We pushed forward through the

  endless white expanse of Glacius, each step sinking into snow that

  seemed determined to slow our progress. The cold didn’t affect us as

  severely as it might mortals, but even succubi weren’t immune to the

  bone-deep chill of Hell’s frozen circle. My breath clouded before me as

  we trudged onward, the documents safely tucked away in Isabella’s

  spatial ring.

  “Do you think they’ll follow

  us?” I asked, glancing back at our trail—three sets of footprints

  stretching back toward Frostheim, now barely visible on the horizon. “Or

  just wait for us at the Transition Zone?”

  Isabella’s expression remained

  grim as she scanned the pristine landscape around us. “Both, quite

  likely. They won’t spread their forces too thin—that would be amateur.

  They’ll cut off the obvious escape routes like transport gates while

  sending a tracking party after us.”

  “Another group will coordinate

  and try to flank us,” she continued, her voice low and measured.

  “Especially after Aria’s little alchemical display made it clear we’re

  not easy targets.”

  Aria grinned despite our situation. “Did you see their faces when that arousal potion hit? Priceless.”

  “They’ll prepare a better ambush next time,” Isabella cautioned, ignoring Aria’s comment. “More coordinated, less direct.”

  I surveyed our surroundings

  with growing unease. The landscape offered little cover—just occasional

  ice formations jutting from the snow like frozen waves. “Could they be

  surrounding us right now?”

  “Possibly,” Isabella admitted. “That’s why we can’t afford to stop.”

  I glanced upward at the

  obsidian ceiling studded with crystals that passed for Glacius’s sky.

  “Why can’t we fly? Wouldn’t that be faster?”

  “And make ourselves perfect targets?” Aria snorted. “Might as well paint bullseye on our backs.”

  Isabella nodded in agreement.

  “Flying makes us visible for miles in this terrain. One competent archer

  with ice bolts could take us down before we even spotted them.”

  I looked back at our tracks stretching behind us. “But we’re leaving a trail even a blind demon could follow.”

  “Unless there’s another convenient blizzard,” Aria added hopefully, glancing at the still air around us.

  Isabella sighed. “I’ve been

  using minor illusion spells to obscure our tracks, but it’s not perfect.

  Anyone with tracking experience will still find us eventually.”

  “So our only weapon is speed,” I concluded.

  “Exactly.” Isabella’s crimson

  eyes narrowed as she gazed toward the distant rock formations that

  marked the entrance to the Transition Zone. “We need to reach the zone

  before they catch up to us.”

  We pushed forward with renewed

  urgency, the knowledge of pursuit adding speed to our steps. The wind

  picked up slightly, whipping loose snow across our path and stinging our

  faces with tiny ice crystals. I tried to calculate our chances based on

  distance and time, the mathematical part of my mind seeking comfort in

  numbers and probabilities.

  “What are our odds?” I finally asked Isabella, who knew this terrain better than either of us.

  She didn’t sugarcoat her answer. “Slim, but not zero. If we maintain this pace without stopping, we might make it.”

  “Might?” Aria echoed.

  “The Eastern Transition Zone is

  still at least ten hours away at our current speed,” Isabella

  explained. “And that’s assuming we don’t encounter any natural obstacles

  or get delayed.”

  I bit my lip, considering our options. “Could we set a trap? Use Aria’s remaining potions to slow down anyone following us?”

  Isabella considered this

  briefly before shaking her head. “Too risky. We’d have to stop, and we

  don’t know how close they are behind us. Besides, Aria’s potions are our

  best defence if we’re cornered.”

  “I’ve got three red, two green, and one purple left,” Aria confirmed, patting her pouch. “Not enough to waste on maybes.”

  We fell silent after that,

  conserving our breath for the journey ahead. The landscape blurred into a

  monotonous white void, broken only by occasional ice formations and the

  distant, jagged horizon. Time seemed to stretch and contract as we

  pushed forward, each step bringing us closer to the relative safety of

  the Transition Zone.

  “Look,” Isabella suddenly whispered, pointing ahead. “We’re getting closer.”

  In the distance, I could make

  out the massive dark opening in the ice plain that marked the entrance

  to the Eastern Transition Zone. Hope surged through me at the sight.

  “We might actually make it,” Aria breathed, a note of surprised relief in her voice.

  “Don’t celebrate yet,” Isabella

  cautioned, her eyes still scanning our surroundings. “This is where I’d

  set up an ambush if I were them.”

  * * *

  As if on cue, a spell erupted from nowhere.

  “Look out!” I screamed, but it was too late. The magic surged directly at Isabella, who had no time to dodge.

  A blinding flash erupted as the

  protective talisman I’d given her absorbed the spell’s impact. Without

  it, she would have been skewered by an ice spike that rose violently

  from beneath her feet, its jagged point stopping mere inches from her

  chest before shattering into crystalline dust.

