Page 81 of The Fallen
I was unsure about accepting the tea back at her flat because I’d never eaten or drunk anything other than soul flesh. I didn’t even know if it was possible for my body to process human sustenance. It seemed like I shouldn’t be able to. Why would I need to digest things when I don’t need it to survive?
But Lilith seemed certain it’d be fine, and I assumed she’d know enough about Angel physiology to be aware if I couldn’t consume things like tea without causing an issue.
Besides, I was curious enough that I didn’t need much convincing. Taking that first sip felt daunting but also like a life raft being thrown out to sea to help bring me back to shore. It showed me, if nothing else, that some part of me must still be alive enough to enjoy a hot drink.
So when Lilith offers me the second fork, I accept it easily. She watches me break off a piece of chocolate cake and eat it, her attention at once avid and deceptively casual. Flavour explodes across my tongue, rich and almost too sweet. I make a strange sound, like a sigh mixed with a hum. I don’t think I’ve ever made that noise before, and it causes Lilith to shoot me an amused smirk.
“Good?” she asks once I’ve chewed and swallowed the cake.
I nod immediately, already digging my fork into the cake to steal another piece. Lilith’s amused smirk turns into a delighted fit of laughter. She seems pleased and raises her fork to dig into the cake as well.
“Danger City has wards against Angels,” Lilith tells me when we’re sitting next to each other on the train. “It was ground zero for the war, and Lucifer put their stamp on it afterwards, so the other Angels won’t be able to track us. If Michael wants us, he’ll have to put on his special hat, find a more likeable sidekick, and make like Sherlock Holmes.”
She just says “the war” as if there’s only ever been one that matters. It’s the most selfishly unaware thing she’s said since we met, but maybe everyone who’s ever fought in one thinkstheir waris the only one that matters.
It takes five hours on the train, and Lilith spends most of it alternately losing to me at I spy and forcing me to listen to music on her phone, insisting that I need to find “my vibe.” We go through about seventy-nine songs before we find Cyndi Lauper’sGirls Just Want to Have Fun, which I make Lilith play at least twenty times, then Lilith calls a revolt and sticks onCloser toFineby the Indigo Girls instead. I find myself enjoying that song enough to insist we listen to it around ten times although that might be partly due to the fact Lilith has no compunction against singing along to it. She has a nice voice, deep and little raspy, drawing my attention like a light sparked in the fathomless void, and I end up listening more to her than the song itself.
When our train pulls into Danger City’s station, Lilith takes us across town, giving me a nice look at the city itself, which paints a very specific picture. Danger is a gothic nightmare full of cracked cobblestone streets and old, ornate buildings that were probably built in the eighteenth century at the earliest. There are more spires than skyscrapers. The roads havelanterns. I’ve never seen a place like it; it’s like stepping into a different time if not a different world altogether. I’m a little surprised Lilith doesn’t try to flag down a horse and carriage instead of a taxi once we’re out on the street.
Lilith stops outside a large townhouse sandwiched between two other houses of a similar style. She hustles me up the steep front steps and bangs on the lion-head knocker.
There’s a strange mist in the air, cloying, almost as thick as smog but not as dark, more a pale grey. I don’t know where the mist is coming from, which gives me an ominous feeling despite the fact Lilith seems entirely unconcerned by it.
We only have to wait a handful of seconds before the front door is jerked open to reveal a pretty young person of ambiguous gender. They’re wearing a long white shirt and a waistcoat, paired with fishnet tights and heeled boots with laces all the way up to their knees. They probably have shorts or something on under the shirt, but I can’t see them. Their chin-length hair is dyed a bright purple, and they have similarly shaded glittery eyeshadow and lipstick.
“Lilith!” They exclaim, delight spreading across their face, unleashed joy making them somehow even prettier. They reachout a hand and grab hold of Lilith, yanking her over for a tight hug.
“Luc, hey, you look great!” Lilith pulls back from the hug, hands gripping Luc’s shoulders as she shakes them slightly in what seems like excitement.
Luc’s black eyes scan Lilith from head to toe in unabashed appreciation. “I can’t believe it,” they say, huffing. “You actually gotmoregorgeous. How the fuck do you do that? Every time we don’t see each other for a while”—they click their fingers—“bang, you glow up just that little bit extra!”
Lilith throws her head back and laughs uproariously. It’s loud and brash, and I find myself enjoying the sound as much as I did her singing.
I blink at them both, waiting to be introduced. Finally, Luc’s eyes turn in my direction, flickering over me with bold appraisal.
“This the Angel?” Luc asks Lilith without looking away from me.
“Nah,” Lilith responds dryly, “I just picked this one up at the station. Yeah, obviously, this is the Angel, and she has a name, which is Azrael, which you know because I already told you. Don’t be part of the problem, Luc, come on.”
Luc looks momentarily chastened and shoots me an apologetic grimace that I have no clue what to do with, so I just nod in acceptance.
“Good to meet you, Azrael,” Luc says with emphasis, giving Lilith a flat stare as if to convey, “There, I was civil to the Angel, happy now?” Lilith gives them a sarcastic grin and flashes two thumbs-up.
Lilith moves past Luc further into the house and reaches back to grasp my wrist, pulling me along behind her. Luc closes the door once I’m inside and twirls around to face us again with a genuinely welcoming smile.
“Come on then, my lovelies!” Luc claps their hands together, flashing nails painted a bright yellow, then strides off into the house, clearly expecting us to follow.
Lilith nudges my arm and jerks her head at Luc’s quickly disappearing back. I heave a quiet exhale and nod, letting Lilith keep hold of my arm as she drags me off after her friend.
The inside of Luc’s townhouse is almost the exact opposite of the outside. Everything is decorated in bright, vibrant colours across the rainbow. There’s art covering every inch of the walls, mostly portraits of people in varying art styles, and half of them are either naked or barely dressed. The floors are a mix of dark hardwood and white carpets.
As Luc coaxes us through the house, I notice they have a chandelier hanging in almost every room, each of them encrusted with gems and crystals and feathers. Their furniture is similarly bombastic, and I find myself pausing to stare more than once, struggling to take it all in. Lilith has to keep grabbing my wrist and pulling me along with her so I don’t get caught up gazing into the aquarium, which takes up almost an entire wall, filled with lots of different tropical fish.
Luc takes us to their large, modernised kitchen, walls painted bright purple, the cabinets and counters all black. There’s a kitchen island in the middle of the room that’s the size of a small car, which we gather around.
“Want a drink?” Luc asks, but they’re already opening the massive fridge and taking out a bottle of chilled vodka. They’re about to close the fridge when Lilith jumps up to stop them, reaching inside over Luc’s head to grab some cans of Coke.
“Fuck’s sake, Luc.” Lilith bops them on the head with a can. “I’m not drinking straight vodka at two p.m. on a Thursday. I’m a fucking adult, not a twenty-one-year-old uni student.”
