Duke had grown up alone. Literally alone. There were cracks -- fault lines -- in his head and heart and the argument with Lucifer had set his entire being into an earthquake.

And it hadn't exactly been that stable before.

Part of him wanted to yell some more. To tell Lucifer to stop telling him how to be. But that threat, that Lucifer would walk out --

He'd been half convinced that had already happened.

He gagged faintly, but held still, cramped and shaking, and waited.