Page 149 of An Unexpected Ascension
“It’s the last thing they’d expect, and it leaves Hell safe for Ada.” I nod towards her as she squares her shoulders.
“I can handle myself, thank you. I don’t need either of you to look after me like some child.” She scowls.
Lucifer turns to her with softness, brushing an errant strand of fiery hair from her face and eases her into his throne. She drops down into it with a heavy thud.
“No, not a child, my love. We are at war, there are real dangers here. I won’t risk losing you again. Can you accept that?”
Her scowl falters, molding into a frown. Slowly, she nods.
Lucifer kisses her swiftly before turning his attention back to me.
“Briar, have you ever been around the beast? Felt its presence? Its hunger to steal every last bit of innocence your soul clings to?”
“I—”
“No! You haven’t! You haven’t been nearly severed in half trying to wrangle the beast into submission! Now, can you just accept that we need more time?”
A red-hot rage ignites deep my chest, engulfing my useless heart in a bout of flames.
“Dammit, just listen to me for a second!”
He snaps his mouth shut, pinching his lips together.
“Well?” he urges.
“When I found the Mortifier, Lynx and I were approached by a pack of Hell Hounds. They seemed to fear the weapon, retreated the second I waved it around.” I can practically see the gears turning inside the Devil’s head. “It could work the same for Greygore. We could use it to keep him in check and at our mercy.”
Lucifer snaps, the deathly object forming in his raised hand. The very instant it appears, the air in the room grows cold, too cold for the likes of Hell. The thing calls to me in an enchanting whisper, purring sweet nothings in my ear, urging me to wrap my fingers around it’s hilt and wield it until all my desires are granted.
And every cell in my body responds to its calling, drawn to it like a magnet.
“Only one way to find out.” He groans as he disappears from our sight.
Chapter 50
The Angel
Eventually, I lower myself onto the Throne room floor, resting my elbows on my bent knees. Ada’s posture starts to droop, and she leans back against the Devil’s perch.
Boredom blossomed after the first twenty minutes of Lucifer’s disappearance. We’re now going on an hour.
“I just worry that something has happened to him,” she says again for the tenth time.
“Even if it has, there’s nothing we can do. He’s the only one besides Lynx able to shift through space.”
She nods but her face only pinches with more worry.
I push myself to my feet. “I think I’m going to freshen up. If this works – using Greygore – then I want to be ready.”
“Okay, Briar.”
Leaving Ada on the throne, I head back towards my room, but when I descend the steps, I halt on the axis between the East and West Wing.
Possessed by the tug in my heart, I find myself pushing open the door to Lynx’s quarters. Unsurprisingly, I’m met with various shades of black and grey doused in rays from a setting sun.
The room is no bigger than my own, only with less color and more bite. Everything in here seems sharper – the edges of furniture, the stone of the hearth, the frame of his bed. Whereas my room is adorned in polished wood, rounded with beautiful designs and in here... it’s all straight lines and harsh angles.
Besides that, it’s fairly empty. Just as his apartment in the city is. Nothing to really encapsulate who Lynx is or was.
