Page 91 of Dark Prince

He’s lost his temper. Regardless of his long-term plans, he could kill Lucifer now in a fit of rage. I can’t let that happen. I have to help—somehow. Taking him on myself would be suicide, and useless at that. There has to be a better way to give Lucifer the opening he needs to take his father out.

Think, Sophia, think!

There has to be something up here…

I freeze, a thought bursting through my mind.

The lights.

Every now and then, this building will put on a light show, shooting beams of color against the clouds. I’ve seen it before. I remember Cassidy commenting on it once, and both of us laughing about how all the billionaires in this city were trying to outdo each other with displays of wealth.

As quickly and quietly as I can manage, I creep around the elevator shaft, hiding behind ducts, looking for the lights. The sounds of the two demons brawling nearby carry easily across the roof.

“You could have fought alongside me!” Cephalus roars. “Ruled Hell under me as Prince!”

Each phrase is punctuated by increasingly sickening thuds. My heart pounds, nausea churning in my stomach. He’s going to beat Lucifer to death before I can find these stupid lights.

“Playing warden on Earth.”Crunch.“Keeping humans and demons safe from each other? That’s what you chose over fighting alongside your father?”

His tone is mocking now. I trip over a bolt the size of a dinner plate and look up. There, twice my height and just as big around, is one of the lights. It’s locked straight up, but I know it swivels. If I can just point it at Cephalus and blind him for a second, maybe Lucifer can find his feet.

“You disgust me,” Cephalus growls. “You’re useless. Pathetic.”

I find the release switch and point the light at Cephalus. There’s got to be a button or a switch or something to turn the thing on.

Come on, come on…There!

“As useless and pathetic as Uriel.”

Just as he speaks his lost son’s name, I switch the light on. Cephalus bellows, throwing his arms up over his blinded eyes. Lucifer roars with fury, his body untwisting and his limbs beginning to heal themselves as he hurls himself at his father, intent on murder.

My heart leaps with hope, and I run away from the light, skirting around the ducts. I have to watch. I know how to help now, and I have to stay where I can see. The light is casting a lot of deep, dark shadows across the roof. I could hide in one and—

I slam to a halt.

A flash of pale skin in the dark is all the warning I have before Naamah—soaked in her own blood and still missing most of the flesh and skin of her throat—steps out of the shadows. She smiles at me, and I see her mouth move before I hear her voice. It’s rough and raspy, the corded muscles of her neck disturbingly visible.

“Lucifer was never meant to be yours,” she croaks. “And he never will be.”

Then she shoves me off the roof.

Chapter32

Lucifer

Sophia is brilliant.

Using the light that way was inspired. I’ve got my father now, I can feel it. He’s struggling to keep up as I lash out at him over and over. I could end this nightmare right now, not just for me, but for all the armies of the three planes.

He’s blinded, stumbling, his throat exposed.Almost there.

My focus shatters as Sophia’s scream echoes between buildings, falling away from me. My breath stops. Forgetting the conflict at hand, possessed by a bone-deep need, I launch myself off the building after her. From the corner of my eye, I see Naamah leaning over the edge, watching Sophia fall with a vindictive smile on her broken face.

Fuck her.

Sophia’s face is frozen in a breathless scream below me. I beat my wings desperately, flying faster than gravity. Seconds pass like minutes. Floor after floor of windows reflect in her wide, terrified eyes. Judging the angle, banking at the last possible second, I sweep her out of the air.

She clings to me, gasping, digging her nails into me.

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