Page 131 of An Unexpected Ascension
Her assumption tickles me, a smirk playing on my lips. I try to fight it, desperate to avoid the blatant denial from the angel, but she merely brushes it off.
“I’m sure it’s good to be home.”
“It is.”
“You probably know this already, but your husband here is hardly the Devil everyone fears, the man is entirely too soft for Hell. I assume it’s all your doing, Ada.” She smiles warmly at her.
The first bit of affection she’s let slip in the last week.
“So Lynx has told me time and time again,” Lucifer mutters to himself, sipping at some tea.
“My husband has never been anything but fair and kind. Ruling an entire world wouldn’t change that. Even if that world is Hell.” Ada squeezes Lucifer’s fingers, a silent conversation held between them with just a simple look. The sheer intensity of it forces my gaze away as if I’m intruding on something too private.
Instead, I bring my gaze to the angel.
“Soul mate, huh?”
“I’m not trying to make the Devil’s wife uncomfortable with correcting her assumption.”
“No?” A smile breaks across my face. “That’s very telling.”
“How so?”
Lucifer’s throat clears, interrupting our side conversation.
“I’m throwing a soiree. In celebration of my wife's return.”
My gaze snaps to the Devil’s.
“A party? Here? You’ve never.”
He stands, pulling Ada with him.
“There’s no better time than now.”
“A party?!”I growl again, alone with Lucifer in the war room.
“Look, you and I both know the Gods are coming. What better way than to fill this place to the brim with our awaiting army.”
“We’d be cattle herded for the killing!” I throw my hands up in exasperation.
Lucifer slides a crystal tumbler my way, amber liquor sloshing over the edge and onto the metal table. I swallow its contents in one go.
“But the four of us would be needles in a haystack,” he counters. “Look, I can’t stand the dreaded wait any longer than you can. Especially now that Ada is home. This might even take our minds off the impending war.”
“We can’t afford taking our minds off the war!”
“Lynx!” he shouts, then groans. Pacing before me. “I'm desperate to distract Ada. I did all I could to make Hell as safe as possible for it being... well,Hell. And now that she’s here, all I see is such purity placed in a pit of corruption. How do I make this place her home?”
I sigh. “Then we have a party.”
Leaving the Devil to his planning, I head for the training room in much need of a different distraction. With no one to spar against, I sit at the edge of the room with my feet dangling off the side and over the steep drop to the desecrated land.
As I sharpen the steel blade of my sword, a soft voice sounds behind me.
“Hi.”
Turning my upper half, I spot Ada approaching.
