“You really want to go through with this?” a tall, lanky girl asked with her arms crossed. She had the hint of fire Talent in her hair and eyes, but aside from a small ember, she wasn’t anything impressive. But for someone untrained and having grown up in the Trenches, she was amazing. “What gives you the confidence, Braxy?”

Abraxis hated the nickname and scowled, flipping her a rude finger. “Watch it, Lily.” He stalked around the damp and dank guild basement. He could take all of three paces before he ran out of space and had to turn to stalk around his people, not Dax’s. “If we pull this off, our guild standing will skyrocket, and we can make Dax and his group look like a shit sandwich. Everyone wants that, right?”

All but one nodded, nine head bobbing in unison.

“This is a suicide mission, Braxy.” Lily wouldn’t let it go. She uncrossed her arms and waved towards the rest of their crew. “As your second in command, I’d hoped you’d listen to a little bit of reason from me. Even if this is successful, this psycho heist of yours, what do you think will happen? The merchants don't just let Trenchers like us across the Steelway. How many of us will get beaten or worse?”

“Just do as I say, and we’ll be fine,” Abraxis said, shrugging. “If someone gets caught, then they didn’t listen. Rule one is ‘never get caught’ for a good reason! So I’m not sure what you want me to tell you, Lily.”

She swung on him, her balled fist catching him in the center of his chest. “You asshole!”

He shook off the first hit and got serious as a second fist flew towards his face. Stepping closer, he ducked inside her range and wrapped his own arm around the swinging arm. His right foot wrapped around her left, and suddenly they were falling to the floor.

The air gushed out of her lungs as she hit the flat slab of stone with a painful thud. He could see tears welling in her pretty red eyes, but he couldn’t have mercy—not even for her. He leaned his knee forward and pressed it in her stomach, stopping her from recovering her breath.

Steel pressed against her throat, and he held her there and stopped any attempts she made to buck him free or retaliate.

“I’m the boss here, Lily. There’s a reason for that—” One of the bigger boys of the nine approached, and Abraxis grinned as he stared down at the pretty girl. “Are you trying to start a coup?”

“N-no!” she shouted, turning her head towards the bigger boy. Her fearful eyes turned to a look of absolute authority, blazing with the promise of fiery retribution if he dared take another step towards them.

When he moved back into his chair, his chest heaving and shoulders shaking, Abraxis turned his attention towards the girl. She was getting on in years and would probably either join the District as a whore or run away from the Trenches entirely. Even the Wastelands offered better options than some of the other lives out there. “You want to get out of here, right? I’m not a cruel person, Lily, and I want all of us to get out of here. Do you remember the promise we made?”

“How could I ever forget?” she said, almost offended he’d even insinuate such a thing. “I could never forget, Braxy.”

He stood up and offered his hand. “Then trust me.”

She took it without hesitation and let him pull her off the ground. “I do. Your plan is—it’s just insane. Even if you did steal the Heinrich family heirloom, how would you get away with it? What would stop those people from killing everyone in the Trenches in search of you, Braxy?”

Shaking his head, he grabbed her hands in his. “I can worry about that after I get the amulet. The rumors say it has unfathomable power and can Awaken someone, Lily. If I become Awakened, my Talent could bloom into something greater, something that could free the people of the Trenches from this life. I’ve thought through this, I swear, and I think I can do it.”

They maintained eye contact for several seconds before she freed her hands and wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug. He returned the hug, even though he hated that the others saw his moment of affection. He ruled not by being a kind tyrant but by enforcing his will. He’d spared Lily, because he fancied her and made a promise. Others didn’t get the same option.

When she freed herself from the embrace, Abraxis looked at the kid who’d stood. The boy shivered in fear, Abraxis’ reputation was one cemented in all of the minds of the Trench groups. Even Dax feared Abraxis.

“I’ll reach out when I have more details. All of you, get back to your duties and speak nothing of this to anybody.” The unspoken threat lingered in the air, a promise of a last breath should they defy his will.

*

Lily took a deep breath, wiped herself down, pulled her long hair into a bun, and sighed. “Why all of the theatrics, Braxy? Why does Dax need to know about the plan at all? Can’t we just kill him and take the rest of his people into ours? We could use the territories they’ve taken. Max said there’s a couple brothels at the edge of the District we could hit for clients.”

Tendrils of shadow wisped off Abraxis as he thought about skinning his biggest rival alive and hanging the boy’s remains over the Steelway for all to see. But no. He was more useful alive, even if the Trencher was a pain in the ass to deal with at times.

“Big Boss ordered it. It’s not my place to question orders. All I know is the rumors have credibility, but we won’t be able to get through the security and to the Amulet of Despair if we kill him.” He saw the questions brewing behind those pretty red eyes and shook his head. “I’m just a knife in the shadows, Lily. I don’t question the order of Big Boss or his prophets. If there’s something in there for me, I’ll do what’s ordered and go about my business. When the blood dries and the gold trickles down, I’ll be better off than before. Whatever happens isn’t my problem after the job’s done.”

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She huffed a flume of smoke as she started to transform. “You need to ask more questions.”

“I don’t, and that’s why Big Boss does business with us.” He cupped her face in his hand and grinned. “We’re so close. So, so close, Lily. I can hardly contain myself. I’m hungry.”

“Me too, Braxy. Being a fledgling sucks.” Her transformation ended and revealed her true figure.

A young demon.

Two horns stuck out to the sides of her head of red hair then curved forward in points. She had sharp, pointed ears and feathery black wings as long as she was tall. Her nails sharpened into talon-like points she could use to rake and rend.

