My heart hurt, my stomach hurt. My skin felt as rough and raw as my nerves. This was all on me, now. Saving the lost angels, bringing the child of Heaven and Hell into the world, restoring a new kind of balance.
I could do it on my own. Would do it on my own. But it would have been so much better to do it with the man I loved.
How old-fashioned of me, right?
Underneath the hurt, a sliver of anger flared. In that moment, if I hadn’t loved Lucifer so damn much, I would have hated him.
And then his arms encircled my waist. He pulled me back against his body, all heat and solid protection. “No matter what our child does or doesn’t do, he will be the luckiest kid on the planet…um, make that the entire universe…because he’ll have you for a mother.”
The tension in my shoulders left. A slow slide down my body and out. Peace once again set up shop.
I smiled into the night. “She.”
“The Tree told you it was a girl?”
The Tree hadn’t designated the baby’s sex. Only the intention of the baby’s soul to redeem those who were lost. “I think we should name her Arial, after my mother.”
Luc’s chuckle at my obstinacy vibrated across my skin. He hugged me tight. “And should we raise her here in your purgatory or get out of here and back to Earth?”
In a weird way, I hated to leave this place. “Earth, of course. But what about them?” I pointed at the city. “How am I going to free the lost angels trapped here?”
Luc pressed his cheek against mine as we stood in silence for a moment, watching the deserted church and its grounds. “Maybe Arial will have the answer.”
“Did you hear that?” Zayfeer said from behind us.
Luc and I looked back at him. He was staring over his shoulder at a part of the forest where the trees were so thick, the moon’s light couldn’t touch the forest floor. “I swear I heard something.”
“Time to go,” Luc murmured in my ear.
Goosebumps ran down my spine as my ears strained to pick up the sounds of a horror monster. “Definitely.”
Zayfeer hustled over. “About returning to Earth, Amo. You’re going to need help protecting your sister from that lousy vampire, Latimer, and hunting down those other demons that escaped from my purgatory.”
“My sister? You mean Mikayla?”
“I thought the Tree showed you everything.”
I thought so too. Taking a deep breath, I poked around inside my brain.
O-kay. There it was. The memory of Mikayla with her hair down, sitting next to Emilia at the party, and me thinking then, even before the IV hookup of knowledge, that we shared the same mother.
It had been a simple inkling of the truth. One I hadn’t given my full attention to. Now it seemed so obvious, I almost smacked my forehead with my palm. “But Mikayla’s mother died on the steps of Immaculate Con..cep…tion... oh, my God.”
Even as I said the words, one of the purgatory scenes played out in my mind. “The woman with the red cape, running up the stairs…”
Z nodded. “That was your mother. Yours, Emilia’s and Mikayla’s.”
“She was alive and living in Eden all these years and neither Emilia nor I knew it? Why didn’t she come for us? Why didn’t she…”
One of Luc’s hands cupped my shoulder and squeezed. “She was protecting you. All of you. She made a pact with God before you were born, Amy. Because of her knowledge and her contact with Him, she wasn’t allowed to stay with you and Emilia once you were born. She stayed near you and started another family. When she realized Mikayla had powers, too, she tried to protect her, keep her powers from coming into their full potential and hide her from both Heaven and Hell. She knew it wasn’t going to work. That her plans were falling apart and you were going to be exposed if they did, so she went to God, to ask His favor. She was killed on the steps of IC before she could do so.”
“Why?”
He shook his head, sad. “Michael was jealous. Jealous of the favoritism God had already shown her.”
That familiar warm rushing sensation filled my mind. I turned wide eyes on Luc. “Michael was in love with her.”
“And he hates you,” Zayfeer added.
“His jealousy is legendary.” Luc’s eyes slid to the left, toward the forest, where a swishing noise erupted. Something large was sliding snake-like through the woods. “Perhaps we should continue this discussion in your apartment.”
“Michael, you bastard!” I shook a fist at Heaven. “You had no right. She was just an innocent human.”
The ground shook and I was thrown off balance, slamming into Lucifer. He grabbed me, helped me right myself. “Be careful, love. The baby and all.”