Evenstar (37 page)

Helion heard her over Whitney’s scream.
 
He wrapped Whitney in his arms.
 
She wailed, unaware of anything around her.

Dahlia threw the pendant to Helion.
 
“Catch this and go to the City!”
 

Helion caught the lamin.
 
His strange eye rolled up in his head.
 
Helion and Whitney disappeared.
 
The sound stopped.
 
Dahlia fell to her knees.

Brian punched Dahlia and threw her to the ground.
 
“You lying Lilliam whore!
 
How do you know how lamins work?”

Dahlia spit blood into his face.
 
“Anyone that can go to a bookstore can figure that out!”

“You used it without preparation!”
 
Brian pulled a shiny object from his robes, a curved hook engraved with symbols.
 
“Tell me how!”

Andy threw himself against his chains.
 
“That will kill her!”

Brian smiled.
 
“Quite, though it will hurt a lot before that.”
 
He drove the angelic blade into Dahlia’s right hand.
 
Her flesh sizzled.
 
Blue light radiated out from the wound, hitting her nerves with wave after wave of pain.

She screamed and bucked.
 

The man withdrew the blade.
 
“I think that Helion was lying about you.
 
I think you’re more important than just some sacrifice.”

Andy snarled.
 
“We can’t lie under compulsion!”

Brian shrugged.
 
“First time for everything.”
 
He plunged the knife into Dahlia’s leg and pulled.

***

Furcas screamed.

Lucifer ripped the door to the Sanctuary off its hinges as Furcas shouted Dahlia’s name.
 
Blood oozed out from under Furcas’ eye patch.
 
His right hand was pierced, his right arm broken.
 
Lucifer’s voice was a roar, “
What is happening
?”

The Lilliam around him concentrated.
 
Ceres broke away.
 
“We do not know!”

“Cutting!”
 
Furcas wailed.
 
A wound appeared in his leg.
 

Paimon shoved Lucifer out of the way.
 
“What the fuck is going on?”

Lucifer grabbed Paimon by the wrist.
 
“Why is he taking injuries?”

Paimon paled.
 
“I don’t know!”
 

Lucifer punched the wall near Paimon’s head.
 
Furcas cried out in pain.
 
Another wail joined his, a piercing, ear puncturing, soul wounding cry.
 
Paimon and Lucifer stormed out of the room.
 
They stopped and stared.

Helion stood at the edge of the room, holding Whitney.
 
They collapsed.
 
Whitney’s wail was unremitting.
 
The sound passed through stone and metal, making the corridors of the palace ring with sorrow.
  

The Lilliam in the room dropped to their knees.
 
The third generation Lilliam stumbled, stronger than their offspring, they remained upright, but strained.
 
The King and Queen crawled to Whitney.

Lucifer waved them away and pointed at Aita.
 
“Banshee is
your
kind, Aita!
 
Make her stop!”

Aita and his wife Persephone staggered over and wrapped their arms around Whitney.
 
Persephone whispered, “Shh, you’re safe now.”
 

Whitney stilled and her voice cut off.
 
She stared at the ceiling in a daze.

Helion touched her shoulder.
 
“Whitney?”

Belial grabbed Helion and hauled him to his feet.
 
She slapped him and hugged him.
 
Surprised, he hugged her back.
 
Belial looked into his black eye and touched his wings.
 
“Brave, idiotic freak!
 
What the fuck is up with your eye?”

Lucifer ripped the two apart.
 
He grabbed Helion by the throat.
 
“
How
did you get here?”

Helion trembled.
 
“She banished me!”

“Who?”

“Dahlia!”

“Explain.”

“They ordered me to hurt her.”
 
Helion held his hands up to shield himself as Lucifer snarled.
 
He slowly dropped his hands.
 
“Whitney screamed.”

Persephone held the girl.
 
“The humans would have been paralyzed.”

“They were, but Dahlia wasn’t.
 
She grabbed my lamin and ordered me to go here.”
 
Helion thrust the pendant into Lucifer’s hands.

Lucifer brought him close.
 
“But you have never been here.
 
No one can teleport in except the eight and their immediate offspring.
 
No Fallen can, not even
I
can do this.
 
What you did is
impossible
!”

Helion quailed.
 
“I am not lying!
 
She ordered me here.
 
I don’t know how it works!”

Whitney looked up, her hair a cloud of white, her eyes black.
 
She looked like death made flesh.
 
“He speaks the truth.
 
One minute we were there and the next we were here.”
 
She got up and floated an inch off the floor.
 
She ignored the sensation.
 
“We had our chance to escape when they tried to mess with us.
 
Those men did not know who or what Dahlia and I were.”
 
She looked nauseous.
 
“They decided to play with us because Andy and Helion had told them nothing.”

Lucifer examined the pendant in his hand.
 
He saw blood.
 
He sniffed it and whirled on Helion.
 
“Her blood!”

Helion burst into tears.
 
“They ordered me to break her arm and take out her eye.”

Lucifer leapt at Helion.
 
