Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
B ianca was hurrying down the passage away from the greenroom when Lucifer stopped her. “Haglette.”
Shit. And dammit. And yes, fuck it. Why did he have to catch her sneaking away? She channeled her irritation into her older gripe. “How many times must I ask you not to call me that?”
“Where are you running off to?” He stepped into her flight path.
She raised a brow and played it cool. “I thought that would be obvious.”
He raised a brow back.
Short of shoving him out of her way, which she doubted would work, she was stuck with giving him an answer. “Raphael has the grimoire.”
“And?” He folded his arms and got that insufferably arrogant look on his face.
God, he was so fucking stubborn. And annoying. “And I’m a witch, and it’s my coven’s grimoire.” She followed with what wasn’t her strongest argument, but any port in a storm and all that. The port being him letting her go. “And I can release your powers from the amulet.”
“Really?” he drawled. Using two fingers, he plucked the amulet from around his neck and dropped it. It hit the floor with a dull clunk. “That amulet?”
So, it had been a weak point. “There’s a binding spell in the grimoire.”
He cocked his head. “For Emma?”
“Yes. I thought if we could bind her powers, it might help with the healing compulsion and also prevent demons from tracking her magic.” That had been part of her original plan. The fact that her intention dovetailed neatly with getting away from Lucifer was totally coincidental. Totally.
“It’s a good idea.” He nodded. “And we can get to that right after we talk.”
“We have nothing to talk about.” She tried to duck past him.
He blocked her. “You’re upset by what I did to Weaz-adj.”
“His name was Christen,” she snapped, appalled by his lack of respect. Christen was dead. “You can at least use his name, considering you killed him.
Lucifer’s voice went silky. “I killed him?”
She blamed stress on why that had come out sounding like an accusation. “You know what I mean.”
“No, Bianca.” His gaze drilled into her. “I’m not at all sure what you mean.”
“I understand about the possession thing.” She hadn’t even liked Christen, but he’d been a part of her coven, and he’d been important to Carmen. None of which explained why she was so angry with Lucifer. “All I meant was that you did the final…ending.”
“I’m not human,” he said, his face cold and haughty. “You are aware of this. I operate in an entirely different reality, with different rules.”
“I know.” She wanted to yell at him about that as well. Her anger made no sense, but that didn’t stop her from feeling it. “It was a shock to see it happen.”
His face softened. “I’m sure it was.”
“Don’t.” His compassion made her want to cry or lean on him for comfort. “It’s too much.”
His expression shuttered, and his eyes cooled. “Too much.”
“All of this.” She waved her hands, trying to encompass the vast, terrifying truth she found herself navigating.
“It’s all too much?” He stepped closer to her. “Or I’m all too much?”
Neither of them had even hinted at what was building between them. With that, Lucifer stripped the issue, bare and vulnerable, in front of them.
“I can’t answer that.” Her warring emotions tightened like a fist around her throat.
“Of all the things I considered you, a coward was never one of them.”
His clipped, cold accusation punched into her, and she flinched. “That’s not fair.”
“None of this is fucking fair.” Lucifer growled. “Was it fair for those witches who lost their lives? Is it fair for Eddie, or Dee, or any of the beings in this theatre? Is it fair for those who are dying in Pestilence’s wake? Fair.” He scoffed. “You’re scared, Bianca, and that’s understandable.”
He was right. Right about all of it, and she couldn’t hold his gaze. Bianca dropped her head.
“I’ll tell you a secret.” He tipped her chin up. “We’re all scared.”
“Even you?” He never looked anything but completely in control.
He smiled. “Even me.”
Their gazes locked. The air thickened between them. She read the intention in his eyes, moments before he leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers.
Bianca felt the soft touch to her toes.
He pulled back, his gaze meeting hers, asking her permission.
She wanted him to kiss her. Wanted it probably more than she’d ever wanted a kiss. And that terrified her. With Christen, it had been a mistake fueled by her need to be loved and desired. With Lucifer, it would be an epic disaster if she got it wrong again. And she always got it wrong.
“And there it is.” His eyes cooled, and he straightened. “All that fear.”
She couldn’t verbalize any of what she was feeling, but she tried. “It’s not that I don’t want…it’s all too much.”
If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn hurt flit across his expression. But this was Lucifer—beautiful, powerful, impenetrable. She couldn’t hurt him.
“You can stop lurking now, Raphael.” Lucifer’s gaze never left hers. “Bianca and I are done.”
* * *
Lucifer wouldn’t recommend the tight, uncomfortable feeling in his chest to anyone, not even Wrath, as he walked away from Bianca. It felt a lot like the sensation he got around Wrath when his brother let it show how much he despised him.
Wrath constantly judged him and found him wanting—criticized him, misjudged him. Wrath could never give him the benefit of the doubt. When Eddie had been kidnapped, Lucifer had known Wrath would blame him. However, some idiotic part of him had hoped his brother would hear him out before jumping to conclusions.
Only Raphael had been prepared to ask before condemning him.
The tightness in his chest felt like an axe in the breastbone. He had wanted that understanding from his brother first, and then from his fellow hell princes.
They all jeered at him for his arrogance and presumption. He hadn’t so much styled himself king of hell as allowed humans to believe as much. Yet, the other hell princes never missed an opportunity to challenge him about it.
He took the stairs to the basement at a run. Being on the earth plane had diluted his purpose. Before he’d been summoned, he’d been searching for Ashe. He had allowed himself to be distracted by a beautiful haglette with the soul of a warrior.
No more.
He needed to continue his hunt for Ashe. Their blood oath was null and void. He had his powers back. The contract between him and Bianca was over.
The ache in his chest throbbed.
