Page 68 of The Morning Star
The loss of her household, her injuries—it was all my fault. I’d let her down.
“I let you down,” she told me. “I failed. I failed Samael during the war, and now I failed you.”
I put my arm around her to hold her upright. “I fucked up. I’m shit at this strategy stuff, at this battle stuff. I’m a damned imp, not an archangel.”
“You’re the Iblis,” she gasped. “You don’t have to be good at battle, you just have to be the Iblis.”
Clearly she was hallucinating from pain, because being the Iblis meant being good at diplomacy, negotiation, building consensus and bringing demons together for a common goal—and battle, both strategy and fighting. None of those skills were in my wheelhouse, and as hard as I tried, I didn’t seem to be learning fast enough.
“Hel?” I asked her. “Or my home here? You relax and I’ll transport you and your household.”
“Hel. My home. Criam… I need Criam near me.” She took a few ragged breaths and slumped against me. “I will send any uninjured back to help you. I will rally the other Ancients, work to convince them to support you. I’ll be here for the next battle.”
“No, you won’t. You’re in no shape for fighting. You’ll be killed.”
“Should have died two-and-a-half-million years ago anyway.” She looked up at me, her dark eyes starting to lose their focus. “I fight. I fight until we win, or I die.”
I caught my breath at the thought of such loyalty. And I hoped that I could prove myself worthy of it.
Chapter 22
I’d never felt so fucking on edge.
The angels were stretched thin, trying to hold the demon army in one geographic area. Gregory and the other archangels debated whether to exert the significant energy it would take to close down the other gates, or keep their reserve power levels up and hope the few Grigori left could safeguard the portals from Hel. Pretty much every shifter was heading west to help. Gabe had even asked the humans for their assistance.
And the vampires…well, the vampires basically gave us a giant fuck-you. I wasn’t surprised.
Doriel and what remained of her household were back in Hel. I’d barely deposited her on a comfy couch before she was giving orders, demanding audiences with other Ancients, and struggling to heal herself as best as she could. I assured her that she could be of more use to me gaining support and loyalty for my side, than killing herself trying to fight while so injured.
And then I’d returned to this impromptu meeting in my dining room, with my household in the guest house, playing rock-paper-scissors over who would be lucky enough have the few remaining magical weapons in the next fight.
I plopped the map down on the dining room table as the archangels gathered around it. This wasn’t technically a Ruling Council meeting, so Asta wasn’t here and Nyalla was upstairs with Lux, but no force in the universe could apparently keep Ahia from somewhere she wanted to be. The angel stood just behind Raphael, peering at the map over his shoulder, her arm around his waist and hand on his hip. It was sweet how she was there for him, supporting him during what might end up being a losing battle for us.
“Here. Here. And Here.” I drew in the area with a crayon where the fake Samael and his army focused their forces. My new awareness, spotty though it may be, had proven very useful in knowing exactly where groups of demons were clustered, and where the imposter had put the Ancients that were supporting him. The werewolves in Alaska had held the northern borders, several families of black bear shifters had held the demons to the California, Washington, and Oregon state line, the big cat, raptor, and grizzly shifters had assisted the angels in ensuring the demons didn’t advance into Arizona or past the U.S. border with Mexico. And angels were still holding Los Angeles north to San Francisco.
“That’s a big area to defend, and I worry with his increased forces, he’ll hit us in multiple locations, forcing us to keep our numbers scattered across a large border,” Gabriel commented. “The army is thirty thousand?”
I nodded. “Give or take a few. They’re mostly in the large cities, but I can sense sizable units near the mountain passes, and individual demons acting as scouts to check how tightly we’re policing the perimeter.”
“What about the humans?” Rafi asked.
“The U.S. military has offered us armed troops, but they’re reluctant to utilize bombs or any sort of aerial attack when the demons are in areas still heavily populated with humans,” Gabe responded.
“If the troops can get in, and the humans living there can fight back, it would help,” Ahia commented.
I nodded. “I sent Nils and Terrelle with one of Gabe’s choir to provide information to the human military on how to best fight against the demons. This imposter is an arrogant ass, and he’s not going to worry about humans sneaking in, even if they’re carrying guns. He won’t see them as a threat. The goal is for them to get into the cities and hunt down demons one at a time, while prioritizing human safety and evacuation.”
“Their focus is basically on getting the humans out of the way, so we can go in and take care of the larger situation.” Uriel grimaced. “Or if we fail, they can go in with more serious weaponry and take charge of the situation.”
I knew as well as everyone else that if it came to that, it would mean the angels were all dead, and the humans would have no one but themselves to count on in a defense against the demons. I’d told Nils to let them know what fake-Samael’s plans were, that if we failed and they were on their own, they shouldn’t hold back.
“We’d need more angels,” Gregory mused. “We need an army of angels who are competent in fighting in physical form, which is only the remaining Grigori and a few thousand previous Grigori, and some angels who before now have not been out of Aaru for two to three thousand years. Bringing in others will just be throwing them to their deaths.”
“If we don’t win this thing, they’ll be slaughtered anyway,” Gabe pointed out.
“We’ll win,” I told him, although I was not very confident in my assertion.
Raphael grimaced. “That gives us four thousand against thirty thousand. Plus Sam’s demon army and the shifters, we’ll have seven or possibly eight thousand against thirty thousand.”
