“Eat.” He indicated the basket. “You’re no good to me if you’re fainting from hunger.”
“I’ve had enough.” Of the food and this conversation.
He sighed. “Eat or I’ll make you.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.” He looked determined.
Bianca forced herself to take a forkful of the cheesecake.
“The green crystal is strengthening,” he said. “That must mean we’re getting closer.”
“That’s Leona.” She managed another bite of the cheesecake.
He nodded. “Then we know she’s still using her magic.”
The words for now hung heavy and unspoken in the car.
Lucifer glanced at her, and perhaps it was a trick of the light, but he looked almost sympathetic.
Lucifer lounged in the armchair of their hotel room and flipped through the channels. In the attached bedroom, Bianca slept.
They’d driven late into the night before it became obvious that Bianca needed more than a car nap. They’d found a hotel and stopped for what remained of the night.
His wing roots itched as more power leaked through the broken amulet. Bianca’s genuine concern for her missing coven members was disintegrating his anticipated pleasure in her shock once he revealed his returned power.
He couldn’t tell her that he was almost certain her missing witches were dead. Bianca wasn’t stupid, and she was clinging to vanishing hope. The witch belonging to the blue crystal didn’t have much time left, and that’s probably all that was protecting Leona’s life. He couldn’t face the idea of telling Emma her mother was dead.
When he’d started searching for Ashe, he’d been bent on revenge for Ashe’s betrayal, but now it had become so much deeper. Rage burned inside him. The news on the television had all been bad. Worse than usual that is. Humans had created a rat trap for themselves. They did things to each other and blamed it on sin. Hell couldn’t produce the kind of atrocities humans perpetrated on each other.
Bored with the television, he wandered through to the bedroom.
Bianca slept on her side with her knees tucked up to her chest. In sleep, her face looked delicate and ethereal. Such an indomitable spirit in such a fragile vessel. Humans lived such a short lifespan, yet they packed into those meagre years so much experience and life.
His existence lacked the color and flavor of humanity. He took time for granted because there was always more of it.
Sophia had shared with him the coordinates of where Eddie had been held, and their current trajectory was leading them there. If his power had been fully restored, he could have left Bianca to drive and flown ahead. But that would be making the assumption that they were going to where Eddie had been held, and making assumptions could give Ashe the opportunity he needed to slip away. Lucifer judged it best to stay with Bianca and follow the crystals.
What she’d not mentioned, even once, was that as a powerful witch, she was in as much danger as any other coven member. Perhaps it hadn’t occurred to her in her concern for the rest of the coven. Leaving Bianca would also render her vulnerable to Ashe. If Ashe got his hands on Bianca, Lucifer might not get his revenge—which was the only reason he didn’t leave the troublesome human witch to her fate. The only reason. It had to be. He disliked humans, and he disliked witches even more.
Miles from the nearest town, they left the car. Raphael joined them and spared her the necessity of walking the rough terrain. About three miles from the car, Bianca’s nape prickled, and goosebumps raced up her arms as they drew closer to a steel door wedged into the side of the mountain.
“Is this where they kept Eddie?” She kept her voice low. Something about the place made her want to whisper.
Raphael flew closer to the door, which hung ajar, revealing a dark maw in the rockface. It was the sort of place you’d have to know was there to spot it, which made sense, considering it was a top-secret demon lair.
Raphael peered in. “I don’t sense any recent demon activity.” He stepped inside, and his voice echoed back at them. “But there have been demons here, and many of them.”
Lucifer followed him. “Well, it was too much to hope that they’d hang around and wait for us after Eddie was rescued from here.”
“How rude.” Raphael smiled at her.
Probably to reassure her, but Bianca’s precognition was chattering to her. She wasn’t going to like what they found.
“Stay behind me,” Lucifer said.
As much as she enjoyed arguing with him, this was not one of those times.
Raphael led the way down a narrow iron spiral staircase. Their footsteps echoed loudly as they descended into the darkness.
Bianca dug in her bag and pulled out a small flashlight. The rockface of the stairwell abutted the stairs on either side, roughhewn as if a giant monster had taken a bite out of the mountain.
“It opens into a tunnel down here,” Raphael called. “Still no hint of recent demon activity.”
“Any trace of Ashe?” Lucifer’s voice echoed.
“Old,” Raphael said. “He was here, but he’s long gone.”
If he’d had his power, he wouldn’t have had to ask about Ashe. She really needed to find out what had gone wrong with his amulet. He hadn’t brought it up since they’d taken Emma to the theatre, which now that she thought about it, was super strange. Especially considering his initial reaction to discovering her whoopsie and his general comfort with airing his grievances.
The air changed and moved freer as she took the last step and stood in a large corridor.
Soft, yellow light sprang up in Raphael’s palm as he turned in a circle.
Open doors faced the tunnel at regular intervals.
“We stick together.” Lucifer nodded at Raphael.
A look passed between them, before Raphael smirked. “Agreed.”
Raphael murmured something to Lucifer that she didn’t catch.
“Yes, but not yet,” Lucifer said.
How sweet. They had little secrets. She strode down the passage before either of them could speak. “Shall we look around?”
“Balls!” Lucifer chased after her and caught her arm. “Stay with Raphael until we’re sure there are no nasty surprises.”
As much as she would like to have huffed off, self-preservation kept her close to the archangel.
Raphael went through the first door. A bare, stainless-steel cell sat on the other side. Cot, toilet, sink, and nothing else.
“I sense human energy.” Raphael walked deeper into the cell.
