“Yes, but she wasn’t, not really. I see you are capable of great love; it is one of the reasons I love you,” Jerome said, and I did start to cry. “It is also why my mom loved you.”

  “Okay, you both have to stop. We have bad guys to catch and a damsel to rescue, and I can’t do either if I can’t stop crying,” I told them. Leviathan chuckled softly.

  “That is proof of your heart, Soleil. You need to rescue your friend from whatever monster has her, be it human or supernatural or spirit, and you don’t think you can do it, especially if we are pointing out your greatness. But I know you will, not because of any gift of sight, but because I know your heart and soul. You will let no obstacle stop you from saving someone you love. Even if that loved one is just a friend.”

  “Thanks, we have to go,” I said. “I do have a friend to rescue, and I sent everyone to the museum. I need to get them back.”

  “We will see each other soon, I think,” Leviathan said. “I look forward to it.”

  A moment later we were in Jerome’s game room.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Did you know Remiel had the ability to mimic?” I asked Jerome.

  “Sorta.” Jerome did a strange shrug and head cocking thing. “I knew it was different than mine, and he didn’t seem capable all the time. I did not know he was cursed to be barren.”

  “Yeah, me either. I guess it explains a lot.” I said. “As does the mimic thing and me having never noticed his vault.”

  “Yeah, I have been wondering about that, too. If it was magically hidden in his house, I still would have seen it.” Jerome said.

  “Okay. First, I need to contact Magda and Miguel,” I said, as we walked into Jerome’s bedroom. The sun had set. I frowned. We were in the Stygian longer than I intended. A lot longer. Sometimes keeping track of time on Earth while in the Stygian is difficult for me, and it isn’t like my cellphone or watches work there. “We didn’t lose like an entire day, did we?” I asked, digging out my phone.

  “I don’t think so. Sometimes I think when you are emotionally upset, time passes even slower for us when we are in the Stygian,” Jerome said. “Especially since we know Earth time is a constant and Stygian time is not. I haven’t quite sorted out time there yet.”

  “Yeah, me either, kiddo.” I dialed Magda. The moment she answered, I put her on hold and dialed Miguel. He answered and I rushed into my new thought. “So, an AESPCA agent has to be involved in this thing. I spoke to Leviathan and there’s no reason for someone seeking power to break into the museum to steal the cursed objects, because they can’t give the possessor power. Leviathan got me thinking, though, if an AESPCA agent wanted something from the vault, they would need to steal it, and then they could use mass possession to cover it up. Also, somehow someone is controlling Janet. Leviathan suggested a creature called a lonenki, but he said it was ancient and dark magic or something like that and that they are now all contained within the Stygian, but they are spirit creatures able to possess. That provides more evidence someone at the AESPCA is probably involved. As do the individual robberies. When one needs to learn about magic that is forgotten, you go to the AESPCA archives; and for black magic spells and other information, the AESPCA has the largest collection of forbidden magic in the world. I also believe they keep a list of magically imbued objects and their owners.”

  “Shit!” Miguel said.

  “Fuck,” Magda said. “And you’re sure it isn’t Remiel’s collection they are after?”

  “No, because I don’t think they are after an entire collection, I think they want a single item. Besides, I know where Remiel’s collection is hidden and its inaccessible.”

  “We do keep a list of magical artifacts, both in the general population and within the AESPCA vault. We even have a copy of Remiel’s inventory,” Miguel said.

  “Great. If we knew what they wanted, that would help, but Leviathan couldn’t give me that. Also, he said demons know perceptions, so if a demon says someone’s magic is weak, it may be the perception of the caster that their magic is weak and not actual fact.”

  “Wait, that means it could be anyone!” Magda said.

