Page 69 of A Chip on Her Shoulder

“The one Sariel’s grandson has.”

“Fitting. Your precious seed should be well protected then.”

“Exactly. I’ll have to continue meddling if I wish to preserve the balance. If I set my seed loose on him without properly tempering, they will not be a balanced coupling, and that will ruin my other plans. He’s too innocent regarding his power, and she will be too aggressive for him to handle.”

“Mortals have their freedoms, Lucifer,” Gabriel said. “You cannot plan all things for them.”

The Devil smirked. “That boy will make his mistakes, and I will make certain he makes the mistakes in such a way he’s properly cultivated. He can’t help his nature, and he needs to be matured in his powers before he gets his hands on her—or she gets her hands on him. She’d break him if he wasn’t tempered first, and he needs the strength to handle her at her worst—and she will not be easy to handle even at her best. She is what she is, and I regret nothing of my meddling in the requirements for her existence. She is one of my jewels, and she will shine, you mark my words.”

“Her father will be quite annoyed with you when he finds out.”

“I know. Isn’t it wonderful? He’ll owe me, and he’ll hate it. Anyway, I like her mother, and her mother is deserving of that seed. Despite how much I enjoy toying with him, I like her father as well, and He won’t provide a seed, and the universe itself likely won’t. The balance would be disturbed if it worked out any other way than this.”

“You are truly a being of evil,” Gabriel complained. “It is your disaster. Clean up after yourself this time, or Sariel will cry, and I cannot tolerate Sariel when he cries. It is most annoying.”

“That’s only because Sariel is delightfully twisted for an archangel and does His work on the mortal coil while seducing mortal women. He hasn’t fallen because he’s disgustingly honest about it and loyal to the death with the mortals he claims. And Agares is disgustingly pure for a devil. They’re balanced, and they do balanced work on the mortal coil. But Sariel weakens. He’s been on the mortal coil too long.”

“He will attend to that, so don’t fret. Our brother will have plenty of power for what you need him for to complete your plans.”

I listened with interest, petting my kittens while marveling that the pair discussed unicorns. I’d grown up daydreaming about the stories I’d heard of them, but to learn they were real and the Devil had created them?

Life always found a way to become weirder than anticipated.

The Devil smirked. “Peeked, did you?”

“It disgusts me you have made their union almost inevitable.”

“I like my unicorns, and I refuse to see them wiped out.”

“All things end, Lucifer.”

“But not my unicorns. They will be the last to fall even through the End of Days, you hear me? And they’ll be my first in the next life. For as long as my seed exists, there will be unicorns.”

“Lucifer.”

“Not. My. Unicorns.”

“Darlene, please address this problem,” Gabriel requested.

“Wait. You’re telling me unicorns are real, and that you want me to support not preventing their extinction? No. I’m with the Devil on this one. They’re my unicorns now, and I will resent if anyone were to aid in their extinction. What species needs the most help? You said the standard unicorns and these cindercorns will be okay?”

“Okay is a stretch, but they are not going to all die out, and they can convert members of their numbers. The qilin and kirin are secure enough. The qilin have established themselves with the Babylonians, and the kirin still roam the wilds of China, India, and Russia. There are still wild places left for them, and they have sufficient power of belief to sustain themselves.”

“Power of belief?” I asked.

The Devil strode to the couch and thumped onto the leather surface, propping his feet onto the coffee table. “The kirin are much like succubi and incubi, in that they require energy to sustain themselves. I tied their existence to the belief in the higher powers, of goodness and protection, and the Chinese culture maintains many rituals suitable for sustaining them. Western cultures help as well, for little children who believe in any unicorn help sustain the kirin. The qilin are more like my standard unicorns, and feed in another manner.”

“They’re carnivores,” Gabriel explained. “Scavengers, really. Standard unicorns shepherd souls from the battlefields of the world, disposing of abandoned bodies so that the Earth is not flooded with the spirits of the deceased. The qilin are much like them, but they’re meant for the Eastern cultures. For all I dislike his methods, the unicorns all serve an important purpose for the mortal coil. I would argue that my brother’s fall is among the greatest gifts He has given mankind, but I would also argue that He did all mortals justice cultivating Lucifer to be inclined to create unicorns. Only because of them is there magic, for their creation birthed mortal magic.”

“Unicorns are the source of magic?”

“Not precisely.” Gabriel picked up my empty coffee cup and held it up. “Until the creation of unicorns, the cup of magic was much like this, empty but for a few drops. Those drops were the requirements for life, gifts from the universe itself. The seeds Lucifer planted, which became unicorns, resulted in the first surge of magic mortals experienced. The cup filled, and it eventually overflowed. Once the power of their births faded, the cup became drained, and the wave ended. The cup then began to refill. Each emergence is the point when the cup overflows and magic spills out from the vessels meant to hold it. Depending on what is fueling the surge of magic, it can burn out quickly or last decades, centuries—or even a thousand or more years. The first emergence lasted several hundred years.”

“And this emergence?”

“That would be telling.”

I bet the Devil’s shirt the archangel smiled a smug smile much like his brother. “Basically, I’m barely a ripple in the pond in terms of my lifespan. That’s what you’re saying.”