Chapter Thirty-Seven
I followed my bond with Sever to the L.A.
Fairy Underground. Specifically, to an empty street in the Underground.
It had probably been flooded with fairies earlier, but these were people who knew when to hide.
That's why they lived underground. A circle of twelve Angels surrounding the ex-King of Heaven and his daughter was enough to send the residents running for cover.
“What the fairy farts do you think you're doing with my husband and daughter?!” I demanded.
The twelve Angels had cast a harul over Sever and Miri—the Angel version of a Demon hakhil, a containment field. One of the Angels was Gabriel.
“Fairy farts?” Gabriel asked.
“My daughter is learning new words every day.” I motioned at her. “So, watch what you say around her. And take that harul down before I take you down!”
“Prince Severriel was about to laruk.” Gabriel nodded at the other Angels, and the harul's shimmering dome vanished. “We had to stop him so we could talk. It's important.”
“You could have said that,” Sever growled.
“I did!” Gabriel shouted.
“Mama said, 'Watch what you say!'” Mirielle pointed at Gabriel.
A muted scream came from Gabriel.
We all turned to look at him, the other Angels gasping and drawing back. Gabriel had no mouth. It was simply gone. He rubbed at the smooth lower half of his face, making those horrible sounds, and then took a deep breath. His shoulders settled into a firm line as he glared at me.
I had to hand it to him; he took it better than I would have.
“Holy shit,” I whispered before I remembered the whole curbing my curse words thing that I had just talked about. And which had just sort of resulted in this horror. I rushed to Sever and Miri.
“Mama!” Miri reached for me, leaning out of her father's arms.
“Hey, baby girl!” I grabbed Miri and swung her around. “That's a neat trick. But Uncle Gabriel needs his mouth. How's he gonna eat? He needs to eat, baby. And I actually need to talk to him. Can you put his mouth back now?”
“Do you pinky promise to speak nice, Uncle Gabriel?” Miri stared at him with the presence of the Metatron but also lifted her pinky finger.
Gabriel violently nodded and lifted his pinky. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so horrifying.
“Okay!” Miri flung her little hand at him, giggling as Gabriel's mouth appeared vertically instead of horizontally. She obviously didn't notice the horror. It was all hilarious to her.
“Miri!” I chided.
“Oh, dear God!” Gabriel touched his lips. “Do you see this, Queen Seren?! This is why we've come.”
I gaped at him. The movement of his mouth reminded me of that thing in “Dune”—the creature that folds space.
It had a mouth like that. Sort of. Its mouth was more flappy and, well, a little pornographic in my opinion.
But that's what I saw when Gabe spoke, and it really disturbed me. I had to look away.
“Miri, put Uncle Gabriel's mouth back in the right position, please.” I gave her a stern look as I tried to decide between laughing and screaming.
Miri giggled harder but also turned Gabriel's lips into their proper horizontal position. “You looked funny, Uncle Gabriel.”
“Yes, thank you so much for that amusing interlude, my Queen.” Gabriel grimaced at me.
“What do you mean, this is why you're here?” Sever, who had come to stand beside me with Miri between us, demanded.
“Did you really think no one noticed the rift Mirielle made?” Gabriel stormed over to us. He waved at his face. “This just proves that she needs to be subdued. She's too young to have such power.”
“I'm teaching her. It's the best we can do.”
“Prince Severriel, with all due respect, that is not good enough.” Gabriel lifted his chin. “We are here to suppress her celestial resonance.”
“There you go using that word again.” I frowned. “Are you talking about laying a ward on her soul?”
“In a way, Your Majesty.” Gabriel inclined his head. “It's more gentle than that. A mere—”
“It's a cage on her power!” Sever narrowed his eyes at Gabriel.
Gabriel opened his mouth to speak.
Mirielle pointed at him.
Gabriel swallowed visibly, his expression going neutral. He kept an even tone to say, “It is not a cage, and you know it, Your Highness. It's like those things they put on dogs.” Gabriel motioned at his mouth.
“A muzzle?” I asked. “You want to muzzle my daughter?”
“Her power, Your Majesty, not her. As a dog can still breathe through a muzzle, Mirielle will still be able to feel her power and learn to control it without risk. When she is of an age to safely and responsibly use her magic, we will release our hold on it.”
I looked at Miri.
“I'm sorry, Mommy,” Miri said, her eyes wide. She understood more of that than I would have liked, and it was scaring her. “I just wanted to see Henry.”
“Henry? That's why you opened a door to Heaven?” I bounced her to try to lighten her mood.
She nodded. “I was mad at you and Daddy. I wanted Henry.”
