Evenstar (8 page)

Berith went red.
 
“You heard me.”

“Iron paralyzes, poisons, and kills.”
 
She winked.
 
“It doesn’t make us go deaf.”

Berith remembered all of the things he’d said while he’d carried her body.
 
“If I hadn’t seen you take the wounds myself, I would swear you did that on purpose.”

She shrugged and looked away.
 
Something strange passed on her features.
 
She looked into the woods.
 
“Sani is dead.
 
I
am the eldest now.”

Berith nodded.
 
“You will be queen someday.”

“I will have to have children,” she spoke to the sky.

He frowned.
 
“We don’t know that we…you and I, that we can’t do that.
 
No one knows for sure either way.”

She nodded.
 
“True.”

Berith looked at her.
 
“Let’s not think on that right now?”

She managed a smile.
 
“All right.”

Lucifer blinked awake and reached for Apple.
 
“Dahlia?”

***

Paimon trudged through thickets and brambles.
 
Morning light filtered through the canopy above, leaving patches of brightness in the evergreen shadows.
 
He hummed as he jumped across logs and small streams.
 
He loved the forest, especially the smell of the earth and plants, but currently he couldn’t smell anything expect for blood and sweat.
 
His clothing stuck to him, chaffing his skin.
 
Furcas leaked various fluids all over him.
 
Paimon tried his best to ignore it.
 
He broke into a new song.

“I liked the last one better.”

Paimon whirled around, but no one was there.
 
He remembered Furcas was on his back, tied to him with a makeshift harness.
 
He turned his head to the left.
 
“When did you wake up?”

“Somewhere between two songs I hate,” Furcas spoke with a pain-blurred slur.
 
His working eye was half-open.
 
He raised his stumpy arm as far as the bandages would allow.
 
“Why isn’t it growing back?”

Paimon bit his lip.
 
“You got hit with the spear, Furcas.”
 
He turned back in the direction he had been headed and walked on.
 
He hit a slope and hopped down.

Furcas breathed into his ear.
 
“So, it won’t come back?”

Paimon wished he had his shades on so that he didn’t have to look Furcas in the eye.
 
“No.”

“Why can I only see out of half of my face?
 
Why does it hurt?
 
What happened to my face?”
 
Furcas got his right arm loose and touched his sewn up cheek and neck.
 

Paimon grabbed Furcas’ hand and held it.
 
“Let’s not think about it right now, okay?”

“My eye is gone.”
 
Furcas’ legs contracted and locked around Paimon’s midsection.
 

Paimon wheezed.
 
“Easy on the death grip, Furcas, I’m trying to walk here.”
 
He picked up his pace.
 
“Your face will be fine.”
 

“I am ugly,” the words were a whisper, despairing.

Paimon expected rage, anger, hits about the head, not this.
 
He shook his head.
 
“Shush.”

“I’m a horrid, pus-oozing monstrosity.
 
I’m worthless.”

Paimon heard him sniffle.
 
He stopped and squeezed Furcas’ hand.
 
“I don’t think you’re ugly
or
worthless.”

“You don’t count.”
 
Furcas shifted to Faith, but the cuts and wounds remained.
 
He shifted back to Furcas.
 
“
Fuck
.”
 

Paimon reached up and touched Furcas’ good cheek.
 
“I always liked this side of you more anyways.”

Furcas kicked him.
 
“Liar.”

Paimon smiled.
 
He didn’t look where he was going and slipped down a hillside.
 
He wind milled his arms and caught on to a tree before he toppled over.
 
He righted himself.
 
“Shit!
 
Sorry about the rough ride.”

“You’re always a rough ride.”
 
Furcas laughed and winced.
 
He touched the fabric that kept him bound up.
 
“You could have at least tied me up with silk.
 
These clothes feel like they are from a giant superstore.
 
They are, aren’t they?”

Paimon laughed and looked at Furcas from the corner of his eye.
 
“You’re so high maintenance.”

Furcas managed a smile.
 
“I’m not always.”

“Yes, you are.
 
Don’t lie.”

Furcas rested his chin on Paimon’s shoulder.
 
“Okay, it’s true.”

Paimon jumped across a dry streambed.
 
“And anyways, you’re not ugly.”

“I am ruined.”

“Scars are coming back in.
 
You’re a trendsetter.”

Furcas closed his eye.
 
“I like this side of you.
 
What is it called?
 
Nice
?”

Paimon snorted.
 
“Well, what do you expect of me?
 
You are finally are out camping with me!”

“I
detest
camping.
 
I’d rather die.”

Paimon’s expression turned stony.
 
“
Don’t
talk about dying.”
 
He stared at the forest around them as the sky lightened.
 
“I thought you were
dead
, you fucking shit.”
 
He blinked back tears.
 
“You went in there without me.”

Furcas tried to shrug.
 
“Didn’t have a choice.
 
You would have done the same if you could have.”

Paimon glared at the trees.
 
“No,
I
wouldn’t have.
 
