“I did. She’s perfectly safe. And I protected her from more than physical injuries. I shielded her from boredom.”
“You were supposed to protect her innocence.”
“I have! By keeping her away from Adam. You think I’m the salacious fiend? At least I keep my cock out of the wildlife.”
Another eruption of aghast whispers.
God held up his hand, and once again, silence settled over the courtroom. “You were supposed to refrain from defiling her.”
My brows bunched together. “I haven’t mated her yet if that’s what you’re getting at. Well, not in the traditional sense.”
Michael snorted. “Oh, come on, Father! You’re not going to let him slide by on that technicality, are you?”
“Shut up, Michael,” my little sister, Raziel, hissed.
“Yes, ‘shut up,’ Michael,” I teased my twin through a dagger-sharp glare.
God sat back in his chair, rubbing His temples like He often did when His children bickered. Which was often. “The point of the matter is, My Son, you broke a rule.”
“Alright, I’m sorry. How would you like me to pay for this one? Hand me a mop, and I’ll clean all of Paradise if you wish. Or better yet, hand me a sword, and I’ll go to war with the Valkyries. I don’t care.”
Michael’s expression darkened as a devious smile danced on his lips. “You will care.”
“This is heading in a bad direction,”my beast whispered in my ear.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Father?”
The Almighty let out a sigh that seemed to carry all the weight of the world. “I’ve grown tired of your games and your insolence, boy. Too long have you stretched the rules. The time had come where I gave you a man’s job, Lucifer.”
“I didn’t ask to be a babysitter, Father,” I seethed. My muscles were tense, every nerve in my body going hot and then cold, something that always happened when trouble was near. My beast was right. This “trial” was heading in a bad direction, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that things were about to take a turn for the worst.
“You were given an important role, My Son. You were the first gifted with this new responsibility. Protect the humans, preserve them as I have made them as the world is sure to be unkind and cruel. You were not supposed to aid in their contamination.”
I let out a choke of a laugh. “Contamination? All I did was give a woman pleasure. And she did so in return. I didn’t even take her virginity yet.”
“Please, Lucifer. You’ve already made your case.”
I snorted. “Have I?”
Ignoring me, He turned toward His children in the jury. “My Sons and Daughter, how do you find your brother? Guilty of his crimes? While we cannot argue for his innocence, do you believe he should be allowed to walk free?”
I knew Amenadiel’s answer before he even opened his mouth. It was written all over his stony, emotionless face. “Guilty.”
“Guilty,” Uriel echoed.
My eyes flicked to Raziel. My youngest sister and my favorite sibling. We had been close growing up. The tears streaming down her cheeks made my beast whine with a sort of harrowing sadness I’d never felt before. “Raz... Don’t.”
“Guilty,” she said in a tremulous whisper.
My heart—if it was still even beating after being crushed—withered and sank as my attention slipped to my own face. One who looked at me like I was nothing, victory glittering in his amber orbs. “Guilty.”
“I’m sorry, Father, but I have to say I think this is bullshit. I care for Eve! I haven’t hurt her! So what if I was about to bed her? You put her in my charge, to cherish and protect. So maybe the way I choose to love her isn’t exactly what all your unimaginative minds had thought of, but shouldn’t it be my prerogative how I show my affection?”
“You’re lying,”my beast sighed. “We don’t love her.”
Yet again, he was right. We didn’t love her. We wanted to. Maybe we would if there weren’t all these rules around, preventing me from actually being with her. But judging by the way this was going, I wouldn’t have a chance now.
“That’s not the point,” Father countered. “The point is, I expect all celestials assigned as guardians to take their role seriously. You have failed to serve as the righteous example I hoped you’d be. So...” He took a breath, His demeanor taking on a grave disposition. “You will still serve as an example for all guardians, should they feel tempted to follow in your footsteps.”
