Page 83

I tucked my knees beneath my body, curling my torso over them and squeezing tightly. I didn’t dare to look behind me, to look at the seven monsters I’d set free upon the world.

The first of them stepped up beside me, holding out a hand that I ignored.

“Come, Willow,” Gray said. The steely command in that voice brought my rage to the surface burning away my horror.

“I willneverforgive you for this,” I seethed, ignoring his offered hand.

“You will,” he said softly, running his knuckles down the side of my cheek and drawing my attention to him. “In time, you’ll realize just how fleeting human life is. How little it matters. When everyone you know has died and lies rotting in the earth, you and I will remain. You will find that anything can be forgiven, if given the time for memory to fade.”

“I’m human. I will die like all the rest,” I said, pushing to my feet and ignoring his outstretched hand.

“You will not remain that way for long,” he said, reaching down to take my hand.

I couldn’t think about the promise in those words, about what they meant for my future, as he guided me toward the cot where Lucifer slept. They’d turned him to his back since carrying him out of Hell, his sleeping face visible as we approached his side.

He wore nothing but a simple pair of black pants slung around his hips, and my eyes tracked over the gleaming, sweat-glistened muscles of his torso to rest upon his face more fully. His shoulders were broader than his tapered waist.

His face was familiar, as if Gray’s Vessel had been molded to his likeness. It dashed any hope I had of escaping the truth staring me in the face.

That I’d fucked the goddamn devil himself.

I swallowed, covering my mouth with my hand and ignoring the six other archdemons who surrounded us.

What the Vessel hadn’t been able to do was accurately capture the ethereal beauty of the archdemon in front of me. It hadn’t been able to express the presence he held, even in his unconscious state.

Gray took my hand, placing it against his chest. I realized he’d unbuttoned his shirt, giving me bare skin to touch.

“Put me back,” he said, the words both an order and a request as he gazed down at his body.

I tugged my hand back. “Are you out of your fucking mind? No,” I snapped, wincing when he crushed my hand to his chest and my bones ground together.

“Over a dozen have already died today,” he said, sweeping his hand out to gesture to the mostly empty Tribunal room. The bodies of the witches still lined the floor, but there was no sign of my father, the Covenant, or Charlotte to mark the deaths that had occurred. “How many more do you think I will add to that in order to get you to do what you’re told?”

“Please, Gray,” I murmured, even if the name felt wrong. Like I was still lying to myself.

That wasn’t his name.

“I cannot love you in this form,” he said, his voice softening as he took my other hand in his and rested it atop the chest of his other body. His true body. “But I can in my own. Let me love you as you deserve, Witchling.”

I scoffed, not believing for a moment that he cared aboutthat.Whatever he hoped to gain from having his body back had nothing to do with me.

Still, my eyes drifted closed as the magic of the bones called, arching between my fingers and spreading through my body. I couldn’t bear to watch as they did what they’d been created for, only hoping it would save lives to give him what he wanted.

Gray crumpled at my side, his Vessel falling to the floor as my eyes flew open. I turned to look down at the body on the cot, waiting for the moment life returned.

His chest expanded with his first breath.

And Lucifer the Morningstar opened his golden eyes.

The end…for now.