Page 249 of Like Grim Death: Part One
There’s silence after that for a while. Then the creak of hardwoods. I smell him, pine and nicotine, before I see him. But I force my eyes to open just as he sits on the side of the bed, feet on the floor, his hips close to mine. He’s got his head bowed, black curls tumbling just over his closed eyes. Hands still in his pockets. He looks like a fallen angel. He looks like his name.
My heart twists inside my chest.
He doesn’t say anything, but after a moment, he slips one hand free and reaches for me, circling his cold fingers around my uninjured wrist, holding onto me tightly, eyes still closed.
Silence is full of meaning between us.
I let my eyes shut too.
We sit there together for a long time.
“Where is Ella?” I manage to croak out, because it’s the only thing that matters to me now. She wouldn’t leave my side until I begged her to because she was staring at me with a worry I’ve never seen before. Something haunted in her eyes. I never meant for her to find me there. I never wanted her to see just how broken I am. But maybe that’s our problem, hiding our cracks and creating deeper ones.
Lucifer is quiet until he says, “Probably murdering Father Tomas right now. She wanted to speak to him alone after you dismissed her, so they’re in the study.”
My heart leaps to my throat. I had Lucifer track him down after he escaped the basement, but this is not okay. “I don’t want him anywhere near her, understand?” I spring open my eyes and find he’s staring back at me, watching me carefully. “Get himawayfrom her.”
He squeezes my wrist once, then he nods. “Okay,” he says simply.
“Scelus.”Elijah settles back into his chair, behind his desk. “Do you know what that means?” His forearms rest on the black wood, fingers curled gently into fists as he looks up at me.
I rake a hand through my hair, wanting to get back to Sid. Rain is only days old. But this is what we agreed to, me and my wife. I’m here to change things. I don’t know how, I don’t have any fucking plan, but Maverick put it in my face, all the things that might be happening to kids around the world that the 6 have their hands in. I would like to bury my head in the sand, if only to keep my family safe. But I’ve never truly been one to hide and my wife gets what she wants.
“Evil deed,” I answer Elijah as I easily translate the Latin. I drop my hand by my side as I glance over his shoulder, looking at the darkness of his lawn. I don’t often go to his home, but it’s beautiful, the fountains and white marble along his expansive back deck. He has a fence as we all do, but the high iron bars are concealed by thick shrubs. I’ll have to plant some of those. “What of it?” I cut my gaze back to him, bringing my fingers to the seat back of the red leather chair in front of me. Elijah’s office is made of mahogany and dark red, and it suits him. Bookshelves line the walls at his back. Old texts, some without names on the spine.
“It’s a ceremony you’ve likely never heard of.”
I roll my eyes, biting back on the groan threatening to rise up from my throat. I certainly have not heard of it, nor do I particularly want to right now. I know about Ortus, that was the precursor to this conversation. Why he dragged me here in the late evening hours on Sunday. “Fantastic,” I mutter under my breath, leaning into the chair and flexing my hips, stretching my back. Feeding Rain slumped against a pillow in the middle of the night isn’t great for my spine.
At least I don’t have any dreams of my father anymore. Maybe because I don’t sleep enough to dream at all.
Elijah gives me a bitter smile, lifting his hands and clasping them together. I avoid looking at the 6 ring on his finger. It reminds me too much of my father and that makes me feel a little murderous toward my currentDominus.
“Most of the women in the 6 have gone through some version or another of it.”
I tense, fingertips digging into the leather as I straighten to my full height. “No,” I whisper, not letting him explain it to me. I clench my teeth as he cocks a brow. “She’s been throughenough.”I snarl the words. I have a gun tucked into the back of my black jeans. I will put a bullet through his temple if this is about my wife. “Do you hear me?” I speak quietly, the words clawing their way up my throat. “She has suffered herentirefuckinglife.No.” I drop my hands from his chair. “If that’s what it takes for Ortus, I don’t want the rise—”
“Stop talking, Lucifer.” His tone is clipped but volume low.
I smile at him, but I don’t speak. He can explain it to me, but if it’s about Sid, I’m walking away. I’m done.
He tilts his head, his gaze never leaving mine. “Ella Christian.”
I go completely still, my eyes wide.What the fuck?
“Sid has been fully vetted. She has your child, after all. If someone did not want her with you, she would simply cease to exist.”
I grind my molars together, my nostrils flaring.
“However, Ella has proven nothing, and it is very clear Maverick wants her by his side.” He inclines his head, toward my hand. I know what he’s gesturing at. Coagula. Elijah has an X on his palm too. “She could be a liability. Her mother is no one, she does not know her father, and she has nothing to lose.”
I think of my brother. How I would do anything for him, and how he’s always proven the same to me.
“Why aren’t you tellinghimthis?”
Elijah smiles. “Becauseyouwill be ascending, andhecannot verify his girlfriend himself. That must come from you. Which is where we get toScelus.”
Evil deed. I try to make this make some sort of sense inside my head, but I get nothing. Does he want me tofuckElla? I could save us this entire conversation if he’d just say that; I already have fucked her. And if this is about Ignis, that can’t happen until next year, in May, so I’m not sure why the fuck I’m still here.
