Sabrina's Body

by Ophelia Katherine Dokee

On the fateful night of her 17th birthday, Sabrina Spellman chooses to surrender Sabrina Morningstar's body to Lucifer and Caliban in order to protect her friends and coven. It's a choice she ends up regretting for the rest of her life.

4. Chapter 4

Phew! 31,000 WORDS! I'll admit it might have made more sense to split it. But I was adamant that this would be the last chapter and last time I tried splitting one, I ended up regretting it. So enjoy this movie-length chapter, lol.

A huge thank you to Sascha, Jerlanege and Kerry Potter1995 for your reviews! They mean everything! ❤️

TRIGGER WARNING for multiple character deaths, as well as descriptions of gore and rape/non-con.

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Part 4

"May I have a word with her Malevolence, the Queen?"

It had been over nine months since Sabrina had last seen Lilith. Nine months since she had "saved" Sabrina from her tomb, for reasons that still seemed dubious, and then promptly abandoned her.

Now here she was, standing in the doorway to the throne room as casually as though they were the best of acquaintances. Right when Sabrina was in the middle of being measured for her wedding dress.

She wanted to scream at her. But she was a queen, and queens should be gracious.

"Lilith. Long time, no see," she said, cold but keeping most of her annoyance under wraps.

Lilith smiled blandly.

"I haven't exactly been welcome at court." That was an understatement. Lucifer had pardoned her for Adam's death but that was about as far as his tolerance of Lilith went. It was surely no coincidence that she'd selected a day when he was out touring the circles to come. "But upon hearing of your upcoming nuptials, I thought it fitting to pay you a visit and bestow my best commemorations."

"How thoughtful of you." Sabrina's voice was pure irony. She motioned outwards, indicating the measuring tape around her middle and the seamstresses bustling about her. "Well, as you can see, I'm currently being fitted for my wedding gown. Maybe you should come back later?" Or never?

"Oh, I don't mind waiting," Lilith said breezily. Clearly, she wasn't going to go away.

Sabrina had half a mind to order her be thrown from the palace. She didn't want to speak to Lilith now, later or quite possibly, ever. She had saved Sabrina's life, but that life had only needed saving to begin with because of her tattling to Lucifer. And she still wasn't sure it had even been worth saving.

Yet she was intrigued in spite of herself. The demoness was always scheming, for better or for worse, and she obviously had something up her sleeve now. Whatever it was, Sabrina needed to hear it.

"Fine. Then by all means, take a seat outside."

Lilith went to sit down in the foyer, and the seamstresses continued to take Sabrina's measurements. It seemed she would be giving them a little more to work with than Sabrina Morningstar had. Though far from pudgy, pregnancy had caused her to gain some weight, particularly around the waist and bust.

As they measured her, she discussed the dress itself with their boss, a flamboyant demon named Adrammelech. The most renowned tailor in Pandemonium, he had personally designed Sabrina Morningstar's gown, as well as most of Lucifer's wardrobe.

"Is there a particular vision you have in mind, Your Malevolence?" he inquired, opening his style book. "Your...predecessor opted for a lace ballgown with an illusion neckline. Quite stunning, if I do say so myself. Will you be wanting something similar?"

Sabrina thought back to Sabrina Morningstar's wedding, and of the gorgeous crimson gown she had worn to marry Caliban, the prince of her dreams. While she had needed to marry the Uninvited; an Eldritch terror in the form of a disgusting, foul-smelling hobo.

It had grossed her out at the time. In retrospect, she thought she might prefer to still be married to him.

"I think I'd like something different," she decided, which wasn't untrue. She would like something different and it wasn't a dress. What she would like was to get out of this abominable wedding altogether. "As to what...I don't have anything in mind. Surprise me."

Ever since she was a child, she had held a very clear vision of herself as a bride. She'd pictured an idyllic wedding where she wore her mother's dress, a tea-length gown of white lace. And for most of her life, she had imagined her groom would be Harvey, her childhood sweetheart.

But all those dreams had been destroyed. Her mother's dress had blackened under the infernal flames on the night of her Dark Baptism, and her life had become darker too afterwards. She had been forced to break up with Harvey in order to protect him. Then she had found new love with Nick, and for a while it had been him in her dreams instead.

Now Nick was dead and her groom would be his murderer. The man she despised most of all in the entire world.

As such, she really couldn't care less what she got married in.

Adrammelech, on the other hand, was abuzz at the prospect, surveying Sabrina while sketching various designs in his notebook and murmuring to himself . Eventually he appeared to settle on one.

"Yes, perfect. This might just turn out to be my best work yet," he said, again to himself, before snapping the book shut and turning to Sabrina. "And how about the color? Red is traditional, but black is very in-vogue too…"

Sabrina thought about what color Lucifer would hate the most. The answer was very obvious.

"I'd like it to be white." It was about as much as she dared do to rebel against him.

Adrammelech looked utterly scandalized. "White...? But that's…"

What mortals wear for weddings, she could tell he wanted to say. However, she wasn't only a customer but the queen. Which meant she was always right.

"Then white it shall be, Your Malevolence!" he conceded, with a sweeping bow.

After he and his seamstresses departed, promising they would have the most beautiful gown in all the realms ready in time for her wedding, Sabrina took her place on the throne. Clearing the room of all other demons with the deduction that whatever it was she had come to say wasn't something that should be overheard, she ordered for Lilith to be let in.

"Alright, Lilith. What are you after?" she asked, sharp and to the point. She wasn't in the mood for any BS today. Lilith was no longer her teacher, and Sabrina was no longer the naive little schoolgirl who could be diverted with plates of almond cookies and various sob stories. She knew the truth of who Lilith was now, and she knew what she was.

Not that that stopped Lilith from trying. "Why, perhaps I simply wish to extend my former pupil my happy returns on her wedding?" Her hands were neatly clasped at her front, an innocent air of affection about her as she peered up at Sabrina on the dais.

Sabrina nearly laughed at that. "Cut the crap. I know you have an ulterior motive. You always do. Now, out with it."

Irritation flashed in Lilith's blue eyes. "You truly do remind me of your father sometimes," she cursed under her breath. Forcibly re-composing herself, she plastered her maternal expression back on. "Very well. I have come to tell you the ugly truth I'm sure you already know but have chosen to hide from yourself. Marrying the Dark Lord will destroy you, Sabrina. You will never be happy with him."

Sabrina met her statement with surly silence. Her hands tightened on the sides of her throne but her lips remained firmly sealed, whatever retort she had anticipated giving not coming out. Lilith seemed to take this lack of response as her cue to continue.

"I'm sure he's being all tender sweetness with you at the moment, putting on the picture of remorse. He is very good at that. None of it is real. You have seen his true face already. It was the one he wore when he condemned you to death and raped you all those months ago. Is that the kind of man you want to bind yourself to forever more?" Her tone had become gentler, and the motherly concern in her expression might not have been entirely faked.

Genuine or not, Sabrina didn't want to see it. Nor did she want to hear the words spewing out of her mouth, for she didn't need Lilith telling her what she already knew herself.

"No, I don't want him as my husband!" Her shout echoed across the throne room, which she had luckily thought to cast a soundproofing spell on. "I know he's an irredeemable monster! I know! But I have no choice! Marrying him is the only thing that will keep me safe from him!"

Or at least, the only thing that could keep her out of Sabrina Morningstar's tomb. Which was the closest thing she could get to safety.

Lilith's face was pitying. "Nothing can grant you safety from the Dark Lord. Not a crown, not a throne, and certainly not a flimsy wedding band. As long as he lives, you will always be at the mercy of his whims. And with him being the fickle creature he is, those whims blow with the wind.

"He may be utterly infatuated with you now. You are the surviving remnant of his dead daughter, his beloved firstborn. But once you've popped out a few new heirs for him, that glamor will fade. He will tire of you just as he did with me and every other lover he's taken. Then when Caliban spews his usual spiel about you being an imposter and his wife needing her royal burial, he might start listening to it again."

Like the Darkness, she appeared to be reading Sabrina's mind and firing all her worst fears back at her, her words seeming to mock her in spite of the sickeningly compassionate tone that she had adopted.

Shutting her eyes to hold in the tears in danger of falling, Sabrina shook her head.

"Why are you telling me all this? Have you just come here to gloat?" Her voice was desperate, on the verge of cracking under her emotions.

Receiving Lilith had been a bad idea. She had known it was a bad idea. Just what had she expected from the Mother of Demons? That Lilith might have come to help her? Lilith only ever helped herself. She had saved Sabrina from being trapped in the tomb before, but that had been so she could consign her to an even more miserable fate.

Lilith's soft voice managed to carry across the crescendo of Sabrina's defeated thoughts. "No, child. I've come here to give you a wedding gift."

Opening her eyes again, Sabrina saw she was holding out an object. Metal glinted in the throne room's dull orange light, and at first glance she thought it was some kind of dagger. As she rose from her throne and took a step towards where Lilith waited, a closer inspection revealed the blade to be a spear.

She stopped in her tracks then, struck by sudden clarity. "Is that…?"

"The Spear of Longinus? Yes."

Sabrina's heart leapt at Lilith's confirmation, but her mind was boggled.

"How…?" Lucifer had once told her the Spear of Longinus was the only thing that could kill him. She'd assumed any weapon powerful and dangerous enough to do such a thing must be hidden away somewhere, out of the reach of any witch or mortal. Just how had Lilith managed to get her hands on it?

"Taking my magic away was not nearly enough for your father. After Adam's...demise, I made the mistake of begging him to kill me. For that, he cursed me with the Mark of Cain," Lilith explained, with much bitterness. Her lips curved into a venomous smile. "Of course, our Prince Caliban was all too happy to assist in my goal of ending my life. He brought me the Spear, the only way to kill an immortal, for that very purpose. Such a generous young man. I didn't follow through on my plans but it's been in my possession ever since."

So Caliban had had access to the Spear. Back when he had enjoyed a cushy life in the Dark Lord's favor. Now that he had lost everything, he probably regretted idly giving such a valuable weapon away to Lilith. Where it had been completely wasted.

Sabrina couldn't understand it. "If you've had it all this time then how come you haven't killed him?"

"He won't let me anywhere near him. I have had no opportunity to kill him and I doubt I'll ever get one," Lilith said, with a titter. Her smile became vindictive as she surveyed Sabrina. "You, however? His darling daughter and soon-to-be bride? It would be all too easy for you to get him when his guard's down."

She offered the Spear to Sabrina, who eyed it like it was a time bomb. The task suddenly seemed a lot more daunting now that the onus was on her. "I don't know…" Could she kill Lucifer? Even with the Spear of Longinus, would it be possible?

Miraculous spear or not, he was still a strong male who was significantly more powerful both magically and physically. Coming at him head-on was out of the question. She would have to sneak up on him and plunge it into his back when he least expected, with enough force and precision for the blow to be fatal.

She would only get one chance to do that.

Lilith seemed to pick up on her hesitation.

"I will leave it with you. It's of no use to me now." Placing the Spear in Sabrina's hands, she gave her an assuring pat on the shoulder and a look that might have even been kind. "Personally, I think there would be a certain poetic flare in driving it through his non-existent heart on your wedding night. But I have always been a romantic like that."

Sabrina turned the Spear over in her hands, studying what could prove to be her salvation.

Sitting on her throne, she inspected it long after Lilith had left.

The ancient weapon had been doused in the blood of the Nazarene, what gave it its holy power. It was otherwise completely unremarkable, not forged from Damascus steel like most holy weapons but from ordinary iron. It could hardly even be called a spear at all, its shaft barely longer than a dagger hilt. Though that actually made it more convenient for the task at hand.

A task that Sabrina still wasn't sure she would dare carry out. As well as the realistic qualms she had already been having, another doubt entered her mind.

What if this wasn't the real Spear of Longinus? What if it was a fake and this was all a huge deception Lucifer had put Lilith up to? A secret test of his bride-to-be's loyalty, that he would know she'd failed when she tried plunging it into his back. And when that happened…

Sabrina could believe it all too well. It was a possibility she hated to think about.

Hiding the Spear in the bottom drawer of her dresser, in a box she enchanted so only she could open, she despaired over what she was going to do about it. It continued to plague her mind in the weeks leading up to her wedding to Lucifer, which went by far too quickly.

The preparations hadn't needed to be rushed quite as much as they had been for Caliban and Sabrina Morningstar's wedding, no end of the world looming over her. But patience was not one of Lucifer's virtues, if he had any. And he was determined to have her as his bride sooner rather than later.

So he had scheduled their wedding to take place a month after their engagement- just in time to coincide with the date that the midwife had said Sabrina should be fully healed from childbirth. Their wedding night was obviously something he was greatly looking forward to.

Sabrina got more bats in her stomach whenever she thought about it.

The main (and possibly only) silver lining to her betrothal was that every demon seemed to now acknowledge her as Queen of Hell. If there were still any naysayers who resented her for not being Sabrina Morningstar then they were keeping their opinions to themselves.

The downfall of Prince Caliban may have been a factor too. He had slunk away from Pandemonium following his annulment to his late wife, back to his lackey Beelzebub's palace, and little had been heard from him since. Sabrina felt more comfortable in Pandemonium when she didn't have to worry about running into him.

And now that her pregnancy was over, Lucifer didn't have an excuse for mollycoddling her. After spending the last nine months confined to her quarters and the back of the throne room, she had gained a new freedom. She was allowed to venture the palace and its gardens, and even go out to explore the city so long as she took her handmaidens with her.

Pandemonium may have been the capital city of Hell yet it was strangely beautiful in its own way; with its grand architecture, walls of gold, and magnificent gardens.

No flowers other than La Fleur du Mal were able to flourish in Hell, the ones Lucifer had planted in the Garden of Infernal Delight needing daily replacing due to the rate at which they wilted. Most of Hell's "flowers" were carved out of gleaming jewels. Ruby roses, sapphire cornflowers, amethyst violets, with sparkling leaves of emerald. Sabrina would marvel at the gardens' obscene decadence as she wandered through them.

She had also taken the time to browse some of Pandemonium's shops while out and about. Yes, Hell had shops. She hardly would have believed it herself before. Although, the wares some of them sold would have made any mortal shopper blanch.

There were what must have been the demonic equivalent of "pet" stores, that held all kinds of terrifying creatures. Hellhounds, chimeras, dragons; among other monsters she couldn't identify.

Then there were the "food" shops; demons' favorite food, of course, being human flesh. She saw an all manner of human body parts being sold, with the age and gender of their source displayed. The first time she'd seen it, she had felt her own most recent meal starting to come up again.

And it wasn't just the humans' flesh being sold. Their souls were an even hotter commodity, auctioned off as slaves at best and fuel for the Inferno at worst. Sickeningly, the more innocent souls were the ones who usually fetched the highest prices. No wonder Lucifer had demanded them as the extension fee on his contracts.

Among all of these macabre stores, there were some more palatable ones to be found too. Those were the ones that Sabrina visited. There were bookstores, jewelry stores, and clothes stores too, the aristocracy of Hell all being nearly as snappy as their Dark Lord himself when it came to fashion.

Even though Sabrina was fed up with the fancy gowns in her royal wardrobe, browsing them was interesting nonetheless. It was only unfortunate that none of the stores sold modern mortal clothing.

She tried summoning some of the clothes from her wardrobe back at the Mortuary. It didn't work. She'd twirled in front of the mirror, envisioning the outfits clearly in her mind, but nothing had happened. She hadn't been sure why at first, wondering if her magic was failing.

Then she had gotten an upsetting suspicion. She tried summoning her favorite red satchel. Nothing. Her framed photo of her parents. Nothing. Her plush stuffed bunny. Nothing. Not a single thing that she owned from her former life came to her.

And she knew why. Her aunties had gotten rid of all of it. As far as they knew, she was dead. They hadn't been able to bear keeping her things, not when they reminded them of her.

There were still many times when she thought it would have been better if she had died that night. If Lucifer had simply snapped her neck like he had originally intended, and she had been buried in Sabrina Morningstar's tomb as planned.

The tomb that now belonged to Hope Morningstar too. Sabrina visited the grave daily, always bringing flowers to lay down. She would sit before it, reminiscing on the past that she and Sabrina had shared together, and dwelling on the future she might have had with Hope.

In the first days of Hope's burial she would fall apart in front of it, sobbing hysterically and repeating her babbled apologies, even though she knew her dead daughter couldn't hear her.

As more time passed, she found it easier to remain composed. The graveside became a place of not only mourning but quiet contemplation for her. She would take several hours out of her day to visit and sit in meditative silence.

Though she never went with him, she knew Lucifer was visiting their grave as well. She wondered whether it was mostly for the sake of Sabrina or Hope that he went there. Even though he'd accepted she was the same person as Sabrina Morningstar, she knew a part of him would always pine for her dead self. On the other hand, he'd expressed little to no emotion over Hope's death.

But being the embodiment of toxic masculinity, Lucifer seldom expressed any emotion that wasn't anger. Perhaps that was why he'd jumped at blaming her for Sabrina's death. He had needed someone to rage at for his loss, and the Void wasn't an entity he could punish. So his fury had fallen on her, his daughter's supposed usurper.

Knowing that, Sabrina regretted not being more transparent with him in the past. If she had explained the reason why the Eldritch terrors had woken from their slumber- that reason being a vengeful and deranged lunatic named Faustus Blackwood- then maybe Lucifer would have directed his ire at him instead.

As far as she knew, Blackwood was still at large. He might be plotting more ways to bring down the Spellmans after the defeat of his Eldritch terrors, unless he had heard of her "death" and been satisfied with that. Thinking of how smug he must be about it made her want to retch.

Sabrina was dead because of him. He deserved to suffer, he deserved to pay. He mustn't be allowed to get away with what he'd done!

She'd tried voicing this desire to Lucifer whenever the sparse topic of her dead counterpart came up, but he always got extremely quiet about it. It must be a source of embarrassment for him that his former priest, a mere warlock, had been the one to take away his greatest pride and joy.

Pride. It was Lucifer's primary weakness.

