"Something violent, no doubt."
"She punched me in the nose. An exquisite child."
"I'll let her know she made such an impression on you. She'll be delighted."
"You seem less concerned about this than I thought. Is there something else on your mind? Something consuming you?"
"Yes," I said. Tink's situation wasn't the reason I had called him here. "House Lucifer needs to stop what it's doing, immediately."
Azriphel looked taken aback for a moment. For just that moment, I wondered if Kibs had led me astray, that the House situation wasn't as precarious as it seemed, that House Lucifer wasn't united behind this insane project. The moment passed and the surprise slid off his face, replaced by a smile that mixed concern for my sanity with polite amusement. "While I respect your audacity, House Lucifer is not in the habit of taking orders from halfbreeds of House Asmodeus."
"It's not an order, and I'm not talking to you as a representative from Asmodeus. Do you think I'm crazy? If they found out I was doing this, I'd be in deep shit." I had to disassociate myself from my House. "I'm talking to you as someone who's been dragged into the middle of this mess, who wants a peaceful resolution. You need to stop what you're doing before it's too late."
Azriphel's expression was getting more and more incredulous. "You're trying to warn an entire House? You? By yourself?"
"I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone here," I said. "I wanted to know why she was after you, and I wanted to talk to someone reasonably high up in your House."
His eyes narrowed. "She hadn't told you."
"She doesn't trust me. I can't imagine why."
"You truly are interesting," he said. "Interesting enough that I'll make you a counter-offer. Leave us alone, and you'll be left alone. I'll formalize it if you like. Shall I call a representative from the Consortium to witness it?"
"No deal, Azzy. Only way I'd even consider that is if you agreed to leave her out of it too and drop your vendetta."
"The girl?" He paused before nodding. "I will agree to that."
That surprised me, but only for a moment. Even if he stopped actively pursuing her, she'd still go after him, and he'd just kill her out of self-defense. That concession wouldn't cost him anything. "I'll take it under consideration, but you should listen to me."
"Do you even understand what you are interfering with?"
"Of course I do," I said. "You're trying to blow open the Gates of Purgatory."
"You have good sources." He was not amused at all, judging by the tone of his voice. "I assume that they also told you why we are doing this?"
"A couple of reasons. One would be to get someone's ass on the Throne of Hell and let us all go home," I said. He started to say something, but I cut him off. "Your Duke, whoever he is, got injured in a fight against a Power. That Power is friends with my partner. They got the information to me, and since I'm the brains of this operation, I put the pieces together."
"You, the brains?" He didn't quite sneer, but it was close.
"Hard to believe, I know," I admitted. "Regardless. I know what you're up to, and I know that your House is spearheading this. Now I'm caught dead center and I have a few different options. First one is to make the deal with you and back off. Believe me, that's the most appealing one to me right now."
"So why not accept it?"
"She won't accept it," I said. "She's got a vendetta against you too, you know, and even if you drop your side, she won't drop hers. She won't back off and she'll keep dragging me into it. Contractual agreement."
"So you will oppose us?"
"That's another option," I agreed. "What would you say, hypothetically, if we killed that Duke of yours?"
"Hypothetically, we would obliterate your House for interfering in our business without reason."
"And then get your asses kicked by the Choir," I said. "Don't bother arguing that. Without all of the Houses in full fighting trim, you'd have it hard. We both know that."
"I won't concede that entirely," he said. "But it would be more difficult than we anticipate. What other options are you considering, halfbreed?"
I shrugged. "I could tip off the Choir."
"You'd betray the entire Host to stop us?" Smoke hissed from his mouth as he spoke. "That's treason. Suicidal treason."
"It'd likely start another War right then and there," I said. "I know I wouldn't live too long, but it's better than the alternative."
"What alternative?"
"Don't you realize what's behind the Gates?"
"Purgatory," he said promptly, just as Kibs had.