If Bianca felt incapable of making a decision about them, he would spare her the trouble. He was Lucifer, hell prince of pride, not some drooling human, groveling at her pretty feet and waiting for her to bestow scraps of her affection on him.
He didn’t need her. Didn’t need any of them. If they couldn’t appreciate him, they didn’t deserve him.
Emerging through the hell gate into Shade’s demesne, he summoned his chariot. Warm, humid air wrapped around him, and he quested for demon sign.
The demesne felt abandoned, which pissed him off even more. The ingratitude of demons made him want to rip them all apart. Starting with Ashe.
Ashe had been his right hand, his trusted advisor and confidant. He had been the brother Wrath had refused to be.
Like with Bianca, Lucifer had opened his heart to Ashe, only to have his generosity hurled back at him. He didn’t need any of them. He was pride.
* * *
Bianca sat at the kitchen table with the grimoire open in front of her. The ancient tome hummed with comforting, familiar magic. The magic of her coven. The magic she had grown up with and learned to wield.
“If you bind my magic, I won’t feel it?” Emma peered at her across the table.
“It will still be there.” Bianca had refused to do the binding spell without consulting Emma first. Being a child didn’t mean Emma had no say in what happened to her or her magic. “It’ll be like if we lock it away in a box until it’s safe to use again.”
“Is that what Mom did? Why I couldn’t feel it before?”
Emma was a smart girl. Bianca nodded.
Frowning, Emma chewed on her bottom lip. “But then I won’t feel the people who need me.”
Raphael glanced at Bianca. He had not been happy about Bianca wanting to give Emma a choice.
“No, you won’t.” As much as Bianca didn’t want to scare Emma even more, Lucifer had been right about children deserving not to be lied to. “But it also means the people who want your magic won’t be able to find you.”
“The people who took Mom?” Emma’s gaze was disconcertingly direct.
Bianca kept with the truth. “Yes.”
“Lucifer said he would find my mom.” Emma glanced around the kitchen. “He said you would both find her.”
Bianca put Leona’s crystal on the table. “We are using this to track her. We had to find the grimoire to see if it had a stronger tracking spell.”
“Does it?” Emma touched her finger to the crystal.
“It does.” Bianca had asked Rafael to lend his power to the spell, but it should work. They would get to Leona before that crystal went dark.
Emma nodded and frowned. “Where is Lucifer?”
“I don’t know.” Bianca hadn’t seen him since their conversation in the corridor. It had felt like a fight, but the politest one she’d ever had.
“Lucifer is back in hell,” Raphael said.
That was news to her, and Bianca gaped at him. “He is?”
“Yep.” Raphael’s look was loaded before he turned back to Emma. “Binding your powers is the best way to keep you safe.”
Emma scowled. “Lucifer promised me he would find my mother.”
“If he promised to find her, then he’ll find her,” Raphael said. “But I know he’d want you to be safe while he did.”
The blatant attempt at manipulation made Bianca want to smack him. She wanted Emma to agree without being maneuvered into it. “The decision is still yours,” she said to Emma. Then tossed Raphael a quick stink eye.
“Will it hurt?” Emma swallowed.
“No.” Bianca took her hand, so small and vulnerable in hers. “But it will feel weird.” She tapped her chest. “In here where you can feel your magic.”
Emma touched her own chest. “And those things won’t come and try to take me and Ethan?”
“It will be a lot harder to find you,” Raphael said. “But you will still have Bianca, Shade, Eddie, Daniel, and Dee here with you to protect you. Lucifer, Wrath, me, and Ramiel can be here in a heartbeat.”
“Lucifer?” His name was the only one that registered with Emma.
“Yes.” Raphael smiled his lovely smile.
Lucifer made a big impression on human females of all ages. It he’d gone to hell, did that mean he wouldn’t be back?
Emma took a deep breath. “Okay then.”
“Okay?” Bianca squeezed her little hand. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.” Emma’s eyes were wide and frightened, but she raised her small chin. “Then you and Lucifer can get back to finding my mother.”
“I promise.” Bianca crossed her heart.
Lucifer had no business going back to hell when they still had a job to do. He’d made promises to both her and Emma. He didn’t get to walk out on those promises.
“Why did Lucifer leave?” Emma asked the question Bianca would love to hear the answer to.
“He had some…er…things to take care of.” Raphael kept his gaze trained on the grimoire.
Wuss.
Bianca kept her tone with Emma upbeat. “Ready?”
Emma nodded.
Taking Emma’s hands, Bianca reached for her magic.
Raphael glowed like the archangel he was as he provided the jet fuel.
Bianca started the incantation.
Pearly light bands shot from Bianca’s hands to Emma’s.
“Oh!” Emma giggled. “That tickles.”
Doing magic with an archangel assist was so much easier.
Light bands swirled up Emma’s arms and encircled her chest. Churning, they grew thicker and brighter until they sank into Emma’s torso.
The drop in Emma’s magical signature was immediate.
Emma rubbed her chest. “It does feel weird. Like there’s a blanket inside me.”
“Your magic is still there.” If it was her, Bianca would need the reassurance, so she gave it to Emma. “And we’ll remove the binding as soon as it’s safe.”
Emma took a deep breath. “I think I’ll go and find Ethan now.”
“Okay, sweetie.” Bianca stood as Emma left the kitchen. Then she turned to Raphael. “He left?”
Raphael rubbed his nape and squirmed. “Of course he did. He’s pride.”
“And?’ Bianca needed a better explanation than that.
Raphael blinked at her. “Pride doesn’t handle rejection well.”
“I never?—”
“Didn’t you?” Raphael left her standing in the kitchen with too many questions and not enough answers.