And his secondary weakness seemed to be her. As the wedding grew closer and closer, he had taken to spending increasingly more time in her company, just like he had during her pregnancy. Before, he had kept his physical distance and there had been a strangely paternal manner to the way in which he watched her. Sabrina had disliked it, but she had come to tolerate it.

Now she yearned for it. There seemed to be two sides to him now. The parental, protective side, that cherished her as a daughter and still seemed to labor under the delusion that he could repair their relationship. The side she was sure Sabrina Morningstar had been acquainted with, and she had finally been starting to get used to as well.

It still nauseated her to an extent, for she knew she could never forgive him for what he had done to her. But she also craved familial affection, and he was now the only family she had.

Until he would switch. The fatherly affection in his gaze would turn into open lust. He would find any excuse he could to touch her; long, lingering touches that made her skin crawl.

They hadn't engaged in any carnal acts since the evening he proposed to her, and Sabrina suspected it was because he was saving everything for their wedding night. In the meantime, he was using every bit of self-restraint that he had not to force himself on her.

She knew she held some of the blame, to some extent. After all, she had forced herself on him too. This other side to him may never have been re-awoken if she hadn't done that. She had wanted to confront him with the ugly truth of the actions he'd been trying to bury, and had- somehow- forgotten who she was dealing with. Of course Lucifer had simply decided to go all in with the depravity.

Obsessed with her as he was, however, it seemed his infatuation wasn't strong enough to turn him into a monogamist. Two nights before their wedding was due to take place, he gave Sabrina a kiss on the head while her handmaidens were readying her for bed.

"I will be gone for a few hours, my sweet. One of my most passionately devoted witches is getting married tomorrow and I owe her a visit."

If he was hoping for any signs of jealousy from Sabrina then he was in for a let-down. She felt not a shred of envy towards the witch in question, only pity. Though if she was as devoted as Lucifer claimed, then she had probably been brainwashed into thinking having Lucifer "visit" her was the highest honor a witch could strive for.

That being said, Sabrina was pleased to get a break from him. Only on the rare occasion that he wasn't around did she feel like she could truly relax. After dismissing Athaliah and Jezebel for the night (another thing she had finally been given the freedom to do) and giving Salome a goodnight pet, she settled into bed and drifted off in no time.

She was woken up shortly afterwards by an assault of blinding pain.

Her mouth felt like it was on fire. Or like someone had just poured hydrochloric acid into it. She couldn't see in the darkness but she could sense someone next to her, pinning her down. Some kind of glass vial had been pushed against her lips and whatever liquid it contained was agony. The inside of her mouth was blistering from it, and she attempted to spit the horrific stuff out.

A hand clamped down over her mouth before she could, fingers pinching her nose to prevent her from even breathing.

She tried to shake them off to no avail, their physical strength enough to overpower her. Suffocating and burning as her attacker refused to let go, to let her breathe, she realized what they wanted her to do. And though she thought it might kill her, her reflexes eventually forced her to do it.

The liquid scalded her throat when she swallowed, leaving her coughing and gagging.

Her assailant removed their hand from her mouth with this compliance, murmuring in her ear. "My apologies, my lady. But the holy water was necessary to neutralise your powers."

It was the last voice Sabrina had ever wanted to hear. Entering a blind panic, she lashed out again, trying to fire any spell or curse at him that she could. None of it worked, the holy water having done its intended job. She was as powerless as she had been after binding her magic, unable to even see anything until her bedside lamp clicked on.

Caliban was standing at her side, an empty vial in his hand.

"Did you miss me, princess?" His tone was pleasant, one of his boyish smiles alighting his handsome face. It didn't extend to his eyes, which held a cruel glint as he gazed down at her.

The sight of him made Sabrina's blood run cold.

"W-what are you doing here, Caliban? How did you even...?" she choked out, with some difficulty due to what felt like a hundred blood-filled blisters lining her esophagus.

The disgraced Prince of Hell certainly wouldn't have been allowed in, and this part of the palace was near-impossible to infiltrate due to the heavy guard and the enchantments preventing teleportation to all but a select few.

"I lived in this palace for several months. During that time, I took care to learn every secret passageway and shortcut. Sneaking past the guards was no challenge." Caliban's mischievous smile was the sort that one would wear when admitting to a minor misdemeanour, as opposed to a grave act of treason.

"And I knew your father wouldn't be here. Word that one of Lord Lucifer's favorite witches is getting married travels among the circles of Hell. It was obvious he would go to pay her a visit. He always takes the pretty witches for himself. One of the advantages of being the Dark Lord, I suppose."

He let out a snicker, which was joined in by another. Glancing in the direction from which it had sounded, Sabrina saw Caliban hadn't come alone. Beelzebub was leering at her from the door, where he was presumably standing guard. And that wasn't the only troubling thing she noticed.

"Salome…" Her beloved hellhound was sprawled motionlessly on the floor. Chest tightening even further, she looked back to Caliban, who shrugged dismissively.

"Don't worry, I didn't kill her. My wife was extremely attached to that hound. But we couldn't have her barking the place down." Folding his arms, he studied Sabrina with a perturbing casualness. "So...how's it been going? I was most sorry to hear about the death of your baby girl. Poor little Hope."

He didn't sound at all sorry. On the contrary, his smirk resurfaced when he mentioned her daughter's name, as if it was some kind of joke.

Sabrina's blood went from cold to boiling hot. A fury unlike anything she had ever felt surged in her chest, so strong that she felt physically sick. If her powers hadn't been suppressed then she was sure literal sparks would have been flying from her.

Caliban had no right to speak of Hope. It was wrong to hear her beautiful, sacred name coming from the mouth of someone as evil and twisted as him, and spoken with such mockery no less.

"Don't….don't you dare…" she began, so enraged that she struggled to form an orderly sentence.

Caliban talked right across her, still with that faux sympathy. "You must be inconsolable with grief, as any mother would be. But despair not, my lady…the children I give you will be healthy and strong." He allowed Sabrina a few seconds to process that before adding, "After all, they'll be challenging their grandfather for the throne once they come of age."

So that was his plan. And what had surely been his plan with Sabrina too. To get her pregnant with his child, an heir who would have the Morningstar blood and therefore have a solid claim to the crown. A child he would be able to place on the throne of Hell once they were old enough and rule through as regent.

As for her? Once she had given him what he wanted then he would be free to dispose of her...unless he opted to keep her around as his personal plaything.

Never.

"Fuck you!" she spat, aiming a punch at his smug face. He was quicker than he had been last time she'd done that, catching her wrist before her fist could make contact. Laughing, he twisted it while leaning in closer.

"You're so cute when you're angry, do you know that?" Tapping her patronizingly on the nose, he took in her blazing glare and furious snarl. As he did, his mirth-filled gaze darkened and his tone dropped to a husky growl. "It makes me want to ravage you right now…"

He pushed down on her chest, trying to force a kiss on her, and she turned her head to avoid him. Their struggle was interrupted when Beelzebub cleared his throat from his place by the door.

Caliban ceased his aggressive advances at this reminder. Taking a step back, he held his hand out to Sabrina in a facade of princely chivalry.

"We'll have the opportunity for that later, wife. Come along now."

She neglected to take it, trying to shimmy to the other side of the bed with the intention of putting as much distance between them as possible, and Caliban heaved a sigh at her lack of co-operation. Reaching out to seize her arm, he yanked her bodily from her bed, her thrashing all the while.

"I'm not your wife! And I never will be!"

Her shout drew Caliban to a halt. Gripping her upper arms in an attempt to still her, he surveyed her with cocky determination.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, princess. You fell for me once. I'll get you to fall for me again, mark my words." Sabrina snorted derisively. She had never once fallen for Caliban. It was like a punch in the gut when he continued, "Your warlock lover is dead, so it isn't as though you need to worry about upsetting him anymore. And between you and me, you don't really want to marry your father, do you?"

Yes, Nick was dead. Not only because of Lucifer but because of him too. Both had executed him, Jezebel said. Two grossly misogynistic men who both thought they held ownership over Sabrina Morningstar's body. She wondered whether one of them had come up with the idea of avenging her "defilement" first or if it had been mutual.

Either way, she hated them both.

Caliban had managed to get one thing right. She didn't want to marry Lucifer. It was quite possibly the only thing he was right about.

"Of all the people in the world, there's only one person I'd want to marry less. And that person just happens to be you," she said, with an icy contempt.

This cold retort seemed to hit a nerve with Caliban in a way that her shouting and attempts to strike him hadn't. All his cruel humor vanished, his handsome face contorting in rage as he shoved her backwards.

"And do you think I truly want to be married to you?"

Sabrina let out an intake of breath as she collided with her dresser, her shoulder blade hitting its sharp corner. She thought wistfully of the Spear of Longinus in the bottom drawer, locked away in its enchanted box where she would never be able to access it on time.

With no magic nor weapons, she had no means to defend herself. Not from Beelzebub, who was ready to stop her if she tried to make a run for it. And not from Caliban, who stood over her with a bitter hatred in his shocking blue gaze.

"You, who only ever looks at me with disdain but was happy to spread your legs for the same warlock who spurned and insulted you? You; the cold, dead-eyed creature you are? No. Lucifer might have deluded himself into thinking you're his daughter but you'll never be my wife. You're barely more than a child, the palest shadow of what she was. She was a true queen who took pride in herself, worth a thousand of you. How I wish I had the power to bring her back."

There was a feverish passion in him as he spoke of the dead Sabrina, his glare still fixated on Sabrina Spellman. Yet the longer he looked at her, the more his gaze seemed to soften, and his tone became more mournful than angry.

"But she's gone forever. It was she who went through that mirror to her death when it should have been you. She gave her life for all of us, and I never even got the chance to hold her in my arms one last time. My brave beautiful wife…" Sabrina was startled to see his eyes were glistening with what might have been genuine grief.

Up until now, she had believed that all Caliban's declarations of sorrow over Sabrina Morningstar's death had been posturing, an act put on mainly for Lucifer's benefit. Whose benefit could it possibly be for now? Not her, since he'd made it obvious he didn't care about her or what she thought. Definitely not for Beelzebub, who was giving him a disapproving side-eye.

Could it be Caliban truly had cared for Sabrina Morningstar after all? That just like with Lucifer, his grief had driven him to do such unspeakable things?

She had little time to dwell on it. Caliban's flicker of weakness disappeared as quickly as it had surfaced. His features were cold and callous once more as he stepped forward, seizing her wrist again in a vice grip.

"And if I can't have her back...then it seems I'll have to settle for her cheap replacement. Now, come on."

He hauled her to her feet, and she desperately struggled against him as he dragged her towards the door which Beelzebub opened for them. Hoping that the guards, her handmaidens or some of the other demons in the palace might hear her and come to her aid, she took a deep breath in preparation of screaming the place down.

Caliban put his hand over her mouth before she got the chance. "I won't hurt you, my lady. But if you don't stop fighting back then I'll be forced to cast that binding spell on you again."

Knowing she would be rendered completely useless if he did that, Sabrina fell silent, deciding to bide her time. She didn't know what secret passageway he had used to get up here, but if they needed to sneak past anyone on the way there then perhaps she would get a chance to alert them.

Once Caliban and Beelzebub managed to get her to the lower floors of the palace, it was game over. They would be able to teleport her away, to Satan knows where…or rather, to somewhere that Satan didn't know. A secret location where Caliban would undoubtedly keep her locked up while he went about his plan of impregnating her…

It was a prospect too horrific to think about. She couldn't let him have his way with her again. Either she would find a way to escape him or she would die trying. Whatever happened, she wouldn't let Caliban take her alive.

But when they reached the door, she was dismayed to see that every demon guard stationed in the corridor lay lifeless on the floor, just as Salome was. Had they taken out everyone they passed on the way here? She was willing to bet they had; clearing the way for when they came back with her.

A cold sweat formed on her brow as she realized her opportunities for rescue had gone from extremely limited to non-existent. It seemed her fate had been sealed. All she could hope for now was that Caliban didn't keep as close of a suicide watch on her as Lucifer had.

It never ended up coming to that. They had just reached the door when they felt the heat of fire from behind them, closely followed by a furious, almost demonic roar.

"Just where do you think you are going with my daughter?"

Never in a million years had Sabrina believed she would be glad to hear Lucifer's voice. Much less his wrath. It had haunted her nightmares and plagued her waking moments for months on end. Hearing it before had always caused shivers to go down her spine and her heart to go into an unsteady rhythm, dread and anxiety consuming her. To her, it represented death, damnation and worse.

The relief that overtook her at the sound of it now was almost giddying. The world seemed to be spinning as she slowly turned around and saw that her father had materialized in the centre of the room.

She briefly wondered whether he had somehow fathomed what was happening to her and hurried back. Yet she deduced from his expression that that wasn't the case. He had not been expecting to return to such a scene…but he was getting over the shock very quickly, his eyes burning a fiery red to rival the flames of Hell.

There was pure murder in them as he glowered at the two trespassing demons, who were at a loss of what to say or do, frozen as a couple of deer in the headlights.

"My Lord-" Beelzebub was the first to speak, in a tone that was greasy and grovelling. It promised all kinds of excuses as to why his Dark Lord had found him in such a damning situation.

He never got the opportunity to voice them. Before the words had fully left his mouth, Lucifer gave an idle twist of his wrist and Beelzebub's neck snapped sideways, with such force that the bone jutted through the rotting skin, splattering Sabrina and Caliban with black blood.

The Lord of Flies fell to the floor, dead. Lucifer didn't so much as glance at him. His furious gaze was trained entirely on Caliban, who swallowed in discomfort.

"Well?"

The pretender prince maintained his grasp on Sabrina. She could practically see the cogs of his mind turning as he contemplated his available options.

He could try to talk his way out of trouble, which would probably end as well for him as it had done for Beelzebub. He could attempt to fight Lucifer, which would be a guaranteed failure. Or he could make a run for it, without her…or, since he had little left to lose at this point, with her…

He seemed to be on the verge of choosing that last option. His grip on Sabrina's wrist tightened and he turned towards the door...which immediately slammed shut in his face.

"You're not going anywhere, boy! You won't escape!" Lucifer bellowed, no longer demonic but no less savage.

It reminded Sabrina of how he had been on the night of her seventeenth birthday, the only time she had seen him get anywhere near this angry. A vicious blast of air tore Caliban away from her, slamming him against the now-sealed door.

Now free, she ran for Lucifer. Though it sickened her to have to seek his protection, he seemed like the slightly lesser of two evils at the moment. Catching her hand, he tugged her behind him while his murderous glare remained on Caliban.

The prince was feebly stirring, the heavy blow he'd sustained having temporarily stunned him. No sooner had he struggled to his feet than another gust of wind threw him across the room and into the wall, the red marble cracking with the impact. Sabrina noticed small cracks were beginning to form in Caliban's skin too, as though it were made from porcelain...or clay.

He tried to get up again. His attempts halted when he suddenly clutched at his throat, gagging. Some invisible hand was squeezing down on his windpipe, strangling all the air from him.

"I should have killed you the moment I laid eyes on you!" Lucifer snarled, his own hand raised and choking Caliban under his magical hold. Just when the boy's face was turning blue and he seemed to be on the verge of blacking out, Lucifer hurled him against the wall again, even harder than before.

When he eventually looked up, still coughing and wheezing, Sabrina saw that there was a particularly deep fissure extending from his brow down to his collarbone. The effect was somehow made more disturbing by the fact that Caliban looked to anyone like he was made of flesh and blood.

But he had no blood, and the clay his flesh had been sculpted from was beginning to crumble.

"You think you can be a king, boy? You aren't even a true prince. You're nothing more than a puppet. You were created to be a puppet!" Lucifer was torn between uncontrollable rage and gloating mockery, features twisted in a sadistic grin that looked more like a grimace as he taunted the prince, continuing to fling him into the wall all the while.

"Now your puppeteers are dead, you serve no further purpose. I only let you live up until now out of pity. I would have allowed you to spend the remainder of your worthless existence in Hell, carousing with all the other lesser nobles, if you had only recognized your place."

He paused, hand still raised.

"But you never have, and now you think to steal my daughter, my bride-to-be. That won't do." His voice lapsed back into its demonic snarl, and he seemed to be drawing on all his energy to put behind the next blow, glowing red eyes locked onto his adversary.

Caliban was hardly recognizable as the handsome Adonis-like prince he had been mere minutes before. Deep cracks criss-crossed every inch of his skin, chunks of it falling off altogether in places. It would have been a gruesome sight if he had been made from flesh and blood. As it was, it simply looked bizarre, like a highly realistic doll that had been broken beyond repair.

Despite his miserable physical condition, there was an admirable steadiness in the way he climbed to his feet one last time, a surprising lack of fear in his marred features when he faced Lucifer.

"Then kill me, Lord Lucifer. I welcome death. While you try to content yourself with the weak imitation of your daughter, I shall embrace my wife, the true Sabrina Morningstar, in the afterlife," he declared, not giving Sabrina so much as a sideways glance as he stared the Dark Lord down defiantly.

Such impressive last words. So noble, like something the romantic hero of some tragic love story would say before meeting his demise and reuniting with his star-crossed lover.

So fucking smug.

Sabrina was fairly certain there would be no afterlife for Caliban. Even so, he didn't deserve to go out on a high, thinking he would get what he wanted, that he was still entitled to Sabrina Morningstar's love after everything he'd done. Thinking that he was somehow the justified one.

His declaration caused Lucifer to erupt in rage once more, invisible hold closing around Caliban's throat again and throttling him with such force that his neck began to fracture. He fell back to the ground, broken face contorted in agony but his eyes carrying the spark of triumph.

Before her father could give him the martyr's death he longed for, Sabrina shouted across him.

"You won't!"

Both men looked to her, Lucifer relaxing his stranglehold enough to let Caliban get another breath; the rattled, rasping breath of someone in their death throes. Sabrina wasn't letting him go anywhere until she had destroyed his delusion. Shaking off the hand Lucifer had reached out to stop her, she made her way over to the prince's side.

Kneeling down next to the broken wreckage that was once Caliban, she eyed him with sheer contempt.

"There will be no future for you with Sabrina. Wanna know why?"

