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3
ABIGOR
“Oh, thank God.”I could finally take a full breath. I raised my arms above my head as I stepped out of the fire. “Now, if that’s everything, I’ll just be on my—”
“Wait, you can’t just go.”
Did she have to be so shrill? “I certainly can,” I said, stretching out a cramped wing. “Or have you forgotten about the mandate? You and I are forbidden from fraternizing.”
“I would hardly call this fraternizing,” she said primly.
“Would you like it to be?” I leered, then laughed at her scandalized expression. I shouldn’t rile her up—I’d seen the telltale shimmer in the air between us—but it was so easy. “The law of Heaven and Hell clearly states that demons are forbidden from spending time in the vicinity of angels. And vice versa. And since you seem the sort to be overly concerned with breaking rules, I’ll just get going—”
“No.”
For a second I thought she was going to stomp her foot.
“This is no trivial matter,” she went on. “You are both in a lot of trouble. There will be sanctions, and I’ll have to confiscate that spell book while we figure out if the damage is reversible.” She turned to Julian, who was edging away, the spell book clutched to his chest. “Give that to me.”
But Julian’s hand flew out, faster than I thought humans capable of moving, and his fist released over the flames. I couldn’t see what fell from his grip, only the ensuing fireball that roared forth. The blaze shifted—fiery orange and violet—and then he lunged into the flames and vanished.
“Wait, stop him!” the angel screeched, and launched herself into the fire after him. She dove out again immediately, spluttering as she smothered the errant sparks smoldering in her clothing and hair.
I couldn’t help myself; I doubled over with laughter.
“Stop that,” she snarled. The air shimmered again.
“Well, what the hell did you expect to happen?” I asked, making no effort to temper my grin.
“I thought—you—well he went into it.” She bent, attempting to brush soot off of her dress and ending up only smearing it in further. “I thought I could follow.”
“Perhaps you should brush up on your dark magic,” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“We have to find him. We have to try to reverse the damage he did.”
I folded my arms. “Oh, so you believe me now that I had no part in it?”
“It doesn’t matter who the instigator was. The fact of the matter is that whatever the two of you did, it put the entire village into some kind of…stasis, or something.”
“So?” I said.
She stared at me. “What do you mean, so? I was there—I saw everyone just…keel over. They could be hurt!”
I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head to the side. “You were there, huh? Maybe you’re the one who caused it then. Maybe it had nothing to do with me and Julian.”
“I—you—” she spluttered. That shimmer was in the air again, growing stronger as she stepped toward me. One finger came up to jab at my chest. “You’re the one responsible for this—”
The shimmer intensified, energy collecting. I grimaced. “Lilin—”
Jab. “And you’re going to help me fix it and save those people—”
I could hear it now, a whine of unstable energy in the air. I raised my hands. “Hey, you want to calm down before—”
But it was too late. She jabbed her finger into my chest one last time and a concussive boom shook the ground beneath our feet. We both ducked instinctively, and I turned to where the small chapel at the edge of the cemetery had…exploded. There was really no other word for it. Splinters of wood and other debris littered the field, and only a patch of charred earth was left where a moment before a building had stood.
I rose, gingerly picking a chip of wood out of my hair. “See,” I said pointedly. “I told you angels and demons aren’t supposed to fraternize.”
“It’s your fault,” she snapped. “If you hadn’t provoked me, that never would have—”
