“There is something else I don’t understand. You said you could heal my father. But you couldn’t heal Lilith’s ankle?”
His brows shot up as if he was surprised by my question. “Reading minds has always been a God-given talent of mine. A remnant that I miraculously kept even after my wings were ripped away. But another gift of mine is the ability to make deals. I can pretty much give anyone anything, as long as I receive something of equal value in trade. A rare skill that I didn’t quite grasp until after I was able to fully harness the crown’s power. Now it’s something I can do without the crown.” He shrugged as if his “skill” was as trivial as crossing your eyes or being able to burp the alphabet backward.
“Okay, so that begs the next question… What do you get out of this exchange? Say you can actually help my dad. What do you get?”
“I already told you, I get your heart.”
“What does thatmean?”
He tugged his gaze away from the road to look over at me. His golden eyes simmered through the dark car cab, and his perfect lips pulled up into a sensuous smirk. “Isn’t that obvious?”
“If it was obvious, I wouldn’t be asking, now would I?” I snapped, a vein throbbing in my temple.
Much to my irritation. He began to laugh.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because I think you’re cute, Kitten. Trying to search for reasons to still be angry with me.”
“Well, you’re giving me a good one right now.”
“And what’s that? I’m simply pointing out the fact that you’re coming to realize that I’m not as terrible as you want to believe. You want to hold a grudge. You want to resist your beast’s inherent desire to be close to me. But take it from me. That’s a losing battle. You’ve always liked me. It’s why you followed me through Hell, Kitten. You were there for me when I needed you most. Even when I didn’t appreciate you and cherish you to the depths that you deserved.”
He threw me another glance. “You woke me up. And now that I’ve finally found you, I plan on repaying the favor. Time to wake up, Kitten. I’m your soul mate. Abaddon and Eve? Just distractions. They aren’t important. No one can separate us, not forever anyway.”
He reached over, his palm curving over my thigh. He was only touching me because physical contact was needed for him to transfer his memories to me, but still, my skin heated beneath the warmth of his own.
He flashed me a heart-breaking smile. “And I’m about to prove that.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lucifer
Greed – Past
The Fourth Circle of Hell was almost like Paradise in comparison to what we’d gone through in the fifth on the River Styx.
It was almost too easy.
Ever since we entered the desert-like terrain of the fourth layer, all senses were on high alert. Waiting for something, anything to jump out at us. So far, the most interesting thing about the fourth layer was the giant hill at its center where Abaddon was forcing the souls sent to Hell on account of their greed push boulders to its peak.
They paid us no mind as Lilith and I approached.
“You know, as psychotic as your ex-lover is, he isn’t a terribly creative fellow, is he?” I mused.
She flung me a glare, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “Don’t ever refer to him as my lover, Lucifer.”
Memories of the river jabbed at the still-open wound the Fifth Circle had left.
“Sorry…” I rubbed the back of my skull with the flat of my palm. “Er, I’m going to survey the rest of the hill, circle it, see if I can get them to stop pushing these rocks. Though I might leave the priests for a few hundred more years,” I said, my eyes narrowing on the old assholes in robes. “Hate priests.”
Lilith gave a dismissive nod, her gaze refusing to meet mine. She hadn’t looked me in the eye since we’d kissed on the River Styx.
My beast was still furious that I had stopped things from progressing any further. My aching cock commiserated.
“I’ll stay here,” she said, taking a seat in the sand.
Without another word spoken, I hurried off, fighting the urge to look back at her over my shoulder. It felt wrong walking away from her, the distance between us filling my chest with a taut, uncomfortable sensation. We’d spent so long together, and she had been my only companion since I’d fallen into the Ninth Circle. It was normal to miss her. I would miss any companion’s absence if we’d spent as much time together as the demon queen and I had.
