Lucifer nods. “You never intended for Light Bringer to get made. The movie was just an excuse to hang around and see it play out. Tell me that you didn’t know it was going to be a Drifter shit storm.” He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a pack of Maledictions, finds one that isn’t broken, and lights it. “Are you interrogating me? Remember who it is you’re talking to.” “A half-dead old man who hides his seeping wounds and bloody bandages under dark shirts.” “Playing angel is fun, isn’t it? You feel powerful. Omnipotent. Don’t let it go to your head. Even if the Stark part of you is gone, it doesn’t make you an angel. At best it makes you half. You’re a novelty toy like a talking doll or sea monkeys.” I pick up the athame and shove it back between Lucifer’s ribs. He doubles over and collapses onto the floor. I leave him there and go to Ritchie’s gun cabinet to look for bullets. I find the right ones on the top shelf and reload the Smith & Wesson. Take that box and another box of shells and put them in my pocket. “You knew all about it. You knew about Koralin and Aki and how they were going to murder the city.” From the floor he says, “What if I did?” “Why? You own half the place. Why would you let that happen?” Lucifer tries to sit up. It gets annoying watching him flail around, so I pull out the knife. He breathes deeply, leaning on one elbow on the floor. “Remember when I came to your room after you stopped the angel sacrifice at Avila? I joked that you were my science project.” “Yes.” “You still are.” “You sent Spencer Church into the bar the other night.” “I had to. You’d missed so much in your drunken self-pity these last months. You didn’t notice people disappearing or sense the presence of golems in the aether. I sent Spencer to nudge you in the right direction.” “Why me? Why am I your damned project?” He draws on the Malediction and coughs. Smoke leaks from the wound in his side. “Weren’t you a Boy Scout when you were young? I’m helping you earn a very special merit badge.” “Explain.” Lucifer shakes his head and laughs. “There’s that tone again. You’re beginning to sound like Aelita. I don’t like you towering over me. Help me into the chair.” “I think you look good right where you are.” “Have your fun, then. However, I might point out that if you don’t help me, Mason is going to win and you’re going to die and that if you think that tonight is Hell on earth, kiddo, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” I holster the gun, take him by the shoulders, and set him on the chair. I can’t tell if he’s smaller than I remembered or if I’m getting stronger. Maybe both. Lucifer has to lean on his arm to stay upright. He sets the Malediction on the console and lets it burn into the plastic top. “I’m not the angel I used to be. I showed you my dirty little secret back at the hotel for a reason. The truth is that my wounds are getting worse, not better.” “And you don’t want Mason or your generals to see you getting weak. I get that.” “When Father threw us out of Heaven, all he gave us was a hole in the ground. I built Hell out of my sheer will,
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