“You dare to threaten what is mine?” Lucifer said.
“Hurting what you love, hurts you.” Her gaze hardened. “And oh, how I’d love to cause you pain.”
Seraphina wasn’t strong enough to kill Luci, but she still held in her possession something that could.
The threat to Lucifer, to his throne, would never be gone if he let her leave with that box. Sera was desperate for power, and the rare gem inside that she’d stolen when she’d fled Heaven had the ability to destroy him. The archangels would be coming for her, her delusions of grandeur wouldn’t be tolerated, but as long as she possessed that jewel, as long as she was able to evade them, she was a risk to all of us. If she managed to overthrow Lucifer, the world as we knew it would end. I tugged at the leg of Lucifer’s pants with a bloody hand.
He leaned in. “What is it, my precious one?”
My throat was raw, but I forced out the words. “D-do what you must. You can’t let her take it with her. The risk is too high.”
He leaned closer. “Are you sure?” he asked as he carefully moved my hand from my side, getting a closer look at the damage Sera had caused.
“Take his memories away,” I choked out, pressing a shaking hand to my chest, because the agony of being forced to love Lothar from afar had to be less painful than the agony of my shattered heart now. I could not live in this torture one more moment. It was unbearable. “Take them.” My chest felt as if it were caving in, as if the organ in there ceased to beat and had crumbled to dust. The bleeding and burning slice down my side was nothing compared to my breaking heart.
“That wound in your side may never heal,” he said gravely. “And if it does, it could still take years.” He ran the backs of his fingers down the side of my face. “I could try to turn back time, to before this happened,” he said softly. “It won’t be easy, not when an angel was present…”
I squeezed my eyes closed, and the images were still there, still flashing rapid fire through my mind. Against all odds, fate had chosen a mate for me, something that shouldn’t have been possible. Handmaids didn’t have mates, Lucifer had made it so. I’d had so many hopes and dreams, but they’d all been scorched to ashes now. I shook my head and gasped. “I would rather be f-forced to bind my body, to hold my insides in every day for eternity, than go back. Going back won’t change the truth.” I gripped his hand. “Y-you need this, you need what’s in that box. L-let me do this for you.”
Lucifer’s gaze searched mine. “You’re sure? Once too much time has passed, you know I can’t undo what has been done.”
I nodded as another howl echoed just beyond the door. I grabbed Lucifer’s hand. “Give Sera what she wants. Make him f-forget what happened here tonight, make him forget what we are to each other.”
“Roxy, my sweet child, you can’t want that,” Lucifer said, brushing back my blood-soaked hair.
“Just do it. Please?—”
“His beast…a hound’s instincts are strong, Roxy.”
“C-can you suppress it?”
“I can, but this can never be reversed. If Lothar was to ever learn the truth of this day, of your connection, the consequences would be dire,” he said. “This can never be undone?—”
“I don’t care. Please, just do it.”
Lucifer stood and turned to Seraphina. “It will be done.”
She held up the small box. “I want to see it done for myself.”
Lucifer’s gaze slid to the door, and a moment later, a massive hound burst through, charging into the room, his huge paws leaving bloody footprints, his eyes blazing red.
His gaze found me, and he shifted immediately, blood-soaked fur giving way to bare flesh. Lothar stared down at me, nostrils flared, chest heaving, and there was unbearable pain in his eyes. He bared his teeth, struggling, trying to talk, but his beast still had his throat. When he opened his mouth, instead of words, he roared and snarled.
“Do it,” I said to Lucifer.
Lothar roared again, but this time, I heard part of my name as he struggled to take control. His face flashed between beast and man, his body contorting, his skin rolling with the urge to shift back, but he fought it. He stumbled to the side, then his gaze flashed gold.
Lothar stormed toward me, but Lucifer got in his way, facing off against the blood-covered hellhound.
“You can’t stop me,” Lothar said, finally forming words, even if they were garbled.
“I’m afraid I can,” Lucifer said and lifted a hand.
All it took was one simple movement, nothing more than a wave, and Lothar stopped. He blinked at Lucifer, shaking his head as if he were trying to clear it. Lucifer laid his hand on Lothar’s shoulder, and his wounds closed before my eyes.
“You can head back to your quarters now, brother,” Lucifer said to him, opening a gateway back to Hell. “When you wake, you’ll forget you were ever here.”
The hound nodded, then without even looking at me, without seeing me, he walked through the opening and back into Hell.
