Lucifer giggled. “Fascinating. Let’s test your mental endurance, shall we?” My thoughts jumbled together, and a headache exploded in my skull. It pounded like the worst migraine, tightening the skin of my scalp. A whimper escaped my lips.
“We shall not,” Michael said behind me.
Lucifer backed away, though he didn’t hop off the levitating table. Michael’s wing brushed my legs. Immediately, I felt relief. Lucifer retreated, but he’d been in my head. I couldn’t recognize his push before, but I was certain of his influence now. He’d been coming and going in and out of my head ever since I’d been here. What had he seen through my eyes? Felt, touched? Michael, the world, the Court? Lucifer might’ve seen everything. Luckily, I didn’t know a whole lot about the Court of Command. I couldn’t feed him important information. Still, I really didn’t know what he considered important.
Michael placed a gentle hand on my hip and pulled me to him, away from Lucifer.
Lucifer smiled.
In the back of the room, someone said, “On the eve of Fourth of July, I was at my cousin’s, drinking beer, kicking back. Holy shit, what happened here?”
Murmurs spread.
Lucifer’s smile widened. “Let the chaos begin.” Dark fog seeped from his wings.
The table overturned.
But Lucifer was fast. He hopped off and rose above it. The table flew at him, slammed him to the floor, and trapped him. From beneath it, Lucifer punched, making dents in the metal. Michael willed several more tables onto the angel, making a pile, pinning Lucifer down. His hand on my hip tightened, securing me to him, then he lifted.
On the other end of the hall, Raphael lifted as well. The two appeared to be waiting for something.
Lucifer stilled.
The tables stilled.
Silence.
Georgia crawled on the floor. “Oh no,” I said. “Georgia!”
She raised her gaze and smiled at me. Then she picked up a fork and stabbed a man in the cheek. The soldier screamed in pain and yanked the fork out of his face. Another man started crawling the wall. Then another. The roof peeled away fully, and Michael shot upward, Raphael joining him. We stared down as soldiers ran for the doors, which slammed shut and locked them inside. People crawling the walls reached the opened roof, but Michael bent the metal and sealed it closed.
The building shook, the walls collapsed, the roof folded, metal screeching in protest, people under it screaming.
“What are you doing?” I whispered. “Let me get her. Maybe she’s not Marked.”
The building collapsed like a cardboard box laid flat on the ground, then crumpled up like a piece of paper in someone’s fist.
I gaped.
Michael flew to the House, landed awkwardly again, hurtling forward before he slammed a hand on the massive door to prevent a fall.
The moment my feet touched the ground, I spun around and tried to move past him, but he held me back.
“What have you done?” I asked.
“Don’t look.”
“What have you done?” I chanted. “There were people in there. Your people.”
“They’re not my people anymore.”
“That’s not true. Georgia was there. I saw her.”
“I will get you another Georgia.”
“What?”
“I will get you another.” The House’s door opened, and Michael tried to push me inside.
I dug in my heels. “I don’t want another Georgia. Or another squad. Or another set of parents. Or another of anything.”
Raphael walked by, throwing over his shoulder, “Perhaps, then, you want another lover.”
“He’s not my lover!” I poked Michael’s chest. “Lucifer is right. You’re merciless.”
Michael said nothing, but stood there, taking my verbal beating. It meant nothing to him.
“Lucifer is right. You are fascinating, and he struggled to control you. I believe it is because you are mine. That doesn’t mean he’ll give up. Your resistance pricked his pride. He won’t stand down until he can control you. Now would be a great time to forget your delusions of Before and tell me of the night you met him. Because I know you have met him.”
“I’m not delusional or Marked or crazy. Somewhere out there, in a boarded-up home, my little brother plays games, Mom cooks or reads, planning her week, and Dad got out and is looking for me.”
“No one is looking for you.”
“They are!” I cried.
“They are not. They don’t know you exist.”
Chapter Twenty
Witnessing Julia’s breaking point, I spread my arms and offered her comfort. She swung away from me. Raphael stood at the top of the stairs, listening, stopping her body from moving. I hated him for it. “Let go of her,” I ordered.
He wouldn’t; her body awkwardly frozen in midstep.
The last thing she needed was to know that in addition to controlling her mind, a powerful angel could control her body.
“Our feud, my brother, will last for millennia,” I reminded him. “I will change your Court, annihilate all the mortals I gave you, and find your soul’s mate. I will give her to Lucifer, I swear it. Let go of mine.”
Raphael snarled. “Look in the mirror. See what you’re becoming.”
“I am not becoming. I have always been. Last warning.”
Julia’s hand dropped, along with her body. She knelt before me. Tears ran down her cheeks.
“Kill her,” Raphael said. “All who remember must die. No exceptions. Kill her. She will find peace. Her soul begs for it.”
“One day, she will find peace.” I scooped her up. She didn’t fight me. “One day, when she is old and wrinkled and ready, she will find peace. But not now, because I am not ready.” I started up the stairs, but Raphael wouldn’t move, wouldn’t even spread his wings.
“She is a mortal under Lucifer’s influence in your midst,” he said. “In your bed, Michael. Lucifer has a hold on you, and I can’t allow it.”
“I do not need your permission.”
“But you need someone to question you, or you will become that which you fear most. I won’t allow it.”
“I will destroy you, brother. You and anyone who threatens her.”
Raphael laughed. “Look at us, arguing over a mortal. This is what Lucifer wanted. Can’t
