The Devil might be cruel. Dangerous. Unrelenting.
But he had interfered.
Time and time again.
Despite everything, he was letting her fade now. Watching her vanish like her father had.
Why?
Why protect her all those years only to let her fade soon?
Unless… something changed.
And it wasn’t fate.
No, it didn’t make sense—and yet, it might happen.
I had placed an impossible weight on the young Reaper’s shoulders. Everything the Devil wanted was right there—within his grasp. Kara wasn’t a cherished soul to him, not a chosen one. She was a fleeting curiosity. A momentary distraction. Or, more truthfully, an eyesore he was growing tired of.
And that…made my chest ache in a way I hadn’t felt since I left Heaven.
I gave up everything—my home, my light—I questioned if it made any difference. Did I do anything meaningful for the Reapers? I wanted to believe I helped them. But when I looked deeper, all I saw was that I had only steered them toward their marked mates. And now that they faded…they’d carry more loss. More grief.
Because of me.
Because I interfered.
From the moment I came into being, I could see differently than the others. I always thought that made me special. Chosen. That was my gift, wasn’t it? To see through the veil, to peer into the scrying glass and understand what others couldn’t. But now I wondered if I had misunderstood the purpose of that gift. Maybe I wasn’t meant to intervene. Maybe that was the test all along—one I kept failing.
To observe. Not to act.
My throat tightened as I turned slightly, eyes burning. I rubbed the wetness forming beneath my lashes and tried to breathe through the knot in my chest.
But the surrounding air shifted—warmer, softer, almost…reverent. I no longer heard the Reapers’ voices.
I turned back, and the room was empty.
They were gone.
And in its place…was gold.
Gold everywhere. Spun into the air itself, wrapped around my skin, glowing in the atmosphere like threads of light.
I gasped and brought my hands to my arms, rubbing them in awe.
I was home.
Heaven.
And somehow, the thought of being back brought more heartache than peace.
I blinked, and the scrying glass stood before me once more. Lucifer hovered near it, just like he had all those years ago—before his fall. Before everything broke.
A horrible weight settled in my chest. I remembered this day. I remembered the foreboding. The strange, heavy chill that had made me clutch my chest and brace myself.
Back then, I thought the feeling came from the humans.
I was wrong.
