Chapter 15
The year was 1882. London by day was as filthy as it was dull, and a place where everything about him, from his clothes to his name, was unwelcome to most. An acquaintance he had known from way back when had beckoned him close with a hurried 'halloa!' and had offered the services of his personal tailor – a sly attempt to hurriedly fulfil his end of an old deal. Money, power, materiality – these humans were all much the same. He had bade the man farewell with thanks, though he had no intent to honour the recommendation. He would only get a day in the city, two if he were lucky, and he would be damned again if he was going to waste it all at Bond Street. It had been his mistake some fifty years prior, though as he adjusted his coat sleeves at the wrist and glanced around his current bustling company, he realised that perhaps the outfit was a little outdated.
As night began to fall, he sat perhaps three rows of tables back from the stage, and peered around the cavernous room with genuine interest. This had been the real reason for choosing the darkest and gloomiest city for his visit this time. The music hall was fairly recent, though well-established, and he had seen enough of them in mortals' hell-loops to let curiosity take him to the real deal, to see a performance that would not be tainted by torture, by taunting actors, by drunken brawls outside, or by raging fires that had smelt too strongly of brimstone to be even remotely entertaining. He, much like the humans around him, was drinking, though the class of people were not the sort to be drunk in public, lest they lose the respectability they so desperately desired to keep intact. The audience was almost all men: only a couple of young women dared to accompany their sweethearts unchaperoned, and he thought he could see the very hem of a long skirt through a gap in the chairs at a table in the front row.
The acts on the whole were fairly good. One dancer stumbled and fell mid-routine, to the humoured delight of the crowd who booed and jeered. Singers were clapped and fawned over; one young lady in particular had a voice that reminded him of another old friend. A comic made the crowd roar with laughter as he paced in the stage in shoes so long and pointed that he completely forgot his own self-consciousness in his wardrobe choice.
Eventually another act was called. He heard a man at the table behind him say to his companion, 'Arthur Lloyd's back again. About time, too…'
He watched as the man took centre stage, portly, though smart in a black jacket, with a white bowtie and gloves. He surveyed the crowd with gleaming, merry eyes and gently twirled one end of his thick moustache.
'Good evening, and thank you for coming to the Eagle tonight!' he called, and the crowd cheered. 'How about just one more song tonight, hmm? One song to round off this great evening that followed the beautiful day? Why, the days are always beautiful in May! Never mind the rain – hah!' The nearby audience groaned good-naturedly, many now in the region of drunken stupor. 'You know what else is beautiful in May? The beautiful country flowers, of course! I have my own sweet flower in the country you know… My oh Marigold!'
As the song was announced, many in the audience clapped and cheered, though none so loudly as the voice of a woman from the front. Lloyd glanced surprisedly at where she sat, then smiled genially at her.
'Do you like this song, young one?' he grinned from the stage.
'Oh, yes!' a high-pitched voice was barely audible, with a slightly American twang to her accent, and he in the audience suppressed a smile.
'Do you know the words? Can you keep in time?' He assumed that the woman must have been nodding along, for Lloyd then raised his hand in invitation. 'Then by all means, come up here and sing it with me!'
The crowd clapped, and he tracked the movement in front of him, slightly off to his right. It was as she climbed onto the stage that he noticed she was not a woman at all, but a girl, a young girl, perhaps six or seven, though he knew he was hopeless at guessing the ages of small humans. She was short, slimly built, with eyes as dark as his own and hair to match, twisted elaborately and set with blue flowers.
'Halloa, now!' Lloyd said, louder now, so that the whole crowd could hear. 'You're not really old enough to be here, young lady! Are you with your father?'
The girl's face twisted, nose wrinkling in a disdain so strong it made him chuckle at her spirit. 'No,' she answered. 'I'm with my cousin. And I'm much older than I look!' And her face split into a wide grin as she waved in the direction from which she had come. A few of the patrons laughed, a few more clapped again. A man a few seats along from him at the table made a lewd comment, though he quickly silenced him with a brief flash of red from his eyes.
'Then your cousin is a lucky man indeed to have such a worthy chaperone,' Lloyd continued. 'I think you are too young to be my Marigold, though not a marigold at all of course – ' he gestured to the blue flora in her hair, ' – my Bluebell, I daresay! Or perhaps our very own Annie Adams?' The audience clapped again. He fought the urge to roll his eyes – the plant in the child's hair was morning glory, not bluebell. And since when did he care about the child anyway?
