Page 117 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“I’m not sure I understand,” I said at the same time as Azazel murmured, “He’d kill everything on Earth, wouldn’t he?”

CHAPTER 34

Iwhipped my head around to gape at Azazel. “What?”

His eyes were fixed on Shekinah. “Earth is not meant to hold Death’s full power; is that it? If he stays there longer, his essence would leak out and kill every living thing around him.”

Shekinah nodded, her expression drenched in sadness. “He cannot help it,” she repeated.

“It is not something he controls,” Metatron clarified. “It is just his nature. It would happen automatically, without his conscious doing. God noticed it when Lucifer spent some time on Earth before his fall, and afterward, when he was looking for Lilith in the wastelands.”

“But—” I shook my head and waved my hands, trying to make sense of my chaotic thoughts. “WhataboutLilith? He spent time with her—and she didn’t die!”

“He was with her only in short intervals before the fall, not long enough for his power to kill her,” Metatron said. “And the life-giving magic of Eden will have lent her some protection. When Lucifer found her in the wastelands, she swiftly decided to follow him to Hell?—”

“Yes, what aboutthat?” I interjected. “How did she survive all this time there with him?”

“Because it is his realm,” Shekinah answered, “crafted from himself and made to hold his power. He might not have known what he was doing, but by creating Hell, he founded a dimension where everything bound or born within it would withstand the chill of Death. When Lilith bonded with him, it connected her to Hell, and that shielded her from the effects of his essence for a long time.” Her gaze glided to me. “Though not forever.”

I flinched, the breath getting stuck in my throat at the memory of how depressed and detached Lilith had been—by her own account—and how she’d likened that feeling to a frog getting slowly boiled alive and not realizing what was happening because the process was so gradual.

“She was dyinginside,” I whispered, shock stealing my voice. Sudden tears clouded my eyes, and I swallowed past a closing throat. “Her body might have been shielded and kept alive, but her spirit… He waskillingher, little by little, and he didn’t even know it.”

I clapped a hand over my mouth, my heart shattering from the horrible understanding that swept through me.

He’d had no idea. Lucifer had never known that his soul mate, the woman he loved more than anything, was slowly dying from exposure to his true nature—Death—over the course of millennia. The protection their bond had granted her allowed her to survive for eons, but bit by bit, the power of death had chipped away at her anyway.

That was why she’d become so miserable. Why she’d felt as if she were in a coma, like parts of her had calcified.

Stifling a sob, I turned away, emotions choking me. For Lilith, who’d been dying for being close to the love of her life, and for Lucifer, who was doomed to kill the one person whom he loved so much that he’d forgotten himself to be with her.

The warmth of Azazel’s wing caressed my feathers. He’d stepped closer to me, his energy a soothing balm to my senses. He didn’t speak, didn’t need to, because there were no words that could ease the sorrow this revelation had caused in me.

“So, you see,” Metatron said with gravitas. “Lucifer truly cannot stay on Earth. Even if he intended to somehow control the power of death inside him, it would still leak out. It might take a day, but eventually his essence would slip through his control and taint the world around him. He would never make it to the point where his demon powers start to fade and he becomes human. By then, all living things in his vicinity—and beyond—would have perished.”

I sucked in a shuddering breath and turned back. “And if he takes Lilith to Hell after all, it would repeat her slow death over thousands of years.” I shook my head. “He’ll never do that. Not when he knows that he’s basically choking the life out of her with every minute he spends in her presence.” The tears spilled over now, drawing hot lines down my cheeks. “They’re the worst kind of star-crossed lovers, aren’t they? They’ll never get their happy end.”

Into the heavy silence, Azazel said, “The main problem remains, though. You are sending us back to Lucifer with the news that he cannot ever be on Earth, with no other viable option for him to reunite with Lilith. And with what you just revealed, the situation seems even more dire. I was concerned about the consequences of telling Lucifer he can’t be on Earth when I thought him merely the most powerful demon in existence. But now? If he is truly Death and holds that kind of power, his implosion would be ruinous for all the realms.”

“I agree,” Metatron said softly and with a helpless note to his voice.

“There must be a way.” I speared my fingers into my hair, massaging my temples with the balls of my hands. “You’re boththe highest-ranking angels ever, and you have God’s ear, or, at least, you know more of his plans than anyone else. You must be chock-full of wisdom! Can’t you think of anything? Isn’t there a loophole, some trick, some sleight of hand that would make this work?”

Shekinah stared at me with disturbing force. Not aggressively, more…expectantly, almost.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I whispered.

“I am waiting,” she replied just as quietly.

“For what?”

She shook her head, her eyes still fixed on me without blinking. “I cannot say. But I feel it coming closer.”

“For me?” I whipped my head around and scanned the rooftop and the night sky in a sudden burst of dread before remembering that I was a badass demon now. Plus, it would be highly unlikely that anything would dare charge me with an archdemon and the two most powerful angels standingright here.

Sometimes, my human experience still got the better of me.

For a moment, my thoughts derailed, pondering all those transformations I’d gone through, from bonding with Azazel to having Lilith pass some of her power to me to dying and being ascended as an angel and then falling from grace and becoming a demon.

---