Page 43 of Eternal Sacrifice
“She was batshit,” Ryan said, sliding his way into the huddle.
“But Lucifer is really dead? Not playing some elaborate trick?” Zeb asked, his arms crossed over his chest, making him resemble a gargoyle.
“Mor saw his spirit move on.”
Zeb relaxed his muscles at the news. I got the feeling plenty of other demons out there feeling the same way. All they wanted to know was what had happened.
Most of the common demons had never even glimpsed the former King of Hell.
We could be better than that.
Morrigan
“IsthiswhyLuciferlounged so much? From the boredom?” I allowed the top half of my body to slump over the end of the bed so I could look at Justice upside down.
He sat on the floor with Lucifer’s journal between his thighs. Holding his finger in the air, he took a minute to finish reading the passage before looking up at me.
“Maybe. It looks like he spent way too fucking much time wallowing in daddy issues.”
“Seems to be a common theme in Hell,” I muttered, primarily to myself.
“You have boredom issues, Fox. Issues that turn into orgies.” He waggled his eyebrows, even though only the two of us were in the room.
Jasper had decided to meet with the sins to run over the logistics of how many rouge spirits still wandered the realms and how many were considered too powerful to take on. He had been adamant about refining the state of Hell and trying to improve on Lucifer’s long-held traditions.
Jax and Jace were off together somewhere in the palace. I’m sure they wouldn’t take long to get back if I asked them to.
“What if we read together, Fox?” Justice pulled Lilith’s book from beneath the bed, holding it up for me to look at it.
I scrambled to sit up and get off the bed without landing on my head. Justice scooted to the side, even though there was already plenty of space on the otherwise empty floor. He folded his legs beneath him before laying the book down.
I heard soft whispers coming from the bound pages, drawing me closer as I strained to make out the words. Justice also leaned in, tilting his head to the side as he focused, clearly attempting the same. I reached forward, opening the book. Weathered and aged pages looked back at me. The dried ink held a faint cast of red. When my finger hovered near the writing, the ink seemed to come back to life, fresh and wet. Gold flakes ran through the liquid lines, rushing up as if they wanted me to touch them.
But I stopped.
There were new markings. Ones inked in shimmering gold that seemed to be written in the air above the page rather than on it. They moved like a projection, layering on top of the blood-inked spells. Soft voices whispered from them, drawing my attention as I started to hear more clearly.
“Book of Knowledge.”
I gasped. “Holy fuck.” I looked over to Justice, noticing his eyes were wide as he looked at me. “Did you hear that too?”
Justice sat back, catching himself with his hands while physically moving away from the book on the floor as if it would strike out and suck him inside. “What do you know about the Tree of Knowledge?”
“When I was a mortal, it was part of the creation story. God planted a tree of knowledge, and no one was allowed to eat the fruit. But Lucifer tricked Eve, and that’s why humans sin.”
His head cocked to the side, and he blinked a few times, attempting to fit my account into his version. Only for him, it wasn’t coming from the writings of long-dead humans who claimed to have been given knowledge of what they spoke of. This was a piece of his history.
“The tree of knowledge existed before I was born, before the sins were created. But Lilith was there.” Justice reached forward and gently closed the book before turning back to me with clear, sharp eyes, unlike the unfocused ones he usually used to slip through eternity. “Lucifer created Lilith after he was cast into the Hell realm. She was supposed to be Lucifer’s right hand, a being with a celestial soul that could travel through the realms at his bidding. Instead, she fell in love.”
“What?” I looked at Justice to be sure he hadn’t misspoken.
“With Adam.” Justice glanced at the book as if he expected it to flop over and join the conversation. “She seduced him, and Lucifer’s father got pissed.”
“God,” I said to clarify.
“One of them.” Justice’s eyes bounced around like that wasn’t crucial to the story. “But he put a curse on Adam’sseed. That might be where your fruit part came in.” Justice pumped his hand in the air. “So, when Adam and Lilith snuck off again, he came inside her and stripped her womb.”
“No wonder she was pissed. She got a fucking celestial hysterectomy.” I looked back at the book and remembered the moments in the pit. Lucifer had said she had what she needed without killing him. “What was she trying to do?”
