HE TRULY WISHED HE could be so confident in that assumption. Yes, he had also felt no pulses of energy indicating lifeforms, but that didn’t mean they were safe. This planet was new, bursting to life. Unknown dangers could lurk anywhere. What if something else had come through the same portal they had? Some evil could be lying dormant underneath the mountain for all he knew. He couldn’t afford to become complacent and risk Diana’s life again.
“We do not know where we are. We also do not know what else has ventured here from the Methuselah portal or any other gateway. I do not trust all this... serenity.”
That earned him another eye roll.
“Fine.” Diana flopped back on the grass, her arms crossed behind her head. “Explain this whole portal thing to me. Why can’t we just find another one and waltz back to where we came from? Why did the one that spit us out here just vanish? Back on Methuselah, some portals had disappeared, too. I take it from the reaction of the other angels, that’s not normal.” She tilted over to her side, locking eyes on Lucifer. “And why in the bloody pit of Hades, didn’t we take a portal to Methuselah in the first place, rather than flying through the stars and getting ourselves stranded in a black hole?”
Lucifer groaned. Lots of questions. Not enough answers, especially to satisfy a goddess as intelligent as Diana.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, he forced the truth out. “To most of that, I simply do not know.”
“Fantastic!” Diana collapsed against the ground again. “Seriously?”
He shook his head at his own ignorance. “It’s... complicated.”
Lucifer didn’t see her face, but he was certain she’d rolled her eyes again. Her arm came up; her hand swiveled on delicate wrists. A thin leather strap encircled it. Funny how he hadn’t noticed it before. Her dragon ring sparkled in the setting sunlight.
“Explain, please.” The honeyed voice of the goddess had eroded into a haughty, annoyed tone.
“Portals aren’t necessarily stable, nor predictable. There are plenty that have existed long enough and in the same place, that we trust using them. Some places have multiple ones. For instance, the liminality we were in had several entrances and exits. Some places were known, others weren’t explored yet. Some planets have no liminalities connecting them; thus, no portals. Olympus is one of those places.”
“Figures.” The one word was muttered so softly it was almost lost in the brisk breeze that had picked up across the lake.
“So, you have ever-changing ones. You’ll be in one liminality, take one portal that you think is going to take you to a known destination since it has taken you there for centuries. Then one day it drops you off on a meteor hurdling through space to crash land into a vibrant star.”
A groan greeted that revelation. Diana threw an arm over her face to block her eyes.
“They are unpredictable, at best. And can disappear completely without warning to never open again.”
He hated to break this to her, but they could very well be stuck here. Sure, he could fly them away, but not recognizing where they were had him at a great disadvantage. For all he knew, they could be billions of light years away from any civilized systems, without a wormhole or liminality portal in sight.
“But they can appear somewhere just as rapidly as disappear, right?” Her inquisitive tone made it clear that she understood the stakes and was becoming at least slightly concerned. That was good.
Lucifer didn’t believe in granting false hope. Lies were never justified. Lies benefited evil. He wouldn’t sully his own character to satisfy a need to give her comfort, even if it meant having to endure her resentment of his deception later.
“True. But, again, no one knows how to predict where one might open or where it will go.”
Suddenly, the birds that had kept them company all this time shot up into the sky with a giant squall that pierced his ears. As if they were one entity, they formed a tight circle, before flying up the face of the nearest mountain and disappearing over its peak.
The ground began to shake and roll underneath them. Lucifer bolted up. Diana raised her arm to point across the water. Waves rolled in from the far side of the giant lake, growing higher until they blocked out the sun.
No time to run. Lucifer wrapped his wings around Diana. He pivoted them away from the rushing waters, and not a moment too soon.
A gigantic waved crashed over their heads, then sucked them into its depths. The pull was too strong, as fierce and persistent as the gravity that had dragged them into the black hole. Unescapable and deadly.
Chapter 20
Nothing but a Good Time
A whirlpool sucked them into the dark depths of the lake. Fish and other life swirled around. Diana’s lungs burned with the need for air, but she knew that doing so would kill her in moments. She’d been brought up with warriors... those that fought on land and sea, and even in the oceans themselves. Although not part-fish like her uncle, Poseidon, and his children, she could hold her breath longer than any of her land-based siblings. Still, at some point she’d succumb and drown.
Lucifer’s wings around her but had not kept out the water. He’d been fine not needing oxygen while flying around in space. She assumed he’d be okay now. If not... well, she refused to consider the consequences. They’d defied death a few times already.
Opening her eyes did no good. The angel’s wings blocked out everything. Pressure built around them, catching them in a vice and squeezing tighter the further they descended. A violent twist had them spinning faster and faster, flipping them head over heels until...
Thump!
They crashed into something hard. The force of the blow was so brutal that Lucifer’s wings unfurled from around her. Diana stared at the angel in shock . His eyes were closed, his face was pale as a swan’s wings, and all the rigidness from earlier dissolved. He was unconscious, his body floating away on an unseen current.
