78. Rafferty

[Sinclair]

"Maeve!" I called out after her, trying to catch her before she could run too far down the tunnels, as I knew she'd just been through something traumatizing, and allowing her to try and face something like this on her own, was not something I was willing to do.

"Sinclair, I can't breathe. I need to get to the surface." She gasped, shaking her head with a small whimper, her blue-green eyes wide with pain and shock.

"Okay, it's okay," I said, rubbing her back as I pulled her into my arms, then ran to the opening in the tunnels before jumping out of the hole, setting Maeve down next to Samantha and the twins, who were waiting wide-eyed for the word of what had happened.

"Bollocks, it's all a load of gobshite!" Maeve said to Samantha before walking towards the lakefront, mumbling Irish obscenities as she walked away.

I started to apologize to Samantha but decided to go after Maeve instead, as I was worried that she might spiral if given a chance. "Maeve, talk to me, please," I said as she sat down on the end of the pier, tossing her shoes over her shoulder before letting her feet down into the water.

"What do you reckon I should say?" Maeve gasped as she turned to glare up at me, shaking her head as she looked back out at the water. "How am I supposed to deal with something like this, Sinclair? It was hard enough to find out I was a fae and even harder to take when I turned into an anodyne. Just how the bloody hell am I supposed to react to this?"

"I wish I could tell you the answer, Maeve, but I do not have one," I said as I sat cross-legged on the pier next to her, leaning back on my hands as I looked out across the beautiful rippling lake laid out before us. "If only it were as simple as finding the answer on the internet," I chuckled softly, trying to get Maeve to laugh, or at least smile, so I could at least know if I was helping or not. *'I haven't felt this helpless in centuries. How do I help her? I could not begin to understand what it's like to come face to face with the very origin of your nature, let alone how to help someone out through it. I have relied on my abilities to get me by for so long, I've forgotten how to read emotions any other way.'*

"It's worth a shot," Maeve agreed with a shrug, pulling out her phone before typing her question into the search bar. When she saw the way I was watching her, she smiled softly up at me for a moment before clicking search. "Humans often react without thinking, so if you are wondering how to face something in life, do the exact opposite of what your first reaction was." She read off of the page, then stared at the website for a long few moments, rolling her eyes before setting her phone down. "I wasn't expecting to find a real answer, but I definitely didn't expect it to be good advice."

"It is excellent advice. Humans are not the only ones who react in negative ways. I believe any creature with free will can react in a way they do not mean to if stunned or backed into a corner."

"Aye, let off it, I know." She said, kicking her legs back and forth in the water, watching as the water rippled from her movements.

I let the silence between us hang in the air for a few minutes, as it was a calm silence, and one I knew Maeve needed to clear her head. After a couple of minutes of silence, I finally asked the question that I'd wanted to ask.

"Maeve, what were you and Rafferty talking about? When you were talking in another language."

"He was asking me who I was, what year it was, who the rest of you were. You know, just the basic questions a lad would ask after being awoken from his eons of sleep." Maeve responded with a snort, then turned on the pier to watch me curiously, narrowing her eyes before turning her attention back to the lake. "I made right bags of it all, didn't I?"

"No, you did not make bags of it," I said with a smile, shaking my head. *'That accent of hers never ceases to tickle me.'*

"I should have stayed, aye?"

"I don't know what it was like to come face to face with something of that magnitude, so I have no right to try and tell you what you should and should not have done," I said with a shake of my head, then moved across the pier, so I was sitting behind her, putting my legs on either side of hers, pulling her back to lean against me, resting her head on my shoulder. I crossed my arms over her chest, locking her against me before I began slowly rocking side to side, pressing my face in her hair, closing my eyes.

We stayed like this for a long while, neither of us speaking as we listened to the sounds of nature surrounding us. I knew because of Maeve's past that she could be prone to panic attacks that would leave her fragile and broken for the next few days, at the very least, if she wasn't given the time to calm herself down.

"It's like looking into the face of the beginning of the universe. No, I suppose that's a bit of an exaggeration, innit?" Maeve finally said, leaning forward so she could look back at me; the pain, fear, and longing I could see in her eyes nearly drove me to tears. "I'm okay, now, thank you."

"There is no need to thank me. When you need to take a breath, you need to take a breath." I responded before turning her cheek to bring our lips together, smiling against her lips as I put my hand on the back of her neck, pulling her against me.

"I'll see if they're- Nope," Mercy started to say as she walked around the corner of the house, and when she saw the embrace between Maeve and me, she immediately turned around and walked back to the group. "They're busy," She added with a small laugh.