It was a rhetorical question she felt completely safe in asking, for Caliban was in no state to answer back. His throat had virtually been caved in by Lucifer's last attack, what remained of the muscles and tendons beneath on prominent display. She had to give credit to whoever had moulded Caliban; they had shown magnificent attention to detail when creating him.

It was a shame such a work of art had been bestowed with such a rotten, self-centred soul.

Leaning down, she fiercely whispered, "Because I am Sabrina Morningstar. I have all her personality, her memories, her life experience up until we won the throne of Hell. We are one and the same. Remember that girl who punched you in the face after you refused to help us and stole Herod's crown? That was us. Given how angry she was then, how do you think she felt when she saw you rape me, abuse me and try to murder me? And in her supposed honor too?"

Caliban's baby blue eyes- the only part of him that hadn't been damaged- widened at her words, though it was hard to deduce whether anything she'd said had gotten through to him. She would have liked to believe he was thinking it over, realizing the actions he'd convinced himself he was doing for Sabrina had only been for himself. But she doubted someone as self-absorbed as him was capable of such introspection.

With a bitter laugh, she shook her head.

"I guarantee you, whatever love she once had for you will have disappeared now. Even if you happen to meet her in the Hereafter, she'll want nothing to do with you. You will be spending your afterlife alone, Caliban. Alone and unloved, forever…and that's exactly what you deserve."

How strange it was to be able to smile mockingly at him like she was now. Ever since that horrible night of her seventeenth birthday nearly a year before, she had been terrified of Caliban, to the extent that simply seeing him from a distance had caused her crippling anxiety and panic attacks. That fear had kept her in its thrall, and it was as though he held some power over her even when he wasn't directly hurting her.

But when she knelt next to him now, all she felt was pitying disgust.

Her denouncement managed to hit some kind of mark. His wide vulnerable eyes suddenly narrowed, the same rage that had been behind them when he attacked her now boiling to the surface again.

"You-" His voice was filled with hatred, despite barely being more than a choked rasp.

With the last bit of strength he possessed, he lunged towards Sabrina, the ruin of his hand reaching for her throat. He never managed to get to her. The second he moved, Lucifer wasted no time going in for the literal kill, his dark magic stopping Caliban in his tracks and throwing him against the wall for what would be the final time.

The physical trauma proved to be more than his fractured clay form could take. When he collided with the unforgiving surface, the deep cracks that had formed all over his body gave way and he shattered, into what must have been at least a thousand pieces. There was no blood, no guts; only shards of clay and a cloud of dust that made Sabrina cough.

Blinking to clear her vision, she stared down at the pile of rubble that had once been a man. Each of the clay pieces were so small that it was impossible to make out any human features. Perhaps if she dug through the heap then she would come across those baby blue eyes, now blank and glassy, no longer burning with hatred and hunger as they had been in life.

Disconcerting as that thought was, it was satisfying too.

Caliban was dead. Not only dead but destroyed, rendered to nothingness with no hope of ever returning. She would never have to fear him again, never have to worry about running into him in Pandemonium or anywhere else. Although her nightmares about him would undoubtedly continue, she could rest easy in the knowledge that nightmares were all they would ever be.

He was one less threat for her to deal with. But she still had many more, including her false father.

He was breathing heavily while glaring at Caliban's remains, the red fury still burning in his gaze and a dark energy about him, and it took a moment for the worst of his wrath to fade. Eyes moving to his daughter, who was shakily getting to her feet, they returned to their usual green, the fire leaving them.

"Daughter…" His arms were open as he approached her, his face drawn with fatherly concern.

Knowing it was expected of her, Sabrina fell into his awaiting embrace.

"Dad…" The emotion her voice was fraught with was mainly relief over Caliban's death, though Lucifer gave her back a comforting stroke.

"Did he harm you?" he asked quietly, cradling her possessively to his chest.

"He forced me to swallow holy water, saying it would neutralize my powers." Sabrina winced while recalling her painful awakening, her throat still hurting from drinking the poisonous substance. Noticing Lucifer had gone still, she peered up at him worriedly. "Are they gone forever?"

Lucifer snickered, without much humor. "Of course not. You and I are far too powerful to be brought down by such pathetic means. Your magic will come back soon enough. Possibly even by tomorrow morning." His arms constricted around her, drawing her tightly against him, and his tone became low and furious.

"That traitorous excuse of a prince. I knew Caliban was a worthless imbecile but I never thought he would be enough of a fool to try something like this. Shame he's made of clay. I would have delighted in feeding his corpse to the hellhounds. We'll have to suffice for throwing the pieces into the Inferno." He cast a contemptuous glower at the prince's remains.

Sabrina also looked back at what was left of Caliban. The man who had been her chosen husband in another life.

She remembered how Sabrina Morningstar's face had always lit up whenever she spoke of him, and how excited she had been when she told her they were getting married. She recalled every glowing account of him that Sabrina Morningstar had written in her diary, her love for him practically radiating from each page. She had been head over heels for him.

And she recalled her own memories of him, from before she and Sabrina had split. She remembered how sincere he had seemed back when he proposed to her, and she had been stupid enough to believe he might really want to work with her. And how he had volunteered to take her lashes for her, in what was possibly the most selfless thing he had done in his life.

He had been arrogant and power-hungry, but she'd thought he might have had an honorable side to him too. One that the Plague Kings had largely suppressed. A side that Sabrina Morningstar must have seen more clearly than she did.

While she had despised him, Sabrina Morninstar had loved him. She had married him out of love, and she might have lived happily ever after with him had her life not come to such an unjustly premature end.

Now every remnant of their relationship had been destroyed. Her marriage to him had been posthumously annulled without her knowledge or consent, and her husband wouldn't even be buried beside her effigy in her tomb. He would be consigned to the ashes, wiped from not only the physical plane but from all memory too.

As much as Sabrina hated him, it left her with an extremely bad taste in her mouth, and a sense of deep guilt towards her dead self. She would be devastated if she knew about it.

Then she remembered how Caliban had betrayed them.

How he left her trapped in the Ninth Circle while he went off to enslave humanity, his subsequent defeat ensuring she would have stayed down there forever whether he'd planned on releasing her or not. How he had gone behind his wife's back, sending his two Plague Kings to murder her baby brother in his own bid for power. How he had championed for not only Sabrina Spellman's death but the murders of everyone she and his late wife had loved, which even Lucifer himself had fallen short of committing.

And she remembered how he had raped her. How he had pinned her down, paralyzed her and brutally violated her while she begged him not to, telling him that Sabrina Morningstar wouldn't have wanted it. And he hadn't cared. Because in reality, whatever twisted affection he might have thought he held for his wife hadn't been strong enough for him to care what either version of her wanted.

He had been a selfish monster who had gotten what was coming to him. If Sabrina Morningstar was here then she would realize it. Sabrina knew that, because she was Sabrina Morningstar.

Turning her back on her false husband for the final time, she buried her face in the chest of her false father. Another monster. How ironic that he had wound up protecting her from Caliban now, when he had also been the one to turn her over to him.

"What made you come back early?" she inquired, after a minute or two of silence. The clock told her he hadn't even been gone an hour, when he would ordinarily be gone for several. Evidently, Caliban and Beelzebub's plan had hinged on him being gone that long. And it should have worked. "Was the bride ugly?"

She felt a bit sick at herself for making such a quip, though it might not have been completely tongue-in-cheek anyway. She doubted there was much else, if anything, that would give Lucifer reason to forego a night of carnal pleasure.

His chest rumbled with laughter, a true smile tugging at his mouth when he pulled back to meet her gaze.

"Far from it. She was a ravishing beauty. One hundred and fifty years old yet with the supple body, flawless face and perky breasts of a young maiden. A virgin too, which is rare these days," he said, almost reverently, while Sabrina tried not to cringe. She hadn't asked for nor wanted such an overtly lurid description of his would-be conquest.

He didn't stop there either, continuing to treat her to what seemed like every physical detail of the beguiling witch he'd decided to spurn. "...And the most endearing, doe-like eyes too. She looked a little like you, in fact. But there was one glaring flaw. One I just couldn't overlook, as much as I tried…" He trailed off, eyes boring intently into hers.

"And what was that?" Sabrina was waiting for him to say the bride had some glaring facial scar or other deformity that repulsed him to the extent he'd no longer wanted to sleep with her. Which would have been fairly hypocritical given he had spent the last millennia as a monstrous goat demon and still had a cloven hoof, though such double standards were to be expected from him.

As he continued to scrutinize her with a feverish attentiveness, however, she began to get another suspicion on where he was going with this. A highly uneasy suspicion that was proven right when he eventually answered.

"She wasn't you." His tone was earnest, but his green eyes were feral.

"Oh." Sabrina wasn't sure what else she could say. The bats in her stomach had magnified into flying gargoyles; an uncomfortable, almost painful sensation that made Hope's kicking seem bearable in comparison.

Oh, Hope. If her daughter had lived then this ridiculous pretence would have been worth it. She would have had something to live for, even in her literal Hell. What was she doing this for now? To preserve her own life, which wasn't truly her own? To keep a crown, that didn't even give her the power to stand up to her abuser?

There was no mistaking it now. Lucifer had shifted. The protective aura he had been giving off before had all but dissipated, replaced with a predatory stance and a leering gaze that seemed to devour her where she stood.

She'd thought she was finally rid of Caliban. But when her father was like this, it was difficult to distinguish them.

"No one could ever satisfy me like you, my daughter. How could they? We are the Morningstar, while they are nothing more than dirt. Only we can complete each other. I can scarcely wait to make you my own. I've never been a patient man, Sabrina, and the last few weeks have been torturous. I must taste you, now," he growled, almost gutturally, the hands still holding her now wandering lower.

Sabrina tensed up under their touch. "The midwife said-" she reminded him, not sure her pleas would hold any water.

They were only a couple of days short of the date, and it wasn't like Lucifer would care about ripping her in two anyway so long as he satiated his own desire. At least, the Lucifer who had raped her before wouldn't have done.

Perhaps she was hoping she might still be able to appeal to his paternal side, even when he was consumed by hunger.

Lucifer let out an agonized sigh at her protest. "I know, I know. I don't want to hurt you, daughter. And while there are many other ways we can pleasure ourselves- as you demonstrated yourself- the pleasure will be all the greater if we wait." It was a small relief, although Sabrina knew it was only a very temporary reprieve. Lucifer still didn't release her, however.

Hands entwining around her waist, he leaned in, his breath tickling her face. "All I ask for now is a kiss."

Before she could agree or disagree, his lips fully captured hers. And Sabrina was stunned at the realization that despite everything else that had transpired between them; the rape, her carrying his child for nine months and birthing it, her sucking him off, them becoming engaged; they had never properly kissed before.

Just like when he had sat her on his lap, it seemed more intimate than any of those other acts had been. Those had been sexual, but kissing was much more than that. It was romantic. In essence, anyway. The kisses Caliban had forced on her when he attacked her had been far from romantic. They had seemed more like vicious assaults on her mouth.

This...didn't. It had more in common with the kisses she used to share with Nick and even with Harvey. Soft and gentle initially, then deepening until it became something more passionate and intense. He was content in kissing just her lips at first, his full ones pressing against hers.

A long while passed before she felt him trying to coax her mouth open and she found herself yielding to him willingly, her tongue engaging in a dance with his forked one.

He was a good kisser, she had to admit to herself. So good that she could almost forget what a vile, black-hearted monster he was.

"It seemed fair for me to kiss you this once, before we kiss again in front of the Hordes of Hell," he purred, once he had pulled away from her. Through the daze their kiss had left her in, his words dully managed to register with her, and they made her stomach drop.

Two days. Less than two days. In forty-eight hours, they would be having their wedding night. He would invade her body, just as he had done on the horrible night of her seventeenth birthday. What if she got pregnant? What if she had another stillbirth? She couldn't go through it again. She couldn't take another loss like that. She had to find a way to free herself from this Hell and from him, for once and for all. But what?

She tossed and turned that night, unable to sleep in her anxiety. The only thing she could be thankful of was that Lucifer was not omniscient. Even as he lay beside her, he was unable to hear the conspiratorial thoughts whirring around inside her head.

He had made a habit of going to bed with her ever since they'd gotten engaged. She knew he had also done it on at least a few occasions while she was pregnant, though she didn't think he knew that she knew. He had kept his distance then, not touching her, only watching her.

Now he would wrap her up in his strong embrace, resting her against his chest or nestling her in the crook of his arm, and the heat from his body was as warm and comforting as it was stifling.

And yet in all the times he'd laid next to her, she had never once seen him sleep. It was very possible that he didn't need to. He would be awake when she drifted off, awake when she woke up, and whenever she awoke during the night- which was a frequent occurrence, thanks to the nightmares that still tormented her- he would be wide awake, sometimes reading a book or more disconcertingly, still watching her with those gleaming eyes. It was highly unnerving...

...and even more discouraging.

It seemed there was never a second where Lucifer put his guard down. Not even around her, his darling daughter, contrary to what Lilith had believed. Even if the Spear was legit, which she still had no proof it was, there may never be a window of opportunity to strike him without the risk he would react quicker and destroy her. Or worse.

It could always get worse. That seemed to have become Sabrina's new mantra here in Hell.

In Hell, things never got better but they often got worse. It was hard to imagine she could be any better off than being the Queen of Hell, and she didn't want to risk losing what she had on an assassination plot that was likely to fail. There had once been a time when she would have gone through with it in spite of the odds. But after losing so much, she was far more wary. Because as awful as marrying Lucifer would be, she knew he could make things worse for her.

So the Spear of Longinus stayed safely shut away in its hiding place, and Sabrina didn't know if she would ever be able to summon up the courage to bring it out. Maybe a few years down the line, after she had been driven half-mad by the abuse Lucifer was putting her through, or when it was starting to look like he had tired of her and would soon discard her. When she decided that she truly did have nothing left to lose.

She still had her life and her crown, for now. She wanted to hang on to them.

Lucifer may not have been able to read her mind but her lack of sleep didn't go unnoticed by him. He subsequently decided not to bring her to court the next day. After giving her a goodbye kiss (on the forehead) and telling her that as a bride, she needed to get her rest for the big occasion ahead of her, he went off to his morning audience alone.

Sabrina generally enjoyed the Infernal royal court. She was nonetheless glad to be spared it today, her restless night having left her with a sluggish brain and deep circles under her eyes. Yet she didn't want to spend the day sleeping like Lucifer had recommended she do.

This was possibly the most precious day of her life. It would be her last day of freedom, in the liberal sense of the word anyway. Her last true day of freedom had in fact been her seventeenth birthday. If she had known that back then, she might have done more with it. What, Sabrina didn't know. She didn't even know what she was going to do with today.

Though she thought she might start off with taking Salome for a walk in the Garden of Infernal Delight. The loyal hellhound deserved that much after awakening from the sleeping spell Caliban had placed on her. She seemed to have made a full recovery at any rate, impatiently sitting next to the bedroom door and emitting frequent barks, while waiting for her mistress to finish being put through her morning routine.

Sabrina shook her head when her handmaidens reached for the cosmetics, dismissing them. She didn't see why she had to be fully made up just to take a walk in the palace gardens. Of course, once she was married to Lucifer then she would probably be expected to be dolled up for him all the time, wearing what he wanted her to wear instead of what she wanted. Just like Father Blackwood had forced Aunt Zee to make herself up like a Fifties housewife while she'd been under the Caligari Spell...

Her nails dug into her palms as she thought about Blackwood, every fibre of her still hungering to avenge Sabrina Morningstar. Once she and Lucifer were married and she had secured her position as Queen of Hell, she would make it her primary objective to hunt Blackwood down and exterminate him. That would be her new purpose. When she caught him, perhaps he could be her test of the Spear of Longinus's effectiveness.

And even if it did turn out to be a dud...well, she would make him wish he still had the ability to die.

Glowering at her reflection in the mirror, she fantasized about how she would enact her vengeance. Tying a weight to him and dropping him in the Mariana Trench seemed like a good idea. Or maybe an active volcano.

It wasn't until she eventually snapped out of it, whistling Salome over so she could leash her, that she noticed Athaliah had lingered behind instead of leaving with her sister after they'd been dismissed.

When Sabrina pointedly looked at her, the handmaiden dropped into a curtsey.

"Lady Morningstar...there is something I need to speak to you about." The demoness was extremely ill at ease, her voice wavering and carrying an uncertainty that suggested she was still on the fence about whether she truly wanted to say what was troubling her.

Although Sabrina was almost as impatient to get out as her hellhound currently was, she knew this wasn't something that could wait.

"Of course, Athaliah. What do you need to talk about?" she said, trying to sound kindly. While she wasn't exactly friends with either of her handmaidens, she still felt an attachment towards them and Athaliah was clearly distressed. Sitting herself down, she indicated the chair opposite her.

Athaliah was decidedly uncomfortable as she took it, perching on the end of the seat as though unsure she belonged there.

"It's…about Prince Caliban."

Sabrina's jaw clenched at the mention of him. "What about Caliban?"

Her teeth gritted as she spoke his name, which still managed to provoke an emotional reaction in her even though he was gone for good. Perhaps it always would, for some scars never fully healed. But she could take solace in the fact that her main visceral response was no longer fear; merely disgust and the dull ebb of anger.

Seeming to think her mistress's ire was towards her, Athaliah wilted in her chair.

"I'm so sorry...I should have told you of this earlier. Much, much earlier. But I was afraid for my life, and now I fear that you will…" She dwindled off there, looking outright terrified.

"Speak freely. You have my word that no harm will come to you," Sabrina promised her, feeling some pity for the demoness. Athaliah and her sister had been created by Lilith to serve the Dark Lord and his elite cronies. As such, they had been forced to walk on eggshells their entire lives, probably spending every moment of them scared of what would happen if they took one wrong step.

Sabrina herself lived in fear of Lucifer. And she was Queen. She held value and status in Hell's hierarchy. She could hardly imagine what it must be like to be a lowly and seemingly expendable servant.

Though Sabrina had no proof that her word meant any more than her father's did, it appeared to encourage Athaliah.

