Chapter 6

Chapter 6 “Kalea… Kalea… The past will return. I need your help. We must stop him. Kalea… Kalea…” “Mmm… Help… I’ll help you, Empress…” “Hm?” Eddie stirred in his sleep when he heard Kalea whimpering beside him. Thinking her rash was uncomfortable, he reached out, but when he looked closer, he realized she was tossing restlessly and talking in her sleep. “Babe… Kalea…” He tried to wake her gently, but she didn't stir. “Kalea… I need to find you. Help me find you.” “I’m here… I’m right here, Empress.” “Kalea… Baby, wake up. You’re dreaming,” Eddie said, shaking her shoulder a few more times. Finally, Kalea’s eyes fluttered open. Staring up at Eddie hovering over her in the bedroom, she blinked several times, trying to clear the sleepy haze. “What?” Kalea asked, her voice thick and raspy. “Are you okay?” Eddie asked in return, searching her face with deep concern. “I should be asking you that, Eddie. Why are you waking me up and staring at me like that?” “Because you were talking in your sleep,” Eddie answered softly. “What? I was not…” “Yes, babe, you were,” Eddie insisted, pushing a stray lock of hair back from her forehead. “You kept calling out to someone. You said, ‘I’ll help you, Empress.’ Who were you talking to?” Kalea sat up slowly, pulling the sheets to her chest as the strange, haunting weight of the dream lingered in the air. The mysterious voice still echoed faintly in her mind—an urgent plea that felt far too real to be a simple nightmare. “Empress? I haven’t had any dreams about her since she sacrificed herself.” “Well, we are coming up on the two-year mark since her sacrifice. Do you think that’s stirring up some internal trauma?” Eddie asked gently, sitting back against the headboard and keeping a grounded, comforting arm around her. “No, I’m over it.” Kalea shook her head, pulling her knees up toward her chest. “I miss her, yeah, but really, we spent more time apart than we did together—so much that I didn’t really get to build a solid relationship with her.” Eddie studied her closely in the shadowed bedroom, watching her fingers fidget with the edge of the blanket. “I get that. But if you’re not secretly dwelling on it, why would she suddenly show up in your sleep now? And who is 'he'? You were telling her you’d help stop someone.” Kalea went still, her gaze drifting toward the far side of the room. The lingering sensation of the dream hadn't completely dissolved—Empress’s voice hadn't sounded like a distant memory or a phantom of grief. It had sounded desperate, direct, and eerily present. “I don’t know,” Kalea whispered, a faint chill running down her spine. “It didn’t feel like a dream, Eddie. It felt like she was trying to reach through to me.” “But is that possible? I mean, for your wolf’s spirit to reach out to you while she’s stuck in a hell loop?” “I don’t know; we’d have to take that up with the devil himself.” “You called?” a sharp, cultured voice echoed through the bedroom. Eddie immediately snarled, throwing his arm protectively in front of Kalea, while Kalea squealed, ripping the blanket up to her chin in absolute shock. They both scrambled back toward the headboard, staring toward the foot of their bed—where, lo and behold, Lucifer stood casually leaning against the dark wooden bedpost. “Dude, what the f**k?!” Edward roared, his eyes flashing gold as his claws partially extended. “Are you out of your mind?!” Kalea screamed, grabbing the nearest pillow and chucking it straight at Satan himself. Lucifer caught the pillow effortlessly with one hand, a smirk playing on his lips as he tossed it onto a nearby armchair. “I heard you say my name, so I thought I’d drop in,” he replied smoothly, completely unbothered that he had just popped into a private bedroom simply because someone uttered the word devil. “You can’t just go around eavesdropping and materializing into people’s bedrooms in the middle of the night!” Eddie snapped, standing up on the bed to put his frame between Lucifer and Kalea. “Well, you said you had to ask me something, didn’t you?” Lucifer responded, completely missing—or rather, deliberately ignoring—the point Eddie was trying to make. “That doesn’t give you the right to pop in whenever you want!” Kalea shouted, her voice echoing in the quiet bedroom. “Well, I’m here, so ask away, my fine furry friends,” Lucifer stated, crossing his arms and leaning back with an insufferable smirk. Eddie let out a harsh, frustrated growl, but he knew better than to pick an actual fight with the ruler of hell in their pajamas. He dropped back onto the mattress, keeping a protective hand firmly wrapped around Kalea’s wrist. Kalea took a steadying breath, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders as she stared at the devil himself. “Fine. Since you barged in here anyway... is it possible for the Empress’s spirit to reach out to me from inside her hell loop?” Lucifer’s smirk faltered just a fraction, his dark eyes sharpening with unexpected interest. He tilted his head, watching her closely. “That’s an interesting question, Princess Werewolf. It’s not uncommon for a spirit to escape their hell loop by finding a loophole; it’s happened once or twice every few millennia. But your wolf’s case is different. She’s not necessarily in a hell loop for herself. Rather, she’s acting as a spiritual cage, holding the soul of the one whose hell loop she’s in.” “Yeah, we already know that. She’s holding Eddie’s forefather’s spirit so he doesn’t keep