Page 103 of Wicked Believer

“I don’t think I need to tell you what it would have meant for us, considering the ongoing investigation into your actress’s death, if I hadn’t paid to havethisparticular story killed in favor of this drivel.” He swipes his hand across the desk, sending the dossier plummeting to the floor.

I tense.

“Olivia,” I mumble, correcting him.

Her name comes out as barely a whisper.

“Pardon?” Lucifer quirks a brow.

“You called her myactress.” I lift my gaze toward him, unchecked defiance rising in me. “Her name was Olivia.”

Lucifer stiffens, his jaw tightening. “Be that as it may, if photos of this had gotten out, the information we’ve been keeping secret would have been leaked. Imagine the speculation. The public would finally have ascertained that you’re an—?”

“An immortal?” I snap. “Some kind of half-human freak?”

Lucifer goes still at my sudden outburst, but I don’t stop there. Every doubt, every insecurity I’ve been feeling spills out of me.

“Not a fallen angel. Not a demon. Not a human, but somethingelsein between? An abomination of nature? Is that what you were going to say?”

“I’ve told you time and time again not to put words in my mouth. My patience with you runs thin and—”

“Yourpatiencewith me?” I nearly laugh, the idea is so ridiculous. “What aboutmypatience withyou, Lucifer? I’m tired of being told to sit on the sidelines.” I slam my hand onto his desk, glaring at him. “You told me you were handling the apocalypse. You could have told me what you were planning, but instead all you’ve done is—”

“Enough, Charlotte,” he growls, the blaze of hellfire in his eyes instantly silencing me. “I willnotentertain this self-pitying human thinking any longer. Do I make myself clear?”

I clench my teeth, muttering from between them, “Crystal.”

“As the head of this family andyourfuture husband, it is my responsibility to ensure your safety, which means—”

“I was perfectly safe,” I argue. “I’m immortal now, and Azmodeus was with me. If anything had happened, he would have—”

Lucifer stands, leaning over his desk, before he suddenly yanks me forward by my collar so that we’re nose to nose. “If you think for evena second that my lust-crazed brother would have sacrificed himself for you, think again.”

Abruptly, he releases me, and I shake my head, my gaze unfocused as I look away from him. “I’m immortal now. I don’t see why it—”

“You are immortal,notinvincible,” Lucifer growls. “And starting today, so help me God, Charlotte, I will ensure that you learn the difference.”

The shadows at the edges of the room shift at his will, the tension changing from tense to punishing. I know where this is headed. I know this feeling.

I remember it perfectly.

A sharp pain forms in my throat.

“What do you mean?”

He doesn’t answer me.

“Lucifer, what do you—?”

He curses under his breath, the look he gives me one of furious resignation, like I’ve somehow forced him to do this for my own good, but he pushes through it, baring his teeth. “You want to test my boundaries? To be a brat? For me toinstructyou? I’ll give you instructions, darling.” He laughs, though there’s no amusement in it. “As of today, you will gonowherewithout my permission. Your schedule will become my schedule, every aspect of your day, of your life withinmycontrol. Where you eat, when you sleep, where you go, who you fuck, and who you fuck with,allof it will bemine, until you start to behave like the immortal queen you have been chosen to be, do I make myself clear?”

Sudden panic rises in me. A feeling of vertigo.

All at once, his collar at my throat feels too tight.

This is more than what I bargained for. More than I—

“You can’t do that. You can’t—”