Page 42 of Can't Bite This Feeling
“Oh, Gods,” I murmur, hardly able to believe it.
Then a thought occurs to me. I narrow my eyes.
“Wait. You knew he was free when you offered me the soul tether. You would’ve brought him back, but not for me. Not forus.This was all part of your sick little game. You brought back Cassian to manipulate me. You thought I’d bargain for Rapha’s life just as he did for mine.”
Lucifer grins, slow and cold. “Of course I did, my sweet, deluded Drusilla. Need I remind you that I’m the Devil? Manipulation is my middle name. Did you honestly think I brought your father back, broughtyouback, out of the goodness of my charred little heart? No, darling. I thought I could twist your love for Raphainto something useful. A shiny little chain I could tug when I got bored.”
I glare. “Then why didn’t you?”
He sighs impatiently, like he’s explaining long division to a dog. “Because whileIcracked open the gate, it was his damn devotion that dragged your soul back into your bones.Hegave you life again. It seems centuries of unrequited love is quite the magical accelerant. You were reborn through his love, not my dominion. Andlove, as it turns out, is wildly inconvenient to corrupt. I couldn’t tether you because you weren’t mine to bind.”
“So in tethering Rapha to me, I would tether myself to you,” I state.
He gives a slow, mocking clap. “Exactly. But you resisted. You chose to let his sacrifice stand. You chosehim.And he chose you. Honestly, I’m offended.”
Hysterical laughter bubbles up in my throat. “Oh, Gods, this is perfect.”
Lucifer’s eyes narrow, his grin fixed like it’s been stapled there under duress. “Careful, darling. I’m still the Prince of Darkness. Just because you slipped the leash doesn’t mean I won’t find new ways to meddle. I’m endlessly creative.”
“You’re petty,” I correct, wiping a tear of laughter from my cheek. “You lost, and youhatethat it was because of love.”
“Yes, well, thanks to my beloved estranged father”—he casts his eyes heavenward—“true, unselfish love is messy, unpredictable, and incredibly hard to corrupt. I loathe it.”
“Get used to it,” I say, turning back to Rapha’s still form, my hand trembling as it brushes his hair from his brow. “Because this love? It's not going anywhere.”
Something flickers in Lucifer’s eyes for only a second, but I recognize it. Envy.
“Disgusting,” he scoffs. “You two are insufferable.”
I pause, another question catching on the edge of my tongue.
“And Cassian?” I ask, voice low. “Is he dead?”
Lucifer’s grin sharpens, teeth gleaming like blades. “Oh, yes. Quite. No messy in between this time. No purgatory. No redemption arc.” He leans in, his purred words laced with venom.
“He’s with me now. And I plan to spend the next few millennia finding increasingly creative ways to make him regret every moment of it.”
I shiver, not with fear but with certainty. Cassian is gone. Truly gone. And the Devil, for once, is telling the truth.
He flicks his wrist and begins to fade, his silhouette blurring into smoke and shadow. “Enjoy your nauseating reunion,” he calls over his shoulder. “But know this—love may have won today, but I neverreallylose. I simply pivot.”
I open my mouth to deliver a scathing reply, but he disappears in a shimmer of embers.
And then…
Rapha’s fingers twitch in my hand.
I freeze.
The world tilts.
My gaze flies to his face. Color rises beneath his skin like dawn bleeding back into a world I thought would never see light again. His cheeks flush with the faintest pink, the awful stillness melting into something warm.
His chest rises.A sharp, desperate inhale that drags him back from the edge of the abyss. His ribs expand. His lips part around a rasping breath that sounds more like a sob. His lashes flicker.
“Rapha?” I whisper, terrified to believe it.
A golden light pulses beneath the skin, faint and flickering, like an ember refusing to die.The wound on his chest knits closed, muscle tightening beneath skin, torn flesh fusing with quiet, terrifying grace. Blood clings to him still, but the source of it is sealing shut, healing slowly but surely.
