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Luce had been right about her soul’s leading her to Lucifer After he set this Fall in h his own Announcer inside here

And spent the past nine days doing what? Singing lul-labies and rocking back and forth while the world hung in the balance and arels raced around the world to stop his burned She knew this was all he’d done, because she knew that he loved her, that he still wanted her Her betrayal of Lucifer hat this was all about

"Who’s there?" he called

Luce moved forward She had not come here to hide frolow behind Ezekeel She heard the vexed recognition in his voice

"Oh It’s you" He raised his ar self "Have you met my love? I think you’d find her"--Lucifer looked above hied closer, drawn equally to the radiant angel who had broken her heart and the strange, half-forel ould becoirl Luce had been on Earth She watched her own face flicker into being inside the light in Lucifer’s arone

She considered cleaving to this strange creature She knew that she could do it: reach out and take possession of her oldest body, feel her stomach drop as she joined with her past, blink and find herself in Lucifer’s ar Lucinda’s mind, as she had done so many times before

But she didn’t need to do that anyht Luce how to cleave before she had knoho she truly was, before she’d had access to thesoul for help hat to say to Lucifer Luce already knew the whole story

She folded her hands in front of her She thought of Daniel on the other side of the Announcer

"The love you feel is not returned, Lucifer" He offered Luce a bright, defiant smile "Do you have any idea how rare a , Luce found herself drawing nearer

"The two of you, together at once? The one who cannot leavebody in his arms and looked up--"and the one who doesn’t kno to stay away"

"She and I share the same soul," Luce said "And neither one of us loves you anymore"

"And they say one His voice plunged doard through the registers, deeper than anything Luce had ever heard "You disappointed ypt You shouldn’t have done that, and you shouldn’t be here now I depos-ited you in the outer realure changed: the youthful, lovely face shriveled into wrinkles that splintered down his body in long craggy seas burst fro and curled and yellow Luce winced as they dug into her falling half-forlowed from icy blue to red like molten lead and he swelled to ten times the size he’d been Luce knew this was because he was indulging the rage he had sub-dued in order to appear as his lovely, for the expanse of suspended angels in an instant

Luce flew up to his eye level and sighed

"You ht as well stop there," she said

"Built up a tolerance, have you?"

Luce shook her head and extended her wings as wide as they would go They stretched to lengths that still astonished her

"I knoho I am, Lucifer I knohat I can do

Neither of us is constrained by mortal bounds I could become horrific, too But what’s the point?" Steas "Your wings alere breathtaking," he said

"But don’t get used to them Time’s al her face for fear or agitation She kneorked, frorainybody flicker, agitated but i a loved one in grave danger, but Luce would not reveal that it bothered her

"I arunt was a cloud of mucus and smoke "You will be, as you have been before, as you really are now Fear is the only way to greet the devil"

The swelling stopped His eyes cooled back to their startling ice blue His ure that had onceHeaven’s host There was a shimmer to his pale skin that Luce hadn’t remembered until now

He was more beautiful even than Daniel

Luce let herself remember She had loved hiiven him her whole heart And Lucifer had loved her, too

When his gaze fell on her, the entire history of their relationship played across his handsome face: the fire of their early rouish of love he’d said had inspired his rebellion against the Throne

Her reat lie--but her heart felt so different, in part because she knew Lucifer had co power, like a flood nobody saw

She couldn’t help it: She softened Lucifer’s eyes bore the same tenderness that Daniel’s did when he looked at her She felt her eyes begin to return this tenderness to Lucifer