The pair began to sing, and he found himself enraptured once more. The girl's voice was high and sweet, and much clearer than her professional counterpart's. She was… angelic. Her eyes were bright with excitement, and he wondered what it must be like to be in possession of such innocence. To truly see the song as a walk through a garden, and not sense the metaphors underneath.
Lloyd quietened for the final chorus, letting the child belt out the refrain one last time.
'Oh! Marigold, Marigold, Marigold!
Fair as the snowdrop, with eyes like sloes;
She's my Daffodilly and my Lilac and my Lily,
She's my buttercup, my daisy, and my wild, white rose!'
The crowd roared its approval, and he fought against a laugh as the girl curtsied before jumping haphazardly off the stage.
'My sweet Bluebell, ladies and gentleman!'
She smiled and waved and blew kisses to each table in the first few rows.
She met his eyes –
Lucifer awoke with a start.
Rory swiped at her nose as she moved quickly towards the Gates of Heaven. She was sure the bleeding had stopped, but in truth it had been so long since she had last obtained such an injury that the novelty both excited and disturbed her. She harboured the same sentiment over her newfound powers, and the careful warnings Cora had given her, and she was so deeply in thought that she almost walked right into Gabriel who was going the other way.
'Oh, hey!' the Angel of Messages chirped in greeting, oblivious to her niece's turmoil. 'Rory, right? Or is it Aurora, 'cos, like, I don't really know you yet?'
'Either's fine,' she replied evenly. She nodded to her. 'Gabriel.'
'It's so nice to finally meet you!' Gabriel chattered. 'I know you guys were supposed to be like this big secret, but I can't believe I didn't know, I mean, I wouldn't've told if I did…'
Rory snorted.
'And like, I've met your sister, and your cousins, who are all so sweet, by the way, but it's so cool that I finally get to meet you!'
'Likewise,' Rory said shortly, trying not to sound sarcastic. 'Listen, Gabriel, we'll talk later, yeah? I've got places to be – ' she trailed off and squinted into the distance. By the Gates, Ellie spread her wings carefully, as though deliberating taking flight. 'Although…' she continued after a second, as her aunt gasped in awe at the beauty of her sister's wings, 'I suppose I could spare a minute.'
'Awesome!' Gabriel gushed. 'So… you've been to Earth a bunch lately. Any hot goss?'
Lucifer was surprised when he woke to find himself alone in bed, and the sheets were cool as he stretched out his limbs. The memory of his dream left as quickly as it had come, save for the last few bars of the old folk song, which he hummed as he made quick work of making the bed and fastening his robe around him.
Making his way down the steps, he found Chloe standing at her kitchen counter, magnifying glass in hand, peering diligently at Lilith's ring.
'What are you doing?' he asked, bemused, leaning over to kiss her cheek in greeting.
'It's changing again,' his fiancée replied, barely shifting her gaze from the ancient stone. 'It was white originally, right? Then with Lilith's immortality in it, it changed to black. It changed back to white when you gave it to me, it was grey last night when we noticed it. Now it's lighter, and swirling again, and in places it's almost clear.'
He took a look, and realised she was right.
'How long have you been up?'
'I don't know, a half-hour, maybe?' she answered. 'I'm just trying to work out what this all means, Lucifer. It doesn't make sense. What's changed? If I take this off…' she trailed off and lowered her voice to a hushed whisper. 'If I take this off… will I die again?'
'I… don't imagine so,' he said eventually, after they exchanged a weighty glance. 'Your wound is healed, we would have noticed last night if that was not the case.' He nudged her shoulder with a smirk in an attempt to ease the tension. 'I propose we add that to the list of questions to ask Amenadiel later.'
Chloe nodded slowly, eyes narrowed in thought. Lucifer had previously loved the expression, knowing it usually meant a break in the case or an incoming lead was imminent. Now, he only wished he had the answers she craved.
'I'm trying to remember what Ellie said about it,' she murmured. 'It came up in conversation yesterday. She mentioned something about the ring appearing in a Book of Prophecy that went missing centuries ago, and it being a source of power.'
'Many humans have debated the causes of Lilith's immortality, Chloe,' Lucifer explained gently. 'And as she herself told me, the ring did nothing, she just happened to like wearing it. The power she had solely came from dear old Dad.'
'Maybe,' Chloe pondered. 'But Ellie and her cousins aren't human, and they haven't had much human influence from the sound of things. And doesn't a missing Book of Prophecy sound… kind of severe?'
'Prophecies can't always be trusted.'
'Ellie said that too. But the last time we tried to brush off a celestial prophecy, it didn't really turn out too well, did it?'
