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“If a witch is using angel and Stygian magic as well as their own, it would hide their magic,” Jerome offered after he had been given the details of what Janet and Lucifer had said about someone meddling and not being able to find the source.
“But very few witches can use angel magic,” Azrael said.
“You think.” Jerome said, “But how many witches do you really know? One? And that one can.”
“You can use Soleil’s magic,” Gabriel countered. Jerome nodded and then looked at the table. We all stared at the spot he was looking at as well. The room suddenly filled with the smell of flowers, and then the intentions of Gabriel became words in the air.
“What the hell??” I asked, then slapped my hand over my mouth. At least it hadn’t been the f-word. Over Gabriel’s head were the words, “Make Soleil Understand and Accept.” We all stared at them for a moment, and then Gabriel reached up and brushed them away. Raphael’s mouth fell open. Mine did too; thankfully I’d swallowed my egg and only dribbled a little coffee out.
“I can’t see intentions,” I quickly said.
“No, only Raphael can. Can you do it with me? Since Raphael and Soleil are father and daughter, maybe being tied to her makes it so you can use his magic. Jerome, can you do it with me?” Remiel asked.
“It doesn’t require being tied to another person,” Jerome said, and then a baby showed up over Azrael’s head. An angel baby and a name, Skye, and the name of a woman with it. Specifically, the name Bridget, Azrael’s partner for the last several hundred years. Azrael stared at both and then he quickly brushed them away. “She’s about two weeks pregnant,” Jerome said.
“Yeah, we found out last night,” Azrael said. We all congratulated Azrael; it’d be his first. “Bridget did suggest Skye for the baby’s name, because Gabriel said it was a girl and she really likes the name.”
“You’ll agree to it, even if you don’t like it now,” Jerome said.
“Yeah, I know....” Azrael said, looking at the kid. “You can use all of our magic?”
“Yes, I don’t because it’s creepy, and I feel you in my head. I also hear your voices in my head telling me how to use it.” Jerome rubbed his arm as if he was cold. “I don’t think just any witch or wizard can do it, but I can, so there’s a precedent for it. I think it goes beyond Soleil tying her soul to mine.”
“How did you know I’d done it? I didn’t know it.”
“I felt it,” Jerome answered. “Shortly after Mom and I arrived, we were all watching movies and Mom got sick and had to run to the bathroom. You curled me up in your arms and leaned your head against mine and told me, ‘I will never let anything happen to you, as long as I live.’ I felt something change, I didn’t know what it was at first, but the next day I felt stronger. I asked your tutor about it and he said it was impossible, but it sounded like you’d tied your soul to mine, but that couldn’t be. Uriel let me borrow a book on angel magic and I found the bit about soul tying and it seemed correct. I asked Uriel if it was possible and if he knew you were an archangel, and he said everyone, but you knew. Then I knew for sure that’s what had happened.”
“It didn’t need a ritual,” Raphael said, slowly. “I had to perform the whole ritual to tie your mom to my soul. Twice.”
“Jerome, don’t take this wrong, cover your ears if you want,” Gabriel said to the boy. “We think Soleil’s maternal instincts towards Jerome are why she didn’t need a ritual or even need to know she could do it. She feels like he’s her son and he’s mortal, but she isn’t. Therefore, she unknowingly tied their souls together so Jerome wouldn’t die before her.”
“Oh,” Raphael said, looking at me. “A mother’s love is a powerful thing.”
“That doesn’t make me sad,” Jerome said. “It makes me happy. Most kids only ever get one mom, I am lucky enough to get two, and one I’ll never have to part with.” Had I known I could tie my soul to a mortal and make them immortal, I would have tied it to Valerie, so Jerome would not lose another parent. “Your magic isn’t stronger than a death curse,” Jerome said, and we all looked at him. “It’s good, don’t get me wrong and if you’d tied your soul to Valerie’s five years ago or so, before the death curse started to destroy her, it might have worked, but by the time you met us, she was too far gone.”
“You can read minds,” I said.
“Only when Remiel is around.”
“Why do I have conversations with you if you can read my mind?” I asked Remiel.
“Because it’s not a fun power,” he answered. “I can’t make you hear my thoughts, so we’d still have to have a conversation, even if I was the only one talking. You swear an awful lot in your head. More than anyone else I know.”
“I know,” Jerome beamed and the air in the room became lighter.
“Jerome’s magic feels happy,” I said.
“Yes, but Janet’s been around Jerome, I’ve seen them do magic together,” Raphael sighed.
“Right, but if we understood why Jerome’s magic felt happy, we’d know why this other person’s magic felt happy. Do you know, Jerome?” I asked.
“Partly, it’s because I’m happy-even when I’m not super happy, I’m not the depressed kind of teen. I have no real angst, despite your thoughts on the matter. Also, I’m around lots of people that love me. That helps.”
“Your magic feels happy because you’re loved?” Duke asked him.
“I think so.” Jerome shrugged. “It isn’t an exact science, it’s a guess. Even with all the bad things that have happened in my life, I have always had people that love me. My mom, the guy I used to work for at the market, Dim Sum, they all loved me and now, I have Soleil and all her family to love me. I am loved; what more could a kid want in life?”
“I’ll remember that next year when you want a car.” I smiled at him.
“You need a car before I do,” Jerome chirped. “Your wings take up most of the second row of seats in the Tiguan.”
