"Hello?" Gabe called from the magic room.
"In here," I replied.
He walked in holding a strand of dark hair. "I got this from Raphael's pillow in Elysium."
I grinned. "Let me delve into it."
Gabe handed over the strand, and I focused on it. "No, it's too old. I can't get anything off of it."
Mary nodded. "That's okay. It'll work for the spell."
"I never knew Raphael to take anyone to his bed in Elysium," Michael said. "We were close for a long time. I never even heard a rumor of it. It's likely his hair."
"Well, hand it over. And Lucifer, if you're taking the power, come here."
He walked closer. "The last time I let that guy handle a spell for me, I nearly died."
She chuckled and patted him on the arm as she continued to stir with her other hand. "This one isn't a brand-new, untested spell. You'll be fine."
"He has no power to charge the spell with," I said. "Can I do it and transfer the power to him as it hits me?"
She furrowed her brow. "I don't see any other way we can do it," she said. "But if you all can link up, just in case it doesn't transfer over to him, that way you can absorb it together and not have one of you dead on my floor from power overload. Raphael may have Lucifer's power, too, and when you take his, you may get your own back in the process."
Luc's eyes lit up. "We can hope."
"Here we go, then." Mary dropped the hair in the skillet. "Lilith, give it some magic and ask it to search for Raphael."
She slapped her cheek. "I forgot the rainwater. Hang on, it rained yesterday." She handed the spoon to Lucifer. "Go ahead with the magic," she said.
I trickled magic into the oil and hair and waited until Mary ran back in with a leaf. A bit of rainwater was collected in the large piece of greenery. She poured it into the pan and the power of the spell took hold. It would've been difficult for me to break the connection, though I thought it possible. Just hard.
The drain on my energy began. "Add the mugwort. It’s the last thing," I whispered.
Mary nodded and added the rest of the ingredients, and the spell took a stronghold.
"Now," she said. "I'll do the incantation, and you repeat it three times. As the power leaves Raphael and enters you three, you direct it to Lucifer. Lucifer, you must breathe in the smoke from this smudge stick."
He took it and held it close, already breathing it in for good measure.
Mary smiled. "Everyone ready?"
We nodded as one and she began. "Est in potentia moveri. Et quod corrumpere exercitum. Affer mihi magicae, ubi usus agam respectu boni."
Roughly translated, it meant, "The power must move. The host is corrupt. Bring the magic to me here, where I may treat it with respect and use it for good."
I hoped we'd use it for good, anyway.
When we'd repeated the words three times, the hair erupted in flames, and instead of feeling a pull on my magic, it began to flood into me. I directed it toward Luc, but I already knew something was wrong.
It didn't feel like Raphael. It felt feminine.
It was the wrong hair.
16
We couldn't stop the spell in the middle without possible repercussions to all of us, so we kept on until the flow of power stopped and it was all inside Lucifer.
He breathed in deep and sighed. "It feels weird, but so much better than not having power at all."
I stared at him as he rolled his head and flexed his muscles. I knew how it felt to have magic suddenly flood where it had been missing. He probably felt like running a mile or climbing a mountain.
But still, he had to realize that wasn't Raphael's magic. "Luc," I said gently. "How do you feel?"
"Like I'm going to sprout breasts. We didn't get the right magic," he said.
I winced.
"Damn it." Gabriel sighed. "I thought it felt weird."
"Me, too," Michael muttered.
Mary looked at us with wide eyes. "Who does it belong to?"
"A female is all I can tell. It feels feminine," he said.
"Damn it. Can you feel if the power is angel, Archangel, or Fallen?" Michael asked.
Lucifer laughed and winced. "Archangel, I think. It's too much power to be a lesser angel, and it's way, way too pure to be a Fallen."
I wasn't sure if I liked the idea of him being full of another woman's power, but I chided myself for being silly. It didn't mean anything except we had to find the woman and get her power back.
Lucifer laughed and I felt him blast power outward. "She's pretty strong," he said. "Not as strong as me, but still."
He closed his eyes and focused. I knew he was using the power, but not for what. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Looking for Raphael," he said. "I don't think he's on Earth."
"How can you search the entire Earth?" I asked. "Especially with lessened powers."
He shrugged. "I don't know. It's just something I can do."
"We need you with powers," Gabriel said. "None of us can do that."
And I knew I was as strong as Lucifer. We all had different abilities. "He's not here," Luc said.
"We didn't really think he was."
"Either this hair wasn't his, or it went to the next closest thing to him when the magic couldn't find him," Lucifer said. "Mary, did it go wrong?"
She studied the spell and shook her head. "No. we did everything right."
"I'm going to go to Elysium and see if anyone is freaking out about missing powers..." He twisted his lips. "And if I find her, I'll ask if we can borrow her powers for a little while." Gabriel pressed a kiss to my temple and disappeared.
"He's in the other realm. How can we get there?" Lucifer asked.
I sighed and sat down at Mary's table. "We can't."
Michael and Joel appeared. "What have you done
