Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Only if I can get to him in time.
Tipping my chin up, something ripples through me again, tingling every nerve in my body. It’s another odd feeling, but this one feels right, almost like I took off a tight corset that I didn’t know I was wearing. Letting out a breath, I reach behind me and touch a slick black feather. The ends are dark purple, and the change in color can only be seen when the light from the porch lights hits it.
“The others.” Lucifer looks up again. “They sensed that.”
“I don’t fucking care.” I push my shoulders back, trying to get my wings to fold back and disappear from view. “Let them fucking come.”
Chapter
Two
The air around me feels electric, and I don’t know if it’s from my anger fueling my own magic or if it’s from archangels closing in on us.
“Think about it, Callie,” Lucifer starts, hands held out slightly to his sides as he takes a tentative step closer. “Your daughter is in the house.” He wipes a bit of blood from his nose, slowly shaking his head. “They’ll be able to sense the divinity in her.”
Holy shit. He’s right. And holy shit, his nose is bleeding and I think I did it.
“I’m sorry,” I say and feel my wings fold up and disappear. Needing to be sure, I look over both my shoulders. And then everything hits me all at once. “I’m sorry,” I repeat, voice breaking.
“It’s okay, kiddo.” Lucifer comes to me and pulls me into a one-armed hug. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Lucas.” It’s all I can say without crying. Lucas swung himself up onto the horse and became a Horseman. He went to the Underworld—for me.
“I know.” Lucifer steps back and looks me in the eye. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Stop saying that.” My hair whips around my face as I quickly shake my head back and forth. “Take me there! Take me to the Underworld.”
“It’s not a place we can just go, Callie.”
“Why not?” I throw my hands out and bits of magic spark around my fingers. “It’s not locked like your Hell.”
“It’s not mine.” Lucifer’s face tenses and then he lets out a deep sigh. “Not as much as it is yours, even though you can claim it by birthright. It’s different from the Hell you’ve been to. We can’t just fly down.”
“But we can go. I just need to figure out a way.” Blinking back tears and swallowing my pounding heart, I rush over to what’s left of the shriveled body on the ground. I pull back Famine’s hood and his skull starts to disintegrate before my eyes. “No,” I say, though I don’t know what I expected, let alone wanted to find. Dropping down to my knees, I madly feel the ground, hoping to find something—anything—that I can use to hitch a ride and meet Osiris in the Underworld.
“Callie,” Lucifer calls, rushing over, eyes on the sky. “We need to go.”
“Not without Lucas.”
“He’s gone, Callie.” His hand lands on my shoulder and I whirl around, getting to my feet.
“He’s not gone! He’s just…he’s just…not here.” My nostrils flare and I refuse to believe anything else. “I have to get him back.”
The magnetic feeling in the air increases, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“Callie,” Lucifer presses, more sympathetic this time. “They’re coming.”
“I said, let them! Let them find me so I can tell them what pieces of shit aunts and uncles they’ve been and—”
Lucifer reaches out, touching my forehead. “Sorry, Niece.”
“You motherfucker,” I grumble as I succumb to the darkness, falling into his arms as the world fades around me.
I wake with a start, sitting straight up. Unlike a sleeping spell, whatever Lucifer did has no lingering side effects, and I get to my feet just as angry and ready to kill as I did when I was in my yard. Only this time, I’m in Tabatha’s office and she, Evander, and Ruby are in here with me.
What the fuck?
“Juliet,” I rush out the single word, my heart suddenly dropping.
“Eliza has her,” Tabatha replies calmly. “She’s walking her up and down the hall.”
“And Lucifer?” The anger surging through me is making it hard to sense if there’s any divinity around.
Tabatha shakes her head. “He brought you all here and left, saying he was going to distract the others, whatever he means by that.” She’s trying hard to stay calm for my sake, but I can see the fear and worry in her eyes. “What happened, my darling girl?”
“Lucas, he—” I start and cut off, closing my eyes. Fat tears roll down my cheeks and I sniffle, knowing crying isn’t going to fix a damn thing. “It turns out Julian made a deal before was murdered.” Dammit, more tears burn in my eyes, and I get a flash of Julian’s body going limp as it fell to the ground. “With Osiris.”