Eli looked to Lilith.
“I was a little rusty,” She said simply.
“I do not want this,” Isla wailed.
“Idiot girl,” Lilith hissed, “it is for the best. Your power would be unmatched. You could reshape Hell to your will.”
“But that reshaping is based on suffering,” she countered, “why would I want power at that cost?”
“There is no other cost for power,” Eli said. He put his head in his hand.
“What happens when someone from this side of the world wants the Stone? Hmm? ” Lilith hissed, “They do not play as nicely over here.”
Isla paled.
“Could I set off the real Rapture?” he asked, “save everyone who is left?”
“You could,” Lilith said. Isla looked at him.
Eli shook his head.
“That is just the same thing as killing them and absolving myself for it.” he teared. “Who am I to claim dominion over suffering?” He looked up at the sky, Lucifer had dimmed.
“Fine,” Isla said. “But I am arranging everything. Goat-fucker wont even be in the same plane of existence if I can manage it.” she half laughed. “Do you think some of the ancient dudes are actually down there? It might be nice to talk to them.”
“Always looking on the bright side,” Eli said. She beamed at him.
She took out the white business card Azazel had given her. It simply read:
The Woods
“Let’s go.” Lilith said.
They walked back toward the Pine Barrens but only got as far as the first tree line on the highway. Isla stuck out the business card, inserting into the air, and gray-ash smoke erupted from the far edge. A coil of smoke trailed out to form a seven foot, foamy wall in the thin moonlight.
Together they entered The Woods.
As they walked, The Woods thickened, thinned, thickened again, and again, for hours.
The forest ended at a wall of iron and bone. The light of the moon reflected on Isla's NASA hoodie.
Eli stopped first, his boots sinking into soft earth at the boundary. The trees behind them had given way to metal stakes driven deep into the ground. Some were twisted together with what might have been ribs or branches. The fence stretched in either direction, segments overlapping at uneven intervals—some rusted black, some gleaming silver-bright in the dim light. Where there were gaps in the fencing, sharp spikes pointed outward from the openings.
A wooden sign hung from the nearest post, weathered planks held together with wire.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
Eli stared at it. His jaw worked once. "Really?"
Isla moved up beside him, squinting at the text. "What does it say?"
"'I lack subtlety,'" Eli muttered.
“Well,” she laughed. “Now that you can read some of the language, how much of it can you speak?”
His attention was stolen by movement as a demon arose above the witch.
Mouth an eye, closed in stitch.
Mouth in eyes, flawless pitch.
Teeth inside, jawless twitch.
One’s silver tongue flickered and glittered.
One’s golden light, came unbittered.
"For what purpose,” it chittered.
“Are you in this place?"
"It is the Devil; I have come to face.”
“Who are you, arrogant worm?"
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Then he said with a dying squirm,
“I am…
...who I am.”
There was a pulse of force and the demon was hurled through the air. It flew backward in a screaming arc, limbs flailing, and crashed somewhere deeper in the compound. It scattered into ash in front of its fellow Legionaries.
Eli blinked. His eyes were wide, startled, but no crimson streaked his face.
That's when the demons began to stir. They turned toward the entrance: geometric horrors, spectral figures studded with eyes that blinked in unnatural rhythm, bodies that seemed carved from bark or from malignant smoke.
No two were alike, but when they stood together the world around them became a blazing, scarlet inferno.
Metal screeched. Bone splintered.
There was a wrenching, grinding cacophony of iron stakes tearing free from the earth.
The gate was crushed, and thrown through the air. The mangled ball of bone and iron flew into the compound.
The demons laughed as they grabbed their weapons and moved toward the trespassers with casual grace.
A light pierced through the ash and smoke.
An incandescent salmon harbinger, floating in the dark beyond the dust.
Before the demons could meet the beacon, a silhouette emerged from around the gem of morning.
A dancing brilliance erupted from above one of its flanks.
Pure white fire flooded into the camp in all directions. The torrent of flames and light passed through canvas and rock as though they were glass.
