accident.

She stared onwards, and didn't indicate that she didn't want to continue.

She needed to hear it.

"I-" Thanatos took a breath, glancing at her once more with something similar to love flaring in his eyes before he spoke again. "He was in her bed. He took her – he made love to her – in her bed. She screamed his name and he screamed hers." His face screamed in pain, and Liliths did not show an inch of emotion anymore.

That was all he said, but the image of the event immediately entered my mind as I reached out to the tendrils I touched the tendrils with my fingertips, their darkness immediately recognising and consuming my own as I entered the bedroom.

Red velvet covered the circular bed, a tent covering surrounding the furs that fell against the bed. The tent was circular, and rather large indicating that it was her quarters. But it was simplistic and barbaric in nature.

Tent post rising from the ground in the middle of the nine square metre tent, lit candles hanging from the awnings and the sounds of men fighting lighting up the atmosphere.

In the middle of the bed moved two lovers, interlocked in a battle of the climax. Her nails ran the length of his back, and his hands groped her thighs as he dived into her relentless.

I gasped in disgust – the sight abhorrent to my eyes.

I pulled back from the sight, not wanting to hear or see any more of the image. Lucifer caught me as I stumbled backwards reeling in disgust.

I instantly looked at Lilith.

She revealed nothing on her face apart from the one lone tear that rolled down her cheek. She was silent – her aura that surrounded her darker than the night, and colder than the abyss. She was silent and deadly. She was all fury.

Her world just fell apart.

And all that came from her was red waves of anger, sadness and hatred.

She turned around on her heels, her chin slightly higher than it was previously and she walked away. She just walked away.

I pursed my lips and took steps after her, yet Lucifers warm hand gripped my wrist with power as if telling me not to go due to her previous volatility. I shook him off with ease and in a hurry pushed past the doors to the library chasing after her quickly disappearing figure.

"Lilith!" I yell down the hall, the white dress bunching around my ankles as the cloth freely moves behind me.

She doesn't stop or freeze but I know she heard her name from the tensing in her back. I pursed my lips and lifted my hands in front of me. I called to the darkness in the hallway and wrapped the warmth around her body. Extending my fingers and twisting my hand I turned her towards me as the darkness gripped her in place.

As she faced my I noticed the tears on her face, and I also noticed the anger in her eyes. Except the anger wasn't directed at me, which made me ease a little.

"Lilith, it's-"

"I am sorry." I reel back from her interrupting words and gently release my hold on her. To my surprise, she stays where she is.

" I am sorry for being a bitch to you." She finishes her sentence and I nod my head along with her words.

"It's okay." I whisper, just feeling the need to forgive rather than hold a grudge.

"It's not okay. I was jealous. I thought Adam was sleeping with you or at least attempting to. He had been so distant ever since you arrived – I thought he was cheating on me. I had found things-" She choked on her breath, and I wanted to reach out but I knew that would make things worse. She took a deep breath before continuing. "I had found lingerie in my bed that wasn't mine. I thought he was surprising me with it, I hoped he was surprising me with it. Then I never got it – and so I thought he was trying to win you over – and I got jealous. I never once thought that I should've been mad at him and not you, I am so sorry." She whispers.

"He was sleeping with Chaos the entire time of my duration," I concluded. "In this Castle. He was sleeping with her here. In this castle."

"In the same bed, we had made love in. The same bed he promised me his love, and the same bed he promised me that he would avenge those who sent me down here. He promised me there wouldn't be anyone else – he promised me." Thanatos forms behind her, his gaze strong and anger pulsing at his skin. He wraps his arms around her shoulders as she turns into his chest and finally breaks down in sobs.

"Its not your fault Lilith. I forgive you regardless." I talk to her which only makes her cry harder. I grimace and step away from the pair, looking at the space next to me.

You cannot comfort the grieving Lilith, Amare.

Lucifer's presence forms next to me and I lean into his arm.

He was correct. From the stories, I have been told about their reunion, and their love for one another, his betrayal must have hurt like a bitch. Probably more than that but it would be childish to compare the heartache of love to something so insignificant. In no way could any of us comfort Lilith; and thus, he was true in the words he spoke.

No, but I can try. And that matters.

Thanatos looks at Lucifer, where Lucifer replies with a single nod, a mutual understanding passing between the two Gods.

It was a mere second before his arms grip my waist like a vine and we are shadowed into the starry abyss once more.

Word Count: 3194

How did you like this Chapter?

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QOTC: Hmmm, favourite song?

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Let me know your thoughts below:

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SONG: Message in a Bottle (Taylor's Version) - From the Vault - Taylor Swift

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Rose,

x

ALSO....

Guess who just finished their HighSchooling and is now aimless! (ME). Guess who can upload more than twice a year! (also me).

(A/N - She didn't start uploading twice a year. Suprise!)

I have had this one sitting in the vault for a little while so here it is.