“So?” she challenged.

“He doesn’t love you for your brains, does he? Obviously, he isn’t here because you are not vital enough for him to risk his own precious self, even with that monster in your belly,” I said.

Her face fell for a moment; then she visibly gathered herself. “Lucifer is far too important to endanger his physical being. I understand why he sent you in his stead. If he were destroyed, the very fabric of the universe would come undone. You, however, are expendable.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“You are in no position to sneer at me, as you are present, acting upon his orders,” she said.

“I am here,” I admitted. “But it’s not a done deal. I could leave you.”

Evangeline stared at me. “You cannot. You must do as Lucifer bids.”

“No, I must not. I’m human. We’ve got this thing called free will.”

“If you do not take me willingly, then Lucifer will command you to as Hound of the Hunt,” she said triumphantly.

“I could still drop you somewhere along the way,” I said casually.

Her eyes widened. Apparently my reputation as a loose cannon was potent enough that she took my threat seriously.

“Lucifer would kill you if you caused the death of his child,” she said.

“And he’ll kill you if you cause the death of mine,” I said, finally coming around to the point. I wanted to make sure that she knew I was not to be trifled with. “I don’t see you as a threat. But you obviously see me as one. So don’t get any ideas about trying to take me or my kid out just so you can be number one with Lucifer.”

“No one except my child will be Lucifer’s heir,” Evangeline hissed.

“That’s not up to you,” I said. “But I’ll tell you this—I’ve already killed two of Lucifer’s children, and I’m still up and walking around. Don’t think I’ll hesitate to take out your little monster if I have to. If you try to harm my child, then you will not live to see another dawn.”

We stood there, face-to-face under the blazing sun in a desert of white sand, and took each other’s measure. Evangeline blinked first.

“You will not threaten me,” she said haughtily, drawing her bravado around her like a cloak. “I will be Lucifer’s queen.”

“Remember what I said.”

“You—”

“Remember what I said,” I repeated.

Maybe I was going a little dark side.

“Now, get walking,” I said, and pointed west, toward the horizon.

Evangeline’s lips parted. “Walk?”

I nodded. “You don’t think we can just fly out of here, do you? We’ve got to earn it. I’m taking a soul from the other side of the Door.”

“Surely you have the ability to…”

“Do you want to stay? Because that will make my life a lot less complicated, and I’m very big on anything that will make my life easier right now,” I said.

“I cannot believe that you expect me to pay the price for our return,” she muttered.

“I’m not paying it,” I said. “You want to live again, you pony up. I’m just the delivery girl.”

It was helpful to consider myself that way, to think that I was simply doing the same duty I had always done as an Agent, except in reverse. It was easier than thinking about the fact that I was doing something that undid the order of the universe just so Lucifer could exert his will.

When I thought about it that way, my bitterness was like chalk in my mouth. Of course I’d never had a real option to leave Evangeline behind, no matter what I’d said. If I’d come home without her, Lucifer would have simply ordered me back as Hound, and I would have been unable to resist. I’d thought it would be better to do it of my own free will, but it was almost worse. I couldn’t fall back on the excuse that I’d been nothing but a puppet for Lucifer.

Evangeline reluctantly trudged forward. She looked like a pouty child who was told that she couldn’t have a lollipop.

There was something of the child about Evangeline still, I mused. She had been very young when she’d fallen in love with Lucifer, and she had destroyed her whole village and anyone who crossed her in order to get to him. She had been taken from Lucifer by a rival faction of fallen angels, and then been rescued by Michael and hidden away.

In a sense she had never really grown up. And I knew from experience that when Evangeline wanted something, she would lay waste to anything in her path to get it. When she’d wanted her vengeance on Ariell, the angel who had stolen her from Lucifer, she had possessed me. She’d lost her mind completely when I’d refused to let her work her will through my body, and then she’d been killed by Ramuell and ended up here.

I was pretty sure that she was right on the edge of insanity. I was also sure that whatever plans Lucifer had for the future did not include having a mad queen on the throne beside him.

He wanted the baby. Just as he wanted my baby.

My son gave a little flutter underneath my belly button. I wished I could be as other mothers were, the ones who lay on their sofas and dreamed of their child’s face, their child’s future. When I looked into my child’s future I saw a life of turmoil and pain.

And love, a little voice whispered from the back of my head, and it sounded a lot like Beezle.

Yes, I would love this baby. I already did, with a fury and a power I had not expected. I would do anything for my son.