When Spell Freezes Over (All My Exes Die From Hexes Book 4)

by Killian McRae

  “You seem to forget how similar we are.” Pushing away from the wall, he strode, each step purposeful and measured, all while staring into her soul. “My divine obligation is to guide the Pure Souls, and to aid them in their attempts to keep the balance between the pull of Heaven and the temptations of Hell, just as your divine obligation is to now be the leader your people need you to be. The fact that we love each other is irrelevant.”

  “How dare you assume that I...”

  She lashed out to hit him, both arms swinging. Ramiel caught both her wrists effortlessly, and just as simply backed her to the wall and stretched her arms overhead.

  “I love you,” he declared, though his tone made it sound like a warning. “But if it comes down to having you, or saving them, I will save them. It doesn’t have to be this way. This war you’re about to wage—it isn’t about justice for your people; it’s Hades way to get revenge for the fact that I won your heart and took your innocence. For losing his kingdom because he sided with the Fallen who promised to kill me when Zeus refused to execute me—and failed. If you manage to win, his next move is getting you to give the lightning and rule of the Mountain to him.”

  “Hades loves me. He wouldn’t do that to me.”

  The words came out strained. She used all her strength trying to free herself.

  “Yeah?” Ramiel said. “Then renounce your divorce.”

  Her eyes went wide. “What?”

  “He had your divorce contract certified by an angel. I’d call that chance, except that Riona told me Hades knew she was Michael’s child. Since I suspect that you didn’t tell him, because prior to that you were Riona’s friend and you don’t sell out your friends that way, he must have known it from somewhere else.”

  “What are you implying, Ramiel? That my ex-husband got ahold of a DNA test on Riona somehow?”

  “No, I’m proposing that he was part of the conspiracy to make Riona exist in the first place. Everyone knows Hades and Azazel talk. And now that we know Azazel and Michael were in cahoots... well, that even brings into question Carol’s death, doesn’t it?”

  When she tugged again, he responded in kind. Ramiel batted her hands hard against the interwoven reeds and twigs.

  “Hades has planned this all along. Your divorce decree being certified by an angel in good standing? It’s an insurance plan, another way to get the HHA’s broken if you chicken out and don’t carry your invasion of Hell through. If you were to go back to Olympus without having been killed in the Underworld, he would seduce you, get you to renounce the divorce, and then do the deed himself, probably over your slain corpse.”

  Her teeth worked beneath the tempting lips he wanted to kiss more than ever. “You think I’m that gullible, that I didn’t understand that?”

  Finally, she had the advantage. His grip on her loosened, but she had long since stopped resisting. “Then why did you agree to it?”

  “Because what I said is true. Some part of me still loves him.” Persephone jerked, pulling back her arms to her side. “And a bigger part of me hates him. He used me. My youth, my fear, my eagerness to please my father. He used it all to coerce me into marrying him, used my father’s throne as a reason to keep us together, and used his own love for me to corrupt himself and justify everything that’s come before. Damn it, Ramiel, you were supposed to save me. You could kill him, you had the ability. But you never did. Instead, you took the one man who has ever truly loved me—my father.”

  The tide continued to reverse its flow. The muscles underneath Ramiel’s skin grew taut.

  “You knew I couldn’t,” the angel ground out. “I can’t kill without cause. The moment I would have slain him, I would both be expelled from Heaven and bring the Heaven-Hell Accords crashing to the ground. You might not care if the whole of humanity will die should the realms converge, but I do.”

  With a swish of her fingers, the branches that made up the ceiling became like the tentacles of some wooden octopus, coiling around the angel’s wrists and pulling him high in the air. Persephone circled, like a spider getting ready to embalm its catch.

  “If the HHA fell, there would be nothing to keep us apart.”

  He found his own convictions turning on him. “It’s going to fall the second you draw Grigori blood down here.”

  “Good. Then all you have to worry about is my ex-husband.”

  With another flash, he was free of his bonds and standing before her. “I’m not a murderer.”

