Cast From Heaven: A Paranormal Fantasy Romance (Lili Kazana Book 1)

by Leigh Kelsey

“Fuck off.”

  “Explain yourself,” Lucifer repeated, his voice a grating threat. “Or you will be made to explain, and it will be unpleasant. You are living—how did you enter my domain?”

  The woman snorted, tossing dark curly hair from her face. “Maybe through the giant hole in the sky?”

  Lili couldn’t believe her gall—to speak to the devil this way. Lili had toed the line of disrespect when she’d first met Lucifer but she wouldn’t dare to be this openly caustic.

  “How did you create the breach?” Lucifer interrogated.

  “With my bare hands,” the woman said with a laugh, thrusting her palms out. Lili flinched back but Lucifer and Cerberus didn’t budge. “What do you think? I didn’t. I’m just a human.” Bitterness twisted her words and Lili stared. A human—a living human, not a spirit—had broken into Hell.

  “Why?” she asked, before she could stop herself. Lucifer shot her a look but Lili had spoken now; she might as well finish. “Why do you hate being human so much?” Lili had spent her whole life being bitter about being half angel, half demon; she recognised the same in this woman.

  The woman’s face twisted. “Spoken like someone who isn’t one.” She threw her head back and … and spat at Lili’s feet.

  Ire and magic roared in Lili’s veins, filling her bones until her hairs stood on end. She wasn’t as angry as when she’d bitten Gabriel but she was close. Glaring, Lili knelt to be on a level with the human, noticing Cerberus edge closer in her peripheral vision. To stop her hurting this woman, or vice versa?

  “Why would you risk your people?” Lili asked softly. It was a dangerous softness and one she hadn’t heard from herself before. She didn’t hate it. After the way Gabriel had used her, the way she’d allowed herself to be manipulated, she wanted to be a little bit dangerous. And the softness suited the broken rasp her voice had become, a souvenir of begging for her life, her wings. “For magic? To be something else—something more? Is it worth the violence and slaughter of everyone you love? Because even if you didn’t open that breach, you used it. Every time someone uses it, it widens, and more and more demons slip through.” Lucifer had told her as much, as had Gabriel the night before he’d kicked her off Wisteria’s cliff edge.

  The woman shrugged, irreverent.

  “I hope you don’t have a mother,” Lili said, “or a father, or a sister or brother. I hope you don’t have nephews and nieces and children of your own. Because your actions could mean their deaths.”

  The woman’s amber eyes darkened, narrowed, but alarm flashed through them. She’d been so desperate to be something else, something other than human—normal—that she hadn’t thought through her actions. Lili sighed, feeling bad for her. “I get it,” she said. “I’ve hated what I am my whole life, so I understand why you might want to change it, why magic might seem really appealing. But all you’ve done is put your species at risk. All you’ve done is hurt people.”

  “I don’t care,” the woman said, affecting a brittle laugh.

  “Yes, you do.” Lili pushed to her feet. “And it’s not too late to fix it.”

  A scornful sound answered her. “Oh, here we go. I’ve done something very bad but if I rat out all my little friends, you’ll spare my life. And then stab me in the back because you’re fucking demons.”

  One of Cerberus’s heads gave a warning growl but Lili didn’t check which. She just looked down on the woman, who’d scoffed at the genuine way out Lili had given her. “I’m an angel,” she told the human, and watched her throat bob as she swallowed. “If you think the worst of demons, of my friends here, maybe you should have listened to me when I was willing to help you.”

  True panic raced through the woman’s eyes, lined her tawny face. “What does that mean? What are you going to do to me?”

  Lili shrugged. “I’m a guest here—I don’t make those decisions.” A pang of pity arrowed through her heart. “Tell us everything you know about the breach, and any others you know of, and I’ll…” Lili’s certainty slipped as the fire of her magic and wrath began to fade. “I’ll make sure you don’t suffer more than you deserve,” she finished, meeting Lucifer’s gaze.

  He nodded, something like pride in his gaze. He was … impressed? Lili swallowed the lump in her throat and looked back to the woman.

  “What’s your name?”

  Her mouth twisted but she spat, “Melissa.”