"The search party has arrived," I whispered against Maeve's lips, chuckling as she groaned and reluctantly pulled away from me and stood, holding her hand out to help me to my feet.

"He hasn't come out with them?" Maeve muttered softly as we walked hand-in-hand down the yard and around the back of the house where the group was waiting, conversing in hushed tones, assumably so as not to interrupt Maeve and me.

"After Maeve healed him, black feathers grew over his wings!" Bast exclaimed to Ciaran; her green eyes widened in laughter and excitement as she and Damien told the twins about what they'd seen in the tunnels. *'They are just as excited as the children are,'* I thought with a smile as Maeve and I drew closer.

"Feathers as black as a bottomless abyss, as if you could jump into them and fall for an eternity!" Mercy gasped, then let out an eerie noise, her golden eyes wide and terrible, holding her hands up as if they were claws, trying and succeeding in scaring the twins.

Azeneth and Ciaran were gawking wide-eyed up at Mercy, drinking her every word in child-like wonder, fear that spiked their senses of adventure and amusement.

"Did it really have talons like daggers, daddy?" Azeneth gasped as she turned around to look up at Damien, her green eyes like saucers as she gazed up at him expectantly.

"Come on. It's the spooky season!" Mercy gasped when she saw the look on Damien's face, knowing that he was planning on telling the twins the truth.

"I guess you'll have to wait and see, won't you?" Maeve responded, then gasped, opening her eyes wide before jumping down into the tunnel, rolling forward before jumping to her feet in a beautiful show of agility.

"Not gonna lie, that was awesome." Mercy said as we watched her disappear around the corner, then listened to the sound of her heartbeat as it grew fainter.

"You will not be joining her?" Alaric asked me, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"No, I will not. There are some things she must do alone, and this is one of those things. No matter how much I wish that weren't true." I responded as I took a few steps back from the tunnel, getting down on one knee as I waited. I didn't want to sit or fully rest, as I wanted to be ready to run after Maeve if I needed to.

"Come on, Raffey, bloody hell!" We heard Maeve groaning from along the tunnels, causing the rest of the group to start chuckling as we didn't understand how Maeve could purposely mispronounce his name without any fear of consequences.

"I thought his name was Rafferty?" Ciaran mumbled as he and Azeneth peered down into the tunnel, nearly vibrating from excitement and impatience as they waited to see the angel.

"Oi, back it up!" Maeve said, glaring up at the kids as she waited for them to move so that she could climb out of the tunnel.

"Allow me," Rafferty said, then wrapped an arm around Maeve's hip, pulling her body to his before jumping up, leaving a crater in the ground from where'd he'd pushed off, lunging himself out of the tunnel and a few hundred feet in the air.

"Oh my god!" Azeneth and Ciaran gasped out in awe as they tilted their heads back to look up at Rafferty; their eyes widened in a mixture of curiosity and wonder as they drank in the sight of his large and beautiful black wings, shifting slowly back and forth to keep him in the air as he looked down at the group, his sun-like eyes narrowed as he stared at us.

I couldn't help but look up at the man speechless, as it seemed like no matter how many times I looked upon his form, it never ceased to amaze. His black wings spread into a six-foot wingspan, befitting for a man of his size but frightening nonetheless. The unearthly beauty of this man was not something easy to ignore, no matter how badly I wanted to.

"Put me down!" Maeve growled before punching him in the chest, crying out as she shook her hand in pain, the sound of her fingers breaking reverberating in my ears despite her being a few hundred feet above me.

Rafferty seemed genuinely upset by Maeve's pain, his wings shifting a bit faster as he lowered them to the ground, setting her down on her feet before taking her broken hand in his, kissing the back of it softly. "I apologize."

"How?" Maeve gasped, watching as the mark of his kiss started glowing the same color as his eyes, spreading like a vine until it covered every inch of her hand in thin white light, her hand healing almost instantaneously, but this time, I couldn't hear it healing as I'd usually be able to. "How did you do that? Was that my healing power, or did you heal me?"

"I do not know how it works within you, but I sped up your healing abilities and took the pain. I imagine when you heal, you feel the pain of the wound?" Rafferty asked, then looked down at the twins who were staring wide-eyed up at him, their heartbeats erratic as they tried multiple times to speak but couldn't get a word out. He cocked his head slightly to the right as he watched them for a moment before crouching down in front of them, searching their eyes as if he were looking for something deep in the recess of the twin's minds.

