Page 45 of The Morning Star
“No! Don’t! The…the next step was to hit the Grigori and take out their strongest enforcers. He said his brother would respond by bringing the rest of the enforcers to the gates. That way they’re all in one place and he can kill them.”
I frowned. “How can he do that? Not many demons are strong enough to kill an enforcer, and he’s the only Ancient. He can’t be seven places at once. He’d need…” Fuck. He’d pull the Ancients to his side and have them cross at the different gates in unison, wiping out both the enforcers and gate guardians there. And then the army would arrive.
“When? When is he doing this?” I demanded.
“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. All I know is when that happens, he’ll give the word and we’re supposed to seize control of the human area he designates. We’re supposed to kill a lot of people and make a big deal about it. It’s a trap to lure the remaining angels in. Then the real fight begins.”
The real fight without most of the powerful Grigori, and with the gateways wide open and unattended, and the human world in a panic. But there was one thing Caramort hadn’t brought up.
“And the archangels?” I reached out to grip his spirit-self, tugging on it slightly. “I’m sure this Samael has something special in mind for them.”
Caramort squeezed his eyes shut. “He was hoping to grab you and use you as bait to draw Michael and the others in. If not, then he’ll face them on the battlefield.”
Well, that wasn’t a very imaginative plan. This bait and ambush and trap stuff seemed to be the only tools in Samael’s box. Another reason I didn’t think this Ancient really was the former Iblis. I could see Samael as sneaky and clever, not a boring old one-trick pony sort of guy.
Although this was a good plan. A solid plan. A plan that someone who had skills and experience in battle would put together. I kept envisioning Samael as imp-like in my head, probably because of what Gregory had told me, but maybe he was nothing like me. Maybe he was more like his eldest brother than I’d imagined.
“You know I can’t exactly let you go.” I backed off from Caramort’s spirit-self and eyed him. He’d given me a lot of information, and I got the impression he wasn’t quite as committed to Samael’s cause as I’d originally thought. I didn’t want to kill a potential ally, but I couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t sneak right back to Samael once my sword wasn’t jabbed through his guts.
He nodded. “Don’t devour me. Please don’t. Just kill me outright.”
I pulled the sword from his midsection and watched as he slumped to his knees. “Swear allegiance to me. Vow that you and your household will obey and support me in all things, as the Iblis and leader of Hel. Do this and I will let you live.”
Caramort stared up at me in surprise, then took a ragged breath.
“I swear.” He clutched himself and struggled to recreate the damaged flesh, making me eye my sword with respect. “I vow on all the souls I Own that I and my household will serve, obey, and support you as the Iblis.”
I whistled and watched Caramort bleed until Dar and Leethu arrived.
“I’m afraid you guys are going to need to do beer and hot wings without me,” I told them. “I need to transport Caramort here to Hel where he is going to spend some quality time in Ahriman’s—I mean my—dungeon, contemplating how he plans to be a loyal servant to the Iblis for the rest of his life.
The demon blinked at me in surprise. “But I vowed. I swore…”
“You did, and I am going to let you live.” I grabbed his arm and dragged him to his feet. “And once this is all done, and I’m fully convinced of your sincerity, you’ll have your freedom. Until then, enjoy some damp, cold solitude.”
With a quick grin at Leethu and Dar, I transported Caramort to my house in Patchine. And then I left him in my dungeon, dizzy and puking from the experience.
I plopped down next to Gregory on the sofa and put my head against his arm. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Doriel got a message from her household in Hel about something urgent. She was unable to go out with Nyalla and her friends, so Lux and I returned early.” He glanced up the stairs. “He’s asleep now. It concerns me how much sleep he seems to need. Angels shouldn’t require that much slumber. Angels shouldn’t require slumber at all.”
“He wasn’t created in Aaru,” I reminded the archangel. “Lux has had a corporeal form from the moment he was formed. It means he’s going to be more sensitive to physical needs. Eating. Sleeping. Breathing.” And physical desire, although there was no need to get into that right now.
“I confess I have succumbed to the urge to go upstairs and check on him multiple times.”
“Yeah. Asta said the same thing about Karrae. She thought something was wrong with her because the little angel slept so much. Seems to be a normal thing.” I wasn’t going to confess to doing the same, not so much because I found Lux’s sleeping abnormal, but because the kid had a habit of killing off his physical form and I feared I’d find him smothered in his blankets or choking on a toy. Idiot.
“I guess so. It’s difficult for me to accept. None of us ever had cause to assume a corporeal form until we were thousands of years old at the youngest. He’s an Angel of Order, yet I see his sleep patterns, his need for liquid, his enjoyment of human food, and I worry…”
“You worry he’s more like a demon,” I finished. “We are the way we are not just because of inbreeding Angels of Chaos, but because we’ve always needed to be in a physical form. This has never been the case with an Angel of Order before. We’re both going to have to be open minded about how Lux is going to turn out. There’s a good chance he might not be like other Angels of Order.”
Gregory nodded. “Do you think he’ll be able to enter Aaru? I’ve often wondered if the banishment would not apply to new angels.”
“I’ve thought the same.” Although that would need to be when he was older and stronger, and better able to hold his own against the Ancients that now held Aaru—like his sire Remiel.
The archangel put his arm around me and pulled me close. “We missed you today. Lux is looking forward to our moon excursion, although he confessed to having some fears. I hope we don’t need to postpone the trip.”
Me too. Thinking about what Caramort had said, about the note from Samael, about the message light blinking on my mirror over in the corner, I realized there was a lot that would most likely need to be postponed.