'I suppose when you put it like that…' Lucifer trailed off. 'Well, we can ask Amenadiel. And possibly Ellie, too, if she seems to know so much about it. Maybe she can put your mind at ease.' His expression softened. 'And while we're asking her about one of your rings, we can tell her about the other.'
Chloe finally put the magnifying glass down on the counter and turned to kiss him. 'We certainly can,' she agreed. 'Trixie and Rory too – I can't wait. I was wondering whether or not to call Trixie while she has phone time this afternoon, or wait until she gets back from camp.'
'Whatever you think is best,' Lucifer said, pressing a kiss to the side of her head as he moved around her, setting about making breakfast, secretly glad the conversation had moved to a safer topic. 'Though I should warn you, she might not exactly be surprised.'
'You told her?'
'Of course,' he answered lightly. 'It would have been unbecoming for me to propose to her mother without first getting her blessing.'
Chloe laughed at the mental image of her tall, broad devil nervously approaching her eleven-year-old daughter. 'Are your girls okay with it, too?'
'Yes, yes,' Lucifer replied as he bustled around, putting a frying pan on the stove, and ripping open a packet of bacon. 'I won't recreate the noise Ellie made when I told her, it'll shatter all the glass in the apartment.'
'And Rory?'
Lucifer turned to face her, sensing her unease. 'Yes, Chloe,' he said softly. 'I believe her exact words were 'stop putting off the inevitable'. I think you were right, last night. She's been through a lot, and she needs time.'
She chuckled at his dramatic air quotes, and then nodded, stepping closer to him and lowering her tone slightly. 'Look, I… I know this whole situation with them, you know, it's new, it's not easy, relationship-wise. They've had such different experiences, and they're both adults, so they don't necessarily need parental figures the same way children do… And, you know, if they ever find out who their mom is, I don't want to get in the way of that, but I…' she broke off and looked him in the eye. 'I promise I will do whatever I can for them, I will be there for them as and when and if they want or need me.'
Lucifer's expression made her heart melt. He smiled gently at her, and cupped her cheek. 'And I promise the very same for Trixie,' he declared, with the same earnest tone. 'I will never replace Daniel, and I would not want to, it's not right. But I will do everything in my power to protect and care for her.'
Chloe placed both her hands on his shoulders. 'I know.'
'You do?'
'Yeah. You know why?'
'Why?'
'Because you already do.'
They stared into each other's eyes until a hiss from the frying pan behind them broke them out of their reverie.
'I'd best get that,' Lucifer said, moving away first.
'Indeed,' Chloe grinned. 'We've got a busy day ahead of us. But first thing's first.'
'Hello, you two,' Amenadiel said, smiling conspiratorially at the pair when the doors to the penthouse opened. 'Good to see you finally showed up. I was starting to think you had forgotten.'
'Of course not, brother!' Lucifer retorted with a scoff. 'It's been a busy morning, between breakfast, and indulging other appetites.' He broke off and chuckled to himself, while Chloe rolled her eyes and dumped her purse and jacket by the bar.
'Hey, Amenadiel,' she said, moving to join him on the leather couch. 'What Lucifer means to say is that we're sorry we're late, and thank you for meeting us.'
The older angel chuckled too. 'It's good to see you, Chloe,' he said warmly, as Lucifer sat down too. 'How's it going? I know we haven't had much time to catch up since the twins came into the picture.'
'Good, good,' Lucifer said lightly. 'Ellie's still very timid, but is slowly opening up. And Rory…' He sighed. 'Still furious at the world and at me, and not so much.'
'You made some progress in your session with Linda yesterday, though, right?' Chloe asked.
'Of sorts.'
'Yeah, about that,' Amenadiel said. 'I don't know what you talked about, Luci, but Linda has been acting weirdly ever since.'
Lucifer sighed again. 'Yes, I can imagine. It seems to be a Morningstar rite of passage, breaking a therapist with a big revelation. I'll talk to Rory when I can, try and get her to speak to her. I can't promise it will work.'
'Is Rory okay?' Amenadiel asked. 'Anger issues aside, she seems like a good kid.'
'I wouldn't know, yet,' Lucifer said smoothly. 'Unfortunately I appear to be the main target of said anger issues.'
'I do,' Chloe piped up. And she quickly recounted how Trixie and Rory had met.
'See,' Amenadiel said with a small smile when she was done. 'She just needs a bit of time.' He snorted. 'I'd offer to slow it for you, but I don't want to give Charlie any ideas.'