  “It does and it doesn’t. Somehow Janet is involved. We know this to be fact. This means whoever is behind it has to be close to Janet. We can rule out Penelope for a slew of reasons, but what about the guy she ran off with? I don’t remember his name and I never met him, but Janet said he was part angel, and Jerome identified some angel magic along this quest. Janet told me they were running away to the witch commune in Oregon to be married, and we now know that didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean that isn’t what he told Janet before they left. Janet probably believed that was where they were headed. I’ve talked to her less than a half dozen times since she left, but Penelope said the same thing, so we know he managed to isolate her from everybody in her life that cared about her. That’s a pattern abusers use to control their victims. If Janet had a child, he may have done something like threaten the child...” I stopped. “Or if she’s pregnant. Michael said her life force was wonky, but Leviathan said that could be due to a number of reasons, even pregnancy. We know they are possessing people, and the leading cause of miscarriage in supernaturals is demonic possession. If she’s pregnant, he may have forced her to accept the lonenki into her or threatened demonic possession to kill the unborn child,” I said.

  “Even if she’s given birth, she’s only been gone what, twelve months? Possession of newborns, even supernatural newborns, can result in infant death,” Miguel said. “I’ve never heard of this other creature. Magda?”

  “Me either,” Magda said. “But if it’s ancient...I know I’m old, but not by Zadkiel’s standards. If they were moved to the Stygian shortly after Zadkiel and Jophiel created it, well, even my great grandparents might never have encountered one. Surely, the AESPCA will have information on it, and yes, I realize the irony of that statement.”

  “Shit,” Miguel said. “I’ll start researching. Magda, can you come back? I think we need to tighten our interior protocols and we need to find out about this man Janet ran away with. Someone has to know him.”

  “On my way.” Magda disconnected. Traveling through portals while talking on the phone was a bad idea; they usually exploded. Although if they weren’t in use, they seemed to do fine. I wasn’t sure why.

  “What should we do?” Jerome asked.

  “I’m not sure yet.” I opened my contacts. “I think I’ll call Remiel, he’s ancient,” I said, and clicked on his name.

  “Hey, what’s up?” Remiel answered.

  “I’ve been to see Leviathan. He told me about your vault, and something called a lonenki. I was hoping you could tell me more about the lonenki, because I suspect that’s what is controlling Janet. I’m also wondering if she’s pregnant. Leviathan told us you were a mimic,” I said quickly.

  “Oh,” he sounded guarded. “So, you want to know about the lonenki and have a serious talk.”

  “The serious talk is your choice, the lonenki is a definite must discuss.”

  “I think it’s probably time,” Remiel said, with a small sigh.

  “As I said, that is up to you. It can wait, if you aren’t ready,” I assured him.

  “Nah, would you and Jerome join me at dinner?” Remiel asked.

  “Well, we never say no to food. Where at?” I asked. Remiel suggested a Brazilian steakhouse, and Jerome and I both agreed. We’d need a half hour to an hour to get there from our house, because I still wasn’t allowed to portal travel on Earth without supervision. But I’d been driving everywhere since I was sixteen, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. I did look forward to the day when I could forego the car most of the time, but I was kind of enjoying letting Jerome drive most places. It meant I could stare out the windows and enjoy the scenery more.

  It took about an hour and half for Remiel to join us. He’d been at the hospital with Michael, who was working to heal Penelope enough for surgery, but it was slow going because the bullet was bespelled with black magic, specifically death magic, and if Michael went too fast or made a mistake it could result in both of them dying. However, Azrael had offered to sit with Michael while Remiel took a dinner break with Jerome and me.

  “Did he tell you about the curse?” Remiel asked as we were seated.

  “No.” I frowned at him. “He told us about the vault and that you were leaving it to me and Jerome and that he worried about you and about the lonenki and that my idea might be too grandiose and perhaps they didn’t want the entire contents of the vault, but a specific and solitary item out of it.”

  “Ah, well. Three of us were cursed by Hecate; Zadkiel, Jophiel, and me. We returned the sentiment and cursed her descendants,” Remiel said.

  “Wow, which makes my father and mother’s relationship even more complicated.”

