Daystar (24 page)

Dahlia shook her head.
 
Tears poured down her cheeks.
 
“I can do nothing else but this.”

I TOLD YOU, LUCIFER.
 
HER WEAKNESS IS YOU.
 
SHE CANNOT STAND TO SEE YOU HURT AND WILL TRADE HERSELF JUST FOR YOU TO BE OUT OF PAIN.
 
I WILL STAND BY MY WORD.
 
YOU WILL NO LONGER BE IMPRISONED AND YOU WILL NO LONGER BE WRACKED WITH AGONY.
 
I ALLOW YOU BOTH MUCH WHEN I SHOULD ALLOW YOU NOTHING.

The fire left the throne and snaked a tendril around Dahlia’s neck.
 
She bent her head against the fire and cringed.
 
She had eyes only for Lucifer.
 
“You will be okay.”

Lucifer pointed at her.
 
“While you are subject to his wishes?
 
This is not my desire!”

“Nor mine!”
 
She shouted at him.
 
“But what would you have me do?
 
I cannot suffer your pain any longer!
 
I willingly lose myself to give you a chance at life.”

“Dahlia, you said you would
never
do this!
 
You told me that you could not bear it!
 
Do not allow him to take you!”

Dahlia turned away and sank to her knees in sobs.
 
“Heal him and get this over with.”

Raphael put his hands to Lucifer’s back.
 
He pulled out four bright blue feathers, the points as sharp as needles.
 
He examined Lucifer’s wing scars, sensing the muscle and bones underneath.
 
He smiled.

Raphael plunged all four feathers into Lucifer’s back.

Energy surged into Lucifer’s body.
 
His vision doubled and blurred.
 
Bones and feathers grew, mending together.
 
Four of his six wings reformed, prismatic and thrumming with power.
 
Halos of light and blue fire formed around his forehead, ankles and wrists.

The wounds that marked his skin healed instantly.
 
His body burned bright.
 
He sought to draw forth the energy, to scorch all around him, but the collar stole his energy away.

Dahlia spoke from her spot on the ground, “You are healed.
 
They will no longer hurt you.
 
You will live.”

“Doing
this
hurts me!”

Her eyes bored into his.
 
“
I’m sorry
, Lucifer.”

“Dahlia, stop this!”

Dahlia looked over Lucifer’s head to Raphael.
 
“Do this now.
 
I can bear the wait no longer.
 
Take them.”

Raphael stepped past Lucifer and walked to Dahlia.
 
Lucifer lunged, but the collar held him back.
 
He found himself muted, unable to do anything but watch.
 
His eyes blazed blue, his wings blinding everyone but Archangel.
 
He had more energy than all the Archangels combined, but he could not raise his voice or a hand to save her.
 
The collar deadened his intentions as if he did not have any at all.
 
He sat on the ground dull-eyed.

Raphael put both of his hands to Dahlia’s face, cupping her chin.
 
He placed his forehead to hers and enfolded her in his wings.
 
The area lit up brighter than the sun.
 
Dahlia’s wings went white, her hair a pale pink, and her red eyes to cherry.
 
She changed, her face appeared younger as if the years in the prison and the damage had been scrubbed away and she was a fresh Dahlia again.
 
New as the first time he saw her.

Lucifer wailed, but the noise escaped his lips as a hiss.

Raphael let Ladriam go.

Ladriam fell to her bottom and stared at the world around her, wide-eyed and new.
 
A hesitant smile touched her lips.
 
She looked past Raphael to the fire beyond.
 
She gaped, laughed, and twirled to her feet.
 
She bowed before the fire.
 
“I have form.
 
Then the creation has occurred, this thing that you desired?”

LADRIAM.

Ladriam looked at the fire with adoration and love.
 
Dahlia no longer, she was without a memory beyond her formation in Hell.
 
She twirled and danced innocently across the steps surrounding the throne.
 
“What is this place?
 
It is new to me.”

HEAVEN.
 
YOUR NEW REALM.

“New realm?”
 
Ladriam stopped and stared at the throne.
 
“What of Hell?”

HELL IS YOURS NO LONGER.
 
I DESIRE YOU TO JOIN ME HERE, ALWAYS.

A second throne of gold and light appeared beside His.
 
Ladriam eyed the thing with wonder.
 
“Such beauty you always create.”

FOR YOU.

Ladriam smiled and flitted above the ground.
 
She flipped in the air and soared on four wings.
 
She landed back on the ground.
 
Her eyes caught on Lucifer.
 
“Oh.”

Lucifer’s chest swelled with hope and love.
 
Surely, she would see and know him.

Her eyes slid away without a hint of recognition.
 
She turned to Michael, Uriel, and the other Archangels.
 
“Many more like me!”

NO, YOU ARE MORE.

“We appear the same.”

COME TO ME.

Ladriam grinned and ran up the stairs.
 
She took a seat near His throne, not taking hers.
 
She reached out and touched the fire.
 
It licked her hand.
 
“Beauty.”

I REFLECT YOU, LADRIAM.

The fire brushed her face, her hair.
 
It surged into her thoughts, searching for any scrap of memory, any sign of a trick.
 
