Noah knew, somehow without knowing, felt it in the burning pulses that shot out from the sigil in his thigh. It hurt, but it also returned to him the ability to experience sensation well enough so he could feel his racing heart banging against his ribcage.
A door opened somewhere behind before Noah could test his voice, and Lucifer’s eyes strayed from him. A sense of loss followed their absence as they focused on whoever had interrupted this moment Noah wished had never ended.
“My King…”
Noah spun on his heel, forgetting everything at the sound of Reign’s voice. The head in the bell jar, the King of Hell, the strange room. Nothing mattered as Noah’s eyes drank in the red-skinned demon, as they sought out that garnet gaze, as they found it desperate and so heartbroken. Noah’s heart lurched as Reign kneeled, but he was rooted in place, suddenly unable to walk, voiceless when he tried to speak. Reign didn’t see him, bowing his head low as Lucifer descended the throne and approached him.
“Stand, my child. I know why you’ve come,” the Demon King said, stroking Reign’s cheek. “Belial, Barbatos… Leave us.”
When the two others, whom Noah hadn’t even noticed, complied, Lucifer kissed Reign’s forehead and let him stand.
“Do you understand now, Reign? We are creatures bound by different rules. Humans are fragile, their lives—finite. Fleeting. And yet… their passion, their love, it is unmatched. It is captivating to witness, as is how they will fight for it. Kill for it if they have to,” Lucifer said, stepping back toward the desk. He placed one hand on the bell jar and gazed at the head inside. “But love… It is not something demons are capable of. It is taken away from them in Heaven before they even fall.” He paused and inclined his head, his midnight eyes trained on Reign again.
“Do you know why that is, Reign? It sullies the minds of warriors, makes them dangerous and selfish. Or so God proclaims… And perhaps, he’s not wrong. To beings like us that have transcended mortality in one way or another, loving a human is like poison. It is sweet while it lasts, addictive when it is reciprocated, worth sacrificing the world once you are at its mercy.”
Yearning was in Lucifer’s gaze as he looked at the head, as he dipped his fingers through the glass and brushed his knuckles against one cheek. “But Reign, do you know what happens when the human is gone? When they are taken away from you? A part of youdieswith them. You become broken, no longer whole. Unstable.Defective. And defective was no good to God.
“And so, he saw fit to eliminate the cause of it. He took emotions away from his angels, made them into formidable warriors who would not question him. Who would obey him. He branded them with his will, damned them to never feel love or desire or hate as they had once as humans. Even if they were to leave Heaven and follow me.”
Lucifer pushed off the desk and approached Reign again, a fond smile on his face. “But you… You are different from the rest… Still, what you are asking me to do,Sairreign, it will cost him. And it will cost you. Your promised place here in Hell, myplan for your future, all of it will be jeopardized.”
Reign inhaled deeply, his eyes blazing as he directed them at Lucifer. “I can’t lose him. Ilovehim.”
The declaration, so simple and devastating, so full of emotion, it crashed into Noah. It took his breath, it took his heart, it plunged him into a frenzy. Into a state of despair and want. It broke him anew no matter how broken he was already, yet he also felt euphoric, alive in a way he hadn’t felt since Reign’s disappearance.
“I know, child. And it is a beautiful thing to witness, the way he returns it. But it’s not enough. His love for you, it won’t suffice. It won’t save him from his mortality and it won’t make his soul worthy. You know that. It was the lovefor your kin and the hatred for those who took them from you that made you worthy, Reign.”
Lucifer hooked a finger under Reign’s chin and tipped it up, rubbing gently along Reign’s jawline with his thumb. “Fury made you worthy. Despair. Hatred. Revenge. You understand what this means, don’t you? He cannot stand before me unless he is worthy like you were. And for that, you need to take away from him that which he holds most dear.”
Reign.
Noah’s eyes burned as Reign bowed his head and clenched his hands, his nails digging into his palms. Blood dripped on the floor, matching the tears streaming down Noah’s cheeks.
That was why Reign had left, why he’d come back.
“I’m warning you,” Lucifer spoke again, his melodic voice so gentle and so loving. “The path you’ve chosen will crush you and it will shatter his heart. He will suffer, every day until he breaks. Yet, it is the only way. And even if he stands before me and survives it after spilling blood in my name, he might still choose death. He might still abandon you, even if he loves you. He might not forgive you. If that were to happen,Sairreign, Iwilltake the other half of your soul.”
“I will do anything,” Reign declared, his voice carrying his unwavering resolve. It caressed Noah’s wounded soul, making it sing. “If he chooses death, then I will die with him.”
“Very well. I will break the contract.”
Noah watched through tears as Reign bared the back of his neck. He felt every drag of Lucifer’s claws as they followed the shape of Reign’s sigil, as they dug into the flesh and tore it. That agonizing pain from the morning ofReign’s disappearance surged through Noah, robbing him of thought and sight and being as the room blurred in front of him and the world lost its shape.
“Reign!” Noah shouted, voiceless still, or maybe again.
Blackness consumed him, taking away from him the man he loved who loved him back, the man who’d sacrificed them both so they could have the chance of an eternity together. It had all been for Noah, for them, so Noah could join Reign, become like him. Reign’s disappearance, his marriage with Teresa, it was all so Noah would become worthy of an audience with Lucifer. So that he could keep his soul and escape the constraints of his humanity, and so that he could find a home in Hell just like Reign had.
It hurt. This raw, visceral truth. It ruined and destroyed what was left of Noah’s being, what little of himself he retained in the plane of existence. He was falling, headed straight for the bottom of the void, the end within reach even if he didn’t want it anymore. He screamed again, he begged, he shouted, fighting the pull, resisting the lull. He would kill, he would break, he would destroy the world to have Reign in his arms again. To be with Reign, to see him smile. To love him and to be loved by him.
Noah reached the bottom. A sky opened above him, dark and at the mercy of a storm. Brine reached his nostrils, cawing his ears. He sat up, blinking hard to bring the world into focus, the unknown forest from his dreams coming to life along with the sensation of cold stone beneath him and the sting of a cut across his palm.
“Lovely child,” the lilting voice of the Demon King echoed all around Noah, a predecessor to Lucifer’s slender form as it manifested where the midnight mist appeared.
He extended his hand and Noah took it, letting it guide him off the stone altar until he was standing right in front of Lucifer. He leaned in, kissed Noah on the forehead, the contact unleashing pain and pleasure he didn’t think he could survive.
Noah dug his fingers into Lucifer’s arms, holding on as his vision became hazy. His lungs failed and his heart stopped just moments later, death spreading through him now that he’d finally made it to the end. He didn’t fight it, this one different from the one before, and the world around him ceased, losing color first and then shape, until all that Noah had left of it was the sound of a storm far away and Lucifer’s final words.
“It is time to choose. Do you wish to serve me?”
