The fallen angel made an elegant gesture with a hand, dismissing the Fifth.
Runeak inclined her head to Neyu as they passed one another.A mutual respect hung between the two, as though Wrath recognized Lust’s different—but no less capable or ruthless—gifts.No hostility.Only understanding.
“Saerkhanum.”Lucifer’s voice came as an exhausted wisp.
How could his heart flutter and plummet at the same time?He offered a short growl to acknowledge Lucifer’s address.
“The humans you saw on the surface were molded by my father.Your grandfather.”
Saer frowned, more uneasy questions rising, but he remained silent.
Lucifer’s heavy sigh weighed on his shoulders.“The key will lie in them to restore me.To continue building my army.It has to.”
Saer shifted.
“Say what you will, child.”
He shut his eyes, despising the words on the tip of his tongue.But, he’d made a vow to serve and protect, and pride demanded he be the best in both of those things.“Retaking some of my blood seems to have restored you in part, Master.”
A sharp scrape and flutter of wings served as his only warning.
Saer’s head suddenly craned to the side, almost thrown off balance.Lucifer had snagged one of his horns, yanking him partway to the floor.“Are you suggesting I undo my centuries of work andconsume you, Saerkhanum?That you leave my services for me to start over?Did I not make youperfect?”
Saer’s throat tightened, the strain near to snapping his neck.His words left in a surge.“There is no question of your craftsmanship, Master!”
A sudden hush fell on the rest of the chamber, and he knew Neyu and Runeak both watched.Innate pride flared, molten hot, and Saer bit his tongue against any further words he might have voiced.
Lucifer scoffed and shoved Saer away as abruptly as he’d been snatched.He caught himself on a palm to keep from tipping over, heart hammering.
You’re his favorite.Alus’s words from earlier mocked as an echo in the back of his mind.
Favored.
Saer swallowed hard, pushing pride down with it.
“You’ll all need a way to infiltrate them.”Lucifer’s tone shifted from outrage to musing in a heartbeat, walking around Saer.“I’ll mold you a second form.One akin to theirs.”The fallen angel’s fingertips brushed against Saer’s back, gliding along a newly-healed wing, and a shiver ran down his spine—a combination of fear and rapture.“Tell me more about them, my child.As much as you can recall.Leave out nothing.”
Saer attempted to tame the pounding of his heart, and he did everything in his power to obey the given command, wondering how much of his information repeated what Arek must have already relayed.He expounded upon all he could recall of the surface creatures and didn’t dare look for Neyu—or any of his other kin—though the scraping and moving of molten rock resumed, if hesitant.
His maker asked clarifying questions where needed, the resentment of before forgotten.At the end of it all, Lucifer crouched and tucked Its palm under the First’s maw.“Look at me, my Saerkhanum.”
Saer did, struck by his creator’s enthralling features as much as on the day of his birth—now accompanied by an undercurrent of trepidation.Lucifer studied the lines of Saer’s brow, running fingertips over his cheekbones, along the ridge of his nose, the delicate curves and creases at the edges of his lips.“Your other form will be just as immaculate.Gather more Hellsfire.”
4
LuciferbeganatSaer’ssilver hooves.
He refused to cry out, swallowing screams behind gritted teeth as his weary maker stretched and reformed his flesh, altered bones, and reattached structures for him to adopt the shape of humanity’s two-legged stance.
“You’re doing well, my Saerkhanum,” Lucifer whispered as It sculpted his calf muscle, pulling its rigid tendon to adhere to Saer’s heel bone with Hellsfire.“You’ll be exquisite.”
Each approving word swelled in Saer’s chest, warring with pain.Deep aching flared with periods of sharp agony, and Saer stood through it all—a slab of marble repurposed by Lucifer’s artistry.
The fallen angel took immense time and care with Saer’s flesh, draining it of the onyx hue until—Saer noted through ragged breaths—his flawless skin shone as pale as his maker’s.
It was worth it.The pride in mirroring his creator in any way warmed through him; no one could argue Lucifer’s beauty.
His maker worked Its way up, and Saer struggled to control his trembling with the long sweeps made against his torso, his abdominal musculature, his hips, his arms.
