The throne room was too loud.
I sat slumped in the obsidian chair looking into the skull cup filled with wine ethers, the black liquid sloshing around the skull.The screams from the lower pits echoed up through the cracks in the floor, a constant hum. Normally, I'd savor them. Today, they just made my head ache.
Three years,its been three years since Delphine had burned.
And the hole in my chest still hadn't closed.
I tipped the goblet back, swallowing the essence of a dozen sinners in one gulp. It tasted like ash.
You're pathetic!
The voice slithered through the shadows before its owner did. Asmodeus emerged from the darkness, his cloak of crow feathers rustling, his too-sharp grin gleaming in the bright light. He kicked a pile of discarded armor out of his way, my armor, the set Delphine had forged for me before the Fall. It had been lying there for three years, gathering dust.
"You reek of self-pity," he said, wrinkling his nose. "And wine ethers"
I ignored him, what did he know about love, grief and everything in between?
Asmodeus sighed, long-suffering, and perched on the arm of my throne like a vulture. "The eastern hellgate is crumbling. The diviners are leaking into the mortal realm . Dantalion's been covering for you, but the lesser demons are starting to whisper."
I swirled the dregs in my skull cup. "Let them whisper."
"Let them?" Asmodeus's fingers dug into the obsidian. "Are you trying to get overthrown?"
A memory flickered, Delphine's laugh, bright and vicious as she sparred with Vashtael in the training pits. "A king who doesn't rule is no king,my love."
I crushed the skull cup in my fist. Black ethers dripped between my fingers.
Asmodeus didn't flinch. "You're not the first man to lose a wife. You are the first to turn the Nine Hells into a brooding basement because of your grieving "
My blood simmered , asmodeus was the only prince who could address me in this manner. The temperature dropped in the crypt dropped.
"Careful, princeling." My voice was quiet. Deadly.
Asmodeus rolled his beetle-like eyes. "Or what? You'll sulk harder?" He leaned in, his breath reeking of carcass. "She'd hate to see you like this. You know she would."
The truth of it hit me like a battle knife.
Delphine had never suffered cowards. She'd skewered me once for hesitating in battle, her sword biting deep into my side. "The next one goes through your heart," she'd hissed.
And now here I was, drowning in my own grief while my kingdom crumbled.
Asmodeus saw the shift. His grin turned sharp. "There he is."
I stood, reaching for my battle robe at the arms of my throne shaking off it's collected dust. An unknown fury coiling in my chest.
"Summon the generals,"i said. "And bring me my sword."
Asmodeus's laugh followed me as I strode toward the war room, my feet silent against. The slate
"Welcome back, my Lord ." I heard him say .