  Lili nodded, smiling. “Okay, Melissa. I gave you a chance, but if you don’t want it…” Lili turned, pretending to walk away.

  “Wait! I’ll help you, but you have to protect my sister.” It seemed to genuinely pain her to admit wrongdoing but she grated out, “You’re right, I put her in danger. Make sure she’s safe and I’ll give you what you want to know.”

  Lili stepped back, deferring to Lucifer now. She couldn’t make those promises. She didn’t know how to get to Earth, let alone have magic that could track down a human girl.

  “Deal,” Lucifer agreed. “Assuming your information is accurate and freely given. And we will be verifying it.” He nodded at Cerberus, and Cerny’s head lunged forward, his teeth snagging around Melissa’s forearm. I winced but no blood dripped down. He was only holding her tight enough to restrain her.

  “Look away,” Lucifer warned, sliding his hand behind Lili’s head and turning her face into his shirt. “Watching them while Bernard sifts from one place to another will make your mind hurt. It’s impossible to process what you’re seeing,” he added, laying a kiss against Lili’s forehead.

  Despite everything she’d told herself about how dangerous he was, the fear never formed. And his eyes had stopped leaking smoke, the shadows gone from his shoulders. Lili tipped her head up, not to watch Cerberus ‘sift’ but to look at Lucifer. “Am I safe with you?” she dared to ask, meeting his crimson eyes. This close she could see the flecks of brown and gold among the red, and his scent of spice and sweetness wound through every breath she took.

  His eyebrow raised. “You extricated an agreement from a human who was dead set against complying with my terms. Am I safe from you, Little Lilith?”

  At the admiration in his voice and the curl of his lips behind his beard, Lili blushed. It felt good, to have done something proactive and done it well. To have accomplished something.

  Was it just last week when she’d celebrated her graduation, when she’d grinned ear to ear and howled cheers with the rest of her year? That successful feeling had been swiftly eroded by Gabriel, first by the butterflies at seeing him again, and then by the dead weight of his betrayal. But this—this felt good. She’d helped make a difference, and if Melissa knew about the breaches letting demons spill onto Earth, if that information could stop the violence—and stop the fighting between Heaven and Hell, even temporarily—then Lili was glad she’d come along today.

  And anything was better than sitting alone in the dining room, waiting for her only friends in this realm to return.

  “You,” Lucifer murmured, tipping up her chin, “are one hell of an angel.”

  Lili’s stomach filled with fluttering, her face stretching to accommodate the grin. Lucifer smiled back, a small thing that nonetheless warmed his eyes and put creases at the side of his mouth. The longer they smiled, and the longer they looked at each other, Lili felt the energy between them change. Her heart beat triple its usual speed and her mouth went dry, her tongue pushing out to wet her lips. Lucifer tracked the movement with darkening eyes, his fingers sliding from her chin to brush her throat.

  Lili waited for him to kiss her but he just blinked, and the fire in him went out. Stung, Lili dropped her gaze and put space between them. Lucifer must have seen the hurt and confusion on her face because he caught her hand before she could retreat more than one step.

  “I would love nothing more,” he said, tugging on her hand until she scrounged up her courage and looked at him, “than to kiss you, Liliana. But just yesterday you were wildly in love with Gabriel, and you’re still reeling from his betrayal.” His thu
mb brushed her knuckles. “I’d be a bad man indeed if I stole a kiss from you now.”

  Lili swallowed down her hurt to whisper, “It wouldn’t be stealing.”

  His pleased smile made her feel worse somehow. She felt small and silly for wanting him to kiss her, especially—as he said—so soon after Gabriel. She must have been the most gullible, naïve girl on the face of the planet.

  “When you know you can trust me, and when your heart has healed,” Lucifer promised, looking at her with that same kindness from the night before, “then I will kiss you.” A shadow moved through his eyes, an emotion Lili couldn’t name. “I’ll show you what sex should feel like, and introduce you to every shade of pleasure your body can give you.”

  Lili blushed furiously, the flush scalding her whole body. But flustered as she was, she managed to gasp, “Okay.”

  His answering smile was sensual; Lili matched it, using all her courage, but her smile faded when she remembered Melissa and the rift hanging above them. “I really hope we can shut the breach,” she sighed.