  “I’m not suggesting you become one. There are three sides to this battle. All three would benefit from Hades’s death. Just make sure one of them succeeds in the task.”

  His words had run out, and if he didn’t leave now, his will to resist her would as well. Hades’s death would open the door for everything he wanted... And it would be so easy for Ramiel to kill him.

  “You’re playing a dangerous game, Steph. I hope you realize how much you have to lose if this goes downhill.”

  “Likewise, angel.” She lifted her hands, showing him the sparks dancing over her fingertips. “Likewise. Oh... And Ramiel?”

  He stopped his port midway, leaving him a vapor on the breeze before her. “Yes?”

  She grinned. “When all this is over, the accords will be renegotiated.”

  “Assuming everyone isn’t dead,” he said.

  “If the Nephilim survive, can you be sure that...” She tried to swallow away her sudden apparent emotions. “What I mean to say is, many of our women want the chance to carry children once more. We’d be willing to give up our immortality.”

  Shit, she knew how unlikely it was that her side would win. The question was, why?

  “Survive this. Be smart. Let me...” He hesitated. “You’re going to be a wonderful mother, Steph.”

  With that, the gates of Hell shook. Ramiel left without a moment’s hesitation. He had to get to the Pure Souls. The battle had become more than an intervention. With those words, it had become one they must win.

  Chapter 22

  Riona settled herself on the edge of the bed, a flash of something in her head that she labored to suppress, and asked the question they all wanted to say. “So now what?”

  “If we can get close enough to where the Nephilim are, I’ll be able to sense it,” Dee said. “There’s still a chance that Persephone can be talked out of this, if she’s willing to use telepathy with me. How similar is Hell-A to the mortal world version?”

  “The topography is the same, if that’s what you’re asking,” Jerry said. At the window, he pointed to the landscape beyond. Azazel’s hillside home gave them a wide perspective of the city and valley below. “This area is where the Fallen, some more prominent demons, and the Fallen’s favorite demon lovers have their homes. All the other souls who dwell here in the capitol city live there, in the valley. Beyond that, mountains and eventually... oh, hello. Over there? That’s new.”

  Dee and Riona joined him at the window.

  “A verdant forest on the slopes of Hell-A?” Riona asked.

  “And Persephone, the goddess of growth and greenery.” Dee rubbed a hand over his scruffy chin. “She’s hiding in plain sight then. The Fallen must have noticed it as well. Which begs the question, why the jim-dandy fuck aren’t they attacking?”

  “Because they’re waiting for night?” Jerry posited. “But that would be stupid. The Fallen can see in the dark. The Nephilim can’t.”

  “They’re waiting for us.”

  The Pure Souls turned on their former teammate.

  “But they didn’t know we were coming.”

  Marc couldn’t bring himself to meet Riona’s eyes. The accusation in them came on too strong.

  “Don’t. Please, don’t. I’m a demon, Riona. I didn’t have a choice. When my creator commands me, I’m obligated to obey.”

  “You... You set us up?” Her features went on random, quickly shifting from anger, to confusion, to sadness, then settling into disappointment. “Marc, how could you? I trusted you.”

 
“That was your mistake, Riona. You can’t trust a demon,” Jerry said, trying to put an arm around his wife. “They’ll always let you down.”

  “Damn it!” Dee bellowed. “I should say I’m surprised, but I’m not. And Riona, you know he’s right. We’ve tried to warn you. No matter how much he sounds like Marc, no matter how much he acts like him, that isn’t him.”

  “You know, they say that strongmen trade brawn for brains.” The voice—the arrogance that dripped from it, the oblique taunt that it contained. There was only one being to whom it could belong. “You demigod, however, seem to have gotten a little of both.”

  Flanked by Azazel on the right and Kochab on the left, Michael gazed upon the assembly with a snide sneer that boiled Riona’s blood.

  “Hello, daughter,” he said, opening his arms out wide. “Come, pay me your respects. I’m so proud that you’ve finally submitted to your destiny and joined us in Hell.”

  “How dare you.” She growled her words. “How dare you use my trust in Marc to get to us.”

