Adrian Phoenix - In the Blood

“Yes, you would’ve,” the Morningstar said. “And you would’ve been close—whether to guard or kill—I don’t know, but I have a feeling that’s how Loki found you and that’s why you bound him.”

“If you say so.” Lucien finished the orange, then bit into the bread.

“Samael…”

“He prefers Lucien,” Lilith murmured, sipping at her wine.

“ Lucien , then, as my beloved cydymaith advises.”

Lucien looked at them, amusement glimmering in his black eyes. “Congratulations,” he said. “Did this blessed union happen to coincide with Gabriel’s claiming of the throne?”

Heat rouged Lilith’s cheeks. “My unions ceased to be your business the moment you fled Gehenna, our creawdwr ’s blood still wet upon your hands.”

Lucien’s amusement disappeared and gold light awakened in his eyes. “We all do what we must. Each one of us. Then once we’ve done what was necessary, we begin anew.” He held her gaze, scorching though all her shields and barricades as if they’d never existed.

.>

Cold anger swept through Lilith. How was it possible for him to do this to her after all the centuries that had passed? To make her feel as if he’d never betrayed her, never winged away from her side? As if she had wronged him ?

Lilith closed her mind to him, snapped her shields up tight. She lifted her cup and drained it. A rose-gowned servant seized a moisture-beaded pitcher and hurried over to refill her cup. The nephilim poured carefully, then returned to her place in the shadows.

“Yes, we begin anew. I like that,” Star said, voice earnest. He sat up and leaned toward Lucien. “I pledge to protect this Maker, to keep him from Gabriel, and safe. I will restore Gehenna and place the creawdwr on the Chaos Seat where he belongs. We’ll bind him and love him—“

“You’ve made a mistake,” Lucien said. “There is no creawdwr .”

“But there is! I heard his song just before dawn.” The Morningstar’s face blazed incandescent, caught up in emotions too intense for Lilith to even attempt to untangle or name.

“Then you’ve drank too much wine,” Lucien said, his voice cold and distant. He stood, the length of chain in his hands again.

The image of Lucien cradling Yahweh’s body flashed through Lilith’s mind. Would Lucien kill his own son in a deranged effort to protect him from his rightful place on the Chaos Seat?

“If you were to bring this young creawdwr home,” Star said. “I’m confident past crimes would be forgiven. You would be free, brother, to remain here or return to the mortal world.”

“This conversation bores me,” Lucien said. “Take me back to the pit.”

The Morningstar trailed a hand through his short hair, glanced at Lilith, then nodded. “As you wish. Once you’re hanging in the heat and darkness again with the chalkydri flaying your flesh, I hope you’ll remember our conversation.”

“Oh, every word,” Lucien said. “I enjoy a good laugh.”

Star sent to Lilith, a wry smile on his lips.

.>

As though summoned, the rose-gowned nephilim servant stepped from her place in the shadows and approached the Morningstar. The girl was new, Lilith mused, but she looked familiar. Given her wheat-colored tresses, she was most likely yet another of Star’s half-blood offspring.

The girl whispered into Star’s ear, then stepped back. He rose fluidly to his feet, his purple kilt swirling around his legs. “Another matter has come up,” he said. “So I’ll leave it to you, my love, to arrange for our guest’s return to Sheol.”

Lilith nodded. “Of course, beloved.”

Star strode from the room, his servant-daughter following in his wake. Absent of the Morningstar’s radiance, the chamber seemed to dim despite the rising sun, seemed to quiet and relax as if releasing a long-held breath.

Lucien looked at Lilith. A sardonic smile tilted his lips. “So it’s your turn now, is it?”

she sent. < Please follow my lead .> She eased up from her couch and walked around the red oak table to where Lucien stood, his face still. “I know you want Gabriel off the throne as much as we do.”

Lucien nodded. “Yes, I do, but I’m not hiding a Maker. I don’t know how to make it any plainer.”

“The fact that you turned Loki to stone indicates otherwise,” Lilith said. “And if Gabriel hears of what you’ve done to Loki, he’ll be convinced you’re hiding something.”

“All it indicates is that Loki irritates me.”

Lilith chuckled. “He irritates me too.” < I heard your son’s song this morning too. Tell him to be silent.>

Weariness shadowed Lucien’s eyes. < He’s closed our link. If I force it open, it’ll not only injure him, it’ll reveal the bond between us .>

.> Lilith pulled the weight of her hair over her shoulder and plaited it as she pondered. Why has your son closed the link?

.>

“Perhaps,” Lucien whispered. He stumbled forward a step, sweat gleaming at his hairline. Lilith grabbed his shoulders and steadied him. “Sorry. Seems I’m fading.” A smile ghosted across his lips. His skin burned beneath her fingers. His dark earth-and-green-leaves scent filled her nostrils, coiled around the past.

Releasing him, Lilith turned to the table and poured a cup of wine. She pressed it into his trembling hand. “Drink,” she urged.

she sent. < The coward .>

A muscle jumped in Lucien’s jaw. He drained the wine in one long swallow. He touched the dewed cup to his forehead and closed his eyes. “You might as well send me back,” he said. “I’ve nothing more to say.”

he sent. < If not, I need you to guard Dante from Gabriel and the Morningstar .> Lowering the cup, Lucien opened his eyes and the desperation Lilith saw in his gold-flecked eyes splintered her heart.

She thought of Hekate, thought of how it had felt to have her silver-haired daughter wrenched from her grasp, remembered the fear on her child’s face when Gabriel, triumphant after battle, had seized her.

She will be a hostage in my court, to ensure your cooperation .

You don’t have to do this, Gabriel. I swear upon my name, I won’t trouble you .

Ah, Lilith, but I do. The moment I turn my back, you’ll be plotting to steal the throne yet again .

Not this time. Not now. Leave me my daughter. Please .

Shhh, my love. Hekate will be perfectly safe. Gabriel assured me of that .

You knew? You bargained our daughter away ? Our daughter, Star ?

Lilith recalled Lucien’s words to her millennia ago: You’ll never use him again . Everything that had happened to her since that day had its roots in Yahweh’s murder by her cydymaith .

Lilith plucked the cup from Lucien’s fingers and set it on the table. With a flick of her mind, she summoned a pair of chalkydri . She met her former cydymaith’s gaze. “I’ll do what I can to help you,” she lied. < If nothing else, I will guard your son .>

From you .

Lucien lifted a hand, chains clinking, and brushed his fingers across her cheek. “We all do what we must, Lili,” he murmured. He lifted his head. “Each one of us.”