War of Wings Page A

that.”
    “No, only one of us thinks that now. I’ll show you I am right. I want you to join me in finding the answers God hides from us.” He lifted his foot and waited as the mangled flower once again grew to perfection.
    “Lucifer, I can’t join you in whatever you are doing.”
    Lucifer hesitated, watching the flower. When it was done reforming, he picked it and handed it to her. “Please.”
    She took the flower and a new one sprouted up in its place. “I love God. Don’t ask that of me. He is not lying about anything.”
    “I need you.”
    She winced.
    “Whose side are you on?”
    “Stop this, Lucifer. You know I will not betray our Father.”
    “He is not my Father anymore.”
    “Please don’t say that.”
    Lucifer clenched his fists and felt his fingernails digging deep into his palms. “I am leaving. Do not follow me.”
    Two tears fell from her green eyes, but she didn’t.
    He crashed down from the platform to the deep blue of the water below. The once-beautiful world under water meant nothing this time. Fish darted out of his way to avoid being pummeled as he sank through like a boulder. The deeper he went the darker it became, but the glow he gave off from the remnants of God’s glory allowed him to barely see until the last moment of blackness. This was where he remembered cutting through a black hole to the cosmos.
    He came out on the other side and shook the water from his wings. He took in the beauty of the cosmos again, of the other worlds suspended there in the deep black. The nearest planet was lovely, covered in blue and green, and he felt immediate ownership of it. A new home. Thyaterra no longer mattered. More importantly, God no longer mattered. He had to keep telling himself that.
    He flew toward it through the emptiness of the cosmos, and at length he passed through a layer of cloud and landed on the surface. He didn’t know what to do, so he roamed the stretches of unkempt fields of grass. There were forests too, but the trees weren’t uniform in height or layout and there was no structure to anything. Everything grew wild, and there were apparently no rules. It was perfectly imperfect. He roamed mountaintops, vast distances of nothing but windswept oceans, and deserts void of life. He liked the sandy deserts with their towering dunes, but the heat reminded him of the warmth of God’s throne. He flew away and came down upon a jungle with plush green trees and long waterfalls.
    He thought of Thyaterra. God had warped her mind. He controlled her just like He used to control Lucifer. Just like He would control His new Son. He felt rage welling up in him again, only this time he did not try to hold it in.
    Lucifer grabbed the nearest tree by its base and ripped it from the earth, roots and all. Bark fell all around from where his grip crushed into the base of the tree. Dirt dropped as the dangling roots snapped off where they fed into the ground. He tore up many, flipping them over, running forward a few steps, and hurling each of them over a mile into a large body of water. They descended deep, branches first. It felt good. He ripped off branches because he liked the snap they made as they broke. He hurled these as far as he could.
    He tore up more trees, his anger unabated, and he began to realize that he could feel the life drain from the trees as the roots separated from the ground. It was incredible. By severing the base of the tree from its life source, it actually died and did not grow back. The realization struck him with equal parts wonder and horror.
    He could control life in his new world.

G abriel knew the best place to cool down and get his mind off the accident. In fact it was a part of his daily routine to visit the Canyon Reef. Here, a towering, U-shaped mountainside held estates carved out for hierarch angels; they directly overlooked the shore of a private sea. The bright-neon coral reef below was easily visible through the crystal-clear water. The solid rock of the