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“We have to get you out of here,” he tells me, concern filling his deep voice.
With the door broken open, I can faintly hear the sounds of battle from above.
“You left the fight to come save me from her,” I whisper. “How did you know? Are they winning?”
He stands, helping me to my feet. His attention has left my blood flowing freely through my limbs, and although I’m achy, I’m not so badly injured that I can’t stand. We head for the elevator as he speaks.
“My people are quite capable and highly trained. Those attacking us were trained for a specific fight. A fight which was over before it began.”
“What do you mean?”
“Always listen to the battle chatter of your enemies,” he says. “They were looking for Naamah. She was supposed to sabotage our front line while protecting theirs. Then, from what I gathered, they were supposed to advance and she was supposed to attack us from the back.”
He unlocks the elevator and ushers me inside. He fiddles with the control panel for a moment, then we start moving. I frown, rubbing my hands over my arms as goosebumps scatter across my skin.
“Wouldn’t she have been killed the moment someone saw what she was doing?”
Noticing the sudden chill that’s overtaken me, Lucas wraps a comforting arm around my shoulders. “She was skilled in shadow games and subterfuge. It was what made her such an asset to me, and such a dangerous liability.”
Hearing him call her a liability after all the horrible things she said about me makes me feel almost vindicated. Knowing that playing people is what she’s good at—what she’s been good at for far longer than I’ve been alive—is comforting. I still feel like a fool, but maybe I’m not quite as blind as I thought.
“She had to have been working against me for a long time to pull this off,” he says, frustration darkening his tone. “To get that much support, to convince that many people to trust her to lead a charge against me and win? That would have taken time.”
I think about that for a moment, then press myself against him. “Um, this might be a self-absorbed sort of question, but how much time, do you think? More than the amount of time since I started working for you?”
He holds me close but doesn’t answer. That’s kind of an answer in itself, isn’t it? Is it possible she joined the uprising against him just because of her hatred and jealousy of me? I know there were demons planning to try to oust Lucas from power before I ever met him, but maybe Naamah’s help was what finally pushed the rebellion into full gear.
The button for Lucas’s floor lights up, and I straighten, preparing to step out, but the elevator keeps going. I shoot him a questioning look, and he answers with a grim little smile.
“Some secrets of this place are mine alone. I trust my people, but not implicitly. No one but me knows about this rooftop access point. I’ll be able to get you away from whatever remains of the fight below without risking you being caught up in it.”
My heart stutters at the protectiveness in his voice. It’s clear he trusts his people to quash the rebellion, but some part of me still can’t believe that he gave up fighting alongside them so that he could make sure I’m taken care of.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
His eyes burn as he looks down at me. “Of course.”
The elevator comes to a stop, opening up to the dark sky, and Lucas starts to lead me off. The roof is barely visible against the dark gray clouds, but lightning cracks through the sky in the distance, a rare thunderstorm brewing on the horizon.
The flash of light is enough for me to pick up the shape of a demon standing on the rooftop, silhouetted against the sky. He’s shaped like Lucifer and Naamah, but somehow more frightening than either of them.
Lucifer notices him at the same time I do, and I feel him stiffen beside me, his entire body going tense.
“It’s about time,” the demon in front of us says, his voice a low, rough rumble.
“Father.” Lucifer spits the word out like a curse.
Chapter31
Sophia
My stomach dropsas I process what Lucas just said.
Lucifer’s father. The King of Hell.
Cephalus.
This is the man so obsessed with waging war with Heaven that he’s changed the course of history on Earth. The man who wants to use Lucas to his own ends, who will do whatever it takes to get Lucas back on his side to fight for him, unquestioningly, just like Uriel did.
