Page 66 of Absolved In Death

A force slowed me down, until it stopped me completely. I was still in the air, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move forward. I didn’t see a wall or anything blocking me, but I did feel magic.

This is a ward. It’s keeping whatever is on the other side out. I say we turn around, get the stragglers, and head home,Ares suggested.

Despite how curious I was about what existed on the other side of the ward, I heeded his advice. We flew in a circle, heading back to where we fell. Every soldier here was either a corpse, or they escaped. All the tents and buildings were torched. The training camps were nothing but ash.

I opened my mind and soul again, willing my magic to take us back to the battle in LA. Hopefully everyone was okay without us. Traveling home was the same as our trip here. Everything went black, then it felt as if we were being shot through a black void, twisted and turned until we arrived right back inside Ares’ ring of fire.

It was empty. I took to the air, flying over the battle in search of Lucifer. The fighting was dying down, and only a few skirmishes remained. I didn’t see my father or Judas, but I found Bash and a unit of our soldiers on the ground with a few prisoners.

I landed in a cleared area next to him, and waited for the guys to dismount before I shifted back.

Is Michael okay?I asked him. Even though the prisoners were tied up, I didn’t trust them to stay that way. They could always escape and pass the information on.

Judas took him back to Pit 13 for medical care. Lucifer fought Red, until Red called his forces and retreated. FYI, Lucifer wants to see you ASAP. He’s mad at you. So am I. Desmond and Mal are with Morrigan, but I assume they’ll be mad too.

Fair. I left without informing everyone of the plan. But I had Ares and Zaz with me, and can explain everything when we’re together again. We have good news,I explained.

“Diana, I’m getting an angry-link from Lucifer,” Zaz rubbed his temples, like he did when he had a headache. “He said, and I quote,‘If you don’t get your ass back home right now, I’ll come get you myself.’I’m fading us back.”

Zaz’s fade was much smoother than mine. We arrived upright, in a hallway of the medical center back in Pit 13. My father was back in his human form with steam billowing from his ears. His jaw was clenched, and the healers were skittish, darting around frantically and giving him a wide berth.

“You have five seconds to start explaining what the fuck you thought you were doing!” he shouted. Everyone fell silent, and the only thing I heard was the beeping of medical equipment.

“Michael linked me to find Red’s base with a tracking spell, but I didn’t know how to do that. So I used Azazel’s magic, had avision, and found it. Ares and I burnt the whole place and every soldier in it to the ground. Azazel gathered a ton of good intel,” I calmly stated.

A few months ago, I would have popped off and argued with him. But after almost losing my Nonna, one of my dads, and Angela, I understood the panic and anger he experienced. I didn’t blame him for his feelings or for yelling. Instead, I hugged him, squeezing as tight as possible.

I could count the amount of times I hugged Lucifer. Certainly not as much as I hugged Michael. That would change—time may not be infinite anymore, and we had to appreciate each other while we could. He squeezed me harder, then patted me on the back.

“So proud of you,” he rasped after pulling away. He gave Ares and Azazel a tight glare. “You’re both so lucky this dangerous, irresponsible mission ended well. Because if it didn’t, I’d end your immortal lives and stuff your fucking corpses for entryway decor.”

There ya go, he’s back to normal.

“I think I’d add an air of elegance to any space, but the only entryway I wanna decorate is your daughter’s, with my self-made decor,” Ares commented. I hoped he meant the actual entryway of our apartment and the body part decorations he had made, and not something lewd.

“You wouldn’t risk upsetting your daughter by killing her favorite boyfriends, get real,” Zaz snarked. “Come on, honey. Let’s go see Michael.”

I wasn’t sticking around to see them argue, so I followed Zaz into Michael’s room. He was sleeping in a hospital bed under a few fluffy blankets. Zaz took the clipboard off his door and flipped through the pages. Then he sat on the edge of the bed, hovering his hands up and down Michael’s body.

“He passed out on the battlefield, but not from an injury. His heart is still breaking. The pain is only going to get worse unless they can find a way to fix it,” he explained.

“Why is his heart broken and not his soul? How will the healers fix it?”

“His soul was broken, but it healed with time because souls are resilient. Michael and Lucifer had a romantic soulbond, so their hearts bonded too. Unfortunately, the only way to fix it would be to reunite them.”

“But they are back together.” Mom told me the three of them were taking things slowly, but they were in a relationship.

Zaz took my hand, pulling me in for a side hug. “Your dads need to reunite their soulbond. They each have a piece, but Michael is the one experiencing the pain because Lucifer broke the bond.”

“I’ve been begging him to soulbond with me again, but he won’t do it until he knows this is going to last,” Lucifer said from the doorway before walking in. His face was etched with worry and exhaustion. “He said he can’t go through the pain of it breaking a second time.”

“What if your bond can’t be mended?” Zaz asked. “No one has ever broken a soulbond before, so the whole situation is unprecedented.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to fix it,” Lucifer swore. And I believed him. My father wasn’t known for taking the easy way out. He was evil incarnate. The Father of Lies. The Prince of Darkness. But I saw the way he looked at Michael and Mom. I felt the love he had for them, me, and Oisín, even if he didn’t say it with words.

If anyone could fix this, it would be him.

Desmond and Ares came into the room, a message bubble in the latter’s hand. Feta trailed him, but as soon as he saw me, hesat by my feet. “I think you need to listen to this message I just got from Apollo.”

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