Page 289 of The Spider Queen

“We’ve met before,” he whispered, “you and I.”

“When?”

He lifted his hand and gently grasped the back of my head. The wall inside my mind—the one I used to hold back others’ emotions—came tumbling down. But it wasn’t just feelings that were unleashed, but memories.

Memories I hadn’t even known were there, locked away, were suddenly free. And all at once, every memory I had ever been given by the mage to conceal my true identity became exactly what it was, a falsehood in my mind. I recalled all my years growing up with my parents in Purgatory, their faces, and my father’s voice, the times I’d fallen to my knees, begging to leave. I remembered Cassandra, the soothsayer who served my father.

He wants me, Mama. Lucifer wants me.

Lucifer removed his hand from my head, and we stared into each other’s eyes. “I remember,” I whispered. “I remember you. I remember everything.”

And then I leaned forward and kissed the Prince of Darkness.

Chapter 10

Lucifer ripped his mouth from mine. “Stella.”

“I remember you,” I said again, my eyes taking all of him in, my body primed with lust and want. “I remember your pain.”

While I was in my mother’s belly, Lucifer and I had made a connection. I’d been nothing more than a tiny seed, and yet I’d been aware. My mother had thought Lucifer had been the one to cause me pain, but in all actuality, I’d been trying to alleviate his.

Even then I’d been an empath.

“What did you do to me?” I whispered, leaning toward him, wanting my mouth on his, wanting his mouth on mine.

He gritted his teeth. “Stop. This isn’t what I—this wasn’t—I mean—”

“No?” I licked my lips and I watched with pleasure as his eyes dilated. “How did you find me? If I was hidden in the mortal realm, how were you able to track me?”

“The mage who’d concealed you died.” His jaw clenched. “But the spell he casted to protect you had only fractured, not completely broken. When the spell attempted to repair itself, you were lit up like a magical beacon and I could pin your location.

“I had the music box created just for you. The song that played? It was taken from a siren, with enough power to fully break the spell concealing you, but you had to hear the song for it to come to pass.”

“The snake. With indigo eyes.” I peered at him. “You?”

“Yes.”

I sighed. “So that wasn’t a dream then…”

The pull of lust had eased, allowing me to think a little more clearly.

Lucifer stood up from his chair, which disappeared as soon as he stood.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“You need space. And time, to process all of this.”

“Process? Process what, exactly? That I’m not who I thought I was? That I’m not evenhuman? That the entire life I’ve been living the last few years has been a lie? Or what about the fact that I woke up in a room floating in the clouds, and now I’m somewhere underneath a volcano? You want me to process all of that? Alone?”

He continued to stare at me all the while saying nothing.

“There’s another little issue you’ve yet to clarify…”

Lucifer raised his eyebrows. “Which is?”

“How long am I to remain your prisoner?” I demanded. “Surely there’s a statute of limitation on this sort of thing.”

He smiled faintly. “There isn’t.”