The Angels stopped and stared, then dropped their belongings and saluted Lucifer.
“We're with you, Lucifer,” one of them said.
The rest stamped their feet once on the gold stones, creating a thunderous sound that I took for a positive response.
“Do any of you know where the Archangels are being held?” Azrael asked.
Worried glances were exchanged and heads shook.
“It doesn't matter.” The Devil grinned wickedly. “Heaven will reveal its secrets to me.”
With that, Satan crouched, his white wings sparkling in the ineffable light of Heaven, and laid his palms on the gold cobblestones. I don't know if the Wild Magic aided Luke, but the territory instantly bowed to its master.
The ground trembled, then roiled, buildings moving and streets rearranging themselves until a new path formed on our right. At the end of it stood a building. It looked just like the other buildings—walls of white stone, with a colonnade front, and wide steps leading to its front door.
“There they are,” Luke said as he stood.
A roaring rumble came from somewhere to our right, then a mass of Demons came swarming over the rooftops—screeching, growling, and whooping victoriously. Most of them landed behind our group, wherever they could find space, but Cid flew straight to the Devil and touched down right beside him.
“Nicely done, Boss!” Cid exclaimed. “We felt that shit two blocks away.”
“Where are the other teams?” Luke asked.
“Still searching the other heavens. You never responded to my text, so I wasn't sure what you wanted us to do.”
“Summon them here. I've found the Archangels.” He waved toward the building.
“Yes!” Cid whooped. He pulled a cell phone out of a bag he had slung across his chest and typed on it with an awkwardly angled, clawed finger. Then he shouted back at the rest of his team, “The Boss found them!”
The Demons cheered.
Satan clasped Cid's shoulder, his hand pale against the two-day-old-bruise color of the Demon's mottled skin. “Let's free our friends.”
The Devil started down the new street he'd made, our army of Angels, Demons, and shapeshifters trailing after him. As we strode over the gold stones, more Angels joined us, falling in line where they could. The street widened as if sensing our need for space until we stood before the building with a mass of people extending behind us as far as I could see.
My husbands, Jesus, Cid, Fenrir, Morpheus, Gello, Lilith, the Angels who had fought on our side, and I went with Luke up the steps. The rest of the gathering waited in the street. As we approached, the white door opened.
I exchanged a smirk with Azrael and whispered, “Daddy's home.”
As we stepped inside, the building changed shape, reorganizing around us. Luke kept striding forward as if it were completely normal for the walls to move. But then, this was the man who had literally written the book on territory magic. He was the one who taught me how to manipulate my territory. Maybe his masterful control had nothing to do with Wild Magic. The grass of the Pride lands had bowed out of my way. If I could do that without an apple boost, Lucifer could do far more.
I expected the stone to grate and the wood to groan, but there was no sound to the transition. Everything moved smoothly, flowing into new formations as if the whole building were nothing but sand. Or clay. Clay was probably a more appropriate reference when in Heaven.
Getting a bigInceptionvibe, I had to quote Leo's character in the film, “Our dreams feel real when we're in them.”
Cid chuckled. “This ain't a dream, but it's damn impressive, isn't it? I've only seen Luke do this once, back when he built Hell.”
“Impressive doesn't begin to describe it.”
Up ahead, a portion of the floor lifted. As if there were a freight elevator there, a huge box of shining silver bars rose beneath that rectangle of stone until it was level with the rest of the floor. Within the cage were the missing Archangels.
“Sam!” Lilith cried and rushed forward.
Gello ran after her mother as Samael separated himself from the group of Archangels and went to the bars, carefully extending an arm through them. I was betting the metal was enchanted to suppress magic.
“Lili!” Samael grabbed his wife's hand. “You're here.” His stare went to Lucifer, and he smirked. “Hail, Satan.”
The Devil giggled as he flicked a finger at the cage. There had been no door but with his motion, several bars vanished. The Archangels came pouring out—Samael straight into the arms of his wife and daughter.