  “Shit!” Isabella hissed, eyes wide with the realisation of how close she’d come to death.

  Before any of us could react,

  similar attacks targeted Aria and me. I twisted instinctively, my body

  moving with reflexes I still wasn’t fully accustomed to. Despite my

  manoeuvre, the edge of an ice spike grazed my side—just enough contact

  to shatter my own talisman in a burst of protective energy.

  “We’re surrounded,” I

  whispered, scanning the pristine landscape. The vast whiteness that had

  seemed so empty now felt like a perfect trap, with enemies concealed in

  every shadow and drift.

  Aria, Isabella and I strained

  our senses, looking for any movement or sound that might betray our

  attackers’ positions. The silence was absolute—no footsteps crunching in

  snow, no breathing, not even the whisper of fabric against ice.

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  Then another attack came

  without warning. Isabella barely twisted away from a barrage of ice

  shards that erupted from a seemingly solid wall of snow.

  “Behind you!” I shouted to

  Aria, lunging forward with speed I didn’t know I possessed. I pulled her

  aside just as razor-sharp icicles pierced the space where she’d been

  standing.

  “Thanks,” she gasped, her usual playfulness gone.

  We were being bombarded from

  every conceivable direction—ground, sky, sides. There was no pattern, no

  rhythm we could anticipate. Each attack came from a different angle,

  each spell manifesting in a slightly different way. Ice spikes, frost

  bolts, snow blasts—the variety suggested multiple casters with different

  specialities.

  “We need targets!” Isabella snarled, her hands glowing with retaliatory magic that had nowhere to go.

  “They’re trying to separate us,” I realised as another spell forced me to dive away from my friends. “Stay close!”

  We couldn’t dodge forever. Our

  attackers remained perfectly hidden, invisible in the landscape they

  knew intimately. Each time we moved toward the Transition Zone’s

  entrance, the attacks intensified, herding us like cattle.

  “This way!” Isabella called,

  ducking under a horizontal sheet of ice that formed in the air and

  shattered into deadly projectiles.

  We moved in desperate

  synchronicity, gradually inching toward the dark opening of the

  Transition Zone while avoiding the relentless magical assault. Isabella

  and I managed to maintain our footing thanks to our pureblood reflexes,

  but Aria struggled despite her considerable agility. Her movements,

  though impressive for a common succubus, lacked the instinctive

  precision that Isabella and I possessed.

  “Stay between us!” I ordered Aria, deflecting a frost bolt with my wing before folding it back.

  Isabella flanked Aria’s other side, creating a protective formation. “Don’t break rank!”

  Minutes stretched into what

  felt like hours as we fought our way forward. Each step was a victory,

  each dodge a reprieve from death. But our stamina wasn’t limitless, and I

  could see Aria’s movements becoming fractionally slower with each

  evasion.

  A particularly vicious barrage

  forced us to scatter momentarily. When we regrouped, I noticed a thin

  line of purple blood trickling down Aria’s arm where an ice shard had

  caught her.

  “I’m fine,” she insisted before I could speak, but her eyes betrayed her pain.

  That’s when I remembered. The memory hit me with such force I nearly missed dodging another attack.

  “The stone!” I gasped, reaching into my spatial ring with trembling fingers.

  “What stone?” Isabella demanded, her attention split between my words and the constant threat of attack.

  “My mother gave me an emergency

  recall stone before we went to Earth to face Cain,” I explained,

  ducking under another ice blast. “I could use it to get us out of here.”

  Aria’s eyes widened. “A recall stone? Those actually exist?”

  “Apparently,” I said, finally

  locating the small black stone in my ring’s storage. It was warm to the

  touch, pulsing with dormant magic.

  “Use it!” Aria urged. “Get yourself out at least!”

  I shook my head violently. “I’m not leaving you two here to die!”

  “We’ll reform,” Aria insisted, pushing me aside as another ice spike erupted where I’d been standing. “You know that.”

  “But reformation takes months!” I protested. “And your academic standing—”

  “Fuck the academic standing!” Aria shouted with uncharacteristic seriousness. “Use the damn stone!”

  Isabella’s expression changed

  to shock as she processed what I’d said. “You have a recall stone? From

  your mother?” Her eyes narrowed with sudden understanding. “Lily, use

  it. Now.”

  “I won’t abandon—”

  “This isn’t abandonment,”

  Isabella cut me off, her voice commanding despite our desperate

  situation. “This is tactics. If you survive, you can relay what’s

  happening. Besides…” Her voice dropped lower. “We really don’t want your

  parents redefining how the Second Circle looks if something happens to

  you.”

  The implication hit me hard. If

  I died here, my parents—especially my mother—wouldn’t rest until they’d

  exacted vengeance on everyone even remotely connected to the attack.

  The entire political landscape of Hell would shift.

  Another volley of ice magic forced us to scatter. When we regrouped, Aria was bleeding from a new wound on her leg.

