Chapter Four - Lucifer #2
“She said two are enough to get me to Evie,” I continued. Her name scraped through me. “Eventually, we’ll need all of them. But for now, two.”
Az watched me carefully. “So where are they?”
I forced myself to slow down. To hold onto the few truths I had, because grief was a tide and rage was a storm, and neither of them would steer a ship.
“I have a theory.”
His eyes narrowed. “Okay… let’s have it.”
“She said something that makes me think…” I said slowly, “Maybe they’re in Vegas. Maybe even my hotel. The Revel. Living human lives. Walking through hallways, swiping keycards, pouring drinks, cleaning rooms.”
I looked around the suite, at the quiet luxury. “We need to get there. Now. And I need to call Topher, tell him to meet us there.”
Azazael gave a humorless laugh. “Your… hotel?”
The words weren’t really a question. I heard the rest without needing him to say it.
A hotel. Another kingdom. Another glittering monument to everything you were doing while I rotted in a hole.
“We don’t have time for this right now,” I said.
His eyes went cold. “How convenient… for you.”
“Yes,” I said. “It is. Later, you can beat the shit out of me for every millennium I spent aboveground while you were buried beneath it.” My jaw teeth ground once. “I’ll deserve most of it. But right now, I need to get Evie out of there.”
That made him pause. I didn’t give either of us time to stand in it.
“Look, I know it,” I said, and my voice broke around the truth. I let out a sigh. “I just have this feeling that if the Oracle meant anywhere more precise,” I added, my voice low and certain, “she wouldn’t have bothered with riddles.”
If I was right, then maybe this wasn’t going to be as challenging as I expected it to be. Maybe this was my chance to get her back before that shiny bastard broke her into something unrecognizable.
The television switched inputs, a canned laugh track exploding through the room like mockery.
Azazael grimaced. “I’m really starting to hate this era.”
“Get dressed,” I said, already turning toward the bedroom. “We don’t have much time.”
He followed, wings folding in tight. “Luce.”
I paused.
“If this goes wrong,” he said quietly, “He’ll come for you first.”
I let my smile show teeth, and it tasted like blood. “Let Him.”
Then I disappeared into the bedroom, already mapping corridors and thresholds, already willing to burn down every bridge if it meant Evie came back to me breathing.
The flight back blurred into noise and light and restraint I didn’t bother pretending to have. I sat there with my hands clenched so hard my knuckles stayed white, my jaw locked, and my mind replaying the last look Evie gave me.
That memory wrecked me. She’d said I love you, and I didn’t say it back. The way her eyes had screamed so much more, she refused to let her mouth admit it.
I’ll get you back. I didn’t say it out loud. I didn’t need to. But the tether felt it, and there was a faint pulse returned. She’d heard me. Felt me. Loved me. Hell, even Heaven probably heard me and flinched. I hope He fucking well did.
The jet climbed fast, the coast peeling away beneath us, Santa Monica shrinking into a smear of lights swallowed by dark water.
A few minutes in, the world below turned to bone and shadow, dry lake beds split like old scars, mountain ranges rising sharp and indifferent, the desert stretched out endless and empty. It felt right.
I stood by the window, one hand braced against the glass, watching the land break itself into pieces that never quite fit back together. This was the space between worlds, between decisions. The ocean behind us. No cities, just distance.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and called Topher. The wind hit first when he answered, raw and wild, Patagonia still clinging to his voice like ice.
“You better be bleeding,” he said. “We’re in the middle of—”
For a split second, I saw it, clear as a vision, my hand around his throat, the easy twist, the quiet snap. He’d been by my side for millennia, but I was running on fumes and fear, and he’d just picked the wrong moment to be cute.
I swallowed it down. Hard. “I need you in Vegas,” I cut in. “Seren can handle things down there. I need names, hidden paths, and you’re the expert.”
“Explain,” he said.
“I know what to do.”
Silence. Not shock. Just instant, razor-edged focus.
“…the Oracle?” he asked, quieter now.
“Yes,” I said. “Vespera had said something about brothers and sisters. There were Twelve. Ancient gods. She said they’re here in our world, and we need to find them and wake them up.”
Another pause. Longer this time.
“And you think they’re where exactly?” Topher asked slowly. “In Vegas?”
“I know they are,” I said. “Maybe even The Revel. She said, ‘they’re inside the world you walk through every day.’ And where else could she mean?”
He breathed, controlled, and cold. I stared out the window, tracking the long white veins of salt etched into the desert below.
The wind roared through the line like the universe objecting.
“Lethe take me,” Topher muttered. “That’s… bold.”
“That’s inevitable,” I said. “And I don’t have time to search blindly. I need your skills. Paths. Pattern recognition. The things you see that others don’t.”
Another voice, which was very familiar, interrupted. “I’m coming, too.”
Destiny. I closed my eyes briefly.
“She’s my best friend,” Destiny added, fierce and unyielding. “I’m not staying behind while you tear holes in reality to get her back.”
Topher didn’t argue, which told me more than he meant to. “It’ll take us at least a day to get there,” he said. “Without the jet, flights are limited.”
“Bend it,” I said.
A faint, humorless smile colored his voice. “I always do.”
“And Topher?” I added.
“Yes.”
“If you find anything,” I said, my voice quiet and steady despite the ache clawing at my ribs, “anything at all that helps me get her back faster—”
“I will,” he said immediately. “I swear by the throne.”
I ended the call and slid the phone back into my pocket. Outside, the desert kept stretching, ancient and patient, like it knew what was coming. Vegas was still ahead, hidden beyond the mountains. And when it came back into view, it would be because I was ready to break it open.