"Can I help you with something?" Bast gasped, pulling Ciaran and Azeneth as she took a few steps back, trying to get them as far from Rafferty as she could.

"You have two very peculiar children," Rafferty said as he stood and took a step back but didn't look away from the twins for a single moment, as if he felt like he had a reason to fear them.

"Can we touch your wings?" Azeneth asked, shooing away Bast's hand as she ran back to Rafferty, giggling when he visibly flinched away from her, then stopped and held her hand out, waiting for his permission before touching his wing. *'He is petrified of the twins? What kind of power could they hold that would scare an angel?'*

"You may," Rafferty responded with a hesitant nod, watching Azeneth as she ran her hand slowly along the top of his wing, down towards the tip of it, gasping out in giddiness when she felt the wing flittering from her touch.

"Can I have one of your-" Ciaran started to ask but was cut off by Rafferty before he could finish asking his question.

"No, you may not."

"Why not?" Azeneth growled, putting her arms across her chest with a pout.

"Azeneth, he said no. Come away from him now." Damien said as he stepped forward and pulled her onto his hip, watching Rafferty as he took a step back.

"Okay, I'm going inside." Maeve suddenly cut in as she turned around and started walking around the side of the house to get to the front doors, followed by Rafferty, who ran after her the moment she stepped away.

"I see he does not plan on letting her get away from him a second time, huh?" Mercy chuckled with a shake of her head as she took Alaric's hand and followed after Maeve. I motioned for Sam and Samantha to join us, as they hadn't moved from where they stood, before following the rest of the group into the house.

"What is this?" Rafferty mumbled as he picked up the coffee maker, turning it from side to side as he inspected it curiously, his eyes growing brighter as he examined the machine, then looked around the kitchen in wonder.

"It's a coffee machine, don't do that. You'll break it!" Maeve responded as she took the machine out of his hands and set it on the counter, plugging it back into the port that Rafferty had ripped it out of.

"A machine is it? What is coffee?"

"What is coffee?" Maeve repeated with a gasp, her eyes a mixture of blue and green as she gawked in confusion at Rafferty for a few moments before grinning as she started to make a pot of coffee. "Fill this with water, aye?"

"As you wish," Rafferty responded as he started to walk around the counter to get to the sink but couldn't as his wings were too large to fit in the space between the counter and the refrigerator. He sighed and set the pot down, then straightened his back as his wings began to fold themselves into his spine, groaning out in pain as they forced themselves under his skin, then let out a gasp of relief as his back healed itself, leaving no signs of the horrendous gashes that were there previously.

Though I couldn't see the marks anymore, they still left a sight I would never be able to forget, no matter how much I'd wish to. I tried multiple times to speak but found that I was voiceless, as was the reaction of nearly everyone else in the kitchen after what we'd just seen.

"That looked absolutely brutal," Maeve mumbled, groaning out as a shudder of disgust went through her body, then began scooping the coffee grounds into the strainer, motioning for Rafferty to get the water. "I have a lot of questions, but the one I really want to ask, is why are you fallen?"

"I committed an unspeakable act," Rafferty responded, then remained silent as he watched Maeve pouring the water into the back of the coffee pot, then made a small noise of surprise as he watched the coffee brew. Just as I was beginning to think he wouldn't be elaborating, he spoke once more. "I fell in love with a mortal. I am a celestial being, who should be incapable of feeling such things for the likes of a mortal, and so I was cast out. Thrown deep into the earth, trapped until a child of my own being came close enough to free me."

"There is another fae here, but she didn't seem to be affected by your presence like I was. That's another question I wanted to ask. When I got into the tunnels, you called me an anodyne. If you didn't know the name fae, how do you know of the name anodyne?"

"I learned it from your head, just as I am learning the words I am speaking now, from you."

"What do you mean, you're learning it from her? How?" Damien asked as we sat at the table, watching Maeve as she set out coffee cups along the counter, waiting for the pot to be done so she could pour it.

"As you've witnessed, Maeve's presence is the only thing that has freed me, and it is also the very thing healing me and giving me the ability to speak to you, as I am now. It is like a link; I suppose you could call it. Because she is a descendant of mine, I am connected to her mentally, and that link allows me to learn from her, as I am near her."

"If you think you're going to stay by my side forever, you're sadly mistaken," Maeve said, allowing me to release I breath I wasn't aware I'd been holding.

"No, of course not. If I do not wish to return to a statue, I will need to stay by you until I've gathered my strength, if it's alright with you?"

