Daystar (28 page)

Furcas’ eyes tracked his hand as Lucifer tried to fling the glowing object off.
 
He snatched at Lucifer’s wrist and stopped his arm between them.
 
Furcas reached out with his other hand and touched the glowing ball.
 
A pair of opalescent wings pulled back to reveal two huge purple eyes in a tiny face.
 
Furcas gaped.
 
The baby girl blinked at him.

Furcas’ hands shook.
 
He gently trailed his fingers across her chubby cheeks.
 
Two more wings opened, uncovering the rest of her body.
 
She wrapped both of her tiny hands around Furcas’ outstretched fingers.
 
She opened her mouth and let go of Lucifer’s finger.
 
She cooed at her father.
 
Furcas pulled his daughter to his chest and burst into fresh tears.

Lucifer stared at his finger, then at Furcas.
 
“What is
that?
”

“My baby!”

“A baby?”

“Paimon and I, she’s ours!”
 
Furcas nuzzled the little girl’s head, kissing both of her cheeks.
 
He wrapped her up in his arms; she was tiny enough to fit in his hands.
 
The little girl closed her eyes and fell asleep curled against his chest.
 
Her opalescent wings were larger than her body and they covered her like a blanket.
 
Furcas could not stop crying.
 
“I thought—I thought she was dead!
 
I thought she was gone forever!”

“We thought
you
were dead.”

Furcas had eyes only for her.
 
He smelled her wisp of purple hair.
 
“Little Bean.”
 
His tears dropped on her cheeks leaving glittery streaks of minerals on her skin.
 
He looked up at Lucifer.
 
“Paimon has to see her.”

Lucifer touched the baby’s head and smiled.
 
She opened her eyes and snapped her teeth at him.
 
He pulled back his hand.
 
Lucifer looked between Furcas and the child.
 
“How do we leave?”

Furcas frowned.
 
“I do not know.
 
I have been trying to find a way out since I got here.
 
There was a light earlier, but I lost track of it.”

“Ba, ba.”
 
The baby popped her lips and kissed Furcas’ chest.

Furcas grinned from ear to ear and rubbed his nose against hers.
 
She smiled.
 
“Ba, ba.”

“Ba, ba!”
 
Furcas said back to her.
 
“Yes ba, ba!”

Lucifer sighed.
 
“
I
will find us a way out.”
 
He smiled at the pair.
 
“You are endearingly useless at the moment.”

***

YOU ARE
MY
PRIMANGEL!
 
OBEY ME!

“Watch what you say!”
 
Dahlia leaned towards the throne.
 
“You would not want to speak in lies would you?”
 
She pointed to the hosts of angels.
 
“If you did, I would have to speak the truth in response, and you would not like that would you?”

Fire raced for her.
 
Dahlia held out her hand; her halos swirled in the air like a shield.
 
The flame sheared off.
 
She smiled.
 
“That will not work against me anymore.”

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

Raphael stood beside Dahlia and made faces at the fire.
 
“You are a sucker!
 
We outsmarted you!”
 
She held out her dual haloed hand and leaned on Dahlia.
 
She grinned.

Dahlia looked between Raphael and Selaphiel.
 
“Go to your boy-toy and leave.”

Raphael scoffed.
 
“Will not.”

“Oh, yes you will.”

RAPHEAL, YOU ARE MINE!
 
OBEY!
 
GRAB LADRIAM!

Raphael rolled her eyes.
 
“No, I am not.”

Dahlia smirked.
 
“I am telling you to leave.”

Raphael folded her arms.
 
“
You’re
not leaving.”

“I will soon, get.
 
Lucifer will need you to guide him out.”

Raphael scratched the air and tore a hole into Hell.
 
She grabbed Selaphiel’s arm and pushed him to it.
 
“You go.”

SELAPHIEL, STOP THEM!”

Selaphiel frowned.
 
“We go together.”

SELAPHIEL, LISTEN TO ME!
 
YOU ARE TIED TO MICHAEL!

Selaphiel shook his head.
 
“I have been tied to Raphael for some time.”
 
He grabbed her wrist, looked to Dahlia, and nodded.
 
The pair ducked out of Heaven.

The fire became a pillar of heat.
 
MICHAEL, KILL HER!

Michael aimed his spear at Dahlia’s heart.
 
He lunged.

Dahlia caught the point of the spear.
 
She ripped it from his grasp, snapped it over her knee, and cast the pieces to the ground.
 
She stepped towards her portal into Hell.

YOU CAN GO NOWHERE THAT I CANNOT FOLLOW!
 
I WILL DESTROY YOUR PLANET.
 
I WILL DESTROY HELL.

Dahlia looked back at the fire.
 
“You are officially banned from my realm.”

IT IS MY REALM, ALL ARE—

Dahlia folded her arms.
 
“You cannot follow me into Hell, just as I imagine you will lock me out of Heaven.”

YOU ARE
MY
CREATION!

“Have you really gone from being a liar to actually believing your lies?”
 
She shook her head.
 
“You will leave my planet alone.”

I WILL NOT STOP UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD.

“You get anywhere near my planet and I will tell Lucifer your
name
.”

The fire shrank away.
 
YOU DO NOT KNOW IT.

“Why else would I send Raphael in to fuck you?
 