The horrors within wailed in agony and terror. They used whatever they had to cover their eyes from the light. Bat wings crossed in curtains, frozen eyes ran in terrified rivers, but it made no difference.
From Smoke, had come flame.
The raised end of Elijah’s branch had become a torch crowned in white fire, blazing without heat, casting his face in stark relief. His crimson tears black in the brilliance.
The pink light remained soft on his chest.
Despite what lurked beyond the light,
They held firm to the Bright,
Descending into night,
Ready to fight.
To his’ left, was Lilith, crouched low, hidden in the seldom permitted shadow. Onyx smoke trailed off her. The Acheulean stone axe was held out, ready. The other hand swept the air as she strode.
To his right, Isla walked. Her rubied, silver athame rested at waist height, her posture both rigid in the spine but relaxed in the shoulders. The emblem of progress she bore gleamed a brilliant blue.
Suddenly Eli stopped walking. Isla and Lilith stood on either side of him and the teeth encircled the light.
He steadied himself for a long moment.
"Bring forth your sovereign."
The damned cascaded away like a living tide. Hellfire bodies pressed together until only a narrow corridor remained, heat and sulfur pooling along the edges. Claws scraped stone. Wings folded tight.
The path led to a figure seated at its end, legs crossed with slow indifference.
At his waist was a belt of thick leather and buckle of iron. The veins of his garnet muscles undulated like worms. He stood enormous, two maybe three men tall. He strolled toward them as if crossing a garden. Eli could not tell if the Devil had legs or if they were just smoke taking shape. But worst of all were those terrible eyes of golden fire whose own shadow of the Devil stretched far behind him. At its edges, two blackened wings peaked into the light.
The demons bowed their heads, and retreated as he passed them. When he spoke his voice was smooth and amused. A stone table rose from the earth in a wrench. Everyone took a seat.
“My Queen?” the Devil asked.
“Your Queen,” she said, “Subject.”
The Devil smiled, then sighed.
“Actually no,” he pouted. “You see, Eli got lucky and those vampires broke him free last time we made a deal. So this time I will get what is owed to me.”
They stilled. Isla reached for Eli’s hand.
“Isla will be my prisoner, I will take the stone, and I will claim the Underworld.” the Devil said.
Silence.
Eli gripped Isla’s hand tight and then let go.
He stood.
He placed his flaming torch in the Devil’s face.
“Who do you think you are?” he asked.
“Excuse me?” the Devil replied.
“You knew that the vampires freed me, not the New Virginians.” he affirmed, “there is a difference between accusation and retribution." Eli laughed. "No true Devil would lower himself to petty, blind retribution would he? Is not a sin unique to man?”
The Devil stared up at him.
“Even the Accuser waited for a Witness of Man before continuing Proceedings.” Eli pointed a finger at the Devil.
“Are you more Beast than man?”
“Are you more Devil than Satan?”
“Are you less honorable than he?”
“You will send your Legions, or their agents, back to New Virginia. You will repair what you have broken. You will supply them. You will apologize. You will go. You will harm no one.” Eli finished.
“And why, mortal,” the Devil laughed, “should I listen to you?”
“Because I offer you, in addition to the power of Lucifer, the one thing the true Devil would covet from me above all else,”
Eli’s heart dropped into the abyss. At least it would it be there waiting for him.
“And what would that be? The Devil smiled.
“My soul.”
Lilith’s laugh was a low snort.
Emerald met turquoise.
“No!” Isla screamed.
“I accept,” the Devil said simply and extended his hand. Eli did not move a muscle.
Isla tried to push him away from the Devil’s hand, to take it herself, but she was met by an invisible ward and her blackened fingers crushed against it.
Eli’s eyes and ears swam in oceans of crimson.
Eli reached for the hand of the Devil.
“Gaaaah!” Isla roared in disbelief. Both stopped moving and looked at her. “All men are idiots!”
She looked upon man and Devil and said, “I have a much better idea.”
The negotiations after that were brief. Goodbyes were said. Carriages were drawn.
Then Isla walked down the aisle.