'You certainly don't,' Lucifer drawled.
'How're you doing, Amenadiel?' Chloe asked. 'I heard you spent a day or so in Hell.'
'I still can't believe that's really all it was,' he said with a wry smile. 'It was months there. And I'm sorry, Luci, but I really didn't find that much out about Michael's activities. I didn't want him to sense my presence, so I kept my distance.'
'Did you find out anything at all?' Lucifer asked. 'Anything about the soul who's Loop he's been inhabiting?'
'Not much,' Amenadiel confessed with a shrug. 'I'll tell you this, though, it's no ordinary Hell-Loop.'
'Maze said that the soul could open their door by themself,' Chloe remembered. She looked to Lucifer. 'I'm guessing that's not normal?'
'None of the doors in Hell are locked,' Lucifer pointed out. 'But no, it isn't. If they can open their door, they can walk out and on up to the Silver City, and only one soul has ever done that. And that was after I spent some time explaining exactly how it all worked.'
'I did not see anyone in the Loop,' Amenadiel told them. 'The door was ajar, and the room was silent. As though it was all on pause. No screams, no conversation, nothing. Just an ordinary glow of light coming from the crack in the door.'
'Interesting…' Lucifer said, pondering.
'Any names? Or dates of death? I was thinking I could do some research on them,' Chloe said.
'I got that information from a demon, shortly before I left,' Amenadiel replied.
Lucifer's eyes narrowed. 'Which demon?'
'Naamah, I believe.'
'One of Maze's sisters,' Lucifer explained at Chloe's questioning look. 'Younger, tamer, much less fierce. Prone to dramatics and exaggeration.' He directed his gaze back to his brother. 'What did she say?'
'The soul died just under a year ago, aged twenty-five,' he said. 'And her name is Persephone McNamara.'
Chloe pulled her phone out of her pocket. 'That's great,' she said. 'She should be easy to find, I can't imagine there are many people with that name.'
'Persephone?' Lucifer repeated, as he leant over to pick up a tablet from the glass table. 'How poetic.'
'Poetic how?' Chloe asked. She thought for a moment. 'Persephone is Greek mythology, right?'
'Indeed,' he nodded. 'Queen of the Underworld, as the story goes, after being kidnapped and forcibly wed to a much older Hades. Though, she too had the ability to leave, and did so for several months each year. The Ancient Greeks used the story to explain their seasons.'
Chloe chewed her lip thoughtfully. 'Do you think Michael is holding her there against her will?'
'If she can open her door, she can leave,' Amenadiel reasoned. 'And who wouldn't want to get to the Silver City?'
'Someone being tricked,' Chloe thought aloud, as she scrolled on her phone. 'Someone who thinks it could be worthwhile to stay with the one holding them captive.'
'Which is exactly what happened in the original Persephone's story,' Lucifer interjected. 'Thus, poetic.'
'The question is, is she being manipulated? Is she a pawn in Michael's plan? Or is she complicit, thinking if she helps him, she can get to Heaven that way?' Amenadiel mused.
'I think I've found something,' Chloe said, tilting her phone screen to show the two angels a news headline. 'It's from a British newspaper, nearly a year ago.'
'Single fatality in M25 pile-up confirmed and named,' Lucifer read, before she tilted the screen back and began to scroll. He scrunched his nose. 'Not the worst way to die, but perhaps the most boring.'
'She was pulled from her car after the freak accident, and later died of her injuries,' Chloe reported, paraphrasing the article as she read. 'Persephone, usually going by Seph… She had a lung condition that made her more vulnerable to internal injury… Previously a competitive figure-skater… Part-time retail worker…'
Lucifer groaned. 'I really thought this was going to go somewhere interesting.' He put the tablet back down.
'Luci,' Amenadiel chided.
'Huh, she was born a triplet,' Chloe added.
'Well, suck it, Michael,' Lucifer snorted. 'There can only be one thing worse than an identical sibling, and that's two of them. At least she'll have some fun retorts for him if he starts slating yours truly too badly.'
'Oh, and get this,' Chloe continued, 'She was headed southbound, to an airport. She was booked on a flight headed here.'
'Less boring,' Lucifer said.
'A year ago?' Amenadiel pondered. 'As in, about the time Michael was here too?'
'Circumstantial,' Chloe concluded after a few seconds of thought. 'LA is a big city, and she lived very far away. There's no guarantee he knew anything of her.'
'Well, we should ask her,' Lucifer said. 'Regardless of the poor human stain's boring life, Michael's apparent interest in her is something worth questioning.'