"I- That will depend on how long it takes you to gather your strength, and if I can trust you," Maeve responded before looking over her shoulder at me, shrugging softly before returning her attention to the coffee as she began pouring it into the mugs.

"Ask whatever questions you must, but I do not see how you could deem me untrustworthy, as I've done nothing to deserve such a thing."

"You tried to attack my boyfriend and my friends, Raffey. That's more than enough reason to deem you as untrustworthy."

"Please try to understand. I have been trapped in the earth for multiple a millennium, unable to hear or see anything that went on around me. When I was trapped in the earth, such demons were not allowed free reign. Because you have told me they are your friends and chosen lover, I will try to learn the ways of this new world." Rafferty responded as he helped Maeve set the mugs on the table before sitting next to her, smelling his coffee before taking a hesitant sip.

"Do you like it?" Samantha asked him as he set his mug down.

"It is bitter and strong. I do not know why you mortals so love this drink." Rafferty responded with a shake of his head.

"We are not mortals, Rafferty. You call us demons, so you know that we aren't mortals. We're immortals." Damien responded, then narrowed his eyes as Rafferty started laughing, curious about what he found amusing.

"You are not immortals; you are nothing more than mortals with increased speed and strength, with an added blood-lust!" Rafferty exclaimed before he started laughing again as if he found the very notion hilarious.

"They are hundreds of years old, Raffey. I think that makes them immortal."

"Maeve, list the number of things that can kill you," Rafferty responded with a raised brow, waiting expectantly for the answer to the question that he already knew had no answer. "You and I, we are true immortals. These beings can be killed, though it may not be as easy as ending a human life, the fact remains that they can indeed be killed. True immortality is what you and I have, as not a mortal instrument can bring about our end. These friends of yours? They have nothing more than an extended life, but far from immortality."

"There is something that kills fae because I know they were being killed before. So, while I may not know what it is, I know there is something."

"Well, he's not wrong. We could all die, but Maeve wouldn't. She'd just come back." Bast reluctantly agreed as she stood and pulled the creamer out of the fridge, pouring a bit into Rafferty's mug before pouring some in hers. "Try it now."

"Oh, this is much more enjoyable!" Rafferty agreed, then smiled at Bast, showing a row of perfect and almost blinding white teeth. "Thank you... I do not know your name, miss?"

"We didn't introduce ourselves, did we?" Sam mumbled, then stood to hold his hand out to Rafferty. "I am Sam, and this is my girlfriend, Samantha."

"I mean no offense, demon, but if I were to touch you, it would end your life," Rafferty said, shaking his head at Sam's hand. When he saw the way we were watching him, he nodded understandingly and readjusted how he was seated before saying anything more. "It does not matter that I am fallen. I am an angel, nonetheless. I am, or I was, the very embodiment of all that is pure and good in this world. In comparison, demons such as yourself could be considered the exact opposite. A being such as myself cannot make physical contact with beings of your kind, as it would turn you to ash."

"Seems as good a reason as any not to shake his hand," Damien snorted with a small laugh, then pointed to each of us as he introduced us. "I am Damien. This is my wife, Bastet, and our children Ciaran and Azeneth. That is Alaric and Mercy, he is Sinclair, and you already know Maeve."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Rafferty said, nodding his acknowledgment to us as Damien introduced us.

"Is it?" Alaric challenged, crossing his arms over his chest before leaning back in his chair, glaring at Rafferty.

"I still have questions about how you've fallen. Did you get kicked out because you got the woman pregnant, or was it just because you loved her?" Maeve asked.

"I suppose you could say it was neither. She died, and I used my blood to bring her back to life. I did not know that she was with child, and so in bringing her back, I also brought back the child. I did not know the consequences of such an action and accidentally created the first fae and the firstborn demon."

"What do you mean you created the first fae and the first demon?" I asked him as I leaned forward, finding myself quite interested in the story, as it's one I'd never heard and never thought I'd get the chance to listen to. *'Is he saying that both the fae and the demons were created due to him bringing one woman back to life?'*

"The child that she was pregnant with, she was born faster and stronger than other children, and with a seemingly insatiable blood-lust. Her mother hid the child's appetite so that we would not kill it, which resulted in many others' turning, creating this world in which you now live. That child was the first vampire, and before she learned to drink without injecting her venom, she'd created many of her kind." Rafferty explained, the golden glow of his eyes dimming as he spoke until the light itself was almost entirely extinguished. "I was kicked out of heaven for creating the first fae and the firstborn demon. When we saw what was happening, we tried to kill off the demons from the earth, but some went into hiding, allowing them to survive and create more of their kind, as you all can attest to."