  “Use it,” she repeated, her voice weaker. “Please, Lily.”

  I looked between my two closest

  friends, their faces set with determination despite our desperate

  circumstances. With shaking hands, I raised the black stone.

  “I’ll come back for you,” I promised, my voice breaking. “I swear it.”

  “We know,” Isabella said with a grim smile.

  I closed my eyes and channelled

  my magic into the stone. It grew hot in my palm, pulsing with

  increasing intensity. Light began to leak between my fingers, brilliant

  and blinding.

  “Hang on!” I shouted to my friends as the magic built to a crescendo.

  The stone shattered in my hand,

  releasing a pillar of light that engulfed me completely. The last thing

  I saw was Aria and Isabella standing back-to-back, facing the unseen

  enemies as the world around me dissolved into pure, radiant energy.

  * * *

  The light faded, but I remained

  exactly where I’d been standing. No teleportation. No escape. The

  recall stone had shattered uselessly in my palm, leaving only glittering

  dust that scattered in the frigid wind.

  “What happened?” Aria gasped, her eyes wide with confusion. “You’re still here!”

  Isabella stared at my empty hand. “It didn’t work?”

  For a moment, even our

  attackers seemed stunned by the brilliant flash of light. The barrage of

  ice projectiles temporarily ceased, giving us a precious moment to

  gather our wits. I scanned our surroundings, desperate to understand

  what had gone wrong—and that’s when I spotted him.

  A demon stood in the distance,

  barely visible against the white landscape. His blue-grey skin almost

  perfectly matched the icy terrain, but the movement of his arms as he

  prepared another spell gave away his position.

  “There!” I pointed. “On that ridge!”

  Isabella whipped her head around. “I see him! But there must be more—”

  The assassin raised his hands

  to continue his spell, but something changed in the atmosphere around

  us. The air suddenly felt heavy, charged with an immense pressure that

  descended upon us like an invisible weight. My ears popped painfully as

  the air pressure fluctuated wildly.

  Then came the sounds—wet,

  fleshy popping noises that echoed across the frozen landscape. One

  particularly loud burst coincided with our spotted assassin literally

  exploding into a shower of gore. His body simply disintegrated, organs

  and blood scattering across the pristine snow before rapidly dissolving

  into dust as his essence began the long process of reformation.

  More popping sounds followed,

  accompanied by distant screams cut horrifically short. Invisible

  attackers were being destroyed by some unseen force.

  “What in the nine circles—” Aria began, but her words died as I felt someone embrace me from behind.

  Warm arms wrapped around my

  shoulders, and a familiar scent of roses with the faintest hint of

  brimstone enveloped me. I knew immediately who it was.

  “Mother?” I whispered.

  “My darling girl,” Lilith’s voice purred in my ear. “Thank the void you remembered to use my gift.”

  I turned slowly in her embrace

  to face her. Lilith stood before me in her full royal regalia—a midnight

  black gown adorned with crimson accents that seemed to shift and move

  like living blood. Her crown of twisted obsidian horns gleamed in the

  dim light of Glacius, and her eyes burned with both relief and barely

  contained rage.

  “I came as quickly as I could,”

  she said, brushing a strand of hair from my face with surprising

  tenderness. “I didn’t even change my attire from court.”

  I glanced down at the broken remains of the stone in my palm. “But it didn’t work. I thought it was supposed to teleport me—”

  “Forgive me for the deception,

  my dear,” Lilith said, her smile apologetic yet somehow still predatory.

  “I wasn’t certain you would use it if you knew its true purpose. You

  seemed so… reluctant to involve us in your matters regarding that mortal

  realm. The stone was never meant to transport you—it was a beacon for

  me, so I could intervene.”

  I heard twin thuds behind me

  and turned to see Aria and Isabella on their knees, heads bowed deeply.

  Their faces registered pure shock mixed with reverent terror.

  “Your Majesty,” they murmured in unison.

  Lilith waved a dismissive hand.

  “Rise, both of you. There’s no need to prostrate yourselves. You’re my

  daughter’s friends, after all.”

  The casual gesture was all I needed to confirm my suspicions that she knew Aria and Isabella were aware of my royal status.

  My friends rose unsteadily to their feet, clearly uncomfortable in the presence of Hell’s queen.

  “Lady Lilith,” Isabella managed, her normally composed voice trembling slightly. “We are honoured by your presence.”

  “Queen Lilith,” Aria echoed, attempting a graceful curtsy that her injured leg made awkward.

  My mother’s smile widened,

  revealing teeth just slightly too sharp to be merely decorative. “Now

  then,” she said pleasantly, as though we were meeting for afternoon tea

  rather than standing amidst the aftermath of an assassination attempt,

  “perhaps you can tell me what you three discovered that warranted an

  entire squad of assassins being sent to eliminate you?”

  I took a deep breath, looking at my friends before turning back to my mother’s expectant gaze.