Page 46 of The Malevolent Seven

‘Incredible,’ the angelic said.

She stood up and left the bed. As she approached me, I warned, ‘Don’t break the circle.’

She wasn’t listening to me. She came closer and closer, until her toes were practically touching the sand and her face was at the very edge where two planes of reality met. She and Tenebris were practically nose to nose, like two dogs sniffing at each other.

‘You know guilt,’ she said. ‘You know shame.’

‘I know nothing of the sort,’ the demon said crossly. ‘Cade, get this bitch away from me. I told you, we don’t do favours for stinking angelics.’

Her head tilted, just a fraction. ‘But we are the same, you and I.’

Tenebris gave a hoarse laugh. ‘The same?Sister, we’re absolute polar fucking opposites. Built for entirely antithetical purposes. Our respective creations are literally—’

‘Angelics cannot feel shame,’ she said, cutting him off, her head tilting like a cat’s as she watched his face. ‘Nor can a diabolic. How could any creature who exists only to serve a purpose defined by others know regret?’

‘Ask this fucker,’ Tenebris said, jerking a thumb at me. ‘He’s a terrible influence.’

The angelic turned to me, her eyes narrowing as if she were seeing me for the first time. ‘What did you do to him?’

‘Nothing,’ I replied. ‘He’s a diabolic. He lies about everything, including this.’

‘He isn’t lying.’ Her golden eyes swivelled back to Tenebris. ‘Even as he tries to make light of the truth, he cannot hide that he is. . .changedfrom what he was made to be.’

‘Sever the spell, Cade,’ Tenebris demanded. ‘I’m done wasting my time with you and your weird stoned angelic.’

Outside, the banging had stopped. In my head, I felt the buzzing of Auroral whispers, and with my ears I heard the two justiciars chanting the condemnation rite before they blew the door off its hinges and wiped us all out.

Aradeus came to kneel before the angelic. ‘My lady, forgive me, but it seems my promises to free you from this place were overly optimistic.’ He rose again and drew his rapier, which struck me as both pointless and dangerous in the cramped cabin. ‘Should my death grant you one more minute’s freedom, I will count it worth the price.’

She reached out a hand and brushed her fingers along his cheek. ‘No heart such as yours ought ever break for so small a cause as my freedom, swashbuckler.’ With her other hand she gestured to Tenebris in the circle. ‘We will all of us escape this place together now.’

‘Cade, did you make her deaf as well as insensate when you screwed with all the knotted tendrils of desire I’m seeing dangling around this room? Because she sure ain’t good at listening.’ The diabolic turned to her, sneering, yet somehow troubled. ‘Focus, moron: under no circumstances am I helping some half-witted angeli—’

She put her finger to her lips. ‘Shhhh.’

Tenebris turned to me. ‘Did she just shush me, Cade? Did you just make it so that I was shushed by a fucking angelic? Is that what you’ve brought me to?’

The first crackles of magic made the air shiver inside the cabin.

‘One of the wonderists is a thunderer,’ Corrigan explained. ‘They’ve got a shield mage, too. The thunderer’s brewing up a storm and his friend is keeping it contained to this cabin. In about thirty seconds we’re all going to get blasted.’

But the angelic just smiled dreamily. ‘No one dies now, don’t you understand?’ She pointed again to Tenebris. ‘He feels shame. He feels guilt. He violates his own nature.’

It occurred to me then that if a Lord Celestine wanted to shatter the mind of an angelic, forcing one to be the plaything of such foul desires as men and women brought to this barge day after day would be the way to do it.

Corrigan turned to me and gave me a look that said this was all my fault and he should’ve sold me out to the justiciars when he’d first had the chance. Sparks were sliding all along his knuckles. ‘I’m going to blow up this whole place. We’ll all die, but hopefully, we’ll take down a couple of those bastards with us.’ Finally he grinned at me. ‘Wanna help me kill a couple of guys for old times’ sake?’

But my attention was all on the angelic now, because she was leaning right up to the edge of the circle and whispering something to Tenebris that I couldn’t hear. And then, just as I could feel the hair rising on my head and forearms from the storm building up inside the cabin, I saw the diabolic’s silver eyes go wide.

Then he turned to me and said, ‘Looks like we have a deal.’

‘What are you—?’

The angelic kicked the sand aside, breaking the barrier between this plane and the diabolic’s. Tenebris clasped his hands together as if in prayer and I saw a portal opening behind him:a path into the Infernal demesne.

‘What the fuck is he doing?’ Corrigan asked.

Tenebris opened his arms wide. ‘Corrigan Blight. Cade Ombra. Galass Idaris. Aradeus Mozen. Ugly dog creature. And. . .’ He looked at the angelic.

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