Beloved Evil

NINETEEN

"How are you feeling?"

Lucifer was a step ahead of her. The torches on each side of the hallway casted his long shadow down upon her. Tara had been looking at the curls that tickled the nape of his neck, his left hand that swung back and forth in front of her as he walked.

"I'm a little nervous."

He looked at her over his shoulder for a short second, catching her eye before turning back.

"I meant how are you feeling after the incident? The witches said you have been healing nicely."

"Oh."

They turned a corner, then another.

"I'm alright. Much better."

He made a sound in the back of his throat. Good or bad, Tara didn't know.

They were silent for a bit as they kept walking.

"You've been drawing," he stated after a while.

Tara's cheeks reddened in embarrassment. The papers had been sprawled out on the desk in the room; Nettie's noisy earrings, an ugly flower she had made into some abstract mess, the dress she'd worn to her twentieth birthday. Silly things, things of the past. And most of all, not pretty at all.

"I had to pass the time somehow. Couldn't you have installed a television or something?"

She had a feeling that a small smile crept upon his face. She kept looking at the small curls in his hair, enjoying the fact that he didn't know she was looking.

"I don't like televisions," he said.

"What about radios?"

"Radios and televisions are for humans, and I don't like things that are for humans."

Tara rolled her eyes.

"You could install some light."

"We have light," he said, nodding towards the torches that warmed her shoulders every time she walked past one of them.

"Poor humans, having to light thousands of these every day."

They rounded another corner and Lucifer stopped in his tracks, Tara almost walking right into his back. She looked past his shoulder, seeing a large wooden door with two guards in front of it. She gulped, having momentarily forgotten what was about to happen.

Lucifer turned towards her, his eyes running down her uniform before landing on her eyes.

"The torches burn forever, Tara. Magic, remember?"

A smile was present in his voice, and it made her lips curl upwards, for a short second making her forget what was waiting for them on the other side of the door.

Magic...

"Now, are you ready?" he asked, his eyes turning serious, the dark aura around him thickening.

Tara gave a curt nod.

The doors opened the moment Lucifer turned to face them, almost as if on que. The guars greeted him and bowed their heads as he walked past them, Tara hot on his heel.

With marble floors, candles, and long drapes, the room they walked into looked very much like the throne room. It was smaller than she expected though, only made to fit the long oval table in the middle. Humans were standing flush up against the walls, their heads down, hands folded behind their backs. Tara didn't dare look at any of the demons, overwhelmed by a sudden fear, a panic that made her breath get stuck in her throat. She looked at Lucifer's broad back, following him as he walked past the table to the empty chair that waited for him at the end.