We all shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.
Adam stepped back onto the porch and reappeared with a stack of pizzas. "Let's eat!"
They waited until Lucian was on his second slice before Adam stood and pulled the jewelry box out of his pocket. "Check this out, Luc."
Lucian trusted Adam with every fiber of his soul. He grinned and looked cross-eyed at the piece of wood as his good friend Adam pressed it to his forehead. "Is this like a mind-bender kind of game?"
Michael chuckled. "Something like that."
He looked at me and Gabriel. "Ready?"
We nodded and focused on Lucian. "Do it," I said.
I grabbed the thin string of my magic and focused it on theLignumCrucis. I pushed it towards the wood. I gasped as I felt it connect with the magic from the wood. With the aid of the Object, I almost felt like I had the same amount of power I was used to in my ethereal body.
Focusing on Lucifer, I thought one thing as I channeled the magic.Remember.
Remember.Remember.Over and over, I fed my magic through the Object and told Lucifer to remember.
When I was almost ready to give up, it happened. I felt a crack in Lucian's mind. Light flooded through his conscience, filling his mind with memories. Glancing at Michael and Gabriel, I raised my eyebrows. Should we have stopped?
Gabriel shrugged, but Michael used his free hand to wave it in a go on motion. So, I grabbed even more of my limited power, straining my human body. If I took one iota more, my body would begin to burn.
Lucian gasped and blinked his eyes rapidly. "How?" he said but went silent again and slammed his eyes shut.
"Okay," Michael said. "Let's pull back and give him a second to process."
I knew what Lucifer was going through. His human memories would be trying to crowd out his eternal memories. He'd be confused and resist the old memories crowding in.
Too bad, my love. Time to remember.
Lucian gasped again. Michael sat beside him
It was time to start thinking of him as Lucifer again. I couldn't believe this had worked. If we could've gotten the bigger Object that Raphael had hidden, we could've broken through the wall on his mind and destroyed his curse. But it had taken us so long to break through his memory block that I'd worried it wouldn't happen. We couldn't do more with this sliver of the True Cross.
"Lilith." Lucifer looked at me with wide eyes. "Why do I remember?"
His hands shook as he raised them to sweep his hair out of his eyes. He stopped and studied the skin on the back of his knuckles. "How old am I?"
I chuckled and walked around the table to grab his hand. "We're in a pickle, Luc. What do you remember?"
After blinking and looking at Gabe and Michael with a lot of confusion, he turned his gaze to me. "Everything, I guess. Shouldn't we be back in Hell?"
Michael clapped him on the back. "That's why we're here, my friend."
Lucian moved in slow motion, rubbing his hand across his face. "Why don't you just kill me? You had to do that once before."
Gabriel chuckled. "You better believe I've tried. The last time you lived too long it was just a fluke. You've got a curse on you this time. I tried to kill you so hard I almost killed myself."
"It's true," I whispered.
"Curse," Lucifer muttered. "I remember." His eyes widened. "How do I remember?"
I shrugged. "When did this happen?"
He furrowed his brow and rubbed his face again. "In utero. I shouldn't be able to remember this."
Wow. That was a new one to me. I'd never remembered anything from my human lives earlier than a normal human would. "Do you remember events after the curse?"