  “You robbed Azazel of his other minion.” Michael pointed to Jerry. “What was I to do? It is not as though you would have descended to Hell should I have asked for it. And I’ll remind you, I did ask.”

  “Nor my son for me.” Azazel crossed his arms over his chest. “You were supposed to be my ace in the hole, Jerry. Centuries of mentorship and tutelage, wasted. How could you break your old man’s heart like that?”

  All manners of cucumber cool, Jerry blew his bangs from his eyes. “With joy, mostly.”

  “And there it is, the reason that I don’t actually miss you,” Azazel said.

  “Let’s just get it done with,” Riona mumbled. “You two have been planning this for almost thirty years. What is it you expect me to do? What is this great schism you think my existence is going to cause?”

  Azazel donned the sly grin of a used car salesman with a sucker in view. “Maybe you don’t remember our bargain, Keystone. You made your vow to me that I would see Heaven once more if I helped you learn how to use angel magic. Or is that all forgotten, now that you’re with your Pure Soul friends. Are you truly that fickle?”

  Jerry turned on his wife, his jaw hanging to the floor. “You made a deal with my dad?”

  Riona shrugged. “I was trapped in Olympus and my magic was going all screwy. I was afraid they’d discover I was part-angel and kick me out, or worse. I was desperate.”

  Dee pulled Riona behind him protectively. “It doesn’t matter what she promised. We’re not letting some loathsome, hideous, depraved, bastard Fallen get away with this.”

  “And your plan has one major flaw, Dad,” Riona mocked. “I’m only half-angel. Since only archangels in good standing can enter Heaven, why do you think I’ll be able to?

  “You’re archangel enough.” He leaned in, haughtiness in every feature. “Did you not endorse a contract between Hades and Persephone? Did it not turn to stone, as would only a document that was certified by a true representative of the heavenly realm?”

  “So something as stupid as witnessing a legal contract is all it takes for me to be an archangel in good standing?” Riona asked. “I am never co-signing a loan application again.”

  Michael continued. “You also had to be free of any sin according to your moral right truth. Luckily, the witch I chose for your mother made sure those were loose and easy by the way she raised you. Do you think it was simple chance that I chose Molly Dade? I knew the kind of child a woman like her would raise. Your heart is still good, but you’ve never held yourself to the dictates of anyone’s moral code but your own.”

  Dee grumbled to himself, “Kind of makes me wish she had slept with Marc.”

  Azazel laughed, but Michael quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. “You will open a portal to Heaven after the HHA fails, daughter. The terrestrial realms may merge and destroy each other, but, frankly, I don’t really give a fuck.”

  “I have no clue how in the hell I would open a portal to Heaven,” Riona rebuked. “I can barely drive from Boston to Springfield without a map. I only got us here because Marc fed me images of his bedroom.”

  “And Azazel can feed you memories of Heaven,” Michael interceded. “What’s your next feeble attempt to derail our plans?”

  Riona cocked her hip to the right. “You’re really starting to make me wish I had come to exist through a virgin birth. So this is what it all comes down to, huh? Kill everyone who’s living, leave the dead here to rot, and who the fuck cares as long as the five of you get back to Heaven.”

  “That part of you that’s all epic and melodramatic?” Kochab asked. “That’s your human half. Look at it this way: a great injustice will be remedied. The great fallacy of your human histories is that it attributes only evil and contempt to the Fallen. Have you ever considered, Keystone, exactly why it was that we fell to begin with?”

  “They actually know all about it,” Dee said. “It was when Big Boss tried to smite out my ancestors. The archangels swooped down on our world and slaughtered them, all because they accepted the title of gods that men attributed to them.”

  Kochab’s eyebrow arched. “And yet, here you are. Not a full Nephilim, but a son of Zeus. Why did he survive so that one day you may be born?”

  When none of them answered, she resumed.

