Page 93 of Gray

I carried us over trees and across the outer edge of the harbor, passing over large rocks and a rickety dock. We eventually reached the lighthouse. The late hour made the place deserted. Not that many people ever hung out there anyway. I landed on the roof and released him before retracting my wings and sitting down. He sat beside me, and together, we stared over the dark water.

The light circled below us, shooting bright rays into the darkness. Hope for souls lost at sea. Guiding them.

“This is quite the view.” Mason brought one knee up and rested his arms behind him.

“Yeah,” I said, watching him. “You are.”

A hint of a smile touched his lips. “That should’ve been my line.”

“I beat you to it. Slacker.”

“Slacker? Well, you got me there. I’ve never been that smooth.” He slipped an arm around my hips.

“You don’t need to be smooth. Just be you. I have enough charisma for the both of us.”

Mason rested his head on the side of mine. “Works for me.”

When five seconds of silence turned to ten, I made a popping sound with my mouth. His body shook with a low laugh. I grinned and leaned more against him. I never thought I’d find someone like Mason, someone who appreciated my quirkiness and long-winded rambles. Someone who saw the real me.

“Can I ask you something?” he said, breaking the silence. “It’s fine if you don’t want to answer. Or if you can’t.”

“What’s up?”

“The war with Lucifer… how did you defeat him?”

A chill passed through me, but I didn’t know if it was due to the cool breeze or from the memory. Probably both.

I stared at the calm sea and focused on the warmth of Mason’s body. Thousands of years had passed, but I remembered the night as if it were yesterday. And what a dark night it had been. The only light had come from the flames of the burning village as my brothers and I had walked through it.

“This must end,”Alastair had said, bending down to grab a cloth doll from the rubble, the little girl it had belonged to dead, just like the rest of the villagers. We hadn’t been able to save them before Lucifer’s army had set it on fire.

The massive moon had then peeked out from behind the clouds. The heavy flapping of wings had broken through the air as Lazarus landed in front of us.“Preparations have been made. We must act before it’s too late.”

“Gray?” Mason gently asked.

“Sorry.” I blinked him into focus. “What were we talking about?”

“Defeating Lucifer.”

“Oh. Right. Defeat isn’t really the right word. We subdued him. And we nearly died doing it.” I breathed out, hoping it would help dissipate some of my shakiness. It didn’t. “Lucifer was too powerful to be killed by a celestial blade. Lazarus believes it’s because the Creator favored him above all other angels, thus he doesn’t share their same weaknesses. Unfortunately for us since he turned out to be a power-hungry tyrant wanting to destroy the world.”

Mason slowly smoothed his hand along my side as he listened, providing me some comfort without him having to say a word. It helped.

“After years of battle, Uriel and Lazarus realized our only choice was to cage Lucifer. But certain conditions had to be met first. A night when a supermoon, blue moon, and lunar eclipse merged. The magical energy was needed to create the doorway.”

“Doorway?”

“Like a tear in the very fabric of the universe,” I said. “Somewhere that’s not an actual place, but rather, a portal that would transport him to a cage created just for him, one that exists between the realms. A blip between space and time. None of us knows where that portal is, not even Alastair.”

“Because Lazarus doesn’t trust you?”

“That’s part of it, I think. It’s also a safety measure. When Castor was kidnapped last year and tortured for information, my dad was able to search his mind and find what he needed. The answers opened to him once Castor broke. He uses psychological torture, making you see your worst fears, making you relive the worst moment of your life over and over again, as if you’re stuck in a twisted time loop. Once your mind snaps from it, that’s when all answers are revealed.”

Mason gave a subtle nod. “So none of you know the location just in case you’re captured.”

“Yeah.”

He was quiet for a moment. “You said you almost died.”