Shay’s hand moved to his chest, their fingers spying against his firm muscles. Beh their palm, they felt the deep, resonant rumble of his chest and something softer and more vulnerable. Their breath hitched. “Y-you’re purring...”

  Lucifer gave a low chuckle, the vibrations deepening as they rippled through them. “A purr, yes,” he murmured, his voice rough yet tender. “A rare dispy of affeong my kind.”

  His hands slid slowly up their sides, his cws grazing their robes as they curled over their face. His thumbs stroked over their cheeks, igniting a trail of heat wherever they touched. “But for you, angel… I might make an exception.”

  His gaze dropped to their lips, his pupils diting as desire and curiosity warred within him. Their lips trembled, parting slightly as they stared up at him with wide, unguarded eyes. The urge to cim that mouth—to taste the sweetness of their innoce—swelled within him like a rising tide.

  “Tell me, angel,” he whispered, his voice a husky drawl, his breath brushing against their skin. “Have you ever tasted the kiss of a demon?”

  Shay’s heart thundered in their chest, their gaze log with his as the questio a shiver through their entire being. The world around them seemed to narrow to the heat of his presehe deep hum of his purring breath, and the way his words lingered like forbidden fruit.

  This is wrong.

  The thought hit them like a blow, sharp and immediate. They had already crossed one line, disobeyed one of Heaven’s sacred rules. To step further—to give themselves over to the temptation of his touch, his kiss—was to sever the st thread tying them to the divine order.

  But his eyes burned into them, a fme that didn’t scorch but melted, softened. His skin's glow wasn’t harsh but alive, vibrant, and real. Heaven's cold, pristine perfe suddenly seemed so far away, so sterile.

  Their lips parted as if to speak, but the words stu their throat.

  If I kiss him, there’s no going back.

  Shay swallowed hard, their fiightening against his chest as though holding onto the st vestiges of their resolve. His purri seeped into their skin, emboldening them in a way they couldn’t quite uand.

  They hesitated, the weight of God’s decree pressing heavily on their mind.

  But then the memory of Heaven’s monotony, its lifeless peace, fshed through them. The cold voices of the angels at the gate forbid them from even thinking of this moment.

  Why? Why should I deny this? Deny him?

  “N-no...” Their voice was barely a murmur, trembling with both fear and desire. The denial wasn’t for him but for the rules they were about to break. Their fingers flexed against his chest, curling slightly into the warmth of his skin.

  The fai waver eheir voice as they whispered, “ I... kiss you?”

  A growl rumbled from deep within Lucifer’s chest, lorimal. The angel’s hesitant plea lit a fire in him that he couldn’t ignore. His lips curled into a wicked smile before he crushed his mouth to theirs in a fierce, dominating kiss.

  “Yes,” he demanded against their lips, his voice a guttural snarl. His tongue delved past their parted lips, tangling with theirs in a dahat was both tender and ing. “Kiss me, aaste the darkness within.”

  His hands cradled their face, holding them steady as he ravaged their mouth with turies of pent-up hunger. His tail coiled around their waist, the smooth, powerful muscle brushing provocatively against their thigh.

  He could feel their body melting against him, their soft form yielding to his ui. The demon king cimed this angel, marking them as his own in the most primal ossible.

  Shay’s knees buckled beh them as his lips cimed theirs, the warmth spreading through their body like wildfire. His tongue explored the depths of their mouth, drawing gasps from them that only fueled his iy.

  Their hands rose, log around his neck as their fingers curled into the silken strands of his dark hair. His touch igheir skin, their face burning where his cws rested. When he finally pulled back, their face followed his, desperate for just a moment more.

  Tears pricked at the ers of their eyes as they gasped for breath, their voice trembling as they whispered, “Wow… That... was... ing.”

  Lucifer brushed his thumbs over the angel’s damp cheeks, wiping away the glistening evidence of their tears. Each drop shimmered like fragments of light stolen from Heaven, ging stubbornly to the darkness of his domain.

  Their tears weren’t born of fear or reje. They were something far more dangerous: acceptance.

  They khey had to feel the ing fire c through him, unraveling their celestial purity thread by thread. A... they stayed. They looked at him as though he wasn’t a monster but something worth enduring the fmes for.

  The sight of it should have unnerved him, but instead, it set something abze within. It wasn’t guilt ret—those feelings had been burned out of him long ago. No, this was darker, sharper: rebellion.

  Would they have me deny this? Deny them?

  He stiffened, his mind veering toward an all-too-familiar path. He had stood against Heaven once before, faced down the full might of its will. And for what? To question their decrees? To refuse servitude?

  They had called it pride—hubris, even—but he had knowruth then, just as he k now. It wasn’t arrogahat had driven him to rebellion. The refusal to bow to a system demanded blind obedieo rules that crushed the very spark of choice.

  And now, this angel was trembli unbroken, daring to defy the very ws they were born to follow. Heaven’s decree demahat they stay away, keep their hands , aheir devotion pure. A Shay had crossed that line, broken that bond, for the ce to see him.

  They would call this hubris, too. The thought sent a bitter smile curling at the edges of his mouth. Wasn’t that always the story? Any act of defiance, aion of authority, ainted as arrogance, as sin. But he khe truth. This wasn’t pride—it was freedom. It was rebellion against tyranny disguised as divinity.

  A faint growl escaped him, low and deliberate. The ers of his mind tugged at the tradi.

  Was I wrong?

  Had his rebellion been no different from this? Or was this angel proving what he had always suspected—that there was beauty in rebellion, in choosing what felt right, even if it meant defying the highest power?

  “ing, indeed,” he rumbled, his voice thick with meaning. The word lingered between them, its weight far more signifit than before. It wasn’t just about his fire ing them but their choice to let it. It was about standing in defiance of a decree that sought to strip them of that choice.

  If Shay was willing to ehe fire, how could he refuse? If they were bold enough to break Heaven’s s, wasn’t it his duty—his right—to cim them?

  “And we’ve only just begun, angel.” His voice dipped lower, carrying the finality of his decision.

  This wasn’t hubris. This wasn’t some arrogant grab for power or lust. This was rebellion in its purest form—freedom against tyranny, choice over subjugation. And if Heaven wao call it sin, so be it.

  Lucifer’s grip oightened, a possessive heat burning through him. If Heaven demanded he be a monster, he would embrace the role entirely. He would take them, and in doing so, he would affirm what he had always known.

  There was no justi the light—only trol.