Belial intercepted Lucifer and threw him back.
 
“He didn’t have a choice!”

Lucifer crouched on the ground, ready to leap.
 
Belial flicked out claws.
 
“None of us were punished for what we were forced to do under compulsion!
 
He will not be either.
 
Try it and you’ll have to come through me!”

Furcas wailed.
 
Paimon darted back through the doorway into the Sanctuary.

Thanatos stepped out.
 
“We have a serious problem.”

Lucifer looked back.
 
“What
now
?”

Thanatos rubbed his hands.
 
“We cannot heal Furcas.”
 

Lucifer glared at Belial, but followed Thanatos into the room.
 
Paimon leaned on the wall and held in tears.
 
Furcas had new scores across his skin.
 
Lucifer shook in anger.
 
“We need him healed now!
 
What is the delay?”

Thanatos punched Furcas.
 
Before his fist made contact, it hit a barrier.
 
Red light forced his hand back.
 
“He is shielded.
 
It is something we did not create.”

Paimon paled.
 
Furcas wailed in pain and turned, exposing his bleeding back.
 
Paimon pointed.
 
Lucifer shook.
 
“Why are you showing me more wounds?”

Paimon grabbed Lucifer’s face and pulled him closer.
 
“They’re not just wounds, they’re his wing scars!
 
They reopened when Dahlia was taken.”
 
Paimon let him go.
 
“They’ve linked somehow, but not the normal guardian link, something different.
 
He went into her memories.
 
They’ve been sharing emotions, thoughts.
 
He says he can get inside her head.
 
The scars have reopened since then.
 
I’ve been pulling
her
feathers out of him!
 
Something’s happening between them, but I can’t tell you what.
 
But I—I think they’re sharing injuries now too.
 
The ones in her memories and the ones she suffers now.”

Lucifer’s eyes blazed blue.
 
“Those new wounds are
her
wounds.”

Furcas rolled onto his back as a new slash appeared on his leg.
 
Lucifer ripped at the shield.
 
The barrier held.
 
He pounded in vain.
 

Furcas coughed up blood as a line appeared on his face.
 
His eye opened.
 
“They’re killing her!”

***

Andy ripped his hands off, freeing his arms from the shackles.
 
He threw himself at the iron circle.
 
He could not cross the barrier; the seal kept him in place.
 
Dahlia’s blood ran in trickles towards his grate.
 
He could smell her, knew she was dying.
 
He clawed at the invisible barrier.
 
“I’ll give you anything, just stop!”

Brian looked up, his hands coated in Dahlia’s blood.
 
“Your lamin, give it to me now.”

Andy ripped a pendant out of his arm.
 
“Fine!
 
Anything!”

Dahlia looked up weakly.
 
“Andy, don’t.”

Andy threw the lamin through the barrier.
 
Brian sank the blade into Dahlia’s shoulder and left it there.
 
He touched the pendant and showed it to the man who had been working on Helion.
 
“Is it real?”

The man nodded.
 
“It is.”

Brian held up the pendant towards Andy.
 
“Stand.”

Andy stood.

 
Brian eyed him.
 
“Where is the City?”

“Underground.”

Dahlia gripped the blade with her left hand.
 
Brian kicked her in the face.
 
“Where exactly?”

Andy hissed.
 
“Everywhere.”

“What do you mean?”

“It
moves
.”

Brian nodded thoughtfully.
 
“Actually, that makes sense.”
 
He sat down next to Dahlia and pulled the blade out of her shoulder.
 
He rested the tip at her bellybutton.
 
“But you could just be saying that, I do not know if this is yours.”

Andy’s eyes reformed and he blinked.
 
“Then make me do something.”

Brian pointed to Dahlia.
 
“Take her leg off.”

Andy strained against the barrier.
 
“I cannot leave this circle.
 
You know that as well as I.”

Brian eyed him.
 
“If I let you out and this is not your lamin then you kill us all.”

Andy shrugged.
 
“Summon me to a new circle.”

***

Berith rushed into the Sanctuary.
 
“Something is happening to Belial!”

“What now?”
 
Lucifer left Paimon’s side and ran out of the room.
 
Everyone stared at Belial.
 

She had a bewildered look on her face.
 
“I am not in control of my body anymore.”

Lucifer grabbed her by the shoulders.
 
“Who had your lamin?”

Her eyes went wide.
 
“
Andy
.”

***

“Summon me.”
 
Andy stood up.
 
“If it’s not mine, you summon another fallen angel that is under your control.
 
If it is mine, then you have me.
 
Either way you still have one of us under your control and caught inside a seal.”

The man eyed the pendant.
 
He sliced Dahlia’s calf open with the blade.
 
Andy followed its progress.
 
The man stopped at her knee.
 
“You lie and I will throw her in there with you to burn.”

Andy nodded.
 
“I understand.”

Brian looked at the others.
 
“Get the materials ready.”

***

Lucifer gripped Belial’s arm and stared into her eyes.
 
“What do they want?”