Page 70 of Trust the Fall
I want to kill him. I want to watch him bleed out in front of me. Because he’s right and I hate him for it.
Victoria is good. She doesn’t belong here.
“I’ll see what I can do about the cage,” Zeke interjects.
“Admit it, Satan. You’ll never have her.” My blood boils, and before it can bubble over, I snap my fingers and Michael disappears.
Zeke’s eyes go as round as saucers. “What did you do?”
“I sent him home.”
“I’m not trying to piss you off, Lucifer, but you know he’s right. Victoria doesn’t belong here.”
“I know what she wants,” I bark.
“And what’s that?”
“Me.”
There’s no part of me that doesn’t know that with every fiber of my being. Victoria loves me. She’s attracted to the reaper, but that’s all it is. She’d choose Hell over the reaper kingdom any day.
“She’d choose you, but she’d never be happy here. It goes against every fiber of her being.”
“I know.” The words come out broken and I hate that I’m showing weakness to Zeke.
“Even more, it would never be allowed.” Zeke’s words are the sobering truth.
The reapers won’t allow it, and neither will Heaven.
We’ll constantly be at war, which will only weaken my control over the demons of Hell. This is the one situation in which love doesn’t conquer all. It will only end in tragedy.
We’re star-crossed, and a piece of me recognized it the first time I laid eyes on her.
“There’s truly no way, Luke.” Zeke says softly.
It’s not lost on me that he didn’t call me Satan, Lucifer, or some other moniker approved by Heaven.
“She knows exactly how I feel. She won’t listen. You know her, Zeke.”
“Then I guess you have to make her leave.” He shakes his head. “I’m not saying this because of my past with her or my aversion to you,” he explains. “We’re united right now to stop a war and save humanity. If she chooses to stay, the reaper kingdom will come for youandHeaven because we didn’t keep our word. It’ll only spur another war. One that would be catastrophic.”
“And I should care because?”
He huffs an unamusing laugh. “She’ll die, and you’ll have to live for eternity knowing you could’ve prevented it.”
There it is. The worst of the truths spilled today. This isn’tRomeo and Juliet, where we both drink the poison and choose to live in the afterlife together. One dies. One remains.
I can’t live forever without a world in which Victoria lives.
Zeke dips his head, aware that I’ve already made my decision. The only correct one.
“I’ll be going now,” he says, making his way to the door.
“One request,” I call out, and he looks back over his shoulder. “I’d like Leeanna to meet Victoria in the reaper kingdom. She’ll need a familiar face, someone who’s on her side.”
“And you think Leeanna is the right person?” He doesn’t sound convinced.
“They have history.”