AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But she was not done with her daughter.
“Hey, I need you to break free, Liv.” Kelsey was standing in front of me, her voice low. She was pale, and I wondered if she could see the glow coming off the necklace she was wearing. Probably not. I could see the magic because I was looking for it, had seen it before. I’d seen it in the witch’s room. I could see the beginnings of a tail of magic coming off the necklace.
She couldn’t see it. Gray wouldn’t be able to see it.
“Livie, please. I can’t lose you again,” Kelsey said, tears in her eyes. “Something’s wrong. I need you.”
You’re useless. It’s why it was so easy to break you. You’ll come back with me and perhaps I’ll haveyoukill the boy. Once he’s gone, I’ll be able to make good on my contract because no one will be able to stop me.
“I had no choice. Myrddin straddles the line between Heaven and Hell. I was forced to give them a guardian to keep the balance,” Lucifer was saying. “Layla was the only one strong enough, the only one they would accept. If I hadn’t given her up, there would have been no first King of the Sword, and you know what that would have meant. I wasn’t ready for that chaos. Now I am. Join me, Lil. Myrddin is going to close the door to the Heaven plane, and we will rule. We will have everything we ever dreamed of.”
Well, of course she’d been right about that, too. Damn it. I was going to have so much atoning to do when I found my soul again.
“Is there a reason you’re letting Lady Sloane run about like a mad woman?” Myrddin asked, an edge to his tone.
Lucifer turned his way, and I swear the sky flared a deeper red. “She’s pregnant. I’m not spelling a woman who carries a royal demon in her belly. There are too few of us left. She can’t do anything, and Lord Sloane is under control… Where did the wolf go? Her other husband is not here. Ah, he’s searching for the satan. Of course. He won’t find him.”
Lilith seemed to remember why we were there. “Lady Sloane, take that necklace off.”
Kelsey dropped to her knees, her hand on her belly.
Lucifer stopped, and his jaw dropped for a moment and then he chuckled. “Is that what’s happening? I was far too invested in my own plots to catch it. Who is it? I have to admit I’m a bit worried about that soul being too precious for our world.”
“Lucifer, she’s going to displace that baby’s soul,” Lilith said, looking down at Kelsey. She was beside me now. “And tell him to let my friend go. He’s the one who did this to Olivia. She’s been through enough.”
“You always set me up to disappoint you,” Lucifer said. “I can’t let go of the room. Lord Sloane will lose his proverbial shit if I do, and I can’t even tell you what that wolf king is going to do. Did you hear me? Myrddin is going to give us everything we ever wanted.”
Violet eyes flared. “Everything we wanted?”
Lucifer nodded. “Yes, he’s going to free us from the Heaven plane. Think about it, my love. You will be my queen. We will have dominion over all of the lower planes.”
Lilith stared, and her head shook. “You’re still a child who’s angry with his father. You’re just like the rest of the occupants of Hell, torturing yourself and never understanding it’s your own guilt that keeps you in this prison.” She sighed, a long-suffering sound. “No. I want no part of this. I want only to know my daughter and to make sure she is safe and happy. But if you want any chance to talk with me, you will allow me to help Lady Sloane.”
A muscular shoulder shrugged. “She needs no help. She’s fine. The spell won’t harm her at all, and she’ll still have a babe.”
“With the wrong soul,” Lilith insisted.
“Then her witch friend should save her,” Lucifer countered. “I don’t have a hold on her. She can move at any time.”
But I couldn’t. I couldn’t force myself to move.
Because you’re weak, and it will be so much better to be back in the shadows. Where you belong. You are nothing, but the truth is you won’t care when you’ve taken your proper place again.
I lost my magic before. Lost my faith. Lost my light.
They didn’t have to stay lost.
What Lilith had said sunk into my soul.
This was a prison of my own making. Not the torture Myrddin had put me through, but the stubborn refusal to feel the pain so I could start to heal. I wanted an easy way and there was none, but I didn’t hurt merely myself. If I didn’t find a way to fix it, everyone would suffer.
I looked down at my best friend.
She wants to keep you down, Myrddin whispered in my head.
No, she fucking didn’t. She wanted me by her side. Kelsey had never done anything but hold my hand when we went through something terrible. I had been angry at the world, and I’d vented in the safest place I knew. My friendship with her.
She would forgive me, too.