"I had a run-in with him a few weeks ago. One of the Lords had asked me to deliver a letter to his rooms. I wasn't expecting him to be in, so I foolishly neglected to knock before entering. And when I did, I walked in on an odd scene. He, Lord Beelzebub and Lilith were standing in a huddle, all three of them chanting. I believe it was a spell or curse though I did not recognize it. And while I wasn't able to get a close look, the Mother of Demons was holding some kind of doll or poppet," she said, still visibly nervous but her words carrying more conviction.

Sabrina couldn't see any motivation for Athaliah to lie about something like this. Yet what she was saying was absolutely nonsensical. Caliban and Beelzebub hated Lilith, and she them. They had dethroned her, then tried to kill her and Adam! Just why would they be spell-casting together?

The only possible explanation was that they had found some common goal important enough for them to temporarily set their animosity aside. But what?

"I tried to leave again, hoping they wouldn't spot me. But Prince Caliban did. He came after me. He threatened to throw me and my sister into the Inferno if I told anyone what I had seen. So I swore to him I would remain silent and went about the rest of my day, trying to forget it. I didn't even know what it was they were attempting to accomplish." Athaliah was beginning to waver again, on the verge of tears.

At first, Sabrina thought her distress was simply from recounting such a frightening memory. However, Athaliah hadn't finished yet. She continued to stammer, seemingly trying to work herself up to something. Whatever it was, she was having even more trouble spitting it out than Jezebel had had breaking the news of Nick's death.

She was finally able to finish off with, "But...but I had my suspicions when you went into labor a few hours later…"

And just like that, it all made far too much sense to Sabrina.

Little Hope hadn't simply died for no reason. Not when she had been in perfect health up until that point, when even the midwife hadn't been able to fathom why it happened. Her death hadn't been due to a natural stillbirth.

She had been murdered. By Lilith and Caliban, who had hated each other, but had apparently been able to put their differences aside long enough to kill a defenceless infant.

"I'm sorry, Lady Morningstar. I know I should have come to you about this immediately. But I was afraid of Prince Caliban. Even after he was banished, he still held such power and I'm only a lesser demoness. He would have destroyed me and my sister. It was only now that I felt comfortable in speaking, now that…" Athaliah faltered again, clearly frightened that Sabrina would hold her long silence against her.

"Now that he's dead," Sabrina finished off in her stead, not angry. Not with her, anyway. "I understand. I was afraid of Caliban too. I think a lot of us were."

She should have known. It should have been obvious. Of course Caliban wouldn't have wanted a Morningstar heir who wasn't his own being born, another pesky contender to the throne. And to add insult to injury, it was his own "wife" birthing it. He was never going to let it live.

Not to mention that he and Beelzebub had pulled a similar trick with Lilith, although that curse had been different. It had been intended to kill her and Adam too as a consequence. It only failed because Aunt Zee and Aunt Hilda had harnessed Hecate's power to lessen her agony, giving her enough strength to birth him before he tore her apart.

Whatever curse they put on Sabrina had presumably killed her baby in the womb, making her body naturally reject her shortly afterwards but leaving no other damage.

Those differences were why she hadn't connected the dots at the time. They all added up now. Caliban had wanted to kill Hope but not her. He'd needed her alive and with a functioning womb if he wanted her to be the brood mare for his puppet heir. Or at the very least, he had wanted his wife's body to be intact for her burial...

Sabrina suddenly felt extremely disappointed that he was dead. It didn't feel like true justice, for he hadn't suffered nearly as much as he deserved. She wanted to bring him back to life so she could kill him again and again and again, inflicting every bit of pain on him that she could, until he begged for her mercy like she had begged him. And she would show even less mercy than he had.

"Except Lilith, apparently," she added, with equal hatred.

Lilith. Sabrina had expected nothing from her. She hadn't expected this...but she should have. Lilith hated Lucifer so much that she butchered and cooked up her own son to spite him, so she wouldn't have batted an eyelid over killing another one of his children. Hope had been fair game for her revenge plot.

She had known very well that Lilith didn't save her from dying out of the goodness of her heart. She hadn't done it because she wanted to save the lives of both Lucifer's children, as she'd claimed then.

All this time, she had been playing the long game. Killing Hope had been another blow against Lucifer that she wouldn't have been able to land if they'd both perished in the tomb. She had been planning this from the moment she discovered Sabrina's pregnancy, with the knowledge that the spark of life she'd detected would never see the light of day.

While Hope had been collateral damage, Lilith had also had her reasons for keeping Sabrina alive. She was Lilith's most valuable weapon against Lucifer. Her pregnancy had allowed her to get close to Lucifer when Lilith no longer could, and hearing of their marriage had confirmed that.

And when Sabrina had let Lilith know that the marriage was completely against her will, she knew her perfect weapon was ready.

Maybe she was a weapon. Maybe she was the subtle knife that Lilith would wield against the Dark Lord.

But playing with knives was always a bad idea.

"I need to see this doll for myself. So I can work out what spell they were casting." Though like Athaliah, she was sure she already knew. "Do you happen to know where Lilith lives?" While there was a good chance she had gotten rid of the poppet in order to destroy the evidence, Sabrina wanted to try and confirm her theory for herself before she took drastic action.

"She used to live in the palace. Since she fell out of the Dark Lord's favor, she's relocated to an apartment on the outskirts of Pandemonium."

"Would you be able to take me there? Now?" It was unlikely she'd be able to sneak around once she was wedded to Lucifer. She doubted he'd even be letting her out of his bedroom for at least a fortnight.

"Yes, but…" Athaliah looked sceptical, biting her lip. "Are you sure it's safe, my lady? Lilith is a very powerful witch. I think it might be wiser to take this to the Dark Lord."

It might be easier too. If she told Lucifer of her suspicions, he would likely haul Lilith before the Horde and sentence her to a gruesome fate worse than death, no evidence required. And that wasn't the route Sabrina wanted to take. She wanted to be certain that Lilith had been responsible for Hope's death before she acted against her.

But more so than that...she wanted to do this herself. The main damper on Caliban's death had been that Lucifer was the one to enact it. It had still been a relief not to have to worry about him anymore, but she had been unable to feel any real triumph over it. She would have preferred to be the one to destroy him.

Instead, she had needed Lucifer to protect her, the man who had also abused and raped her. It was humiliating. She didn't need him dealing with Lilith too.

"Lilith is powerful, sure. But I'm more powerful," she said, in a brash statement that was only half-true.

Technically she did hold stronger magic than Lilith, being a Nephilim. But Lilith was more ancient and much more experienced, having accumulated far more knowledge of witchcraft in her thousands of years thanshehad attained in her sole year of study at the Academy of Unseen Arts. If it came down to a direct duel between them, Lilith would likely pulverize her.

Thankfully her apartment looked to be empty when she and Athaliah appeared outside it.

Lilith had fallen far. The area of Pandemonium they found themselves in was extremely run-down, populated mostly by lesser demons and even some of the luckier mortals.

Athaliah, who had served her for several centuries before Sabrina Morningstar and had become very familiar with her schedule, claimed Lilith would journey beyond the city walls to collect potion ingredients at this time of day and usually be gone for several hours.

Remembering how Caliban's own reliance on Lucifer's schedule had blown up in his face, Sabrina wasn't wholly comfortable counting on that. But this was the best opportunity she was going to get.

Leaving her handmaiden out on the filthy, blood-stained sidewalk to keep watch, Sabrina ventured up to Lilith's front door. It was locked and barricaded with several protective spells that she worked to break through, expecting to hear Athaliah call out in warning all the while. Around twenty minutes passed before the door finally clicked open, granting her admission to the apartment.

Though "apartment" might have been a flattering word for it. Lilith's abode consisted of a single windowless room...and not a large, multi-functional room, like that of a studio apartment. It was incredibly empty despite its small size, with only four pieces of furniture. A table, a single chair, a bed, and a small pantry; which, knowing Lilith, was probably where she kept the flesh of the men she'd slaughtered.

Sabrina had admittedly never been inside a standard Pandemonium home and was therefore unable to draw comparisons. Lilith's destitute living conditions were nonetheless a shock after the palace's overwhelming extravagance. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that life in Hell was indeed Hellish for the average demon as well as the mortals.

Most of the smaller possessions dotted about the place were related to Lilith's craft. Numerous ingredients were piled on the table beside a cauldron, various herbs and talismans hanging from the low beams. In the place of dressers or cupboards, there were about twenty stacked boxes that Sabrina guessed must contain more ingredients and charms for spells.

Somewhere among them would be the doll that had taken Hope's life...possibly. It was just as well the apartment was so small and bereft, since it was going to take a while to search it all as it was.

She noticed with some trepidation that the otherwise bare walls were etched with different sigils- including the ones Jimmy Platt had once used to trap her in the freezer. If Lilith walked in on her ransacking the apartment, teleporting away wasn't going to be an option.

Seizing the nearest box, she began her search.

It was a slow, tedious task, for she knew Lilith had a meticulous attention to detail and would notice anything out of place when she returned. She might suspect Sabrina was the one who had been snooping...and maybe what she had been snooping for. And if Sabrina's own suspicions about her were correct, she would either retaliate or flee as a consequence.

Bearing that in mind, she was cautious to leave each box exactly as she found it, carefully arranging their items in the right order and making sure she placed them back at the exact same angle.

The lack of results was even more frustrating. The few boxes she initially opened contained no dolls nor other clues. The first consisted of nothing but jewelry, presumably what Lilith had been able to take with her when she left the palace. The second held a collection of crystals, and the third contained Lilith's cosmetics supply.

Nothing of interest. Sabrina thought she had finally struck gold when she opened the tenth box and found it to be full of poppets.

A closer examination revealed them to all be blank. None had been given any defining features, let alone her own, and she could sense no magic from them. They had yet to be used for any spells or curses. Though...this did at least confirm poppets were something Lilith frequently used in her rituals.

Anticipating that she was getting closer to finding the doll, Sabrina searched through the remaining containers.

Yet the box of blank poppets proved to be the only remotely illuminating discovery among them. The remainder consisted of more generic spell-casting paraphernalia or other mundane everyday items. By the time Sabrina put the lid back on the final box, which held only hair products, she felt rather stupid.

What had she been expecting to find? She should have known someone as shrewd as Lilith never would have kept something so incriminating. She had obviously destroyed the doll, the only bit of evidence that could possibly reveal her part in Hope's death now that Caliban and Beelzebub were dead.

She had completely wasted her time and effort in coming here to look for it. It had probably been thrown in the Inferno.

Or maybe there was no doll. Maybe her entire suspicion had been wrong to begin with. Athaliah might have been lying, or her eyes might have been playing tricks on her. Maybe Hope's death hadn't been due to a curse at all.

Sabrina had been enraged and consumed with vengeance at the thought that Lilith and Caliban were responsible for her baby's death. And yet the thought had also brought her some comfort. Everything else that had befallen her had been their fault. It only made sense for them to be behind this too.

More than that...it had almost been a relief to believe that they were the ones responsible. That it was their evil that had done it, and that Hope's death hadn't simply been the way of the universe, an act of cruel nature.

And it made her feel absolved of her own responsibility. She was still tormented with guilt over the way in which she had acted towards Hope during the pregnancy. The cold indifference that had turned into outright hatred. Those horrible, heartless words she had uttered to her. As illogical as it was, she still felt like Hope's death had somehow been her doing.

Maybe she thought avenging her would absolve that guilt. That catching and bringing her daughter's killer to justice would finally make her a proper mother, or at least give her closure.

Now, it seemed she would never receive closure of any kind. Though she was still sure that it had been Lilith and Caliban who had done it, it would always be an uncertainty in the back of her mind. She could still take action against Lilith and her conscience would remain clear. Whether Lilith had done it or not, she'd still killed Adam and sold her out to Lucifer.

But Sabrina would not be able to look in her dying eyes and feel the true satisfaction of bringing down her daughter's murderer.

It was with much dejection that she put the boxes back, stacking them in the formation she had found them. She went to check the tiny pantry before leaving, on the off-chance that Lilith might have hidden it in there. As she suspected, it was filled mainly with cured meat and some fruit.

Closing the door again and preparing to straighten up, she noticed a large wooden chest stowed beneath Lilith's bed. So absorbed she'd been in checking all the boxes, she had managed to overlook it before. Although she doubted it would bring her any more joy than the other boxes had– it would probably turn out to contain Lilith's nightgowns or something like that- she figured it wouldn't hurt to look.

The chest proved to be very heavy, and she had a lot of trouble dragging it from its place. She eventually gave up on trying to pull it, instead shoving with all her body's strength until she was able to heave it out from under the bed. In the apartment's dull light, she saw that it was a lot fancier than the rest of the boxes, made from sturdy ebony and carved with occultic symbols.

It was also locked. That wasn't too much of a problem for Sabrina given she could undo locks with a simple incantation. More troublesome were the protective spells that had been placed on it, which were even stronger than the ones on the front door. Strong enough that she doubted anyone with less power than her or Lucifer would have been able to circumvent them.

Whatever Lilith was keeping in this chest, it was something she really didn't want people getting their hands on. That was promising.

Unfortunately, Sabrina was running out of time. Athaliah came in to see her while she was dismantling the enchantments, warning her Lilith would likely be returning soon and that it would be wise for them to leave.

Sabrina knew she was right. Not only did she need to get this chest open, she also needed to put all the spells she'd broken back in place afterwards in order to avoid arousing Lilith's suspicions. And time was ticking away all the while.

But she couldn't back out now, not when she seemed so close to an answer. Sending Athaliah outside again with the assurance that she would only be another ten minutes or so (an extremely optimistic estimate) she ploughed on with her work.

It ended up taking another fifteen to get it open. And when she did, she knew the time hadn't been wasted.

She didn't know what most of the things in the box were though she was sure they were extremely valuable or dangerous, or both. There were a lot of weapons; various blades and even a couple of swords, which were probably why the chest had been so heavy. She spied a case that looked just the right size and shape to have once held the Spear of Longinus. There were several books, including (and it might have interested her once) an ancient tome that could have only been Eldritch in origin.

But Sabrina didn't care about any of them. Her eyes seemed to be drawn to one thing in particular; a floral drawstring purse in the corner. Something about it rang with her, and she was sure she knew what it contained.

Picking it up and pulling out the poppet doll it was storing, all of her suspicions were confirmed.

There was no denying whom this doll, with its white blonde curls, black headband, brown eyes and feminine form, was supposed to represent. Lilith had even given it her clothing, dressing it in a miniature version of the pink heart-patterned jumper and black leggings that Sabrina Morningstar's body had been clothed in when her aunts placed her soul in it.

Three needles protruded from its rounded abdomen.

As Sabrina sat on the dusty apartment floor, staring down at the doll that had been used to kill her daughter, she suddenly felt weak. Several different emotions seemed to have overtaken her at once.

Primarily rage, paired with a savage sense of self-righteous justification. Her and Athaliah's suspicions had been true! It had been Caliban and Lilith who had done it. Hope's death had not been a sad twist of fate after all. It had been a conspiracy, and two of those conspirators had already met their well-deserved ends. Lilith would be next. Hope would finally be avenged.

That prospect didn't relieve her of her grief, however. No amount of bloodshed or vengeance could change the fact that her daughter was dead, killed for reasons that had been completely beyond either of their control. Like Adam and Sabrina, Hope had been a Morningstar, and she had paid the price. Even though she had been innocent of any of her father's wrongdoings. It just wasn't fair.

Most striking of all was the immense sense of betrayal.

Sabrina would have expected Caliban to do something like this. It was the kind of creature she knew him to be. But Lilith? Her former mentor, who had served as her regent and guided her as her teacher?

Self-serving and power-hungry as Lilith was, Sabrina had always tried to see the good in her...because she had believed there was good in her. Lilith had done good things before. Lilith had protected her, saving her life on several occasions. She had helped her, as both a teacher and a fellow witch. And she had overthrown Lucifer, preventing the suffering of untold billions of humans.

All of those things had been done with selfish motivations, but Sabrina had been idealistic enough to hope Lilith had also done them because part of her had genuinely wanted to do good. She'd been woefully mistaken. All along, Lilith had been rotten to the core.

She had never once done anything out of the goodness of her heart. Because she didn't have a heart and there was no good in her.

No sooner had Sabrina arrived at that damning conclusion than she heard the sound of brisk footsteps walking up to the front door. She at first thought it was Athaliah, coming to urge her to leave again. Which Sabrina was just about to, now she had what she came for.

Then she heard Lilith's voice, calling out an incantation that would undo the protective enchantments she had left in place; the enchantments that Sabrina had already broken. Judging by her agitated tone, she seemed to already have her suspicions that something was amiss.

Sabrina knew she had mere seconds to act. Stowing the doll away in her pocket and slamming the chest shut, she hastily shoved it beneath the bed again, nearly doing in her back in the process. She just about managed to get it under, stepping away from the bed before the door was thrown open.

Lilith burst into the apartment, face taut in full anticipation of whoever had broken in during her absence.

When she saw Sabrina standing in the middle of the floor, her stance actually relaxed somewhat. Something of relief appeared on her tense features. Evidently, she had expected to find worse. Like Lucifer or possibly Caliban, if she hadn't already heard of his death.

Faking a smile, she closed the door behind her with considerably more lightness than she had opened it. The click still could have been a cell door shutting to Sabrina.

"Sabrina. How lovely of you to drop in." Whether she was genuinely attempting to feign friendliness or whether this was veiled sarcasm, Sabrina wasn't sure. Lilith often tended to straddle the line between sweetness and snark.

She nonetheless decided to play along. "Hi, Lilith," she greeted, with a false smile to match. "I wanted to see you. I thought it would be nice for us to catch up." Two could play at this game. As she spoke, she slowly edged her way forwards in the direction of the door...that was still blocked by Lilith.

"So nice that you thought you would just let yourself in?" Her tone and expression suggested light-heartedness but her eyes were becoming wary once more. The initial relief she'd displayed at seeing her instead of someone worse was fading, replaced by rightful suspicion.

