Lucifer's Queen

Chapter 3

THE CALL BACK HOME

The buzz of her phone startled Amara out of her foggy thoughts. She blinked at the screen.

*Dad Calling.*

She hesitated.

It wasn’t like her father to call unless something was seriously wrong. Her heart thudded as she picked up. “Hello?”

“Amara,” he said, his voice rough, breathless. “You need to come home.”

She froze. “What?”

“Back to Texas. It’s urgent.”

Panic crept into her voice. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, “but someone’s been asking about you. A man. A very strange man.”

Her stomach dropped. “Who?”

“I don’t know. He showed up two nights ago. Said he was looking for you *my daughter*, he said. Didn't give a name, but... he knew things, Amara. Things about your birth, your mother, your... bloodline. Things no stranger should know.”

A cold sweat broke across her forehead.

Her father’s voice lowered. “He was tall, pale, too calm. Dressed like someone straight out of a crime novel. But his eyes Amara, his eyes were pitch black. No white. Just... void.”

Her grip tightened on the phone. “What did he say?”“He said, *‘She is marked. Her time is nearing.’* Then smiled and told me you'd come home soon... ‘one way or another’.”

Goosebumps rose on her arms. “What the hell…”

“I didn't let him in. Something about him... I don’t know, it wasn’t *human*. You need to come back. You shouldn’t be out there alone anymore.”

She paced her small kitchen, the words looping in her mind. “I... I don’t know, Dad. I’ve got shifts. Rent. I can’t just”

“There’s more,” he interrupted, anger creeping into his tone. “Your mother’s getting married again.”

Amara stopped cold. “What?”

“Some billionaire investor from the East Coast. Filthy rich. Flashy. She’s having the engagement party next weekend in that new mansion of hers. Thought you should know.”

Her blood boiled. “She left us in the dirt and now she’s throwing another wedding?”

“She didn't invite me either,” he muttered. “But the guy she's marrying he gives me bad vibes. And it feels connected, Amara. All of it.”

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “She hasn't even called me in years.”

“I know you hate her,” he said, his voice softening. “But something’s not right. You need to see it for yourself.”Her eyes fell on the strange pendant around her neck the one her mother gave her when she was a child, before she disappeared. It had always felt heavy with secrets. Now it almost burned against her skin.

And the dream from the night before echoed again.

*“You are mine.”*

Maybe her father was right.

Maybe the shadows weren't just chasing her.

Maybe they were pulling her back to where it all started.

“I’ll take the earliest bus,” she said quietly.

“Thank you,” he breathed.

When the call ended, Amara stood frozen in her kitchen.

Zara peeked in from the living room. “Everything okay?”

Amara’s lips trembled. “No. But I think it’s time I faced it.”

“The past?”

She nodded. “And maybe the devil himself.”

—

The bus ride to Texas felt longer than she remembered. She stared out the window as towns blurred by, heart heavy with questions.

She hadn’t seen her childhood home in nearly five years. After the divorce, her mother abandoned them, choosing status over family. Her father raised her alone, doing odd jobs to keep them afloat. Amara never forgave her mother—not for leaving, not for pretending she didn’t exist.

Now she was marrying again. Living in a mansion while Amara struggled to survive.

Her fists clenched in her lap.*She doesn’t get to move on like nothing happened.*

But deep down, it wasn’t just anger boiling in her chest. It was fear. The man her father described he sounded eerily familiar. Like the one from the diner. The one from her dreams.

She arrived in Texas just as the sun began to set.

Her father picked her up in his old rusted truck, and the hug they shared was tight and silent. No words. Just relief.

On the way home, he spoke cautiously.

“You haven’t changed a bit,” he said with a sad smile. “Still got that fire in your eyes.”

“Still broke, still bitter,” she replied.

He laughed. “Still mine.”

But as they neared the outskirts of town, something shifted.

She could feel it in her bones. The air was heavier. Denser. Like the land itself knew something was coming.