Evenstar (81 page)

Paimon nodded.
 
“I will.”

Furcas smiled sadly at his hands.
 
“I wonder if a parent feels this way when they let their child go for the first time.”

Paimon squeezed his hand.
 
“We’ll find out eventually.”

Dahlia hugged Paimon and spoke quietly into his neck, “Probably soon.
 
Keep them both safe.”
 

Paimon eyed Furcas.
 
A smile crept up his face.
 

Dahlia grinned and turned away, retaking her spot at Lucifer’s side.
 
He wrapped an arm around her.
 
They closed their eyes and stayed locked, savoring the moment of calm.
 
Their hearts beat in time.
 
Lucifer kissed her forehead.

Belial hugged Helion.
 
“Be safe.”

Helion smiled into his sister’s hair.
 
“You too.”

Belial held back tears and punched his arm.
 
“This is old hat for me, not even nervous.”
 
She turned to Andy.
 
“Rain check on the dinner date.”

Andy shrugged.
 
“I always like eating after a good fight anyways.”
 
She smiled and he pulled her into a kiss.
 
“We’re sticking together in this.”

Belial smirked.
 
“I’m not the one that moves in a blur.”

Paimon nudged Furcas.
 
“No leaving me this time.”

“No leaving you this time.”
 
Furcas smiled.
 
He flickered blue and electricity rippled along his skin.
 
He kissed Paimon and bit him on the lip, drawing blood.
 
Furcas shocked him and flew up to the metal gate that held the Old Road open.
 
He pressed his palm at the apex and sent a burst of electricity through the metal; it turned red in the darkness.
 
Letters formed, glowing white, there for the entire City to see.

Dahlia read the inscription that became clear in the darkness.
 
“No cause is lost, the odds never too great.
 
Hope with wild abandon, ye who enter here.”
 
She smiled.

Berith stretched and shifted.
 
His skin darkened to midnight blue, and his eyes lit up like diamonds.
 
His body turned metallic.
 
He flexed, and his muscles moved as if coated in mercury.
 
He pounded a fist into the rock and a web of cracks formed on the ground.
 
Berith smiled, satisfied.
 
He turned and saluted his fiancée.
 

Apple smiled and saluted him back.
 
Behind her, the Guard saluted them both.

Belial shivered.
 
White light seeped out of her pores.
 
Her hair floated around her head weightless.
 
Her eyes turned silver.
 
She looked to Helion.
 
“Look at me.”

He examined her, fascinated.
 
“Can I do this too?”

She shrugged.
 
“I guess we’ll see out there.”

Andy wreathed himself in shadows.
 
His eyes darkened to slate.
 
He touched the wall experimentally and it aged, turning from stone to sand and dust in an instant.
 
He grinned and reached for Belial.
 

Belial rolled her eyes.
 
“Do
not
touch me with your creepy age-hands, Andy.”

He held his finger out in front of her face.
 
“Not touching you.
 
I’m not touching you.”

She glared.
 
“Stop it!”

Paimon blasted the trio with chemicals that turned to ice in the air.
 
He adjusted his squirt gun as the others played with their powers.
 
He sighed as Furcas hovered above his head.
 
“Everyone else gets to go wild with their abilities, and I can do nothing but play with chemicals and toys.”

Furcas swooped in and zapped him lightly.
 
“Well technically you can kill all of us with your violin.”

“Ha-ha.”
 
Paimon glared.
 
He pressed a button and his jet pack shot him into the air.
 
He grinned.
 
“I knew it would work!”
 
He pulled his goggles down over his eyes.
 
“Ready?”
 
Furcas nodded.
 
Paimon looked to Lucifer and Dahlia.
 
“We’re ready!”

Belial took Andy’s hand.
 
“Ready.”

Helion smiled.
 
“Ready!”

Berith nodded to Lucifer.
 
“Ready.”

Lucifer burst into blue flames.
 
Dahlia leaned against him; his fire was pleasant, intoxicating.
 
She eyed him hungrily.
 
He smirked.
 
“We are going out to battle and that is all you can think about?”

Dahlia pressed her hands to his chest, her eyes bright red.
 
“I have to have something to look forward to.”
 

Lucifer kissed her.
 
The ground around them changed; precious metals pooled out of the earth covering the walkway in silver and gold.
 
Dahlia grinned as flames licked at her skin.
 
She took his hand.
 
“Shall we?”

They stepped onto the Old Road.
 
His flames illuminated the passageways before them.
 
Hephaestus focused and all paths resolved into one large, well-paved road to the surface.

The Fallen followed their Primangels.
 
The clicking heels of the City Guard kept pace behind them.
 
Above their heads, Helion and Whitney led the air contingent.
 

Furcas and Paimon buzzed by Helion and flew into the darkness of the Old Road.
 
Furcas lit the way with bursts of electricity.
 
He eyed Paimon.
 
“I bet I kill more angels than you.”

Paimon practiced with his squirt gun.
 
“You are on.”

“What’s on the line?”

Paimon mulled it over.
 
“Naming our spawn.”

Furcas rolled his eyes.
 
“What is the point of betting on something that might never happen?”

“It will happen!”

“Just admit it.
 
You know you’re going to lose.”
 
Furcas flew in close and poked Paimon in the nose.
 
“You’ve lost your touch.
 
The only thing you can hit now is a bottle.”

“Oh, there’s a reason, Furcas.”
 
Paimon smirked.
 

“Then what is it, Paimon?”

Paimon put him in a headlock and kissed him on the cheek.
 
“Hate to break it to you, Furcas baby, but apparently you’re knocked up.”

Furcas fainted.
 

Paimon grinned and threw Furcas over his shoulder.

***

On the icy wastes of Greenland, humans roamed around the gaping crater of Hell ooze.
 
They held picks, hammers, computer keyboards, anything that could be used as a weapon.
 
More humans arrived to discover why their contact had been cut-off; those were converted to the Archangels’ cause.
 
The crowd grew into a throng of mumbling, violent humans.

Above the shield, countless armored angels flew in ranks and formations.
 
Michael and Uriel watched the scene below with barely contained glee.
 
The other Archangels waited, armored and armed, their faces gave away no emotion.
 

The Archangels felt the Fallen activate their powers.
 
Michael raised his spear.
 
“Be ready!
 
They come!”

***

Hephaestus ripped the metal gate out of the wall and the Old Road closed in the City.
 
The rock wall showed no sign that an instant before it had been a path.
 
The City was sealed shut, cut-off from the surface.
 

***

Dahlia and Lucifer held hands.
 
Fresh air brushed across their skin.
 
Lucifer kissed her cheek and they stopped at the lip of the rent in the earth.
 
The Primangels saw starlight and the moon.
 
They fixed their gaze on the legion of angels that clouded the sky with wings and weapons.
 
Paimon, Furcas, Andrealphus, Belial, Berith, and Helion waited behind them.
 
As one, the Fallen stepped onto the snow and were bathed in moonlight.

The atmosphere was ripped asunder with sonic booms.
 
The Archangels and their mass of angels dove towards the earth.
 
The Fallen fanned out and held their weapons at the ready.
 

Dahlia spoke softly, “
Peace is despaired
.”

Lucifer lifted the baseball bat off his shoulder.
 
“
We war, then
.”

Dahlia nodded.
 
“
War open or understood, must be resolved
.”

END

The story concludes in Daystar