At this point, she didn’t give a damn why he was upset. She was the one humiliated!
“Brother, I can explain.” Lucifer’s strong voice cracked. One hand reached out for Olivier while the other slipped from her grip. The loss of his warmth sent goosebumps up her arm.
He hadn’t dared to look at her when she’d quickly redressed while the tether holding Olivier suspended in the black hole pulled them to safety. He hadn’t glanced back when they’d landed, nor asked if she was okay, or in any way acknowledged her presence since they’d been discovered.
Olivier stomped off. Seriously, what was he so damned pissed about?
Lucifer chased after him like a puppy who’d just been reprimanded for defecating on his master’s favorite rug. Anger swept over Diana. If she wasn’t so frigid from the embarrassment of being discovered ass-naked, and trembling from the freezing temperatures of whatever forsaken planet they were on, she’d gladly march up to them both and... What? What would she do against two holy archangels? Being a goddess had its advantages, but she was aware they ranked higher on the food chain and could squash her like a ladybug.
“Yes, dear brother. Please explain what I interrupted. You know the rules. And you know why that particular rule exists.” Olivier stopped in front of a large tree, its leaves wilted by the cold, its limbs bare, but with a hearty trunk the size of Zeus’s ego.
When he turned back toward them, he struck quite the overbearing pose with one hand fisted on his hip and the other clutching the neck of his armor. His frown could’ve transformed their surroundings to stone.
“We... we...”
Diana was going to vomit. She knew it. Watching the great and mighty Lucifer grovel for forgiveness. Perhaps from the Creator, but why from this drama-whore angel? She’d seen how he’d eyed her at the banquet. It’d made her skin crawl. Now he had the audacity to act offended! Well, she wasn’t going to stand for it.
She was the daughter of Zeus-fucks-whoever-and-whatever-he-wants! And damn it, she was still the virgin goddess of the hunt. She would be damned if she’d allow anyone—angel or not—to treat her like a common harlot!
And by all accounts, she was going to have to take up for herself. No thanks to the Archangel of Light!
“What we were doing is none of your business.” She stalked over, pushed Lucifer out of the way to get in Olivier’s face... well, more like his chest. How tall did angels get? She was well above average height, but he still towered over her. “And I suggest you put a dirty perizoma in your big mouth and shut the fuck up about what you think you know. Because you don’t know anything.” Her finger pounded into his breastplate, splitting the nail. Still, she didn’t back down, just glared up at the insufferable bastard.
A hand landed on her shoulder from behind. She shook it off.
“Diana,” a rough voice barely managed a whisper.
She whirled on Lucifer. “And as for you! You can go to Hell or whatever damnation you fear in the afterlife!”
Pain flashed across his features, as if he’d been slapped. Come to think of it, she should’ve done just that. But she was too angry now. It took a lot to push her to showing that abhorrent emotion but once that line was crossed... watch out because even the eruption of Pompeii would seem like a lightning bug flitting across the summer grass.
Olivier’s hideous chuckle reverberated through the air. “Bravo, dear! Spunk. I like that. Never... ever... lose it.”
If what she truly felt flashed across her face, it must’ve frightened the almighty Lucifer because he backed away several steps, his arms extended in front of his chest. Terror reflected in his wide eyes. He must think her capable of cold-blooded murder. Perhaps she was. An entire army couldn’t protect him from her wrath.
Trouble was deciding which bastard to unleash on first.
Whereas Olivier had made her feel humiliated and belittled, he was not the true source of her anger, just an annoying buzz of a mosquito in the marshes of the Eleionomae. No, he was not worthy of her fire. But the revered Lucifer... oh, he had it coming. May the Creator have mercy on his pitiful soul.
“Are you done groveling at your brother’s feet for forgiveness of your... shame?” Venom dripped off every word she uttered. “Isn’t that a bit beneath you, the almighty and magnificent Archangel of Light? You’ve conquered entire solar systems, stood before the Creator himself and are honored above all others, yet you cower now?” It wasn’t ladylike, but Diana couldn’t resist a show of derision Apollo taught her when they were children. She spit on Lucifer’s face.
He didn’t bother to wipe it off.
“So hot and bothered when you thought there was no way you’d be caught. So ready, willing, and I’m guessing able...” She let her voice trail off, daring him to interrupt. When he didn’t, she continued. “Even without a physical vessel for all those millennia of unrequited yearnings for just a touch, a taste of passion, it took no time for you to work your magic so you could enjoy all the forbidden fruit you’d been denied. Yet, you were discovered. Your sin”—the words tasted as bitter as acid on her own tongue—“was revealed before you even delved deep enough to call it such.”
His mouth opened to speak, but the words were bitten back. There was no justification he could give that would mean a damn now.
Diana rounded back on Olivier, her fury only stoked, not lessened.
“And you! Run to your daddy all you want with what you think you saw. I will deny it. And I’m fairly certain my own family would just as soon hang you both for blasphemy for defiling their precious virgin goddess, for that I still am. They wouldn’t even bother to choose which transgression you should pay for.” The heat from her anger boiled her blood, eradicating the earlier chill.
Olivier’s lips twitched up slightly, not enough to call it a grin, but on its way to one. “My dear”—he bowed his head but didn’t break eye contact—“I would never divulge even a single word against your piousness.” His eyes cut to the angel behind her who still failed to speak. “In truth, I would never break the confidence of my brother. I am not a... what’s the word... snitch. Some of my brethren would throw him into the Pit for just the hint of a tainted spirit. They would not require an actual sin committed in thought or deed before passing judgment. They would glory in his fall from grace, for being the most beloved of the Creator can stir up negative emotions such as resentment even in angels. But not I. My allegiance has always been to Lucifer, only next in line to my oath to our father.”
The relieved sigh from behind her rekindled the ember of wrath that had begun to dim during Olivier’s monologue. The pompous bastard must enjoy listening to himself.
“I really don’t give a damn who you owe your loyalty to, or what you do with it. You can both plummet back into that black hole, for all I care.”
Aware that she was a split second away from angry tears brimming in her eyes, betraying the real hurt underneath, Diana spun on her heel and marched away from them both. Not knowing where she was, or where she was going, she didn’t register the logic that they should stick together. There could be all sorts of dangers awaiting in the dark. Whatever creature dared to cross her path would pay the ultimate price because if she couldn’t stab the angels, something still needed to feel her fury.
