31. Sydney
Listen, I had absolutely fuck all control over my telepathy, couldn’t fly, uncontrollably exploded bathrooms and entire families, and couldn’t do a damned thing about it if someone was hurt around me. But I was very curious about all the spells floating around in Lilith’s brain.
She seemed to have one for every occasion. I didn’t just want to learn all her spells. Lilith and Lucifer created them. I wanted to do that. Except I wasn’t going to keep them in my head where they could be lost or hidden in my absence.
I was a writer. I was going to write all that shit down. The written word usually persisted when tyrants tried to suppress it. I’d even be willing to ghost write for Lilith so she could get those spells out.
“What do you need me to do?” Kujo asked.
“Nothing right now. It’s a potion, and it takes twelve hours to make. I went straight to Lucifer’s when I got here and one of the servants said everyone was at Satan’s. I wasn’t able to start until I got home. There’s nothing painful about it from what I’m told, but it might get you a little high.”
“We’ll keep you away from the Sharpies and priceless works of art, dude,” I said, clapping him on the back.
“That was you?” Lilith asked. “I appreciated the cheek and got a nice chuckle out of it. You’re young, though. You would have been just a child when he went missing and since you’re Cambion, you were probably in the mortal realm when that happened. Tell me, what did my ex do to piss you off?”
Kujo slouched in his chair and didn’t snap back with his usual vitriol.
“I was piss drunk, and the portrait was judging me.”
“Hrm, Lucifer was an amazing artist and had this way of really capturing the subject except when he was doing self portraits. The saying wasn’t really around then, but he’s one of the most expressive people I know and all his self-portraits are resting bitch face.”
“What was he like?” I asked.
I knew what his brothers said. Lilith would have seen a different side to my father.
She raised a child with him. I never asked my mother this question because I just assumed he was a deadbeat who bounced when he found out he was going to be a father.
I knew that wasn’t the case now and while I’d love to be able to tell my mother he didn’t abandon us and ask all this, she was gone.
“What have you heard? That he’s a fierce warrior with daddy issues?”
“I heard he defied his father and started a war about it. I’ve been told he was charismatic enough to convince several angels to follow him.
We found a room that was full of his journals and have been trying to read through them.
Most of them were his investigation about Kir, but we found a few about my mom. ”
“Lucifer is complicated, but he has way fewer daddy issues than the rest of them.
He decided almost as soon as he got banished that it was dickish to treat his creations differently and punish them when they asked to be treated the same.
He moved on right away and started building Hell up as their new home.
“He also never does casual sex. It was just them here until I crashed the place and started making demons. There was an entire realm of mortal women that plenty of angels experimented with. Lucifer didn’t. The first time he had sex was with me and only after he developed feelings.
“Lucifer wouldn’t have had sex with your mother unless he actually loved her. He would have been so careful about children until she knew the truth and agreed to come to Hell where he could protect her and her child. I can tell you this as sure as I know today is Thursday.”
“My grandfather was a Nephilim. The angels didn’t murder him until after he had my mom. I haven’t found the journal how he managed to find her before the angels did, but that was why their paths crossed.”
“And after Lucifer got kidnapped, I’m guessing the angels found her.”
“No, cancer found her.”
“I hate to tell you this, but that’s impossible.
People with celestial DNA don’t naturally get sick like that.
They can be cursed to get sick like that.
Killing Nephilim is a lot more complicated than it used to be.
If they do it in the old ways, they can leave hair and DNA behind and they can test that now.
A lot of people would welcome finding out angels are real and a lot bad people would abuse that information.
They could curse someone with illness by just brushing against them in a crowd.
I’m guessing that’s what happened with your mom. ”
I literally didn’t care I was at a fancy dinner party with the Mother of Demons.
I didn’t care we were on course six, it was all cheese, and cheese was my favorite.
I threw back my head and just screamed. Watching the strongest person I knew waste away like that was the worst thing that ever happened to me.
And it wasn’t supposed to happen like that.
Mom should be in Hell with me right now talking about how fucked up it was that my magic manifested and I got whisked off to another realm two days before the next season of Bridgerton dropped.
She should be talking about the brutally hot demons I was hanging out with and she should know my father never abandoned her.
“Get it out,” Lilith said. “It’s not the first time someone ended up screaming at one of my dinner parties.”
“Do you need me?” Nero asked.
“No, she needs to feel this,” Celix said.
I didn’t want to feel this. I was spiraling and now when I spiraled, things tended to explode. I didn’t want to hurt any of these people. I knew Nero couldn’t make any of this okay, but he could fix it so I didn’t blow this entire house up.
“Do it.”
But before Nero could do anything, Kujo yanked me out of my seat and wrapped me up in his massive bear hug. He smelled like sandalwood incense and mahogany and for some reason, that relaxed me a bit.
“Sydney, you don’t need Nero to numb you.
Angels killed your mom and kidnapped your dad.
You’re allowed to be furious about it, but use it.
You feel that ball of rage in the pit of your stomach that’s threatening to burst out like that Alien movie you like to quote?
That’s your magic. Grab it by the horns and make it your bitch.
Don’t let it take control. Make it do your bidding.
You don’t want to wallow. You want revenge. This is the first step.”
“He’s right,” Celix said. “It’s all connected. Lucifer, Kir, your mom. If we can figure out the threads, they probably all lead to the same person.”
Yeah, it did feel like a face hugger creeped on my face while I was sleeping and now a baby Xenomorph was about to burst out of my chest. But I had a girl crush on Ripley and she made that thing her bitch every time. I could do this.
Kujo gave great hugs. Who knew? It was like he was keeping my magic and emotions contained, even though I knew that was impossible. I was able to get accustomed to what my magic felt like in a way I hadn’t been before.
“That’s it,” Nero purred. “Once you know what it feels like, you can call on it whenever you want.”
“We’d just need to work on your aim after that, but they are right,” Wrathhog said.
And I did. I connected with that feeling and made friends with it. We got nice and familiar until I knew I could call on her again and then I pushed her down because I didn’t want to hurt anyone here.
“Good girl,” Kujo growled, stroking my hair.
Damn, so that was apparently a new fetish.
“Well, that was interesting,” Lilith said. “In addition to everything else, we need to figure out what kind of angel your great grandparent was because that was a lot of power I just felt.”
There were more kinds than archangels and bitch pigeons?