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Audrey

“ Y our dad was definitely the more powerful one of the two. Not that either of them knew who or what they were getting involved with. Did Mommy Dearest tell you that the two of you were a result of a drunken one-night stand?”

He says it like we should be ashamed of it. “Actually, yes. Once we were old enough to understand, she told us she met our dad at a bar and they slept together. She never saw him again. He doesn’t even know we exist.”

“Huh. I didn’t expect her to be that honest with you when she was lying to you about so much more.” Michael shrugs. “And you don’t have a clue about who he is.”

“Clearly,” I say once more, all of my patience gone as I step toward him once more.

I smirk when he starts to take another step back, just barely stopping himself in time.

Then he laughs, surprising me. He’s not acting rationally at all. It makes him harder to predict. It’s probably best if I just kill him now.

What he doesn’t seem to realize is I don’t need to touch him to rip out his soul. I point the scythe at him, still smirking. “Take.”

Nothing happens at first, which seems to make him laugh harder—until it cuts off completely.

His eyes shoot to mine, wide and scared as he pales. “What are you doing? You shouldn’t be able to do this.”

“And yet, here we are.” My smirk only grows as I watch the first strand of his soul slip out of his body, heading straight for the scythe.

“No. You can’t do this.” Michael is panicking now. “I know who your father is. If you kill me, you’ll never know.”

I shrug. “I’m not sure I really care.”

“Audrey! Stop!” Wren rushes up and grabs my arm. “You might not care, but I do. ”

I sigh, rolling my eyes. I don’t release my hold on his soul, but I stop pulling on it. “Fine. Tell us who he is.”

“Only if you promise to not rip out my soul.”

“Done.” That’s easy to agree to. Not that I have any intention of keeping that promise. I don’t even feel bad about lying to him—not that I feel bad about anything currently, but that’s neither here nor there.

Michael considers me for a moment, trying to figure out if I’m lying to him, probably. “You might want to sit down for this one. Your father is…”

I roll my eyes with a scoff when he trails off. I bet he doesn’t even know who our dad is. He was probably bluffing since he knows I can kill him now.

“You don’t know shit.” I lift my scythe toward him, and he shakes his head frantically. “Take.”

“Lucifer. Hades. Whatever you want to call him,” he spits out. “He’s your father.”

Shock reverberates through me, my hold on his soul dropping, and that’s all the opportunity he needs.

Wings burst from his back as he smirks, lifting into the air. “Tell your daddy Michael says hello. ”

He flies toward the large windows, crashing straight into them and outside. A few stray pieces of glass fly across the room, and I lift my arm to cover my face. I hiss when a piece lodges into my forearm, but better there than in my face.

“Troublemaker, are you okay?”

Wraith is suddenly there, pulling my arm away from my face as he examines it. I turn my head to find it’s a huge piece of glass. Weirdly, I’m barely bleeding around it.

It almost looks as if my skin is trying to heal around it.

“Is it—“

Wraith snorts, shaking his head. “Trying to heal itself? Yes. Yes, it is. This is going to hurt.”

“What’s going—motherfucker!” I scream when he yanks the glass from my arm. I pull my arm to my chest, lifting my hand to cover the wound that’s throbbing—but only for a second.

I stare in awe as I realize the wound has already healed. “Well, that’s new.”

“Did you just heal yourself?” Wren asks, her voice shaky.

My eyes find my twin, and I let out a sigh of relief when I see she’s untouched. In fact, no one else was hit with glass, which makes sense since I was the one closest to the window and most of it would’ve gone outside.

I nod slowly, just blinking at her for a moment. “Apparently.”

“Are we going to talk about the fact that Wren’s ex-husband is an angel? Or that he announced that the two of you are Lucifer’s daughters?” Cassian asks. He shrugs when everyone turns to him. “Sorry. I don’t think it’s something we can ignore.”

“No. It’s not.” Wraith pulls his hand out of his pocket. “Nor is it the most pressing matter at the moment. I need to find a new soul for Wren to reap so she doesn’t fail her final.”

It’s only then I realize Wren’s shaking almost uncontrollably. I hurry over and pull her into my arms. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” She scoffs but doesn’t pull away from me—in fact, she tries to burrow into my arms. “Michael is an angel? A demigod? How did I never know that? How could he have hidden so much from me? How didn’t I notice all of it?

And we’re the devil’s daughters? All these questions are swirling around in my mind, and Wraith is worried about me passing my final. ”

Donovan joins us, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

“Yes, he’s worried about it. If you don’t pass, then your soul gets sent to be judged.

Clearly, we don’t want that to happen, so he’s doing what he can to prevent it.

Everything else can wait until after. For now, you’re going to have to push aside those questions and reap your first soul. ”

“Got one!” Wraith holds his phone up in triumph. “Why don’t the rest of you head back to the house? We can meet you there.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I want to go to my mom’s place. Wren died six months ago, so I’m assuming she’s made it home by now. I need to make sure she’s okay.”