"I thought the person needed the vampire's blood to turn?" Maeve asked before looking up at me curiously.

"That is how the vampires have evolved, yes. That is not how it was at their creation, however. If that girl would have given anyone her blood, I'm convinced that there would not be a human being left on this earth. She was made from angels' blood, and through the generations of vampires, they have changed and evolved. The first vampire had our regeneration abilities, but now that the bloodline has been tainted and dwindled, their healing is not what it once was."

"So, you got kicked out of heaven because of an accident?" Ciaran asked; his electric blue eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he shook his head. "You didn't know what would happen when you brought her back, and you didn't know that she was pregnant. You did it because you loved her, and that love for her got you kicked out of heaven."

"It does not matter whether I was privy to the consequences before or after I brought her back. The fact remains that it is forbidden for angels to alter a human's life in ways that will either extend it past the time they were meant to die or end it earlier than they were meant to." Rafferty responded with a solemn nod before turning his attention to Maeve, watching her for a few moments as he waited.

*'Is that why Maeve turned into an anodyne? Because she altered our lives? That would mean that we were all meant to die, but she stopped it from happening. My god, I thought what she did to Edward was the reason she turned, but it's not. It's because she stopped us from dying.'*

"When you said one of your kind came to free you, what does that mean, exactly? Why can't the other fae sense you?"

"The anodyne, as you call yourselves, are my kind. Light fae is as close to angels as this world has, while dark fae is demons. The anodyne is like that of a fallen angel. Whatever you have done that stripped you of your light creation, I know it was done with selfless intentions. Otherwise, you would be a dark fae and not stuck in the middle."

"So, you're saying that light fae is angels, the dark fae is demons, and I'm like a fallen angel? I'm sorry, but I'm a tick confused now."

"If I had done the things I did on purpose, I would have had my wings clipped, and I would have been turned into a demon. Because I had pure intentions, I was only fallen and not fully stripped of my power as an angel. My punishment was that I would remain trapped in the earth until a descendant of mine, who is fallen just as I am, would come and free me. An angel who broke a rule, with no selfish intentions on doing so, are the only ones who can be considered like me."

"You were trapped in America, instead of Ireland; that way, it would take even longer to find you. Anodyne is supposedly extremely rare, so if I weren't here, you'd still be trapped for who knows how long." Maeve commented with a shake of her head before standing, groaning when Rafferty started to follow her. "I'll be right back. There's no need to follow me."

"As you wish."

"How long will it take you to gather your strength?" I asked him once I heard Maeve close the front door, listening to the sound of her heartbeat as it grew fainter.

"I do not know, demon. It is not something I was informed of before I was cast into the earth," Rafferty responded as he turned his attention to me, watching me with a slight smirk.

"My name is Sinclair," I said, doing everything I could to hold back a growl, as the smirk on his face was pissing me off.

"What are your plans with Maeve?" Alaric asked before reaching over to tap me on the shoulder reassuringly, his gray eyes hard as steel as he glared at Rafferty.

"I've no plans with her. I can see that you believe I am trying to steal her away from you? I will admit, I do not like the idea of someone of her power and stance to remain friends with a group of demons, as you will drag her to hell with you. She is a woman, and she is free to make her own decisions. If staying with you is what she wishes to do, I have no intentions of trying to change her mind."

"Just to be clear, you are saying that you are not going to try and take her or make her yours?" Sam asked.

"You believe I wish to take Maeve as my bride?" Rafferty exclaimed, his eyes going wide with offense and shock as he looked around the group, then scoffed. "I do not plan on taking my descendant as my bride, no. I only wish to remain by her side until I've gathered my strength, as I do not wish to return to a statue."

"You say that now, but we don't know how long it will take, and you're in a new world now, Raff- Rafferty," I responded with a smile as I'd almost called him Raffey but thought better of it and didn't, as I didn't want to test whether he was truthful or not about his touch incinerating us.

"I say it because it is true. Maeve is beautiful, yes, but that does not change my intentions. Unlike you mortal men, who are prone to using your manhood to make your decisions, I am not. My desires do not fuel my decisions. They never have, and they never will."

"Is that so? If your desires don't fuel your decisions, perhaps you'd like to explain why you brought that woman back to life and singlehandedly created demons?" I challenged, crossing my arms over my chest as I glared at him.

