“Do you like my gardens?” Raphael had never said.
Sipping his port, Raphael studied the gardens. “I never gave it much thought. They’re like the rest of your demesne, very…neat.”
“Hmm.” He’d always loved the exacting tidiness of his demesne, insisted on it from his horde.
“Lucifer?” Raphael stared at him. “Why are we talking about your gardens?”
He’d rather stab his tongue than admit to anyone how often his thoughts veered to his haglette, so he said, “I was wondering how others saw it.”
“Right.” Raphael gave him a searching stare. “Others in general, or others in particular?”
When in doubt, deny. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t,” Raphael drawled.
“Indeed.” His thoughts were making him maudlin, drifting too close to that empty darkness within him. “Let’s discuss what we need to do next.”
“I still think we should concentrate on finding Ashe.” Raphael leaned a shoulder on the white pillar beside the window. “Levi and Zeb are doing reconnaissance. Wrath has the armies getting ready. Michael and Ava are on that angelic Nephilim. Gabriel is looking for Belle.”
“Ashe is no longer a major player.” And Lucifer couldn’t be bothered to pursue his vengeance anymore.
Raphael nodded. “But I have a feeling Ashe is the key to finding Indolex, and that’s a fucker I definitely want to have a conversation with.”
“Good.” He tried to work up some enthusiasm. “Let’s find Ashe and Indolex.”
“We found him before.” Raphael frowned. “Are you worried we won’t find him again?”
“No.”
“And you’re not upset you gave him up?” Raphael finished the port in his glass.
Raphael was digging for something, and Lucifer wished he’d come out and say it without this song and dance routine. “Where are you going with this?”
“All you’ve wanted since Ashe defected is to find him and punish him. And now.” Raphael clicked his fingers. “You give him up, and you’re not even upset.”
“I did it to save the witch.” He hadn’t even hesitated. Hadn’t even needed to think about it.
“Yes, you did.” Raphael nodded. “Because you promised Emma you would find her mother.”
“Exactly.” The knowing, smug look on Raphael’s face was asking to be punched.
“Here’s the thing about that.” Raphael smirked. “You promised that witchling you would find her mother. You knew better than to promise you would bring her back alive.”
Lucifer couldn’t believe this was coming from soft-hearted Raphael. “You think I should have let Leona die?”
“We’ve all had to make tough decisions for the good of creation as a whole,” Raphael said. “Nobody likes doing it, but sometimes it has to be done. Yet you chose to save one witch instead of capturing a key player in the demon rebellion.”
Raphael had been waiting like a bloated toad to have this conversation with him. Only the urgency of the seal repair had kept him at bay this long. “Your point being?”
“You didn’t save Leona for Emma.” Raphael pinned him with a hard gaze. “If you’d chosen Ashe over Leona, as much as I would have hated it, I would have understood.”
“Only a prick would have let that woman die.”
Raphael laughed. “Which you tell anyone who will listen that you are.”
Hell’s armpit, if it went on much longer, they may as well braid each other’s hair and get matching mani pedis. “Not that much of a prick.”
“You used to be.” Raphael strolled over to the decanters and filled his glass. “I can name you hundreds of arguments you and I have had in similar situations. You always choose the rational path. I’m always the one arguing for sentiment.” He draped himself over the chaise. “In all the ages we have been partners, I have never seen you let sentiment influence your decisions.” He toasted Lucifer with a smug grin. “At least you never did before.”
“Before what?” Lucifer braced for the answer he already knew.
“Before you met Bianca.”
Chapter Forty-Three
“Don’t be a prick,” Lucifer repeated Raphael’s advice. “Try humility for a change.”
He was desperate enough to give it a try. The situation with Bianca had become intolerable, and he was so grumpy that Raphael had finally told him that he needed to sort things out before he would risk renewing their mission with him. His first lesson in humility had been admitting Raphael was right. He was grumpy and distracted and that had to change.
He was standing in Sophia’s reception chamber waiting for Bianca. He’d been giving his last few interactions with Bianca a lot of thought, and he’d come to the humiliating conclusion that he had behaved like a prick. That had been lesson number two in humility.
If Bianca refused to see him, that would count as lesson three. Sophia was doubtful Bianca would see him, so he stood ready to swallow more humility. A hell prince had entered the heavenly realm to speak to a human witch. There might be more than one lesson in humility in that.
Human females liked flowers, hence the five hundred long stemmed roses making Sophia’s reception chamber smell like a funeral parlor. Nothing demonstrated a male humbling themself like a grand floral gesture.
The door at the end, through which Sophia had gone earlier, opened, and Lucifer tensed.
