“Don’t take offense, but I’d rather hear for myself. Your word is thin with me at the moment.”
Well, that stung, and it was highly ironic, but it wasn’t unwarranted. They approached the scene, stopping a mere few feet from the angels. Luce wiggled his hands and the world blurred a bit before sliding back into motion.
Jophiel squeezed Michael’s shoulder where he gripped it, in the space between his neck and shoulder plate. “I know that it must be hard for you...to come braced for war and find betrayal.”
“I have found nothing as yet, Jo’theel.”
Michael started at the sound of his own voice, deep and resonant with confidence he hadn’t felt in millennia. Was that really how he sounded to others? Luce’s hand landed on his shoulder in a subconscious mirror of the scene before them.
“I know you want to believe the good in everyone, Mikha’el,” Jophiel sighed. “But...I have seen treason that cannot be denied, and you will see it as well.”
“Take me then. Show me what was so urgent that you dragged me from bed in the dead of night.”
“As you wish, but be warned…” Jophiel paused, letting his hand drop away. “It involves your Morningstar.”
Michael gripped the pommel of his sword where it hung from his hip. “So you claim. We shall see.”
Luce shifted his gaze to the present Michael. “You doubted.”
The revelation had waves of conflicted pleasure racing through him, chased by shame. Was he so easily swayed that centuries of pain and heartache could be erased by a moment of hesitation? What did it say about him that Lucifer almost hoped he would be proven wrong for the first time in his long life?
Michael made an indignant sound. “Of course I did! Until I saw with my own eyes, my trust in you never wavered.”
“An impressive loyalty. Unfortunate that it never extended to hearing my side of things.”
“What else was there to say? After what I saw?”
“I have yet to see what you claim,” Luce sniffed. He had to cling to his belief that he had been right all this time, because he wasn’t sure what it would mean for his sense of self if he had been wrong. “I think we’ll find that you had a skewed perspective of things, angel.”
They walked alongside the specters of the past, Jophiel and other-Michael seeming both corporeal and intangible at once. Michael lifted a hand, as if to brush his own shoulder, only for Luce to swat it away.
“That counts as interference.”
“They can’t see or hear us, but we can touch them?”
“I don’t make the rules, I’m only bound by them.”
They walked through the garden, as silent as the night around them. The air felt thick, heavy with tension and foreboding.
Michael could still feel the phantom drop in his stomach, mirroring the way his heart had plummeted through his guts that night. He hadn’t been sure what to expect, but he wasn’t prepared for what they had found.
Lucifer knelt with his back facing them as they stopped and peered through the curtain of foliage. He wore loose, dark pants and a finely tailored tunic of deep burgundy silk, his wings flared out in golden waves of feathers. Partially concealed in the curve of his wing was Eve, leaning back against the oak of the massive tree that sheltered them, wearing nothing but a look of affection and amusement as she gazed sweetly up at Lucifer.
Even now, hot fury swelled in Michael at her brazenness. She hadn’t known better, but the nudity of Adam and Eve had always been a point of awkward contention for the angels. Beside him, Luce made a small noise of alarm. Michael cast his gaze to the side and caught a glimpse of astonished confusion on the other man’s face.
“That…that isn’tme.” Luce stepped closer, bewildered, and Michael had to reach out and grab his arm to keep him from colliding with the specter of Jophiel.
“Eve, my sweet Eve,” Lucifer purred, leaning down to brush a feather light kiss onto her temple. “All you need do is take one bite, one small taste of these figs.”
Michael began to creep forward, masking his steps for the element of surprise, only to be brought up short by Jophiel’s grip on his shoulder.
“We must wait for proof, Mikha’el.”
Michael grumbled but sank back.
“Luci,” Eve giggled, looking up through dark lashes. “You know our father has forbidden us from eating of this tree.”
“Jehovah fears your mind, sweet girl. He fears what you could be capable of if you unbound yourself from his control.”