“Yes, yes, I know.” I waved it away.
“Killers aren’t usually surrounded by people that love them,” Remiel said. “Meaning that’s probably not the reason his magic leaves a residual happiness.”
“Residual happiness? He’s using angel magic.” Jerome said.
“How?” I sighed. “We keep coming back to that. How could he be using angel magic?”
“A soul-tying makes it easier,” Gabriel said, looking at Jerome.
“A deal with a demon could explain Stygian magic,” I said.
“Or he’s siphoning it off you,” Jerome said. “When I use your magic, I can feel the Stygian. But using your magic doesn’t make me feel creeped out, like using other angel magic.” I considered that. A soul-tied witch using angel magic. It was possible, I supposed. But why didn’t the angel know he had made a bargain with a demon for power?
“Hey, demons are supernatural souls sucked into the Stygian to keep them from making mischief because a soul without a body is a pest, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” Azrael said.
“We’re positive that once the soul enters the Stygian it forgets it’s previous life completely and can’t access it’s magic?”
“Sure,” Gabriel responded, sounding anything but sure.
“If a demon was once an angel and made a deal with a witch to give them more power, could they give them angel magic?” I asked.
“I guess, but the Stygian wipes the memory of the life before entering it. That’s why it contains them.” Azrael said.
“No, we think that’s what happens, we don’t know it for sure. I mean, does anyone other than Lucifer truly know how the Stygian works?” I asked.
“I’d wager like a dollar that Lucifer understands how the Stygian works, but I wouldn’t bet much more,” Remiel said.
“Okay, well, Leviathan was once an angel. I saw it when I touched you while you were possessed by him.
“So, you can see demon lives?” Azrael said.
“Yes,” I nodded. “I didn’t see much, just how he died, and I saw him, his angel form. He was wearing lots of eye makeup and had a melty cone on his head. It might have been wax of some sort. He was possessed by a different demon, the demon Mammon. The demon wanted him to kill someone or something and he didn’t want to, so he cut off his wings and let himself bleed to death instead.”
“Zadkiel,” my father whispered. “Uriel tried three exorcisms and couldn’t get Mammon out of him. He wanted Zadkiel to summon Lucifer and kill him. Zadkiel killed himself instead.”
“That is the Demon Creator of Monsters? You’re sure?” Gabriel asked.
“Yes,” I said quietly, no longer wanting to talk about my new power. I had known that was who he was, but hearing my father say it, hurt. “Leviathan creates the monsters because he has to create. He feels the pull of it like nothing else. Possession doesn’t interest him, and he has no desire to rule the Stygian. He just wants to create.”
“Zadkiel was a creator when he was an angel. He could and would create gardens from sterile Earth. When he walked, rose bushes and trees sprang up around his feet, if he wasn’t concentrating on not doing it.”
“The demon still feels the attraction of the angel’s innate powers,” Raphael said. “Even dead, Zadkiel wants to create.”
“That explains why he’s never had to be exorcized from a person.” Azrael said. “While hell princes are incredibly hard to summon, all have been summoned except Leviathan, until this morning. It nearly always requires a sacrifice.”
“But Soleil’s power over the Stygian is so strong she can summon a hell prince without a sacrifice,” Jerome said.
“She can summon Lucifer, does that surprise you?” Raphael asked.
“No,” Jerome answered. “I just wanted all of you to hear it out loud so you could think about it, really think about it.” There was a collective intake of air. “Yeah, exactly. If your killer has made a deal with a demon, could these murders be sacrifices? While Soleil is busy protecting me, because of my power level, is anyone protecting her and her connection with the Stygian? Because if she can summon Lucifer on a whim, or Leviathan, and not need to shed any blood, that would be very attractive to certain people.”
“Lucifer is protecting her,” Azrael said. Then he told the boy about Lucifer giving me his real name to call him if I ever needed him.
“She won’t need to use power to call him if she uses his real name, leaving her magic free to help her,” Jerome said and looked at me. “You will use it, if you ever need to, do you understand?” I nodded at the kid, taking in the gravity of the situation.
“If Zadkiel still feels the need to create, I guess it’s probable that demons aren’t completely disconnected from their lives on earth and who they were before they died,” Azrael said.
“You told me Lucifer was dead, but not like I think,” I said to him. “When he gave me that power, I saw how he created the Stygian. He didn’t die. He had Uriel remove his soul from his body and it went to the Stygian, because it couldn’t cross any other way.”
“Right,” Raphael said.
“Lucifer kept all of his powers because while he’s part of the Stygian, he isn’t dead. Could there be other souls like that in the Stygian? Souls that didn’t die, but didn’t have bodies and so were drawn into the Stygian?”
“It’s not impossible, but unlikely. It would require an exorcism on a living being who wasn’t possessed. That is some dark, dark magic....” Gabriel said.
“So are death curses,” I pointed out.
“True, but to take a living soul from a body might be worse,” Azrael said. “Lucifer said it was a demon.”
“Right, but the Stygian changes everything it touches, hence dead souls becoming demonic beings. Look at Lucifer’s true form-if that can happen while he’s still alive and creating the Stygian, imagine a living soul stuck in the Stygian.”
“Well, I’ll buy that a demon might remember being an angel after dying and going to the Stygian based on what you got from Leviathan, but a living soul other than Lucifer’s being in there is far-fetched,” Gabriel said.