Page 64 of Falling for the Devil

She closed her eyes and tuned into the environment, became one with it. Conjuring the elements to her, she coalesced the moisture molecules in the air to form an impenetrable mist around them to shield the group from prying eyes and ears. For despite being encapsulated in the liminality, her senses picked up heartbeats outside their little group. They were not alone. Either someone else had broken the lock code to enter, or this place wasn’t as secure as the angels believed.

Turning her head to Puck, she nodded. In an instant, he vanished. Perhaps she should warn Lucifer but until she had solid facts, she would keep the news to herself. Besides, the pooka could take care of any outside interference.

Lucifer was still prattling on about the suspected culprit but seemed reluctant to share the name. Reaching out again with her senses, she heard the combined heartbeats of the group pick up in momentum as Lucifer’s intelligence report stoked their greatest fears. All except one.

Diana trained her attention on Olivier, but not where he’d notice. A good hunter never stared directly at her prey to prevent the animal from being spooked and running off before she could get off a kill shot. Instead, her eyes focused on a swaying tree branch just beyond the group, with Olivier less than a quill’s width outside her line of sight.

A nerve twitched along his jaw and his right hand clenched and unclenched around the hilt of his sword. His actions spoke of trouble, but his heart hammered in a steady rhythm. Why did he look stressed, when he wasn’t?

At the end of a long speech to his troops about how cunning and vile the enemy was, Lucifer fell silent. Everyone gazed up at him, waiting for the villain’s name to be revealed. A sour expression washed over the archangel’s face, his lips pursed, and a deep crease etched over the bridge of his nose. Diana froze as his eyes swung to her. An accusation of something lay behind those darkened eyes. But what? He wasn’t going to try and blame her for all this, was he? He and Olivier were the ones who’d dragged her across the universe to help them!

Olivier cranked his head in her direction, too. When she glanced over, she gasped and took a large step back. Instead of looking at her with mistrust as she’d expected, he was smiling—an enormous grin that stretched the flesh of his face in ugly ways.

Unable to look away and aware she had no place to retreat to, Diana willed a stone-cold expression into her features and crossed her arms over her chest. She needed Puck to work some magic and weave her a new tunic. After everything, her clothes scantly covered her at all, and Olivier’s disturbing stare made her skin crawl.

Narrowing her eyes, she dared Olivier to speak whatever was on his mind. If the angels believed her capable of treachery, there was no escape unless she dove into another opening in the liminality... something she was not inclined to do again.

The sound of Lucifer clearing his throat grabbed Olivier’s attention from her. Diana’s heart thundered in her chest so loudly, she wondered if the others could hear it.

What was going on? None of this made sense. Why would the angels—why would Lucifer—turn on her?

The red-headed Balfour spoke up to ask the most important question that everyone was ignoring. “Who is responsible, Lucifer? Show me the enemy and we will slay him. I care not what enemy’s motives are, just that justice be served.”

A benevolent smile creeped up Lucifer’s face. Whether it was from affection for his legions, or an affirmation of their undying loyalty, Diana couldn’t tell. When this had all started, she’d assumed he loved his soldiers as family. Now, she wasn’t so certain that his ego wasn’t his primary fuel. For such an angelic being, he was beginning to exhibit some personality traits similar to her father and brothers. They needed adoration as much as a mortal required air to breathe. It was clear so did the Archangel of Light.

Lucifer spoke one word. “Asmodeus.”

Shocked gasps and loud proclamations of vengeance greeted this information. The enemy had a name. Only one stood unmoving, and his eyes cut to her with unveiled hostility and a half-smile that was in no way friendly.

Olivier’s voice rose above the melee. “Well, that explains a lot.”

Chapter 30

Busted

Silence fell over the small group. Only the sound of a lone owl in the distance interrupted the quiet. Each person pivoted to stare at the sneering archangel, Olivier... then to who he was sneering at.

Diana.

Lucifer’s heart plummeted to his gut. He’d had his suspicions that their run-in with the aftermath of the carnage Asmodeus left in his wake had fueled his insatiable appetite to bury himself in her softness, but the truth was more complex than being influenced by a demon of lust. He’d wanted her from the moment their eyes had met—him down on the floor of the coliseum and her up in the clouds, an angel in all but name.

Obviously, Olivier had noticed the changes in him. Lucifer wasn’t in denial that he had undergone a profound transformation. With the stares of confusion upon his return to Methuselah, he’d already guessed that what he had experienced in his soul was reflected in his physical appearance. He’d glimpsed his reflection in the water on that planet with the freaky oversized birds, but he’d lied to himself that the changes were imagined.

Either the transformation was real, or everyone was damn good at guessing he’d been up to no good while he’d been alone with the goddess. He’d never been capable of hiding his emotions and couldn’t lie even when the situation warranted it. Some angels could. At the moment, he envied them.

No, Diana was not to blame. But he had to be open to the logic that what they’d shared had been tainted by lustful passion—something an angel was not supposed to feel, much less act on. The last thing he wanted was to lay all the guilt on her, as the others were in the process of concluding.

But if she hadn’t been so willing to compromise her own virtue, could I have resisted temptation? Did she purposefully set out to bring about my fall?

“Olivier, you will hold your tongue.” With his heart lodged in his throat, his words came out clipped and missing the strong authority he willed into them.

He stepped through the crowd to stand in front of Olivier. His glare dared Olivier to rebel against his orders. The other archangel stepped back with his hands raised and eyes to the ground. Only then did Lucifer venture to turn his attention to Diana.

Her usual warm honeyed eyes blazed with fire; her hands were fisted on her hips. Red splotches stained her cheeks. Gone was the sweet virginal blush. It was replaced with what he well imagined wrath would look like if embodied in a woman. Her chest rose and fell in short, ragged breaths.

“No, I want to hear what the righteous Olivier has to say. It is obvious that he thinks he knows something of importance.”

Oh, she didn’t understand. Olivier could ruin everything if he voiced his opinion on what he might or might not believe was true regarding her. Lucifer was already staring down an eternity of being exiled from the heavens for his behavior with Diana. A part of him—a tiny part, anyway—relished the freedom of being able to claim her as his and bask in her love every day and night. A bigger part knew that to be stripped of his wings, to be banished from the Creator’s love, would be too heavy a burden. Given enough time, he’d go mad with the rejection.

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