Everyone in the room snapped their eyes to King Jonathan and dropped their jaws. The idea that I would be marrying this girl was almost laughable. Yet, despite what I would've thought, everyone was serious. Understanding when people were supposed to laugh was getting harder and harder as the complexities of emotions were revealed to me. Boring and confusing..."complexities".

I kept a blank expression on my face and gave the King a death glare for wasting my time. "No."

King Julius interjected and ran his hand through his long white hair. "It's the only way, Syn. You're the only being we know with all the parts of the Underworld."

My jaw clenched as I listened to Julius' words. The man hadn't spoken to me in years, yet he had the nerve to involve me in a plan to fix his problems. My fingers itched to snap together and watch the life drain from his eyes, but I resisted.

I needed him alive. For now.

I scoffed at his words and rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to do that. I couldn't care less what happens to your kingdoms, to be quite honest with you." This place had not been my home for over a decade. I couldn't care less if it succumbed to the horrors of war.

I had no intentions of helping a kingdom that shunned and wished death upon me. If anything, I more so wanted to massacre every resident here than help them.

"Syn," my mother Genesis spoke up, "we need this. This will eventually affect Hell as well if Heaven and the Underworld are against one another."

Turning my head away from my mother, I landed my eyes on the blonde girl next to Mia. I found her looking at me, and I studied her. Her straight blonde hair looked as though it had never been under strain. Her manicured nails and soft skin let me know she's never worked for anything. And her silence at her parent's request told me I wanted nothing to do with her.

She looked banal, and by no means did I want a woman like her in my presence, let alone marry her. Marriage, love, or even commitment was never going to be something I would be interested in. The only commitment I had in my life was to Hell and the people who followed me.

She gave me a small smile, and I scowled at her. I was sure her smile had gotten her many things from people, but I would never be the type of man to fall to his knees over anyone. Especially not a woman like her.

I watched surprise marinate her features at my expression, stunned that someone would dare look at royalty the way I just did. As she looked down at her hands, I could see her face morph into disappointment, and I sighed. Good.

"Goodbye," I said as I snapped my fingers, disappearing from their watchful gazes. I materialized myself in Hell and sat directly in front of Lucifer, my infuriating father.

He laid down the paperwork he had in his hands and looked up at me with a sly smile.

"You knew," I said. I was peeved, yet I wasn't surprised. My father was a secretive man, and he was more inclined to let me find things out on my own than tell me. I found it annoying, but to him, it was amusing.

"Of course," he said as he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms.

"I am not going to marry her," I stated.

"I cannot make you do anything, but I have a feeling you may change your mind when you learn my plan," his voice emitting a sing-song tune on the last few words as he crossed his arms and pushed away from his desk. He drummed his fingers along the armrest of the chair in a taunting manner and I waited with my mouth shut, expecting him to tell me his supposed plan, but he remained silent.

"Speak!" I grumbled.

"Oh, right. All these years we have been working to rule both Heaven and Hell. Of course, God has thwarted our plans on each attempt, but this time, he can't." My ears perked as I listened to what he said, growing intrigued by the second. "If you marry the Angel, you will become King of Jeradua. After that, the only thing that stands between us and the throne in Heaven is her parents. Kill them; then you will become King of Heaven as well."

Eden, I wanted to correct him. It was the true city in Heaven where Xyla's parents ruled, but when my father got his mind wrapped around a plan, it was best not to interrupt. That was unless you enjoyed listening to the ramblings of a mad man.

He was the only person I knew that could make himself right in any and every argument. You could be looking at a drop of blood and know with every fiber of your being that it was red, but within twenty minutes, he'd have convinced you the concept of "blood" didn't exist at all. You could ascribe that to his polished manipulation tactics as the devil, or the fact he never shut up, causing everyone to quit arguing with him before they'd even started.

Despite him missing a few steps, I nodded slowly as I thought about his plan; which was beginning to sound more promising by the second. For years we had been fighting back and forth with Angels and fairies for power, this plan would put us directly above them.

"Think of it. Son and father ruling the worlds," he said with a mischievous smile.