  She’d glimpsed the destruction demons had wrought upon humans just once during her flight from the academy to Wisteria, but the scorched buildings and suffering people had haunted her.

  “We will.” Lucifer squeezed her hand, pulling her against his body and tucking her head beneath his chin. “Close your eyes. I’ll take us home.”

  Wisteria was home—Lili opened her mouth to say so, but closed it without a word. She’d never feel safe in the city that had severed her wings and allowed men like Raphael and Gabriel to exist. Maybe Iarlon would be home. At least it didn’t have a cliff’s edge for an evil angel to kick her off.

  Lucifer used his shadow magic to bring Lili and himself just inside the gates of Iarlon, where a rush of noise and movement absorbed them. Lili stumbled, momentarily overwhelmed by the sheer number of people—translucent spirits and demons in both humanoid and beastly forms—going about their business. Lili’s eyes lingered on the many demons, ranging from wolves to tigers to goats to strange combinations of species. She didn’t spy a three-headed dog among them, though.

  “This is where people go when they’re neither good or bad?” Lili asked, recovering enough to take a step past the gates.

  Lucifer, a hand on her lower back, allowed her to take in his city in her own time. It was unexpected—his non-pressuring support—and Lili dialled up a bright smile for him as he said, “It is. Most of Hell’s residents, especially the spirits, live in the cities these days.”

  “That’s sad,” Lili murmured, brave enough to begin walking through the clamour of people. Most of them seemed to be carrying shopping or corralling children, some of them waiting for buses or the little ferries that puttered along the winding river thoroughfare. It was a small shock to see busy roads filled with traffic in the middle of Hell. She’d always pictured it with carts and horses, a backwards, undeveloped place. She’d been judgemental, she realised, and felt guilty for it.

  Lucifer’s arm slid around her back, pulling her into the protection of his body as a see-through teenager pelted past on a skateboard, throwing a quick salute as she spotted Lucifer. “How is it sad?” he asked, after giving the girl a warning look until her skateboard slowed its pace.

  “Because,” Lili replied, settling closer into his warmth as they strolled across a pelican crossing, turning onto a main street—lined with trees shedding crisp, purple leaves, charming little shops, and two-storey terrace houses—that led to what must be Lucifer’s house. Well, palace. Pale brick and sprawling, made of angles and clean edges, the palace watched over all of Iarlon. Ivy and orchids climbed trellises beside the main doors, and gold glinted at every window, the frames gilded, the silver sheen of the river curving around its side. “Less people are good now.”

  “Less are unworthy too.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head; he did this a lot, Lili had noticed. “For an angel, you’re awfully pessimistic.”

  Lili laughed, drawing the eye of an aging demon couple walking arm in arm. They blinked at the sight of her tucked into their ruler’s side but then graced her with polite smiles. Lili smiled back automatically, not allowing her smile to slip a fraction at the babirusa-like twisted tusks around one demon’s chin or the mottled green skin of the other man.

  She ought to have realised it by now—she’d slept beside Lucifer last night for Heaven’s sake—but it really hit Lili then, that she was in the depths of Hell, surrounded by demons. Not that she was rude enough to show her uneasiness to the nice couple who now offered her a wave. Lucifer snorted softly as he returned the gesture, dipping his head to murmur, “You’ve been here three days, Little Lilith, and already my people adore you.”

  Lili tried to smile but Lucifer wasn’t a stranger like the couple—not anymore—and she couldn’t maintain it purely out of politeness.

  “What is it?” he asked, his eyes going flinty and his back straightening as he scanned the slight incline, as if he expected to see enemies. Lucifer’s grip around her waist tightened reflexively, his other hand brushing over the hilt of a dagger Lili hadn’t noticed strapped to his hip.

  “It’s nothing.” Lili shook her head, mousy hair falling into her face. “I’m being silly. There aren’t any … threats, don’t worry.”

  His shoulders relaxed but fractionally. He stopped scanning the street but Lili suspected he was using some shadow magic to monitor their surroundings as they crested the sloping road and reached the palace.

  “Liliana,” he said gently, his hand flexing against the small of her back.

