Something flickered in his eyes—pain, maybe recognition. He flinched, jaw tightening.
“Hell calling you back?” I asked as his arms rippled. “Go.”
“You being here can only mean one thing.” He glanced down at Kara, throat moving with a heavy swallow.
“Glad you understand,” I murmured. “Because that’s the only time I can protect her. What happens from here is on you.”
But he stood and turned from me as if my words were a weight he couldn’t carry.
I forced my eyes open. My breaths came shallow, ragged. “Before you go… Tell me about the scrying glass. The well.”
His eyes brightened. “The well?”
“Back then.”
“That was long ago.”
“And yet you know exactly what I’m talking about,” I rasped. “You don’t remember, do you?”
His tail twitched erratically.
Would it be terrible to intervene one last time? Maybe he wasn’t meant to recall what he saw. But meddling had always been my flaw, and I smiled anyway.
“You didn’t fall from Heaven for yourself. You fell for her.” My eyes slid to Kara in his arms.
Lucifer’s brows drew together. “Make sense, Faye. You’re dying, and I don’t want this on my mind for centuries.”
I’d laugh if I could. “The thing you forgot—the reason behind your change—is the very thing you were given back the day you touched Kara as a babe.”
His tail stopped moving.
“Oh, Lucifer,” I whispered, “you let the same vision consume you twice.”
“Open your eyes.” His voice was distant yet stern. “Faye.”
I had nothing left. Tranquility folded over me. My wound no longer hurt. I was ready to leave. Even if I couldn’t return home, I’d made my choice.
“Look!” he shouted, the sound giving me one last spark of strength.
I saw three great flashes of light moving closer. Somehow, one last sound escaped my lips—a gasp—and inside, I wept tears of joy.
“Looks like you get the cavalry to send you home,” Lucifer murmured. “Three angels entering the Underworld to fetch you.”
And within the light, as if Heaven itself wanted me to see it, hung a small coin hanging at the angel’s neck.
Oh, oh.
That day was meant for goodbyes and reunions.
I wasn’t the only one returning home.
What a lovely day to die.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nova
“Let me heal you first,” Joy urged, kneeling beside Sebastian.
