Great. “Why would he lie about that?”
“He lies about everything. His only goal is to worm his way back into Heaven. If I could, I’d rip his head off. He’s the one who kidnapped you after the fall and forced you back to Heaven and your prison.”
“So that’s why he and Nikita disappeared when you arrived.”
“He was here?”
“Didn’t you see him?”
A muscle twitched in Luc’s jaw. “He did it again. And I helped him.”
“Did what?”
Luc’s hands went to his waist as he looked out over the city. The king looking over his fallen kingdom. “Return you to purgatory.”
He glanced at me, his brows forming a deep V over his eyes. “I knew God would keep trying to separate us, but Gabriel failed to take your soul. Cephiel failed to keep you away from me. Even the Mark of Cain failed at keeping us apart. God freed Zayfeer in exchange for him capturing you and bringing you here. Next stop? Heaven and your prison cell.”
I swallowed hard. Next stop, my ass. “So my mother’s soul is not trapped in the tree? Why could I feel her, then, when the Axeman was trying to cut it down?”
“The Axeman?”
I waved him off. “Did I sell my mother’s soul to you?”
“She was your first. But you must understand. The souls you brokered to me are all fallen angels who’ve been lost to us. Those who were punished with life on Earth and whose souls we’re harvesting from their human forms in order to free them.”
“My mother is—was—a fallen angel?”
“No, she was human, but because she allowed God to impregnate her with your soul, she became one of the Chosen. Like Mary, the human female who carried Jesus.”
“Holy bananas, Batman.” You’d think by now nothing would surprise me. “My mother had sex with God?”
A grin lifted the corner of Luc’s mouth. “Not in that way. He merely kissed her in order to transfer your soul into her womb. When she and your human father procreated, your soul entered this body.” He pointed at me.
Parent-sex was still eww, so I slammed the mental door shut on that image. “The picture in the church. The painting. It looked like my mother and that angel were doing more than kissing.”
“What painting?”
I explained the painting depicting my mother and the angel. Lucifer eyed me intently. “Was Zayfeer involved in this?”
Zayfeer. The liar who’d betrayed us. Maybe he was a liar and a traitor. Didn’t mean he didn’t speak some truths. “He showed me another painting with you as a dragon in it. Are you saying he lied about that, too? Because I saw you, Luc. Scales and all.”
The dark gaze I loved slid away. He said nothing, just stared at the ruined city.
This was getting me nowhere fast. “What about the souls in the trees you freed when you set the forest on fire? Zayfeer said those were souls I’d brokered for you. Were they human or fallen angels?”
“They were the Fallen. Ones who had been reincarnated like you into human bodies. But their magic is too powerful for the limitations those bodies imposed. Their appetites much too strong. You recognized that in them, recognized Heaven in them, and brought them to me.”
“The humans…they don’t know they’re angels, do they?”
“Most don’t. But when the time comes—when we’ve found all of them—your soul will be healed. Their souls as well. Our family will be together once more.”
My magic warmed at the thought. My heart did too. “And my mother. Where is her soul?”
Luc pointed at the city. “Here. Somewhere.”
Somewhere. How…unspecific.
But at least God didn’t have it. “Can you find it?”
“No.” He glanced at me. “But you can.”
Straightening as much as I could, I kicked at the sand with frustration and started down the hill. Something inside me needed to touch the stone and marble prisons trapping my angels.
Yes, they were my angels. My actions had put them there. “And the others trapped here with my mom? How do we free them?”
Luc walked by my side as we descended the hill. When he didn’t answer, I stopped and looked at him. He stopped, but didn’t meet my eyes as he shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Really?”
“I wasn’t even sure the city would be here.” He started walking again and I hurried to catch up. “But this is your purgatory. Whatever the answer is, it’s yours to discover.”
“No pressure or anything.”
We shared a smile and Luc took my hand.
At the arched entry to the city, the two of us paused. A current of magic rode the air. A second current trickled over the sand. The two teased my senses and wound around my arms and legs. I felt a click inside my chest. My magic seemed to be syncing with whatever lay here.