His red eyes faded back to green as he held my shoulders and scanned me from head to toe. Probably searching for signs of blood or other injuries. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.” I threw myself into Lucifer’s strong arms. “I’m so glad you’re okay. When I saw you out there fighting a dragon, I feared the worst.”
He held me close against him, running his hand up and down my back. “It was Mammon. He and some of the other Archdemons have been plotting against me, and they’re working with Gadreel. He’s Adam, you know.”
“Yeah, I figured that part out,” I said with a slight shudder.
“I was about to tell you when we were attacked.” He looked in the direction of the library and his frown deepened. “And now he has Samael’s journals. This is bad. Very bad.”
With a ripple of magic, Lucifer’s darkness snaked out and flipped over one of the leather couches. It had large gashes in it, like it had been shredded with huge claws, but he sat on it anyway. Then he sighed before rubbing his hands over his face—the most defeated I’d seen him.
I sank down beside him. “Why is that bad? What was in that book?”
“It’s an account of what happened long ago, written by Samael. I was going through it to see if there was a way to break the curse. But there’s more in that book. A lot more.” Lucifer turned his gaze toward the window, looking in the direction Gadreel had flown off in. “And now Adam has it.”
“I killed him.” The fight played over in my head, and fear gripped my throat again. “But he didn’t die. He said he can’t die while I’m alive. Why didn’t you tell me that part of the curse?”
Lucifer took my hand, turning it over as he looked at my skin, as if committing me to memory. “I assumed Jophiel told you about it.”
“She must have left that part out.” I had a feeling she’d left a lot of things out.
He wrapped an arm around me and held me close, and I leaned against him until the shock of the attack slowly receded. But when it did, I was left with a horrible dread for the next time it would happen. And the next, and the next…
“We have to end the curse,” I said quietly. “I can’t keep doing this. Living and dying, over and over. Finding you and losing you again and again. Living in fear of the day Adam would end my life once more.” I turned toward him, but he was staring off into space, his brow furrowed. “Did you find a way to break the curse in Samael’s notes?”
“Yes, there is a way.” His dark gaze lifted and his eyes met mine, but now they were hard. Cold. A little terrifying. “But there’s a price. There’s always a price.”
“Whatever it is, I’ll pay it,” I said, though a flicker of doubt lodged in my chest.
“Will you?” He let out a haunting laugh, as darkness began to gather around him. “Or am I the one who will suffer for all eternity for the crime?”
I stood up and backed away, my skin suddenly cold. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. How do we break the curse?”
He stood and stalked toward me like a predator, backing me against the wall. “Do you trust me, Hannah?”
Words failed me for a moment, as the darkness seemed to close in around us like a cage. Was he trying to scare me? If so, it was working. But I knew in my heart he would never hurt me. He was my mate, the other half of my soul, and he loved me.
“Yes, I trust you.” I reached up and stroked his face softly as I looked into his eyes. “I love you.”
Pain crossed his face just before the darkness turned the room pitch black around me. All I could see were his red eyes, glowing like brimstone, and then the shadows wrapped around my body like shackles, holding me tight.
“Lucifer… What are you doing?” I struggled against the bonds he’d twined around me, but there was no resisting the devil.
He wrapped his strong, masculine hands around my throat. “I’m sorry, Hannah. It’s the only way.”
I couldn’t talk, couldn’t protest, couldn’t breathe. I could only watch Lucifer’s red eyes burn like an inferno as his hands tightened, cutting off my air. I tried to fight, tried to scream, tried to beg, but I couldn’t move at all.
Pain exploded in my neck and lungs. Tears fell from my eyes. It grew harder and harder to see his burning eyes clearly as the darkness creeped into my vision and I struggled for air.
Lucifer was killing me.
How could he do this? Had I been wrong about him this entire time? As my vision blurred and my body grew weaker, Jophiel’s words came back to me. Lucifer is the villain. He’s been lying to you this entire time. Manipulating you. Controlling you. As he’s done with all humans for thousands of years.
You’re in danger around him.
His voice came to me in the darkness. “I love you, Hannah.”
How could that be true when he was ripping the life from my body? Was this how he ended the curse—by doing Adam’s job for him?
I’d made the ultimate mistake, trusting the devil with my heart. And the price was my life.
The darkness closed in, enveloping me completely as my lungs burned for the last time. Everything turned black as death finally claimed me, as it had done so many times before.
Except this death would be my last.
33
Hannah
With a bright flash of light, life surged back into me…and with it came power.
And memories. So many memories.
My mind flooded with events from my past lives. Every single one of them. Eve. Persephone. Lenore. Countless other humans who lived short, brutal existences.
All of their lives came rushing back to me,