  “Yeah, sorta, not really. It’s very complicated. Hecate was in love with a supernatural who died. Zadkiel and Jophiel were creating the Stygian at the time, to try to stop demonic possession, which used to be far more fatal than it is now. Lilith was pregnant with Azazael at the time, and Jophiel hadn’t realized yet that she was a demon. Anyway, with the death of her love, Hecate decided to renew the romance with the demon he became. But then Jophiel and Zadkiel finished their creation and began putting demons there, including the man Hecate loved. Hecate wanted to go with him, and they refused to let her, because they didn’t know what would happen to her. Anyway, things got heated and they came to me and asked me to talk to Hecate. I did and I thought it went well. Then Azazael was born, and it was obvious he was part demon, which meant either Lilith or Jophiel had to have demon in them. But we knew Jophiel didn’t....” Remiel shrugged.

  “And Lucifer exorcized his own soul to be with Lilith, but you all refused to do the same to Hecate.”

  “Yes.” Remiel nodded. “I’m not terrific with exorcism, but Azrael was, and I could channel some of his power. So, she came to me to get me to do it, because Zadkiel had refused already. After the curse, I asked Azrael and she never asked him, we don’t know why. Anyway, she asked me to do it and I refused. Partly because we weren’t sure what would happen if there were two living souls in the Stygian, it wasn’t created with that purpose and Jophiel had grown more powerful once free of his physical body—what would happen if the same happened to Hecate? Or what if she changed her mind? What if in a thousand years, she wanted to come back? Especially since she had two living adult children. What if she decided she wanted to see her grandchildren grow up? Or great grandchildren or great-great-grandchildren? She wouldn’t be dead, but the Stygian wasn’t meant to be a two-way door. She couldn’t just pop back over because she wanted to. Exorcizing a living soul is different than exorcising a demon from a body it didn’t belong in. I mean, we didn’t have any experience with that, Jophiel had done it to himself. We weren’t even sure we could do it, and if we tried, how wrong could things go? So, I refused. It was then that she cursed Zadkiel and me to be barren for eternity. She also cursed Jophiel to never have more children. In a fit of anger, Zadkiel cursed her descendants to slowly lose their magic and become mortal. It was when Hecate’s grandchildren had children, and Zadkiel realized his curse had worked, that he began to lose the will to live. He would never have children and he’d destined an entire line of supernaturals to die like mortals. Your mother was part of Hecate’s 36th generation of great grandchildren and she didn’t have much magic, just hearth magic, which had been Hecate’s greatest magic. When Azazael killed Nicholas, we all thought it was related to the mutual curses, which is why Raphael and your mother decided to not have any more children. Then about a hundred years ago, Leviathan began dream walking, and he was persistent. He needed one of his brothers to have a child, a girl, that Leviathan could imbue with magic. He believed his and Jophiel’s gift would break the mutual curse. Since the curse affected Raphael’s and Sophia’s families, Raphael and Sophia decided to try again, and you were conceived. Uriel and his wife also tried, but we all knew within a few months of conception that you had gotten the gift, because we all benefited from the magic, even before you were born. It’s not my place to tell you the rest, but I will, because I think it’s time you knew. Uriel has always believed children born of pure angelic stock were magically stronger than any others, particularly children who are nephilim. The fact that you were given their gift annoys him. The fact that you, a half angel, were strong enough to use it, pisses him off. The fact that you have done everything in your vast armory to avoid using that power takes him from pissed to wrathful. He feels that now that you’ve accepted and decided to use it, you are doing it to spite him, especially given Francesca’s fate. Of course, the rest of us feel if Francesca had your power, we’d currently be living with demons, because the reason Francesca did what she did was that she wanted the power Beelzebub could offer her. She offered to bring him over in exchange for power, instead of selling her soul for it like most do. Now for the part you did mention, I do have some mimicry power. It’s very weak and we don’t discuss it, because it’s more of an embarrassment than an asset. I can’t even mimic all my brothers’ powers, unlike Jerome. However, your power, now...” Remiel made a face as the server brought over a hunk of beef to carve from. We each took a slice and immediately a waitress spooned a few vegetables and a couple pieces of breaded banana onto our plates. A moment later, another server brought over bread, and we each took a few pieces of it, too. We all liked this particular Brazilian steakhouse because it did offer traditional sides as well as more Americanized side dishes. Apparently my family appreciated vegetables, because we tended to prefer the Brazilian steakhouses that provided vegetable side dishes, despite the lack of authenticity to the original setting of the Brazilian pit cooking that it was styled after.

