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Authors: Yolanda Olson

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BOOK: Lucy, Fallen
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“You don’t listen very well do you?” he asked giving me a sidelong glance. “I’ve told you a million times that I won’t leave you to do any of this without me and I won’t.”

“Thirteen, why did he call you Lucy?” Micah asked turning his attention to me.

“We are bound. It was my right to name her,” Dev said.

“I wasn’t asking
you
, devil,” Micah said through narrowed eyes.

“Stop bickering!” I shouted.

Turning to Deveraux, I said “I am yours and you are mine, yes?” He nodded. “Then does it not hold some truth that you do as I say as much as I do as you say?” He nodded again with a small, slightly sexy smile. Turning to Micah, I proceeded, “Micah, you know what I am. You know that you must heed my requests regardless of me being bound to Deveraux or not, is that not true?” Micah turned his face away. “Micah?”

“Yes. It is true.”

“Then please will you both just
try
to get along?
Please?

“I will do this only until we find the others. Then it is up to them what to do with you and
him
,” he said looking at Dev.

“Fair,” I responded.

“Can I say something?” Arissa asked stepping forward.

We all turned to look at her expectantly.

“Master, forgive me for never revealing this to you,” she said with a quick glance at Deveraux, “But I can see the past and the future. It is my gift as a devil. I’ve known what you are this entire time. I knew this was all going to happen,” she said softly looking at me. “And I know how it will end. More blood will be shed, more angels will fall, and more devils will be turned to dust. I also see that working together will be the only way to survive this. Then everything will be as it was, while some things will turn into what they should have been all along.”

“Wait, you’ve been hiding–”  Dev began incredulously started.

“Arissa, can you tell us what is going to happen?” I  asked cutting Deveraux off.

“No. My gift will be taken from me if I do. I’m sorry Lady Lucy,” she said quietly as Hadrian put an arm around her and pulled her close.

I walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me with sad, tear filled eyes. I gave her a comforting squeeze to let her know it was okay and I wouldn’t allow anyone to drag her secrets out of her, before I turned to the rest of the group. They were looking at me wondering what to do after Arissa’s revelation. I glanced up at the heavens and then back at them.

“Let’s go.”

One thing they all finally agreed on was that we wouldn’t leave the springs until my wings had mended themselves.

Micah led us back to the sulphur springs were we nestled in for the remainder of the night. I didn’t understand what the difference would be since the dawn was not much brighter than the dusk these days, but I welcomed the opportunity to rest my head against Deveraux’s strong chest and feel his arm wrapped around me as I healed.

I listened to Micah’s wings as he soared through the air, clearing his head and trying to wrap himself around the fact that he had to align himself with devils for the time being, and felt jealous. I only wished I could be out there with him floating through the air, but instead I was lying in a dirty cave, with my love’s arms wrapped protectively around me.

That’s actually not a bad deal, Luce,
I thought to myself with a smile.

“Aargh!”

I jolted awake from my half sleep state to the sound of Micah’s cry and ran out of the cavern. He was in the sky being attacked by a pair of Thunderbirds and he was fighting for his life. I immediately began to desperately flap my wings trying to gain some kind of velocity to get to him, but the holes were too large and my wings were still too damaged to lift me more than a few mere feet off of the ground.

Fourteen

I
turned ready to yell for the others, but Deveraux had already shot out of the cavern at top speed and leapt into the air, slamming his fist into a Thunderbird’s back so hard that it fell back toward the Earth in a spiral. Arissa was right behind him and managed to leap just as high as her master taking the other one down by the waist. Below her, Hadrian was waiting and he already had one of the Thunderbirds by the throat. Catching the other one that Arissa threw toward him, he grabbed it also by the neck forced them to their knees.

“Oh, how I’ve waited for this moment,” Deveraux said approaching them speaking with dual vocal chords.

What’s wrong with this eyes?

Dev’s eyes were now large and vacant. They had washed out from their beautiful amethyst color to ice blue. 

“Do you know who I am?” he asked leaning down.