"I didn't exactly want to wait outside in this part of town," Sabrina said, with a shrug.

"Hmm. Not the most pleasant of locales, is it? Even for Hell." Lilith's smile was very dry. "All my years of service to the Dark Lord, humbling myself at his feet in the promise of eventually receiving equality, and this is where I end up. In this downtrodden hovel, with only the most meagre of trappings…"

She cast a disdainful look around the apartment. As she did, her gaze fell upon the wooden chest under her bed, which Sabrina realized too late was still halfway out. Her expression hardened, the understanding of why Sabrina was there dawning on her.

There was no time for either witch to bother with spells or curses. They went for each other, both with near-unnatural speed...but Sabrina was faster.

In a split second, she had pulled the Spear of Longinus from the makeshift sheath she'd been carrying it in.

In another split second, she had driven it into Lilith's neck.

A torrent of blood poured from the wound, that Sabrina was certain would have been fatal on any normal mortal or witch. Stepping back with the spear clutched in her hand, she watched Lilith fall to the floor, flailing and floundering while she rapidly bled to death.

She waited for the wound to heal again, or the blood to suddenly clot, or any sign that the Mark of Cain would work its magic to prevent Lilith's seemingly inevitable demise.

The blood continued flowing, more air leaving Lilith with each strained breath she tried and failed to take, her convulsed movements becoming weaker and fewer. It seemed that the spear had been able to breach her supposed immortality.

"So it is the real Spear of Longinus," Sabrina said thoughtfully, studying the weapon in her hands before flicking her gaze back to the dying witch.

All the time she'd been searching Lilith's apartment for the proof of her part in her daughter's death, she had been going over what she would say when she finally avenged her. She'd imagined something impassioned or dramatic, such as a cry of "For Hope!"

Or maybe an attempt to appeal to Lilith's conscience, telling her just how much pain her actions had caused in the possibility that she might finally understand.

Now this was the only thing she could say.

Her cold musing nonetheless seemed to spur one last sense of purpose into Lilith. Pressing a palm over the gaping wound in what looked like a futile attempt to keep the blood in, she forced herself up onto her elbows, gripping the young queen's skirt.

"...Sa...bri...na…" she managed to get out, more blood spurting between her fingers with each syllable. "...You...have...to...kill...him…"

It didn't sound like an order. It sounded like a plea. Her blue eyes were round as they entreated Sabrina, bearing surprisingly little ill will; only a desperate earnest, and what might have been...empathy?

Then all emotion left them forever. Lilith's rasping, labored intakes of breath went silent and she slumped back to the floor, her body twitching one final time before going completely still. And those icy blue eyes continued to stare into the abyss.

Sabrina stared back at them for a while, unable to quite come to terms with what had occurred. Lilith, the Mother of Demons, the First Witch, was dead.

She had murdered her.

No, she had slain the cold-blooded killer of her child. And she had managed to do it without needing to seek help from Lucifer. She had done exactly what she had set out to do; proven to herself that Lilith had caused her stillbirth and taken revenge on her for it. Hope could finally rest in peace and she could finally get some peace of mind.

She had thought her heart would feel lighter. Yet it seemed to sink further as she looked upon Lilith's dead body. Her act of revenge hadn't brought the release nor sense of triumph she had expected it to.

It wasn't as though she was wracked with guilt over killing Lilith, but she didn't feel any better either. None of the complicated emotions that had been weighing on her since she received Athaliah's tip-off had alleviated, continuing to drag her down as much as they had before.

Killing Lilith hadn't fixed the damage she had caused. Hope was still dead, and nothing would bring her back. And though Lilith had paid with her life, Sabrina doubted she had felt any last-minute regrets as the life left her body. It had probably all seemed justified to her.

Even her final words had been a reiteration of her desire for revenge on Lucifer, the very reason she had done the evil thing she did.

And Sabrina could fully empathize with that desire...because it was a desire that burned within her too. Despite her having just come to the realization that revenge fixed nothing, that didn't stop her hungering for it. And Lilith had hungered for the throne too, for the power it would bring was the only thing that could shield her from going through such abuse again.

Lilith's actions might have even seemed understandable. If it hadn't been herself and her own child who'd ended up suffering as a result.

Sitting at the rough wooden table, Sabrina mulled everything over in the silence. The only sound to be heard was the steady gush of blood that continued to stream from Lilith's body, no longer spurting now that her heart had stopped beating. The red fluid had formed a crimson pool around her, soaking into the gray stone floor. The crime scene would require clearing up. Luckily for her, Athaliah was very skilled at cleaning spells-

Athaliah! In all the drama, Sabrina had completely forgotten about the handmaiden waiting outside. She hadn't warned her of Lilith's approach. Lilith might have just slipped past her, but surely she would have come in with another reminder that they needed to leave by now. Had Lilith…?

Abandoning her ruminations, Sabrina flew out of the apartment and down the steps, where she found Athaliah lying on the sidewalk. Kneeling down to check her, she was relieved that the handmaiden was alive and breathing, and didn't appear to be injured. It seemed Lilith had cast a sleeping spell similar to the one Caliban had put on Salome.

Sabrina had no time to wait around for her to awaken. It was getting late and Lucifer would be finishing his audience soon, after which he would expect to find his daughter waiting for him.

Gripping the demoness's shoulder, she sent a jolt of magic into her. "Athaliah!"

The handmaiden's eyes opened, blinking up at Sabrina. "Lady Morningstar? I…" Taking in her surroundings with some bemusement, she let out a mortified squeak. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I was about to come and warn you but Lilith caught me and…"

"Don't worry. I've handled it," Sabrina assured her. When Athaliah continued to look at her worriedly, she elaborated. "Lilith is dead."

The demoness's eyes went round. "Oh!"

Sabrina wondered if she was upset about this. Lilith had been the one to create her and Jezebel, and she had been their mistress for a few centuries. The two of them may have been lesser demons but they clearly had the capacity to feel human emotions, judging by how devastated they'd been over Hope's death.

She didn't appear to be sad or resentful now though, only surprised. It seemed she hadn't been close with Lilith. Or perhaps her loyalty to Sabrina Morningstar outweighed any prior connections she might have formed.

Unfortunately, Sabrina was going to have to delegate an unpleasant task to her.

"I need you to throw her body into the Inferno. Dismember it first if you have to. And tell no one about this, not even Jezebel. Whatever happens, the Dark Lord mustn't find out." She didn't suppose Lucifer would care much about Lilith's death. But he might still harbor some possessiveness towards his former concubine of several thousand years and be angered over losing such a toy.

It wasn't something she wanted to risk the day before their wedding.

Athaliah disappeared into the apartment to carry out her grim duty while Sabrina went back to the palace. There, she hastily washed off the blood and returned the Spear of Longinus (which she now knew was legit) to its hiding place. Jezebel didn't suspect a thing when she brought Sabrina her tray of afternoon tea soon after. Nor did Lucifer when he returned from his day at court, greeting her with a chaste kiss and asking her if she was ready for their wedding.

Sabrina would never be ready. She nonetheless forced a coquettish smile, playing the part of an eager bride-to-be. All the while her mind continued to debate itself.

She had no trouble sleeping that night despite her crippling dread, falling under the moment her head rested on the pillow. The day's tumultuous events had worn her out. Her sleep was anything but restful, however. She was plagued by a whole host of new nightmares, that now included an undead Lilith as well as Lucifer and Caliban as usual.

Most upsetting of all was the appearance that Sabrina Morningstar made. She found her alternate self kneeling beside the shattered remains of Caliban, weeping while trying in vain to piece him back together. She looked up upon hearing Sabrina's approach, crimson tears of blood pouring down her face to match the wedding dress she wore.

"You destroyed him! You destroyed my husband!" she cried, awash with sorrow and hatred. Sabrina tried to explain what he had done to her to no avail, her other self shrilly cutting across her. "Liar! You're only saying these things because you wanted him for yourself. Just like you wanted everything that I got when I decided to stay in Hell for you. And now you've finally got it! Are you happy now, Sabrina?"

Sabrina was far from happy. She had been unable to defend herself, falling silent as the other Sabrina continued berating her. "You've taken everything from me, Sabrina. My husband, my throne, my body! My life! I died because I went through that mirror to fix your mistake! And now you want to kill Dad too! I hate you! I wish you had died, not me!"

She knew the real Sabrina Morningstar never would have said such things, yet her dream self believed it. Falling to her knees, she had broken down herself and begged Sabrina to forgive her. Her other self ignored her, going back to sobbing over Caliban's remains.

Sabrina had felt a harsh grip on her hair and turned to see a furious Lucifer standing over her. Accompanying him were Caliban and Lilith, both of them having miraculously returned from the dead. Lucifer's eyes were red as he bellowed at her. "You are not my daughter!" As he always did.

The three of them had then set upon her, brutally stabbing her with Spears of Longinus. Her screams for help went unheeded by the grieving Sabrina Morningstar, whose tears had gone from red to milky white like the Void that had killed her.

Then the new day arrived and Sabrina was faced with the very real nightmare ahead of her.

Her handmaidens were the ones who woke her, Lucifer having returned to his rooms to get ready for the wedding himself. He had spent hardly any time in those rooms while she'd been at Pandemonium, nearly always staying with her in Sabrina Morningstar's old bedroom. She would be leaving it behind and moving in with him once they were married.

The ceremony wasn't scheduled to take place until early that evening, and the preparations took most of the day. Her morning was spent opening the several hundred wedding gifts she had been sent by Hell's aristocracy, as well as countless letters bearing well wishes for her marriage.

The gifts varied in size and function, all similarly lavish. Her already expansive jewelry collection gained many new necklaces, brooches, bracelets and earrings, most of which were valuable enough to buy a kingdom. Her royal wardrobe was also expanded with lots of expensive and extremely impractical gowns, and nothing Sabrina actually wanted to wear.

Other demons were more creative in their choices, sending her all kinds of strange items that might have been the supernatural equivalent of novelty gifts. A golden wine goblet that never emptied, a magical harp that could apparently put people to sleep. She thought the latter might actually prove useful until she read the entire accompanying note and found out it only worked on humans.

She even received a few new pets including a basilisk, a griffin and a kelpie. No unicorns, sadly. They were arguably the most interesting of her gifts but Sabrina thought she might need to decline them, for Salome was already quite the responsibility. Her handmaidens burst into giggles when she expressed this, telling her the creatures' home would be the palace menagerie where the imp minions would take care of them.

In what seemed like no time at all, the afternoon arrived and the gifts were put away. Sabrina was bathed, massaged and pampered to the max by Athaliah and Jezebel, and several other handmaidens who had been drafted in to act as her wedding team. Her skin was moisturized until it was as soft as a baby's, a sweet perfume with tones of dark chocolate and cherries daubed onto her neck and wrists.

The handmaidens spent over an hour on her make-up, keeping most of it deceptively natural. The sole exception was the dark red they used to paint her lips.

And then it was time for her to get into her wedding gown. As promised, Adrammelech had managed to complete it well on schedule. And though it was subjective, Sabrina was sure it could very well be a contender for the most beautiful gown in all the realms, despite it being quite different to Sabrina Morningstar's.

It was pure white silk instead of red lace, with a billowing A-line skirt that had a long train. The bodice's puffed sleeves were off the shoulder and little embroidered roses had been stitched around its sweetheart neckline, clear diamonds that resembled dew drops sparkling on them.

As the matching veil was placed on her head, Sabrina thought she looked like a princess from some fairytale. Not Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, but the princess from Donkeyskin. She was a very ghostly princess too. Her face was almost as pale as her silvery curls and the dress itself. In a sea of white, her cherry-red lips and chocolate brown eyes were the only splash of color to be seen.

The finished result was met with much admiration from her handmaidens. "You look breathtaking, Lady Morningstar! The Dark Lord will be spellbound," fawned Jezebel, while Sabrina thought she would puke from nerves.

The time for her wedding ceremony had come. Before all the Hordes of Hell, she would be bound to her false father and abuser for all eternity.

It made no sense for Lucifer to give his daughter away to himself. Sabrina therefore walked down the aisle alone. Jezebel and Athaliah served as her bridesmaids, walking behind her and carrying her train. The short walk from the throne room door up to the dais seemed to take hours, and Sabrina felt more like a lamb walking to the sacrificial altar than a bride walking to the wedding altar.

She was hardly aware of the tune playing in the background, which was the same one Aunt Zelda and Sabrina Morningstar had walked to at their respective weddings. Nor did she notice the hundred pairs of eyes upon her, all of Hell's most esteemed nobles in attendance for the wedding between their Dark Lord and Queen.

The only gaze she could sense was Lucifer's.

He was waiting for her on the balcony, dressed in robes of black to contrast with her white; his hungry eyes burning into her as she approached, the lips that she had kissed the night before twisted in a smirk of triumph.

He offered her his hand when she reached the top of the staircase. She accepted it, and his grip was tight and constricting as he tugged her over to her designated place. Side-by-side on the balcony, the two of them stood before their demonic subjects.

Leaning towards her, he whispered in her ear. "I'll admit, I might have raised a brow when I heard your dress was going to be white. But you look utterly delectable, my daughter." His eyes roved over her, lustful smirk spreading, and Sabrina suddenly wished the balcony was much higher so she could throw herself off.

She didn't think she could do this. But she had to.

Since Lucifer was the highest power in Hell, both the god and emperor, it had been he who had conducted Sabrina Morningstar's wedding to Caliban. He was now the one to preside over his own wedding to Sabrina.

He was proud and pompous as he addressed their guests, but Sabrina couldn't hear much of what he was saying over the loud ringing in her ears and what might have been the thumping of her own heart. It was with the deepest dread that she waited for the moment they would get to their vows.

Much like her walk down the isle, his speech seemed to take forever. Yet it was over too soon. The white noise in her head went silent when Lucifer turned back to her, taking her hand again, and his next words were addressed to her.

"Now, Sabrina Morningstar, my beloved daughter and queen. In my Name, you shall respect me, obey me and submit to me. As all witches serve me, so will you serve me. You will forsake all others, lift me up and exalt me for all eternity." There was a loathsome enthusiasm in him as he gave these orders, his fervent green eyes locked onto hers.

With some disgust, Sabrina recognized the traditional wedding vows used by the Churches of Darkness. Aunt Zelda had needed to abide by them during her wedding to Father Blackwood, and ended up doing away with them altogether when she became High Priestess. Which couldn't have happened soon enough. The "obey" part that used to be included in Christian marriage vows was already too misogynistic for her liking.

The only upside was that Sabrina didn't need to lie through her teeth and say I do...because the bride's consent meant nothing in the Church of Night. Without receiving any indication that she agreed or disagreed with the role she had been issued, Lucifer ploughed on with the vows.

"And I, by the unholy power invested in me, shall in turn cherish you. As I protect all witches, so I will protect you. I will set you above all others, lift you up and exalt you for all eternity."

After reciting these rather patronizing vows of his own, Lucifer tugged Sabrina closer to him. Briefly looking back to the assembled audience, he uttered the words that confirmed her doom.

"My bride and I have expressed our commitment to each other before the Hordes of Hell. It is with this in mind that I, Lucifer Morningstar, pronounce us husband and wife."

It was done. She was now married to a monster, her own father, the literal Devil. A man who had raped and abused her, and tried to murder her. Who had killed Nick, the only man she would have chosen to marry. She wanted to weep. But queens didn't cry, especially not in front of their subjects. She blinked away the tears that she was on the brink of shedding, just in time as Lucifer pulled back the white veil obscuring her face.

He drank in her features as though seeing them for the first time, before settling greedily on her red lips.

"We have kissed a thousand times, perhaps more," he stated, in what was a blatant falsehood. They had only kissed once.

Though, the wording was sneaky. They had indeed kissed more than a thousand times before. She had kissed Harvey, and Nick, the love of her life. Now dead at her new husband's hands. And Lucifer had undoubtedly kissed many others before, including Lilith...who, unbeknownst to him, was dead at his new wife's hands.

"But today, our kiss is a promise to forever be united."

Cupping her cheeks in his huge hands, making it impossible for her to turn her head even if she dared try, he bent down and pressed his lips against hers. She arched her neck, allowing him to kiss her but too frozen to participate, every part of her reeling with shame though she wasn't entirely sure why she felt so abashed. It was tradition for the bride and groom to kiss; a practice done at every wedding, mortal and infernal.

And in Hell, sexuality wasn't something anyone looked down on or was private about. Even the most lewd of carnal acts could be done in the open. A simple kiss was nothing. Yet Sabrina felt like she was being publicly violated as Lucifer's lips moved against hers.

The aristocracy of Hell applauded wildly in the background, neither knowing nor caring that their Queen was inwardly screaming. They loved to see a display and were looking forward to the pageantry of hedonism that was to follow. Sabrina hadn't been able to attend the after-party for Sabrina Morningstar's wedding, though it had apparently been spectacular. Lucifer would certainly see to it that the celebrations for his own wedding were even more grandiose.

After he had finally broken the kiss, he turned back to the cheering crowd, who hushed in anticipation of hearing their Dark Lord speak.

"The reception festivities will commence shortly," he declared, and was met by a few more cheers. He waited for them to die down before looking back to Sabrina. "But first...I wish to present my beautiful bride with a wedding gift."

His handsome face wore a good-natured smile but there was something far darker lurking behind his eyes, which burned with a quiet fury. Sabrina would have assumed he wanted to present her with something as equally frivolous as all the gifts she had opened earlier. Now she suddenly felt very wary as to what this "gift" was going to be.

She hoped Lucifer couldn't feel how sweaty her palms had become as he led her down the steps and over to the throne, where he sat himself down and gestured towards his knee. Trying to hide her mortification, she seated herself on his lap, and he clapped his hands.

The throne room doors were thrown open and several tall demon guards marched in, hauling two chained prisoners between them; a man and a woman.

Sabrina's eyes went to the woman first. Her heart seemed to stop in her chest as she instantly recognized her.

Lilith.

There was no mistaking the terrified, trembling woman before her. And yet it couldn't be. Sabrina had driven the Spear of Longinus into Lilith's throat and watched her die! Her remains had been thrown into the Inferno and incinerated. How could she possibly be here, alive and in one piece? Could it be that the Spear had failed to keep her dead, and Athaliah had lied about disposing of the body?

