Page 26

26

MICHAEL

N o one told you fatherhood came with a huge side of heartbreak. Heartbreak with a serrated blade that cut through me deeper than I ever thought possible. I could barely breathe as I stared at my daughter in the middle of the camp. Red tied her corpse to a long wooden pole, where everyone could see it. Luci and I had our hands bound and were magically restrained in a shielded bubble on a makeshift stage. Red’s soldiers jeered, shouting obscenities at us.

Lucifer held me in his arms, leaning our foreheads together. I existed in the moment, listening to his stuttered breathing with my eyes closed and taking in the immense sadness we both felt. He kissed my cheek, the wetness of his tears hot against my skin.

“I’m so sorry, Michael,” he whispered in my ear.

“Me too. We had such little time with her, and we could have had more…” I would never forgive myself for not standing up for what I wanted. We shouldn’t have abandoned her, even if it was for her safety. We should have found another way.

“Don’t look to the past, love. I enjoyed the time we did have with her. She was beautiful, headstrong, and a firecracker. So much like her mother…” he said, trailing off.

Eventually they would find wherever Judas hid Marilyn, Nonna, and Angela. I prayed he chose to execute them, because I could not and would not stand to see Mari tortured. Lucifer and I could take it, but she did nothing to deserve mistreatment. The way Red chose to torture some of his prisoners was deplorable and if he touched her, I’d find a way to break out of this cell and end him.

He stepped onto the makeshift stage his soldiers built, cleaned up from the battle and dressed in a flamboyant military dress uniform. He probably didn’t earn a single award or accolade on it. Before he started to speak, he smirked at us, his haughty face dripping with smug victory. A victory at the expense of me losing my only child, who I had just started to build a relationship with…

“Here lies the body of Diana Morningstar. I planned to play with my prey before I slaughtered her for good, but I guess I don’t know my own strength. What a missed opportunity,” he lamented, smirking at us. The soldiers cackled at his awful joke, and he let it ride out before speaking again. “Today we witnessed the downfall of the Morningstar usurpation. The last stand of a weak, pathetic dynasty who thought it could rise in my ashes.”

He called it the downfall of the Morningstar usurpation. I called it the darkest moment of my life. Worse than losing Luci. Worse than losing Marilyn. Worse than having to give my daughter up for her own safety and being forced to catch glimpses of her through Azazel’s visions and flashbacks. I had never regretted being immortal as much as I did right now. If I could, I’d give up my eternity for her, so she could live instead.

“But no one will ever rise and take my rightful place on the throne. The world—and all four of its realms—are mine. Today begins a new era, one where we take over earth and claim it for the strong! The mighty! The deserving!”

The soldiers’ cheers reached a deafening volume. I could barely hear myself think, let alone what Lucifer was saying.

“I guess we must settle for torturing her lovers, then her fathers. Then her mother, aunt, and granny after we find them. Oh, and her personal assistant, wherever he got to. We still have a full night of entertainment, so buckle up and get ready!”

A group of guards faded onto the stage with Desmond, Ares, Bash, Mal, and Azazel. They were bound in dark red magical bindings from their shoulders to their ankles, and their mouths were gone. Not sealed or magically blocked. Red had removed their mouths completely.

I hope they gave him and his cronies Hell to deserve that.

Red sighed, rolling his dark, sunken in eyes at the five of them. “You five are going to be fun to torture. I was thinking we could line you up like bowling pins…but we’re short by one.” He rubbed his chin in thought, exaggerating the movement to perform for the crowd. “Bring out Judas!”

Judas and two guards faded onto the stage, but unlike the guys, he was only shackled with his hands behind his back. I smelled burning as they marched past us, then gasped. The silver cuffs were blazing against his skin, leaving scorch marks that would most likely be permanent.

Not like it mattered if the marks stayed—we’d all die eventually. Red may torture us for a few weeks or decades, depending on how long we kept his attention span, but I had no doubt he’d kill us all. The most we could hope for was that we were boring.

The guards lined the six of them up into a bowling triangle. Red stood a fair distance away, then formed a swirling red ball of fire. He winded up, pulling his arm back so he could throw the ball at them. He lobbed it toward him, but a torrent of water caught it in mid air, neutralizing it.

Complete mayhem broke out as soldiers shouted, pointing at something whizzing through the sky. Some of them faded away, deserting Red on stage.

Ares smiled, his unhinged eyes tracking a black mass in the sky. Desmond and the rest had varying degrees of shock on their face. Bash and Azazel were crying, and as the black mass morphed its shape, I felt like I was going to pass out.

It was a woman with red feathered wings, clad in a black cat suit and combat boots. Diana. My daughter was alive, ready to fight another day. She wasn’t gone.

Lucifer’s jaw hit the floor before he squeezed me tightly.

“Our girl is alive,” he cried. “Thank the cosmos.”

She swooped low, getting close enough to hit him with a black, opaque shadows, just like Desmond’s. They tunneled into his mouth, nostrils, and ears, wrapping over his eyes and weaving their way down his body. Her face was pure rage. She looked like an avenging angel. A nightmare come to life.

She landed on the stage, extending her open palm toward the guards. They all dropped dead, like a row of dominos.

“I won’t just rise from your ashes. I’ll fucking piss on them. You’re going to regret this, Red.”

The air chilled as the clouds swirled to form a giant vortex in the sky. Thunder clapped and lightning rained down, hitting the stage and blasting it into mere splinters. Red tried to free himself from the shadows, but whenever he’d break one, three more would form, keeping him trapped.