The two Thunderbirds looked up at him, their eyes wide with fear.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he replied.

Without warning he grabbed the one on the right and punched a hole through its chest, ripping out its heart. Hadrian let it fall dead to the side and placed his arm under the other’s one neck to hold it in place as it started to squirm harder than ever.

“I’ll ask you this once and then you end up like your friend.
Where
is Keilyn?”

I went off to tend Micah’s cuts and bruises when I heard the Thunderbird start to wheezily laugh. It was one of the more horrible sounds I’ve ever heard. Like old wood being beat by dust in a wind storm. The Thunderbird trained its eyes on me and then looked back at Deveraux.

“The devil child?”

Ugh, my stomach feels funny.

“Yes, the devil child,” Dev replied.

I glanced over and saw the Thunderbird cut it eyes toward me again. Angrily, I wrapped my still healing wings around myself and Micah so that it couldn’t see us.

“That’s not possible!” I heard Deveraux shout after the Thunderbird said something to him.

“Oh but it is,” it wheezed again. “You’ll see soon enough.”

Oh no.

I bent over clutching my stomach and began to dry heave. I didn’t know what was wrong with me but this was the same pain I had before I left with Hadrian. Suddenly I threw up and a large pool of blood, which splattered on the ground next to Micah.

“Thirteen?” he asked leaning over and pushing my hair back.

“Kill him,” Deveraux said to Hadrian who obediently pulled the Thunderbird’s head off.

His eyes went back to normal and he ran a hand over his mouth looking confused and worried at the same time. Then he looked over at me and rushed to my side. He held me while blood dripped from my mouth.

“What did he say?” I asked wiping away the blood with the bottom of my shirt. “Where’s Keilyn?”

“He said he didn’t know,” Dev said as Arissa went to get water for me.

“And that got you angry? That he didn’t know?” I asked skeptically.

“Yes. Are you okay Luce?”

I nodded and rinsed my mouth with the water she handed me then looked over at Micah who was eyeing me curiously.

“I don’t think we’re supposed to do that do you?” I asked him dryly, making a face.

Smiling, he shook his head.

“But really, what did he say?” I asked turning my attention back to Deveraux.

“That’s really what he said,” he replied digging his hands into his pockets.

I looked at Arissa and raised an eyebrow. She shook her head slightly to indicate that she hadn’t heard what he said. I turned my attention to Hadrian who was staring at the sky with a blank expression on his face. I guess he felt my eyes on him because he looked at me and shrugged, then turned his attention back to the heavens.

Deveraux was watching me carefully.

“Luce?”

I took a deep breath and turned to look at him, “Thank you for saving Micah.”

“Saving me?” Micah asked pushing himself off the ground and holding his arm. “I didn’t need saving.”

“It didn’t look like you had that under control,” I retorted.

“I wouldn’t get used to that. I only did it because I could sense her panic and I ran out to make sure nothing would happen to her,” Dev said to him.

“Just as well,” Micah said shortly.

“Walk with me?” I asked Deveraux looking up into his eyes.

Smiling he nodded and took my hand. I knew he wouldn’t be smiling once I started talking, so I just held his hand while we walked silently along the border of the black ocean. Dev stopped walking so he could get behind me and put his arms around me as we both looked at the sky.

“Do you miss it Lucy?” he asked.

“Every second of every day,” I whispered.

He sighed.

“I’ll miss you desperately when this is over,” he said in a shaky voice.

I turned my head up slightly to look at his face, but he refused to look at me. Instead he just held me close to him like it would be the last time we would ever have this moment. I managed to turn myself to face him. I put my hands around his neck and he looked down at me with sad eyes.