  “You are a different story; I have always been able to mimic your powers. Albeit I’ve only found one use for them so far: the vault. When you were young, I avoided you because I lost control of it once; thankfully Azrael was nearby and was able to exorcize the demon I summoned.” Remiel smiled and blushed as he spoke. “Interestingly, as you gained control, I was also able to control it better. As if your control helped with my control. That shouldn’t be the case, but I have no explanation other than that. If I’m never possessed by a demon again, I will consider that a win. It is easier for me to be around you now that you’re an adult, and honestly, you finally deciding to learn better use and control of magic is also helping. But it comes with drawbacks.”

  “You weren’t as involved with me as a child, unlike Gabriel and the others,” I said.

  “Yes.” Remiel sighed. “Did Leviathan mention why we all love children so much?”

  “He said you all had a biological imperative to procreate.”

  “Yes, I got pictures, of course, that’s one thing we do well; exchange pictures of our kids. We suspect all angels have that drive and that’s why they find it hard to settle down and raise a family. For the angels that came after us, that imperative meant the moment their kid was born, they were ready to make another. Perhaps, my brothers aren’t like that, because they know Zadkiel wanted to die from wanting children so badly. I don’t really know and I’m not sure it matters. At any rate, that first time you came to me to ask for help on a professional level, I was elated. What I’m getting at is, I know I wasn’t around much while you were growing up and I’m not your favorite uncle. You’ve always seemed wary because you’ve wondered if I have an ulterior motive. Don’t protest, I am literally capable of reading your mind. Anyway, I’ve talked to some of my brothers about it, and they think you just need to be told. I do have an ulterior motive. At first, the ulterior motive was very simple—if Zadkiel and Jophiel are correct, you can somehow lift my curse and allow me to have children of my own. But as I’ve gotten to know you as a person and not just my niece or Raphael’s daughter, I care much less about that, because honestly if I had a daughter, I would want her to be just like you.”

  “Okay, I am a terrible daughter and I’m not good at magic because I didn’t want to be. Having a child like me would be a nightmare,” I said after a moment, and smiled at my uncle. “It’s true. Growing up, Gabriel was my favorite because he was the one who paid attention to me when my parents were busy, especially after my parents were busy because they’d had Helia. I understand now why you didn’t want anything to do with me as a child—even I’ve never managed to accidentally possess myself—and ulterior motive or not, I appreciate having you in my life and in Jerome’s life, more than you know.”

  “Even two days ago when you were wondering if I had somehow put the spell on you?” Remiel asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “You’re the mind reader,” I told him.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It was interesting to hear Remiel’s ulterior motive for assisting me. I didn’t know how I was supposed to break the curses, not really. I had the vaguest idea that if I could summon Hecate in demon form and have her and Zadkiel talk and work their differences out, the curses might be broken. However, that would have to wait until after I found and rescued Janet and stopped the theft. After listening to Remiel’s confession, I told him about the other stuff I’d learned from Leviathan, including the stuff about his vault. This also required a conversation about the sort of magical artifacts in Remiel’s vault.

  Using his phone, he sent an inventory list to Jerome and me. It was a really long list. I was surprised not just by the number of magical items, but the kind of stuff that people imbued with magic. For starters, there was more than one sex toy on the list, which was incredibly awkward. I knew Jerome knew about sex and I was sure he’d talked to his friends about sex toys, but I could not start a conversation about them. Neither in front of Jerome nor with Remiel, who was my uncle, but I had serious questions about them. Primarily, why? There were plenty of normal items, like swords, shields, armor, and weird things like stuffed toys, dolls, light bulbs, and silverware. The item that appeared the most on the list was hats, and I couldn’t figure out the why on that either. I mean, did you imbue hats with magic to stop rain showers or to stay dry in the rain? They were hats, even when hats were necessary and not just a fashion statement, I couldn’t imagine the point of putting magic into a hat. Oh, maybe that’s how magicians pulled rabbits and pigeons out of them. That would mean there were a shit ton of magicians at some point in the past, which seemed a touch unlikely.