Sabrina's mind was abuzz with both horror and extreme confusion, and she tried to make sense of everything.

The more she stared at Lilith, however, the more differences she noticed. Subtle differences that made all the difference.

Lilith's hair was usually down in a cascade of glamorous dark waves, but it was slung back in a loose ponytail today. She normally wore figure-hugging dresses but now she wore a gray skirt and a woollen cardigan that was almost granny-ish. Lilith was always immaculately made-up, with red lips and cat-like eyeliner. Her face was bereft of cosmetics now.

And she was wearing a pair of glasses too. Sabrina didn't think Lilith had worn glasses in all the time she had known her. Though she knew someone else who did, for reading...

This woman wasn't Lilith. She was Mary Wardwell, Sabrina's former civics teacher. Her favorite teacher, once upon a time. Until Ms. Wardwell had discovered her family were witches and shot Aunt Zee in a crazed fit, nearly killing her.

Sabrina had been very fond of her teacher before that. So much that Lilith had murdered her and posed as her to gain her trust, in order to get her to fulfil the Dark Lord's prophecy. She had revived her again after crowning herself Queen of Hell.

That may have been the one thing Lilith ever truly had done out of the goodness of her heart.

Sabrina had no clue why Lucifer had dragged Mary Wardwell down here. She was about to demand an explanation. But the question died on her lips when she looked to the male prisoner and studied him more properly. As recognition set in, her confusion and irritation disappeared, and Ms. Wardwell was temporarily forgotten. A new surge of emotions overtook Sabrina; rage, hatred...and a deep, dark triumph.

Lucifer had brought her Faustus Blackwood.

Blackwood, who caused the plane crash that killed her real parents. Blackwood, who married Aunt Zee then imprisoned her within her own body with the Caligari spell. Blackwood, who released the Eldritch terrors that killed Sabrina Morningstar.

Blackwood, possibly the only person alive that Sabrina hated as much as Lucifer himself.

Both he and Mary Wardwell were in a wretched state. Wardwell had been visibly roughed up; her hair and clothes dishevelled, the glass in her spectacles broken and a couple of fresh bruises on her face. She seemed more petrified than anything though, her eyes darting around the room, filled with terror at all the demons surrounding her.

Blackwood, on the other hand, bore the distinct signs of having been tortured within an inch of his life.

Sabrina had failed to recognize him initially due to how swollen and bruised his face was. And that was far from all that had been done to him. His fingers were bleeding, every one of his nails torn off. They were bent at unnatural angles too, as were his legs. He had to literally be dragged across the room since his shattered kneecaps made it impossible for him to walk.

Deep lash marks scarred his body and huge sections of skin had been torn away, green pus oozing from the wounds, a nasty infection having set in.

In fact, Sabrina thought death might have reprieved him already if it wasn't for the Mark of Cain. Which proved that immortality was indeed a curse rather than a blessing. He was snivelling from his place on the floor, a far cry from the haughty man he had once been.

There was pure hatred in Lucifer's face as he glowered down at the former priest. "This pathetic warlock objected to my will, but had neither the courage nor strength to contest me himself. So with the power I gave him, he decided to summon the ancient Eldritch terrors to do his dirty work on his behalf. The last of which claimed our original Queen's life."

The Horde erupted in fury at hearing this, hurling both curses and projectiles at the prisoner. They may have been evil demons but Sabrina Morningstar had earned their adoration during her short rule and they, like Sabrina, were hungry for vengeance.

"My hounds found him hiding out in his false temple at the Mountains of Madness, still praying for his Eldritch creatures to deliver him long after their defeat!" Lucifer shouted, over the roar of the enraged horde.

His glare fell to the whimpering Mary Wardwell, the hatred dimming somewhat but remaining contemptuous nonetheless. "And this mortal female of his continued to preach his message from the pulpit in his absence, gloating about my daughter's death."

More enraged screams came from the crowd as they turned their abuse on Mary Wardwell, while she cowered in fright.

One of the guards handed her chain to Lucifer and he yanked it, dragging her forwards until she was directly before the dais, at Sabrina's feet. Her eyes widened in shock as she looked up and saw her former pupil sitting upon the throne of Hell, in Satan's lap.

Crawling towards her, she clutched at the young queen's skirt in supplication. "Help me, Sabrina! Please help me!"

Her desperate pleas resonated with Sabrina, whose heart was moved for a moment. She considered telling Lucifer that he had made a mistake and Mary Wardwell was innocent, demanding that he let her go. She might have joined Blackwood's creepy Eldritch cult but all kinds of people got sucked into cults. Maybe she hadn't known the true extent of Blackwood's evil and the terrible things he was doing, or maybe she had been brainwashed by him.

She'd always seemed like such a sweet lady. She'd invited Sabrina into her cottages for cups of tea and would lend an ear whenever she'd struggled at school. It was why she had been her favorite teacher.

But then she thought back to when Ms. Wardwell had attacked Aunt Zee. It had been terrifying, hearing the gunshot and finding the witch who had raised her lying lifelessly on the floor. Aunt Hilda was already buried in the ground and Aunt Zelda had hovered on the brink of life and death, the dread banshee wailing in the Mortuary grounds all the while. Sabrina's parents might have died when she was a baby but she had never known what it was like to be an orphan, for her Aunts had always been there for her. They had been the only mothers she needed. She had nearly lost them both that day.

And what if it had been her who answered the door? Would Mary Wardwell have looked her own student in the eyes and shot her?

Sabrina truly didn't know. But she had tried to sympathize with her troubled teacher. Her aunts had wanted to offer her to the pagans for what she did but Sabrina had decided to wipe her memories instead, making her forget that the Spellmans were witches and everything that had transpired since then, returning her to her home.

It had seemed like a mercy...but maybe she should have killed her instead.

She remembered how Ms. Wardwell had relished parroting Blackwood's line in the Perverse universe he had created for himself, not batting an eyelid as her students were accused of being witches and dragged away for execution. Everyone had been different to some extent due to their altered memories, but their personalities had remained intact.

Harvey had been on Blackwood's squad but still hadn't wanted to bring himself to arrest Roz. Aunt Zee hadn't remembered her own niece but had nonetheless tried to shield Sabrina instead of handing her over. Nick had no memory of her being his girlfriend, but he'd still fancied her...and he'd still had the courage to stand up to Blackwood, refusing to sing his propagandistic songs on pain of death.

Lilith, without her hatred for Lucifer and hunger for the throne of Hell driving her, had been part of the resistance, fighting for a good cause. Even Prudence, despite the position of authority and privilege she held in her father's new world, had ultimately ended up doing what was right.

Ms. Wardwell had seemingly been an anomaly. No longer the sweet and meek schoolteacher, she had been in her element as she assisted in Blackwood's oppression of witches. Because that had been who she truly was. Blackwood hadn't brainwashed her. He had only brought out what was already there, that she hadn't been able to express before joining his death cult.

She had helped him with his mission to bring about the Eldritch Terrors. The terrors that had killed Sabrina Morningstar.

Sabrina tugged her skirt out of Ms. Wardwell's grubby hands.

"Go to Heaven," she said in disgust, swatting her former teacher away.

Lucifer chortled at his daughter's retort, chucking her under the chin.

"Oh, no. I don't think she'll be going there. She came here last time, and that was before she started worshipping Eldritch monsters and assisting in the deaths of innocents. It seems the False God doesn't want her." Another cold laugh escaped him at the mortal's appalled expression. "Then again, no man would want a miserable old hag like her. Even her beloved Adam preferred Lilith."

"What?" Ms. Wardwell gasped, while the demons around her howled with cruel mirth at the Dark Lord's extremely petty jab. Sabrina didn't join in the laughter. She waited for Lucifer to pass his judgement. Which he eventually did, after making a few more jibes.

"Mary Wardwell. For assisting my daughter's assassin, I sentence you to death," he announced, a pitiful sob escaping Wardwell. He inclined his head to Sabrina. "Would you like to do the honors, my lovely bride?"

"With pleasure," Sabrina said coldly, completely ignoring her former teacher's continued pleas. Not moving from her place, she clenched her hand into a fist and twisted it to the side, like she had seen Lucifer do on many occasions.

Her gesture was met by a loud crack as Mary Wardwell's neck snapped, her lifeless body falling to the floor, and the crowd of demonic onlookers applauded at what they saw as a justified execution. Sabrina remained silent, watching emotionlessly while two imp minions came forth to move the body.

"Give her to the hellhounds!" Lucifer said gleefully as they dragged her away, to more cheers from his guests. They had come for an exhibit and they had gotten one. And this was just the beginning.

When Lucifer turned his gaze on Blackwood, all of his merriment vanished. The crowd quietened down, sensing the dark fury radiating from their Dark Lord. Even Blackwood himself, who had been somewhat out of it until now- likely driven to near madness by the torture he had suffered- regained enough lucidity to quiver under his deathly glare.

"As for our treacherous warlock, he possesses the Mark of Cain and cannot die. How unfortunate…for him." Lucifer's voice was low but carrying, and extremely deadly.

A chorus of snickers arose from the demons, their eyes bright with malice as they also glowered at the warlock. They were sadistic creatures who would revel in the suffering of anyone, guilty or innocent, but Blackwood had killed their most beloved queen. This was personal.

Leaving a dramatic pause which was punctuated only by Blackwood's snivels, Lucifer passed his sentence.

"For the crimes of heresy and treason against the Queen of Hell, I decree that Faustus Blackwood perish by a Thousand Cuts. His body will be severed into a thousand pieces that will be scattered across the Inferno to burn for all eternity. He will not pass on to the Hereafter as the rest of his kind does, continuing to live on in damnation."

At this cue, four demons emerged from the wings of the throne room. Not the hulking demon guards that had hauled Blackwood and Wardwell in, but small horned goblins who didn't look particularly intimidating. The hammers and saws they wielded did, however, as did their wicked smirks.

Blackwood flinched as they approached him. "No, wait, no! Wait, wait! Dark Lord, I beg you!" His mouth formed this plea, but his pathetic whine was inaudible over the deafening applause that Lucifer's verdict had received.

It was the first coherent thing he had uttered since being brought into the throne room. His whimpers became screams as the demons seized a limb each, hammering them down with nails to keep him still as they set to work. It was the first of many pleas that would leave him over the following hour.

Sabrina didn't move from her place on Lucifer's lap during this, the two of them watching the execution with rapt attention. His arm was around her while she sipped from her new never-emptying goblet, savoring both the sweet taste of the wine and Blackwood's suffering.

Their guests seemed to view it as any other form of party entertainment, mingling among each other and observing the traitor's punishment while imp minions bustled around bearing trays of drinks and other refreshments. It wasn't until Blackwood had been butchered to the point that he was physically incapable of screaming (or providing much reaction at all) that the novelty seemed to wear off, the aristocracy growing visibly bored.

As did Lucifer. Placing Sabrina down at his side and rising from his throne, he announced to his guests that the festivities would be continuing in the Garden of Infernal Delight.

Sabrina wanted to stay until Blackwood had been completely dismembered and done away with. Bearing witness to that might finally be enough to quell the rage still bubbling away within her, that still felt unsatiated. But as the bride, she was expected to sit beside her new husband at the banquet table and join in the wedding toast. So she took Lucifer's hand, letting him lead her outside.

The Garden was a beautiful sight, its jewel flowers glowing in the light of Hell's blood moon and the hell-fire lamps. A fresh crop of red roses had been planted too; bright and bold for now, though they would be wilted by morning. Even more of them decorated the garden's railings and the table that the royal couple and their guests sat down at.

They enjoyed a thirteen-course reception banquet, with dishes ranging from pretentious to morally reprehensible. Though Sabrina had learned to tolerate demonic cuisine, she requested "vegetarian" substitutes for the latter. The feast ended with a tiered cake of dark chocolate and cherries (an obvious theme) and the festivities descended into dancing, drinking and general debauchery afterwards, dragging on for half the night.

She found every excuse she could to slip away from the party, returning to the throne room where the goblins were still slicing away at Blackwood.

They became increasingly difficult to come up with when Lucifer was intent on keeping her at his side, hardly even letting go of her hand. She sensed he was impatient for the wedding festivities to be over too, despite the extravagant measures he had gone to for them. And that was why Sabrina didn't want them to end, little as she was enjoying them.

But the celebrations couldn't last forever. They were finally starting to wind down when she gave Lucifer the slip for a third time, citing an urgent need to go to the bathroom. He came looking for her shortly afterwards and found her lounging on the throne, watching the demons shove the bloody chunks of flesh and bone into sacks, ready to empty into the Inferno.

"I wonder if he's still self-aware?" she pondered aloud, as her father came to stand behind her. She felt his rumbling chuckle from where he had rested his chin on her head.

"It's hard to say. I wouldn't imagine any who have suffered that fate are in a position to tell us." Arms draping over her, he observed the proceedings with matching interest for the few minutes it took for the demons to finish bagging Blackwood up.

"I want to be the one who scatters him. Just so I know he's definitely gone," she said, once the gruesome task had been completed. She didn't see how anyone could come back from being cut into a thousand pieces, but she and the Spellmans hadn't expected him to stitch his head back on after they decapitated him. She didn't dare put anything past him now.

Lucifer nuzzled her hair, which had been freed of its veil. "Then you shall, my bride. Tomorrow. For tonight, let us turn our thoughts to happier things."

From the seductive purr in his tone and the way that his hands were beginning to roam her body, it was easy to deduce what "happier" things he was speaking of. This was the moment he had been craving ever since he'd proposed to her, and she had been dreading ever since she accepted.

Her stomach clenched with nerves as he scooped her out of the throne and into his arms, and the both of them disappeared from the throne room in a whirl of fire. They re-appeared in the corridor outside his rooms.

Holding her close to his chest, Lucifer smiled down at her. "I want to carry you across the threshold," he said, the heavy doors opening with a lazy flourish of his hand.

Sabrina had been in Lucifer's quarters before, usually to dine with him. They were even bigger and grander than Sabrina Morningstar's if such a thing was possible, consisting of several rooms where everything seemed to be black and gold, as opposed to Sabrina's red theme. She was familiar with the sitting area, and the dining room she had trashed on the night of his proposal. She'd never been in his bedroom though, which was where he carried her now.

Depositing her at the end of the gigantic four-poster bed, he began undoing the fastenings on his robes while his bride peered around the room nervously. It was as lavishly decorated as the other rooms; mostly with pictures and statues of Lucifer himself, in both his angelic and beastly form. He truly was a narcissist.

There was one portrait in particular that stood out, however.

"You have a picture of Sabrina Morningstar…" Sabrina gasped, strangely awestruck at the sight of it. The portrait hung pride of place on the wall, three candles with blue flames burning before it. It clearly meant a great deal to Lucifer.

He paused now, his robes falling to the floor as he followed her gaze. "Yes. I had it painted after her coronation."

She studied the huge golden gown that Sabrina wore, matching it with the unflattering description she had read in her diary. It was indeed a monstrosity, and so was the bouffant her hair had been styled in. But a radiant beauty shone forth from her despite the hideous attire, and she held herself with a refined elegance that she could never imagine herself holding in any life.

Sabrina Morningstar had been a true queen, more so than she could ever hope to be.

"You must have been so proud of her," she whispered, eyes downcast as she felt herself threatening to tear up for the second time that day. She missed Sabrina so much that it was silly. Sabrina had been her. How could she miss herself?

Lucifer went quiet for a moment. He wasn't looking at her, and Sabrina wondered if he too was holding in his emotions.

"I was," he eventually said, gruffly. "And I still am. I couldn't have asked for a better daughter or a greater queen, even if we didn't always see eye-to-eye. She always had a quick wit and a sharp tongue on her. And a rebellious attitude to match. But that was what made her mine. Not a day goes by where I don't miss it."

It was the most that he had ever said to her about Sabrina Morningstar. In all the time she had spent with him, her existence and subsequent death had been a constant elephant in the room. He never brought her up, always skirting around the issue whenever anyone else mentioned her. It often seemed like he was trying to pretend she truly was Sabrina Morningstar, like she had never died at all, and that seemed like an insult to the dead Sabrina's memory.

Yet there was no denying the love and genuine affection with which he spoke of her now.

"Letting her go through that mirror was by far the greatest mistake I ever made." Lucifer was still looking at the painting of his dead daughter instead of her. He therefore didn't see the way in which her head jerked up at his words, which were more damning than he could have realized.

Even greater a mistake than rejecting me, Father? Than raping and nearly murdering me?

Her inner turmoil went unnoticed by Lucifer, who continued to unburden himself. It was like this was something he had been needing to get off his chest without realizing it before now.

"I should have seized her and hauled her back to Hell. Locked her in her rooms until she abandoned the idea, if it came to that. But she always complained of me being too possessive, saying I restricted her freedom and never allowed her to make her own choices. So I let her go. And I have regretted it ever since."

Sabrina believed him. Even Sabrina Morningstar's diary had confirmed what he was saying, for she'd often vented about how overly protective Lucifer had been of her since she'd come to live in Pandemonium. He had started to loosen the reigns somewhat after numerous tirades and tantrums from her, and the two of them eventually reached a point where they mutually respected each other's decisions, no matter how questionable.

He probably wasn't going to be making that same "mistake" with her.

She looked down at the white hands she had clasped in front of her, settled on the skirt of her similarly white wedding gown. From where she sat on the bed, fearfully waiting for him to consummate their forced marriage.

He never would have put Sabrina Morningstar through this. He never would have defiled her, or forced her to carry a pregnancy, or tried to suppress her with archaic wedding vows. He never would have sullied their relationship in this way. She had been his daughter. He had loved and respected her as one.

He didn't love her. He certainly didn't respect her. Because no matter what he said, in his eyes, she wasn't his true daughter. Sabrina Morningstar was, and that would never change.

Sabrina Spellman was merely a cheap replacement. Just like Caliban had said.