Wraith looks like he wants to argue, but Wren glances up with tears in her eyes. “Please, Wraith. If I know I can go see my mom, then I’ll be able to focus.”

He runs a hand through his hair with a heavy sigh.

“I’m going to be in so much trouble, but fine.

We’ll go see your mom. But I want you four to wait here for us.

Once Wren is finished, we’ll meet you back here.

While she’s reaping her soul, I’m going to try to get a hold of Lucifer.

He and your mom are the only ones who can confirm Michael’s story.

Not to mention, Lucifer needs to know about him.

There shouldn’t be any angels earth-side. ”

“Why not?” Wren asks, pulling away from me and straightening her shoulders. “Why wouldn’t they be here?”

“Because they’re supposed to be locked in Olympus—Heaven?

” Wraith shakes his head. “It would be so much easier if humans would stop changing the name. When the gods began going into deep slumbers from which they couldn’t be woken, the remaining gods decided to close the gates.

No one in and no one out. Even Lucifer hasn’t been able to enter in a long time—hundreds of years, at least.”

I thought we’d shared all of this with my sister, but I guess we didn’t. Or, if we did, she didn’t retain it. Not that I can blame her. There’s been a lot of information forced on her over the last six months. Scythe Academy is no joke.

Finally, she shakes her head. “Yeah, I can’t think about that. My brain is going to implode. You said you found a soul?”

“I did. It’s not too far from here. It shouldn’t take long at all for you to finish up and deliver it.” Wraith hands his phone to Wren before pulling me into his arms. “I know this wasn’t how you saw this going, but I promise you, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

Tilting my head back, I meet his lips for a soft kiss. “Is Lucifer being our father actually a possibility?”

He shrugs. “He’s been known to go earth-side for weeks at a time.

I don’t expect he’s celibate during those times.

It’s not impossible, but without talking to him, I have no idea.

I’ll call him as soon as we make it to the underworld—once Wren has passed her final.

We’ll meet you back here, and hopefully, I’ll have some answers for you. ”

“I guess there’s not much more I can ask for. Take care of Wren.” I lean into him, kissing him once more before stepping back. “I love you, and thank you for trying to help me get vengeance on Michael. Hopefully, none of us will be in too much trouble.”

“Let’s hope not.” Wraith smirks as he takes his phone back from Wren. “I’ll be trailing you through the shadows. You know how to get there with the address, right?”

Wren nods. “I’ve got this.”

Then they’re both gone, leaving me with Brenden, Cassian, and Donovan .

Silence surrounds me, my eyes moving back to the broken window. I can’t believe Michael got away. Or that he’s an angel.

Like Wraith said, there’s no reason he should’ve been earth-side. How did an angel end up here and married to my sister? I think back on everything Michael said and realize I wasn’t paying as good of attention as I thought I was.

“Did Michael say my mom is an angel?“ My head whips back to face my mates. “If she’s an angel and was living earth-side…and so was Michael…How is any of that possible?”

Cassian shrugs. “I have no idea. From my understanding, angels weren’t given a choice on whether they could leave or remain in Olympus. I don’t think the gods trusted them with humans when the gods were succumbing to sleep out of nowhere.”

Brenden steps over, cupping my face in his hand as he tilts my head back. “I thought you would be more upset that Michael got away. You seem…calm? No. That’s not right, but you’re not angry.”

“How can I be angry about Michael not being dead when I feel like my entire world has been ripped away from me? Nothing makes sense to me right now. Michael told us just enough to distract us, but he was up to something—I know it. But what? It doesn’t make any sense.

” I shake my head again. “If my mom was an angel, how didn’t she know what Michael was?

Shouldn’t she have known? She could’ve warned Wren off. Then none of this would’ve happened.”

“You’re freaking out. That’s why you’re not mad.” Brenden nods. “That makes sense.”

Donovan snickers. “Pretty girl, I didn’t know Michael was an angel. Hell, Wraith didn’t know. I don’t know how he was hiding his power like that. I thought he was a human.”

“So did I.” Cassian wraps his arms around me from behind, setting his chin on my shoulder. “There aren’t many angels who can hide what they are as he has.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to rein in my thoughts. They’re bouncing all over the place, and I don’t know where to begin or what to do at this point. I need answers, and I need them now.

Brenden’s right. I should be mad that Michael is still alive, but right now, I’m just glad he’s out of sight. He just dumped more than one bomb on me and Wren, and we can’t even prove if he was lying or telling the truth—at least not yet .

I hope Wraith is able to get some answers from Lucifer.

Holy shit.

I might be Lucifer’s daughter. If my mom’s a demigod and my dad is a god, then what does that make me and Wren? Is this why no one could figure out what I am?

So many questions.

“He said he came after us because of our family. Does he mean Lucifer or my mom? Or both? And why did he come after us? What was the point in all of this? What is he planning?”

I glance around at my men, but none of them have any answers.

Of course they don’t.