Page 178 of Crimson Promises
Her hands slid down my chin. She layered both of them over my heart. “It didn’t mean anything. None of it. Say you can forgive me.”
I closed my eyes against the flashes of them intertwined, the desire so obviously visible on both of their faces. “Always. But I saw you both, Aurora. All of that didn’t come from nothing.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “There were moments when Lucifer seemed to let his guard down. I saw flashes of a different person with intelligence and kindness. Then, when you arrived at the ball, he showed that a monster is all he ever was and all he'd ever be.” She threw a hateful glance at Lucifer over her shoulder. “All it ever was was a physical response. There was never anything else there.”
Ever so briefly, her lips brushed mine. “It’s only ever been you, Ben.” The tightness in my chest began to loosen. “It will only ever be you.”
I rested my forehead against hers.
"Is everyone at home okay?" she whispered.
I knew who she was talking about. I gave her a quick nod.
Lucifer’s icy voice sliced through the thick, charged atmosphere like a finely honed knife. "Aurora," he said, the three syllables of her name a cold command echoing through the grand hall. “As heartwarming and nausea-inducing as this reunion was, I’m going to have to cut it short.”
“No,” Aurora cried.
“We wouldn’t want anything to happen to him. Would we, Little Star?” Lucifer taunted.
“No,” she muttered, defeat laced her voice.
The soft touch of Aurora's hand slipped from mine, the phantom warmth of her touch all that remained. It felt as if he'd carved away a piece of my soul, the absence of her echoing inside me, an empty space that her presence had once filled. The heart-wrenching sight of her turning away from me, reluctantly moving back towards that monstrous black throne, was a fresh punch to my gut. Words of protest lodged in my throat. She took her place at Lucifer's side.
Her eyes met mine, a silent plea dancing in their sapphire depths, reaching out to me across the space that now separated us. My heart pounded against my rib cage, a wild rhythm that matched the frantic beat of despair coursing through my veins.
As Lucifer took his place next to her, the cruel smirk on his lips seemed to gleam almost as brightly as the throne. It was a twisted game of chess, and I was the pawn outplayed.
“Bennett Caelum, it's time to lose everything, just as I have.”
Aurora’s head tilted.
My arms hung loosely at my sides. I stared at a chip in the flooring, not feeling worthy of her. Instead, I wanted to remember how she looked at me with adoration and tenderness. It was likely the last time she would ever look at me in such a way.
“Might as well get comfortable for this, Caelum.”
One moment, I was standing on shaky legs, and the next, I was sitting on a shiny wood and cushioned seat the color of coal. Manacles slid over my hands. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum flanked either side of the chair. All I could focus on was that their breath stank like swamp water.
Lucifer strutted down the dais, pacing from one end of the hall to the other. I could see Aurora tracking his movements out of the corner of my eye.
“Our story begins on a stormy night on Arbor Lane, almost twenty-one years ago. A human man received his greatest blessing and lived through his worst nightmare all in the same moment. Stephen James arrived home to his house on Arbor Lane, responsible for a baby girl he and his wife named Aurora, alone.”
Aurora sat with her back ramrod straight against the stone, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. Her hand automatically went to her neck to clasp where her necklace should have been. The necklace she still didn’t know protected her from Lucifer for the better part of her life.
“Stephen rocked Aurora to sleep the first time, tears streaming down his face. He promised Alice that he would do right by their child. He would love her enough for the both of them. She would have the life they had both dreamed about for their daughter.”
My heart cracked at the pain in Aurora’s eyes. Of the future, she could've had had Alice not passed from this world. The siblings, vacations, holidays, and birthdays surrounded by love and laughter.
“Stephen wanted Aurora to know her mother, so on her first night in her new home, he brought in a necklace he had told Alice he would pass on to her into her room in the hopes that, in some small way, it meant that Alice would always be close by, watching over the girl she already had adored and loved unconditionally.”
Rivers of tears trailed down Aurora’s face, dripping from her chin onto her dress. She didn’t bother wiping them away. The loss of her mother was a wound that had and would never heal. It was a pain I was intimately familiar with, but to hear all of this for the first time. Not only the loss of her mother but also the grief her father endured was too much to bear. I yearned to go and comfort her, but the restraints continued to keep me stationary. The best I could do was shoot thoughts of comfort and support down the bond.
“That night, Stephen vowed to always protect and love their daughter more than the moon and the stars. A phrase Alice had said to him the night of the first date when she was a little too tipsy. While their love wasn’t perfect, theirs had been one of commitment, compromise, and kindness. It was all he had ever dreamed, and hoped one day his daughter would find the same.”
Lucifer paused for dramatic effect right in front of Aurora.
“That night, the storm was vicious. Little did Stephen James know that hidden amongst the shadows, an angel fallen from grace was making his own vow that night. Though, it was not the first and would not be the last one he made.”
Aurora turned her attention to me. Her fingers touched her parted lips.
