“I guarantee you itwillbe catastrophic if you do not let me leave this realm and rescue Jackie.” Venom seethes through my voice, echoed by sizzling wood beneath my palms. I flick my eyes down to it for the briefest of seconds before returning to my glare.
“Ah, sothat’sthe plan.” He angles his head back, the shadows catching on the slight curve of his jaw. “I can help, you know. If only you would be so kind as to stop burning a handprint into our nice dining table.”
I grind my teeth together. As much as I want to blast his smug face off, I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing with this magic. I’d really only like to use it as a last resort. “I will burn much more than your table if you try to hold me hostage for another minute.”
“But, given the opportunity, would you still open the Abyss?”
“No—” I freeze, biting my lip, but the damage is already done.
I’ve admitted the truth to someone.
“No, you won’t.” He stands up, towering over me by several inches, casting me in his shadow. It’s a power play. A challenge. One that I won’t be backing down from. “But you can figure it out the hard way. Go back, be woefully unprepared, and waste your one opportunity… Or, if you’d quit being so stubborn, we could work together.”
A hysterical breath of a laugh escapes my lips before I can control it. “You’re delusional if you think I’ll ever serve you.”
“How much do you want to go back to Abaddon? Get married, consummate it. Maybe even have his children. Your friends and family might survive it, but will you?” He pauses, his eye flicking over me in one fell swoop. “No, that’s what I thought. Whatever he’s done, it’s traumatized you.”
“Goddammit, Azael, would you stop intruding on my emotions already?”
“I’m not.” A smug look takes to his face, and he crosses his arms, getting comfortable in my personal space. God, I wish he would back the fuck up already. “I don’t need to. It’s obvious in so many other ways. Would you like me to list?”
I scoff. “Since when do you fucking care about what I’d like?”
“You’re right. I’ll just tell you anyway. Besides my intuition?—”
“Oh, great.Joy.”
“—and besides every bit of your physiology giving it away, I can’t help but feel the remnants of his tethers clinging to you like persistent, venomous snakes. Even when you’ve been quarantined for days, even when he can’t possibly reach you here, you can’t seem to shake them off of you. True pathokinetics are much better at covering their tracks, and I canstilldetect their signature stench of forced fate from a mile away. It is an abomination to Chaos, so it is an affront to me.”
I hardly know what he’s talking about. My understanding of souls and tethers is juvenile at best. But even though my ignorance has only made life harder for me, I’m still not sure ifAzael,of all people,is who I should be getting my information from.
Weakly, I deflect with a mumbled, “Bold of you to compare someone else to snakes...”
Azael seems to be getting frustrated, running a hand through his dark hair, pushing the waves out of their neat position. “Believe it or not, I don’t want to take your freedom from you. I want you tochooseto stay here. But the problem with that is I’m trying to counteract someone else’s programming, and the circumstances are not ideal. I think, deep down, you already know I’m right, but you just can’t trust me yet.”
I have no shortage of reasons to distrust him. “You did abduct me,use me as bait for murder, and hold me prisoner in solitary confinement for like ten days. Oh, and you’re alsoliterally Satan.”
“And yet, I’m still the lesser of two evils, if you compare me to Abaddon and Michael—both of whom you need to be fully prepared to face again. You’re only going to getonechance to get your friend out of Elohim, and you can’t afford a single weakness. You need a plan, allies, information, and an abundance of highly specialized training that only I can give you.”
I don’t buy it. He just wants me to believe I won’t find a better option elsewhere. Classic manipulation tactic, and I’m not falling for that shit anymore. I’d rather eat a box of nails than train with him.
“Really,” I remark, straight-faced. “Like what?”
He starts counting things off with his fingers. “How to flawlessly lie and deceive an angel. How to shield yourself without an angel feeling it. Projectile weapons that can channel the Aether. The full catalog of runes—none of which the Elohim can read or use… And more.”
I didn’t know half of those things even existed. In fact, I distinctly remember Malak telling me such weapons areimpossible.
Still, I eye Azael, blatantly suspicious. This is privileged knowledge that he’s offering me. He’s either extremely desperate, or he’s certain that he can make me keep it from the Elohim. “What do you even hope to gain from this?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Besides you?”
I wait for him to finish his sentence, but he just stands there, expectantly. As if his response is the only answer that could ever make sense, and he’s really going to make me explain why it doesn’t.
God, the complete arrogance of this man!
“I’m not your prize to be won,” I snap.
He has the nerve to roll his eyes. “Such dramatics. You make it sound like you’d be selling your soul to me when it’s merely a mutually beneficial agreement. You need allies, and so do I. If you haven’t noticed, I am doing everything I can to keep the world from being ruled by tyranny. I would make the same offer to Kesbeel or any other Power who happened to humanize themselves.”
