Page 104 of Wicked Believer
“I can and I will. Watch me.”
Abruptly, he casts an all-too-familiar document onto the desk in front of me, and I know without looking what it is.
My employment contract.
The same one he used to trap me all those months ago.
Only this time, I walked right into it willingly.
My heart seizes.
The devastation inside me is immediate. The pressure building inside my chest from where I forget to breathe.
My life. My father. My choices.
And now . . .
My privacy. Bothinsidemy head and out.
Every part of me—everything I am—stolen from me.
Thisis all I’ll ever mean to him.
If I don’t start fighting for something different.
“So, you’d let that be the crux of us?” The words come out as a statement, so low and injured and broken that if it weren’t for his supernatural hearing, I’d be surprised if he could hear them. “The pretty little dove. The weak bird you keep in a cage. Not a true partner. Not someone worthy of your respect, your honesty. Just a toy made from one of your bones.” I shake my head. “Well, I won’t. Not anymore.” I look at him then, meeting his gaze head-on. “It’syouyou’ve been trying to protect this whole time, not me. It always has been.”
Lucifer’s jaw clenches like I’ve just seen past all his defenses. He reaches out, and his thumb slowly traces over the diamonds at my throat. “I will not lose you to whatever foolhardy teenage-immortal rebellion it is you’re waging, Charlotte.” He stares at me, his dark eyes so full of worry that for a moment it stills me, until his gaze softens slightly, and he whispers, “I cannot bear to watch you die in my arms again.”
The words cut through me, nearly causing me to falter.
He loves me. Of course he does.
He wants to protect me.
In his own cruel, twisted way.
But I’m done fighting him.
And for the first time since he remade me, I’m going to start fighting forus. I lift my chin as he drops back down into his chair. “I wouldn’t have taken you for a coward.”
A spark of fury lights in Lucifer’s expression. Barely there, but present. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
But I don’t stop there. I won’t stop until I’ve forced out whatever fear, whatever vulnerabilities, have been holding him back.
The same way he did for me.
Who better to remind the devil of who he is than his vicious queen?
I turn up my nose like I’m disappointed in him. “First you allow your Mother to dictate our lives, our fate, and now this?” I scoff. “Why even bother calling yourself the devil?”
Lucifer remains unnaturally silent for a beat. “You are treading into very dangerous territory.”
“Maybe I want dangerous.” I thrust my chin forward, my expression full of defiance. “Maybe I want what only the devil can give me.”
Lucifer comes up out of his chair, and I stand, meeting him at the edge of his desk.
