Page 81 of Absolved In Death

“Not so fast,” Diana said. He turned to her with an exasperated, shortand huff. “We sorta need them to win this war.

“Yeah, and I need to kill August. He took Charlie from me and fucked us all over,” O growled. His eyes were only a muted green, void of their usual sparkle, but I felt the intensity in his words.

“Fine, I’ll stay. But when this is said and done, I want a raise,” Q demanded.

“Absolutely,” I agreed.

“And I want a new title,” he added.

“Of course. How does Chief of Staff or a similar term sound?”

“You got a deal. Okay, listen up, because this is going to suck,” he said. And suddenly all my confidence in him circled the drain.

27

DIANA

“Your time-rewind magic trick didn’t work on me. Probably because Fae aren’t susceptible to such things, or I’m just too powerful, like Lucifer and Michael.” He gave the guys a pitying glance. “The first thing I did was check on Claw, Fang, and Tank. Their habitat wasn’t breached. Then I checked on your family and Feta in their safe location. They’re all fine. Judas will check in on then periodically during the battle.

“Thank the stars,” I breathed. Judas and Angela may have their issues, but I trusted him to keep them out of harm's way.

“I figured the first thing you’d do is try to release the guys, so I went into my old room—you know, the one I slept in when I was trapped here for centuries—” he reminded us all, as he cut a probing glance at Lucifer. “I found the original schematics for the actual pit, where the prisoners are held. There’s an emergency button.”

“Which does…?” Bash asked.

“We press it, effectively stopping the magic that creates each prisoner’s person Hell. The door to all the cells will open, which would free them…and all the other prisoners. Which would suck,but…you’d be free. It’s the only solution I can find to get the job done,” Q said.

“I had suggested early on we recruit the prisoners and offer them commuted sentences, but no one listened to me. Just pointing it out, in case you all forgot,” Ares grumbled. Being trapped down here was making my happy lunatic cranky as fuck.

“Well, since I’m calling the shots now, I say we press it,” I decided. “It’s a great idea, Ares.” I was willing to do anything to set my men free. Fighting Red alone would lead us back to the same outcome as before, and I refused to watch him hurt my men.

I would not fail the entire world a second time.

“How will you win them over? Some of them were put here by Lucifer, so seeing him won’t help our cause,” Az asked. “And they’ll see Quelier right away and know something is up.”

“Hmmm…” I stared at my father as I thought of something. I lit my finger on fire, then extinguished it, then repeated it. Sometimes it helped me think.

“Your magic works down here?” O asked.

“Yes, because I’m not in a cell, duh,” I answered.

“Well why don’t you transfigure them to look like someone else. If you can morph your own features, you can probably morph someone else’s,” Michael suggested.

“It’s a thought…” Truly, it’s the only option we had at this point. The longer we pussyfooted around on pushing the button, the less time we’d have until the alarm went off.

“You’re going to do it even if I disagree with you? I don’t think adding a bunch of unknown variants into the mix is the best idea.” Desmond’s golden eyes silently pleaded with me to think of another way.

“One hundred percent. Show me the button, Q.” I cracked my neck, mostly out of nervous habit. The longer I stayed down here, the more antsy I felt.

My PA waved his hand, and a big red button the size of a dinner plate appeared on the wall between the two cells. “Press the button…” he said in an ominous voice.

With nothing but hope and pure fucking dumb-bitch energy, I pressed the button. The doors to both cells released, and everyone walked out. Lucifer bent down so I could fix his face. I had no clue if I could do it, but it was the best shot we had.

Placing my hands on both of his cheeks, I channeled a small flow of my magic into his skin, least I use too much and fuck it up. I thought of the bridge of his straight nose becoming crooked, and his eyes changing to a deep green. Then I imagined how a rounder facial shape, no beard, and higher cheekbones would look. As I thought of each aspect of his face, my magic changed it. By the time I was done, I barely recognized Dad.

“Woah, he’s a whole new person…” Michael commented, reaching out to touch Lucifer’s face in awe. “This new look issomething.”

“But not as handsome as the original, right?” Dad asked.

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