Fallen Angel

Chapter 37.1

Raphael lingered at the open door of the apothecary. He looked inside but couldn't bring himself to cross the threshold. Even though he had designed the space, it would always be Isabelle's. She made it her own the moment she had arrived in the Vale. She put the cluttered mess that had reigned for millennia to order. What would he do without her?
Catherine's soft footsteps echoed behind him. When he turned to her, his heart broke. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying. Her usually tidy hair hung in tangles. She wore a big purple shawl, tightly wrapped around her shoulders, not against the cold, but for comfort.

"Cate, I'm so sorry."

Catherine fell into Raphael's arms, her sobs muffled as she buried her face against his chest. He gently stroked her hazel hair.

"How could this have happened?" she wept. "How could this have been God's plan? We've already lost so many... now Isabelle and... and..."

Raphael shushed her quietly. He couldn't bear to hear the anguish in her voice.

"It's going to be all right," he said.

"No, it won't." Catherine shook her head against him. "Nothing will ever be all right again."

"It will." Raphael lifted her chin. "Have faith."

Catherine's teary eyes peered intently into his. They stood so close, mere inches separated them. Raphael suddenly became aware that he was holding Catherine in a manner he had always dreamt of holding her. He had to stop himself from leaning in. It wouldn't have been right to kiss her at such a vulnerable moment.

"Come with me," he said. "There's something I would like you to see."

He took her hand and led her down the corridor to the patient rooms, which were fuller than ever. They kept walking until they reached the end of the corridor, halting at an open door. Raphael pushed it wider.
Anastasia and Alexei Romanov sat inside, talking and gesturing wildly in their excitement. Like the rest of his family, Alexei had been kept as leverage to use against Grigori Rasputin in case he ever gave the Devil any trouble. But because he knew Rasputin cared more for the boy, Lucifer held him in a secure location, completely alone and with no means of escape. Until the boy met a certain Fallen Angel.
Raphael did not believe in coincidence. He never had, and he never would. Joan befriending this boy of all the slaves in that place, him escaping soon after his sister had fled her own prison and finding her here; that did not happen by chance. It was fate.

"Not everything that has happened has been bad, Cate. If they can find each other again after being apart for so long, who knows what else might happen?"

Catherine wrapped her hand around his arm as she leaned her head on his shoulder. He glanced down and brushed the tip of his fingers over her knuckles. It was all he dared to do.

"Do you think they will find Gabriël's baby, Raphael?"

"I am certain of it. Never underestimate the Devil."

***

Lucifer wished Margaret had stayed outside. But once she made up her mind about something, there was no swaying her. So, naturally, she dismissed his concerns and followed him into the underground passageways beneath the ruins of Marib.

"Watch your step," Lucifer warned as he took her hand to help her over some rubble. "There may be scorpions or other creatures hiding."

"Don't worry, I can manage," she said. "Lucifer, I still don't know about this. Samael and Lilith could have taken the baby anywhere. Why are you so certain they would come here?"

"Samael might not, but Lilith would. She's sentimental about certain things and stayed in this place longer than anywhere else."

"Why? Of all places, why this one?"