But things had taken a sour turn.
When Lucifer had gone to grab the last bit of our possessions, his brother had entered Limbo and kidnapped me. My beast had fought hard for me. But she ended up not being able to take on the arch celestial. And beyond Limbo’s gate on the surface, Abaddon stood waiting for me, ready to rub his victory in my face. He had been the one to let Michael into the Underworld.
Michael had been the one to deliver the killing blow, but Abaddon had basically hand-delivered me.
“It was him. He was the one…”
Seering hatred radiated off Lucifer like a noxious gas. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”
“I know,” I swallowed. “But what I don’t understand is how I’m here as Jessica, not Lilith.”
“My best guess is that my father discovered what my brother had done after the fact. I know he didn’t have anything to do with Michael and Abaddon’s plots, else he would have never offered me a means to get my wings back. He pointed me in Eve’s direction because he thought that she was my true mate. Why else would I have fallen to temptation for her? Only, it turns out, I haven’t the temperament for rules, and I’ll break them if it means getting my dick wet. But He couldn’t keep His end of the bargain if it meant you weren’t alive for me to find you. So your spirit was reincarnated.
“I’ve been looking for you for the past several centuries. And I’ve finally found you.”
“But Lucifer, my beast is gone. Am I really even Lilith anymore? Aren’t I just Jessica, with Lilith’s memories?”
His lips quirked into a small, knowing smile. “Jessica. Listen to me. I am not the same person I was when I fell from Paradise. With my wings ripped away, I lost the ability to let loose my celestial spirit. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t inside me. He’s still there, guiding me, sometimes irritating the hell out of me.”
“What are you saying?”
“Come, there is something I want you to see.”
Taking my hand, he guided me through the halls of Violence. The elevator had opened up to a luxurious space that reminded me of the Sistine Chapel. It was huge, with marble columns and ancient paintings hung on the walls. Marble statues sat erected every few feet. A beautiful museum in the dark depths of Hell.
We walked down a long hall with ceilings so high I had to squint to see the mural painted over it. And although the place looked a lot like the Sistine Chapel, on closer inspection, I realized the art was depicting scenes more hellish. Most of them featured familiar scenes. Lucifer crawling from the frozen lake. The bloody fight between Lucifer and Abaddon for the crown, their slick muscles drenched in sweat, blood pouring from Lucifer’s face in the wake of his newly broken nose.
Our kiss on the River Styx.
A demonic Lilith standing over Abaddon, who kneeled at her feet with his intestines wrapped around her talons, the hill of the Fourth Circle in the distance.
Lucifer carrying Lilith through the Glutton’s Mire.
The half-finished tower at the center of the Second Circle with Lucifer and Lilith arm and arm, looking down on the new kingdom they would erect in the coming decades.
Then finally, locked in each other’s embrace in Limbo, smiling at each other with so much love in their eyes.
“Lucifer, this is our journey through Hell…”
“When I was with you, all I could think of was the future. Then when you were gone, all I could think of was the past. When we were here last, we built this place as a museum because you said you wanted a place to serve as a memorial to what Hell used to be. Once you were gone, I came here, and it became so much more than that.”
He led me into a room with a fountain and various pieces of art displayed on pedestals. Unlike the last room, this one only had single painting on the wall.
My heart squeezed.
It was a portrait of us, one of those classic oil paintings of a queen and king, dripping in jewels and an absurd amount of fabric. The only difference with our painting is that you could tell we were holding back stupid grins the entire time the artist had been painting us. With all the years it took to climb from the Ninth Circle all the way to the First, we had worn rags, mud, feces, blood… Each other. Fancy clothes were never really our thing back in the day.
“Do you remember that day?”
I smirked, and his eyes glittered beneath the dim track light illuminating the Fountain Room. “Only because you insisted on me wearing that stupid crown.”
His gaze flicked to the painting, then back to me, his expression full of reverence. “You looked radiant in it.”
My cheeks warmed, and I glanced around at the different items displayed in the room. Reading my mind, he gave me an almost nervous smile. “Go look at them.”
Curiosity pushed me towards the first pedestal that displayed a golden brooch that looked oddly familiar. Lucifer’s emblem was stamped into metal, a crest that I had helped him create once we’d settled in the second circle.
I always kept it pinned close to my heart. Sometimes I even wore two.
