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You always did have an inner fire I love that about you He s If only your spark stayed inside, hmm? Some people are just unlucky in love
Don't talk to me about love, Luce spat I can't believe I ever listened to a word that ca about love
I've heard that one before And I happen to know one ier than Heaven and Hell and the fate of all that rests between But you're wrong Your love for Daniel Grigori is less than insignificant It is nothing!
His shout was like a shock wave that blew back Luce's hair She gasped and struggled for air Say whatever you want I love Daniel I alill And it has nothing to do with you
Satan held her up to his red eyes, pinching her skin with his sharpest pointer claw I know you love him You're a fool for him Just tell me why
Why?
Why Why him? Put it into words Really make me feel it I want to be moved
A letoothed ss came from deep inside him That was a test You failed, but it isn't your fault Not really That is an unfortunate side effect of the curse you bear You don't get to make choices anymore
That's not true If you re choice not to kill ered him--she could see it in the way his nostrils flared, the way he reached up and balled his claw into a fist and ht switch had been flicked soest tiht
A horrible thought struck Luce Were you even telling the truth? What would really have happened if I'd used the starshot to-- She shuddered, sickened that she'd come so close What's in all this for you? You want et to Daniel? Is that why you would never show yourself in front of hione after you and--
Satan chuckled His laughter diori? You do think very highly of hi your head with about his grandiose place in Heaven?
You're the liar, Luce said You've done nothing but lie from the moment I met you No wonder the whole universe despises you
Fears Not despises There's a difference Fear has envy in it somewhere You may not believe it, but there are many ish to wield the power that I wield Whoadore ht I don't believe you
You just don't know enough About anything I've taken you on a tour of your past--shown you the futility of this existence, hoping to awaken you to the truth, and all I get fro her down and she fell into blackness, colared at her, as if he could fix her in place He ht circle around her, his hands behind his back, his wings drawn tight, his head tilted toward the sky Everything you see here is everything there is to see From far away, yes, but it's all there--all the lives and worlds and more, far beyond the weak conception of mortals Look at it
She did, and it looked different than it had before The veldt of stars was endless, the dark of night folded again and again over so ht than black It's beautiful
It's about to be a tabula rasa His lips curled into a twisted saaame to him He swept his hand across the sky and left a dark swath of night in his wake And I refuse to concede it to that Other simply because of a cosmic scale Simply because our sides are in balance
Balance You els who allied themselves with you, and those who allied themselves with--
Don't say it But yes, that other Right now there is a balance, and--
And onetalk Arriane had given her at the diner in Las Vegas
Mmm-hmm Except this tioal of mine, the whole starshot bit, but I've seen the error ofOften while you and sorade heavy petting So, you see, no one will be able to sabotage what I have planned next
I' to wipe the slate clean Start over I can skip the millennia that led up to you and your loophole of a life, Lucinda Price--he snorted--and begin again And this time, I will play more wisely This time I in
What does that mean, wipe the slate clean'?
All of ti is written that can't be erased by one clever sort It's a drasticaway thousands of years A big setback for everyone concerned--but hey, what's a handful of lostconcept of eternity?
How can you do that? she said, knowing he could feel her trerasp What does itTo the Fall To all of us being cast out of Heaven because we dared to exercise free will I'reat injustice
Reliving your greatest hits? she said, but he wasn't listening, lost in the details of his scheori will make the trip with me In fact, your soul mate is on his way there now
Why would Daniel--
I showed hiet there in tiin their fall to Earth What a beautiful in their fall? How long did it take?
Nine days by some accounts, he murmured, but it seemed an eternity to those of us cast out You never asked your friends about it? Cam Roland Arriane Your precious Daniel? All of us were there
So you see it happen again So what?
So then I do so unexpected And do you knohat that is? He snickered, and his red eyes gleamed I don't know, she said softly Kill Daniel?
Not kill Catch I' to catch every last one of us I'll open up an Announcer like a great net, casting it to the forward edge of time Then I'll cleave to els into the present with ly ones
So what?
So what? We will be once inning It isn't a part of history; it is when history begins And all that has coer have happened