Page 94 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“Father,” Samael said in greeting, and with an audible grumble, he added in my direction, “Your Highness.”

Lucifer paused in ripping out the feathers one by one from the demon kneeling before him, a punishment for illegally having dealt in souls pilfered from one of Lucifer’s pits. The demon would be forced to walk around with his wings out, plucked free of his feathers until they healed and regrew,a visible reminder and public shame for the crime he’d committed. And once all feathers had grown back in, Lucifer would likely summon him back to pluck them all over again, repeating the procedure as many times as he pleased in order to get the point across.

“Samael,” Lucifer said, shaking his hand free of feathers. “What have you got for me?”

Rising to his feet, Samael gestured to the two demons behind him, who remained on both their knees, their heads bowed. “I caught these traitors to the crown. They left their posts a year ago and have been in hiding since. Would you like to punish them yourself, or shall I?”

“Eager, are we?” Lucifer muttered. “Pity that your enthusiasm to ingratiate yourself to me by taking work off my hands didn’t extend to making sure no one left their posts to begin with these past years.” He resumed plucking feathers from the sobbing demon in front of him.

I arched a brow and barely hid my smirk.

“With all due respect,” Samael said with a demure tilt of his head, “any inaction on my part was because I did not wish to overstep or infringe upon your authority. In the absence of instructions from you?—”

“A capable demon of appropriate rank,” Lucifer cut him off, “angling for the position of second-in-command, would have known how to keep a court from disintegrating.” He shot Samael a dark look. “Instructions or no. Do not justify your inadequacies with a lack of guidance.” Before Samael could reply, Lucifer waved him off. “Go ahead and punish them as you see fit. They are yours to play with.”

Samael gave a sharp nod. “Yes, Your Grace.”

And with a snap of his fingers, he bid the kneeling demons to follow him outside the throne room, leaving me with Lucifer and his current bearer of penance. Other than the three of us, therewere few demons in the throne room, mostly a few courtiers milling about and watching the show, as well as the guards flanking the walls. And Vengeance, two of her heads playing with the plucked feathers floating through the air. The third was snapping at her own feet.

“Thousands of years of studying and leading at my side,” Lucifer murmured while he ripped feathers out with gusto, “only for him to fail so utterly when the time came to prove his mettle.”

I raised my eyes from reading the missive a staff member had brought me and arched another brow at Lucifer. “I thought he was your favorite.”

Lucifer paused, his gaze on the ruined wings that were weeping blood. “You know who my favorite is. And why she wasn’t here to step into the role she was perfect to fill. None of this would have happened had your mother been well enough to remain in Hell. She would have held things together with more aplomb than Samael could ever aspire to.” He went back to plucking the feathers. The demon whimpered in response. “In fact, she would have put a stop to my bout of miserable self-loathing long before the situation turned as dire as this.”

I opened my mouth to say something just as Lucifer added, “Much as you would have, if given the chance.”

With my mouth still agape, I lowered the missive and stared at him.

“Don’t look so puzzled.” Lucifer plucked the last of the feathers and shook them off his fingers. “If you had served directly under me in Samael’s stead, that backbone of yours and your penchant to speak your mind would have made you talk sense into me much sooner than you did just now. And given the way you’ve successfully been leading territories of your own for millennia, you would have stepped up to keep things running rather than lean back and laze around as Samael did.”

I still didn’t know how to handle this. Genuine compliments and appreciation for me coming out of his mouth, without a hidden agenda or being followed up by some slight or backtracking insult. Two weeks of this, and it still made me uneasy.

While it also, word by word, and despite my best attempts at keeping myself detached, continued to heal wounds I’d thought long set and scarred.

“Crawl off now,” Lucifer said to the demon sobbing at his feet, his wings a ruin of bloody sinews and mutilated flesh. “And keep those wings out for everyone to see.” Leaning in, he grabbed the poor sod by his hair and lifted his head. “I will know if you don’t. And whatever restraint I showed you this time will not be available should you defy me again. Now get out of my sight.” With a push, he let him go.

Crying quietly, the demon crawled off the dais, his butchered wings dripping blood as he went.

Lucifer summoned a wet cloth and cleaned his fingers. His gaze, pulsing with unnerving darkness, met my own. “Tell me I’m wrong about you.”

I shook my head, conceding his point. “Part of my bewilderment,” I said, tapping the rolled-up letter against my thigh, “stems from how well you seem to be taking this in stride. I assumed any critique leveled at you would be met with a blade, or at least a tantrum of some sort.”

He chuffed a laugh. “Tantrum.” His voice sobering, he added, “Both you and Zoe have told me what I already knew to be true, deep inside. I was just too caught up in my own head to see it clearly. And there weren’t enough people left to be so blunt with me as to not couch the truth in flowery flattery.”

“Partly your fault for not keeping a good counsel of trusted advisers.”

He leveled a dark look at me.

I raised both hands. “Just being blunt. The quality you appreciate, remember?”

One side of his mouth tipped up, and he shook his head, his gaze on the floor. “I see it more and more now.”

“What?”

His eyes, when they met mine, shimmered with hints of light in their dark depths. “Your mother’s cleverness, mirrored in you.”

I shifted my weight, sudden discomfort making me clear my throat.

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