Page 96 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“No…I’ve been helping him.”

I nodded slowly in sympathetic understanding. “Because he threatened you.”

“Because heasked.”

I tilted my head. “With a threat, right?”

“With an apology,” Lucifer said from the dais, his dark eyes glittering.

I glanced between the two of them. Back and forth, trying to figure this thing out. They both looked…noncombative. Calm. No trace of hostility.

Narrowing my eyes, I glared at Lucifer. “Is this a trick?”

He laughed.Laughed, the stupefying fiend. “Just like you,” he said, his gaze resting on Azazel. “Well matched indeed.”

My face scrunching up in confusion, it took me a good five seconds to realize there’d been no insult in that statement, Lucifer’s voice devoid of mockery. “You’re actually getting along,” I said eventually, half a question, half an astonished statement.

Azazel shrugged and shifted on his feet, but I didn’t sense any deception or dread down the bond.

“So, what—you’re chummy now?” I looked back and forth between them again, then threw up my hands. “I leave for a few weeks, and suddenly you’re best buds?”

“I find your surprise perplexing,” Lucifer said, his gaze on the blade with which he removed dirt from under his nails. “Weren’t you the one scolding me about not making amends?”

Azazel shot me a curious look.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d actuallylisten.” I put one hand on my hip and gestured to Lucifer with the other. “For the longest time, nothing I said seemed to get through.”

“Well, it did now.” He waved the dagger in a lazy circle. “And I am not so far gone as to be unable to recognize the truth when I hear it.” Lifting his chin, his eyes on me, he tapped the blade against his thigh. “I apologized to him.”

I pursed my lips. “Would you like a medal for that?”

“Zoe,” Azazel said in warning, but there was a hint of a grin in his voice.

“What?” I flipped my hair over my shoulder. “I’m not giving accolades for the bare minimum.”

“Noted.” His dark eyes glinting, Lucifer twirled the blade in his hand. “What was it you wanted to speak with me about?”

I could virtually hear the screeching tires of my thoughts as his question made them do a one-eighty at full speed to return to the subject I’d actually come in here to talk about, before the wholly unexpected reconciliation between Lucifer and Azazel had sidetracked me.

My pulsed ramped up, my hands got clammy, and I sucked in a bracing breath. “We should be alone for this conversation.”

Without missing a beat, Lucifer snapped his fingers and said, “Court dismissed.” Nodding at me and Azazel, he turned and strode from the dais toward a small door to the side.

Cocking a brow at me, Azazel fell into step as I followed Lucifer, but he didn’t press me on what this was about. I grabbed his hand and squeezed, sending him a wobbly smile.

The room Lucifer led us to was smaller than the throne room by far, though it could likely still comfortably hold a gathering of dozens of demons. Soft-looking chairs and sofas were grouped around low tables, and a fireplace added a bit of cozy ambience—it certainly wasn’t necessary for heating the space.

Lucifer sank into one of the armchairs and gestured for us to sit as well. Vengeance plopped down on a big couch that promptly broke under her weight, which didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. With a purely doglike chuff of contentment, she rolled onto her back, crunching the furniture debris underneath her, and stretched her legs into the air.

My butt hadn’t quite made contact with the plush cushion yet when I blurted out, “I found her.”

Everything stopped.

The fire in the grate froze as if someone had pressed pause. Venny’s grunts of happiness went silent. Even my own breaths seemed to still, and I couldn’t move a muscle, caught in a state of paralyzed awareness.

And in that second of disquieting inertia, I swore I saw a flicker over Lucifer’s form, the whisper of silver-white wings behind him.

Before panic over my paralysis could set in, time resumed normally, and I drew in a sharp breath, blinking rapidly. Vengeance huffed and twitched her legs, and on the chair next to me, Azazel shifted, clenching and unclenching his hands.

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