going back in time to try to wipe out the werewolf species. That doesn’t answer my question, though.” “Essentially, yes, she can reach out to you if your connection was truly that powerful,” Lucifer replied, pacing casually to the window. “I’ve never held a wolf’s spirit in a hell loop before, but for some reason, unbeknownst to me, it was decided long ago that her spirit was the only entity strong enough to hold Radcliffe’s soul.” “So, is her reaching out to me all in my head?” Kalea asked. “Maybe, or maybe not,” Lucifer shrugged, looking utterly unbothered. “Bro, you’re not helping, and you’re getting on my last nerve,” Eddie growled, his chest heaving as he stared down the King of Hell. “Keep your claws to yourself, wolf-boy. I’m trying to think,” Lucifer shot back, waving a dismissive hand. “As I said, this is new to me, too.” “You’re Satan!” Eddie retorted, throwing his arms up. “Yes, and even though I’ve been the keeper of Hell since the beginning of time, there are still things that are a first for me,” Lucifer said, leaning against the dresser with a cold, calculated look. “If Radcliffe is breaking through her grip, it means her spirit is fracturing. If she’s calling for help, it’s not just a dream, Princess. It’s an alarm.” “An alarm for what?” Kalea asked, her heart thudding against her ribs. “That Radcliffe’s need for revenge may be more powerful than his punishment,” Lucifer replied, his eyes taking on a dazed, far-away look as if he were peering through layers of hellfire to watch the nightmare unfold in real time. “What does that even mean? Are you saying Radcliffe can break out of Hell?” Eddie asked, shifting closer to Kalea and keeping himself between her and the devil. “He can break out of his hell loop, but he can’t break out of Hell,” Lucifer said, waving off their concern with a dismissive flick of his wrist. “Really? Because I seem to recall a demonic angel who escaped her hell loop and tormented the living as a plot for revenge,” Kalea grumbled, glaring at him. “How do you know about that?” Lucifer exclaimed in shock. “I heard the story from a very talkative Luna who lives in the desert—you know—small, feisty, Korean,” Kalea sneered. Lucifer’s dazed expression snapped back to sharp focus. He narrowed his eyes at her, a low, ominous rumble vibrating in his chest. “That was a glaring administrative error that has since been... corrected. And I assure you, no one walks out of my realm without my permission.” “Yeah, well, instead of wasting our time, how about you go back to Hell and see if you’re wrong?” Eddie said, leaning forward with his eyes gleaming. “Because if Radcliffe breaks out, what we went through two years ago will happen again. Only this time, Radcliffe will know how to counter every move we make—because he knows all of our allies.” “Well, you don’t have to be so rude about it, wolf-boy,” Lucifer huffed, smoothing down his vest. “I can see when I’m not wanted. I’m going.” Lucifer snapped his fingers. His massive, dark wings expanded into the room with a sudden rustle of feathers. With a single powerful flap, he vanished—flying straight back down to the Underworld to find out for certain if Radcliffe was truly on the verge of escaping. Lucifer navigated the endless, shifting mazes of Hell’s labyrinth until he located Radcliffe’s specific hell loop. He peered through the shimmering barrier window and watched closely. Inside, Radcliffe relived the shameful collapse of his royal status over and over again, forced to endure his public execution at the guillotine for attempting to assassinate Horatio—Kalea’s forefather and the very first royal werewolf. On the surface, the loop seemed entirely intact. Radcliffe’s neck met the blade, the crowd of demons cheered, and the scene reset seamlessly. Lucifer didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and wondered if Kalea’s dream was really just that—a dream. “No, there’s no way. I’ve made certain that no one can ever escape Hell again,” Lucifer said to himself, confident that what happened with Anna could never happen again. Lucifer watched once more as Radcliffe’s hell loop seamlessly repeated itself: the sentence passed, the blade dropped, and the illusion reset without a single glitch. Satisfied that the punishment remained absolute, Lucifer turned on his heel and left the labyrinth. Back in the bedroom, the sudden gust of wind from Lucifer's departure had barely settled when Eddie let out a long, heavy breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, he’s gone,” Eddie muttered, looking over at Kalea, who was still sitting rigid beneath the covers. “Do you actually feel any better after that, or did he just make everything ten times worse?” “He didn’t answer anything,” Kalea said softly, staring at the space at the foot of their bed where the Devil had stood seconds ago. “He acts like everything is under control, but I know what I heard, Eddie. That voice wasn’t just a memory playing tricks on me. She sounded exhausted.” Eddie slid back under the comforter and pulled her tight against his chest, letting his warmth anchor her. “If Radcliffe is even thinking about trying something, we’ll handle it—just like we did two years ago. But for tonight, you need to rest. You’re still recovering, babe.” Kalea leaned her head against his shoulder, letting her eyes drift shut, though a deep, uneasy knot remained tied in her stomach. Down in the dark, out of Satan’s sight, the cage was holding—for now.