  “Because those of us who you call the Fallen disobeyed our orders, and refused to take any more lives. We could not bear so much blood on our hands. And for this, we were branded evil, and exiled from Heaven. When Riona opens the portal, we will at last be able to go home. Meanwhile, the realms will merge, killing mortal men, but allowing the remaining Nephilim to assume control over the Earth once more. Even the mortals’ souls will not expire. They will be at will to wander the merged plane forever. Most of them probably won’t even understand they are dead.”

  “That all sounds well and good, until you consider the fact that Persephone is just outside the city and intends to destroy you all,” Dee said. “My sister really doesn’t care about your so-called benevolence. Do you think you’ve done her some favor by saving her? During the rapture, she had the option of becoming a soul in Heaven. But you fought for her eternal existence, where she was stuck in a marriage that she couldn’t escape for thousands of years. And my dad? A man who knew nothing but how to love, falling in love over and over, bearing the fruits of that love through his children born to human mothers, only to see them repeatedly age, grow old, and die? This is what you call compassion? Yeah, I know it means I would have never existed, but maybe you should have just listened to Big Boss’s orders.”

  “The arrogance of a half-human who thinks he knows better,” Michael sniveled.

  “What if I refuse to help?” Riona asked.

  Michael and Azazel exchanged a slow nod. The latter snapped his fingers twice. “Marc, I order you to kill your brother.”

  With speed that would’ve made a fighter jet jealous, Marc turned and leapt at Jerry.

  “No! No! I’ll help. I’ll help. Stop!”

  “Marc!” Azazel’s rebuke stopped the demon priest in his place. “Wait.”

  The order had come not a moment too soon. In just the few seconds that had passed, Marc had the heavenly blade pulled from its magical sheath, and the tip of the weapon at the juncture of Jerry’s throat and his chest. One breath more, and her husband would’ve been gone.

  Michael nodded approvingly. “Did not I tell you Azazel, that you could trust my daughter to give into her heart? She gets that from her mother. Molly was always one to go with her impulse.”

  At the mention of her mother, Riona frowned. “She died, you know? Just yesterday. She never gave up hope in me.”

  Michael shrugged. “Just another human.”

  Jerry stumbled to his feet, throwing Marc to the side. For good measure, he gave him a stiff kick in the ribs, making the demon curl up into a ball.

  Azazel beamed at his elder son. “Still my boy.”

  Jerry pulled back his fist and opened it with
a flourish, pushing forth a wave of energy that knocked the fallen angel onto his ass.

  “I’m Riona’s man, and I am no one’s boy.”

  Riona put herself between her husband and the enemy. “Just tell me what you need to have done. I’m sick of all this prophecy and magic and destiny stuff. I’m a person of action. Let’s just do this.”

  This time, it was Michael whose gaze filled with pride looking at his offspring. “And that, is my girl.”

  Chapter 23

  Ramiel had known that everything was a trap the second he let his soul carry to the vicinity of the Pure Souls. The opulent home in the ritziest part of Hell-A was surrounded on all sides by the mother of all Morgana Boxes. It must have gone up the moment after they ported in. Even attempting to tunnel underground to get to them had done no good. Despite the source of his power being heavenlight, the combined forces of fallen angels to trap him out proved too strong. All he could do was sit and wait.

  It didn’t take too long. After about fifteen minutes, he heard the door of the residence open and saw the procession of the principals begin. It didn’t mean that he understood what he was seeing, however. Samuel and Armaros, the least intelligent and most easily manipulated of the Fallen, led, followed by Dee and Jerry, Kochab taking up the rear. Michael and Azazel closed off the party. In the midst of all walked Marc, Michael’s heavenly blade pushed into Riona’s back.

  “What the jim-dandy fuck?” He found himself stealing one of Dee’s catchphrases.

  Now that he realized Marc was in on the deal, he wasn’t so sure he could keep himself from killing the bastard. His hand reached for his own blade on instinct alone, drawing it nigh, readying it to taste blood. It was only when he looked closer and saw the reactions of the demons about the street as they passed that Ramiel paused, keeping himself from swooping in, blade blazing. Could it be? Could it actually be possible? The new devil wasn’t exactly what he had expected. Why could none of the others see it though? Surely this all wouldn’t be taking place if those below were aware.