Diana raised her hands toward the sky, cackling as the sky opened up above her. I felt something…a cosmic shift? I couldn’t describe it, but the very fabric of our world was tearing. Everything around me paused mid action.

“Did you feel that?” Lucifer asked me. He and Diana were the only ones not frozen.

“Yes. Our daughter is either doing something extremely smart that will win us this war, or she is about to irrevocably change everything,” I responded in awe. I wasn’t capable of conducting magic like this, and only felt something this all-encompassing from one other being in my life.

The world suddenly moved again, but in reverse. Everything I had experienced in the past few hours rewinded, as if I was stuck in a VHS tape. My body moved of its own accord, as the shield deactivated, the guards backwards walked us back to the cell, and we reversed inside it. They shut the door and magically sealed it again. The guys followed behind us, and I watched the fight between Ares, Desmond, and the guards happen again. The only missing cog in the wheel was Quelier.

Experiencing the time rotting in my cell all over again was excruciating, but worth it because I knew my daughter would run down the stairs soon.

Time stopped again. Everyone around Lucifer and I froze again.

“Did she seem…different on the stage?” he asked.

“Yeah, she’s angry, and rightfully so.” I said, a little surprised at how thick his comment sounded.

“Yes, I know. But she seemed…unhinged. Like her anger took over,” he said. “Her magic is always stronger when it’s fueled by big emotions, but eventually big emotions lead to big breakdowns. We need to catch her if she pushes herself off the cliff.”

Before I could assure him I’d do everything in my power to keep my daughter safe, everyone sprang into motion again. It was three hours earlier, and we were in our cells again. Ares hurled every type of magic under the sun at the cell doors, trying to break free again. Desmond paced as he wracked his brain on a way to free us. Azazel was reacting badly to the magic in the pit, deteriorating rapidly.

Our mindlinks were severed down here, so I leaned into Lucifer and whispered in his ear, “I don’t think they know…”

“They definitely don’t know,” he agreed.

“Know what?” Oisín said, ever the lurker. I swore this kid had bat ears, even for someone with sonic hearing. “Are you talking about where Quelier went? He was sitting right there a second ago, but now he’s gone.”

“Wait, what the fuck do you mean he’s gone?!” Ares raged in the cell next door. “I’ve been trying to free myself from this sardine tin for hours and he just waltzes out of here! Is he in on this? Did he help Red trap us?!”

“No,” I said, cutting that line of thought before it grew legs and ran. I knew for sure Q wouldn’t do that. “He had a Fae deal with Diana, remember?”

I heard Ares hmpf , then grumble about how it wasn’t fair.

Ugh, life isn’t fair. Get used to it, you maniac.

“Quelier escaped because this wasn’t the first time we were here,” Lucifer calmly stated, his serious tone commanding everyone’s attention.

He recounted Red bragging about how he killed Diana during the battle, and how his soldiers tied her to the wooden pole. Then he described her reanimation—how she scared the entire opposition by harnessing her time hopping abilities to literally rewind time back a few hours.

“She didn’t time hop?” Mal rasped. He wasn’t holding up well in these conditions.

“No. She rewinded it in real time, like the entire world around us moved in reverse. I think Lucifer and I remember it because our magic is linked to hers as her fathers, or because we’re too powerful? I’m not sure, but thankfully we have an outside perspective that can hopefully make a difference,” I theorized.

“Or because you were meant to see it for some divine reason,” Azazel huffed. He reacted the worst to his confinement. His lack of grace didn’t protect him from the pit’s torturous magic.

I think I knew what Azazel was hinting at, but before we could dive into it, Diana ran down the stairs, a look of determination on her face.

“Look, we don’t have much time, so listen to me—” she said, before Lucifer cut her off.

“I already told them about your rewind festivities and how you handed Red his ass in front of all his soldiers. Good job, Di.”

“Thanks for saving us from being bowling pins,” Bash said. “That would have been so embarrassing.”

Diana rolled her eyes, then checked the sturdiness of the cell’s bars. They looked flimsy, but they were made of ancient stones from Hell’s deepest depths and designed by my partner during one of his benders, apparently. Totally a healthy coping mechanism.

“Think. Is there any way we can open these cell doors?” she said, more to herself than to any of us. “Where is Quelier? He built this shithole too.”

“He escaped during the rewind. I have no clue where he is,” I answered.

“I dropped him a mental alert, maybe he’ll get it and come back.” She peered into the cells around us. “Are there other prisoners?”

“Not in this section. But there are some below and above us, from what I can sense,” Desmond shared. His magic was barely affected, most likely because of his fire power.

Quelier faded next to Diana with an audible crack . He had a pleased smirk on his face, which boded well for us.

“Did you miss me?” he asked us all.

“No,” everyone but Diana and I said in unison. The glare I got from Lucifer could have set me on fire, but it was the least of my worries. He could punish me all he wanted later, but I had a funny feeling Q was going to free us. I had confidence in him, despite the unsavory way he came into our lives.

“Fine, I’ll take my Escape From Pit 13 plan somewhere else,” he said, turning on his heels.

“Not so fast,” Diana said. He turned to her with an exasperated, shortand huff. “We sorta need them to win this war.

“Yeah, and I need to kill August. He took Charlie from me and fucked us all over,” O growled. His eyes were only a muted green, void of their usual sparkle, but I felt the intensity in his words.

“Fine, I’ll stay. But when this is said and done, I want a raise,” Q demanded.

“Absolutely,” I agreed.

“And I want a new title,” he added.

“Of course. How does Chief of Staff or a similar term sound?”

“You got a deal. Okay, listen up, because this is going to suck,” he said. And suddenly all my confidence in him circled the drain.