by Rae Foxx
Mary pursed her lips and walked into the kitchen. "I'm perfectly willing to help you take Raphael's powers, and feel a bit silly we haven't tried before, but I'm unsure about the child."
"Why?" I watched her make coffee and felt like a heel for not bringing her some. I could've magicked some, but at this point, it would've just drawn attention to the fact that we hadn't thought of her caffeine needs.
"We don't know what she is. She's not an angel. She's not a Nephilim. She's not a cambion or vampire or even human. Who knows if the spell would work?" Mary shook ground beans into a small coffee maker and then pushed a button before facing us. "It's dangerous."
I nodded. "Okay. I had reservations, but you're right. Let's scrap that idea for now and think of it as only a last resort."
She nodded. "I agree."
Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel all murmured their agreements as well.
"Good," Mary said. "Let's get started."
She shuffled to the trusty microwave cart, which was already pushed to the side. It was where she'd kept Jellybean, in the magic room, as I thought of it. It was far more than one room. It was the whole apartment. "The spell is easy enough, but it takes a while," she said. "And whoever is absorbing the power must be present for it." She ran her fingers over several volumes of books on a bookshelf on the opposite side of the apartment. "Who is absorbing?"
I raised my eyebrows. "It'll have to be Lucifer. Otherwise, we'd have to split it, I think. We've never tested holding that much power. We wouldn't want to burn out."
Mary tutted. "Very true. I've seen that happen." She pulled out a couple of books. "It's in one of these. I haven't done it in a few years. And there's more than one version."
We tried to stand patiently while she shuffled. "No, that's for cosmic power."
I looked at Michael, to my left, with wide eyes. "Cosmic power?" I mouthed. I'd never heard of such a thing! Maybe it was a notion made up by the humans. If it existed, I would've heard at least a whisper of it.
Michael shrugged. I looked to my right, where Lucifer and Gabriel looked equally baffled.
Okay, then, it must've been a human thing.
"Ah," Mary said. "Here it is."
She turned as she read. "We need a piece of the person we're taking the magic from. Hair, skin, whatever, as long as it has his and only his DNA on it."
My jaw dropped. I'd never done a spell like this, but of course, we'd need a piece of Raphael.
Gabe cleared his throat. "Get the spell ready. I'll go search his quarters in Elysium. There's sure to be a hair or something."
Mary nodded absently. "Sure, sure." She murmured to herself as she read the spell. "A bit of oil, easy enough." She nodded at me. "I like to use essential oils nowadays. It makes the whole affair smell so nice."
I chuckled. "Connie was into essential oils."
Mary looked at me with her eyebrows raised. "Your human persona?"
I nodded.
Mary hummed as she continued reading. "After you warm the oil you charge it with magic then add the hair or bit of person. Add a bit of fresh rain to spread the magic into the atmosphere if you're not right beside the person. Easy, easy." Her finger traced along the page. "Say the incantation, add a pinch of Angelica Root..." She chuckled. "Since it's an angel. I've never done this variation. We've always had to use these spells on other witches."
She held the book against her chest and scurried over to a set of shelves filled with ingredients. "I've got a bit here. Should be enough, it just says a pinch. It calms the nerves. Probably makes the transition easier," she mused.
Lucifer held up one finger. "He is an Archangel. Does that make a difference?"
Mary shot him a look. "We'll make it a big pinch to be safe."
Luc nodded and looked properly chastised. I slapped his arm. "Hush. We know about using our magic, but she knows about spells. Let her do her job."
Mary grunted and looked at the bottles again. "It also calls for mugwort to boost energy. This must be a draining spell. Odd, the human variety isn't really." She found the bottle and set it on the counter underneath the shelves with the Angelica Root. "And White Sage. Of course. For the impurities." She winked at us. "I've already got a smudge stick made of White Sage."
"Of course you do," Michael said. "You're our miracle worker."
We were some of the most powerful beings in the universes, and we were at the mercy of a witch-woman from New Orleans and her spells. How had it come to this? I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of this before.
