“I gifted it back to Pythia,” Lucifer replied, which prompted my next question.
“Then how exactly did it end up in Connecticut, two and half thousand years later?”
“Ah, but this was my very question to her after discovering recent events.”
“And her reply?” I asked with a roll of my wrist, eager for him to continue.
“She hid it, knowing of its importance, as I had made the box indestructible. Eventually, after years of constantly moving its hiding place it remained undetected until New Haven, Connecticut. I believe this was when Pythia attended Yale University there in one of her quests for a taste at normality,” Lucifer said with a dismissive shrug, as if the thought that she should even try was a ridiculous one.
“And by no coincidence, this was then found by Dominic Draven?” I added, knowing the whole thing had been fucking set up from the start, and by the fucking Fates themselves for all I knew!
“I believe that was the start of events that were orchestrated to lead to this very point in time,” Lucifer said, taking the thoughts right out of my mind and giving them words.
“So, let me get this straight, this witch who is working for Matthias, gets word to Dominic Draven that there is something hidden, knowing that when he retrieved the box, the one place he would take it to, was his own daughter who is an expert in deciphering ancient text,” Dariush said, making me bite my tongue on the other possibility. One that led Pythia to plant it for the events to happen as had been intended, getting Amelia and I working together and therefore finally starting our fated relationship. After all, she was a conduit for the Fates themselves and as their Oracle, if she was asked to do something by the Gods, she obeyed without fully understanding why.
“This then kickstarted the chain of events that eventually brought you both here,” Lucifer stated, and I knew he wasn’t talking about myself and Dariush this time, but instead as I had feared, he meant Amelia and I. Meaning we had been played from the fucking start. But then, if that was the case, why had the witch seemingly been intent on stealing the box back, if she knew that was what would eventually lead us both here?
I was missing something.
“But why and to what end?” I asked, instead of voicing what was truly on my mind.
“Ah, but this is where it gets even more complicated, I'm afraid,” Lucifer said and for once, he didn’t look full of glee at the fucking idea of even more shit from the past to throw at us.
“But of course, it does,” Dariush muttered with a roll of his eyes.
“After five hundred years imprisoned in Tartarus, unbeknown to me, he escaped using the help of my enemies who wish to see me overthrown. After Ba'al Zəbûb aided him in this, Matthias took possession of a new vessel and situated himself in your mortal life. Seen but truly unknown.”
“Basically, he became my new fucking stalker,” I growled in response.
“And cue his fucking with your life, brother,” Dariush said, making me give him a wry look before I turned my anger to Lucifer, knowing he’d had this information all along.
“Now is the time you explain what else this son of yours meddled in. For all I know of Matthias, is as a fucking saint who took my place as the next apostle… after I caught him fucking my wife and being the lips behind the whispers to the other disciples as to why my head found itself on the end of a fucking noose!” I all but roared this at him, feeling my blood boil with every word, for this was who Matthias had been to me, nothing but a snake lying in wait for the opportunity to take my place. Of course, I had never known his true purpose other than his desire for my wife and that of my position.
Oh, how fucking wrong I had been!
“Alright, my son, but don’t say I didn’t warn you, for you will not like the account of loathing I am about to tell you.” Lucifer’s reply didn’t exactly inspire confidence that I would come out of this conversation unscathed. For I would no doubt end up festering on a new depth of murderous rage. One that could possibly cause my demon to take over completely in the height of my fury.