“Obviously I should have done it myself rather than leave the matter to your incompetence,” Lucifer hissed. “You were too busy pretending to be king of Faerie and lording your superiority over Oberon to give the matter the proper amount of attention.”

“Like you would have had time to invest in Daharan’s cage when you were playing house with Evangeline,” Puck retorted.

“I was not ‘playing house.’ I was attempting to make the commitment of a lifetime when she was brutally murdered,” Lucifer said.

“Everyone knows Maddy didn’t really kill her. My niece has a lot of bad qualities, but cold-blooded murder isn’t one of them,” Puck said dismissively. “You probably killed Evangeline yourself. It was the only way you’d ever be free of her. She stuck to you like static cling, and it was just as unattractive.”

“Evangeline was loyal,” Lucifer said.

“She was sickening, was what she was,” Puck said. “And you would have gotten annoyed with her in a few months and then had her publicly executed under some pretense. Probably for bearing you another freak show of a son. Your kids just don’t turn out right, do they? Not like mine.”

He gave a smug, satisfied smile then, looking at Nathaniel, who frowned at this confusing paternal pride so soon after Puck had tried to blast him into oblivion.

Lucifer leapt on Puck then, punching him in the face. His brother came back swinging with ferocity, and soon the two of them were rolling on the ground, trading blows.

We all stared in silent shock at the spectacle of two of the oldest and most powerful creatures in the universe having a school-yard fight in the middle of a Chicago street.

“Enough,” Daharan said. He had turned toward the other two, and I could see the calm and resolute anger still on his face.

Puck and Lucifer stopped rolling around. They scrambled to their feet, looking chastened.

I looked from Puck to Lucifer to Alerian to Daharan, and realized something I’d never realized before. Yes, they were magical and powerful and older than most galaxies. But they were nothing but children, and I did not have to fear them, and neither did anyone else. This was probably what everyone else was thinking, too, and that was affirmed a moment later when J.B. spoke.

“I’d say you both lost a lot of ground on the intimidation front,” he said.

“Be careful,” Puck said. “You are still my subject.”

“No, he is not,” Daharan said. “Henceforth, you are no longer the High King of Faerie. Nor are you master of the Grigori.”

Lucifer looked shocked. “You cannot take that right from me, or from Puck.”

“Lucifer,” Daharan said. “You have not yet asked how I managed to break free from the unbreakable prison fashioned for me.”

“I’ll bite,” Puck said. Despite his obvious fear of Daharan, his natural playful manner reasserted itself. He spoke in a singsong tone. “How did you break out of the prison, Daharan?”

Daharan smiled, and it was not the warm and gentle smile that protected me. It was a thing of cold and fury, and also of satisfaction.

“Our mother is awake.”

Now even Alerian, always as calm as the still surface of a lake, turned pale. Puck looked like he might throw up.

“You lie,” Lucifer said.

“You know that I cannot lie to you,” Daharan said. “Our mother is awake, and she is not happy with the three of you.”

I knew very little about the parents of these four. Daharan had once told me they were very ancient and elemental, and that they spent most of their time asleep. He’d also implied that it was better that I knew as little as possible about them, and I’d hoped that they would never wake up and decide to interfere in our lives.

“Is she coming here?” Puck asked. His lips were white.

Daharan shook his head. “She wishes you to come to her. Immediately.”

Lucifer looked from me to Daharan. “This is all part of your own plan to keep Madeline and her child out of my clutches.”

“If it is, then our mother certainly approves of my intentions over yours,” Daharan said. “She can see the future with more clarity than any of us.”

“What were their plans?” I asked curiously.

“Oh, the usual,” Puck said breezily, although he still looked like he was on the verge of being sick. “Total dominion over the Earth, split three ways. No more hiding in the shadows or manipulating from afar. The three of us, worshiped and feared as gods.”

“Knocking down whoever got in your way, I suppose. And you thought I would just let you do that?” I asked.

“We knew that you wouldn’t let us do that,” Puck said. “That was why we needed you to turn into Bad Maddy, because then you might come over to the fun side. Failing that, Lucifer would have Junior as a tool to get you to do what we wanted.”

“So my son was just a means to an end for you?” I said.

“No,” Daharan said before Lucifer could speak. “Your son is very important to the future of this planet. He has a destiny that will affect the course of humanity. Lucifer wanted that destiny in his hands, so he could pull the strings.”

I didn’t want to hear that my baby had a destiny, or that he was important to humanity’s future. I wanted him to just be my own, my own little angel, the last tangible symbol of the love I had for Gabriel.

Much of this must have shown on my face, because Daharan said gently, “His destiny is a long way off. You still have time to be his mother, and for him to be your son.”