Chapter Sixty-Seven Charlotte #2
She was gifting her new god a goddess.
That haunting prophecy of hers comes rushing back to me.
For as it is written, she who was dead shall bring forth the living to the wrath of the Last Judgment. And she thought I was going to play right into her plans.
I shake my head.
No. No, I’m not going anywhere, and neither is Lucifer.
Not when this world is still worth saving.
Michael lifts the blade.
“Don’t.” I shake my head, my palms suddenly glowing with white light. “Lucifer will scorch you where you stand.” He doesn’t even need his hellish powers to do it anymore.
Not after I tell him he’s had God’s redemption, his angelic powers, this whole time.
“Michael!” I hear a familiar voice hiss.
The voice of a mother scorning her child.
Lilith.
Michael whirls, shoving the lance behind his back guiltily. “Mom.” Unlike me, he doesn’t exactly look surprised to see her, just nervous.
My pulse races.
Lilith stalks toward us, her dark hair lifting with each step like it’s electrified from her fury. “I swear, Michael Apollyon, if you touch a single hair on her head, I will . . .”
The sentence doesn’t need finishing.
Lilith’s threat is clear.
Michael sighs. “Mom, be reasonable. I opened the fourth seal for you, got your powers back. We’re on the same—”
“This is why I’m still going to make you fight for your place with Lucifer.
Do you understand?” Lilith turns from one to many, the voices of all three terrifying versions of her echoing off the hall mirrors.
“If you must settle this petty score with your brother, you’ll have it out with him. Not Charlotte.”
“But, Mom, I—”
“Do I make myself clear, Michael?”
Michael’s shoulders sink. That’s a battle we both know he can’t win. Lilith is a goddess. The Mother of everything. More powerful than God Himself.
Michael casts me a scathing look, but then he tucks the Holy Lance back into his tux and leaves, the sound of his footsteps echoing after him.
Lilith turns from three to one again, her hair settling.
Mother. Maiden. Crone.
But she’s back to being Mother again.
Holy fuck.
I face her.
I’m not feeling much better about the idea of being alone with her than I did with Michael.
“I hear you have something I want.” She smiles at me, beckoning me with the crook of a single finger, and without moving my feet, I’m halfway across the room, so fast it’s like the edges of reality bent me in her direction.
My breath comes in quick, heady pants, swirling around my face.
“May I?” the Goddess asks, nodding down to my bodice.
It’s laced tight enough I’m not showing, but that’s starting to become a struggle. It won’t be long before I can’t hide it anymore, and I still need to tell Lucifer, but how exactly do you tell your Mother-in-Law, the Goddess of all Creation, that she can’t touch your baby bump?
Before I can stop myself, I give a reluctant nod.
I don’t think Lilith will hurt me, especially since she knows I’m pregnant.
She really wants grandchildren.
She draws closer, and the moment the Goddess presses her hand to my belly, I feel the first flutter of movement there.
My eyes go wide.
Lilith’s grin is so triumphant it reminds me way too much of Lucifer whenever we’re in the playroom, which is a large part of how we got here, honestly.
I’d do anything for him and that damn grin.
“A girl.” Lilith smiles.
A statement, not a question.
The prideful gleam in her eyes is confident. “Oh, she’s going to be something.”
Daughter of the devil. Granddaughter to God and Lilith.
I force a nervous smile.
Yeah, she’s going to be something all right.
A complete hellion most likely.
“She’ll look like the prophecies I’ve sent to you.” Lilith removes her hand, clasping her palms together like she’s willing it into existence, and because she’s said it, it’ll be so.
My pulse races. So, that beautiful little girl, the one with the dark curls and the upturned nose and the fiery amber eyes, really is mine and Lucifer’s daughter.
I try not to choke on the well of emotion that creates in me.
But I’m too terrified to enjoy it right now.
I knew Lilith had been sending me those dreams since the moment I found out she’d fated us, but hearing her confirm it is a whole different level of messed up.
“You’ll make a wonderful mother.” She pats my tummy, her eyes shining, before she steps away.
“You won’t have to worry. When I find my Husband, this universe will end, and we’ll make a new one.
I’ll even restore Lucifer’s more hellish powers.
Michael may have insisted he get his chance at playing God, but Lucifer will find a way to best him like he always does.
Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it.
My bets are on him for a reason. He’s my pride and joy after all, my first and greatest love.
Even if things didn’t work out with his Father. ”
I give the slightest shake of my head. “I don’t want a new one.” My voice is barely audible.
“Pardon?” She turns to look at me.
My shoulders stiffen. “I said I don’t want a new universe.”
Lilith’s smile fades. “You’d choose to have my granddaughter here?
In this world? The one my Husband sculpted from the scraps of my creation?
” She says the word husband like it’s the most despicable thing.
“In this place where men claim to be leaders, but then use His word to rape, to maim, to pillage, to abuse? To take the power of those created in my image, despite that I was who birthed them? Who birthed all of them?” The ends of her hair start to electrify again.
“I get it.” I lift my hands in surrender. “And I agree with you. He locked your babies away. Took your power for His apocalypse and then didn’t give you any of the credit.”
“Exactly,” she hisses, those electrified ends settling a little. “I knew we’d see eye to eye.”
“But punishing Him isn’t going to heal you.”
I can say that with certainty now.
Torturing my father may have helped release the pent-up emotions that were blocking me from healing, but it didn’t fix anything.
The scars are still there.
What I really needed to do was give him the one thing he never gave me—mercy—to believe in myself, to reclaim my power. Just like Lucifer needs to do.
She casts me a wistful smile. “I’m a goddess, Charlotte. I’ve no interest in healing.”
“Humanity doesn’t deserve to die in the crossfire.” I step forward. “If you go after God, I’m going to try to stop you.”
I can’t allow her to destroy the entire universe.
As fucked up as it may be, there’s beauty in it too.
Beauty that’s worth saving.
Lilith’s smile spreads, slow, knowing. It’s the same smile Lucifer gives me when he thinks I’ve done something “quaintly mortal.” “I’d love to see you try.
” She steps closer, the air bending with her like gravity itself leans in to obey her.
“You make a beautiful bride. It’s almost as if I handpicked you for my son myself.
I could choose another.” She smirks wickedly, patting my cheek before she turns to head downstairs toward the ceremony.
Leaving me shaking from head to toe.
She thinks I’m optional. That she could replace me.
But I’m confident in Lucifer’s love for me now.
“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” I call after her.
She pauses, glancing over her shoulder.
“If you knew Lucifer had God’s redemption this whole time? That he could have children, and you wanted him to take God’s place? Why not tell him?”
She smiles. “Clearly, you have a lot to learn about being a mother, Charlotte.” She smiles wistfully. “I did tell him, back in that clearing. But our children rarely listen until they’re ready.”