“That’s nice, you keep doing that.” Bel’aliol’s tone dropped back into the register she associated with him. “Because someone else is not being a good boy.”
Luke swallowed. “What will Upstairs do?”
“They can’t be allowed to outcompete us,” Bel’aliol snapped. “This signatory of yours, Brad—he has to destroy them. Get that Ravenfell agreement, with favorable terms. And then bankrupt this GreenField group. I want you to make Brad the most well-favored man in the city. Hawk needs to be nothing. Nothing, do you hear me?”
“They’re farther along in their Deal than we are,” Lucareoth said hesitantly.
“Ah, but you have a secret weapon, don’t you?” Bel’aliol smiled. “You’re on that plane. And they are not. You can move directly, you and your pet. So move. Or you won’t enjoy the consequences.”
“Consequences?”
Bel’aliol’s smiled flattened out. “You’re young. You don’t remember the last war. If you don’t like being in sales, I don’t think you’ll enjoy being cannon fodder. Land another Deal and upsell the one you’ve got. Now, before House Valefar realizes what you’re doing. And maybe you’ll survive what comes next.”
Again, the smoke collapsed.
Lucareoth swept the circle away, flinging chicken heart pieces at the wall. Then he staggered over to the sofa and collapsed. Rix scrambled over to the chicken heart bits, gulping them down before someone could sweep them up and throw them away. Humans and demons alike were so wasteful, throwing out all manner of things that could be food if you believed in yourself.
Gisele picked herself up more slowly. “Did he say war?”
“Yeah,” Lucareoth said.
“Like, war on the demon plane?”
“It would start there,” he said.
“But the last time there was a war on the Infernal Plane, some of it spilled over here,” Morgan said, remembering some of the history her father had tried to drill into her.
“What does that mean, exactly?” Gisele asked, slowly buttering another roll. If things were going to be terrible, they needed comfort carbs.
“Remember the great earthquake of Lisbon?”
“Only because it was inCandide.”
“If you say so. But it was a real thing,” Morgan said. “Same thing happened to San Francisco back at the beginning of the twentieth century. I think Krakatoa was an Infernal Plane conflict, too.”
“They used to be more common,” Luke said heavily. “The Accord was supposed to stop that. But if House Valefar is sneaking around…”
“Can you call in help from the opposite? If demons are real, what about angels?”
“No angels,” Luke and Morgan said at the same time.
“Angels don’t think like we do,” Morgan said. “Their idea of making things better can be the opposite of ours. They’re way too dangerous.”
“I don’t want New York City to burn down,” Gisele said in a small voice.
“I especially don’t want it to burn down while I’m in it,” Lucareoth said. “Especially since all the ice cream would melt.”
“And millions of people could die,” Morgan pointed out.
“That, too.”
She stared out the window into the darkness, still lit by streetlights and the constellations of a hundred lit windows scattered down the blocks. People going about their lives, oblivious of the disaster looming over them.
“I’m texting my mother,” Morgan said.
It’s House Valefar
Valefar? Shit
