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I was back to work and collecting souls as usual JB had gotten over his recent bout of adorableness and gone back to being a crab every time I talked to hi he had said to me while at his mother’s castle Amarantha, he asserted, had cast a spell on him so that he would be drawn to me Actually, she’d cast a spell on our whole party--it just didn’t take with ured if Nathaniel attacked me, then I would turn to JB, and then she’d have a different kind of family tie to Lucifer

"So you didn’t mean any of it?" I said I wondered why it hurt soher bets," he said

"That’s not an answer"

"That’s all the answer you’re going to get," he said, and walked away fro a the to have an argument with hiet the look of need on his face when he thought I was going to die in the Maze, and it keptwas real, false or just amplified by A with Saain In fact, I refused to make any requests of his could be different between us He didn’t see it yet, but I could work on him I’d learned hoear sooyle

Nathaniel had sent ht with Baraqiel I didn’t have the heart to throw out so arbage unopened It probably goes without saying that s were confused where he was concerned

Four days after the dawn had broken over the gooey remains of Baraqiel on the beach the day was unseasonably warm and sunny Beezle and Samiel fell asleep in a sunbeam on the sofa in the front room Beezle seemed to have adopted our stray

Feeling oddly restless, like I aiting for so to happen, I decided to step outside for a breath of fresh air and went out to the front porch It felt like sixty degrees outside, and I pulled off my sweater and sat in my shirtsleeves in the sunshine I closedthe warain, Lucifer stood in front of s underneath a long black overcoat, and underneath he wore blue jeans and a black sweater a lot like mine His hands were tucked into his pockets and his expression see you," I said, and when I said it I kneas true I’d felt hieline in your face," he said "Just nohen you turned your face to the sun She used to look at me like that, like I was her sun"

I didn’t really knohat to say to that, so I just watched his out in front of hi randchildren against all odds, so that should count for soree with you They were most disturbed to hear of the existence of another of Ra on this subject, especially since I wasn’t ready to have to fight for Say before they took him away

"Anyway," I said "Hoas I to know Baraqiel was one of your children? It’s not as though you advertised the fact"

"Would knowledge of his paternity have stopped you fro?" Lucifer asked shrewdly

"Well, no," I ad to kill me at the tiain

"Your hand I do not know if your father told you Your fingers will grow back, in time"

I looked at the cauterized stumps "Cool I’m like a starfish now"

"I have been very impressed with your actions, Madeline When I asked you to be my ambassador, I did not expect such an outcoreat crisis with Focalor as well as revealed A a child ofotiate a treaty with Amarantha?" I asked curiously "Because it did occur to ht have sent a matically "Perhaps subtlety is not alanted And perhaps I wanted to see how you would handle yourself"

"So it was a test?" I asked in disbelief "I alall to chuck er than even you know I need an heir for doth of will that you showed in the Maze"

"Oh, no," I said, alarmed "Don’t even think about it Why notout of the ork all over the place And really, what benefit would it be for an immortal who has survived eons to make a ht happen And my heir must be a creature of immense power so that the courts will continue to respect my rule"