Page 3 of Absolved In Death

“No, you trapped me down here!” the original Fae shouted, his face turning tomato red with anger.

For fuck’s sake, do I even want to know what happened?I asked Oisín.

Probably not,he answered.

We had to turn this situation around if we ever wanted to escape. This interesting faerie was obviously the one in charge here, so I wanted to at least try to amicably solve this issue before I had to fight my way out. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I could fight my way out of this–I was exhausted, confused, and awestruck at this entire production. I unbuckled my seatbelt and stood, making my way to where the original Quelier stood in the aisle. As I made my way over to him, his carbon copies fizzled away into thin air.Interesting…

“Hello, I’m Diana Morningstar. It’s so nice to meet you.” I gave Quelier a smooth, friendly smile and extended my hand. “Your performance was magical. I loved the way you took inspiration from Vaudeville, Broadway, and contemporary music and made it into something completely unique.”

An interesting thing about brats…we were known for acting out and disrupting the rules, but we lived for praise. Ate every compliment up like a crunchy, juicy chicken nugget with just the right amount of dipping sauce. They were our ultimate source of dopamine, and our greatest downfall.

He shook my hand, his smile beaming as a pink blush spread across his cheeks. “Stop it right now, Miss Blue Eyes. I’m sure you say that to all the handsome multi-genre performers you meet.”

I could feel Bash’s anger through our claimbond as his voice snapped through our mindlink.Who the fuck does he think he’s talking to?

Calm down, before you ruin it. Let our girl work some charm so we can get out of here!Zaz admonished him.

“I certainly do not. Your dance moves?Next level.I want to learn to dance like you. And how did you make carbon copies of yourself? I’ve never seen anyone do that before!”

“I can teach you how to dance between your torture sessions, no problem. Unfortunately, carbon copying is a Fae trick.” He leaned in and sniffed me, then took several seconds to examine me with his shrewd gaze, as if he were sizing up an opponent. “And although you’re powerful and dangerous, you are no Fae. You smell like a cross between a witch, angel, and Lucifer fucking Morningstar. Please tell me someone as wonderful as you is not the spawn of that awful man?”

Michael had to hold Lucifer back. I seriously thought he was going to slap Quelier’s face off.

“Not by choice,” I said, which was true. No one chose their father, or in my case, fathers. “I do love him though, despite his many faults, hubris, short temper, absence in my life, unreasonable need for control and gigolo lifestyle.”

Quelier rolled his eyes, then shot Lucifer a glare carrying serious heat. My father returned it.

“I’m going to be honest with you–we were sent here as a trap by someone much worse than Lucifer. The things he wants to do to the four realms are heinous. There’s a war raging on Earth and we need to get back. How about we sit and work something out?” I offered.

His lips curled into a cryptic smile as he flicked through a tablet that appeared in his hands out of nowhere.

“You seem like such a sweetheart. I’m glad having a father like him hasn’t given you gross Daddy issues,” he cooed in a mocking baby-talk voice. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can work out. The cosmic vacuum you dropped in through is anentrance only, hun. Doesn’t matter who your daddy is, or how much unfinished business you had before you got here.”

“Oh,” I frowned, because I really thought I could talk my way out of this, or at least convince him to hear me out.

“Don’t worry. We can work on your dancing and singing between torture sessions, if you can make it through them. We’ll have a blast,bestie! I’ll process your forms while you wait in the Transition Void.Hold please.”

He clapped his hands, disappearing as the background simultaneously changed to that of a doctor’s office waiting room. The modular furniture was creaky and uncomfortable, but we all sat down in silence for a few moments.

“So we’re trapped here indefinitely with no way out?” Oisín clarified.

“I refuse to accept that,” Bash said.

“There has to be a loophole.” Zaz ran his hand through his shiny brown curls, then regarded Lucifer who guiltily stared straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room. “You have to know a way out, Quelier insinuated that you made this place.”

“Michael and I were on-again-off-again… I was coping via a four year long bender. My blood was mostly whiskey and Hell Dust. I don’t even remember creating this place,” he sighed before rubbing his temples. “I remember talking to Quelier during a dungeon scene in a…club…about how some of the damned needed more punishment, and somehow this place was created and an invoice was sent to me.”

“I wonder what else Mr. Fae P.A. invoiced you for…” Michael groused, his earlier anger fading to annoyance. Lucifer took his hand, but he snatched it away. “Don’t even apologize at this point, Luci. If I got mad over every single person you slept with, I’d never feel another emotion again in my eternal life. If you’re actually sorry, get us out of here.”

Lucifer’s shoulder sagged, his face deflating at his verbal jab. Only Michael could put someone as arrogant and ridiculous as Lucifer Morningstar in his place.

“We don’t have enough intel to really do anything. We don’t know how things work or what’s going to happen,” Bain thought aloud as he strolled around the space slowly, taking in every detail. Tendrils of shadows rolled off him, spreading around the room and touching everything in their path. His face wrinkled as he touched the leaf of a fake plant on the center table. “Let’s stay for a bit and see what happens.”

“No, I’m not letting Diana get tortured or take dance lessons from a psychotic faerie. Plan denied.” Bash hopped out of his seat, sitting on the arm of my chair.

“I don’t think we have a choice, Bash,” Mal sighed. “We need to know his weak spot before we can come up with a plan.”

“I think Diana is his weak spot…” Judas said, waggling his brows.

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