"Apparently," Shawna said as we drank dark wine and waited on the Margherita pizza, "Frances didn't know about that Judge Jillian dated! When he found out, he went off the deep end!"

"Obviously. That's such a shame." I swirled the dregs of my Merlot before taking the last drink. She poured me another. It was substandard, as all non-hell alcohol was becoming to me, but it was palatable.

"What's going on with you?" Shawna said. "You aren't yourself. You haven't been for months."

I sighed. "If I asked you a question, would you be honest with me?"

"Hmm. Sounds ominous," she said, cocking an eyebrow. "Okay, sure, I'll play twenty questions."

I took a breath. "Do you enjoy defending guilty people?"

"'Allegedly' guilty. And, if I'm honest, I enjoy these cases. It's not about them being guilty or not, really, but about the challenge."

"So, even though Jillian is gone now, and you're virtually guaranteed a partnership, you'll still do these cases. Even when you know they're guilty, 'allegedly' or not?"

She narrowed her eyes, "What's with these questions, Olivia?"

"Just answer, please."

"I see no reason to stop taking them."

I slumped. I had hoped maybe, just maybe, she'd give them up. I knew it wasn't true, but I needed confirmation.

I played my hand. "How long have you been bribing the Judge for verdicts?"

She set her wine down. "Be very careful here, Olivia." I ignored the implied threat.

"So, a while, huh?"

She crossed her arms. "Why would you even accuse me of such a thing?"

"I have reasons," I countered. "Mostly, because I want you to admit it, I guess."

She snorted. "If it were true, why in hell would I reveal it?"

"Why in Hell, indeed."

"What is wrong with you? Is this why you've been distant? Because you think I'm some horrible person who bribes Judges and defends guilty people because I can't resist beating the system and getting away with it?"

"Not entirely, though all of this has occurred to me as of late," I shared. "No, I've been avoiding you because I have something in my life I haven't been able to talk about."

"Are you going to tell me now? I mean, we're supposed to be best friends, although I think the fact might debatable after the accusation you just made."

"It's easier if I show you." I snapped a portal.

She gasped and took a few steps back. "What—what the hell? Olivia?"

"It's a portal, a doorway from here to there." I slid off my stool.

"Where does it go?"

I could tell her curiosity was taking over. I found it easy to use. "Well, come with me and let me show you."

I stepped through and held out my hand. The room behind me transfixed her. Without thought, she took it.

I led her into Hell. She didn't even notice when her body crumbled to the floor in her kitchen before the portal shut. No, the books on the shelves fascinated her. I'd never paid much attention, but now she was, I did too. They were law books—a vast collection of them.

"Wow. Where are we? This is amazing!" she said, caressing the spines of the volumes.

"This is Lucifer's outer office."

As soon as I spoke his name, the inner door opened, and he walked out.

"Lucas!" Shawna exclaimed. "Wait..." she pursed her lips, and her brow wrinkled. "You said Lucifer, not Lucas." She looked from me to Lucifer. "What do you mean, 'This is Lucifer's outer office?'"

Lucifer remained silent, and she turned to me. "Explain."

"You are in Hell, Shawna," I clarified. "And, not only that, but I know you are Justice."

She scoffed. "Justice? What are you talking about? You think I'm, what, one of the seven Virtues or something? Like your statuettes you're hunting down?"

"I'm not collecting statues, Justice. I'm taking the Virtues themselves. You have all become corrupt," I gestured at my Fallen Angel. "This is not Lucas. This is Lucifer. Lucifer, this is Justice."

"Bravo, love," he congratulated me before turning to her. "Justice, you are in Hell where you belong."

Shawna's eyes widened, the realization we meant business playing across her face. Her mouth fell open, and she took an involuntary step back. "No! I have so much more to do!"

Lucifer glanced at me. "Justice, I have a deal for you."

I gaped at him. I wasn't sure what I was thinking would happen, but this was not it.

She regarded him, expression measured. "Go on."

"I will offer you the opportunity to win your freedom from Hell if you agree to work for me for the next century."

"Ha! Work for you?" She gestured around the room. "Seems I already do!" she roared.

I didn't understand and said as much. "What do you mean work for you?"

He glanced at me, then locked eyes with Shawna. "If you take the cases I instruct and get the verdicts I expect, for the next one hundred years, I will give you your soul back," he said to her.

"And after?"

"After, well, you are your own person. You will live out a normal life just like any other human."

"What's in it for you?"

"Deals. Souls. Punishment meted out as I see fit. The chance to do good occasionally."

"What's the catch?"

"There is no catch. It's a straightforward deal. Do you accept?"

Justice contemplated, "I want a budget. A big one to make my own contracts as needed. And, I want to own my own firm."

"Naturally. We are of like mind. In addition, you will have an assistant assigned by me."

"Ah, a spy. There's the catch," she said with a wry smile.