"And what about mother? She will definitely leave you if she finds out your plans," I remarked.

Lucifer's confident exterior faltered for a moment before he shook his head. My mother was always a soft spot for him, and she had made him stop his plans multiple times before. She found it endearing, but I found that it made him weak. How could you have the key to all the power in the universe in your hands, then throw it in a garden of chocolates and roses for someone you "love" ?

We would've already ruled all the realms by now if he hadn't stopped for her.

"I will deal with her," he reckoned.

I didn't doubt his words. No matter what happened or what he did, my mother always seemed to forgive him. And watching that reconciliation was not only disgusting...it was stupid. It made me thankful that Lucifer hadn't created me to be weak like everyone else.

I didn't want or need to feel emotions like happiness, love, or sadness. To me, they were just words. Words that had no meaning... or at least no meanings that I could grasp. The concepts were foreign to me, and I had accepted that. I wasn't interested in making myself vulnerable to anybody. The thought of divulging all my secrets and trust into a person nauseated me.

The door burst open, interrupting our conversation, and making our heads snap towards it. When I saw who walked in, my head began to throb without warning, and my eyes rolled back to the furthest point in my head.

"Xavier," my father said with a smirk.

Xavier greeted him and walked over to me, laying his hand down on my shoulder with unnecessary force, making me bury my nails in the wooden armrest, causing the wood to splinter and dig into my palm. I looked up at him from where I was seated and bore witness to a grin on his face directed down at me, making me want to shrink away from view.

"What do you want?" I muttered. Xavier had been gone for a month on business, and I didn't realize how much I had enjoyed the peace and quiet until I saw him step through the doors.

"I can't miss my best friend?" he mused as he sat in the chair next to me. He knew that it made me uncomfortable when he called me that, but he persisted. I didn't know another title for him, regardless. Not because it was true...but because I didn't want to waste my mind thinking of another word, when my time could be better spent doing anything else.

Xavier was a demon, and I met him when I moved to Hell at the age of ten. As we were the only children here, he insisted on being my friend, but I rejected him countless times. I never had friends and I never wanted any since I preferred spending my time with the most reliable and independent person I knew.

Me.

I avoided him to the best of my ability, but he annoyed his way into my life. And just like that, he'd been here ever since, like a parasite, stuck to my side regardless of the strain I put on him to go away. As horrible and overbearing...not to mention clingy, as he was and still is, he became tolerable to me over the years and was the only person I allowed to agitate and disrespect me on a daily basis. If Xavier were anyone else he would have been dead by now.

"I am not your best friend," I said as I shrugged his hand off my shoulder.

He chuckled at my words and sighed. "I may not be yours, but you are mine."

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Lucifer, who was watching us in amusement. "Syn is moving to Jeradua," he said calmly. I wasn't aware that I was moving, but I didn't resist the idea. We had a plan to follow through with.

Xavier sat up immediately, and his eyes darting between the both of us. "Wait! What? Why?"

Lucifer filled Xavier in on the entire plan, and Xavier leaned back, scoffing. "So you are leaving me." His face had dropped, and he was looking down at his feet as he sulked in his spot.

I rolled my eyes at his sudden dramatization of what I'd have to be doing and shook my head. "Don't be dramatic," I scolded him. Xavier shook his head at my order and continued looking anywhere else except at me.

Lucifer looked between the two of us and leaned forward onto the table. From my experiences with him, I prepared to hear some crazy or outlandish idea that would drive me insane.

"Xavier, you may go with him," he said as he gave me a sly grin. There it is.

"Absolutely not-," I began, but was interrupted when Xavier shot up from his chair, knocking it down, and began cheering.

"I'll go with you!" Xavier yelled as he pointed at me. I shut my lips into a thin line and glared at Lucifer, who appeared to be amused by my anger.

Lucifer looked up at an ecstatic Xavier and shook his head. "Make sure to keep him focused on the plan. But make sure he has fun," he said as he winked.

"He will definitely have fun," Xavier said as he let out a small maniacal laugh.

I grimaced as I thought of Xavier's idea of fun, and I knew this was going to be a torturous few months.