"The Project is behind the Gates," I said. "If you pour too much energy in there in the process of breaking through, you're going to overload the Project, which will cause mass destruction throughout all the layers of reality. We're talking catastrophic damage, maybe even destroying whatever mechanism powers the Project. That means you've just burned away billions of human souls and destroyed great swathes of Heaven, Hell, and Earth."
He studied me. "You are concerned about the deaths of humans?"
"Of course. I'm a halfblood." I clenched my fists. "Look, this isn't going to be to anyone's benefit. You're going to cause a disaster and get nothing out of it."
"The benefit would be in returning home-"
"Don't bullshit me, Azzy," I snapped. "The entire point is to restore Hell before the Choir can restore Heaven, so that you can take advantage of the Project first. I'm all for returning home, but it won't work."
Azriphel fell silent. His eyes bored into me. Could he tell I was exaggerating what Kibs had told me? I didn't know whether the overload would wreck the Project or not, but it seemed to have given him pause. I mentally crossed my fingers and hoped he'd fall for it. After a minute of thought, he spoke again. "I don't believe you, halfbreed."
"What reason do I have to lie about this?"
"In all honesty, I don't know. You're not involved in any sort of power struggle between our Houses, nor are you important to anyone but yourself. However, I can tell you're lying about something. You are doing this for your own benefit. Let me ask you something. Does the angel know?"
"Does he know what?"
"About the Gates."
My mouth hung open. Caleb did know. He and Tink had found that master mage, they had everything explained to them, and even worse, he knew about the amplification of magic. I had wondered if a human mage armed with sufficient ichor from her partner could single-handedly blast the Gates open. Caleb was no fool. If a mage could do it with demonic ichor, it was likely it could happen with angelic purity as well.
"He does," Azriphel said. "You fool."
"Wait, I didn't-"
"There is no need for further discussion," he said. "We have no time to waste. If we do not do it, the Choir will. Do you think you'll live through that? They'll slaughter everyone with even a drop of ichor in their veins. Then they'll kill every human they consider tainted, including your precious partner. Can you accept that?"
"That's-"
"That's how angels work!" His voice grew louder. "Haven't you learned from our past? That's what they are!"
"Wait, Azzy-"
"Call me that again, and I will end you where you stand, half." His eyes flashed red, solid red. Black wings rose from his back, folded, but I knew that if he popped them open at full strength, he stood a good chance of breaching my circle. I could banish him with a thought up until that point.
I lifted my hands and tried to calm him. "Sorry. Will you hear me out, one last time?"
"I've wasted enough time-"
"Please, Lord Azriphel!" The words burst out of my mouth without thought. He looked slightly mollified and gestured with one hand. His fingernails had elongated into claws. "There's more than one way to open the Gates."
"What?"
"There's another way! It involves the cooperation of a human, demon, and angel. If I work with my partner and that Power, we may be able to open the Gates without any catastrophic side effects. If you give me enough time-"<
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"What is the point of that?" he demanded.
"To open it without-"
"The purpose is to do it quickly! Before the Choir can react and stop us, or worse, beat us to it!" he roared.
"It doesn't matter!" I shouted back at him. "There are three Gates before you reach the Throne! Breaching the first one won't matter either way! It still won't let us return home, it won't let you control the Project!"
"Three Gates?" He snorted. "You are mad, halfbreed. I'll not listen to your lies any longer. This audience is over."
"I'm not lying, you stubborn, prideful motherfucker!"
His wings flexed. I took a step back as he lifted a clawed hand and pointed at me. His transformation into his full demonic form was practically complete. "What did you just say?"
"You idiots assume you know everything about this, but you don't!" Some small part of me was quivering in abject terror. This was not my brightest moment, but I needed to get my point across. Preferably without dying in the process. "You're operating on partial information! Would you stop assuming I'm lying and consider what would happen if I was telling the truth? You're going to blow the Gates open and kill millions of humans and demons, including whoever actually tries it!"