"Matters of the heart are not the same as matters made out of desire emanating from my loins. If you cannot differentiate between what your heart and what your loins want, can, I suggest not being in a relationship with a woman who could kill you with a single touch?" Rafferty responded, successfully wiping the smile off of my face at his words. *'If I thought there was a chance in hell that I could kill you, I would rip out your throat.'*

"You said the firstborn demon, but you also said angels could be turned into demons?" Mercy asked after clearing her throat, bringing out attention to her, rather than glaring at Rafferty.

"Angels who were stripped of their wings and their titles, they were the first demons. What I did, created the first demon to be born, rather than turned. The angels who were turned to demons were caught trying to impregnate humans to make more of their kinds but couldn't as they were rendered fruitless towards mortals. That is until I brought the child back. She was the first to be impregnated by one of those angels, and their offspring was the beginning of the hundreds, if not thousands, of creatures that now walk this earth."

"One simple decision that quite literally changed the world, all for love," Bast whispered softly as she stood and refilled our coffee mugs before looking down at Rafferty curiously. "I'm surprised you can be without Maeve for this long. When she left the first time, you immediately went back into your prison."

"That is because she did not lead me out of my prison the first time. I can feel myself starting to get weaker, but if she returns soon, all will be fine."

"Oi, I'm back, and I've brought Leena," Maeve said as she opened the front door, stepping to the side as Leena ran into the kitchen; her bright blue eyes widened into twin saucers as she gawked at Rafferty, falling to her knees in front of his chair.

"Oh my god, you're real! Wait, where are your wings? I heard they were one of the biggest and prettiest sets among all of the angels!" Leena gasped as she looked past Rafferty to where she expected his wings to be, letting out a small sound of anger when she couldn't see them.

*'How does Leena know so much about him?'*

"You heard? From whom?" Rafferty asked her in a cold whisper, his glowing eyes shifting into a fierce shade of purple, sending ripples throughout his chest as his tattoos started to glow purple, wriggling on his arms as if they were trying to jump out of his skin. "Whom?" He asked again as he grabbed Leena's throat and yanked her to him, so their faces were mere inches apart, his eyes growing brighter the longer it took for her to respond.

"One of the first, she told me about you." Leena gasped out, trying to pull herself out of Rafferty's grasp, but to no avail, as her struggles went by, wholly disregarded by Rafferty in his anger, his eyes beginning to glow as it did the first time he'd opened his eyes like a purple sun. *'Purple, just like Maeve's power. Oh! It must be that he can use both his angel and his fallen abilities. But unlike Maeve, the color of his eyes change depending on which power he is using! Wait that would mean he's about to use his dark abilities on Leena?'*

"Who? What is her name, you worthless excuse for an angel?" Rafferty spat in her face before standing and slamming her back against the nearest wall. He tightened his grasp on her throat as he groaned in pain, his wings ripping back through his flesh and bones as they came quickly shredding through his back to extend, touching from one end of the wall, and nearly to the kitchen sink, almost eight feet in either direction.

It took me a long few moments to piece together what was different, but when I did, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of fear at my core when I realized what he was doing, why his wings looked somehow different than they did before, and what he was going to do. *'His wings are larger now than they were before, and they're emanating a purple haze, like when Maeve touched me. She is just a descendant, so she is not nearly as powerful as the fallen angel himself who created her. He doesn't need physical touch to embed his power into someone. Oh, shit!'* I thought, jumping to my feet when I saw how thick the smoke was getting as it made its way towards us. I grabbed Maeve's hand and Alaric's shoulder as they were the two closest to me, pushing them towards the opposite side of the kitchen before doing the same to the twins.

"Ismenia! Her name is-" Leena gasped out, cutting herself off with a scream as the purple sun in Rafferty's eyes shot out into two purple beams of sunlight, shooting through Leena's eyes and the wall. The second the beams shot forward, the kitchen wall began to disintegrate at a rapid rate, turning to purple ash before I could see so much as blink. Before I had the chance to react to my now sudden and appalling lack of a wall in my kitchen, the purple beams reached the treeline, razing the forest for as far as I could see. This left nothing but darkness and purple ash, as it seemed like Rafferty's power had even disintegrated the sun itself.

"You say you do not know what can kill a fallen, Maeve? There is nothing that can kill a fallen." Rafferty growled as he tossed Leena's body forward, keeping his back turned to us as he looked out across the destruction he'd caused, his magnificent black wings displayed tall and proud. He turned his head slightly to the right, looking over his shoulder at Maeve before motioning to Leena, who hadn't shown any signs of life, the holes where her eyes used to be; seared through the back of her head. *'Only a fallen angel or an anodyne can kill a fae.'*