“Yes, you should have.”
“But you weren’t honest with us either. You could have told us Jonah was your brother.”
She props her hands on her hips. “I had no reason to trust you. And then I did trust you, and Callan betrayed me anyway.”
“Callan is a dick, and I haven’t spoken to him in months. I’m pissed at him too, but I had nothing to do with him betraying you. You have to know I’d never do anything to hurt you.” I draw in a deep breath. “I am sorry for what I did though. I’ll say it a hundred times, if necessary, until you believe me. A thousand times. A million.”
She glances away, her shoulders dropping. Maybe I’m finally getting through to her. But then she pushes the STOP button again, and the elevator hits the second floor.
“I believe you’re sorry,” she says, as she walks out. “But I just don’t care.”
The door shuts with a thud after that, and the hollowness inside me feels like a black hole I can’t escape from. I’ve never felt this way about a woman before. In fact, before Olivia I slept with a new angel every month, and they all knew it was just a bit of fun and nothing serious. Then Liv came into my life, and nothing was ever the same again.
All I can do is keep trying to win her back. I screwed up last year, but I'll make it up to her, somehow. And I think I have an idea how.
Chapter Eight
Olivia
My first week of classes is pretty uneventful, other than the constant looks from other students. Most of them avoid me, which is fine by me. At least Araceli still treats me the same. It’s good to be living with her again, even if she insists on waking up at the crack of dawn, something I doubt I’ll ever get used to.
On Friday, it’s time for my first demon lesson with Kassiel, and it’s held in his office in the professor’s building, with their housing on the floors above. I wonder what his apartment is like. Is it all organized and refined, like he is in class? Or is it super messy, a way of letting himself go in his own private space? I long to find out.
When I step into his office, he’s taking off his suit jacket and loosening his tie. I stop in the doorway to admire him as he relaxes a little. When he rolls up his sleeves, I have a hard time not unbuttoning his shirt one pearly white button at a time. I have a feeling these lessons are going to be even more torture than his classes.
Kassiel is off-limits, I remind myself.
“Hello, Olivia. How was your first week of school?” His voice is so formal. I might as well be any other student, not one who’s tasted him before.
“Fine,” I say, trying to keep my tone even too. I sit in the chair in front of his desk.
He sits across from me. "After what happened the other week, I thought I'd begin our lessons with a little about the Archdemons, starting with Baal."
"Probably a good idea. I know a little about them from Demon Studies already, but I’d like to hear your side of things.” Mother also told me about them, but she didn't spend much time talking about demonic history. She focused on how to be a succubus. How I would survive without getting caught and without killing anyone.
"As you probably know, Baal is the leader of the vampires and the headmaster of Hellspawn Academy. What you probably don't know is how well-respected he is among the demons.”
“I guess that makes sense, if they trust him to teach their children. Just like Uriel is well-respected among angels.”
“Exactly. Plus vampires are a charming bunch at their worst, and Baal is the most powerful vampire there is. He has the power to dominate entire groups of people and bend them to his will, and he's ruthless and determined. I can't be sure he doesn't want to supplant Lucifer as leader of the demons, but if so, he's got another think coming."
"It's ‘another thing coming,’" I mutter absently as I remember the darkness in Baal’s eyes.
Kassiel opens his mouth to continue talking, but then closes it and stares at me. "No, it's ‘another think.’"
I roll my eyes. "There's a whole song about it. It's ‘thing.’"
“I’ve been alive for more than a century, and you want to question me?” he asks, with a hint of teasing in his voice.
I tease him back, unable to stop myself. “This has nothing to do with age. I’ve lived among humans all my life. I know what I’m talking about.”
“Let’s find out.” He opens his laptop, presumably to search online for the answer. It doesn’t take him long to find it. "Ha! I was right."
He turns the screen toward me, and I read about the phrase, which has suddenly become the most important thing in the world.
The phrase was originally ‘think,’ but... "No.” I shake my head. "I'm right. Modern slang has changed the phrase to ‘thing.’ So there." I close his laptop with a click and cross my arms.
"Maybe we're both right, but I was right first because originally it was ‘think.’” He sits back in his desk chair and grins like he just ate a big canary.
I lean forward and grin even wider. “And I’m right now, because we live in this century and not the previous one.”
As we stare at each other, something shifts between us, and our fun argument seems more like verbal foreplay. His eyes drop down to my cleavage, which is on display as I lean forward on his desk. I sit up quickly, my cheeks flushed with heat.
He tugs on the collar of his shirt and looks away pointedly. "This is dangerous."
"It doesn't have to be.” I fold my hands in my lap like a proper student who is not thinking about banging her professor right here on his desk, nope, definitely not. “We got sidetracked by the argument. Tell me more about the Archdemons. What about the Fallen one?”
Kassiel clears his throat as he gets back into professor-mode. “The Fallen are technically led by Lucifer, but since he’s the leader of all demons, Samael acts as his second in command and handles most Fallen issues.”
“What’s Lucifer like?” I ask. “You must have met him before, since you’re here on a mission for him.”
