Lucifer’s eyes didn’t leave Gabriel’s face for a second. In all the years that had passed, she had not changed. Her milky skin glowed with perfection, her hair was the same silver-flaxen color it had been, and her eyes…the hope she propelled from their silver-blue depths still made his heart trip over itself and his palms sweat. And now she was here, right in front of him. Close enough to touch. He fought to find the words, fists clenching to keep them from reaching out. “It has been almost three decades.”

When he felt the heavenly presence moments ago, he had expected God. Rage and satisfaction had mingled inside him as he stalked from the enemy’s camp, leaving his men to their bloody business. The sword sheathed at his side had been a comfort, a weapon that, though useless against his maker, made him feel powerful. Now under the canopy of tall, draping trees, he could do naught but stare, stunned into silence as too many thoughts and emotions created havoc inside his body and mind.

“I have missed you, Morningstar.”

Lucifer’s knees almost gave out at her tender name for him, a name that had meant so much to him so long ago.

“You tempt your fate too much.” She moved forward with grace, and he froze as she reached up to touch his face. He had longed for her touch for so long, and he could not help but lean his cheek into her warm palm. “I fear what this petulance will cost you. His forgiveness may not withstand—”

A snarl escaped Lucifer’s lips as they snapped shut. He jerked back. His earlier rage resurfaced, pumping through his veins like molten lava. He had tried so damn hard to earn redemption, and he had failed. “God’s eternal forgiveness is saved for his precious humans. They alone are his pride. We are merely his servants. Loyal and pure is not what he values. Now I am like them.” He threw his arms out and glared up at the sparkling night sky. “Existing solely for my own gain and other’s demise.”

Gabriel’s wings unfurled fast, perfect and pure in their radiant glow. The trees at her back gained light, adding an eerie tinge to the darkened forest. “Lucifer, no. You allow your anger to blind you. He does not want—”

Lucifer shoved her back, the dejection that pooled silver in her eyes breaking something in him. Gabriel had abandoned him as surely as she had lost her hope for him long ago. Yet her belief in their maker and his many mistakes still held true. A tree blocked her retreat, giving her nowhere but up to escape to. “I am human. One of his precious creations. Still I am not good enough.” For Him or for you. “He cast me out. He took my wings. He took everyth—”

Gabriel punched Lucifer in the face, and he stumbled from the shock of her sudden outburst. Her wings flung open and that soft edge to her features hardened. Hand snapping out, she caught him by the neck and squeezed. “I will not let you continue this. This plague you have cursed the earth with…I cannot bear to see it. Not for them, but even more so, not for you. I know you, Lucifer. You burned so brightly once. It can be that way again.”

Silver tears streamed down her pale face, turning Lucifer’s rage into rigid stillness.

Her grip loosened, and with a blink her eyes dried up. The smile that graced her blushed lips stole Lucifer’s thoughts, making him want to do so much more than stare at her.

“If you would only let go of this pain and accept your place among us once more. Accept God’s love again, Lucifer. Beg his forgiveness. Do it for you, for what we both know you can be.”

And there it was again, her eternal faith in the God who had refused him, who had spat on his good deeds and ripped his heart out. Exhaustion set upon Lucifer and he sighed as Gabriel’s hand fell from his neck. He swallowed, causing pain to undulate down his throat. “What you demand is impossible. Without you…I am nothing. God knows my heart. And that I cannot change. You may not feel what we once shared, but I can never forget. I can never let go. And that alone is why he keeps me a prisoner below, why my will to redeem myself died…”

His words stalled as his face fell, seeing something he had not noticed in all his shock and anger since her unexpected arrival. Tight around her ankle was a glowing manacle with two links still attached.

Gabriel’s hand neared his face. “Lucifer, what is—”

Lucifer struck out, catching her wrist. His heart hammered beneath his ribs, belting like it wanted to explode. His head snapped up. “You are not permitted to be here.”

He had wrongly, stupidly, assumed that she had been sent to stop his path of destruction that kept humans screaming as they ran from the camp behind him before being caught and dragged back in. And now she was here, far from the Realm of Light in a place she was not permitted to visit. The restraint around her ankle needed no affirmation. If she had been released, all that remained would be the indents and reddened skin below.

Gabriel had pulled her wrist free and was speaking, but all he could hear was the rushing in his ears. She had broken her chains. She had escaped—to see him. Her forbidden lover.

“Michael warned—”

“Michael is a snake,” Lucifer grated out, cutting off whatever she had been saying. None of it mattered. But her being here did. “In buying his lies, you endanger yourself. You should not have come. Leave, before it is too late.”

He spun, ready to march back to the camp and his waiting men, but Gabriel caught his arm and yanked him back around. “No. I will not go. I will not fail you again.”

Confusion bled any remaining anger right out of him. Had he been wrong all along? Had Gabriel merely been prevented from seeking him out? Or had she stayed away for a cause more significant than he could know? Either way, he saw the truth in her eyes. In almost two millennia, her hope for him had not died. She still cared for him. Perhaps she even still loved him.

“It is not you who failed me.” Lucifer reached up and tucked her windblown hair behind her ear. Keeping his hand aloft, he knew what he had to do, and he hated it. But she did not deserve to suffer as he had. She did not deserve to be punished, banished…or to lose her wings. Earth did not deserve a pure soul like hers. Though in his opinion, neither did God. Taking a slow step forward, he fought to remain close and not back down from what he knew he had to do. Bringing his lips to her forehead, he reached up to cup the back of her neck.

Gabriel sighed at his touch. “Lucifer, please…”

“I am sorry,” he whispered, looking skyward to force the burn in his eyes to recede. His grip on her neck tightened, a clue to his intent. “I will not let you be condemned too.”

Then he freed his sword and speared it through her gut.

Though this seemed like the end, this is not the start of how Lucifer ruined the only love that ever mattered to him. No. His misdeeds started long, long ago…