"I think we're ready, as soon as we get our bit of Raphael," she said. "Come on." Mary gathered up the ingredients and walked into her kitchen, leaving the doorway to the magic room open behind her. "We'll start warming the oil."
I watched in surprise as she turned on the gas stove eye. "On the stove?"
She chuckled. "Magic doesn't have to be mysterious and otherworldly. We're going to cook up this spell like we will cook up some gumbo for supper later."
She hummed as she stirred the oil in a pot with a plastic ladle. Just like she would soup. This was a side of magic I'd certainly never seen before. I kind of liked it, though.
"Hello?" Gabe called from the magic room.
"In here," I replied.
He walked in holding a strand of dark hair. "I got this from Raphael's pillow in Elysium."
I grinned. "Let me delve into it."
Gabe handed over the strand, and I focused on it. "No, it's too old. I can't get anything off of it."
Mary nodded. "That's okay. It'll work for the spell."
"I never knew Raphael to take anyone to his bed in Elysium," Michael said. "We were close for a long time. I never even heard a rumor of it. It's likely his hair."
"Well, hand it over. And Lucifer, if you're taking the power, come here."
He walked closer. "The last time I let that guy handle a spell for me, I nearly died."
She chuckled and patted him on the arm as she continued to stir with her other hand. "This one isn't a brand-new, untested spell. You'll be fine."
"He has no power to charge the spell with," I said. "Can I do it and transfer the power to him as it hits me?"
She furrowed her brow. "I don't see any other way we can do it," she said. "But if you all can link up, just in case it doesn't transfer over to him, that way you can absorb it together and not have one of you dead on my floor from power overload. Raphael may have Lucifer's power, too, and when you take his, you may get your own back in the process."
Luc's eyes lit up. "We can hope."
"Here we go, then." Mary dropped the hair in the skillet. "Lilith, give it some magic and ask it to search for Raphael."
She slapped her cheek. "I forgot the rainwater. Hang on, it rained yesterday." She handed the spoon to Lucifer. "Go ahead with the magic," she said.
I trickled magic into the oil and hair and waited until Mary ran back in with a leaf. A bit of rainwater was collected in the large piece of greenery. She poured it into the pan and the power of the spell took hold. It would've been difficult for me to break the connection, though I thought it possible. Just hard.
The drain on my energy began. "Add the mugwort. It’s the last thing," I whispered.
Mary nodded and added the rest of the ingredients, and the spell took a stronghold.
"Now," she said. "I'll do the incantation, and you repeat it three times. As the power leaves Raphael and enters you three, you direct it to Lucifer. Lucifer, you must breathe in the smoke from this smudge stick."
He took it and held it close, already breathing it in for good measure.
Mary smiled. "Everyone ready?"
We nodded as one and she began. "Est in potentia moveri. Et quod corrumpere exercitum. Affer mihi magicae, ubi usus agam respectu boni."
Roughly translated, it meant, "The power must move. The host is corrupt. Bring the magic to me here, where I may treat it with respect and use it for good."
I hoped we'd use it for good, anyway.
When we
'd repeated the words three times, the hair erupted in flames, and instead of feeling a pull on my magic, it began to flood into me. I directed it toward Luc, but I already knew something was wrong.
It didn't feel like Raphael. It felt feminine.
It was the wrong hair.
16
We couldn't stop the spell in the middle without possible repercussions to all of us, so we kept on until the flow of power stopped and it was all inside Lucifer.
He breathed in deep and sighed. "It feels weird, but so much better than not having power at all."
I stared at him as he rolled his head and flexed his muscles. I knew how it felt to have magic suddenly flood where it had been missing. He probably felt like running a mile or climbing a mountain.
But still, he had to realize that wasn't Raphael's magic. "Luc," I said gently. "How do you feel?"
"Like I'm going to sprout breasts. We didn't get the right magic," he said.
I winced.
"Damn it." Gabriel sighed. "I thought it felt weird."
"Me, too," Michael muttered.