That’s the difference between you and me.”

Furcas’ voice got quiet as his energy ran out, “You knew the danger when I bonded with her.”

“I didn’t expect it would happen.”

Furcas rolled his eye.
 
“Now who’s the idiot?”

“Shut up, gimpy.”

“Fuckwad.”

Paimon grinned.
 
“Cripple.”

Furcas bit his neck.
 
“Bitch.”

Paimon smiled.
 
“Oh, this is going to be fun.”
 
He hummed.

Furcas held on to Paimon’s neck.
 
“I can choke you with one hand, just keep that in mind.”
 
He opened his eye wide and stared at the forest around them.
 
“How long was I out?”

“Hours.”

“What happened?”

Paimon puffed his chest out.
 
“
I
saved the day.”

Furcas smiled.
 
“Of course you did.”

“I did!”
 
He glanced back at Furcas.
 
“You helped, so I guess you can have some credit too.
 
You saved enough time for Andy to get in and get her out.”
      

Furcas frowned.
 
“Andy?
 
I don’t remember that.”

“No shit, you were being Uriel’s science experiment at the time.”
 
Paimon’s cheeks flushed.
 
He shook his head.
 
“Helion got Andy inside the shield.
 
I got in right after with Dahlia’s pendant and started wailing on the Archangels.
 
Like the Hulk.
 
I ruined Uriel’s face for you.”

“Uriel?
 
Michael was the one that did it.”

Paimon shuddered.
 
“Uriel hurt
you
, and he enjoyed it.
 
I don’t care what Berith says, Uriel is mine to kill.”

“I think Belial will fight you for that right.”

Paimon smirked.
 
“Well I’ll watch then.”

“So what now?”

“We’re still on plan.”
 
He gestured towards the woods.
 
“Heading south.”

“Paimon.”
 
Furcas sighed.
 
“I’m dying.”

Paimon flinched.
 
“What did I say not a minute ago?”

“Not to talk about dying.”

“Good.”

“But I am.”
 
Furcas clapped his hand over Paimon’s mouth.
 
“I know you remember what happened when Lucifer was impaled last time.”

Paimon bit Furcas’ hand.
 
“He didn’t die.
 
That’s
what I remember.”

“But he
was
dying and would have without aid.
 
My wound is far worse.”

“He also gave up.
 
You’re not going to give up.
 
You have something to live for…hopefully more than one something.”

Furcas sagged.
 
“Did have, but my face is screwed.
 
My chest and stomach are terrible.
 
I can’t even handle knowing how bad they are.
 
Oh and half of my left arm is missing.
 
And let’s remember that
you’re
the only doctor I have out here.
 
I am so fucked.”

Paimon stomped through the undergrowth.
 
“You are such a dick.”

“I still have one of those don’t I?”

Paimon smirked.
 
“I hope so.
 
Otherwise I am dumping you here and now.”

Furcas laughed and cringed as he bled through his stitches.
 
“Your sewing is atrocious; I don’t even need to see it to know.”

“
Sorry
I was more worried about your
life
than your face.”
 
He squeezed Furcas’ hand.
 
“I’ll…I’ll redo it later or something.”

“Apology accepted.”
 
Furcas closed his working eye.
 
Paimon hummed.
 
Furcas smiled and passed into an unconscious, dreamless state.

***

Raphael touched Uriel’s face and his wounds healed.
 
He dropped his hands and backed away from the tall Archangel.
 
Uriel grunted at him and looked to Michael and Gabriel.
 

Gabriel tossed around the hairpin that Michael had pulled out of his eye.
 
He stabbed it into his own hand; it would not pierce him.
 
“Try it again.”

Michael stabbed himself; the pin would not go into his hand.
 
He glared at the metal.
 
“When
she
had it, the damn thing went straight into my fucking eye.”

Gabriel looked at the pin thoughtfully.
 
He scratched his fingers through his auburn hair.
 
“Maybe it is not the pin, but the wielder?”

Michael shook his head.
 
“Ladriam had no memories, no gifts and certainly no wings, but there was this pendant she wore.
 
Maybe that necklace is the counter to
your
pendants.”

Gabriel shrugged and sat down on the ground.
 
“Possible.
 
It would not be surprising that we would think in the same vein.
 
If that is the case, I will need to develop mine further to counter for theirs.”
 
He stared off into space.
 
“That will take some time.
 
Without their version I do not know what I am dealing with.”

Uriel fumed.
 
“We do not have time for this!
 
They are scattering, it could take lifetimes to find them now!”

Gabriel looked bored.
 
“What about Helion?”

Barachiel shook his head.
 
“He has dropped off of the register.
 
He is gone, Fallen, lost his wings.”

Gabriel nodded.
 
“Well that is easy then.”
 

Uriel paced.
 
“Just say it.”

“A lamin.”
 
Gabriel stared at his feet.

Barachiel nodded.
 
“Helion will capture her for us and whoever else he is with.”