Page 45 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“So, uh,” I began, creeped out by how his energy once more held a prominent note of otherness, “I searched all of New York City, Your Grace.” I grimaced and reached inside my top to wipe away the glob of slobber that had been making its way down between my breasts. “I haven’t felt even an inkling of her.”

Silence.

Next to me, Vengeance whined.

“Your Grace?” I ventured when he still wouldn’t say anything.

Was he dead? No, he couldn’t be dead, or else I wouldn’t sense his energy, not to mention his body would have dissolved into sparks of light, leaving only his clothes behind.

He was, however, doing an admirable job of miming a corpse.

Quite fitting with the whole mausoleum theme of this room and his palace in general.

When he finally spoke, the toneless whisper of his voice sent a chill down my spine. “It was to be expected.”

I shifted from foot to foot. “What was, Your Grace?”

A twitch of his hand, the slightest indication of a dismissive wave. “That it will take time. That you wouldn’t find her immediately.”

“Well…yes.” I rubbed my nose. “It would have been a miracle if?—”

“I did not expect it,” he interrupted me quietly, though it almost felt as if he wasn’t quite talking to me. More like he was voicing his own thoughts to hear himself. “I did not think it would happen so soon.”

From the way he lay there, though, from the choking weight of disappointment that stole the air from this room, he’d beenhopingfor it.

And I knew all about how bitter hope could be.

Unbidden sympathy lacerated my heart.

“You have managed eight years without her,” I softly said. “I am sure you can bear her absence a little longer.”

For the first time since I’d stepped into the room, his eyes of primordial darkness focused on me. “She was my light,” he said in a voice of shattered glass. “The beat of my heart. I have not feltjoy since the moment she breathed her last. Every day without her is unceasing torture. I do notbearher absence—it kills me, minute by minute, yet this cursed existence of mine knows no end.”

I swallowed hard, my throat tight and raw.

“I have tried.” Deep shadows of pain on his face. “My power will not let me finish myself.”

With a hand over my mouth, I stifled the agonized sound that wanted to escape me. To feel such despair, such desolation, as to consider…I shook my head.

He turned his face away from me, away from the flickering light of the candle. “Leave. Take your rest.”

I hesitated, my brows scrunched together, low-level anxiety buzzing in my blood. “Will you…be all right?”

God damn it, I’d never thought I’d one day be worried about Lucifer’s well-being, but seeing him like this, hearing him speak this way, it almost made me doubt whether he could be left alone.

“I haven’t been for a long time,” was his sardonic reply. “Why should I start now?”

And there was a glimmer of his old personality. The relief it brought me was absolutely bewildering.

“May I go visit Azazel, Your Grace?”

“No.” He flicked his fingers without looking at me. “But you may summon him here. You are not to leave the palace grounds, but what you do within them is none of my concern. As long as you’re able to resume the search a week from now.”

“Thank you.” I took a deep bow, cautious happiness at this small victory blooming in my chest.

“One more thing,” he said, giving me a dark look without moving his head. “Do try not to demolish these halls.”

I stopped short, rapidly blinking at him. Was this about me hurtling Samael through a wall? Well, Lucifer was one to talk!Half the palace lay in ruins because of his anger management issues, and he hadn’t even bothered to repair anything. But he was getting on my case about one measly wall?

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