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21
I retreated from the summoning circle, Florian instinctively backing away into the alley to join me so we stood shoulder to shoulder. If Sadriel wanted a fight, we were going to take her two on – wait. She was alone. I glanced around hurriedly, making sure that her quicksilver bodyguards weren’t lying in wait, but considering the size of those bastards, there really wasn’t any way of hiding them in such a tight alley, was there?
“You came alone,” I said, my fists raised just by my face. At my side, Florian’s palms were pointed at the ground. We were standing on filthy cement, sure, but maybe he had some way of penetrating through to the earth if the need arose. “What are you even doing here?”
Sadriel smiled at us. “I decided to travel light today, Mr. Albrecht. It might seem to you that descending from our celestial offices is just a matter of flapping one’s wings and arriving on terra firma, but I can assure you, it’s quite taxing. And I have to take up the bulk of the work.”
Her heels clicked as she approached, one hand curling fingers across the bottom of her ever-present clipboard, the other clutching her golden pen. Check that: her deadly, potentially skull-piercing pen. Really puts a new spin on the concept of bullet journaling.
My feet shifted against the ground as she came closer, my hands up to protect my face. Why was I even assuming a boxer’s stance? The hell was I thinking? I couldn’t reach out and summon the armor I liked so much from the Vestments. Raziel said so. That probably meant that I wouldn’t be able to access the gauntlets, too.
Sadriel chuckled. “There really is no cause for alarm, gentlemen. You can let your guard down. You have my word. I am only here to observe.” She crouched closer to the ground, adjusting her glasses as she peered at the summoning circle, then wrinkled her nose. “And to offer some advice. This is really very crude, don’t you think?”
My fists fell to my sides as I broadened my shoulders and lifted my chin in defiance. “Hey. That’s kind of rude. It’s the best I can do.”
“Is it, now?” Sadriel said, only just concealing her amusement. She smirked to herself, tapping the blunt end of her pen against her cheekbone as her eyes flitted between the summoning circle and my face.
I frowned. “What?”
She smiled even wider. “Perhaps you will allow me to make some adjustments, to demonstrate how a perfect circle actually looks.”
I rolled my eyes. “How is this going to help us with our communion? It’ll work either way.”
Sadriel dusted off the back of her trousers as she stood up and straightened herself. “It’s the principle of it, Mr. Albrecht. It is part of my territory, after all, my portfolio. Neatness. Precision. Order.”
My lips pressed together tight as a little idea dawned on me. “Oh, that’s right.” I walked over to the circle, still wary, but kneeling close enough to reach its edge with my hand. “So it’s really going to bother you if I do something to make it even messier, wouldn’t it?” I ran my fingers along the outside of the circle, smudging the chalk. “Does that bother you?”
Sadriel gasped, her lips parting in horror, her eye twitching. “Please,” she said, gulping. “It’s already so terribly drawn.”
Frigging angels. I smeared more of the chalk on another bit of the circle, mingling it with the dirt, making its lines all wobbly.
“No, please,” Sadriel groaned. “It’s so hideous.”
“Well,” Florian said, tutting. “That’s just uncalled for. A little mean of you, Sadriel.”
I wish I could more accurately describe the mix of annoyance and triumph that brewed in my chest each time I made the summoning circle more and more imperfect.
Sadriel breathed deeply. “Mr. Albrecht, there really is no need to be so antagonistic.”
Oh, no she didn’t. I pushed myself off the ground, my joints popping as I stood up. “That’s a lot of funny talk coming from someone who has, first off, barged into my home, and second, fully attacked me with a squad of buffalo angel goons. And let’s not forget that you got Florian here involved both times.”
“Then I confess,” Sadriel said. “That wasn’t ideal. But you have to believe me, I really was only gathering data, building up my department’s knowledge base of your capabilities, and even of your personality traits. I know that I am in no position to ask you to trust m
e, Mr. Albrecht, but I am not your enemy.”
I folded my arms, standing with my feet apart. “You’re going to have to excuse me when I tell you that I find that hard to believe.”
She pursed her lips, but said nothing. For a moment, she scribbled in her clipboard, the only sound in the alley the scratching of her pen against paper. I caught Florian standing on tiptoe, trying to catch a glimpse of what she was writing. Sadriel raised her pen, and I caught him by the wrist and tugged him away.
“No way in hell are you going to hurt us, you – ”
But she didn’t attack. Sadriel thrust her palm towards the ground, fingers splayed out, and a circular pattern of golden light appeared to burn through her clipboard, like it had penetrated paper and wood. It floated at her command, the sigil growing until it was just about the size and shape of the chalk monstrosity I’d drawn myself. The golden lattice of energy fell delicately to the ground, as light as a feather, and there it formed the most beautiful, most geometrically perfect summoning circle.
“There,” Sadriel said, her smile this time one of satisfaction, and not smugness. “That should serve. Just because any old circle will suffice, doesn’t mean you won’t get a little extra mileage out of a properly crafted one. Arachne will be more likely to lend you her ear when she sees this – well, if I do say so myself – this thing of utter beauty.”
I still had my arm across Florian’s chest, staring warily at the circle in the dust, waiting for it to turn into a glyph of entrapment like the one Mammon used on me, or an explosive rune, something truly horrible. Yet nothing happened. I raised an eyebrow at Sadriel.
“What’s the catch, then?” I said.
