It didn’t matter how much I’d come to love her. I didn’t like anyone telling me all my efforts have been for not. I’d spent the last handful of centuries digging my way out of Hell so that I could get to Eve. Why?
Because Daddy told me so.
I loathed how right Lilith was. I was Lucifer Morningstar, the bonified king of rule breakers. And I was pursuing this female simply because He said that she was my mate. Did He even have control over such things?
In all likelihood, probably not.
Here, the locals believed it was The Fates who determined the destiny of the shifter kind, especially demon shifters. While I was a celestial, I was now king of this place.
Maybe The Fates really were the ones looking out for me. Not Father. When had He ever cared about my happiness?
Eve was beautiful, the perfect example of the female form. But the basis of our relationship ended there. She was attractive. I was attractive. Our great liking for fornication was basically the only thing we had in common. She satisfied my male urges, but she didn’t satisfy my beast. She didn’t make him purr and growl and beg.
Not like Lilith could.
Bleeding Almighty. I’d wanted Lilith since the moment I’d laid eyes on her, but I’d suppressed my instincts because that’s what we celestials were supposed to do. It was the Almighty we were meant to obey. It was His rules that I was supposed to follow. But why was I still so eager to please him? Why did I care about finding Eve so much when I had the woman who truly made me happy right beside me now?
The woman with who I had gone through Hell. The woman who had gone through Hell for me.
“Lilith…”
She was crying now. Thick, hot tears welled in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. “You’re an idiot, Lucifer.”
“If I’m such an idiot, why did you follow me up through Hell? Why didn’t you go with your precious king when he crawled away licking his wounds after I stole his crown? Is it because you just care about being queen? You crawl off with any man as long as they have the throne?”
She flinched as if I had physically slapped her. I might as well have, with how harsh I was being. I was taking out my frustration on her. My insides twisted with self-loathing.
“Are you actually suggesting that I came along with you, spent all this time rebuilding Hell because of the power that comes along with it? I’ve waded through waist-deep shit with you, Lucifer. I’ve walked over hot coals, I’ve been marooned with you, I’ve been cut, boiled, and burned. I’ve starved, and I’ve not known the sweet bliss of water to my lips for years. Not to mention I’ve had the female equivalent of blue balls since you kissed me on the Styx and then desired to reject me as your mate. Yet, I’m still here. And it has nothing to do with being queen. You know I don’t give two shits about that.”
“I didn’t reject you. You have to be my true mate for me to reject you.”
“Iamyour true mate, you asshole!” Her voice had gone shrill, and she was backing away from me on the platform. Her eyes were wide with exasperation, her cheeks glistening with tears.
“Lilith, wait!” I reached out, my voice spiked with alarm as I watched her back away, dangerously close to the edge of the platform. The tower we sat on was at least forty feet in the air, and even for an immortal demoness, that would be a painful fall.
“No, Lucifer! I’m tired of sitting and waiting just to wait some more. Your beast has called to mine. And you know it! Yet you pretend it never fucking happened. All you have to say is that you don’t want me. Go ahead, say the words. That you reject me. That you don’t want—”
She didn’t finish. The rest of her words were replaced with a sharp gasp as she took a final, fatal step back. Her ankle caught one of the rope ties holding up the tarp, and she plummeted over the edge, taking the tarp with her.
I hurtled forward to grab her, but it was too late, the scream of her name torn away by the storm that ravaged overhead. Most of the braziers we’d placed around the construction site had burned out due to the heavy rain, but a few still smoldered, illuminating the dark silhouette of the tarp below. I couldn’t make out her form.
Curse my father. If I had my wings, I could have caught her in time.
Then again, if I had my wings, I wouldn’t even be here. The notion of having never met her was worse than having never gone to Hell. And what a brutal epiphany that was.
“Lilith!” I screamed again, but my voice was lost to the rain. The tarp lashed in the wind below, but I couldn’t see her moving beneath. I couldn’t see her movement at all. As immortals, it was difficult for us to die. Typically death had to be dealt at the hand of another immortal, but my mind was in panic mode. If she died, she was gone forever. The natives of Hell were tough bastards to kill, but when they did die, there was no coming back. They weren’t like human souls. If a demon died, they were gone forever.
And if I lost her, I didn’t know what I’d do.
Not bothering with the ladder, I climbed down the side of the construction platform, using protruding pieces of wood as grips to find my way down to the ground. The rain lashed at my skin like a flogging from the heavens, but I heeded it no mind. Nothing I wasn’t used to. My boots made contact with the wet earth, and my heart fell to see nothing but wet dirt. Her body was nowhere to be found. She hadn’t made contact with the ground at all…
“Lucifer,” a weak cry sounded from beneath the tarp, the ropes having caught on planks from the unfinished tower. It had fallen over a pile of planks to create another tent. I approached the pile of wood and lifted the canvas flap to see Lilith dangling over the pile, her head inches away from a wooden beam. The rope still tied around her ankle had caught on the tower several levels above, catching her fall just in time.
“That was a lucky fall,” I told her through a tearful smile. I’d never once shed a tear in all my life. Up until now, I thought I was incapable of weeping. This fiery little demoness was always proving me wrong.
“Cut me down,” she demanded, her face red with all the blood draining to her cheeks.
“No. Listen to me for a moment.” I hopped onto the woodpile beneath the canvas, so it shielded us both from the rain and clutched her head between my hands. At my touch, I felt her pulse thump harder against my palms. The blaze of her cheeks was a warmth kiss against my skin, chasing away the chill of the storm that ravaged beyond the tarp. “You’re right. I am an idiot. My entire life, I have been taught to ignore my instincts and listen to my father instead. I’ve never been one for rules. I’m glad I followed my gut and bedded Eve. Not because I love her but because falling prey to temptation was what landed me here, with you. Along this journey, you’ve taught me much. To trust my beast and listen to what he tells me. To trust myself.”
