Chapter Forty-Seven Lucifer
Chapter Forty-Seven
Lucifer
“I hate to break up this touching little angelic family reunion, but this trunk is fucking heavy,” Astaroth drawls.
I nod for Astaroth to drop the wooden trunk only a handful of feet away from Michael. The sound echoes through the abandoned tunnel, the wood smacking against the broken glass and gravel beneath our feet.
My angelic brother has looked better, all things considered. Of course, Astaroth has been keeping him down here on ice for me for the last several days. Though it’s not as if angels need to eat, drink, or piss. Not with any regularity.
We’re immortal, after all.
Unlike humanity in every way.
“A little something I captured for myself back at Sodom and Gomorrah.” I nod to the trunk, where I know Michael can sense the plague it contains. A touch of my Father’s power that now belongs to me. “Fucking chaos, that. Most fun I’d had in ages.”
Michael rolls his head in my direction. “What’s your point, Lucifer?” He never did have much patience for me.
I sweep my jacket aside as I place my hands in my pockets. “The point is that even when you and Father choose to play your tiresome little games with humanity, it’s me who cleans up the mess.”
“And?” Michael looks at me like he can already see where this is headed.
We’ve been having this same argument for all of eternity.
But this is the first time I’ve had something at stake.
Father’s redemption. The one thing that can set me free. And now ...
The one thing that can make me deserve her .
“And I find that role no longer suits me.”
Michael starts to laugh. “So, what? You’re just going to abandon Hell? For good, this time? Even if that works while Father’s off on His fucking vacation to ...”
He shakes his head, highlighting that none of us can even begin to know where my Father disappeared to. Nor if He’ll ever return. Especially in the little time that remains of humanity’s existence. Though Michael wouldn’t dare utter such blasphemy.
“To, well, wherever He is ...,” he continues, making an annoyed sort of face. “As soon as He returns, you know He’ll shove you right back down where He wants you.”
“No. No, that’s not the plan at all. Not now that I have Father’s redemption, anyway.” I cast an amused glance toward Gabriel, who leans against the tunnel’s graffitied wall as if he’s infinitely bored with this. He never had quite the same taste for theatrics as the rest of us. Not unless he’s center stage. Thank God Mammon snatched that bloody horn of his and hid it from him centuries ago. Otherwise, we’d still all be hearing it every time he felt the need to make an announcement.
Which is anytime his perfectly square jaw opens.
“The plan was to bring Hell to Earth, you see. Turn Father’s own precious creatures against Him.” My lips twist into a crooked sneer. “A feat I might have accomplished if you hadn’t sent bloody Charlotte to ruin me.”
“Charlotte?” Michael says. “Is that the name of the little human I hear you’re keeping these days?” He chuckles like he’s even more amused than Azmodeus was by the idea of me being in love with a human, the very creatures I waged a rebellion against Father over. “I didn’t send her, Lucy. And neither did Father.”
“Then who?” My gaze darts toward Gabriel.
He shrugs, flicking a bit of something from beneath one of his nails. “Wasn’t me.”
Hellfire sparks in my eyes. “So, you mean for me to believe that it wasn’t Father who sent her?” To ruin me. To destroy me. To create this endless black hole I feel inside my chest whenever I’m not with her. Before her, I never needed anyone, nor anything.
But now . . .
Loving her has unleashed me.
To the point I feel unhinged. Untethered from this Earth. From the heavens. From the fucking ground beneath me. I’d raze any city. Destroy any creature. End the whole of fucking humanity if they so much as looked at her wrong.
And now . . .
Save them. Spare them.
If that’s what she asks of me.
Michael smiles like he has a secret he can’t wait to share, and it’s at that moment I realize he’s been playing both sides from the beginning. “Mother.”
The moment the word leaves his lips, it makes perfect sense to me.
Lilith. Mother of demons. The first scorned woman.
The stories always got it wrong, of course.
Calling her the first wife of Adam, rather than the ferocious divine goddess who birthed my brothers, my sisters, and me. God’s first and only love, and His greatest adversary.
“Leave Mother out of this,” I snarl, teeth bared.
“She always did favor you, Lucy. Her first and favorite child.” Michael’s gaze flicks over me, like he can’t possibly begin to see why she does. “Seems she might feel a bit differently these days.”
Considering she sent Charlotte to undermine me.
And it almost would have worked, in any case.
Had Charlotte not gone and ensured I fell in love with her.
Vicious and cruel as that love may be.
Perhaps she should have chosen a woman who hadn’t endured nearly as much abuse at the supposed hands of my Father as I have.
“Now that you know that I’m not working for Dad, are you going to let me go?” Michael nods to the chains that hold him, reinforced by my power. “I would have told you several days ago, if you’d have bothered to come and see me. Of course, you were too busy fucking about with your human. You always did have a soft spot when it came to women. Lord knows we all remember the cosmic fit you threw over Eve.”
Gabriel snorts.
I shoot a glare toward him, then Michael, letting the power in my gaze do the work for me. “The only chance you have of me releasing you, brother, is after I’ve already dragged you down to Hell and back.”
I step forward, turning only at the last second to gut Astaroth, who stands behind me. His heart thumps, only inches away from where I now grip his spine from the inside.
“Lucifer,” he rasps, no longer able to breathe.
“You didn’t think I wouldn’t recognize a snake in my own garden, did you?” I tighten my fist, causing him to writhe. “You disappoint me.” I circle my hand around the stringlike tissue of his spine, the body he’s wearing convulsing. “I’ll deal with you later. In Hell.” I rip the spinal bone and tissue from him, snarling ruthlessly before I drop his mutilated corpse onto the subway track.
“Obviously, you still have a flair for the dramatic.” Michael wrinkles his nose at the corpse and viscera that lie at my feet.
As if any of us would dare to believe that he isn’t equally bloodthirsty.
Turning back toward my brothers, I face Gabriel first. “I believe Father and I had an agreement.”
Gabriel tilts his head, inhaling sharply through his teeth in an expression that says eh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. “Technically the offer wasn’t extended to you, but Father never was one to split hairs on the details.” He shrugs. “He’s a man of His word. Always has been, Lucy.”
“Perhaps when it came to you,” I say bitterly, “but with me ...” My voice trails off. “Well, let’s just say the apple never did fall far from the tree.”
I snap my fingers, and Michael’s bindings drop to the floor.
“Run back to Daddy now and tell Him what you’ve seen.”
“Even I don’t know where Father is this time, Lucy. This time, He’s well and truly gone.” Michael stretches his wings. “I’ll be in touch, brother.” He gives the white feathers of his wings one generous flap before he’s gone, disappeared into the ether.
I turn to Gabriel as my gaze flicks upward. “I’ll deal with Him later.”
“And Mother?” Gabriel asks, grinning. Like he’s infinitely pleased he gets a front-row seat to this whole little charade.
“She’ll have to wait for another day, I suppose.” I grip the handle of my unopened trunk, hoisting it into my hand with ease. “For now, I have places I need to be.”