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Lucifer’s dark-painted lips lifted into an insidious smirk when our gazes connected before she was dragging Nova down for a kiss. The feeling was back in my throat when instead of pushing her away, Nova took gentle hold of her face and deepened the kiss, his tongue driving into her mouth. The low, encouraging moan of approval she gave him was louder than the storm and crashing waves around us. I heard it like she’d been right next to my ear, and it echoed in my head like a terrible memory.
Like the sound just before death.
The second Nova heard it, the fallen angel’s body tensed. Then he crowded her, kiss hungrier than before, clearly enjoying every damn minute their mouths were locked together, tongues lewdly joined, hands feeling and reaching.
Acid filled my throat watching them, and I couldn’t name the feeling. I couldn’t understand how I’d gotten here or for what reason I was sure this was Lucifer. Couldn’t figure out how I’d come to watch the two of them together like this. And I couldn’t fathom Nova’s actions or why each one bothered me so much.
It was a sick fucking joke, one I wasn’t going to be a part of. If the asshole wanted to be with Lucifer and fuck up his life again, that was on him. I’d still kill the bitch. I’d destroy him too if I had to.
But will you really?
Fuck.
No, this had to be a dream. Nothing else made sense. But was it really a dream? Why did it feel so real? Why was my whole fucking body trembling like a damn motorcycle? Why were my reactions so honest and blatant? Why couldn’t I fight it? What the fuck was happening right now?
As I turned, the bitch was already somehow standing in front of me with Nova’s arms wrapped around her from behind, his lips tracing the long curve of her neck, green eyes never sparing me a glance, and the red-eyed ruler of Hell took strong hold of my throat.
“He’ll always be mine. He’ll always return to me,” her voice whispered in a violent tone. “He’ll never love you, Lady. When it comes time to choose, he’ll choose me.”
I didn’t understand why I wasn’t fighting back or why I simply couldn’t—why my arms and legs were weighed down, immobile—but then she pushed me under the surface of the water. They both did. Nova’s hand pushed on my shoulder, hers on my throat, and I sunk deeper and deeper into the unforgiving current of the ocean. Sea water assaulted my lungs and the familiar sensation of drowning hit me, the final nail in my oh-shit coffin.
This wasn’t how I died. It couldn’t be. What kind of sick joke was this to die in some kind of dream illusion where I was taken by the same water I feared all my life.
Fuck that shit.
Struggling to swim, I kicked my legs and swung my arms, trying to find purchase with heavy water all around me. I clawed for the surface, but I only sunk deeper into my watery prison, lungs filling with liquid, vision tunneling, death crowding my chest and smothering out my heart’s beat.
A fear I hadn’t felt since my foster father tried to drown me crept into my throat and poisoned my thoughts.
I didn’t have the power to save myself. It was the same helpless feeling as when I struggled to free myself from that sick, disgusting bastard. No matter what I tried, no matter how hard I fought, no matter how much I kicked and swung my arms, it wasn’t enough. He buried me in water, in my own powerlessness. He stole my confidence, my hope, my fight. And when he freed me, it was only to imprison me inside my body next—to have me the way he liked me, numb and hopeless, no longer fighting.
Air bubbles swam for the surface as I screamed and yelled, violently rejecting the water entering my lungs and the creeping sensation of death but knowing it wouldn’t do any good. Knowing I was fighting a losing battle. Knowing Nova left me for dead forher.
Lucifer.
It occurred to me as my body shuddered, succumbing to death, that he’d return to her. That maybe he’d never truly left her side. That I was no one to him, just a replacement for the woman he once loved. That he was like every other bastard out there—self-interested and evil.
And as the surface of the water grew distant, my body no longer fighting the sweet lure of death, I realized that maybe I was in love with the bastard. Maybe I’d been in love with him this entire time. I always knew the minute I fell in love, it’d kill me.
Go figure.
So, I stopped fighting. I stopped hoping. I stopped everything. I went numb and closed my eyes.
“LADY!”
I inhaled that first, life-saving gulp of air, body covered in sweat and leaden. Blinking rapidly, I looked around and found Fable hovering over me, his wings fluttering anxiously.
They were a startling indigo blue, nothing like the night before. Daybreak beamed in through a nearby window, illuminating the man above me. His caramel eyes were ignited with concern, and I was surprised to be seeing them first thing after drowning in a deep sea of hopelessness.
“Was it Lucifer?” the angel asked, powerful chest expanding and retracting as he breathed a great sigh of relief.
Surprised to hear it, I sat up with a hold on the sheets because otherwise I’d be completely naked, and I didn’t need any more reminders about the night before. The hard pound in my head and ache between my legs were plenty. “How do you know that?”
Clicking his tongue, the tattooed angel cradled my face, naked body a complete distraction with so much light raining down over his massive form. “Then she’s finally made the connection. We’ll need to work quickly to protect your mind and move locations if she got anything from you. What did you see?”
Light glowed around his hands, heating my face everywhere he touched. His fingers worked through the tangled pink nest on my head, careful not to yank any hairs as he touched different spots on my scalp.
Still pretty confused and head throbbing like I’d taken a whack with my bat, I tried to organize my thoughts. “What do you mean?”
