“He has been busy,” Sariel defended his general. “Mia fights for the balance. She knows we’re understaffed, so she’s works with a covert group of birdmen and humans to undermine the Cynosura whenever she can.”
“I still don’t like her,” Gabriel said.
“Good,” Sariel said. “Stay away from her. The last thing she needs is you filling her mind with military tactics. I want her to stand down, enjoy her little ghost-hunting group, and produce a few daughters. But she has to be able to protect her brood. Give her wings, Raphael.”
“Did Michael have any particular set in mind?” Raphael asked.
“Guardian class,” Sariel said.
“Guardian class aren’t a good fit for her,” Raphael said. “This is a warrior.”
“Haniel has a nice set of wings. Get a feather from her,” advised Azrael.
“What!” Gabriel was outraged. “You’re not putting archangel’s wings on this… this…”
“Misfit,” Sariel filled in. “Actually, if she agrees, I think that it would be a perfect fit. Haniel is all about nurture and harmony.”
“And she’s handy,” the beautiful archangel that brought Mia from the human world said, walking over. “It’s time to soften her edges. Too long this child has been stripped of her femininity. She has hidden her assets.”
“She’s a warrior,” Sariel reminded Haniel.
“So am I, but you don’t see me skulking around in the mud. Give her my wings, and this will help her to appreciate what God has given her.”
“She was engineered by the Council of Women as an assassin,” Sariel reminded her.
“God created us and the Council of Women. I think they need to be reminded that they are not goddesses but servants of God.”
“Here we go…” Gabriel said and crossed his arms.
Haniel proceeded to lecture them all on her favorite subject, the Glory of God, as Raphael prepared Mia’s body to receive the wings.
Mia’s ribcage needed to be fortified to handle the wings. He motioned for Sariel. “I need you to work your magic. Etch these bones with protection.”
“She’s had this done before. It seals her heart. That means all she loves now, she will continue to love deeply. That includes Abigor and Roumain.”
“And Michael. I watched her work on him. She loves him. He sentenced her to death, and she still loves him. She’s more like Haniel than I realized. Will she be able to love her new children?” Raphael asked.
“Children are the exception to my spell. She will love her new children as much as her three boys. Did I ever tell you how she lost her little girl?” Sariel asked.
“No.”
“Let me tell you how the council nurtures their assassins…”
~
Ted kept looking at his phone, hoping for some word on Mia. He had to have faith that she would be fine. But even if this wasn’t to happen, he still needed to find the perpetrators of the candle assault. He needed to protect the children.
Ted ran all the data several times in his head. He asked himself who would benefit most by the whole group of them disappearing into the past. That’s when he hit upon the idea that it wasn’t the adults who needed to disappear. It was Brian, Varden, and Luke. The volo candle was ingenious. Send them into the past, and make sure that none of them meet their spouses - or delay the meeting, or bring it forward, anything to disrupt the existing timeline. They all assumed it was an attack on Mia or, perhaps, Burt’s midlife crisis as a paranormal investigator - the one case that got away.
When he shared this with Orion, the elder birdman looked stunned. “You know, if we didn’t all meet, not only would our children not be born, but Mark Leighton would complete his prophesy.”
“This is diabolical. Who thinks forwards and backwards besides Roumain? Who stands to make a lot of money on this?” Ted asked.
“Gerald Shem or someone like him,” Orion answered. “This brings us back to Quazar. We must find him.”
They had a half an hour before their appointment with Shem, so the two walked to where Brian had seen Quazar. Ted searched the building tops and confirmed that it wasn’t an adornment that Brian saw. There was nothing that, even in a child’s imagination, would resemble a cat-faced gargoyle.
“I was tempted to contact Jeff, my nose-admiring friend at the dark vault,” Ted began, “but I read that dog-faced gargoyles don’t like cat faces, so he probably wouldn’t have any viable information.”
“Don’t count those coffee-guzzling granite pusses out. They hear everything. I learned a lot about Roumain from listening to them gossip.”
“Anything I should be worried about?”
“He wasn’t supposed to be cast out of Heaven with the others.”
“You mean he’s a fallen?”
“Yes. Didn’t you know?”
“Mia suspected. She couldn’t find a classification of entity that he would fall into. So what happened if he wasn’t originally on team Lucy?”
“He picked a fight with Raphael. Raphael became the golden boy after Lucifer left. Michael had to keep the peace, so he suggested rather strongly that Roumain leave on his own accord. Michael didn’t want Roumain to be humiliated, so he offered him Purgatory. He’s been there ever since.”
“Mia thinks she’s headed there when she dies.”
“But she’s not Catholic,” Orion said.
“I don’t think it matters. I’m counting on her driving the old boy nuts and getting an early release.”
Orion laughed so hard he developed hiccups.
Chapter Thirty
Mia opened her eyes. She had no clue where she was. She was laying on a cool hard surface with her head on a silk pillow. The ceiling and walls were made of a white milky stone of some kind. She turned to her side and found herself locking eyes with Michael.
“You would
