The Great War

XI

"She has to be alive still, somewhere. Maybe she's with her mom?" I mumble out loud thoughtfully, pacing around the room.

Smilla shakes her head looking at me, "Impossible. Ophelia is a despised type of creature, a hybrid between two immortal enemies. Her mother was almost cast out because of the affair between the devil himself and his concubine, Faith."

I sigh and brush loose strands of hair out of my face, "Who's Azrael?" Smilla looks away from me with heavy eyes, whether shame or guilt it was hard to distinguish.

"As you know, Azrael is Faith's eldest boy. He was assigned to be the next male heir to the heavenly throne. That was until Faith had Ophelia in secret, she'd hidden the bastard child for years until she couldn't, her husband Elohim, or in your realms words, God himself found her. Faith was made that of beauty and life. She was a goddess that was cherished in multiple realms. She lost her title when Elohim found Ophelia. Faith risked her whole existence for her two children and a man that never really loved her. Azrael is Ophelia's half brother, kin of Elohim and Faith the purest of any angel. Ophelia was the youngest of Lucifer's children, some would say his favorite, others would say he despised the girl. From what we all saw, he loved his daughter just showed it in terrible, awful ways."

I look down at my hands, "He's the one after me isn't he?"

Smilla hums in confirmation, "He is yes, me and Cora will find and speak with him. For the most part he's civil,"

I scoff and choke back a laugh, "Civil? He's almost killed me multiple times."

Cora steps forward standing beside Smilla, "Lucifer's looking for his daughter, not you in particular. You have pieces of his child within your soul. You look like the woman too, he may not even know you aren't Ophelia. All he senses and feels is his child."

I stand up on wobbly legs and cross my arms, "I'll go with you. We'll find Azrael and he can help."

Theo stands up and shakes his head glaring at me, "No way in hell are you going back there."

I pinch the bridge of my nose and clench my jaw, "I need to if we're gonna fix this, or at least attempt it. I need to talk to him, maybe I can help him."

Cora extends a hand out to me, "Come along child, the clock is ticking."

Theo blocks her hand and moves in front of me. "Let me come."

I stare at him, he's not gonna drop it, is he? "Fine." He sighs in relief and grabs my hand, keeping by my side as I follow Cora and Smilla.

"We'll go to Ophelia's cabin; we'll do the summoning ritual there. It's safer, no one in town will know, nor get hurt."

I nod and sharply inhale. I felt the nerves build up; this was dangerous. Everything about this has been dangerous.

"We'll summon Azrael first, he's a powerful angel. If we need help, he's our best bet. If we pray to Faith, she wouldn't be able to bring herself to hurt him." Smilla looks back at us, her long hair braided up and out of her way. I knew this could end in one or two ways. We'd have a fight of some kind, bloodshed. Or we'll figure this out, no one will lose their life. This whole thing has been unpredictable.

𖤐

I stood off to the side with Theo, Cora, and Smilla setting up the ritual for Azrael. Cora lit a circle of white candles, the flames bright and high. In the middle was a golden bowl full of herbs and salts, a holy sigil drawn out in Smilla's holy blood on the floor where the bowl was sat on.

"Are you both ready?" Cora asks, looking at us briefly as she holds a silver blade in her hand. I nod, Theo just stands staring at what they were doing, unsure and looking like he wanted to run out of the cabin with me in tow.

"Girl, come here." Smilla beckons me over, outstretching her hand.

"Could call me by name." I mumble under my breath as I release Theo's hand and walk over to her. Smilla grabs my hand without a word and holds it palm up.

"This may hurt."

I look at her confused before Cora slices my palm, I hiss out in pain and my fingers curl slightly. I stare wide eyed as Smilla cups my hand closed with both of hers before muttering a prayer in Hebrew. My palm slowly stops burning as she opens my hand back up and holds it over the bowl, my blood slowly dripping into it.

Cora sets the blade down and grabs a match, she sparks it and tosses it into the bowl once it catches fire. It bursts into a large white flame for half a second before shrinking to a normal orange flame, "You called?"

We look to the side to see Azrael leaning on a wall, arms crossed and ankles too, I give him a smile, strangely happy to see him unharmed from earlier even if I didn't really know him at all.

"Nice to see you again, kid." He smirks at me before looking at the girls, his face dropping its smugness. "Proserpine. Smilla." He greets them coldly.

"What did you need?" He questions dryly. Smilla releases my hand, no longer bleeding but the pain slowly comes back. Azrael looks at my hand then both women standing beside me.

"Really?" He grunts and walks over to me, grabbing my hand and dragging his pointer finger down the length of the slice. It heals over, all that was left was the drying blood. "Speak now before I leave you idiots." He grumbles out, obviously annoyed.

"We need your help with Lucifer."

he scowls and forces a laugh, "No."

Smilla stands up straighter and glares at him, "This isn't for us, this is for Ophelia."

His glare worsens before he looks back at me and sighs, "Fine, what do you need me to do."

Cora smiles, "Summon him, a talk is needed."

Azrael laughs and steps away from us brushing his bright hair back, "You're kidding right?" he looks back at Cora, his grin dropping. "You're serious? You want me, of all people, to bring a man that could quite literally end the life in this realm, here? And with her in the same house? No."

I sigh softly and wipe my hand off on my jeans, "Azrael, we need you to do this. I need to know what he did, why he did it. I can talk to him about Ophelia. About what I know. I can help you with this." I practically beg him; he stares at me with sad eyes.

"You don't understand, you can't help this. This isn't something that will ever be fixed or healed or helped. You're a moral girl with sprinkles of an immortal woman. If you push the wrong buttons you will die, Daphne."

I tensed, he used my name, that may have been the first time any of these people used my name. I look down and sighs, deflating a little. "I'm willing to risk that, if I have a chance at this, I'm taking it. I'm not backing down from this. Ophelia didn't give me the ability to see through her eyes just because. She saw something in me, and I'm fulfilling what she wants, or would've wanted. So, you're gonna do this, you're gonna bring him here and we're going to talk. We're doing this right here and now."