Many Millenia Ago…
She found him sitting atop the rooftop of the Healing Temple, overlooking the city of Machon. Lilith had felt him all day, the past week really. He had been much more broody than was typical. Both Michael and Gabriel noticed it, and asked her about it.
Lilith’s wings carried her to the rooftop and she gently glided down to sit next to her lover. One of the snakes uncurled from her hair, red and black marked, slithering down over her cheek, its nose booping her face with affection before gracefully bending and sliding over to Lucifer’s shoulder.
Lilith saw the faint movement of his mouth, the beginnings of his smile. But it stopped and died before fully forming. She reached up, tunneling her dark fingers through his hair. “Tell me,” she demanded quietly.
He closed his eyes, tipping his head forward to enjoy her touch. But after a moment he said, “Heven will war. With ourselves. It cannot be stopped.”
Her breath stopped at her words. She breathed again on the next heartbeat. “The catalyst for change.”
“Yes,” he sighed. “I’m going to leave you Lilith. You and Gabriel, and Michael.”
Her fingers tightened in his hair, she used her grip to bring his head up, her opposite hand touching his cheek to guide his eyes to hers. “Explain.”
“My time will come. Soon. The war will begin shortly after.” He brought his hand up, touching hers against his cheek. “It’s all right. I’m ready. And when I take form again I will contact you.”
She did not bother to stop nor hide the press of tears that came from her eyes and began to fall down her cheeks. Another of her snakes uncurled, its soft ticklish tongue taking up the wetness. Lilith searched Lucifer’s face, his eyes, before she leaned forward to press her forehead against his. “There is more. I can see it, feel it.”
She felt the tear come from his eye, crash into the fingers she kept against his cheek. It took him time to form the words, and several watery breaths later, “I can’t lose you. Not you, not Michael or Gabriel. And if we lose Michael, Lilith Heven will fall. There will be no change.”
Her fingers tightened in his hair again, her hand falling from his cheek to grip the front of the soft robe that covered him. “But we can lose you?”
He brought his hands up to touch the sides of her shoulders. “You have too,” he whispered.
Lilith growled low, a sound she did not often make. Both hands now gripped the front of his robe, the skin of her knuckles lighter because of the force. “You ask for too much, Lucifer.”
“I don’t ask it. I would never ask this of you.” His own grip tightened, more silent tears coming down his face. “Michael cannot die, Lilth. She cannot. If she dies Heven will fall. We must keep her safe now, and then you must keep her safe after.” He paused, then said quieter, “And we can’t tell her. Not about me, not about the war.”
Lilith hissed, and when she hissed, every snake in her hair, against her cheek, on Lucifer’s shoulder hissed with her. She pulled her forehead back to meet his gaze fully again. “How can you say that? We cannot keep this from her.”
“I don’t want too, Lilith!” His tone rose, then lowered as urgency crept into his voice, and a kind of desperation born from loving someone, perhaps too much, “She dies. I have seen it too many times. She dies if we tell her about the Civil War. And if you tell her about me…”
“She will try and stop it.” Lilith breathed as an understanding she did not want settled in. She eased her grip on his robe, her snake crawling off his shoulder and returning to her hair. “What makes you think I won’t?”
Lucifer’s brow creased, a pain smiled taking shape on his tear stained face. “Because you understand. Because you can see the way I can.”
“I did not see this, Lucifer.”
“You did not look.”
She slapped him, a hard open palmed strike, the emotion behind it less anger, more the pain that came with the knowledge he brought to her. Her snakes hissed, then quieted. She regretted it, the moment the sting entered her skin. She pulled back then from his touch, drawing her knees up, and pressing a hand against her forehead.
“I’m sorry.”
“Your passion drives you, and will serve Heven well. You will lead, Heven Lilith. And Michael and Gabriel will be there with you. For you. For Heven.”
“I am their whore and their healer, Lucifer, not their leader.”
“But you will be Lilith.” Lucifer insisted, scooting closer to her again, his gentle hand on her back. “And they will need both the sacred union, and the way you will mend the cracks. Michael is your stability. The both of you must be here.”
She was silent for a long time, with her fingers against her forehead, her eyes sightless as they stared out over the beautiful, but cold landscape of her home. “Gabriel will not deal with your loss well. He loves you the most, Lucifer.”
“He will heal. They all will.”
Lilith shakes her head, finally looking at him. “Your love for Michael blinds you to seeing what your actions do to the other two people that love you too.”
For the first time he looked taken aback. He frowned then, but a thoughtful one.
Lilith shook her head again, a rueful, sad sort of smile, forming on her face. She looked away from him, back over the landscape. “I know your soul is tied to hers, I have seen it. And it is beautiful, Lucifer. I love the way you love her, the way she loves you. The way you both love me, and Gabriel. But you protect her, and send your burdens to me. And I will carry them lover, because that is my job this lifetime. But I would beg you to see what your loss will do to those that love you, instead of expecting them to just heal. Expecting that I can fill the void your death will bring. Perhaps I can, but scar tissue remains.”
Lucifer bowed his head, and then shifted, until he could lay his head in Lilith’s lap. She allowed it, her fingers once more touching his hair.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, the words almost echoing with how deeply he felt them. “I can’t… I don’t see how to make this easier. I love you. I love Gabriel. I swear it.”
“I know you did Lucifer. It was never in question.” She gently ran her fingers through his hair. “Will you return?”
He was silent another moment. “I don’t think so. Not to Heven.”
Lilith said nothing, though she expected as much. She drew in another heavy breath, swallowing back the lump in her throat and accepting the burn. The silence stretched between them before she said, “Michael is my fire, Lucifer. You are not the only one who has loved her through lifetimes. I will set this city aflame, peace be damned before I allow her death. She will not fall. And I will see to Gabriel as best I can.” Her jaw set, as words she wished didn’t have to say fell from her tongue. “I won’t tell her.”
Lucifer curled closer to her. “Thank you, Lilith.” he whispered. “For more than I can express.”
“Spend time with Gabriel, Lucifer, before you go. He walks for you right now. He walks in the love we all give him. He does not know how to walk alone.”
“As you command, my priestess.”
Her fingers gently gripped his hair then, and she widened her legs, drawing back the silk that covered her muscled thighs. “That is not all I command, lover,” She whispered.
She felt his smile against her skin, set her burdens aside and lost herself in this Angel, and his love. And somewhere on Heven, another Angel felt themselves heal, felt the drive for war and conquest grow a little quieter as Lilith and Lucifer made love.
