Abigail

Lucifer was in no hurry to leave the restaurant. He and Konstantin chatted while Konstantin worked through his order of dumplings and mashed potato. When they finished the bottle of vodka, Lucifer had another one brought out. Not being as linguistically talented as angels, Abigail and Elias had to content themselves with their dessert — a bowl of vanilla ice cream and stewed apple. It tasted fine, but Abigail's stomach already ached from an excess of food.

She reached over and grabbed Lucifer's newspaper. "Is there anything about Bolivia there?"

A photo of an aged businessman pontificating behind a podium dominated the front page. Abigail flipped through the newspaper; the script looked as alien to her as Enochian, but she was certain she would recognise a photo of the devastated city. Finding nothing, she flicked back to the front page and studied the article headings, hoping something familiar would jump out at her.

"Doesn't this have international news? Bolivia should be on the front pages somewhere," she said.

Lucifer ran his thumb over the stylised angel on the vodka bottle. "Hardly. That's old news."

"It was like two days ago."

Lucifer pointed to a spot just below the newspaper's title and Abigail felt herself blanch. She didn't need to know Russian to recognise the date.

"How did we lose ten days?" asked Elias. His mood had seemed to improve after their food had been brought out, but now his expression solidified back into the dark scowl she had seen all too often of late.

"Time can flow differently between dimensions," Lucifer replied.

Shit. Between her days at Harold's, Bolivia and Lucifer's pocket dimension, she had skipped two weeks of class. How many assessments had she had due in that time? She had missed at least five work shifts. Kalvin was probably beside himself at this point.

"So Ramiel has been held by the demons all that time?" Abigail asked.

"Never-mind Ramiel. We have problems of our own now," Elias replied. "I missed so much at uni. The neighbours are always watching the house — we're the crazy Fitzpatrick family after all — they would've noticed the mail piling up and the car parked out front never moving. Even Mohammed would've figured out by now that I'm missing. I had gym sessions planned with him."

Abigail bit her lip. "Yeah, the police probably declared us as missing by now."

"We're going to have a fine time explaining ourselves when we get back. If the university throws me out —"

"They're not going to do that."

"My degree isn't some generic nonsense that every dim-witted ten-year-old can pass after scrolling through the lecture slides," Elias said with a snort.

"Come on, Eli," Abigail replied. "Demons have Ramiel, have had him for nearly two weeks. How are your marks more important than that?"

"That's not —" Elias scowled. "You've no idea what you're talking about."

"No, I guess I don't. But sometimes I wish you would get kicked out. Ever since you started university, you act like everyone who isn't studying the same thing as you is an idiot. How many years are you away from getting that damned diploma? But somehow, it already seems shoved so far up your arse, it's threatening to burst out from the other side."

Lucifer laughed, making both Abigail and Elias jerk up. Their entire conversation had been careless. Eating and drinking didn't preclude a person from listening. Konstantin's English was imperfect, but Abigail suspected he knew enough to understand the gist of their words. Other restaurant patrons had heard them too; there was no telling how much they had understood.

"I'm glad to see we, petty mortals, amuse you so," Elias snarled at Lucifer, then turned back to Abigail and hissed, "I'm trying to make something of my life, I won't apologise for that."

Abigail sighed and stood up. She hadn't meant to lose her temper with Elias like that, but were she to attempt an apology at the moment, Elias wouldn't listen. Instead, she caught the restaurant owner's attention and pulled out her phone. On the bottom of the first page of the restaurant menu Abigail had noticed what to her looked like a wi-fi symbol.

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"Can I have the wi-fi password?" she asked as she turned on the wi-fi on her phone and pointed to the symbol on her screen.

The man said nothing, but took the phone out of Abigail's hand. Frowning, he checked the list of available networks, found one that satisfied him and typed in the password. Abigail grinned as her phone confirmed it had connected. When she reached for her phone, however, the man shook his head and waddled to the restaurant bar.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she demanded.

He lifted up a cord that dangled from a power point on the wall beside the bar and plugged the phone in. Abigail's cheeks burned. He must've noticed how little battery life there was left.

"Thank you," she said quickly. "Thanks so much."

Abigail leaned against the bar and took stock of her phone. This wasn't the time to go through the notifications. She cleared them all, then typed a message for Kalvin.

Sorry I've been awol. Things came up

Whatever the time difference between Sydney and this part of Russia, Kalvin must have been awake. His reply came ten seconds later.

Are you ok??? What's going on?

Where are you?