“You haven't seen Henry in a while. Do you miss him?”
“I dream about him.”
“Oh.” I glanced at Sever, who scowled back at me. “I can ask Henry to visit more often. I'm sure he'll like that.”
“Okay.”
“But you can't throw your magic around like that anymore. It's dangerous.”
Miri just shrugged.
“Your Majesty, please.” Gabriel motioned at her. “This isn't just about your daughter. It concerns the safety of all our worlds.”
“My daughter isn't going to hurt any of the worlds!” Sever snarled.
The Angels muttered.
Gabriel waved them down. “She may, without meaning to. Look at what she did to me. She thought it was funny.”
“Because she's a child,” I said. “She didn't mean any harm.”
“That's exactly what I'm saying, Queen Seren.
She won't mean any harm, but she is capable of causing it.
She's very capable. Please, I have brought eleven Virtues with me. They can gently contain her resonance, with me guiding the seal so that I alone will hold the key to releasing it. You can trust me with this.”
I looked at Sever.
“Damn it all,” Sever muttered.
I stepped into the center of the Angels. “Do it.”
“Mama?” Miri asked.
“This is just to protect you, baby girl. Don't worry. You're not in trouble, and it's not going to hurt. Then we can go home.”
“Okay.”
The Angels reformed their circle. They lifted their hands.
“Wait!” Sever shouted and grabbed Gabriel to pull him out of the circle. “If we're doing this, I will lead the spell. Not you. I will hold her leash.”
Gabriel inclined his head. “Of course, Your Highness. I wasn't trying to gain power over your daughter.”
I lifted an eyebrow at Sever.
“This way, I can release the hold when we feel that she's ready,” Sever explained.
I let out a relieved breath. “I like that better.”
“All right. You follow me.” Sever looked around the ring of Angels.
When they all inclined their heads to their old king, Sever met my gaze, nodded, and then lifted his hands. His stare shifted to Miri, and he smiled at her. “This will be very quick, Miri. Don't be scared. I'm in charge now, and I won't let anything bad happen to you.”
Miri nodded, her expression calm and trusting. “Okay, Daddy.”
A soft glow emanated from twenty-four Angel palms. The light magnified and condensed into streams that arched over my head. When the streams met, they merged into one that shot down, straight into Miri. I tensed.
Mirielle giggled. “It tickles.”
“Oh, it tickles?” I wriggled my fingers into her armpit to tickle her. “Like this?”
As my daughter giggled, the glow seeped into her, brightening to a blinding level.
I closed my eyes against the light, but only seconds later, it winked out.
Eyes shooting open, I found Miri staring up at me with her sparkling purple eyes.
Purple like the magic of Twilight. I had always assumed she'd gotten her father's eyes.
But her father's eyes only matched hers because they had changed when he came to Fairy.
Severriel may have just suppressed Miri's Angel magic, but she wasn't just an Angel.
I had a feeling that this was going to work against Heaven.
Mirielle had been so focused on her Angel abilities that her Fey magic hadn't risen.
It was possible she didn't have any Fey magic, but it was a slim possibility.
Looking at her smiling face, I was certain Miri had other magic inside her—magic that had been waiting for a chance to show off.
Miri winked at me as if she knew what I was thinking.
As I gaped at my daughter, her father hurried over to us.
“Miri? How do you feel?” Sever stroked her dark hair back.
“It stopped tickling.” Miri grinned at him. “Can we go home now, Daddy?”
“Yes, my darling.” Sever took her out of my arms and hugged her. “Yes, we can go home now.” He met my gaze over Miri's head. Instead of relieved, he looked even more worried.
Had he seen what I had? I couldn't ask him. Not in front of the Angels.
“All right, your business is done here.” I turned to motion at Gabriel. “Shoo!”
“Shoo?” Gabriel lifted his eyebrows.
“Go home, Gabe,” I said. “You don't belong here. You're scaring my fairies.” I motioned at the faces peering out of windows.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I apologize for that.” Gabriel bowed and then motioned at the other Angels, who also bowed to us. “Goodbye, my Queen.”
He didn't mean me, and my daughter knew it.
Miri grinned. “Goodbye, Uncle Gabriel.”
Gabriel vanished in a swirl of air magic.
I waited, watching the street until I was sure that they were gone. Then I looked at Sever.
“Yes, I saw it,” Sever said. “This isn't over.”
“No, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Also, I've got some unrelated news.”
“What happened?”
“Not here. Let's go home.”
“Yay!” Miri cried. “Home! I want Grandpa!”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “I want my daddy too.”