Another Loss
In which Lucinda reacts to news of another casualty in the war.
Words: 539
For @elsaletitgofree
Demons were gossips. It was an odd, but fairly well known fact. News traveled fast among them and with surprising accuracy. Which meant that during this second war, Lucinda was hearing about the death of every angel in more detail than she needed. Each one weighed more heavily on her than the last.
And then she caught wind of Raphael’s death.
She’d never been that close with Raphael. The younger angel had always been too serious, too strict and Lucinda too wild and rebellious. They’d never meshed. But that didn’t mean she wanted him dead. She didn’t want any of them to die.
But her heart broke when she heard about Raphael. It broke for Elsa. For Gabriel. For Gabby and Pete. Even for Michael, a little. But most? It broke— no it shattered— for Liv.
She wondered if her friend had already gotten the news. She wondered who would break it to the family. Would Michael do it himself? Would Gabriel hear first and have to pass the news along? Or would it be delivered by a stranger? None of the options sounded good, but she supposed there wasn’t a good way to tell someone they’d lost a family member.
It took all of her willpower not to drop everything and go straight to Liv. She wanted to check in on her, make sure she was doing alright or at least getting by. She knew things wouldn’t be okay, but maybe they were manageable. She couldn’t, though. She had an army to lead and a battle to fight and a war to win. The fighting needed to end before anyone else got killed. She couldn’t bring Raphael back, but she could make sure Liv didn’t lose anyone else. As far as she knew, Pete was still fighting. Who knew who else would join in now that they’d lost their dad? Lucinda refused to let this get any worse for her friend.
It killed her to take advantage of the tragedy, but she knew Raphael was Michael’s oldest, most loyal follower. She knew he’d take the loss hard, harder than any other loss he’d ever dealt with. She remembered what it had felt like when Daniel had died at Gabriel’s hands. When she realized she’d lost an important ally and damaged a good man. She knew Michael would be weaker right now and she knew it was her chance to win, to end it all.
So she scrawled a quick letter, trusting it with one of the few demons she knew would make sure it got delivered. A goodbye letter to Liv, just in case she didn’t make it back. Even weakened, she knew Michael was an excellent fighter and the odds weren’t necessarily in her favor. They were decent, but they weren’t great, and Liv deserved some sort of goodbye.
(Even if she died, the war would end and Liv would get to keep the rest of her family. That was what mattered. Gabriel would protect the kids without Raphael around to do it. Michael wouldn’t bother them.)
She told only her closest advisors what the plan was and then she left, hopefully to bring this mess to an end before anyone else got killed in the crossfire.
