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Azrael looked ready to go another round, but she backed off. I nodded. “I didn’t come here to fight,” I said.
“After the portal by the pyramids… what happened to you? Where did he take you?”
“To a temple, I think. It was dark, and there were shades all around me. Abaddon was there, sitting on a throne.”
“The Ashen Throne,” Azrael put in.
“I didn’t know it had a name.”
“The name makes sense if you know how it had been built.”
I didn’t even want to think of it, to be sure. I wanted to forget the throne, the ash, and everything else. It was clear Azrael wasn’t going to make that easy.
“You said he and Lucifer fought,” said Micah. “What happened?”
“Lucifer wanted Abaddon to kill me, but Abaddon wouldn’t—like I said. He refused, and then he attacked Lucifer. There was so much going on, I couldn’t help him. Before I knew it, their battle was over, Lucifer was gone, and Abaddon had blood on his hands.”
“Blood?”
“Lucifer’s blood.”
“So, it’s true,” said Hekata. “He bleeds.”
I nodded. “It looks that way.”
“Then he’s not as powerful as he has everyone believe he is,” said Azrael. “He may be the first angel, but after God’s death and the Fall… he’s just as mortal as the rest of us.”
“Let’s not underestimate him,” Micah put in. “He’s still incredibly powerful—we’ve seen it. But this is certainly an interesting turn of events.”
“Why interesting?” I asked.
“Well…” Micah paused. “I think it’s pretty clear there have been some changes since you left us. I, personally, have spent a lot of my time trying to regain some of the abilities I lost after I fell from Heaven. It’s gone quite well.”
“You sell yourself short,” Azrael said. “Micah’s powers are incredible. If not for him, Lucifer would have destroyed this bastion a long time ago.”
“You protected them from him?” I asked.
“I only bolstered the abilities these angels already had. But the point remains, I have regained some of the power I had in Heaven, and given that Lucifer has lost some of his… I don’t want to suggest we could be evenly matched, but…”
“Maybe you are,” said Hekata. “You have a plan, don’t you? Sneaky little cherub.”
“Again, only maybe.”
“Let’s hear it,” I said, “at this point, there are probably no bad ideas.”
“Well… you know the story of Lucifer’s incarceration, right?”
“I do. You told me.”
“I also told you it was the cherubs who built his prison and incarcerated him in the first place, remember?”
My eyes narrowed. “You did… what are you saying?”
Micah seemed hesitant to continue, like he was worried about speaking out of turn or saying something incredibly stupid. “If Lucifer has been weakened… if he’s lost some of the power he had while he was in Heaven… I may be able to incarcerate him again.”
“You what?”
“I still need to figure out how it could all work, and we’d need to trap him first. I’m working on the specifics. But I think there’s a way forward, here.”
