Page 57 of The Morning Star
“You received my note.”
“Yep.” Scintillating conversation so far.
“I think that belongs to me.”
I shrugged. “The sword seems to think otherwise. You are Samael, formerly the Iblis, formerly an Archangel, formerly an Angel of Chaos?”
“I am Samael, the Iblis, the leader of Hel. No formerly about any of that. Now give me the sword or I’ll kill you and take it myself.”
A figure disengaged from the shadows to his right and approached, stepping up on the table to stand beside Samael and whisper in his ear. It was Doriel. I should have known when Gregory told me about what happened at the Seattle gate that Doriel had been the Ancient to cross there. My heart felt heavy to see someone I’d hoped to count as an ally here beside the former Iblis. It would be even more difficult to kill him with this powerful Ancient by his side.
I noticed that she was studiously not looking at me. But that guilt or regret or whatever she felt probably wouldn’t be enough for me to count on her if things went south.
“So are you here to beg for me to be merciful? For me to spare my brother?” Samael sneered, suddenly looking very much like Gabe. “The imp with the Iblis sword. But you’re not quite an imp any more, are you? I’ve been told you have wings, that you’re an Angel of Chaos. How exactly did that happen?”
I stepped forward into the open space and revealed my wings. The demons behind me parted, less out of awe and respect and more because the damned things were so huge they blocked their view.
“It’s a long story. Suffice it to say I’m an Angel of Chaos. I’m the Iblis. And I’m not here to do any begging.”
He leaned back on his butchered sofa-chair and tapped his chin. “Really? If you’re not going to beg, nor surrender the sword to me, then why are you here?”
I took another step forward, keeping the sword casually by my side as if it were a harmless extension of my arm, or some sort of pointy walking stick. As long as I could keep him focused on me and not the weapon, as long as I could get him to concentrate on my words, I might get close enough for one blow. I’d just have to make that one blow count.
“I’m here to make an offer to both you and the demons serving as your army.”
He laughed. “An offer? And what happens if we refuse this offer, imp?”
I immediately thought of the horse head. “Accept the offer, or die.”
“At whose hands?” he sneered. “You came alone. You’re the only angel within a hundred miles of the city.”
“I don’t need any angels to enforce my will as the Iblis upon the demons under my rule.” My voice was calm and self-assured, and I felt the demons in the room shift nervously.
I felt them. All of them. Inside the room, out in the streets, spread across the city. Three thousand, six hundred forty-two demons.
No, three thousand, six hundred forty-one. You go, SWAT team guys.
“I am a member of the Ruling Council,” I said, taking another step forward. “I’m working toward having us granted a section of land here among the humans that will be under demon rule. There will be a common rule of law that will be honored in any area whether angel or demon or human controlled, but beyond that our lands will be our own. We’ll have a place here for those who want it. And we’ll have peace with the angels.”
“I don’t want peace with the angels,” Samael announced. “They’ll all be dead soon anyway.”
“And then what?” I prompted, realizing that every demon in the room was listening intently to our conversation. “When you’re done, all the humans will be dead. All the angels will be dead. This world will be completely destroyed. None of you Ancients can live in Aaru in a spirit-being form, and the demons don’t want to live there. Are we to just go back to Hel and stay there? No more vacations, just putter around messing with whatever elves are left there and the occasional dwarf?”
There was a soft murmur behind me. Demons tended to be rather shortsighted. Mass killing sounded like great fun until you realized there was nothing left to play with when you were done.
“They banished us,” Samael snarled. “We’re not even truly angels anymore because of what my brother did. They took Aaru from us. They deserve to die—all of them and their pet humans as well.”
I shrugged. “Nobody cares about that except you and a handful of Ancients. We go along with your plan, and we’re stuck in Hel, unable to teleport out, with the only gateways being to a dead place. You’ll be doing worse to us than the angels ever did.”
There was a nervous shuffling behind me at my words. Samael’s face twisted in anger. “We can teleport out—”
“Can you?” I smirked. “Because all my nine hundred and some years I’ve not known Ancients to teleport anywhere besides in and around Hel. Maybe a few can manage to come here without using the gates, and now Ancients can go to Aaru. If the gates fall, then we demons would have to rely on Ancients to leave Hel. And our only options would be a dead world and Aaru where our physical selves rot away and there is nothing to experience as far as sensation. What kind of life are you damming us to, Samael?” I took another step forward. “This is why I have the sword and you don’t. This is why I’m the Iblis, and you’re not. I’m the leader. I want what’s in our best interests. You just want to use these demons without a care for what happens to them when you’re done with your petty revenge.”
The demons behind me stirred. Mine. They were mine. I felt them—felt their energies shift and align with my own.
“Liar,” he snarled. “She lies to all of you. I am Samael. I am the most powerful of all the Ancients, the true Iblis. Once we kill the humans and the angels, there is no limit to what we can do.”
I took another step. “The most powerful,” I mocked. “Your own brother nearly killed you. You took the sin of pride too far. You got every one of the Angels of Chaos banished. Everything that happened to them is your fault. It’s all on your head, and now you want demons to pay for your folly.”