'Agreed,' Chloe murmured. 'I'm curious what he's up to.' She switched to social media, pulling up Instagram and searching the name. 'I think I've found her on here. It'd be good to know what she looks like.' She tapped a couple of times. 'Yeah, here we go. Seph… okay, I'm not even going to try to pronounce her middle name…'
Lucifer glanced over her shoulder at the profile. 'It's Irish,' he explained. 'Pronounced kwee-vah.'
'Seph Caoimhe McNamara,' she read.
'Say who now?' a new voice came from the direction of the balcony.
The angel brothers jumped a foot in the air.
'Azrael!' Amenadiel scolded, placing a hand to his chest, and glowering as his sister laughed.
'Show yourself, please, sister,' Lucifer said, much more gently. 'Let Chloe see and hear you.'
Chloe blinked, and a young-looking angel with a dark cloak and cropped hair stepped closer.
'Hi, Chloe…' she said awkwardly, struggling to make eye contact. 'It's, um… nice to see you. Again.' She twisted her hands together. 'No hard feelings, right?'
'No hard feelings,' Chloe smiled warmly, putting her phone down. She had heard plenty of stories over the past few months about Lucifer's favourite sister, and was keen to put the angel at ease. 'How are you, Azrael?'
'I'm good,' she answered, sitting down opposite her. Her sharp eyes noticed the diamond band on Chloe's finger. 'OMG, congratulations!'
'Wait, what?' Amenadiel asked.
Chloe laughed lightly as she raised her left hand.
'Woah!' Amenadiel said, eyes wide. 'That's awesome, you two! Why didn't you say anything before?'
'I promise it was next on the agenda,' Lucifer protested. 'Sort out what's going on with my dickhead twin, then get on to the good stuff.'
Amenadiel's smile was as proud as it was pure. 'I'm really happy for you both. You've come so far, Luci. And Chloe… welcome to the family. As crazy as ours is.' He beamed at her. 'Sister.'
Chloe grinned back at him. 'Brother.'
'You guys are adorable,' Azrael teased.
'Take that back!' Lucifer retorted.
'Never!' his sister laughed. 'Nah, real talk, congrats!'
'Thank you,' Lucifer and Chloe said simultaneously.
'So… uh… what were you guys talking about?'
'Michael,' Amenadiel told her.
Azrael made a face. 'Ugh,' she said. 'I have to say, I haven't seen him at all lately when I've been ferrying souls around. Is he hiding from me?'
'In a way, yes,' Amenadiel said.
At her look of confusion, Lucifer continued, 'He's been camping out in a particular soul's Hell-Loop. We've been investigating who's, and now that leaves us with why and what he could be up to.'
'He's in Seph Mac's?' she asked.
'You know her?' Amenadiel said in surprise.
'Do you remember every human soul you transport?' Chloe asked.
'Or just the very worst of them?' Lucifer added on.
Azrael looked uncomfortable with the line of questioning. 'Yes,' she pointed at Amenadiel, 'Most of them,' at Chloe, 'and no, Seph's far from the worst. She's nice.'
'What is she to you?' Lucifer asked, leaning forward. As her face fell, 'Oh, it's alright, sister. You forget, I have no qualms with you interacting with humanity. I'm just curious.'
Azrael took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. 'Seph is… the closest I've ever come to questioning one of Dad's decisions. Her soul was marked. By Him.'
Amenadiel and Lucifer exchanged heavy glances.
'What does that mean, if a soul is marked?' Chloe asked.
Azrael twiddled nervously with her hands as she answered. 'Whether a soul goes to Heaven or Hell when they die theoretically works on their own feelings of guilt, right?' At Chloe's nod, 'Well, that works alright for most humans. But there are some real evil ones out there who feel no guilt for the atrocities they have done.'
'Oh,' Chloe nodded.
'Serial killers, paedophiles, Nazis, people who put their seats back on planes or click at wait staff,' Lucifer elaborated.
Azrael snorted. 'Maybe not the last two,' she laughed. 'But the real nasty pieces of work, I was allowed to use discretion with, to make sure they didn't upset the harmony of Heaven. I could mark their souls, either when I heard about their activities, or at the point of death. I didn't use it very often, Dad even less so, almost never, even. But he did mark Seph.'
Chloe's eyes narrowed. 'Why?'
The Angel of Death shrugged, slapping her hands against her knees. 'No idea. I saw Seph a few times during her life, reaping the souls of some of her family and friends, one particularly nasty near miss for her when she was a teenager…' She broke off and looked nervous again. 'And the time I actually met her.'