His pointing finger curled inwards and he lowered his hand. To my surprise, he smiled. It was a smile full of pointy yellow fangs, but a smile nonetheless. "That is not something I would shed tears over."
"Oh for crying out loud-"
"Your information is welcome," he said. "You remain interesting. My offer stands. If you keep your head down, you'll survive to see our triumph. Otherwise, death will be the least of your worries."
"Don't do this, Azriphel!"
He started to sink through the circle, his transformation reversing itself as he went. As he sunk down to his waist, he paused. "One last thing, halfbreed. Your little girl dropped this. I understand it's important to her. Consider it a token of my willingness to stand by the terms I previously proposed."
He reached down through the circle, came up with something, and flung it. It passed clean through my circle, past my left ear, and cracked into my wall. Before I could do anything more than flinch, he passed down through the circle and disappeared. The darkness drained down after him, and the circle faded into nothingness. The bastard had broken it on purpose, no doubt. It would take days to restore it completely.
I looked over to see what he had flung at me. I recognized the knife, balanced nicely, runes etched into the blade. Tink had stabbed me with it when we first met. I pulled it out of the wall and put it down on the coffee table. The blade was mostly clean, except for a small green stain near the tip.
She was going to kill me when she heard how I found it. I left it alone and walked back to my bedroom. I'd enjoy at least a couple hours of sleep before she killed me.
Chapter Ten
There was a knock on my door at just past eight. "We brought beer and bad news," Tink announced, opening the door before I could even answer. "Don't get up or anything. Slack ass demon."
"Stick them in the fridge," I said, waving toward the kitchen.
"I'll stick them somewhere else if you don't greet me properly."
"Shut up. I love this show."
I heard Caleb chuckle and Tink grumble. I sat up and waved at the angel as she busied herself in the kitchen. "Just putting her where she belongs?" he asked.
"You said it, not me."
"I heard that," said an annoyed voice from the kitchen, punctuated by a pop. "You assholes can get your own damn beers now." She walked out with a single bottle and flopped down into her preferred chair.
Caleb shrugged and walked into the kitchen. I sat up and turned the TV down. "So, I take it the bad news is that you didn't find your knife."
She muttered something foul under her breath then lifted the bottle to her lips. "No, the place was cordoned off by the cops. We had to sneak in. They combed through it for evidence. I bet it's in some plastic bag on some cop's desk by now. I could go ask for it back. Tell them I dropped it there earlier. That'd go over well."
Caleb reappeared with two open bottles. "She's a little irritated," he said as he handed me one.
"Emphasis on little?"
"I've been here for two minutes and I already want to stab you," she said. "That knife was a gift, all right? I got it from my mentor when I passed my first apprentice's test. It's got a lot of memories."
I reached under the pillow on the end of the couch and pulled it out. "Surprise."
She looked at it, then up at me. "What the hell, demon? You went and found it before we could?"
I handed it over and sat out of range in case she remembered she wanted to stab me. "Wasn't exactly going out and finding it. Let's say, it was a coincidence."
She was touching the crusty green stain at the tip of the blade without looking at me. "Unexpected, you say. What, pray tell, did you do while we were out looking for it?"
"I had a nice chat with Kibs."
"Oh. Kibs."
"Who's Kibs?" Caleb asked.
"An imp from the Consortium," I said. "He's the one who witnessed our contract."
"The one who was spying on us?"
"He said you gave him a nasty look. I think you scared him."
Tink raised an eyebrow. "You had Kibs spying on us?"
"I just wanted to make sure you weren't getting yourself into too much trouble. It looks like I was right about that, doesn't it?"
"So what did you and that disgusting little imp discuss?"
Her tone was very light and conversational. I wasn't fooled one bit. "I got him drunk and asked him a few questions about the Gates of Purgatory. There's a lot I didn't know about the place. For example, did you know there are three Gates barring us from our respective Thrones? Purgatory's only the first one. How about that, Caleb?"
