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“From what I understand, you have also recently made your reentrance into the fold.”
I perked a brow at the cheeky smile he gave me. “My hand was forced. A crazed priest from the Order by the name of Alessio hunted me for months. Nearly got to me, too, if it weren’t for a woman.”
Seere propped his feet up on the edge of his desk and linked his fingers behind his neck, obviously pleased with the coincidences between my and Gaap’s worlds at the moment.
I crossed my arms and watched Gaap and Seere exchange a look. “I suppose you’re here to convince me that duty and our rankings are more important than the humans we owe our lives to?”
“No,” Gaap answered.
My chest deflated with the pent-up energy I’d been gathering. “No?” I confirmed.
“Celeste is more important than anything else on this or any other plane. Fight to keep her.” Gaap smiled and touched the freshly tattooed black band around his ring finger. Looking closer, the word Pru broke up the thick line.
I felt closer to Gaap than I ever had in the time we’d existed alongside each other. Even in the Fall, our battles didn’t coincide. Seere led the legions with me, and through that bond, I was convinced to take a seat at Lucifer’s table. Sitri had a soft spot for Gaap, but more often than not, the Prince of Sloth was seen as a rebellious deserter who disappeared for long periods of time through history to fuck his way through entire empires then came back when his money was spent and his life was in shambles.
He resembled a spoiled child on his shallowest level, but in this moment, he understood me.
“Thank you.” We exchanged a nod of understanding, and I continued, “What do you know about the book?”
Seere was the one to start. “It’s part of a set owned by the priests of the Order of Exorcists. Each member of the brotherhood seems to have their own book that they use to banish demons back to Hell or hide artifacts they deem too dangerous for the public.”
That explained the many items Celeste spent hours researching since releasing me.
“They’re spelled to keep the unholy out—or in your case, trapped inside.” Gaap moved to the corner of the desk and sat with his arms crossed.
“What happens when the priests succumb to time?” I asked them.
“The books are usually passed on to the next generation, who then take up lives dedicated to hunting demons. But we aren’t sure what happened to the man who imprisoned you.” Seere’s frustration laced his words.
I remembered the night I was captured. It had haunted my every waking moment for the first few years of my imprisonment. I’d been in Copenhagen in 1972 at a celebration for the newly crowned Queen of Denmark. The highest in European society had been in attendance, and I’d been accompanied by a young duchess whom I’d become cozy with. After many drinks and a few experimental drugs, we’d found ourselves in an empty council room. One moment, I had the duchess’s legs over my shoulders, my face in her cunt, and the next, I was being drawn into darkness.
“The priest who trapped you disappeared several years ago.” Seere’s somber voice held unwarranted guilt. “From what we’ve been able to piece together, there isn’t confirmation from either side about his fate. He came to the States in the early nineties, but the trail runs cold there.”
There was no way my brothers would have been able to locate me. The book hadn’t been removed from the shelves at Columbia University in decades. This only confirmed that Celeste had been meant to find it—and to release me.
How many humans had wandered the shelves but never heard my cries for help?
No. I had been delivered to her. The smallest bones in her body had vibrated when she crossed my path.
“You said Alessio had his own book,” I said. “Where is it now?”
Anger wrinkled Gaap’s face before he responded, “The snake survived, but his book of curses is in the hands of Eligos. We both know how steep the price is for his favors.”
“You let the priest live?” I asked.
“I was close to the truest death I’d ever felt. He was wounded, but I wasn’t the one who inflicted it.” Gaap held up his left hand, showing me the permanent ring on his finger. “Pru. Bravest human I’ve ever met.”
“And you don’t know where he is now?”
Seere answered, “Sitri suspects that Alessio is hiding out but has ultimately retreated to his brotherhood. There haven’t been rumors of a mounting attack yet, but I wouldn’t doubt it’s coming. Which leads me to a great favor I must ask of you and your Celeste.”
“You want her book,” I guessed.
My gaze went to Gaap. “If we have one of our own to decipher without Eli’s strings attached, we might have a chance at beating them at their own game.”
“This isn’t our fight.” I wouldn’t put Celeste in danger. Ours was a story that had been written far before modern religion or churches were punishing those it saw as sinful.
“If she’s with you, she is part of their war.” Seere’s dark voice rang true, but the itch in my throat begged for me to argue.