She stretched her arms wide over her head, groaning. Her bare chest was at Abraxis’ eye level, and her eyes twinkled knowingly. Rolling his eyes, he released his transformation and ignored her.

The first thing to change was his height. He towered over Lilith by a head and a half. Next, his own horns appeared, three pairs. Instead of poking out and forward like Lilith’s, two pairs went curved down then up in an arc. Like two nested half-circles, each majestically curving outward at the tips. The third pair swept out from above them, coiling inward until its tips hovered just above his hair—the Crown of a future Demon King.

Long, white hair rested down at his lower back. Skin unblemished like perfect porcelain and snow white contrasted the obsidian Lilith boasted. They’d inherited their ancestor’s bloodlines, unmistakably, for better or worse.

Burning orange eyes brimming with disgust observed the dank basement. He hated coming to the place, but it was the only place he’d been able to influence when he’d first started working on this operation two decades ago. He’d had a lot less resources to work with, and the Anti-Demon Movement had been in full-force.

So he’d had to take what real estate he could find and make do. After a long time of grinding down the ambient Mana in the room and channeling his Miasma into the walls, he’d magically nullified the room so he could keep their activities hidden from the Scryers and Mage Society.

If they didn’t keep their activity hidden, at least for now, the entire Trenches would be razed to the ground and twenty years would be lost in a day—though twenty years was no stretch of time that mattered to them. The loss of their progress did.

His clothes, a sharp black shirt, tie, and overcoat with golden-white trimming fit to his form covered his naked transformation. The suit was bound to his soul, a part of him just like any other part of his body. He could change it, modify it in all kinds of ways, but he’d painstakingly managed every level, down to the number of stitchings across each seam, just so that he’d never have to do so again.

“Keep that up, and you’ll become a succubus, Lily,” he joked, shoving down his lust and rubbing his hands across his cuffs. The material soothed him and reoriented his thoughts towards the rest of his day’s plan. As a creature of greed and pride, he needed to stay moving. Giving in to lust would dilute him in a way he didn’t want, so he’d keep her at bay—for now. One day, she’d be his most prized trophy, the princess of Hell and only daughter of Demon Emperor Lucifer. “Pretty sure your father might have something to say about you becoming a demon of lust.”

“Would that be the worst thing to become, Braxy? At least it’s not sloth or gluttony,” she crooned, following after him. “Plus, if my mom weren’t a lust demon, the man would’ve never reproduced offspring. And could you really complain if I became a lust demon? I could take care of needs you didn’t even know you had.”

“Please don’t,” he deadpanned, shaking his head. He looked at her straight on and gave her a blank stare. “Your mom isn’t just any lust demon. She’s literally the queen of all succubi and incubi. Don’t disrespect her by relegating her to a simple lust demon.”

Puffs of flame plumed from her nostrils, but she realized her mistake after being reprimanded. Too much envy.

When he got to the door that led back out to the Trenches, he placed his palm flat against the surface and chanted the minor invocation. Tendrils of his magic spread across the surface, filling in the space, and began swirling in a vortex of black. When it solidified, he stepped through.

Lily followed, and the world shifted. Familiar hues of black, gray, and red greeted them. There were some shifting violets, ephemeral blue-greens, and more. It gave Hell a beauty of its own. If you weren’t used to it, the intensity of the colors could get quite overwhelming.

He’d even brought a human across the Expanse, the world between worlds, and into Hell to test it out. He’d cried when he looked around, so Abraxis’ guess had to be right. There was nothing else that could’ve terrified the human so much to cause such a reaction.

She tapped him on the shoulder as the rest of her transformation completed, the standard Demongold armor of the Seekers of the Demiurge, the wear she slotted as her soul uniform—emblem and all. “Speaking of my father, I need to meet with him. He’s requested your presence and asked me to bring you with. Will you go?”

Abraxis frowned, then sighed. There were so many things he needed to do, meetings to attend, and countless other things he wanted to prepare before he had to go back to the mortal world. He didn’t want to lose most of the time he had to a meeting he wasn’t prepared for, but his pride wouldn’t let him refuse a meeting with someone of Lucifer’s station. Not going felt like an act of cowardice, and Abraxis would kill himself before being seen as a coward.

But above those things, Abraxis hated seeing the casual power the man contained. A full-fledged archdemon of pride and wrath, he was. The chasm of power was as absolute as could be, a gulf millenia couldn’t overcome—at least, that was the case for a normal demon with a weak bloodline.

Lucifer’s request wasn’t a request but a demand Abraxis would be a fool to refuse.

“Sorry,” Lily said, moving closer to hug him. Her Demongold armor pressed against him, but he shrugged her off. “I really did mean to tell you earlier, but I know how you get when my father’s involved.”

He waved her away. “You did as you should have. I just don’t like being cornered like this,” he growled. Now that he’d returned, there was no way to escape the meeting. Not without repercussions he couldn’t face. His status as a fledgling, even if his bloodline was second to none, didn’t allot him the authority he’d come to possess one day. “Let’s get it over with, then.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, but he could hear the hint of pride in her voice. She’d planned this well and trapped him just as she’d wanted.

I didn’t give her enough credit, but I won’t make that mistake again. He vowed as much then stepped off. Lilith fell into step with a bemused grin, but a flash of his Talent was enough to make her remember what the current hierarchy of the betrothal was.

“Point taken,” she hissed and stared straight ahead.