Chapter 22
Aftershock
Words. No words waltzed or even stumbled through Lucifer’s brain for nothing could describe the sheer awfulness of the sight before him. It would forever be ingrained in his memory, inducing nightmares even when awake. Unable to move, he stared straight ahead, unblinking.
A warm touch startled him, but not enough to make him turn away. Without needing to look, he knew... Diana. She had followed him, tracked him somehow to this desolate, nightmare realm. He should try to comfort her, shield her from this, but he didn’t have the courage to look her in the eyes and lie.
Nothing was remotely all right about any of this. To attempt to act otherwise would be a blasphemy to himself, to the Creator, and to his brothers and sisters piled on top of each other in a mountain of severed limbs with their eyes still open, their wings ripped from their backs, and their mouths still screaming in undeniable anguish.
Hundreds. No, thousands of them. Perhaps ten thousand or more. Decapitated. Dismembered. Bleeding. They should by all rights be dead. But they lived somehow. Upon first finding them, revulsion had him on his knees, dry heaving. Then when he’d realized they were still living in horrific pain, shock had washed over him, rooting him to this spot.
How long had he been gone from the comfort of the cavern and Diana’s arms? The memory of his short-term happiness and exquisite pleasure had faded, like it had been millennia ago. For how could something so good and so pure exist in the same universe as... this.
The pressure on his upper arm intensified. A noise bled through the howls and whimpers of the angels. Her voice. Diana.
At first, Lucifer couldn’t make out the words pouring from her lips. His conscience didn’t want to give the room for any comfort she could offer for just the sound of her voice tamped down the rage that had been building in his heart. He couldn’t allow that. There could be no comfort, no respite, no peace after this. Not until he found the monster or monsters responsible for... it was so horrific he could not even name it.
While he’d stood watch, incapable of helping his own family, he’d heard their cries of agony and of confession. But he already knew the despicable truth. Confession would do them no good. There was no saving them. No salvation, not even from the Creator. Every single one of his brothers and sisters in a perpetual state of torment had done something to deserve it. There would be no redemption for them.
And there would be no redemption for him, either.
He was just as damned, if not worse.
DIANA SHRIEKED AGAINST the blistering winds. She tugged on Lucifer’s arm, yanked on it with all her strength. He didn’t budge. Didn’t even look at her.
It wasn’t a question why he appeared impervious to her pleas. The writhing bodies—dismembered with stubs on their backs where wings had once flourished—had captivated his attention. It was a spectacle that she had to tear her own eyes away from. Too horrific to be real, yet it was.
But if she didn’t get Lucifer out of there soon, they would both roast in the heat. The only question was, would they die or languish for eternity like the others?
“Lucifer, look at me!” She stepped in front of him and stood on her tiptoes until they were eye to eye. Diana’s hands reached up to cup his cheeks. “Lucifer, please...”
He shoved her away with such force that sent her sprawling down the ravine and closer to the mountain of suffering. So close that when she rolled to a stop, blood had smeared across her body.
Angel blood.
Diana swallowed the bile rising in her throat. She struggled to stand, only to be jerked back to the ground by something that had grabbed her ankle. Glancing down to see what held her, revulsion washed over her body to see a hand severed at the wrist crawling up her leg. She kicked to no avail. Two more hands sprung from the pile to land on her stomach. One scurried up to clamp onto her breast while the other strolled lower, dangerously close to where she only ever wanted one person’s hand to touch her.
What the...
Diana screamed and scrambled away, but the dismembered body parts wouldn’t let go. Just as one finger slipped under the material and the fingers of the hand cupping her breast pinched over her nipple, a roar broke through the multitude of screams—both hers and those of the angels. The offending hands were ripped from her and thrown so far away that she could no longer see them.
Warm arms pulled her away from the scene, her feet flailing behind her, unable to keep up. Once they were on the other side of the first hill where the mountain of bodies was out of sight, Lucifer dragged her into his arms.
His rough voice whispered into her ear, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He repeated the words over and over. He stroked her hair like she was a small child who had just woken from a nightmare. “I’m sorry.”
Diana craned her neck to peer at him. Tear stains ran down through the sand and dirt crusted on his cheeks. His entire body shook, succumbing to the grief of seeing his fellow angels so devastated. His trembling lips continued mumbling that he was sorry.
Sorry for what? None of this was his fault.
She turned in his arms. Her hand flew up to cover his mouth. “Stop. Lucifer, please stop. It’s okay. I’m fine. You’re fine... aren’t you? Please, are you hurt?”
The words ceased, but his lips still moved.
Diana removed her hand only to replace it with her mouth—a kiss to take away the pain, if that was even possible. Lucifer shuddered in her arms, but did not return her kiss. She tasted the briny tinge of his tears mixed with the granules of sand stuck to his lips.
They remained that way—her lips pressed to his, his arms wrapped around her waist—until the trembling subsided. Lucifer stared down at Diana. More unshed tears brimmed at his lower eyelids.
Perhaps it was the burnt orange glow that pervaded the landscape, but the beautiful amber eyes that she had first fallen in love with were... wrong. Sure, Lucifer had endured so much since he’d stalked up the coliseum steps to greet her father, but his eyes were different. Less golden, as if the pupils had grown larger, almost obliterating the colored irises.
