My heart pulsed with a heady ache when I remembered I’d been wearing two that day in Limbo. And one had been torn off in the struggle with Michael.
My throat tightened and I moved onto the next piece.
It as a beautiful gold crown, encrusted in countless diamonds and rubies. Any queen’s wet dream. I never really cared for the thing, too gawdy. Abaddon had never bothered giving me a crown and Lucifer, having never ruled anything before, made it a point to ‘do the opposite of that bastard.’ That little trick ended up turning him into a good king and an even better mate.
Next to the crown on another pedestal was piece of broken pottery. Emotion cut through my lungs, making it hard to breath when I realized what it was.
It was a fragment of the jug of soup we’d shared the night we sealed our bond.
It wasn’t a piece of art, to an outside eye it was just trash but he displayed it like a precious piece of treasure.
When I turned to look at him, I found him regarding me like any art critique might look upon the Mona Lisa.
I felt completely priceless, the most valuable thing in here next to all the gold and jewels. His eyes were banked with admiration and love.
When I was Abaddon’s queen, I was an object to be owned.
When I was Lucifer’s, I was worshipped.
It was that reverence banked in his gaze that made me want to throw myself in his arms and never leave.
But he kept his distance, his arms board stiff at his sides like he had to actively stop himself from reaching for me.
“There is one more thing you need to see…” he whispered, his own voice chocked with emotion. His chin jerked towards the fountain.
It had three outer circles where the water gathered, with one large fountain at the center with three spigots that siphoned off into each separate pool.
“These weren’t here before.”
“No, they are something newer. The three rings of Hell, just like the old Seventh Circle as Abaddon had it to punish the greedy. But these three rings show the person looking into their past, their present, and their future. Mostly I just use it as a way to punish the overly violent. Nothing like tormenting a murderer by making them relieve their past, the present, and their lack of future.”
“Is that a just punishment for assholes who feel no remorse?”
Lucifer stepped closer, studying my expression. He reached to tuck a stray wave of my blonde hair behind my ear and sighed. “You’re referring to Abaddon. When I see him next, Jessica, I will kill him if that will bring you peace. And as you know, when demons die, they don’t come back here. They don’t go anywhere.”
“Except for me.”
“Except for you. But you’re special.”
I didn’t know what I wanted to do with Abaddon. I didn’t really know what to do about anything at the moment. This whole thing started with an evening that was just supposed to be a night out at Siren’s so I could console my best friend and talk to her about her guy problems.
I knew Reckless Jessica was going to lead me into a situation one day that would change my life forever. But I always thought she would get me roofied, or sex trafficked, or a nipple piercing.
I never would have expected her to lead me right where I was supposed to be.
You’ve never given me enough credit,she said in the back of my head.
“Look into the pool of the past, Jessica.” Lucifer’s silken direction urged me forward until the tips of my stiletto’s brushed against the elaborate tiling of the ceramic and plaster poolside. I slowly leaned over to peer down into the water’s surface.
And gasped.
A reflection starred back at me. But it wasn’t blonde-haired Jessica wearing the red Alexander McQueen dress. It was a demoness, the same one I had seen in Lucifer’s memory in the Fourth Circle, where Lilith had shifted to save herself from Abaddon. The reflection’s skin was a soft pink, almost the same color as my cheeks when I blushed. Her eyes were gray like mine, like the ocean sky just before a storm. Her hair was raven black, and from this angle, I could see the tips of her wings.
My heart thudded hard against my ribs. It made my chest ache.
She was beautiful.
She was Lilith’s beast.
