Page 28 of The Cruelest Chaos
I feel a little thrill, now that he’s pissed. I know it makes me a bad person; but I alreadyknowthat I’m a bad person. So who fucking cares? He doesn’t have a girl locked up in his basement while he decides her fate. He’s already decided Sid’s fate, and now he just keeps her locked up in his house. I wonder how bad he gave it to her last night, about fucking Pammie.
Ezra laughs. “You think you got shit all figured out with Sid?” he challenges Luce, taking a step toward him, breaking our circle. “Last night it didn’t seem like you were so sure.”Oh, so he went there. Glad someone else did.“You think everything’s all settled down?” He shakes his head. “I don’t think so, man. Jeremiah Rain?” I tense a little when he says that, my back screaming in pain at the movement, but I keep quiet. Ezra scoffs. “You think he’s gonna let you keep her? Where is she right now? Those guards can’t be paid off? You think Jeremiah wouldn’t do what you did for her?”
For a few seconds, I just see Lucifer’s breath coming out in puffs of cold, his chest heaving with his restraint. But then he must decide to fuck it all, because he closes the space between him and Ezra, and instinctively, Atlas takes a step back and Cain takes a step forward. I stay right where I am, by my car.
“Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth. You think because your dad is leading this shit now that you get to talk about shit you don’t know about? I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with you, but you clearly don’t have your head on straight. If you keep running your goddamn mouth, I’ll break your fucking jaw—”
Ezra lifts his fist just as Cain steps in between them, shoving them both hard in the chest, away from each other. “Relax,” he says quietly, looking at them both.
Ezra jerks away from Cain’s touch, tugging on his own jacket. Lucifer just keeps staring Ez down.
“We gotta stick together, alright?” Cain keeps talking. “This shit right here? We can’t afford that. Now let’s go inside and get this over with.” Then Cain’s coal black eyes turn on me as he drops his hand and Ezra and Lucifer keep their distance. “You decide what you want to do with your father—”
“Fuck his father,” Lucifer growls, his eyes meeting mine. “He’s fucked upbothof your sisters, Mav. Let him fucking pay for it.”
And I fucked up my brother. Wouldn’t be the first sibling I let down if I leave my father alive.
I don’t know what to say, so I don’t say a damn thing. I hadn’t really planned what to do tonight, and I know that we’ll probably have some stupid vote and we’ll probably be expected to let my dad back in and forgive him his sins. But I don’t know what he knew. I don’t know what hand he had in Sid’s fate.
And my mother…my mother would never forgive me for killing him.
I could discuss this with Luce, but he’s not thinking clearly right now, so I just shrug, and walk past all of them, my shoulder knocking into Luce’s.
Fuck ‘em all. Right now, I don’t really give a fuck.
The circular stonetable is already occupied when we get inside the meeting room. There’s no art on the walls, nothing but light grey paint, and sconces already lit, the only light in the room.
My father is missing.
Elijah Van Damme is at the head of the table, his hands clasped together and the 6 ring—a snake curved into the shape of the number—glinting from his dark brown fingers. Beside him is Callum Bonavich, Cain’s father, his mouth pressed into a thin line, his pale skin as white as Lucifer’s, like these fuckers keep to the shadows.
Atlas’s father, Adam de’ Medici, is on Elijah’s other side, looking the most relaxed of all of them. Atlas takes after his mother; obvious in Adam’s dark brown hair, light turquoise eyes. The only thing he shares with his son is that small smile playing on his lips as he watches us take a seat.
I sit at the opposite end of Elijah. Luce takes a seat beside Adam, Ezra beside him.
In the middle of the table, there’s a pentagram etched into the stone.
I glance at it, then stare at Elijah, slumped back in my seat like this Council is a waste of time. “Where’s my fucking father? Isn’t that why we’re here?”
“Salvete,” Elijah greets us, ignoring me.Helloin Latin. It’s a dead language, and yet the way we speak it here, I always forget that. Forget that it’s part of my strange life, but not the rest of the world’s. I like the way it sounds, the cadence of it on the 6’s tongue, especially. They’re much better at it than we are, although of course, I’d never tell them that.
I feel my blood boiling at the way Elijah brushes me off, but we mumble our response anyway. Elijah’s mouth presses into a line but he doesn’t comment otherwise. He runs a hand over his well-trimmed beard, cut close to his face, and his dark green eyes—a lot like Ezra’s hazel ones—sweep over all of us.
Then there’s a knock on the door, and it creaks open.
My father walks through, his eyes going straight to me. I smile at him. But he smiles back, and for some reason, that unnerves me.
He nods his head in greeting to everyone, then he takes a seat right beside me. I can feel the cold from outside radiating off of his body. The last time I saw him, I tried to kill him. I’ve got that same desire right now, but I fight it back.
I’ve seen some terrifying things at Council: blood spilled, Satanic chants, what I could’ve sworn was a fucking demon. This one is going much better than many others, so I keep my mouth shut.
No one at all speaks for a moment.
And then Elijah gets right to the point. “You’ve caused quite a mess.”
My father sighs, smooths down his dress shirt. “Good to see you, too.” I can practically hear the smirk in his words. “Since we’re diving right in,” he takes a breath, “you know I had no part in what happened with Lazar.” His eyes flicker to Lucifer, but Lucifer is staring down at the table like someone pissed in his cornflakes.
“You mean to tell me youdidn’tknow you cheated on your wife, knocked up your mistress, and had her give the baby away?” Lucifer growls, still looking at the table.