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "If you insist on thinking of the demon as a spy, so be it."

"A demon assistant, you say?" She paused, crossing her arms and studying the ceiling. "Let's make it a paralegal with powers of persuasion, perhaps?"

"I can arrange that."

Lucifer held out his hand silently. She paused for a heartbeat before taking it. "Deal," they said simultaneously.

A ripple signified they had struck a bargain.

"Your first assignment is your current client. He needs an insanity plea. I believe you have started the process."

"I have."

"Good." He snapped a portal into her kitchen next to her body. She stepped through the oval doorway, and her body sucked her soul back into itself. Her eyes snapped open, and she took a gasping breath before looking around. She laughed then, loud and raucous.

Lucifer waved his hand at the portal and cut her off. He stood for a moment before squaring his shoulders and turning to me.

My heart fluttered. Was he going to dismiss me now he had what he wanted? Or, would we go on living together with Azza?

He fished in his pocket and brought out two boxes. "I neglected to give you the charm for Temperance. I apologize. Also, here is the charm for Justice. When you add them to the bracelet, you will have your soul back."

I took the box for Temperance and added it to the bracelet immediately. Then, I took the box for Justice. Before I opened it, I stared at it. Even after I lifted the lid and looked at the miniature rendition of the blind lady with the scales, I continued to study it. I tried to read Lucifer, his face passive and neutral, before holding my wrist over the box and allowing the last piece of my soul to come home.

When the charm connected itself, the bracelet shrank until it fit snug on my wrist. It contracted still, burrowing into my flesh until it disappeared. I watched, enraptured by the process, but felt no pain or discomfort.

Lucifer, on the other hand, fell to his knees, clutching his chest. His wings unfurled, and a set of ethereal blue orbs trailing light behind them appeared, swirling around and around, pulsing. They encircled him, traveling faster and faster, their tails getting longer and longer, until they captured him, wings and all.

I started forward to help him, but he stopped me.

"Stay back, Olivia. This is as it should be."

I watched as the bonds of light sank into him, leaving agony in their wake, until I could see them no longer. He bent forward, forehead touching the floor for a split second before he raised himself and screamed, a sound unlike anything I'd heard before. Light poured from his mouth in a great beam that rushed upward then circled him again before burrowing into the floor.

The piercing brightness gone, he fell to his side. I stood, frozen in place, when there came a tremendous roar as if all of Hell howled. I covered my ears, but it did nothing to muffle the sound.

Azza threw the inner office door open and ran through it, going straight for Lucifer. "Lucifer? Lucifer!" Azza shook him until he roused, blinking as if coming from the darkness into the light. He patted Azza's arm, "I'm okay."

"Are you...?"

"Yes. Once more, I am the Devil." He scrambled to his feet, showing no sign of the trauma he'd just endured.

Azza, still on his knee, hung his head before looking up to him. "Sovereignty Before Authority, Lucifer," Azza whispered.

Lucifer smiled at him and caressed him, a touch Azza leaned into. "I love you too, Azza."

Azza took up a position behind Lucifer reverently, eyes downcast.

My tongue unglued itself from the roof of my mouth. "What just happened, Lucifer?"

Before he could answer, the inner office door opened, and the Mistress of Children strode through. She smiled at Lucifer and then moved to the side. I gasped at what I saw.

My Deirdre, my beautiful little girl, stepped tentatively into Hell. "Mom!" she cried and ran to me.

I knelt and opened my arms for her, crying giant tears at the sensation of hugging her close again. I thought my heart would shatter, holding her in my arms.

"I believe we have concluded our deal, Lucifer?" the Mistress asked.

Lucifer nodded. "We have."

The Mistress curtsied before walking through the door again, returning to Heaven.

"Mom! She said I was going to live with you now. Is it true? Are you coming to Heaven?"

"No, honey, you're joining me. Is that okay?"

"Uh-huh," Deirdre answered with a vigorous nod. She hugged me again and I, her.

I looked at Lucifer, whose face was once more blank and empty.

I stood. I needed some answers. "What just happened, Lucifer?"

"My test. Once a millennium, He tests me to see if I am still willing to accept, and am worthy, of the deal of being the Devil. You saw the deal. I am now connected to Hell once more, and it is my domain."

"And Deirdre? How is it she is here?"

He cleared his throat, the only tell he was experiencing any emotion whatsoever. "I... had to lie when I said I had not been able to bargain for her. If I had told the truth, I could have had to reveal the arrangement."

"Which was?"

"I was able to include her as an additional thing I would win for the test, should I pass. In exchange, I had to allow Him to punish me for some offense of His choosing. The whole affair of the wing plucking and forced sex was the punishment He chose."

"And the test?"

"Whether or not I could make a deal and have it carried out, with someone to collect the corrupt Virtues on my behalf."

Deirdre looked from me to him and back. "And us? Do you love me? Truly? Or was it a ploy to get me to collect them for you?"