'Colour me intrigued,' Lucifer said softly. 'I thought Miss Lopez was the only one.'
'Wait, what? You know Ella?' Chloe gasped.
'She… thinks I'm a ghost,' Azrael replied awkwardly. 'And… possibly a figment of her own imagination, these days.'
'You're her ghost,' Chloe said quietly. 'She told me, a while back, that she has a friend who is a ghost. That's you?'
'I thought it was better than telling her the truth,' Azrael confessed. 'The whole 'grim reaper' thing kinda freaks humans out, and I didn't want that for her. The lie stuck, though. But anyway, what Ella went through with everyone thinking she was crazy sort of taught me to stay away from humans after that. Seph's younger. I only met her once, and it was by mistake, and I was careful to stay invisible every subsequent time I saw her.'
'How did you meet her, Rae-Rae?' Amenadiel asked. 'It might be important. Dad must have had a reason for doing what He did to her.'
'She was in hospital,' she explained. 'She was a sick kid, had a whole plethora of health issues, especially when she was younger. That day, four kids had died a couple wards over, probably within half an hour of each other. Stuff like that has never gotten any easier for me… I must've gotten distracted, or something, because suddenly I was visible to everyone. Everyone else just ignored me and carried on about their day…'
'But she didn't?' Lucifer guessed.
'She asked me if I was okay,' Azrael said, and actually huffed out a short laugh. 'She asked me. She was the one struggling to walk, and managing an IV pole and an oxygen tank in her wake. She was ten at the time, but she was sharp. She noticed everything.'
'What happened then?' Chloe asked.
Azrael smiled slightly, despite herself. 'She fully mother-henned me, before I could protest. She took me to one of the playrooms, and introduced me to the friends she had made in there, and convinced me to watch the end of some Disney movie with her. We talked. I didn't tell her much about myself, of course, and she didn't pry. But she took such a genuine interest in everything, and everyone. It was at least half an hour before I managed to get away.'
Lucifer chuckled at the mental image, and imagined a child similar to Trixie.
His sister sighed again. 'I never interacted with her again the way I did Ella,' she explained. 'But I did keep an eye, if I was pulled towards her hometown. I saw her grieve the deaths of her sisters and her grandparents. I watched her grow up in fits and starts. Lu… she doesn't deserve Hell. I know a lot of them don't, but she especially, her soul was so pure. I can't understand why Dad marked her. Her Hell-Loop is probably the most mundane one ever.'
'Mysterious ways it is, then,' Lucifer concluded.
'Do you think Michael can sense the fact that her soul was marked?' Chloe wondered.
'Probably not,' Azrael answered after a few seconds of thought. 'There are a handful of marked souls in Hell. If he could sense that, why pick her? I can't imagine her being particularly useful to him if he's planning something dodgy.'
'I think it's interesting that Seph was supposed to be coming to Los Angeles,' Amenadiel piped up. 'What are the odds of a marked soul meeting an untimely fate shortly before travelling to a place with a lot of celestial activity?'
'I wondered the same,' Azrael admitted. 'Her accident was weird. I haven't had time to look into it, though, and I probably never will. A lot of people die.' She shrugged sadly, and then nodded towards Lucifer. 'That's all I know.'
'Well, there appears to be more questions than answers,' Lucifer decided. 'I think the most logical solution is to do a bit of digging downstairs. I might pay her a visit. Tomorrow, perhaps.'
'Woah, that's kinda risky, Lu,' Azrael protested. 'Michael might still be with her.'
'Oh, please,' he scoffed. 'I can handle my twin. He doesn't even have his wings.'
'Well… I'll be around, I guess, if you need help,' his sister said reluctantly. 'I'm constantly in and out of Hell, after all.'
'I'll come with you,' Chloe said.
'No,' Lucifer replied firmly, at once. 'Coming with me to investigate Jimmy Barnes was one thing, but I will not put you at risk of Michael's vengeful subterfuge.'
'Lucifer – '
'No!' he said again, more forcefully. 'You haven't got your superstrength anymore, remember? And with Lilith's ring on the fritz as well, it's too dangerous. You might not even survive the trip.'
Chloe inclined her head stubbornly. 'Well, it's a good thing I personally know the Angel of Death, then, isn't it?'
'I could not stop you from dying, Chloe,' Azrael explained seriously. 'Trust me, I would've last time if I had that power. I might be able to get your soul back to Heaven, if it came down to it, but only if Michael didn't get to you first.'