Lucifer's eyes went to the three candles burning on the altar-like table. "I've lost two daughters and a son. Sometimes I think this may be part of the False God's curse on me. He is very petty like that," he mused, a sad smile surfacing on his lips while his eyes were wistful. He then looked to her again, his hand reaching for hers.

"But I won't let him take you. You are all I have left now, Sabrina," he said, his voice low and determined, giving her hand an assuring squeeze.

Yes, she was all he had. Sabrina Morningstar's replacement.

It was a moment of vulnerability and paternal reflection that she'd never seen him show before. It made him seem almost human; less like the Devil and fallen angel he was, but like a person with proper feelings and emotions. Yet it didn't last. She knew it wouldn't. The softness soon left his eyes, the burning desire returning to them. His other hand trailed down to her thigh to caress it.

"We can make the Morningstar line strong again, my bride. I want to see you big with my child once more…" His lips were barely an inch from hers and it was all Sabrina could do not to recoil.

A new horror had set in. Was this the real reason why he had decided to marry her? Even though his last attempt to gain an heir from her had ended in tragedy? She'd suspected before, and he was all but confirming it now. And Sabrina couldn't do it.

I'm not your broodmare! she wanted to scream at him. It would be pointless, though. She had sold herself to him in her wedding vows, given up what little autonomy she might have had left. As far as he was concerned, she was whatever he wanted her to be.

"I can't. Not after Hope..." she tried, in the weakest of protests. She was now aware that her daughter's death had been anything but natural, caused by a curse as opposed to a faulty reproductive system. There was no reason to believe any subsequent pregnancies would result in stillbirths. But it wasn't like Lucifer knew that.

Taking her jaw in his hand, he forced her chin up. "Hope's loss was a terrible shame, yes. But the next one will be stronger. It won't die like she did." His voice was gentle, while his grip was too tight to be comfortable.

He might as well have slapped her. Hope wasn't weak! And she couldn't just be replaced with a new baby, like she was some kind of toy. She didn't know if that was what Lucifer truly meant to say but it was the implication nonetheless. And it made Sabrina want to rip his innards out.

She hid her anger, resisting the urge to bite down when he leaned in to kiss her, though she didn't respond either. Lucifer didn't seem to notice or care, hungrily devouring her mouth while she sat and prayed for it to be over.

"You taste so sweet," he sighed, once he managed to tear away from her, his mouth reddened from the dark crimson on her lips. He smirked as he wiped it off. "Like cherries."

Sabrina may have rolled her eyes at what seemed like such a cliched compliment. But she was too crippled by anxiety to see the humor in anything.

And those nerves only continued to grow when Lucifer pushed her back, onto the bed's downy covers. His hungry eyes roved over her, sprawled across the covers in her virginal white gown. Even though she was no chaste maiden herself, she felt like an inexperienced girl now, and she wanted to shy away from him.

But she was trapped. His weight bore down on her as he kissed her again, even more deeply, his forked tongue probing. She began to return his kiss, slowly, with great reluctance, before he released her mouth, traveling lower. His lips teased her neck, which seemed even more sensitive.

An involuntary moan left her and she felt him smirk again, against her skin. He continued to descend, trailing kisses downwards until he reached the sweetheart neckline of her dress, pressing one last kiss against the modest cleavage that her bodice allowed her to display.

She waited for him to rip it off. But he passed over her chest altogether, continuing to move further down her body until he was at the apex of her thighs. Gripping the cloud-like skirts of her wedding dress, he hiked them up until she was displayed to him.

Sabrina shifted uncomfortably under his prying gaze. She hadn't been given any undergarments, her handmaidens telling her they might show through the fine fabric and that it was traditional for brides in Hell to forgo them anyway. It didn't make much difference, really. But the time it would have taken for Lucifer to remove them might have given her a few more seconds reprieve.

That forked tongue came out again, darting across his lips as he eyed her in anticipation. The one physical trait he'd retained from his days as a snake in the Garden of Eden.

"And now...no longer must I wait to find out how the rest of you tastes." His breath wafted over her sex, which had become hot and moist in spite of her inner unwillingness.

Her face was burning too, from both arousal and humiliation. I can't do this, she thought for the umpteenth time that day. But there was no backing out if that had ever been an option to begin with. Closing her eyes tightly, she resolved to endure it.

Her mouth fell open when he descended on her, an involuntary cry now escaping it. Nick had gone down on her before, of course. He'd never been a selfish lover and he enjoyed giving her pleasure every bit as much as he enjoyed receiving his own.

She'd somehow forgotten just how pleasurable it was, though. The sensation of a tongue on her clit was completely different from having a man inside her. Softer, yet even more intense. Nick had known how to use his.

But Lucifer was masterful at it. She wouldn't have expected that, considering how self-absorbed he was. Surely he had only ever cared about getting his own gratification.

Then again, he was well-practiced in using his tongue to seduce people in the verbal sense. It should hardly come as a surprise that he knew how to use it for this purpose too.

He had her gasping and whimpering within seconds, forked tongue running up and down her wet slit before settling on her clit. Its bizarre shape only seemed to intensify the sensation, and the shivers of pleasure it gave Sabrina were so strong that they were almost unbearable.

It wasn't long before he had brought her to her dizzying climax. Her legs kicked, an ecstatic scream leaving her and more juices flowing from her lips. He greedily lapped them up, tasting every drop of her pleasure while she recovered from the shattering high, her body covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Her dress suddenly seemed far too hot.

Aside from that, she felt strangely content. An unnatural tranquillity came over her as she lay there, his head still between her thighs. Once he had sampled her to his satisfaction, he straightened up and gazed down at her; at her blushing face, tousled blonde curls, and the petite body that was still swathed in her white wedding gown.

"You're so beautiful…" he breathed, in what almost seemed like reverence. The wickedness then returned to his expression. "But I knew that. After all, I was the one who gave you your beauty."

He had told her that before. She wasn't sure how literally he meant it; whether she had simply inherited his good looks or whether he had, through some magical means, managed to tailor his miracle daughter's appearance to his liking. Even though he probably hadn't had any lustful intentions in mind for her back then, it was still an extremely disturbing thought.

There was no mistaking his intentions now. The outline of his bulging arousal was clearly visible through his tight black pants, which he was scrambling to undo. The apprehensive way in which she was watching him didn't go unnoticed.

With a leering grin, he crooned, "Don't worry, daughter. Daddy will be very gentle with you."

A bit late for that now.

Resolving to look anywhere but at her "Daddy", Sabrina focused her vision on the bed canopy above her instead. She would lie back and think of England, as the saying went. Or rather, Hell. Not that it had worked for her so far. But she had found the oral sex enjoyable, in an extremely humiliating way.

Maybe if she closed her eyes and pretended he was Nick- no, that would just make her want to cry again- pretend that he was some mysterious stranger who she didn't have any reason to detest, then she might be able to get through this.

She was about to close them again, hoping his narcissism wouldn't prompt him to demand that she look at him when she noticed something unusual.

Two metal loops hung from the wall, in line with both of the bedposts. The kind that one would attach a chain to or thread a rope through. Made from Damascus steel, by the looks of things. They were something one would expect to find in a dungeon, not a bedroom.

Then again...this was Hell. A lot of humans were into bondage and sadomasochism, infernal beings even more so, and someone like Lucifer would likely engage in it on a frequent basis. Vanilla sex was probably far too boring for him. No doubt he was going to expect her to start partaking in his exploits too...

And then, just like that, it came to Sabrina. In what could have been a bolt of unholy inspiration, she formed a plan that would either be her salvation or her damnation. She just hoped it was the former.

She wriggled beneath Lucifer as he got on top of her, his shaft pressing against her entrance in preparation of pushing in.

"Oh, oh...wait!" Her protest made him pause, the head teasing her opening. "I want to be on top. Please, Daddy," she gasped, her eyes wide and pleading, uncertain he would oblige her. He was a dominant sort who probably preferred to take the lead. Especially now, with her.

Though indulging his daddy kink might have helped her case. Lucifer's confused and rather frustrated frown relaxed into a smile, seemingly endeared by her request.

"How could I ever say no to you, my lovely bride?" he murmured, running a finger down her cheek. In a quick movement, he gripped her waist and rolled them both over, so that she was straddling his hips. "I can admire the view this way."

With him smirking lazily up at her, Sabrina was initially unsure of what to do. Her expectation had been that she would have to lie back and take everything, like the submissive bride she was. Now he was waiting for her to put the work in.

She tugged at the bodice of her gown, figuring he would want to enjoy the full view of her body, and he stilled her. "No, keep it on for now. White suits you, my little fallen angel."

The dress was smothering her, Sabrina's body having become far too hot to remain clothed. She was nonetheless glad to remain in it, for it gave her one last barrier from him; one last illusion of protection. She felt more in control now, with him being the one who lay naked beneath her.

It was almost like the tables had been turned...but they hadn't. Not yet.

And she wouldn't be able to get away with delaying their consummation any longer. Hiking up her dress, she reached for his shaft, guiding it to her entrance. She let out a moan that wasn't entirely faked as she rubbed against his head, before spreading her lips and lowering herself onto him.

Sabrina was no virgin but Lucifer was a lot for anyone to accommodate. She took it slowly, gravity and the slick from his earlier teasing helping him slide in. He, to his credit, remained patient while she adjusted to him, not bucking his hips or forcing her down further.

He waited until she had taken his full length within her, a purr of pleasure leaving him as she clenched around him. Her muscles were still tight even after giving birth.

And though the feeling of him inside her was one that she had sadly been unable to forget, as much as she'd tried, it wasn't as awful as she remembered. Maybe because he was actually being gentle with her and letting her take the reigns, instead of violently forcing himself inside her.

...Or maybe because Sabrina held the faintest hope that she might be rid of him altogether soon.

It was a hope she couldn't afford to get up yet, however. For now, she had to focus on pleasing him. Once she'd managed to acclimatize to the point that she felt comfortable, she began to move herself up and down his impressive length, hips pivoting as she rode him. She sweltered from the exertion, yet her pleasure was starting to climb to its peak again.

The feel of Lucifer inside her was undeniably good. It didn't have her immediately screaming like his tongue had, but it gave her a full sensation that was pleasant in a strange way.

And if the pleasured growls escaping him were anything to go by, Lucifer was enjoying her too. His reactions couldn't have been any more different from the stony silence he had displayed last time. When he had raped her, in an act that was purely violent and driven by hatred. It hadn't had anything to do with lust or achieving pleasure, even his own.

Now it was all about his pleasure.

"You feel so exquisite, Sabrina..." he gasped, hands on her waist as she fucked him. She clenched her muscles, squeezing down, eliciting an even louder moan. "Ah, yes, Sabrina. Just like that."

His eyes drifted shut in pure bliss, seeming utterly relaxed. Sabrina seized on the opportunity. Shutting her own eyes, she pictured the Damascus steel shackles that she had chained him in the witches' cells with, using her magic to summon them. They materialized beside her in a flash.

Lucifer remained none the wiser. His eyes were still firmly shut while Sabrina tarried, trying to work up the courage for what she was about to attempt. Lucifer's reflexes were much faster than her own and his strength was far greater. The element of surprise was all she had over him and that would be fleeting. She would need to act quickly.

Trying to appear as natural as possible, she gently took his hands from her waist and raised them above his head so they were pressed against the wall behind him, next to the steel loops. Lucifer's eyes briefly flickered open at this, a sliver of green meeting hers. They soon closed again, not spotting the chains she had summoned. And much to Sabrina's delight, he kept his hands in the position she'd put them even after she let go.

Checking to make sure he still wasn't peeking, she picked the shackles up from beside her. After clicking them onto the steep loops as quietly as she could, she took his right hand again, softly caressing it in a facade of sensuality.

Then, in one swift movement, she snapped the manacle onto his wrist.

Lucifer stirred beneath her, her unexpected action having distracted him from the lustful reverie she'd put him in.

"What the-" He began to sit up, yanking at the chain now binding him to the wall. Sabrina ignored him, reaching for his other hand with the aim of chaining that too.

It caught her first. "Just what are you playing at, daughter?" Lucifer's voice was still husky with pleasure but his eyes flashed with irritation, his grip on her wrist as tight as a vice. Sabrina had anticipated this, knowing restraining both his hands had been an unrealistic goal. And she had an answer ready.

"Don't tell me you're scared of a little bondage, Daddy…" she pouted, in what was something between a childish whine and a flirtatious purr. Please fall for it, she mentally begged. She wasn't sure he would.

Thankfully, lust seemed to have dulled all of Lucifer's other senses. She could have sworn she felt him stiffen even further inside her.

"Getting adventurous, are we, my little minx?" he chuckled, his predatory smirk returning. For a second, Sabrina was worried he might insist on chaining her instead. But he laid back again, holding his wrist out to her expectantly, with the air of one trying to indulge a child. "Go on, then."

For a being who had spent most of his existence deceiving others, it was remarkable how easy Lucifer was to deceive. It was that pride of his once again, his biggest weakness. It had been the same thing that had led to his downfall last time, at her and Lilith's hands. All she had needed to do back then was sing a pretty song.

She thought he might have learned since then. But Lucifer never learned from his mistakes. And she hadn't either, for the longest time...but she was learning now. After tonight, she would have an entire eternity to learn.

He wouldn't.

After ensuring that the manacles were firmly in place, and tightly drawn enough that Lucifer had no possibility of moving his arms or using much of his magic, Sabrina resumed her ministrations. She went at him with a new fervor, energized by her pre-victory, throwing her head back in pleasure when she finally reached her peak.

A cry left her as her body was seized by the most intense orgasm she'd ever had in her life. It was like the high from a hallucinogenic drug, like a surge of magic to Sabrina's senses. And she drew on her own magic as it burned through her, using it to summon the Spear of Longinus into her waiting hands.

Recognition immediately dawned on Lucifer's face when he saw it.

"Where did you get that?" he asked calmly, almost casually. Yet every part of him had tensed up and his eyes were decidedly wary. He gave the chains binding him an instinctive tug but they didn't budge. His own horniness had allowed Sabrina to fully ensnare him in her net.

She threw an idle glance down at the spear.

"Oh, this? Lilith gave it to me as a wedding present," she said breezily, enjoying the rising panic that Lucifer was doing his best to hide. "I didn't know if it was legit, though. So I tested it on her. Turns out it is!"

She scanned Lucifer's features for any kind of emotion as she said this; any sign he was bothered by the news that his concubine of several thousand years had met her demise. There was only the briefest flicker of mild surprise, followed by a snicker that seemed quite forced.

"Not the method I might have chosen. But I commend you for taking matters into your own hands, daughter. She had it coming." He rattled his chains again, in a manner that was distinctly more agitated. "Now, unchain me. And give that here."

Sabrina did not unchain him, and she certainly did not relinquish the Spear of Longinus. She ignored his order entirely, her eyes wandering between the spear and the fettered Dark Lord. He was still trapped beneath her and though he tried in vain to pull himself free from the shackles, both they and the steel rings they were attached to held firm.

Had they been in any other building, he might have brought the entire wall down in his bid to escape. But they were in Pandemonium, where the walls were sturdy and fortified by magic, and what had once been his protection was now his undoing. He was at Sabrina's mercy.

"Do you remember, Dad, when I told you I'd never forgive you?" she said quietly, after a moment of silence. One look at his face and she knew he remembered. That horrified realization quickly flashed across his features again, just as it had when he saw the Spear. It was the look of someone who knew they were in big trouble.

"Well, I don't lie. Not like you," she continued, her stoicism breaking as she practically spat at him.

Lucifer noticeably swallowed. Then his expression became one of coolness. "Yes, I lie. It's what I do. I'm the Prince of Lies," he said with exaggerated patience, as though she was somehow the one who was being unreasonable. "But besides from that rather minor issue with Satanic Panic, I've never lied to you-"

"That's a lie!" Sabrina shouted, the candelabras flickering with the force of her charged magic. "You've lied to me on at least several occasions! And they weren't just everyday white lies. They were broken promises that were important to me!"

Holding up her free hand, she began counting them off, her furious gaze not leaving his.

"You said you would give me Greendale for my own, but then you tried to grant Satanic Panic the power of hellfire so they could burn it down. You agreed to spare everyone I loved if I handed myself over to you, and then you dragged Nick to Hell and murdered him. My boyfriend! And you said to me, back when I completed your prophecy, that we would rule over Hell on Earth for all eternity with me as your queen. But then you locked me up in a tomb to die, after disowning and brutally raping me-"

"That-" Lucifer began defensively, Sabrina talking right across him.

"-And you told me you regretted it. You told me it was the gravest mistake you had ever made in your life. But this evening, you told me your biggest regret was letting Sabrina Morningstar go through the mirror. So I guess that was a lie too-"

"You twist my words, girl!" Lucifer was the one to shout now, in a way that seemed frustrated as much as angry. Then, possibly remembering his life was on the line, he forced himself to calm down somewhat. "What I did to you was one of my gravest mistakes. Letting Sabrina Morningstar go was another. Neither were a lie."

Even now, he was still refusing to say it out loud. Refusing to say the damning words; that he had raped her and tried to murder her. Doing so would have been too much of an admission of guilt for him.

"Just how many grave mistakes have you made then? Probably a lot, considering what you are. But mistakes don't get much graver than raping and trying to murder your own daughter-" Sabrina said sardonically, and Lucifer seemed to reach breaking point.

"Just how many times are you going to bring that up?" he hissed with a sudden fury that managed to catch her off-guard, a hint of red flaring in his eyes. It soon faded, but they remained wrathful nonetheless as he glared at her.

"Have I not done every single thing I can to make amends for it? Have I not acknowledged you as my true daughter, placing you upon the throne that used to belong to her? Did I not banish Caliban from court, annul Sabrina's marriage to him on your behalf, and kill him in your defense? Did I not take responsibility for you during your pregnancy, giving you everything you could need or want? Have I not continued to take responsibility for you ever since? What more do you want from me, girl?"

He rallied off these rhetorical questions in quick succession while Sabrina stared at him, too stunned by his audacity to retaliate to any of them.

