Free Evenstar by Darcy Town Page A

swords and impaled the car, nailing it to the road.   Berith ripped the doors off and pulled out the driver and passenger.
    Apple got off the ground and checked Lucifer.   “Are you okay?”
    Lucifer pulled a bolt out of his arm and looked up.   “Appleadris, you have been shot.”           
    Apple looked down at the iron bolts in her chest.   She tore one out, then another.   The skin beneath healed.   She frowned.   “Weird.”
    Berith brought the men over.   “Are we still enchanted?   Apple!   You have been shot!   Stay still!   I will help you!”
    She held up a hand.   “I noticed.   I’m fine.”

Berith cocked his head.   “It is iron, isn’t it?”
    “Yes.”
    Lucifer waved them away.   “Talk about it later.   How did they find us?”
    Berith held the men up.   They trembled in his grip.   The driver asked, “Why aren’t you dead?”
    Lucifer tried to smile.   “You attacked fallen angels.”
    The captives went pale; one passed out.   The conscious one searched for a blade and brought it to his throat.   Berith broke his arm and he dropped the blade.   The man screamed.   Children from the closest house ran out into the yard to play.   The man reached for them and yelled.   The children continued their game.   The man’s scream died on his lips.   “Shit.”
    Apple snapped the neck of the unconscious man, and she rifled through his things.   She picked up a pair of glasses.   She put them on her face and did a double take.   “Crazy!”   She handed them to Lucifer.
    Lucifer touched the metal and lenses.   He held his chest and handed them to Berith.   “Here is your answer.”
    Berith looked through the glasses.   “Things are colored strangely.”   He looked at the humans.   “They do not glow, but we do.”   The children in the far lawn had faint auras.   “They can see the ones with mixed blood.   This is how they’ve been hunting the half-breeds.”   He punched the man in the face and dropped his body to the concrete.
    Lucifer fought off pain.   “Kill them, we need to move.”
    Berith broke the man’s neck and placed both bodies back in their car with the weapons they had carried.   He wrenched his blade out of the trunk and strapped it to his back.   He handed the glasses to Apple.  
    She ran her fingers over them.   “Dad will be interested in this.”
    Lucifer managed a nod.   “Paimon too.”
    Berith grabbed the handles of the wheelbarrow.   “All the more reason to get to the City.”
    Lucifer sighed.   “I know.   Move.”
    Apple skipped alongside them.   She drove one of the iron bolts into her hand and pulled it out.   “Look!”
    Berith grimaced as he picked bolts out of his chest.   “Do not do that.”
    “Why?   I heal!”
    Lucifer closed his eyes.   “Dahlia must have done it when she fixed you.”
    Apple grinned.   “Awesome.”
    Lucifer scratched his nails along his arms to get his mind off his chest.   “Your children will probably be similarly gifted.”   Apple and Berith shared an unhappy look.   Lucifer curled into a ball.   “Appleadris, you have over thirty brothers, you do not need to have children in order to rule.”
    “But it’s the law.”
    “And now it is not.”   Lucifer looked at her.   “So sayeth me.   Okay?”
    Apple kissed his cheek and grinned.   She kissed Berith’s cheek.   “I’ll be back.”   She took off running in one direction, looking for the Lilliam lanes.
    Berith kept the wheelbarrow steady.   “Thank you.”
    “You are welcome.   Take me north.”
    “ No .”
    The pair travelled in silence.   They passed rows of pre-fabbed housing.   Everything looked the same, one bland streak of beige and gray on the landscape.   Lucifer’s lip curled.   “I hate what they have done with Dahlia’s planet.”
    Berith shrugged.   “They took ‘be fruitful and multiply’ seriously.”
    “Fucking Michael.”   Lucifer let his hand trail over the