Page 57 of Trust the Fall
“I’m fine. Just Lucifer being Lucifer.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, well... I have to say that I’ve seen a different side to him these past few days.” His hand rises for me to stop overthinking things, clearly seeing my widening eyes. “I’m not saying I trust him, or that he’s not every bit the Satan of nightmares, but I know he cares... for you.” He shakes his head and huffs out a laugh. “I’m not sure how that’s going to work, but anyway, I just wanted to check on you.”
“Thank you, Zeke. The fact that you were willing to put aside your issues with Luke to come here is big. Him gaining back his throne is important. Human life is at stake.”
“I didn’t just come here for him, Tori.” He smiles, but it’s full of sadness.
Whether it’s from the loss of what we shared for a short time, or something else entirely, I don’t know. And in truth, I don’t care. Those days are over, and we’ve already hashed that out.
“Your destiny is linked to the reapers, and I had to help get you back to River.”
I flinch at his words. “I’m not here for River, Zeke. I’m here to help Luke. That’s it.”
Zeke shifts on his heels. “Even if he can take you to meet your mother?”
“I’m not having this conversation now. Drop it, Zeke.”
“Okay, okay,” he says, lifting his hands in surrender. “I’ll drop it.”
“We’ve got a battle to prepare for,” I say.
“Too late for that,” Leanna calls out, as a crashing sound makes its way toward us.
“Everybody back.”
Luke pushes our group together to form an inverted triangle. It’s not lost on me he set it up so that I’d be at the back.
“You know I’m more than capable of defending myself,” I call out to Luke. “You don’t need to hide me back here.”
“Not here. You don’t have all of your powers,” he singsongs back, and I have to grind my teeth not to march to the front and put him on his ass to prove just how capable I am, with or without my powers.
“Would you two shut up,” Leeanna snaps.
“If something should happen to me, please tell Marina that I love her,” Julian says over his shoulder.
“For fuck’s sake, Julian, tell her yourself. None of us are dying,” Law gripes. “You’re losing your man card for this, by the way. The Crown shouldn’t always assume death.”
Julian throws his fist into his brother’s stomach and Law harrumphs, bending over.
“I’m not assuming death, idiot. I was just thinking about how I don’t think I told her I loved her before we left. It’s bothering me.”
I place my hand on Julian’s shoulder. “You’ll tell her soon, but if something should go wrong, I will make sure she knows that she was the last thing you thought about and that you love her.”
He places his hand over mine on his shoulder and squeezes. “Thank you.”
“Any requests from you, Lawrence? Any certain familiar you’d like to pledge undying devotion to?”
He grunts. “I won’t be dying. So no need.”
I grin, realizing that he didn’t deny having feelings for the woman Maggie.
“They’re coming,” Luke yells to prepare us.
I refrain from saying another word as the thundering sound of hooves gets closer.
Weapons are unsheathed and we all assume crouched attack positions.
“Ready?” Lucifer calls out as the first of the demon dogs fly around the corner.