“Haglette.” He ached to hold her and soothe her. “We didn’t kill Christen. That wasn’t Christen anymore.” He edged closer to her. “It’s over, darling.”
“No.” The word was torn from the depth of her. “It will never be over.”
By heaven, she had been so strong through every part of their journey. Fearlessly, she had faced terror, gore, and danger, and laughed in its face.
He had forgotten she was merely human. Just a woman propelled by a necessity she had no part in creating into extraordinary circumstances.
Moonlight glinted on the tears tracking down her face.
Lucifer reached out to wipe them away.
“No.” She reared back from him. “Don’t touch me.” As an afterthought, she whispered, “Please.”
“She’s in shock,” Raphael murmured.
In all his millions of years of existence, Lucifer had never felt so helpless.
“Take me home,” Bianca said in an awful little wooden voice.
“Go.” Raphael prodded him toward Bianca. “I will take care of this.”
“Of course.” Lucifer motioned for Bianca to precede him. “I’ll take you home now.”
He had to fix this—fucking fix her—his wonderful, clever, brave, beautiful haglette.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eddie fired up the lighting board for that night’s performance. On stage, a volunteer was presetting the props. All as if it was same old, same old. This had been her life up until recently, and she’d been happy with that life. Okay, maybe not happy, but definitely content…ish.
The problem for Eddie with having made her decision about Shade was that now she wanted to act on that decision. Except the fate of the fucking world kept getting in their way.
She’d already waited an obscenely long time. All those wasted opportunities haunted her. All the opportunities she’d had to jump Shade’s bones, and she’d turned them down. What a fucking idiot, because now her and Dee’s tiny living quarters were heaving at the seams.
Dee and Eddie kept the Paradise Players doing their thing. The Importance of Being Earnest was its normal sold out with Sophia causing a stir amongst their annual crowd. Despite the praise Sophia was getting, she managed to keep Lillian happy. That right there was proof that archangels could perform miracles.
Eddie finished her precheck and left the lighting booth.
The dressing room door opened as she approached the backstage area.
“Edsie.” Lillian dimpled at her. “All ready for tonight?”
“Yup.” Like she was every night.
Lillian pulled her into a perfume-drenched hug. “Of course you are. We know we can always rely on our Edsie.”
Eddie liberated herself from a cloud of vanilla and tuberose. “Full house again tonight.”
“Wonderful.” Lillian clapped and twinkled at her. “Earnest is always so popular with the patrons.”
Which is how Peter and Lillian got it on the Paradise Player’s play selection each year. Mind you, this year’s departure from the norm into Macbeth hadn’t gone the way anyone had expected.
The barest trace of a frown line crinkled between Lillian’s eyes. “Actually, Edsie, I’m glad I ran into you.”
Which, in Lillian speak, meant she’d been lying in wait for her, ensuring it was Eddie and not Dee in the lighting booth. Dee had no tolerance for Lillian’s “artistic temperament.”
“Oh?” Eddie kept it noncommittal.
“Yes.” Lillian glanced around them. “But not here. Come inside.”
She followed Lillian into the dressing room.
The other actors were due in the next fifteen minutes, but for now, it was her and Lillian—what joy!
“Edsie.” Lillian’s green eyes widened. “I don’t want to alarm you, but I can’t stay silent a moment longer.”
Eddie braced for anything from Lillian being upstaged to alien abduction. “Okay.”
“You know I’m not one to talk about myself.” Lillian pressed her perfectly manicured nails—bare of polish for her latest role—to her chest.
“Sure,” Eddie said.
“But I have…special abilities.” Lillian gave her a long, weighty look. “Unusual abilities of the mystic kind.”
It would be the first Eddie had seen or heard of that, but sure, why not? They already had resident witches and visiting archangels and hell princes. Not to mention the marauding demons and her being Nephilim. “Mystical abilities?”
She still had to make sure the volunteers for front of house had arrived and were preparing the auditorium.
