Chapter 20: Fractured Fairytale
"I wouldn't, if I were you." Lucifer didn't bother to look away from the black scrying mirror as he listened to the approaching steps behind him. "Whatever it is that you are thinking, Lucifer, do not do it." He closed this eyes for a minute, shutting out the images of Gwendolyn kneeling before Eros, and willed his form back to its baseline shape -- after being shaped and changed and twisted by the perceptions of humanity over the millennia it was almost impossible to say what his true shape was any longer. But he also couldn't bring myself to become the Lucifer that he'd been these past many months. Knowing that she had controlled him so effortlessly left a hollow place in him, and he felt an overwhelming desire to flee... or shatter this creature that had somehow gotten such a deep hold on him.
"I do not recall asking for your advice on the matter, Persephone." He growled softly. "What are you doing in my realm, Goddess of Spring?"
"And Maiden of Death," she added, her lips curling a bit. "I inherited more than my husband's name when we wed. And I am here because I know what it's like to be a woman who is desired by a being many fear." The pretty goddess raised sooty lashes revealing eyes of the purest shade of green, which contrasted in a lovely manner with her sun kissed skin and strawberry blond locks, which were held back from her appealing features with a delicate chignon. She was dressed in a soft green summer dress that left her arms bare and showed her voluptuous and ample curves through gauzy layers of fabric. She wore a ruby pomegranate pendant at the hollow in her delicate, creamy throat.
"This is hardly the same thing," Lucifer growled softly. "You have no idea--"
"She makes you feel weak. Constantly. And yet, also like the most omnipotent creature in the universe," Persephone said, her gaze daring him to challenge her. "And it scares the shit out of you that you love her enough to break the world to have her."
He considered lying, as if doing so could repair whatever damage Gwen's influence had done to his psyche. But the thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. He turned his back on her instead and paced back to one of the elegant wing-backed chairs placed before a cold, empty fireplace and gestured to the Queen of the Underworld to also have a seat in an identical black and red tapestry chair opposite him.
"You have an odd sense of loyalty," Lucifer observed in a low tone. "It was your husband who couldn't leave well enough alone."
"Hades can be impulsive," she conceded. "All three Olympian brothers are a bit lax in the self control department." She primly sat and her expression was full of both compassion and a certain feminine strength he had always admired from the beautiful Celestial. "Regardless of his intent, word of this girl -- these women, because it certainly isn't fair to pretend that there are not two residing inside that shell -- has spread. And people are afraid. It's hard enough when a mass of humans are terrified... make it a mass of Celestials instead and the damage fear can do is infinite and often irreversible." She met his eyes directly, honestly. "This incarnation and I have history... not that I think she has realized my watchful eye on her since before she came of age. She still thinks I'm the product of an over active teenage imagination... but I always talked to Eros of her. I think that is why he trusted that no harm would come to her had I any say in the matter." Her eyes glinted red like rubies. "And I always have a say."
Lucifer regarded her. "The Greeks have no say here, Queen of the Underworld. You are here at my sufferance."
She leveled that ruby-tinted gaze upon him balefully. "Nor did you in The Underworld, yet I spoke on your behalf, Angel. Take care whom you attempt to leverage political power over, Lightbringer. Icarus can tell you what happens then you let those wings get too close to the sun."
He thought about arguing. But, in the end, this was not the hill he wanted to die on and merely gave a small nod as one duelist to another; acknowledging a clean, fair shot. It didn't mean his guard came down, but he was intent to remain focused on this conversation despite the loin-stirring mental images he still had flittering around his brain of all the ways he would punish Gwendolyn for making him feel powerless. Ironically, despite Evangeline being the more dominant of the two, who often sought to take over control sexually, Lucifer felt on steady footing with her. They just understood one another. But Gwen.... Gwen was something that spoke to some cross-wired section of his brain that longed to own and possess yet made him feel so fucking vulnerable when she levered those limpid blue-green eyes at him.
"We both care about her," Persephone said reasonably, the gem tone of her eyes shifting from ruby to emerald once more. "You wouldn't be so angry right now if you didn't give a damn."
Lucifer opened his mouth to argue... but the words died on his tongue. Finally, he all but collapsed back into the chair, all haughtiness drained out of his aristocratic features. "What do I do?" He raised genuinely grief filled eyes to the petite goddess opposite him.
"You let her go."
It was said gently, but the surge of emotion that overtook him caught Lucifer so off guard that he surged to his feet before he had a moment to decide to do so. "No."
Persephone's eyes were full of pity. "Then you come to grips with this fact: she will never be yours. Not completely. You *are* aware that she is married. Has a child? That child speaks to me. Asks where her mother disappears to. You are lucky as hell her husband hasn't had words with his own pantheon and warded their home against you. If she were married to a Muggle, you'd probably have no problem."
Her words caused Lucifer to visibly pause a slow, amused smile crossed his lips. "Muggle?"
Persephone's cheeks flared deep petal pink as she blushed with a rueful grin. "Thoth gave me all the Harry Potter books to read for Yule. It's also what Loki calls all of your monotheists." She blinked and frowned up at him. "Sit down. I know you have this whole bad-boy 'I do what I want, what feels good' vibe, but you need to really look outside yourself for *once*, Lightbringer. Or you can play this game out and lose her because she *will* choose her family. Both of them will. So you can have all the talks with Michael you want, you are going to end up losing this."
"She loves me." It was meant to sound confident, but it sounded more like a question, a sigh, and a wish all at once.
