Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
He hummed. “I can help you, Charlotte.”
Charlotte, not honey. Seemed like Radu was out of hungry stalker mode and into professor mode.
“But first,” he continued, “you need to understand what you’re about to do. Mortals think that gods created them, but it’s the other way around.”
“What does that—?”
“Listen.” I hadn’t heard this serious tone from him in a long time. It silenced me immediately. “A god is created in the hearts of mortals. Their faith, their belief, their worship, and their sacrifice—these are what give a god their power. It’s what lifts them up into immortality.
“It’s also why a god is the one thing no one can be by magic, force, or curse. You can’t make mortals believe in you. You can’t force them to worship you with a true and devoted heart, so that’s why the gods there are, are the gods there will always be.
“Unless you have the power of the All Hallows,” Radu dropped. “What the All Hallows is—in the direct and simplest terms—is the recipe for how to create a god.”
My brows ran up my forehead. “Recipe for how to create a god? You mean the way to skip all the worshipping, faith, and temples, and go straight to the limitless power and immortality? That’s what Lucifer wants?”
“More than anything,” he said. “You know the story of Lucifer Lightbringer, Charlotte. Everyone knows his story. He led a rebellion against God and was cast out into hell. Ever since... he’s hated your kind more than anything.”
“My kind?” I cried. “You mean humans? Why?”
“Imagine it. Imagine your father—the father you love, the father you worship—began to favor creatures you saw as lower than worms. Imagine he chose those worms over you. Punished you and tossed you away to protect those worms.”
I really wasn’t loving being compared to a worm.
“Wouldn’t your love for your father curdle to hate? And wouldn’t that hate take seed and grow into an endless thirst for vengeance?” His voice was spellbinding. “That is why Lucifer refuses to leave the human race alone. He tempts you all to wickedness with his lies and twisted deals because every mortal soul he snatches from heaven’s grip is a victory against his father. At least in his eyes.”
I nodded slowly. That made a horrible and sad kind of sense.
“But as powerful as Lucifer is... he’s not a god.” I heard shuffling and thuds from his end of the phone. “As I told you, everyone knows his story. They know he’s a fallen angel, not a god. They know their faith and belief in their god can defeat him, and even though Lucifer has tried to deify himself in the eyes of mortals—”
“—you can’t force someone to worship you with a true heart,” I finished. “No matter how many tantrums you throw against Daddy.”
“Precisely.” More thudding came through the phone. “Charlotte, I’m telling you this because I’m going to answer you. I know where you can find the answers you’re looking for.”
I ground to a halt. “Wait, you do?”
“I do,” he said firmly. “But when you find those answers, you must promise me that you will, under no circumstances, hand the power of the All Hallows over to Lucifer.”
“But my sister—!”
“I understand Adora’s plight. I know you’ll do anything to save her, but if Lucifer can use the All Hallows to get her soul back, so can you.”
I shook my head. “I’ve thought of that. Of course I have. But this is the devil we’re talking about. Do you want to wager everything on the hopes that one twenty-two-year-old woman can outwit the father of lies on his own turf? Because I don’t.” I scoffed. “You know what? He probably wants me to try. He wants me to turn on him, so that when he overpowers me and takes what he wants, he can abandon both me and Dora in hell—saying that it’s my own fault for breaking our deal first.”
“That’s exactly what he wants,” Radu replied without hesitation. “He can’t break a deal, but if you blow it up all on your own, he’s no longer beholden to you or his promises. But all the same, Charlotte, this is one wager he cannot win. If Lucifer Lightbringer becomes a god, he will lay waste to all realms. The mortal realm he despises, the demon realm that pulled him off his throne of blood, and the heavenly realm that threw him out and slammed the gates.
“He’s the lord of pride for a reason, and it’s because he holds a grudge like a bitter bitch. In his eyes, mortals, demons, supernaturals, angels, and gods have all wronged him... and we’ll all pay.”
“But—”
“No buts,” he hissed, urgency lowering his baritone. “You want to save your sister? You want her to have her soul, her life, and her future back? Well, what kind of future will that be when Lucifer takes his prize, and then hands you yours—the grand return to the apocalyptic wasteland that used to be earth.”