Page 321 of The Spider Queen
I nodded but refused to divulge more. For some reason, I wanted to protect the mystery. It wasn’t my afterlife to share.
“I’ll take you to our pearl. We’ve been guarding it, and we’ve had to move it many times, but it’s safe.”
“Um, how?” I asked, standing up and pointedly attempting to look over the edge of the cloud.
She laughed. “I’ll fly you. On my back.”
“Oh,” I breathed. “That’s—well—thank you.”
The woman rose. “I’m Auri.”
“Oh! You’re Auri!” I grinned.
“Your parents told you about me, then?”
I nodded. “Dad told me it was you who rained dragon fire down on Xan’s corpse.”
“My claim to fame.” She winked and then pulled me into a hug. Her touch didn’t cause me pain.
I caught the scent of her skin. Evening and starlight. Magic and myth.
She released me and took a step back. “Let’s go. The sooner you get the pearl, the closer you are to freeing your parents and freeing yourself. And then maybe Lucifer will finally be held accountable for what he has done.”
A pang of grief blasted through me. Was Lucifer always so alone, so reviled? Had he shown me his true self, or was that part of his fabrication to ensnare me?
Why did I miss him? Why did I miss his gentle teasing, his bursts of temper, his blazes of passion?
Why did I feel like I knew him, yet not?
“No,” Auri barked, her hand to my shoulder and giving me a little shake. “Do not fall for his spell on you.”
My eyes widened. “How did you know?”
Her mouth flattened into a line yet her eyes were bright with anger. “I, too, have succumbed to a fallen angel’s charm. It does not come without a price.”
She turned her head and gazed out into the night. “We must hurry. He’s sent his minions. And they know where the pearl is.”
I was riding on the back of a dragon, grasping lizard-like scales, and praying for dear life that Auri would rescue me if I somehow fell off her glorious shoulders.
Flying with her was an adrenaline rush like none I had ever experienced.
It was different when I’d flown pressed against Lucifer’s chest. My blood had been spiked with lust. I’d never felt so alive. So terrified of falling. He’d saved me because he needed me. Not for the same reason I needed him.
The thought of his pain made tears fall from my eyelids. I had a vision of him in the forefront of my mind, of him bound in chains, struggling for freedom.
The empath part of me felt his torment and I sympathized. The other part of me, the rational part of me, welcomed the anger.
If I nurtured the rage I felt at Lucifer, then maybe I could remember that I wanted to own myself. I refused to belong to a man. Immortal or not. Fallen angel or not. I’d rather live my long eternal life alone than be a slave to someone else’s whims.
I had to possess the other two pearls.
Auri dipped through the sky, and my stomach leapt into my throat. My hands tightened on her shoulders where her wings met her back. There was a huffing noise, and it took me a second to realize she was laughing. She turned her head back toward me and snorted. A billow of blue smoke rose from her nostrils.
I glanced down. Bile rose in my throat as I saw the city lights below interspersed with bodies of water. I frowned.
“New York?” I called over the wind.
She tilted her chin in clear affirmation and then dipped to the side and began our descent.