Mary looked at us with wide eyes. "Who does it belong to?"
"A female is all I can tell. It feels feminine," he said.
"Damn it. Can you feel if the power is angel, Archangel, or Fallen?" Michael asked.
Lucifer laughed and winced. "Archangel, I think. It's too much power to be a lesser angel, and it's way, way too pure to be a Fallen."
I wasn't sure if I liked the idea of him being full of another woman's power, but I chided myself for being silly. It didn't mean anything except we had to find the woman and get her power back.
Lucifer laughed and I felt him blast power outward. "She's pretty strong," he said. "Not as strong as me, but still."
He closed his eyes and focused. I knew he was using the power, but not for what. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Looking for Raphael," he said. "I don't think he's on Earth."
"How can you search the entire Earth?" I asked. "Especially with lessened powers."
He shrugged. "I don't know. It's just something I can do."
"We need you with powers," Gabriel said. "None of us can do that."
And I knew I was as strong as Lucifer. We all had different abilities. "He's not here," Luc said.
"We didn't really think he was."
"Either this hair wasn't his, or it went to the next closest thing to him when the magic couldn't find him," Lucifer said. "Mary, did it go wrong?"
She studied the spell and shook her head. "No. we did everything right."
"I'm going to go to Elysium and see if anyone is freaking out about missing powers..." He twisted his lips. "And if I find her, I'll ask if we can borrow her powers for a little while." Gabriel pressed a kiss to my temple and disappeared.
"He's in the other realm. How can we get there?" Lucifer asked.
I sighed and sat down at Mary's table. "We can't."
Michael and Joel appeared. "What have you done now?" Joel asked in exasperation. "Charity is going nuts."
"So, it went to Raphael's sister," Luc said.
Charity and Raphael had been created together, like Asmodeus and I had. They were considered brother and sister throughout Elysium.
"She's agreed to lend her power, but only because I told her how important it was," Michael said. "She wants it back soon."
I dropped my head onto Mary's clean kitchen table and sighed. "If we can't get into Raphael's new world, can we destroy it?"
The room was silent as everyone thought about it. I looked up to find Joel shaking his head. "No, it will kill any living creature inside rather than expelling them."
Another option shot down. "There has to be something we can do," I said. My voice betrayed the hopelessness I felt.
"We have to lure him out," Gabe said.
"Okay," I said. "An idea is forming." I focused on the whisper of an idea floating in my mind. "Luc, I think we're going to have to tell our secret."
He looked at me in confusion. "What secret?" We had so many. But running Abaddon wasn't without its share of responsibilities and along with that came knowledge that we weren't going to share.
"How we're always, well, usually, stronger than everyone else."
Gabe's eyes lit up. "I knew it. You two are always so strong, yet after this Earth cycle, you haven't been all that strong, comparatively. What gives?"
Luc's confusion cleared up. "We'll use them all. At once."
I arched an eyebrow and nodded. "When a soul is reborn, the power that soul accumulated throughout its life is expelled in a short burst. Lucifer and I figured out a way to harness that power, so as long as Abaddon is working as it should, we get boosts of power from every reborn soul."
"So, taking their power doesn't destroy their soul?" Joel asked.
"No." Lucifer smiled. "That's the catalyst for rebirth. The soul immediately goes to seek a new host. Either a pregnancy or someone in a coma who has already moved on. That's how they get miracles as well, when people are nearly dead, the new soul sort of merges with the old. We don't completely understand how it works, to be perfectly honest."
"If we do this, it's likely everyone in a coma on Earth will wake up." I grimaced at Luc. "You know that makes me crazy. The way the humans let a body live on without a soul inside it."
"That's a debate for another time. They don't know the soul is gone."
"Wait, hang on." Michael held up his hands. "I'm not clear exactly what we're doing yet."
"We're going to use the souls in the River and the souls in Purgatory and send them to rebirth all at once. It will give us a massive boost of power." I held out my hands. "And we'll use it to defeat Raphael."
