Chapter Seventy-Six Azrael
Chapter Seventy-Six
Azrael
When I return from Heaven a few hours later, only a handful of minutes have passed on Earth. But mortal concepts of time mean little to me. The battle is over, Lucifer’s family’s blood shed, and he’s won his latest fight with his angelic siblings, even if it wasn’t Armageddon.
Now, my Lightbringer stands among the wreckage of the chapel, his eyes unseeing.
Seraph approaches him slowly, offering him Michael’s flaming sword like it’s the spoils of war. Lucifer takes it, staring straight through it, down to the corpse lying at his feet. He sees it now. How broken everything’s always been.
I retrieve the sword without a word, stowing it away in the Nothing for him for another time. I look down at Michael.
He wouldn’t have been half bad in bed, if he hadn’t had such a raging inferiority complex. But his is one soul I might . . . hold off on reaping.
For now, at least.
“Was it you?” I nod to the corpse.
“No.” Lucifer huffs like that fact still disappoints him. “Mother, unfortunately.”
Lilith always did know how to make an exit.
Even if fucking her is like a crash course in chaos theory.
I glance about the wreckage. Save for Versailles, the battle was mostly contained. Nothing near what it could’ve been. But Earth will never be the same.
The first four seals are still open.
The Horsemen, my siblings, the ones created in my image, roam free.
Humanity will feel their effects for generations to come.
But they chose their fate, and they’ll reap what they sowed.
Even if Charlotte thinks they deserve forgiveness.
I step toward Lucifer.
He’s covered in blood spray and ash from his hellfire, his hair is deliciously scruffy, a downright mess, but he’s never looked more beautiful to me.
Because I know what comes next.
His reckoning.
“I . . . don’t know what to do with it,” he whispers, voice broken.
His father’s redemption, he means.
I let out a small huff through my nose, nodding. This has been a long time coming. But some things need to break, to end, before they can find a new beginning. “You do what you’ve already been doing, Lightbringer. You keep living in spite of it.”
“And my sins?”
I chuckle. “I don’t think they’re going anywhere any time soon, do you?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “But I’m still not sure what it means to be . . .”
Free.
Of hate. Of anger. Of resentment.
What it means to be capable of being redeemed.
Charlotte isn’t the only one who needed to find a new identity.
“I can’t fall apart,” he says, still shaking his head, like he knows this with complete certainty. This lie he’s told himself since he first started to fear his own vulnerability. What first made him crave dominance. “I have to remain steady for her. For my siblings, I—”
“Do you have to? Or are you scared not to?”
I grip his shoulder, steadying him, but just when I move my hand to allow it to fall away, he whispers, “If you love me, don’t let go.”
My hold tightens.
I’ve been waiting a whole eternity for him to trust me like this. To bare his soul to me.
“I’m afraid for her,” he admits, his eyes slowly lifting toward Heaven.
“You have to trust her. The same way you’ve trusted me.”
He gives a reluctant nod. “I . . . don’t know how to be a father.”
I suppress a small smile. “You’ll figure it out. I have faith in you. Always have.”
“Will you help me?” He looks toward me, desperate and unguarded. “I’ve never built anything you didn’t help create.”
I cup the back of his head with both hands, our foreheads meeting. “I’ll be here in whatever way you need me, Lightbringer.”
He exhales, long and deep. “I lied, you know.” He swallows, throat writhing. “I lied every time I said I didn’t love you.”
I chuckle. “I know.”
From the other side of the wreckage, Lust lets out a sudden wolf whistle. “Would you two fools kiss and get to the fucking already? The only way this ends is with sword crossing.”
I shoot him a furious look, but then Lucifer pulls me into his arms, whispering, “Let’s go home, Reaper.”
And just like that, the end becomes a beginning.