Rage burned through Luc. What Ollie proposed was preposterous. Of course, he’d spare everyone damnation if he could.
“It won’t work.” Ash shook his head, the motion as heavy as the stone forming in Luc’s gut. “Ollie, that’s not within Luc’s power. None of us will ever return home, and any mate that binds themselves to a demon will be trapped on Earth forever.”
“If we’d never fallen, Dex would have found Luc in the afterlife. He’d have healed and had it all,” Dante whispered.
If Luc hadn’t already believed he’d been wrong to fall, nothing could have made it clearer than that simple truth. He should have waited.
Ollie’s back straightened once again, his glare more determined than ever. “I don’t care. Make it happen. I want Dex to have a mate—someone better than the Devil—but if you two are fated, you must deserve Dex. It must be there deep down. Fix things so you can mate because Dex deserves everything regardless of yourmistakes. He deserves a love he’ll never lose, and he deserves to reconnect with his parents. You have to figure it out. Youwill. It’s fate. That’s what this means, right? You will figure it out.”
Ollie’s tone turned fevered, the sound resonating deep within Luc’s broken soul.
Dex deserved all that and more. He deserved the universe on a silver platter. But what someone deserved wasn’t often what they got. It didn’t make returning to the Eternal Realm any more possible.
“I want this as much as you do, Ollie. But how? The council won’t change its mind.”
“You don’t know that. You have to try.Please.”
Luc’s heart clenched. “I’ll try. But I need you to understand how impossible this is. Don’t hope too hard.”
“Too late,” Ollie snapped like he didn’t care if hope ripped him apart.
Luc ran a hand through his hair. Hope had done nothing but destroy him, and he’d sworn to never let it in again. But if this hurt, so be it. He’d take it. “Fuck, it is too late. I don’t think I’ve ever hoped for anything more.”
Letting Dex go when there was no other option was heartbreaking, but easy. It allowed Luc to feel sorry for himself, to be hard done by, and rage at the world.
Luc was done with easy. Self-pity served no one.
Onyx challenged him to act, and Ollie presented his greatest challenge of all. Luc wouldn’t shy away, not if there was a sliver of a chance that it could work out.
Hope cut through Luc more sharply than it ever had.
Was there a way to bring the Fallen home? What about the witch souls damned unfairly to Hell? They deserved to enter the Eternal Realm even if the rest of them didn’t. Luc had to try for Dex. And for himself. Perhaps he could counteract some ofthe harm he’d caused in his long life. If he could fix any part of this, then maybe he deserved Dex after all.
Just because mating Dex would have worked out if he’d stayed in the Eternal Realm, it didn’t mean Luc couldn’t make it work in this changed world. Fate didn’t dictate one predetermined future. He may have missed one chance to connect with Dex. That didn’t mean it was the only chance.
Maybe Luc didn’t have to be alone and hated. He could change. If he’d decided to be the villain, then he could decide to do good.
He’d changed the shape of the universe when he fell, regardless of who fathered the first witch. And he could change it again, for the better this time. With intention, not blind mistakes.
“I’ll try my best,” he promised Ollie. And meant it.
12
DEX
Buying a house was officially worse than selling one. That, or Dex was the problem. As he gazed out the window of a condo located right on the river, he suspected the issue was him.
The view was spectacular, with shimmering water below and the river walk along the opposite bank. The condo was directly opposite the park where Dex had met Luc for their date. Technically, it was in the South Banks rather than the Banks, but it was close enough, or so the realtor had argued.
“What do you think?” Ollie nudged him with his elbow. “You’re on the top floor, but four stories isn’t ridiculous, and we can get Dante and Ash to move your furniture with magic.”
It had been two weeks since Dex’s disastrous date, and on the surface, things were back to normal. He’d met Ollie for brunch that morning, same as last Sunday.
Today, Ollie seemed a thousand times more relaxed than the previous week, and much less distracted. He’d been evasive about his change in mood and hadn’t let Dex brush off his offer to come house hunting, even though Dex had tried.
Dex turned away from the window and inspected the open-plan living and kitchen area. “This place is all right. Not the neighborhood I wanted, though.”
“Technically, but you’re literally a river’s-width from the Banks, and the footbridge is right there. You’ll be as close to work here as your old condo.”