She was blank, empty, His to fill.
 
She had no memories past her life in Hell.
 
The fire surged into the air, roping around itself.
 
The Archangels bowed to the throne as the fire roared with new colors.

MINE.
 
PURE AND PERFECT, MY LADRIAM, WORTHY OF ME FINALLY, UNSULLIED.
 
MINE.

Ladriam smiled and rested her head on the ground.
 
She stared out over the angels in Heaven and listened as the choirs began to sing.
 
It was a lullaby of innocence.
 
She closed her eyes and hummed along.

Lucifer silently screamed.

***

Tuesday

Belial sat in a grassy courtyard, open to the starry sky above.
 
She massaged her neck with one hand.
 
She practiced creating metal blades and shields with the other.
 
She focused on the work, blocking out the sensation that crept through her flesh.
 
She found it hard to breathe.
 
Her muscles cramped; the bruises on her skin were growing.
 
The cancer was eating her alive from within.

She had donned a catsuit with the zipper up to her chin, but she knew it would be a matter of time before the marks showed on her face.
 
Belial hissed involuntarily.
 
She would be out of options at that point.

Helion and Andy sat side by side against a stone wall.
 
They watched her, uneasy.
 

Apple stepped over to them.
 
“Something is not right with her.”

Andy’s eyes flicked up.
 
“How so?”

“Her blood, it is not like yours.”

Helion frowned.
 
“We have always been different.”

Apple shook her head.
 
“No, this is not that.
 
I feel something else.”

Andy stood up.
 
“Can you figure out what it is?
 
She seemed sick earlier, throwing up and feverish.”

Helion got up from the group.
 
“Enough of examining my sister.”
 
He padded over to Belial and wrapped his wings around her.
 
“A walk?”

Belial nodded, glad for the distraction.
 
She turned to him, her body protested at the movement.
 
Helion helped her stand, covered her with his wings so that none could see her wince or stumble.
 
He walked her to the cover of a giant weeping willow.
 
They stepped through the curtain of hanging branches.
 
“You are worse.”

Belial nodded.
 
“It is
much
worse.”

“Let me see.”

Belial unzipped the suit down to her navel.
 
Helion examined her skin.
 
He touched her bruised flesh gently.
 
The darkness retreated at his touch.
 
The twins stared.

Belial doubled over in agony.
 
“It hates you!”

Helion jumped back.
 
She clawed at him.
 
“Don’t leave me.”

“Of course I will not!”
 
Helion picked her up and jumped into the branches of the tree.
 
“Am I damaging you?”

“You are damaging it, it is damaging me.”
 
Blood and bile painted her lips red and black.

“That is a small comfort for the pain it gives you in response.”
 
Helion wiped her mouth with his hand.
 
“Belial, I do not know what to tell the others.
 
They are beginning to notice.”

Belial nodded.
 
“Good.
 
When I turn, one of them will kill me.”

Helion’s face froze.
 
“No.”

Belial grabbed at Helion’s shirt.
 
“If Dahlia cannot bring Lucifer back to do it, then you must take my life from me, Helion.”

“No!”

Belial burst into tears.
 
“Please promise me Helion, please.”

Helion squeezed her to him.
 
“I cannot.”

Belial pressed her face into his chest.
 
“I do not want them to have to fight me, Helion.
 
I do not want to hurt them.
 
Please, I would rather it be you.”

“You won’t fight them.”

“It has already tried, Helion.
 
It seeks to infect Andy; it drives me to touch him.
 
I cannot now for fear that it will pierce my flesh and attack his.
 
He doesn’t understand why I pull away.”
 
She looked into his eyes.
 
“I do not lie.”

Helion touched her bare hand.
 
“May I see?
 
Allow us to join?”

Belial nodded.
 
The twins linked, their shared soul reconnected.
 
Helion felt her body mapped on his.
 
He ran a check and saw that what she said was the truth.
 
He cut off contact, his face pale.
 
“You do not lie.”

“There is nothing to solve it.”
 
Belial zipped up her suit.
 
“I can only hide it for now.”

Helion shook his head.
 
“There has to be
something
.”

Belial smiled slightly.
 
“Maybe your crazy eye can fix me.”
 
She pointed to his pitch-black eye with the white pupil, a direct result of Dahlia’s manipulation to take him from angel to fallen angel.
 
The pupil contracted and expanded.

Helion brushed back her hair.
 
“Of course it can, I just have to figure out how.”

Belial touched the black skin that framed the eye.
 
“This blot has been growing.”

He nodded.
 
“I do not know why.”

She frowned.
 
“It is not what I have is it?”

“No.”
 
Helion shook his head.
 
“Mine is a benign mark.”

Belial coughed up blood and smiled.
 
“You always did like showing off by being strange.”

Helion rocked his sister.
 
“Me?
 
You were the one who decided to change to a female and prance about.”

“Oh, I am not the one who made up the new songs for the guardians, tricking them into singing them!”
 
Belial cringed.
 
“You and Uriel were so close then.”

“We all were.”

Belial wiped away gray tears.
 
“I do not have long, Helion.
 
Do not let Uriel have any piece of me when I die.
 
I fear if he does it will not be the end for me.”