You joined with her and everything was shared.”

YOU BLUFF.

Dahlia grinned.
 
“Perhaps, but who has more to lose here?
 
You see, I remember it all now.
 
I know what you are and I know what I am.
 
I know that you cannot follow me into Hell, nor can you send anyone in.
 
It is mine.
 
So, do not come near
my
planet or I will make you pay for it.
 
Consider me a merciful Primangel.”

HOW DO I KNOW THAT YOU WILL NOT LEAVE AND TELL HIM REGARDLESS.

“You do not, but you do not have a choice do you?”
 
Dahlia stepped into Hell and closed the portal behind her.

***

Furcas rocked Bean, her big eyes focused on him.
 
Lucifer flew by illuminating the darkness.
 
“There is no way out.”
 
He stopped and turned to Furcas, his light illuminated the pair.
 
Furcas had one wing wrapped around Bean; his feathers sparkled as Lucifer passed it by.

A second light tore through the darkness and went out.
 
Lucifer and Furcas looked around them.
 
“What was that?”

“Light yourself up already!”
 
A female voice chirped in the darkness.

“Fine.”
 
Selaphiel burned bluish white.

Beside him, a bright pink Raphael gazed into the dark.
 
She spotted Lucifer.
 
“Bingo!”

Lucifer eyed Raphael.
 
“Where is Dahlia?”

“She’ll be coming along in a bit.”
 
Raphael spotted Furcas and the baby.
 
“Hey teammate!”

Furcas wrapped another wing around Bean.
 
“Teammate?”

Raphael grinned.
 
“You’re one of Dahlia’s Archangels now!
 
Team
Hell!
 
We just pulled one over on Heaven!”

Furcas smiled slightly.
 
“Oh good.
 
Go team.”

Raphael flitted closer.
 
“Whatcha holding?”

Selaphiel looped an arm around Raphael and pulled her back.
 
“Tone yourself down.”

Raphael squirmed.
 
“I wanna see it!”

Selaphiel would not let her go.
 
He addressed Lucifer, “Shall we leave now?
 
Your Archangels and Dahlia’s are engaging with Uriel and Samuel at the moment.”

“My Archangels?”

“Berith, Helion, and Andrealphus.”

Lucifer frowned.
 
“Helion?”

Raphael’s attention broke from Furcas.
 
“
I
did it!
 
Helion always deserved another set of wings.
 
Lemme go, you big
drag!
”

Selaphiel let Raphael go and bowed to Lucifer.
 
“If you would have me, I would like to rejoin your service.”

Lucifer frowned.
 
“Why should I let you?
 
You did not help me save her in the first place.”

Selaphiel shook his head.
 
“That plan was not going to work.
 
If I had joined, you would have only lost one more ally in Heaven.
 
As it was, having Raphael and myself there allowed Dahlia an in so that she could save you and restore herself, it was a logical decision to withhold action.”

Lucifer scowled.
 
“A logical decision.
 
That is how you consider everything?”

Selaphiel nodded.
 
“You think only with your emotions, if you had thought things through perhaps you would have acted wiser—”

Raphael clapped a hand over Selaphiel’s mouth.
 
She ducked her head to Lucifer.
 
“Look, if it makes you feel better I was ordered to stick around as a contingency plan, I couldn’t do anything as well, and I knew what was going to happen to her.
 
I found an ally in Selaphiel and confused him with my sexiness.”

Selaphiel pulled her hand away from his mouth.
 
“I was not confused.”

“And he has pretty much followed me around like a lapdog ever since.”
 
Raphael waggled her eyebrows.
 
“He’s at my beck and call you know.”

“I am not.”

Raphael ignored him.
 
“I explained a few things to him at the time shit got bad and he realized it was prudent not to fight.
 
You guys wouldn’t have listened to me, so for our part it was better to wait.”

Lucifer was not sold.
 
“Wait for
what?
”

“Wait for a chance to…”
 
Raphael made a face.
 
“She’s supposed to tell you.
 
You guys gotta go.”
 
She ripped open a portal into Earth and pointed.
 
“Leave.
 
This place is hard to regulate.
 
It wants to eat you.”

Lucifer frowned.
 
“
What
does?”

Raphael laughed.
 
“Hell,
silly
.
 
Don’t you know anything?”

Lucifer frowned.

Furcas flew past him.
 
“I am going.”
 
He reached out and grabbed Lucifer’s wrist.
 
“Come on.”
 
The pair passed through and landed on grass.

Lucifer and Furcas stood on an empty plain as the sun rose in the east.
 
Eden glowed on the horizon, illuminated with candles and colored lights.
 
Furcas and Lucifer smiled, not having seen such a sight in centuries.
 
Above them light and darkness warred beyond the pink-tinged sky.

Lucifer nodded to Furcas.
 
“Where do you go now?”

Furcas looked to Eden.
 
“He will be in there.”

“How do you know?”

“I know.”
 
Furcas smiled.
 
“You going to fight?”

“Of course.”

Furcas saluted and broke into a run towards the city.
 
Lucifer watched him go.
 
In the morning brightness, Furcas’ diamond and ruby wings sent light sparkling across the grass.
 
Furcas was unaware that he was winged with precious gemstones or that where he stepped he left crystals to grow in the ground like flowers.