"Interesting." He didn't say anything more, just leaned against the wall and drank.
"What else did you discuss?" Tink asked.
"Seeing you naked?" Caleb choked. Tink started to stand up, face burning red, but I waved her off. "Just kidding. Didn't mention it. I asked if there was another way to open the Gates."
She sank back into her chair. "And?"
"There is."
"Why does that matter?"
"Because forcing the Gates open the way House Lucifer plans to will overload Project Purgatory, which will spark a conflagration of souls, so to speak. Apparently, burning souls are rather explosive. They also seem to be able to phase through the layers. If they make it to this layer before exploding, they'll make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like duds."
Both of them focused on me now. "This seems like a lot of information to have uncovered from an imp," Caleb said.
"They're involved in contracts, so they're privy to all sorts of confidential information. However, it's confidential between us, not between them. Tell one of them something, they all know before sunset."
"Confidentiality," Caleb mused. "How do you know that Lucifer is coordinating this?"
"I got Kibs drunk," I said. "Identified that Duke as House Lucifer based on what you two described. That scream was the key point."
"That doesn't mean that they're behind it," Tink pointed out. "The duke might be working independently. Even worse, the imp could be wrong, or lying."
"That's why I went right to the source."
"What do you mean?"
I gestured at the corner where my summoning circle had been. Caleb frowned, but Tink jumped to her feet. The knife was in her hand and pointing in my direction before I could get another word out. "Have you betrayed us, demon?"
"Sit down, Tink. I didn't betray anyone. I just spoke to one of House Lucifer's upper ranked members. I tried to convince them to drop this insane plan of theirs. They refused to, which confirms they're behind it, doesn't it?"
She slowly sank back down into her chair. I could feel Caleb's eyes on me. I wasn't going to tell him anything about the political situation, or about how his knowledge of
how to break the Gates had sent Azriphel into a panic. Working together to stop this was one thing, but there were balances to keep.
"Who was your contact in House Lucifer?" he asked.
I looked at Tink. She scowled. "A Marquis of House Lucifer. Azriphel," I said.
Her scowl melted, leaving her gaping at me. I didn't know how she was going to react, but I didn't think it was going to be pleasant. Instead of getting angry, she turned pale and sank back into her seat. "You son of a bitch," she said. "You talked to him. You brought him here and chatted with him."
"He's the one you're hunting, isn't he?" Caleb asked.
She nodded, but stayed silent, lips pressed tightly together. I went on. "He's high up enough in Lucifer that I could expect him to know what's going on, and to have enough pull to change it. I was right. I also wanted to talk to him for another reason."
Tink's pale face suddenly flushed. "You asked him."
"I didn't ask, actually. He volunteered."
"What did he tell you?"
I looked at Caleb. The angel shook his head slightly. "He didn't tell me much-"
"Don't bullshit me," she said. "Don't give me that, demon. What did he tell you?"
I sighed. "He told me about how he's been killing your family for hundreds of years, because your family killed his brother when he was a kid."
"Did he tell you what he did to me?"
"He told me that he killed your parents in front of you, then told you to find him or meet the same fate."
"And you're all right with that?"
Her hands were trembling. I stayed very still. "I told him he was sick for what he's doing. I even asked him if he'd be willing to drop the vendetta, though I was sure he'd say no."
Tink seemed to be at a loss for words. Caleb broke in. "Isn't that sticking your nose in a little far? That's not part of your contract, is it?"
"No, it isn't," I said. "But I thought I'd try and do something nice for a friend."
"What did he say?"
I couldn't meet Tink's eyes. The anger was rolling off her, almost in visible waves. I wouldn't have been surprised to see her hair start standing on end. "He agreed to do so if we backed off. We stop interfering, they stop going after you, and Azriphel drops his vendetta against your family. He was willing to call a witness right there."
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