“The father of lies,” Zayne murmured, and I blinked, as if coming out of a daze. “Yeah, God is to blame for everything—the true wolf hiding among the sheep and the other wolves. Sure. I’m also the tooth fairy and you’re not the great manipulator.”

A slow smile crept across Lucifer’s face. “And just think of how many would have heard my words and believed me? Believed my legions?”

“Based on what I’ve seen people believe on social media?” Layla whispered. “Millions.”

I nodded slowly, suddenly hyperaware once more of who and what sat on the couch, watching Supernatural. People needed someone to blame, even if there was no one at fault or if the fault rested solely in their hands.

“People have already believed your words,” I said.

“They have.” Lucifer’s focus shifted once more to the television. “So, my friends, do you really need to wonder why God wouldn’t intervene?”

29

Bleary-eyed and still half-asleep, I cradled the cup of coffee like it held the answers to life, while I sat curled up on the small, thickly cushioned sofa in the sunroom of Roth and Layla’s place. Zayne’s sunglasses shielded the bright rays of sunlight streaming in from the windows and ceiling. Normally, I felt weird wearing sunglasses indoors, but I was too tired to care.

Actually, I just didn’t care. Everyone around me knew I had vision problems, but even if they didn’t, who cared if they thought I was trying to act cool. That was their problem. Not mine.

Beside me, Zayne stretched out his long legs as he took a drink from the bottled water. Even as a Fallen, he had way healthier eating and drinking habits than me and half the population of the world.

“We still have to try,” Layla said, smothering a yawn as she picked up the conversation that had ended when we all had been mere minutes from passing out. Zayne and I had ended up crashing at their place since it had been so late and they had a million rooms in their house. “Even if God punt-kicks Gabriel’s essence back down to Earth, we have to try.”

“And then what?” Roth scratched a hand through his messy, dark hair.

“Then we take care of whatever mess comes from this,” Zayne stated. “That’s all we can do.”

“We?” Roth snorted, leaning back and crossing his arms.

“Yes. We.” Layla smacked his arm. “Because I don’t want to spend the next how many hundred years living in a world descending into chaos. I also don’t want to watch a whole bunch of innocent people getting hurt or dying because of it.”