"No. It wasn't Eve or Maze or you. I can't even truly fault Dromos or Squee or their ilk for doing what is in their nature to do." He'd forgotten that important detail after so long away, that Mazikeen was different from them. She didn't need someone to lead her but the rest of those dimly witted demons did. "Be angry with me if you need to be." He'd left her standing on the balcony alone with little time to say good-bye, no sign until then that he'd made up his mind.
Lucifer dropped Chloe's hands briefly to slide closer, arms closing around her and holding her tight. "Hell needs a king of celestial blood, of angel blood, because those demons cannot be allowed to lead and that is something I knew. I fought them to make them listen when I first fell and I knew...I knew," he echoed his last words softly, speaking just loud enough for her to hear only.
"My arrogance and my self-centered view of the world didn't allow me to see the consequences of my actions. I put my nephew's life in danger, put him in a position to be corrupted. There is no one to blame in this situation but myself and I take the responsibility of that entirely." He'd had plenty of time to think seated on the throne high above the dark landscape, cold and barren and devoid of the life he'd come to love on Earth. The people he cared about.