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I sit on the floor, legs crossed, mimicking our earliest training. Rellick sits across from me, copying all my movements. “First thing we do is clear our mind and get calm.” I take a deep breath in, watching the boy do the same. “Deep breath in. And let it out.” With the child relaxed, I begin to explain how to materialize the orb. “Now cup your hands together, like a ball.” I do all the movements I want him to do. “Close your eyes.” He squints his eyes, not quite closing them. “If your eyes aren’t closed, then it won’t work.” That makes his eyes close completely. “Imagine holding the sun in your hands.”
“Mommy said the sun is hot.”
I have to remind myself that I’m talking to a child. “Yes, the sun is hot. But this light is not.”
“Then what is it?”
“Think of it as a light bulb. Something small that can light up a room.” I take another deep breath, meaning to start over.
“Mommy said I’m not s’pose to touch lights.” My next deep breath is to stop me from losing my shit on a child.
His voice is innocent, but I know he’s doing this on purpose; intentionally trying to piss me off. Like mother, like son. “When you think of a light, what do you picture?”
Rellick taps a finger against his chin, confirming that I was correct, and he is fucking with me. “Mommy likes Princess and the Frog. Ray’s butt lights up!”
I have no idea what he’s talking about, but I might as well go with it. “His butt lights up?”
“Yeah! He’s a bug like Bubby!”
A bug that has a butt that lights up? “A firefly?” Rellick nods enthusiastically. I can work with this. “Okay. Cup your hands.” I wait for him to follow instructions before I continue. “Now. Pretend your hands are the firefly.”
“Ray.”
“Rellick. Focus. Your hands are the firefly. Light it up.” His eyes are closed shut, and his body is shaking with how hard he is thinking, but nothing is happening inside his hands.
I have him try a few more times, but he is clearly getting discouraged each time it doesn’t work. Maybe he is too young to understand how to focus. Or maybe I’m full of shit and he’s not an angel. “I don’t wanna do this anymore. I wanna do something fun! Let’s go fly!” Faster than a human child should be able to, Rellick runs and jumps onto my back. “Come on, Luc! Let’s go!”
Where am I supposed to take him? Would Brianna be mad if I left the castle with her son? “I can’t leave the grounds, but I can fly you around the tower.” Standing, I hold onto his legs, his little arms almost choking me as they wrap around my neck. I jump off the balcony, my wings opening wide to catch the wind. We soar around the tower a few times, going slow and being extra careful.
“Santa was faster than you.” I don’t know if the words were meant to be mumbled or if the little shit said it on purpose to rile me up. Coming to an abrupt spot, I hover in front of the balcony entrance to my room. “Why’d you stop? Go, Luc!”
Satan is not fucking faster than me. He may be a little stronger, but he is not faster. “Well, let’s find out, shall we?” I hold on to his legs a bit tighter and fly to the second story balcony. Keeping hold of Rellick on my back, I take us to the throne room. It’s still empty. In case of emergencies, there is a mark in the middle of the floor that, when standing on it and saying the right words, will make all the Sins appear. It’s made from the same enchantment on our thrones. Rather than call one, it calls them all.
I place Rellick in my throne and stand in the middle of the symbol on the floor. “Veni ad me, Septem. I vocare te.” Come to me, Seven, I summon you.
One by one, my brothers appear. Envy is last, with Bree in his arms.
“What’s the emergency?” Levi asks. He sounds upset. I mean, if I had a gorgeous woman alone and was summoned then I probably would be disappointed as well.
Brianna runs to her son, lifting him onto her hip. “Are you okay, sweet boy? What’s wrong?”
Rellick just shrugs his shoulders, like he didn’t constantly accuse Wrath of being better than me. “Rellick.” He lifts his head from his mother’s shoulder. “Can you please tell my brothers what you said?”
A sinister smile fills his lips. He’s definitely been spending too much time with Satan. “I said Santa was faster than you.”
A few chuckles ring out around the room. “I just want to make sure I have this right. The kid said I was faster than you, so you called an emergency meeting?”
“Because any of you wanted to be working right now,” I scoff. “I figured we could prove him wrong.” One of wrath’s eyebrows raise in amusement. “I propose a wager. It may take place in the arena if you like. A race to determine who can fly the fastest.”
“The terms?” Those words come from Mammon. He is usually the referee in such situations, his greed making him surprisingly fair.
“If I win, I get the satisfaction of knowing that I beat you in your own arena.”
Wrath’s smile turns malicious. “And when I win?” Smug fucking red bastard. “I’ll get the satisfaction of watching you lose.” He holds his hand out to solidify the deal.
Before we can shake on it, Gluttony cuts in. “You two are not the only ones with wings. I want in.”
That gets a genuine reaction from the rest of my brothers. “Glutton for punishment, are you?” Even if Wrath does beat me, there is no way that Beelzebub will. I’d rather lose to Wrath than lose to the fucking fly.