“He’s…intense. It’s hard to say no to him.” He stares off into space, and then shakes himself and comes back to reality. “In Demon Studies, did they mention that Las Vegas is a hotbed of demon activity?”
“Yes, and they said that Lucifer controls most of the casinos there.”
“He does. In Vegas, demons can feed without drawing too much attention to themselves. What they didn’t tell you is that Lucifer set everything up to take over the casinos almost immediately after the Earth Accords were signed. He'd been planning it for a while."
"That’s definitely not in the textbooks."
“I’m not surprised. Few know that Lucifer and Michael privately debated for a long time on how to best end the wars. The Earth Accords were in development for many years before they actually happened.”
“Really?” I raise my eyebrows at him. “Do you think Lucifer killed Michael?”
Kassiel’s eyes narrow. “No. I know he didn’t. And why would he? Lucifer and Michael were friends, or as close to friends as they could be, considering the circumstances. What reason would he have for killing Michael now that the war is over, anyway?”
“I don’t know.” Unlike the angels at the school, I don’t have an opinion on the matter. It does seem odd to me that Lucifer would kill Michael now that angels and demons are at peace, but maybe I don’t have all the facts either.
Kassiel’s face darkens. “The angels want to believe he did it, but they’re rarely rational when it comes to demons. It’s easy for them to blame Lucifer for everything bad that happens. They’ve been doing it for centuries, after all. Why stop now?”
He has a point. How many sayings are there about Lucifer? The devil made me do it. A convenient excuse, for sure.
Kassiel seems pretty worked up about this topic though, so it might be time to change the subject. "What about Ishtar?" I ask. “The shifter Archdemon?”
"He's angry, as most shifters tend to be, but he’s good at controlling it. He’s also one of the few Archdemons who doesn'
I sit up a little at the mention of the Lilim’s Archdemon. "What can you tell me about Lilith?”
Kassiel pauses, like he’s considering what exactly to tell me. "She’s very old and very powerful. Also, she's smart. Probably one of the most intelligent creatures I've ever met."
"Oh, really?" I've never heard anyone talk about her except with a negative connotation. Her reputation is almost as bad as Lucifer’s, but maybe that’s more angel propaganda.
"She’s very mysterious as well, and is always on the move. I’m told she's impossible to track down, unless she wants to be found. Even though she’s technically the Archdemon of the Lilim, she lets Asmodeus handle most matters for her.”
“Asmodeus?”
“Her son.”
My mouth falls open, although I quickly close it. “She has a son?”
“Yes. I believe she’s had a few children over the years. I’m not sure how many are still living though.”
“That’s unusual, isn’t it?” I ask. “For one of our kind to have so many children?”
“It is, although she does get around a lot, if you get my meaning.”
I do. I very much do. "Why does she move around so much?"
He shrugs. "Most Lilim are nomadic. They can't take a human lover for more than one night, and they would need multiple demon lovers to survive, so most don’t bother with that. Traveling allows them to feed without repercussions.” He pauses and his brow furrows. “Speaking of that, are you...? No, never mind, inappropriate question."
I'm very tempted to ask if he wants to give me a snack. The truth is, I’m hungry, and I’m going to need to feed soon, and not on Bastien again—but I can’t tell Kassiel that. So all I say is, “I’m surviving.”
He nods slowly. “Good.” A moment of awkwardness hangs between us before he says, “I think our time is up.”
I practically jump to my feet, because now that I’ve started thinking about feeding on Kassiel, it’s hard to stop. “Thanks for this lesson. I wasn’t sure if I’d learn anything from these meetings, but I did.”
“I’m glad,” Kassiel says, as he walks me to the door. My arm brushes against his, and a bolt of lust shoots through me. I’m not sure if it’s from me or him. “We’ll meet next week at the same time.”
As soon as I escape the room, I breathe a sigh of relief—and regret.
I’m starting to think going to Hellspawn Academy would have been easier than this.
Chapter Nine
Olivia
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that people are terrified of me. Grace usually has a table full of people sitting with her at dinner, but the minute I sit down, the place becomes a ghost town. Students who would've come to eat with Grace veer off in a different direction. But Grace doesn't seem to mind, and I'm used to people treating me like dirt. At least they aren't actively trying to kill me. Yet.
When I get back to my dorm, there’s an invitation to the next meeting of the Order of the Golden Throne sitting on my bed. My first one as a true member.
I still can't believe they kept me in, but I suspect they have ulterior motives. Their main purpose is to rid the world of demons, after all. How can they do that and allow a half-demon in their midst?
Kassiel’s words come back to me. “Be careful. Everyone knows who—and what—you are, and both angels and demons will want to use you…or they’ll want you dead.”
Good thing I’m always careful.