  Lucifer opened the wrought iron gate and sealed it behind them, then led her behind a tall, manicured hedge, catching Lili off guard by tucking her head under his chin and wrapping both arms securely around her. Warmth and security surrounded her, seeping the stress from her bones. “I should have guessed you weren’t ready for full immersion in my world.”

  “It’s fine,” Lili mumbled against the cool, smooth fabric of his shirt. “I told you it was silly. I just … it only sunk in just now that I’m in Hell.”

  “You’re safe here,” he murmured against her hair, the ring of a vow in his words.

  “I know.” Lili pulled back, meeting his eyes and itching to smooth out the tight lines around them. “I’m not scared. I’m just … adjusting.”

  Lucifer’s smile was strained. “Would you rather go home? Cerny brought you here at my behest so you could heal, and so you might help us deal with Gabriel, but I could return you if you wish. When we’ve closed the breach.”

  “No,” Lili breathed instantly. But then unpleasantness snaked through her belly when it occurred to her that Lucifer and Cerny might not … want her here. “If I’m in the way—”

  “Liliana.” Lili closed her mouth mid-ramble, darting glances from him to the beautiful garden around them. “I’m asking what you want.”

  Her heart beat fast, nervousness pricking her spine with sweat, but she rushed out, “I want to stay. Just for a bit. Until we’ve stopped the demons escaping to Earth and until … until I’m safe. From—him.”

  Lucifer nodded, the taut lines in his handsome face seeming to relax. He really was beautiful, Lili thought, with his sharp jaw and cheekbones, that facial hair adding a hint of wildness, those deep-set eyes, and the soft mouth, and—and she was staring. Lili dropped her gaze instantly, heat splashing her face.

  Lucifer kissed her temple. Again. Lili fought the urge to swoon. “Then you’ll stay. As long as you wish.”

  “What if I don’t want to go?” Lili asked, staring at her sandalled feet.

  There was a smile in Lucifer’s voice when he said, “When you knelt in front of that human and showed both mercy and justice, when I heard that iron in your voice as well as the softness, I knew you were fit to rule at my side.”

  Lili blinked, waited a few seconds for her mind to figure out a different meaning because he couldn’t mean what he was saying. Lili … Queen of Hell. There had never been a co-ruler of Hell. She couldn’t be
the Persephone to his Hades; for one thing, she had no idea how to rule people. And she wasn’t even remotely queenly. “But—but I’m a half breed, and I’m scarred with burns, and I’m naïve and a silly girl—”

  “And a survivor.” Lucifer held her gaze, sending a jolt through her heart and a twist through her stomach. “Besides, what’s wrong with being both angel and demon? I’ve never been ashamed of being so.”

  “You—you too?”

  He nodded, a sparkle to his stare. “I came about my species a different way—my Fall changed me, made me into the first of our kind—but yes, I’m the same as you. And it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Neither,” he added with a pointed look, “is being naïve and trusting and seeing the best in people. It’s one of the world’s biggest terrors: trusting someone, loving them. You have a big heart, Lili, and being brave enough to let people in isn’t a bad thing.”

  “It is when I get hurt,” Lili mumbled, looking over his shoulder at—at a vast, landscaped garden with animals carved of grass and trees and so many beautiful flowers that the space was as bright as a painting. A living work of art. “Wow,” she breathed, wonder filling up the aching spaces in her soul.

  Lucifer chuckled, letting the conversation slide. “I see you, like others, have fallen in love with my garden.”

  Lili nodded wordlessly, edging past him towards a carved swan three times her height. “These are beautiful,” she said dreamily. “Who made them?”

  A throat cleared a few feet down the path, and Lili broke away from the swan to find Bernard hulking between two rose bushes, both plants the pastel mauve of Hell but one tinged yellow and the other the pink-lilac colour of sunrise.

  “The prisoner won’t talk,” he said gruffly, speaking to Lucifer. Lili frowned at the rough quality of his voice, the blush on his cheeks. Bernard. Blushing.

  “What?” Lucifer thundered past Lili to Bernard, shadows rippling at his heels. “She agreed to tell us what she knew.”

  “She said she’d talk,” Bernard agreed, his eyes sliding to Lili, “to her.”