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And with that, she had been condemned to Hell.
I had seen it. It had been terrible. One angel's death, another's fall. It had all gone down the night Nyx had been found and recaptured. Vince and I had been in the cross fire of it. I'd done what I could for him, but there was nothing I could do to stop Heaven's punishment.
Before leaving town, Vince had told me that it didn't matter what I thought I knew about Yasmine. He'd said that once she had spent enough time in Hell and around other demons, she'd become like them. It was what happened to all of them, how someone like Carter could become someone like Jerome. I hadn't believed it at the time but could understand it better after being surrounded in the despair and wrongness of this place. And when I studied her now, I could see it had happened to her too.
I remembered a smiling, laughing young woman with sparkling dark eyes and shining black hair. The hair and eyes were ostensibly the same, but there was no light or laughter in them. Her eyes seemed fathomless, dark and cold as she stared straight ahead and walked to the front of the courtroom. She was wearing a gauzy black dress, reminding me of some Goth courtesan, and her long, flowing hair blended into the silken fabric. Even if I'd never met her or known her history, I would have instantly identified her as a demon. Just like the others in the room, there was something in the way she looked and carried herself.
I was about to be condemned by someone who had once been my friend.
Yasmine reached the front of the courtroom and was gestured toward the witnesses' table. She sat down, gazing around the room with an unreadable expression.
"You've been following the trial?" asked Judge Hannibal.
"Yes," she said, in a voice as expressionless as her face. How she'd been watching, I couldn't say. With Hell, it could've been closed-circuit TV or a magic mirror for all I knew.
"And you understand your duty?" asked Hannibal.
"Yes," she replied.
Hannibal was trying to maintain some semblance of formality and procedure, but the self-satisfied smirk on his face was kind of negating that. He was too goddamned pleased with himself and this turn of events.
"Cast your vote then, based on the evidence and arguments you've witnessed. If you believe the two contracts are both sound and have not contradicted each other, then cast your vote against the petitioner."
When silence followed, Roman spoke up. "And if she thinks the two contracts aren't valid?"
"Yes, yes." Hannibal made a dismissive gesture, annoyed at this obvious waste of his time. "If you believe the contracts do contradict each other, then cast your vote for the petitioner."
Yasmine was given a piece of paper and pen, just like the other jurors. And just like the others, she wasted no time in writing her vote, her markings swift and certain. When she finished, she looked up serenely, no change in her expression, no sign that we'd ever once known each other. As terrible as I felt about my own fate, I couldn't help but feel nearly as bad for what Hell had done to someone as good and kind as her. No, I thought. Not just Hell. Really, Heaven was just as guilty. What kind of group could advocate goodness and not allow its members to love?
Hannibal took the paper from her with a flourish and held it out before him to read. "In accordance with the laws of this court, and the infallible Kingdom of Hell, the jury finds - " There was a pause, and the next part came out as a question. "In favor of the petitioner?"
A spark of goodness in the darkness. . . .
For a moment, nothing happened. The courtroom was silent, frozen in time. Then, several things happened right on top of each other.
From behind me, I heard Jerome say, "Shit."
Yasmine winked at me.
Roman hugged me.
Hannibal reread the slip of paper, looked at Yasmine, and then swallowed before speaking. "Both contracts are declared invalid, null and void."
Most of the room was on its feet, voices raised in fury. I had no time to process what they were saying, though, because I was disintegrating away.
"No, not yet!" I exclaimed.
I reached desperately for Roman, whose arms had been around me, but couldn't get ahold of him anymore. I was becoming nothing, a will-o'-the-wisp, unable to grasp anything of substance. I tried, though. I tried to grab him and take him with me because there was no way I could leave him here, not in the midst of a bunch of demons pissed off over having just lost two souls. I even tried to say his name, but it didn't work. I had no mouth, no voice anymore. I was leaving this place, and he was staying.
The last thing I saw was his sea green eyes regarding me with both happiness and sorrow. I thought I heard him saying something about "a far, far greater thing," and then I perceived nothing. I would have screamed in fury if I could have, but I was gone. I was nothing.
Only darkness.
Chapter 21
You would think the first moments of my new life, with a soul, would be magical and wonderful. Mostly, they just hurt.
"Ow."
"Not quite the same without immortal healing, eh, sweetie?"
I squinted into Hugh's grinning face. He stood in front of a huge window, backlit into blinding radiance. Turning my head, I slowly assessed the rest of my surroundings, taking in the familiar signs of a hospital room. I was lying on a bed, an IV in my arm, next to some beeping machines with indecipherable readouts.
I glanced back at Hugh. "Can you close the curtains? Or move to the other side of me?"
He shut the curtains partway, still keeping the room lit but no longer to eye-searing levels. "Better?"
"Yeah. Thanks." I shifted slightly, trying to assess my body's injuries. There was soreness in my ribs, a feeling of constriction when I breathed. Part of that was from whatever hurt they'd sustained and the rest was from the bandages tightly wrapped around my torso. All the better to keep me from making things worse, I supposed. "How . . . how long have I been in here?"
Recent events were still kind of a blur. In some ways, the trial felt like it had happen seconds ago. Yet it also had the dreamlike quality of something that had occurred last century. It was hard to wrap my mind around.
"Well," said Hugh, "your body's been here for about four days. 'You' on the other hand . . . oh, you came back to us about two days ago."
"You could tell?" I said.
His smile grew wry. "You forget what I do for a living. When you were in Hell, you didn't have a soul."
"I didn't have a soul before then," I pointed out. "I mean, technically it belonged to Hell, right?"
"Yes, but even if you don't own it, you still possess it. You can't function or exist without it. Our souls are like . . . oh, I don't know. It's like they're encased in amber. They're there, and I can see them inside us. They're just inaccessible, in a way that's different from humans. When you were gone, you had nothing. Not even a tagged soul. There was just kind of a . . . hollow darkness within you while you lay here."
I shivered, not liking the image. "And now?"
"And now?" Hugh's face softened, taking on a look of wonder that I'd never before seen on the usually gruff and snide imp. "Oh, sweetie. When you came back, I was here . . . and it was like . . . f**k, I don't know. I'm terrible at similes. It was like the sun, after an eclipse. You think that's bright?" He nodded toward the window. "That's nothing. You have your soul back, unfettered and unrestrained . . . and it's amazing. It's beautiful, so beautiful. I've never seen anything like it."
"Is it . . . is it tainted? I mean, I've done things . . ."
"You get it back shiny and new. That's in clause 13.2.1. It's a sign of how confident Hell is about never having to give souls back. Don't worry," he added. A goofy grin had started to spread over my face. "Even the best people have a few screwups. You'll break your soul in in no time. It's like a car. Loses its value when you drive it off the lot."
"Just hopefully not to the same degree as before," I muttered. A new, panicked thought came to me. I was pretty confident of the answer, but I had to ask. "And my body? Which one is it?"
"The same Georgina we all know and love. There are also stipulations about that, for succubi freed of their contracts. It would get messy giving you back your original body and figuring out what to do with you as far as location and time. So, you're simply reinstated with your soul into whatever body and location you were last in." He paused. "I'm fairly certain it's never happened to any succubus before."
