"I still don't like demons," she said with a grumpy expression.
I burst out laughing. "Truth be told, neither do I."
When Lucifer finished setting up the game, we said our goodbyes. I told her human lawyers would be in touch when our bodies were found, though I wasn't sure how long it might take.
We went straight to the lawyer Lucian always used and arranged our wills. He asked about the baby, and we told him we'd put her up for adoption and she'd been adopted already. His surprise was palpable, but as a professional, he didn't pry. By the afternoon, we had everything set up to leave to Mary.
We returned home, desolate and feeling rather hopeless.
I poked around the kitchen, bored out of my mind and trying not to think about how worried I was and how much I missed Ariel.
My mind tried to conjure any possibilities of either finding my daughter or a way to return us to Hell, but I came up blank every time. I wanted to make sure Ariel was safe before returning, but that looked less and less likely as the hours passed.
When the kitchen was spotless and a casserole in the oven for dinner, I ambled into the living room to find Lucifer splayed out on the couch with his laptop open on his legs. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Looking online for any credible information about Relics. It's all fiction or incorrect, though." He shut the laptop and slid it onto the coffee table with a sigh. "It's all useless."
Gabe and Michael came back just in time to eat the chicken casserole, of course.
"Anything at all?" I asked.
They both shook their heads. "We've got the librarian helping, but there's so many books to go through, and it's not organized in Elysium like they are now on Earth, with keywords and an internet search."
"You should make Elysium come into the technological age," Lucifer suggested, bringing a chuckle from everyone at the table. Most of the older angels were no better than older humans with technology. We'd embraced it together, my husband, brothers, and I, and learned as much as we could about it. It helped that Luc and I had an Earth cycle during the time the majority of society became technologically adept.
Joel appeared without warning with an excited look on his face. "I found something," he said. "I was looking at the original book about the Fall.
"What made you check that?" Luc asked. "Doesn't seem relevant."
"But it is. The prophecy about you two, it's worded very specifically."
"What do you mean?" I set down my fork and stared at him. "I know the prophecy well."
It said that if Luc died, I died.
"Do you?" he asked. "Do you know the specific words spoken?"
I opened my mouth to say yes, but then I considered it. I hadn't been present when the prophecy was spoken. Only when God cursed us. "No, actually."
"It specifically says you shall be bound together through eternity, living and dying together." He raised his eyebrows and held out his hands. "Together."
"Yes," I said blankly. "We knew that. What of it?"
Joel threw his hands up in exasperation. "You've always died after Luc, right?"
I nodded. Never, in our many Earth cycles, had I ever died first.
"I think that's a coincidence. I think you can kill yourself. It's known in Elysium that Luc has to die first. That's how the prophecy was handed down, but nobody read the original. It just says “together."
Which meant if Raphael believed it had to be Luc, he hadn't cursed me. My jaw dropped. "We can kill me."
Michael, Lucifer, and Gabriel's gazes all moved to me. "No," Gabe said. "What if it doesn't work?"
Oh, geez. Their overprotective natures, of course. Nevermind that I was more powerful than two of them. "So? It didn't work on Luc, and he's fine."
Lucifer shrugged. "True."
Joel cleared his throat. "I gotta run. The trial for Uriel is starting, and Elysium is in an uproar. Good luck."