The next night, I pull my new golden robes out of my hiding spot behind my desk, along with my mask. Last year I was only an initiate of the Order of the Golden Throne and wore a white robe for these meetings. As I pull the shimmering material over my head, I’m reminded of how far I’ve come since then. I passed all their tests and proved myself to them, even with my demon blood. I don’t agree with the Order’s beliefs or their methods, but I infiltrated their ranks in order to find my brother, and now I hope to learn more about their plans and to uncover the identities of their members. I know Kassiel is a member—he was sent by Lucifer himself to infiltrate the Order and see if they’re a threat. We’ve already agreed to work together to stop their grand plan—to retrieve the Staff of Eternity to send demons back to hell.
I need to find out who their leader is, most importantly. He or she is the one who ordered Araceli’s boyfriend, Darel, killed. They made it look like a demon murdered him in an attempt to get her to join the Order, but I convinced her to stay far away from them. They want to use her fae blood to get into Faerie, although neither of us is sure how exactly—something else I hope to learn from the Order.
The meeting tonight is earlier than the ones last year, and it’s in their secret lair under the lake. I make myself invisible using my Ishim powers, and fly to the large boulder in the forest. As I fly lower, I spot another golden-robed member appear out of the night, as if made of shadow. That must be Kassiel. As a Fallen, he can control darkness, although I’ve never seen him use his powers before. It eases my nerves to know he’s going to be with me at the meeting tonight, that I have an ally among the other masked members.
Of course, I know some of the other people in the Order already. Grace. Cyrus. The Princes. But I’m not sure I can call any of them allies.
Kassiel opens the boulder, and I follow him down into the dark, damp stone tunnels leading under the lake. At the end of the tunnel, far below the surface, is a large cavern with over a dozen people sitting in a circle, all wearing gold robes and matching masks. Kassiel and I take a seat on the last empty stone bench.
The leader of the Order wears a gold crown and stands before us, in front of an ancient gold throne carved with depictions of angels and demons in battle. I’ve never seen our leader sit on the throne before, but maybe that will happen tonight. Otherwise, who is meant to sit there?
The leader speaks, but the masks are magically enchanted to distort voices, so I can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman. "Welcome, members of the Order of the Golden Throne. I'm pleased to see you all back with us for another year. We have much work to do."
He or she strides forward, and a shoe peeks out from under the robes. Black loafers, too big to be female, although some of the Valkyries have pretty big feet. It’s impossible to tell from the voluminous robes, but I get the sense it’s a man.
“As this is the first meeting of the year, let me remind everyone of our three basic tenets. One, angels are superior beings, meant to guide Earth and humanity to a brighter future. Two, demons are evil and must be eradicated from Earth to protect humanity. And three, loyalty to the Order is paramount, along with discretion. Anyone who speaks of the Order outside of these chambers will face dire consequences.”
He continues on about the Order’s long history, and I glance around at the other members, wondering which is Grace. I look for feminine builds, but the robes are very good at concealing body types, which I’m sure isn’t an accident. Everyone else is a mystery. There are three large figures sitting together, who could be the Princes, but it’s hard to tell for certain. Cyrus must be here somewhere, probably at Grace’s side. I wonder if Jeremy, who hates demons so much, is here too. If so, he’d probably lose his shit if he discovered I was a member. It’s probably a good thing my identity remains hidden from most members of the Order at this meeting. Only when people graduate do they learn who else is in the Order.
“Has anyone made any progress in our goal to retrieve the Staff of Eternity from Faerie?” the leader asks, drawing my attention once again. I hold my breath, but no one answers. Good.
Finally one person speaks up, their voice unreadable due to the mask. “Perhaps we should try to get that fae-blooded girl to join us again.”
Another person adds, “Or we could kidnap her and force her to help us. She must know how to get into Faerie.”
“She doesn’t,” I speak up, even though it draws attention to me. I don’t care though—I can’t let them hurt Araceli. “She was raised among angels and knows nothing about her fae side.”
“I agree,” says one of the people in the cluster that could be the Princes. “She is worthless. We must find another way.”
“We could use the fae at one of the upcoming soccer games,” a person across the room says. “Perhaps we can kidnap one of them and force them to open a portal.”
I have to bite my lip to stop from speaking out against this idea. This is exactly why I’m here—to learn their plans. Even if I disagree with them.
“A valid idea,” the leader says. “One that we must ponder. However, getting to Faerie is only the first step. We must find the Staff once we are there, and Faerie is large and dangerous. It won’t be easy.”
“And we need to find Jonah too,” another of the Princes says. My bet is Marcus.
The leader inclines his head slightly. Not really an answer, I notice. “Continue your research,” he says instead. “You will also be sent an individual task throughout the year, which you must complete. Do not fail us, or your punishment will be swift and severe.”
His chilling words wash over me. What kind of things do they want us to do? Last year they had us manipulate humans and torture demons as tests, so I’m not looking forward to whatever these new tasks are.
“We will meet again soon,” the leader continues. “For now, we must welcome the new initiates in the woods. They should be there by now, and we will form a circle around them. Do not speak. I will address them and assign them their first test."
He turns and walks up the pathway to the exit, and the circle follows in single-file silence. Once outside in the cool night air, we move through the forest to surround the initiates in their white robes. I have no idea who they are, but they peer around the clearing and wring their hands. I remember exactly what it felt like to be in their shoes.
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