Chloe huffed. 'Well, there must be something I can do!'
'How about this,' Amenadiel suggested. 'You watch Lucifer leave tomorrow. You count to twenty, very slowly, bearing in mind it'll take him a few seconds to get there and back, even with the time difference. If he's still not back by the count of ten, you pray to me, and regardless of what I'm doing at work, I'll come and collect you and we'll both go.'
'Fine,' Chloe agreed. 'Twenty seconds, Earth-time. No more, no less.'
Lucifer sighed theatrically. 'Very well.'
'Rewind for a second, though,' Amenadiel added after a minute. 'What's this about Lilith's ring?'
Chloe raised her hand, showing all three of them the colour-changing stone. 'This started happening last night,' she said. 'Neither of us can figure out what it means. Do either of you have any ideas?'
'No, sorry,' Amenadiel said. 'That is… peculiar. I can do some research, though, Chloe.'
'Above my pay grade,' Azrael said with a wry shrug, when Chloe shifted her gaze to her. 'If it helps, I'm getting no indication whatsoever that your soul is in need of collecting.'
'Well, that's a relief,' Chloe said, a touch sarcastically.
'The same unfortunately cannot be said for the couple of thousand souls that have died across the world since I've been here,' she continued. 'Was there anything else you needed to speak to me about, Lu?'
'Yes, though I won't keep you long,' he replied. 'I wanted to ask about your blade – more specifically, who stole it and how you got it back.'
Azrael made a face, somewhere between alarmed and guilty. 'The person who stole it was the one who returned it to me,' she said awkwardly, eventually. 'And before you ask, no, it wasn't your daughter. Who, by the way, I promise I didn't know was your daughter, Lu. If I had known… well, I might not have necessarily told you, true, but I would have looked out for her better.'
'No, I no longer think it was Rory,' Lucifer said. 'Rather someone close to her who's she's happy and willing to cover for.'
'Who was it, Rae-Rae?' Amenadiel asked her, putting on his best elderly-brother voice. 'You won't get in trouble for telling the truth.'
Azrael sighed dramatically, fingers hovering over the hilt of the blade. 'Someone close to Rory,' she admitted. She sighed again. 'Look, I promised I wouldn't throw them under the bus, Lu! For what it's worth, they feel really bad about it, and they told me they were considering fessing up to you.'
'Oh well that's alright then,' Lucifer scoffed. 'I'll willingly invite a thief into my home again so we can have a nice little chat, and give them access to everything else!'
'It's not like that!' Azrael argued. 'Trust me, they don't mean you, or Rory, or anyone else any harm. If anything, it's the opposite.'
'They took the blade to protect Lucifer? Or Rory?' Chloe riddled out loud.
'Pretty much,' Azrael said. 'It was a dumb way to go about it, sure, but… what is it you humans say? Hindsight is fifty-fifty?'
'Twenty-twenty,' Amenadiel corrected with an amused side-smirk.
'But the blade was locked away in the safe,' Lucifer protested. 'It wasn't doing anyone any harm there.'
'You're not the only angel who can punch through a stone wall, Luci, or fiddle with a lock,' Amenadiel pointed out. 'At least in Azrael's hands, the blade is back where it belongs.'
'And I promise I will take better care of it this time,' Azrael said solemnly.
'See that you do,' Lucifer said sternly.
The Angel of Death's face twisted again. 'I really need to get back to work,' she said apologetically. 'Three thousand souls across Earth now. Can I go?'
'Yes, of course,' Lucifer granted, raising a hand in farewell. 'Thank you, sister. I'll see you soon.'
'So… you've been to Earth a bunch lately. Any hot goss?'
Rory tore her eyes away from Ellie and turned to face Gabriel. She looked over her aunt critically.
'I believe you would have the authority on interesting gossip,' she said slowly, eyes raking over the angel's frame. 'Tell me, what's the weather like in Hell at the moment?'
Gabriel's eyes widened in alarm. 'Is it that obvious I've been there?' she asked.
'The smell of brimstone that clings to you, the slight tremble in your hands, and the haunted look in your eyes? No, not obvious at all,' Rory said with a derisive snort. 'Oh, and good luck getting all that ash out of your hair, by the way.'
Gabriel hung her head sheepishly. 'You won't tell?'
Rory snorted again. 'Do I look like Amenadiel to you?' She narrowed her eyes at her aunt. 'Perhaps we can establish ourselves a deal.'
'I'm listening,' Gabriel gulped.