Abigail tried to compose a reply, but her phone began ringing. She made a face. Calls via internet had never been her favoured method of communication and she had no idea how stable the restaurant's wi-fi was. On the other hand, she could hardly reject it.

"Hey, how are you?" she said.

"Abby!" Kalvin sighed in relief. "I'm so glad to hear your voice. What happened to you?"

"I...um, I had to make a trip out of town. It was a last minute thing and then I didn't have signal so I couldn't get in touch. Sorry about that. I didn't mean to worry you."

"For two weeks? Where the hell did you go?" He paused for a moment, before adding, "Is Elias with you?"

"Yeah."

"Is he listening?"

Abigail frowned. "No, he's on the other side of the room, picking at what's left of our dinner."

"Isn't it a bit early for dinner? But listen, never mind that, has he..." Kalvin went silent for several seconds, with Abigail unable to tell if the connection had failed or if Kalvin himself had fallen silent. When she heard him again, his voice was strained. "Look, you just vanished, I had to call the cops. They thought Elias might have, you know."

She was about to reply that she didn't know, when a cold realisation washed over her. Kalvin had looked dubious when she tried to explain the scratches on Elias' hands. The bruising across her face suggested an alternative story far too strongly. And Elias had been the first of the scene when their parents' died. Circumstantial evidence, but enough for the police to start asking questions.

"Kalvin, Elias didn't do anything to me. He's never laid on a hand me, never touched me or anything. It's a long story, but I think it's almost over. I'll explain later."

"You vanished into thin air for two weeks. Elias or not, saying 'it's a long story' doesn't cut it."

"I know, I know. Just now isn't a good time." Abigail glanced over to Lucifer and Konstantin, both bent over the table and deep in conversation. The second bottle of vodka stood half-empty. "I've got to go. I'll see you soon, ok?"

"No, Abby, wait."

Abigail shook her head. Kalvin wouldn't leave her alone until she explained everything. But Ramiel remained in danger, never mind the precarious status of Sariel's shield, this wasn't the time for her relationship drama. I shouldn't have messaged him. There's too much going on here, I should focus on that.

"I love you. I hope I'll see you soon," she said, then disconnected the call.

Kalvin rang again immediately, so Abigail turned off the wi-fi.

"Was that Kalvin?" Elias asked quietly as he walked over to her.

"Yeah. He wanted to know where we were and everything. I didn't know how to explain."

Elias nodded, his gaze shifting behind Abigail to the assortment of liquor on display behind the bar. She contemplated telling him about the police and their suspicions, then decided against it. That was a problem for later.

"Did you want to get in touch with somebody?" she asked.

"No. No point in notifying the university that I'm still alive, they'd just want a reason for my absence and I've got no idea what I could tell them. And who else is there? Even Muhammad will have found a new gym buddy by now."

"I bet that's not true."

"Yeah, 'cause you know everything." He leaned against the bar next to Abigail. "Sorry. I don't mean to sound like a jerk. Just at the end of my tether here."

Abigail offered Elias a sympathetic smile, then silence fell between them and they trudged back to their table.

Lucifer and Konstantin never finished the second bottle. When the first signs of evening set in outside, Konstantin glanced at his watch and winced.

"I need go home," he slurred out. "Fank you, fank you for this evening. You are very, very kind. Fank you."

Evidently, Russian drunks fell prey to the same verbal diarrhoea Australians did. Like Abigail, Elias knew from prior experience how long this could go on for. He lifted himself half out of his chair and offered his hand to Konstantin.

"Lovely to meet you," Elias said. "I hope you have a good evening."

Konstantin, unconsciously mirroring Elias, rose out of his chair too. He shook Elias' hand a tad too long, then glanced around as if he had forgotten where he was going. The restaurant owner came to the rescue. He helped Konstantin put his jacket back on and guided him out the door.

They watched him shuffle down the road. He was remarkably steady on his feet for a man who had to have consumed nearly half a litre of vodka.

"Did he tell you anything?" Abigail asked.

"Yes, I now feel intimately familiar with his ex-wife," Lucifer replied, pushing the vodka bottle and the shot-glasses away. "But I know enough about his employers too. Now come on, no sense waiting about for the cover of the night. The sun won't set properly over this miserable rubble of a town until next month."

Abigail began stacking the empty dishes on the table. "Good. The longer we delay, the longer Ramiel —"

"He is not a Faberge egg. Do you two have enough cash?"

Seeing the panicked expression on Elias and Abigail's faces, Lucifer laughed and pulled an old leather wallet out of the pocket of his pants.

"No problem, dinner is on our dear friend Konstantin."