"So I rejected you, initially; after you had rejected me. So I defiled you, after you had already let yourself be defiled. So I wished to give Sabrina Morningstar, my child, a proper burial following her untimely death. I regret how I went about it. But I was able to forgive you for betraying me and placing my whore on my rightful throne, which was a far worse affront than anything I did. So why, daughter, can't you just let this go?"

Each of his venomous words hit Sabrina like a physical blow, leaving her in an almost light-headed state. They rendered her speechless for a moment, during which she tried to comprehend his unbelievable attempt at excusing himself.

"I guess I can add another lie to your list. You saying you understood why I couldn't forgive you. You clearly don't understand anything," she finally said, slowly. She didn't even want to look at him. She forced herself to anyway, glaring right back at him, and some angry words that Nick had once exchanged with her came to mind. She echoed them now.

"What you did wasn't an affront, Dad. You didn't forget my birthday or show up late to the movies. You disowned me, raped me, and locked me in Sabrina Morningstar's tomb to die a slow, painful death. That isn't something that I can just let go."

Cynical as she was, she had wanted to believe the remorse he had expressed towards her was genuine. That he really was trying to amends. And there had been times where she had wondered if she really should just let it go, try to forget what he'd done to her and hope he stayed sweet towards her.

He might have truly regretted his actions. He might have even deluded himself into believing he really was making amends. And just like everything else he did, it had all really been for himself. Not for her.

"You talk of making amends and taking responsibility for me. But if you had ever really wanted to do that, then you might have actually asked me if I even wanted to go through with the pregnancy at all. You would have respected my decision. And my decision would have been no!"

Lucifer's narrow eyes widened at that.

"But you loved Hope." He sounded genuinely bemused, almost reproachful. He had no clue.

"Yes, I loved her!" Sabrina cried, her voice catching in her throat. Her eyes remained resolutely dry even as she felt her soul weeping. "I still love her! She was my little girl and she was innocent. But she's dead! And the whole time she was alive, I didn't want her. You forced her on me! I hated her for it! And because of that...she died unloved."

She would never forgive herself for not loving her daughter when she'd had the chance. And she would never forgive Lucifer for putting her in that situation to begin with. She loved Hope, her little girl, with all her heart. Now. But Hope never should have come into existence. She had been created from an atrocity, committed by another parent who had hated his child.

Her life and subsequent death rested on Lucifer. Now he would truly take responsibility for it.

Sabrina's grip tightened on the Spear of Longinus until her knuckles turned white.

"Do you really want to make amends, Lucifer? Here's how. You can go, and you can be a better father to Hope than you ever were to me. That's all."

Lifting her weapon, she prepared to bring it down on him. She would end this nightmare once and for all. But she paused when she heard him speak, in a voice that was soft and pleading and most unlike his own.

"Sabrina, my daughter...don't do this."

She looked down at Lucifer, her false father, seeing that his eyes were pleading with her too. Just as they had pleaded when he asked her to forgive him and she had refused him. A sad, vulnerable look that could tug at the heartstrings of anyone who didn't know better.

And though Sabrina definitely did know better, something in it tore at her. So much that she found herself hesitating for a moment.

She thought back to all the times that she'd seen Lucifer watching her, with that fatherly protection in his eyes, that look of remorse. All the gifts and shallow gestures that had nauseated her, but he'd seemed to think might make her happy. She remembered how he'd held her after Hope's death, consoling her instead of getting angry with her as she'd expected.

And something in her heart ached. It couldn't have all been disingenuous.

And she thought back to Sabrina Morningstar's diary, once again, remembering everything she'd written about her new father. How she'd feared his resentment at first, until she'd told him of those fears and he'd alleviated them. He had forgiven her for trying to overthrow him, trying to fight. He'd raised her up and helped her become the Queen of Hell that she was always supposed to be, and she had loved it. As many differences as they might have had, she had even loved him.

Sabrina Morningstar was dead now. Hope was dead. Her aunties were far away, on Earth, and they had moved on from her. Lucifer was the only family she had left and she was his daughter, whether she liked it or not.

But she wasn't his daughter.

She would never forget those words he had roared at her before he had forced himself inside her. Nor could she forget how he had stood by and watched while Caliban had hurt her too. How he had struck her across the face, calling her a whore for daring to sleep with her boyfriend. Her Nicholas, whom Lucifer had murdered. Just as he had nearly murdered her.

He had buried her, and if it hadn't been for Hope's conception then he never would have looked back. He would have left her there to die, alone in the dark. His own "false" daughter. It was the gravest mistake he had ever made. She would ensure it was his last.

Sabrina raised the Spear of Longinus above her head, a scream of rage and anguish tearing forth from her.

"I-"

She brought it down with all the force she could muster, plunging it into her false father's exposed chest.

"-am not-"

Lucifer screamed too as his daughter brought her weapon down once more, stabbing him again with even more viciousness, blue-black blood gushing from the wound.

"-your daughter!"

With one last, precise blow, Sabrina drove the Spear into Lucifer Morningstar's cold heart.

A final agonized roar left him, celestial blood pouring from his chest in a dark torrent. It flowed over Sabrina's skirts, staining the pure white fabric black, and the liquid scalded her while her father's dying scream rang in her ears, so loud that she thought her brain might implode.

And then he went silent. His body, which had been desperately writhing, went still.

Gazing down at her father's face, Sabrina saw that the light had left his green eyes, all the devilish malice that his handsome features had worn in life now gone. He was gone. Lucifer Morningstar, Satan, the Devil, the Dark Lord had been vanquished; not by the False God nor His Son; but by his own daughter.

Sabrina continued to stare at him, not quite daring to believe it. She was still expecting those beautiful, blank green eyes to suddenly burn red and that angelic face to contort with hatred as he snapped back to life, ready to resume her nightmare.

Her heart nearly seized up when his body began to glow, a white light radiating from him that was similar to the one she and Sabrina had emitted when they faced down the Darkness, and for a terrifying second she thought he was somehow coming back to life.

Then he began to crumble beneath her, breaking down and disintegrating at a rapid rate, until there was nothing but a pile of ashes where there had once been a fallen angel.

At least, Sabrina thought they were ashes. But as she cautiously took some of the ashes between her fingers, she realized that they weren't ashes at all. They were dust.

Star dust. The matter from which the False God had originally created Lucifer Morningstar, his most beautiful angel, and all other angels after him. Now that Lucifer's soul had departed from his body, it was breaking down into star dust once more.

He truly was dead. Her false father was gone, forever.

Sabrina still felt an emotional numbness. It was hard to comprehend that Lucifer was dead, that her last and worst adversary was finally gone and would never threaten her again. That she was finally safe. After living in constant dread for close to a year, it didn't quite seem real. It didn't even feel right.

Yet some kind of emotion must have registered with Sabrina even if she wasn't quite sure what. With it, all of the tears that she had been holding back all day finally escaped her. She found herself breaking down there on the bed, sobbing her eyes out while still kneeling before Lucifer's remains. She wept as hard as she had done after Hope's death, but this time it might have been from relief.

Relief, that her long ordeal was finally at its end. Or it might have been from sorrow, over everything and everyone she had lost along the way.

Her original body, Sabrina Morningstar, her true family on Earth, her life on Earth, the love of that life, her darling Hope.

Some of that sorrow might have even been for Lucifer himself. Daddy... He had been her father and he had loved part of her, even if it hadn't been this part. Maybe she could have loved him too if things had gone differently. It would never happen now.

She was unable to feel any true joy over killing him, just as she hadn't been able to over Lilith's death. But her former mentor had been right about one thing. She never would have been happy with him. She never would have been safe. She never could have truly taken the place of Sabrina Morningstar in his heart, and his resentment over that would have been a constant threat to her.

And she would have always resented him too. Some things just couldn't be forgiven, and she never could have forgiven him for what he'd done. So she would have no regrets over what she had done.

She cried over it nonetheless. Queens didn't cry, Lilith had told her. But Sabrina had never asked to be a queen. And at this particular moment in time, she wasn't. She wasn't a queen or a Nephilim or even a witch. She was just a young girl who had lost nearly everything she held dear. She would mourn it all now, even if it meant she never shed another tear in her eternal existence.

So she cried, until her heaving sobs had subsided into small snuffles and the tears that had been like waterfalls had slowed to a stop. Wiping the last of them from her swollen eyes, she looked up, taking in the surroundings that she'd almost forgotten.

The bright golden shimmer of Lucifer's rooms seemed to dazzle her, his many statues and portraits seeming to leer down at her. Just the sight of him, even a picture, would have once caused her stomach to turn and her heart rate to climb.

She felt no such fear now, knowing he could never hurt her again. It only served to remind her of what she hadn't truly considered before now, so sure she'd been that her plan would fail.

Lucifer Morningstar had been the ruling monarch of Hell. Now he was dead, as were all of the crown's main contenders. She was his sole surviving heir, the last of the Morningstar bloodline, and Hell could not function without a ruler. An empty throne would be fought over by the hordes and there was no telling who the victor might be. They could prove to be even worse than Lucifer, possibly setting their sights on Earth as he and Caliban had.

No, the throne needed to be filled.

Sabrina had never asked to be a queen, much less a Queen of Hell. But there was no one other than her who could lead this kingdom.

The prospect seemed daunting, yet it also brought Sabrina a rush of excitement and a strange thrill in her bones that seemed to revitalize her after her long crying fit. Getting off the bed, she went over to the huge gilded mirror on the far side wall, studying the reflection that met her. The face of a queen.

It was a pitiful face, red and swollen from all the tears she'd shed, and smeared with ruined make-up. Not the face that Sabrina wanted to display to the Hordes of Hell when she made her announcement. She would need to fix that. Waving her hand over her face, her tears dried and her make-up returned to its latter impeccability. A perfectly pristine mask, with nothing amiss other than her slightly pink eyes.

She looked to her white wedding dress next, which was still soaked in Lucifer's blood. The blood-splattered bride was an image that Sabrina was familiar with due to the countless horror flicks she'd watched in her former life, and it might have been a poetic one to invoke when she took her place on her father's throne.

But she didn't quite look the part now. The angelic blood looked more like ink or dye, staining the white fabric with black instead of crimson.

Looking at it caused another memory to surface to the forefront of Sabrina's mind. The memory of her Dark Baptism on the night of her sixteenth birthday, nearly two years prior. She had been a younger and more naive girl then, still one with Sabrina. A vision of innocence in her mother's wedding dress, she had been intrepid as she approached the unholy altar under the red light of the blood moon.

Then she had stepped into the infernal blue flames and her white dress had turned black.

Sabrina now called on the same infernal fire she had walked through then. It whirled around her and she whirled with it. As she did, the black that was staining her skirts spread outwards until it had covered all of her once-white wedding gown. And when Sabrina came to a stop and looked in the mirror once more, she was struck by the transformation.

A change of color made all the difference. She still looked like a character from a fairytale, that much had remained the same. But she no longer looked like the helpless and innocent princess. She looked like the wicked, heartless witch queen.

And that was exactly what she was.

Sabrina was ready now. Ready to face the Hordes and stand before her people. She took one last glance back at Lucifer's ashes before leaving the room, not yet having decided what she would do with them.

Perhaps she would throw them into the Inferno to join Caliban, Lilith and Blackwood. Or maybe she would extend one last measure of undeserved mercy towards him, and inter him in the Morningstar tomb with both of his dead daughters. The very same tomb that he had left her to die in.

The trauma of what he and Caliban had done would remain with her for years to come, haunting her nightmares and waking moments alike. But she only had the rest of eternity to recover from it. And she would be spending that eternity sitting upon the throne of Hell.

She was greeted by the usual sight of its cruel magnificence when she entered the throne room. It resembled a pair of disembodied hands that Lucifer had once told her were supposed to represent Hell's reach. She always thought it looked more like the ruler was the one who was entrapped. And in a way, they were.

The thought was far from pleasant, yet Sabrina was seized by a strange euphoria as she stepped onto the pentagram dais and sat down in its greedy, grasping clutches. It was something she had done many times before.

But everything was different now. She was no longer Lucifer nor Lilith's figurehead, wearing the crown while they made all the important decisions. She was no longer a meek consort, the Dark Lord's child bride. She was a ruler in her own right, subject to no one.

She took a moment to bask in that staggering realization before calling upon the servants. One of the imp minions came to greet her.

"Lady Morningstar," he said, with a deep bow.

Sabrina eyed him haughtily from her place on the throne. "Summon the Hordes of Hell. I have an important announcement to make." Lilith would have insisted on her using the royal we. But Lilith was dead, and there was no we to this. Sabrina was alone. She would rule alone.

The imp minion seemed perturbed, Lucifer's glaring absence probably not going unnoticed by him. He dropped into another bow nonetheless.

"Of course. At once, Your Malevolence."

He left to carry out her order. Sabrina watched him go with some discernment, recognizing him as the imp who had been particularly loyal to Lilith. She would need to keep an eye on him. It wasn't as though he would pose much of a threat to her, but she didn't want to deal with any petty hindrances either, especially this early in her reign.

The throne room gradually filled up with Hell's aristocracy over the next several minutes. Many of them were still in their party attire and looked more than a little confused to see their queen at this odd hour, unaccompanied by her new husband no less. Sabrina remained stoical, brushing off the confused inquiries she was receiving from Athaliah and Jezebel who had come to stand by her side.

She betrayed nothing as she sat on her throne, waiting until all of Hell's most prestigious nobles had been accounted for before clearing her throat.

The buzz of whispers in the room immediately died down. Every pair of eyes darted towards her, ready to hear their queen speak.

"My fiends and friends. I have summoned you here tonight to bear the most solemn of news," Sabrina began, choosing her words carefully. Some dolefulness would likely be expected from the Horde, but she wasn't going to sit here and feign any real grief for her false father's death either.

It was with a cold serenity that she continued, keeping all emotion out of her tone.

"Lucifer Morningstar, your Dark Lord, is dead."

The news was met with all the incredulity that one would expect. Numerous gasps broke out among the crowded nobles, and several of the demonesses dissolved into what were undoubtedly crocodile tears.

Other than the sound of their sobs, however, there was stone cold silence. Any speculations that the aristocracy may have had about their Dark Lord's demise and yearned to share with their peers were kept to themselves. No one said a word, their attention entirely on Sabrina.

She suspected that many of them knew she was responsible. Her stormy relationship with her father was the worst-kept secret in Pandemonium, and (bearing in mind that most demons had heightened senses) they may have even been able to smell Lucifer's blood on her.

It didn't worry her too much. She still held the royal bloodline, and killing her father had made her the lawful ruler by right of conquest.

"I know this will come as a shock to many of you. Many of you are also bound to have concerns about the future of Hell. But rest assured that both Hell and her leadership remain strong. Lucifer may be dead but, I, Sabrina Morningstar, his sole heir, will be taking his place as ruler of Hell." Her eyes swept across the sea of demonic faces as she said this, searching for any signs of dissent.

She found none. Lucifer's death had made her Hell's undisputed monarch.

"With Hell behind me, I, your Queen and Dark Lady, will lead this realm into the golden Age of the Morningstar!" Sabrina's voice echoed unnaturally in the vast room while her eyes glowed white; the very vision of the unholy prophecy Theo had found in the mines so long ago.

The prophecy she had tried so hard to foil. But there was no fighting fate, and Sabrina had now accepted hers. The pang that had once surfaced whenever she thought of the Earthly life she had left behind was a thing of the past. This was the only life she had now.

The life of Sabrina Morningstar, in the body of Sabrina Morningstar.

"All hail the queen! All hail Sabrina!" her handmaidens chimed, kneeling at her feet.

Their reverence had been virtually guaranteed. And as Sabrina looked out into the crowd, she saw that all of the demons were following suit, falling to their knees and prostrating themselves before her.

From the lowly imp minions to Hell's greatest Dukes, all were loudly and reverently invoking her name; the name that both she and Sabrina Morningstar shared.

"Hail Sabrina! Hail Sabrina! Hail Sabrina!"

Several hundred voices cried out as one. Millions more would cry it when the news reached the rest of the realm. Hell had a new ruler. Her name was Sabrina Morningstar.

There had once been a time where she had lived a different life. In it, her name had been Sabrina Spellman. But that life was a thing of the past now. She had left it behind, just as the Sabrina before her had. And while everyone she loved had also been part of that life, she knew that they were safest without her.

Just as she was safest here, on the throne of Hell.

Here, no one could touch her. Not even her false father or false husband, for they had finally gone where they would never hurt her again. She would never have to fear them laying hands on her. She would never have to fear waking up in Sabrina Morningstar's tomb, her own tomb.

No one would touch her now. This body was hers. It was the body that she had been born in, that she had grown up in, that she had lived in for seventeen of her nearly eighteen years. It was the body that had carried her daughter, her beloved Hope, for nine months, and the body with which she had given birth.

The body of Sabrina Morningstar, who was different to Sabrina Spellman...yet also one and the same.

But the only name that the denizens of Hell chanted now was also the only one that truly mattered.

The name that demonkind and witchkind would hail for the rest of eternity while she ruled over the kingdom of Hell. The name that had always been hers, in both bodies and both lives; that she had held from the day of her birth and would hold until the end of time.

Sabrina.

"Hail Sabrina!"

THE END

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So that was a bloodbath XD Way to take out all of the show's baddies in one chapter (classifying Mary Wardwell as a bad guy might be a spicy take, but that's a whole new can of worms)
I did say the ending would be bittersweet but I hope it wasn't a total downer. I couldn't in good conscience have Sabrina magically forgive Lucifer and live happily ever after with him, or have her forgive Caliban either. As for Lilith...I'm more on the fence about her, but I don't think there's much she WOULDN'T do to bring Lucifer down. So yeah 😬
Anyway, I'm psyched to have finally completed a multiple-chapter fic! I know it's only four chapters but it IS over 75000 words long & I've seen 20+ chapter fics with fewer words. Hopefully I'll be able to finish Queen of the Ashes one day too 😃

Thank you again to everyone who's reviewed, favorited and followed. I know this story's nowhere near as popular as Ashes & I'm not too surprised by that given how overly dark it is, but I truly appreciate everyone who's given it a chance. Thank you 💖