"How?" Mary said. "You could combine the power of every angel and every Fallen with every soul and still not have the key to his realm and have no way of getting it or even figuring out what it is." She put her hands on her hips. "You've got to draw him out."
She had an idea, but she wanted us to get there. "And you need to deal with these demons."
My jaw dropped. I got it as Joel said it. "We could send the demons back."
"Back..." Gabe murmured. "Could we literally? Would it be enough power to go back?"
Joel caught on to what he meant, but I didn't have a clue. "Back where?"
"In time," Joel breathed. "We go back in time."
"That's not possible," Lucifer said. "It can't be."
Joel nodded vigorously. "It's been done, a few times. But not for such a long period of time. We'd have to go back several days. It's only been done for a few hours."
"How?" I asked. My mind barely wanted to comprehend the possibility.
"The humans' minds sort of reset. They have a sense of Deja Vu or lose some time and can't figure it out. Every brain deals with it differently," Joel explained.
"When was the last time it was done?" Lucifer asked. He looked a bit outraged. Probably because something so huge was possible without him knowing anything about it.
"After the big fire in London. It swept through far more of the city and killed someone that we knew from prophecy shouldn't have died. We reset it and redirected the fire," he said. "Oh, and they may have interfered in World War II."
I raised my eyebrows. "Hitler?"
Joel tapped his nose.
I looked at Michael and Gabriel. "Seems you two had your own secrets. Do you know how to do this?"
They nodded. "But it takes several angels working together. We'll have to get help."
I couldn't imagine any of them would say no. Everyone wanted the demons back in Abaddon. "Well, go. Get everyone together. See if they'll do it."
Michael, Gabriel, and Joel disappeared, leaving me with Lucifer and Mary. "The Fallen," Luc exclaimed. "We have to get them. They can help. And we'll need them in Abaddon after."
I nodded and reached out for my brother with my power. He appeared in a half bow. "Sister, how may I be of assistance?"
"Gather the Fallen," I said. "Have them meet us outside th
e gates of Abaddon. All of them."
He gave me a strange look. "May I ask why?"
"It's time to take our world back," I said menacingly.
Abaddon disappeared.
Mary tutted. "I wish I could see this."
I pulled her into my arms, though she was a bit reluctant at first. "You are going to have our eternal appreciation. And even though we are who we are, we have a bit of pull in Elysium. When it's your time, you let us know if you have any requests, okay?"
She chuckled into my shoulder and squeezed me back. "I will, child. Go save the world?"
With one final squeeze of my hand, she let me go and I smiled at Lucifer.
"We're usually the bad guys. Let's go be the good guys."
He snorted and disappeared.
Finally. Some hope. We sat down and went over the details until it was all down pat.
It was finally time to kick some rogue Archangel ass and get our daughter back.
17
It took a while for everyone to assemble. Angels and Fallen began appearing a few minutes after we got there. We stood in front of the gates and greeted Angels we hadn't seen in millennia and Fallen who were relieved to hear we were going to set things right.
Everyone who appeared asked what the plan was. All anyone was telling them was that we had a big plan and to come here. "We'll explain everything as soon as most are gathered."
After about an hour of catching up with our old friends and acquaintances, Asmodeus, then soon after, Joel, appeared.
They both nodded, indicating the majority of those helping us were present. "Hello, everyone," I called. Luc hated public speaking. "Thank you all for coming."
I projected my voice so the assembled crowd could hear me well. There had to be at least a hundred of us. Maybe one-fifty.
"We're going to reset time," I said. All the Fallen looked confused. "For those that don't know, it is possible to reverse time. It's only ever been done for a few hours at a time. We're going to do a few days. When it's done, and the demons are back in Abaddon and the gates closed, you must disappear as quickly as possible. If you can go into Abaddon and stay close, please do. Angels that can't, please go to Purgatory so that if things go bad with Raphael, you can help. But we can't have him see any of us before we're ready or he might bolt with Ariel again." I let the information sink in for the crowd. "Does anyone have questions?"