Page 83 of Forged in Twilight: The Complete Series

So she was meeting someone? Too bad. She was his soulmate, and he wasn’t walking—or flying—away again until he’d made her understand.

“What happened to you?” he asked, cutting right to the chase. “There has to be some way to remind you that you know me.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be reminded.” Her eyes lit up. The angry purple melted away to a fiery golden color. “Maybe I don’t want to know you at all.”

Micah’s stomach twisted. No. No. He made a misstep somewhere. A wrong turn.

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen.

“Phoenix—”

“It’s Cinder,” she snapped, and he knew he made the situation even worse. Something crackled. It took a second before Micah realized it was her. The ends of her long, black hair had caught on fire, though it didn’t burn. Like a candle’s flame, it flickered. “And I have business here. Business that doesn’t include you. So why don’t you do me a favor and get the hell away from me?”

“I can’t do that.”

The flames flared around her. “This is your warning. Get out of here, or I’ll make you. You don’t know what you’re interrupting.”

She was right about that. He didn’t know, but if it involved his soulmate, then it was Micah’s business, too.

Dropping his hands to his side, he left his chest a wide target. Phoenix’s fire magic never affected him. Hoping that he was impervious to Cinder’s, too, he tilted his chin.

“Go right ahead. Flame me if you want, but I’m not going anywhere until you give me the chance to explain myself. Because you do know me. And I can tell you how.”

Ah, finally. Micah got something right.

She hesitated. He took heart in that, especially when she said, “Later, okay? You know where the cabin is. Come see me later. But you’ve gotta go now.”

“Why?” he demanded.

She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.

Micah got his answer anyway.

The air grew warm. At first, he thought it was because of her fire magic, but when he breathed in deep, nearly choking on the stink of brimstone that overpowered him, Micah knew it was because of something else.

Someone else.

He didn’t arrive in a puff of smoke or a circle of fire. Instead, with a barely audible pop, he was just there.

Tall and lean, he had shoulder-length hair as black as pitch pulled back in a queue at the base of his neck. His goatee could be considered nothing less than swarthy, and a pair of icy blue eyes peered out of a darkly handsome face.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”

Micah fisted his hands at his side. It had been centuries since he’d been face to face with his old enemy, but he’d never forget that smirk as long as Micah lived.

Lucifer.

His dark aura bloomed when he noticed Micah.

“The cherub,” scoffed Lucifer. “First, Raziel takes my demoness. Then Death uses his human as a pawn to steal my talisman. And now this? They send the cherub to face me. I should feel insulted.”

“I’m not here for you.”

His icy eyes slid over to the witch. “Of course not. In that, it seems, we finally have something in common. We both came for the witch. Only, in my case, I believe I’m the one she expected. Isn’t that so?”

Micah was watching Cinder out of the corner of his eye. He wanted her to deny it. To look at Lucifer and not recognize him, either.

She didn’t.

---