'I won't breathe a word to Lucifer that you entered his domain behind his back,' Rory said. 'My sister, my cousins, Lucifer's allies – none of them will be any the wiser…' She smiled sweetly, though her eyes remained calculating. 'In return, you will tell me everything. Where you went, how long you were there, what you said and did,' she lowered her tone, 'and who you saw.'
'Deal,' the Angel of Messages agreed at once.
Rory nodded her head.
'Though I'm curious,' she said smoothly, 'as to why being caught seems such a terrible thing to you. Why is that? What do you want?'
Gabriel huffed out a sigh. 'I was on Michael's side during the war,' she said, as though it was obvious. 'It was me that got Azrael's blade back from Mom's universe, so, ya know, it's kinda my fault that what happened happened. I'm not in your dad's good books, and I want to be.'
'But you're also protecting Michael still,' Rory surmised. 'You want to help him, visit him.' She smiled, a much more genuine one than last time. 'I think this could be the start of a beautiful alliance, Aunt Gabriel.'
Gabriel smiled back, albeit shyly. 'He knows you tried to visit him, and he says thanks,' she supplied.
Rory nodded, and did her best to rein in her emotions. She cared for her uncle just as Gabriel did, but this angel was still a stranger.
She continued in a quiet voice. 'He's hanging out in a human's torture-room,' she told Rory. 'I didn't speak to her much, but she seems nice. She found Michael outside her door, and let him in and patched up his back a bit…' Both of them flinched at the mental image.
'Is he healed?' Rory asked.
'I mean, kinda? I didn't see his back, but he seemed okay in himself, although I won't lie we were sitting down the whole time so it's not like I saw him walk or anything. He's made friends with the soul in the room, her name's Seph. They're kinda cute actually, they look out for each other. He seems kinda morose though, but I guess you would be if you spent that much time in Hell… Gotta say, Rory, that place is scary, you're super brave for willingly going there, it's so loud, and dark, and gross! I don't know how anyone can cope with anything down there, all those screams, all that ash…'
Rory only half-listened to her aunt's tangent. 'I might… try again,' she admitted, cringing slightly at the admission. 'Where might I find this mortal's Hell-Loop?'
'You can't,' Gabriel said nonchalantly.
Rory raised her eyebrows in her best try me expression.
'Lucifer's locked down Hell,' she explained. 'No angels in or out without his say-so. I could get through because of the whole messenger thing, but you'd probably get stuck at the barrier.'
'Good to know,' Rory huffed. Then, 'Just angels that are barred?'
'I imagine Nephilim count. You're half-angel, right?'
That's not what I was thinking, Rory deliberately didn't say. 'Right,' she said out loud. 'Well… thanks for letting me know.'
Gabriel seemed much more calm now, as though the last few minutes in the Silver City's atmosphere had soothed her fright. She smiled at her niece. 'Any time. So… you were close to Michael when you were little? What did you guys get up to?'
Rory opened her mouth to give her only the briefest answer –
'Oh, hello Rory! I've been looking for you all day, where have you been?'
Rory resisted the urge to grit her teeth as she turned to face her sister. 'Alright?' she said in a neutral tone.
Ellie smiled. 'Hello, Aunt Gabriel,' she said sweetly. 'I thought I heard your voice, so I turned back from the Gates. What were you talking about?'
Rory had to admit she was impressed at how quickly their aunt babbled out a truthful, yet elusive answer. 'Rory was just telling me about when you were little girls,' Gabriel said brightly. 'You hung out with Michael a bit, yeah? You must be so excited to catch up when he's allowed back home again.'
Ellie huffed disbelievingly. 'Is that on the cards?'
'Aww, come now Gabriel,' Rory said in a tone that definitely did not suit her. 'I'm not getting my hopes up.'
Her smile at the angel melted away when she saw the disgusted look on Ellie's face.
'Did you need something, sister?' Rory asked, a touch coldly, surprised at her sour countenance.
Ellie recovered a beat too slowly, and her response came in a short and brittle voice. 'Are you coming? We're due at Lux in a few minutes!'
'I'll be there soon,' she answered. 'I have a couple of errands to run first. You go on ahead, I'll meet you at the penthouse.'
Ellie's eyes narrowed in what could have been suspicion. 'Okay,' she said lightly. 'Don't be late.' She spread her wings and disappeared in a flash of white.
'Don't forget our deal,' Gabriel said urgently, when they were certain she had gone. 'You promised not to tell.'
'And I won't,' Rory answered with an eyeroll. 'My word is my bond. Now, if you don't mind, I really must be off.'