“I wouldn’t go back without you. Even if they allowed me to go back, Dev, I couldn’t leave you. I used to be so carefree and careless. I would fly all around the world not thinking of the dangers below or the suffering below that. I would see humans in love and I would smile and sometimes I would set a rainbow over them because I thought it would make their love stronger, prettier to look at. I didn’t know what love truly was until you. I refuse to give that up. I accept that you can’t love. I accept that there will always be a part of you that wants to kill me. I accept that I’ll spend the rest of eternity walking on eggshells around the devils in the other provinces. I’ll accept all of this if you accept that I will always be what I am. I can’t change that. I need you to accept that there will be times where you will find me crying because I miss home. I need you to accept the fact that there will be times where I’ll want to be alone and just stare at the sky wondering why I can’t see more than I used too. I’ll need you to accept that there will be days where I will be so angry with you and blame you for me not being able to go back home. I’ll need you to accept me for all my faults and promise me that you’ll always want me, because I will always want you.”

Deveraux ran his fingers down the side of my face, and cupped my chin in his hands.

“My sweetest precious Lucy. There will never be a day that I won’t want you or accept everything that you ask of me. I am the closest to being capable to love as I’ve ever been and it’s because I’ve always wanted you. You speak of the days you would soar through the skies; those are the days I would come from beneath and look up and watch you. You’ve had me captivated for your entire existence and I’ve always longed to hold you. I fought with myself every time I saw you to control the devil inside, because I wanted to put you in chains and keep you forever. I wanted to make you submit to my every whim whenever I pleased, but I knew that because you were an angel, we would have tried to kill each other instead. I would daydream and lay awake at night thinking of nothing other than what it would feel like to be with you; to make you my pet. That false noon that you collapsed on the borders of the Western and Southern Province, three of my family died fighting off the south to bring you to me. My entire faction has always known how I’ve felt for you and so have the other provinces. They knew that if they got to you first you would be a bargaining chip for them. But it was Hadrian and Arissa that survived and saved you. It was Hadrian and Arissa who brought you into the Western Province. When they told me of your arrival, I
had
to lock you in the catacombs to decide what to do. The others taunted you because I ordered them to do so. You had to think that you were in danger so that you would stay with me. But then Keilyn... Keilyn immediately took to you and refused to let you stay in that filthy cell. I knew in that moment that you wouldn’t leave me if Keilyn stayed close to you, which is why I asked her too. I never meant to put her in danger, you have to believe that,” he said with intense eyes. “And then the Thunderbird, it told me where Keilyn is but it doesn’t make sense to me, so I lied to you. I have to figure this out before I can tell you what it really said. Please understand.”

“I understand.”

“That’s a great idea!” Arissa shouted making the two of us jump.

Hadrian and Micah looked at her in amusement then the three of them started toward us.

“What’s a great idea?” Dev asked.

“I was thinking,” Micah began. “You are one of the oldest of your kind so that makes you important in your realm I would imagine,” he said looking at Dev before he looked at me and continued, “And Thirteen ... you know. Anyway, I think that if you are going to stay with him for eternity the two of you should be more than just bound by a demonic, sexual pact.”

“What’s wrong with a demonic sexual pact?” Dev asked incredulously.

“It only represents
your
side and not hers,” Micah explained.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

Micah took a deep breath, “Think about this Thirteen. When the end comes to this Earth two sides will be fighting. If you are only bound by the pact you currently have you will be marked for death as well. If you are bound by what I will soon suggest, it takes you both off of the radar and you will be left in peace, but you will not be allowed to engage in battle either,” he warned. “Once the world is reborn and the new wave of humans is put here, the two of you will be the first this time and will be able to mend the rift above and below and maybe, just maybe the new wave will be the final one.”

“What do you suggest, Micah?” I asked growing impatient.

“Well the three of us agreed that for all of this to pass, that you should allow us to perform the marriage rituals on you. From The Above and The Below. Tonight... now.”

I looked up at Dev who was giving me the most hopeful look I had ever seen.

I smiled.

He dropped to his knee.

My heart began to beat faster.

“Lucy,” he began taking my hands in his. “I would give up eternity to keep you by my side. I would burn down the heavens and freeze over the hells if you so asked of me. I’ve never wanted something so much in my existence. I’ve never needed something as much as I need you. I promise you myself forever. Would you do me the honor of being my eternal bride?”

BOOK: Lucy, Fallen
7.2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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