Bartholomew and Josiah looked at each other again. “You ask for something beyond unreasonable,” Josiah finally said.
“The alternative is losing everything. Look. The Horsemen told us something important. The Gates, the tests, everything has been an attempt to push our people back together. God and Lucifer planned it all out.”
Caleb put his hand on my shoulder. “Isaiah is telling the truth,” he said. “A long, drawn out loss is almost inevitable. We all know it. Knowing this, how can we do other than work together to end this war as quickly and decisively as possible? I vouch for him. I trust him. He is my friend.”
His words seemed to carry enough weight for the Seraphs. “Let us have witnesses,” Bartholomew said. Both Chairmen popped into view. They’d probably been listening in. “I don’t care how extensive it is or how long it takes to draft. Make an agreement binding him to wield the power of the Throne of Heaven only against the existential threat as defined by the Pact. All usage of power will affect both Choir and Host perfectly equally. Close all loopholes. Marquis Isaiah Bright.” His gaze focused on me. “Can we entrust our people, our home, and our future to you?”
I met his gaze. “Yes.”
Chapter Twenty Three
I looked out through the window of Opheran’s office. He’d established a strong perimeter around the building, keeping everyone away. The agreement established between the Choir and Host stipulated that outside of the Seraphim and High Princes, neither angel nor demon could speak to me. The intention was to reduce external temptations. The only exception was Caleb, as he and Tink would be accompanying me to the Throne of Heaven. I had flatly refused to concede my personal requirement.
Nothing mentioned keeping humans or imps away, though. I turned around and looked over the room. “Almost time,” I said.
“Indeed,” Azriphel said. He leaned back in Opheran’s nicest guest chair, looking all too comfortable. Tink sat as far away from him as possible while Caleb leaned against the door. Opheran himself was at his desk, tapping impatiently. Chrissy sat in the middle of everything. She faced toward Azriphel and directly away from me. “And of course, your personal issues force a delay.”
“You said at my convenience,” Tink said. “Well, this is my convenience. Remove the suggestion on her.”
The demon was still wearing a patch over his eye. He probably liked the look it gave him. “Are you giving me an order, human?”
“I’m ordering you to hold to the promise you made in front of witnesses, motherfucker.”
He smiled and leaned in toward Chrissy. “I remember you, girl,” he said. “You fought well, for a human.”
Her head didn’t move an inch. I wished I could see her expression. “You killed Julian,” she said.
“Are you going to take revenge?”
“Could I?” she asked softly. No one in the room answered her. “Out of respect for the situation, I won’t. Not right now. But just like Anna, I hate you. You murdered someone I cared for. You controlled my mind. You sent me to die.”
“But you survived,” Azriphel replied. His eye glowed slightly as he spoke. “You survived his death. You survived my command, years of it. You survived what should have killed you. You’re strong, aren’t you?”
“Don’t mock me.”
“I’m not.” His tone was oddly sincere. “I will not apologize to you for what happened then. We were enemies. You lost someone you valued. I lost a great number of members of my House. Some of them, I was close to. Because of those losses, the Choir nearly destroyed my House. This is not the way I would have chosen to rise to High Prince.”
Tink snorted. “Don’t ask for sympathy.”
“Do you think I want your sympathy?” Azriphel didn’t turn away from Chrissy. “You knew opposing me held the risk of death or worse. Hate me all you want, girl, but you knew what you were getting into.”
Chrissy’s head dipped. “He didn’t deserve to die.”
“Neither did the hundreds of my House who died as the Gates of Purgatory shattered.” Azriphel leaned back in his chair. “Understand, girl. I do not regret my actions, just as the halfblood does not regret his. We both did what we felt was necessary to win. You would have done nothing less.”
I bit my lip. He wasn’t wrong. Chrissy shook her head. “I don’t care about your justifications. Just remove the suggestion and get this over with.”
“I did already, a couple of minutes ago.” He gestured toward me.
Chrissy slowly turned in her chair to face me. Our eyes met and hers filled with tears. She wiped at her eyes and gave me half a smile. “Nice to see you again, Zay.”
“Same to you,” I said. The room was a little dusty, truth be told.
“Thanks, now go away,” Tink said. “I don’t want to see your ugly face any longer than I need to.”
Azriphel chuckled and stood up. “My obligations to you are complete, Annabell Glass. I hope it is a long time before our paths cross again.”
She didn’t say anything as Caleb stood aside to let the demon out of the office, but before Azriphel could close the door behind him, she called out to him. “Hey, Azriphel.”
“Yes?”
“Your eye patch makes you look like an idiot.”
His hand went to the patch and his jaw dropped for a moment. Instead of responding to her, he looked to me with a chuckle. “Just as I remember,” he said. “Halfblood, I wish you good fortune with everything.”
“Thank you, High Prince,” I said. He closed the door and I let out a sigh. If I ever saw him again, it would be too soon. Maintaining civility with Tink’s hatred raging through the bond was not easy.
“Is there anything else you need to do?” Opheran asked.
I shook my head. “I think we’re ready.”
He nodded and took charge of opening a path for us to head to the closest portal. Before we left, Chrissy gave me a hug and wished us all luck. She’d be staying in Hell until the end of the war. We still couldn’t completely trust her. When Opheran called my name, we headed to the doorway and stepped out into Hell’s excuse for daylight.
I stopped dead after a single step. On either side of the path to the portal, at a distance precisely determined by imps, demons of the House stood at attention. Nearest to the door was my mom. She smiled at me as I saw her in the crowd and mouthed, “I love you.”
“Walk, demon,” Tink muttered quietly behind me, complete with a poke in the kidney. As we walked toward the portal, demons saluted me in their own ways, each one in perfect silence. Fists flew to their hearts, or hands to their eyebrows, or simply bowing as I walked past them. For the first time in a long time, there was no pressure from my ichor to give in to my demonic side, not even in the presence of so many of my House.
Opheran and Kalil stood at the end of the line. The Chairman and Kibs floated overhead. Kalil put his fist to his chest and bowed as our eyes met. When I looked to Opheran, he put his own fist to his chest. “I salute you, Marquis Isaiah Bright,” he said. “House Asmodeus salutes you. The Infernal Host salutes you.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I said.
“Say something to the House,” Opheran suggested. “If the Chairman allows it?” The imp nodded.
I turned around to face the line of demons, Caleb and Tink at my sides. “What the hell do I say in this sort of situation?” I asked them.
“Give them hope,” Caleb said.
It was enough for me. “I’m a little overwhelmed by all this,” I said, my voice unexpectedly echoing. Tink gave me a sly wink when I looked down at her. “I’m a halfblood, half human, and half Asmodeus. I’ve split the difference my whole life. I’ve fought to keep the balance and I’m tired of it. I don’t want to fight anymore.” The ranks stirred and I saw a few frowns. “I never wanted to fight. I didn’t want to fight House Lucifer, the Choir, or the Conclave. The greatest future is one where all three races can cooperate.”
I took a deep breath and looked
to the red sun before continuing. “We’re partway there with the Choir and Host coming together, but we still have to deal with humanity. The Conclave is uniting them through fear, but we can break that fear. We can unite through peace. I know, I sound sappy as hell, but I believe we can.”
“Bring it home,” Tink whispered. “You’re taking too long.”
“But in order to win peace, there’s one more fight. The Conclave needs to fall. Grandmaster Nathan Kane must be stopped by any means necessary.” I paused for dramatic effect. “Today, I’m going to get the power to make it happen. We’re going to change the course of this war. We’re going to crush the Conclave, and then we’re going to reach out to humanity and help them rebuild. It’s going to take a long time, it’ll be hard, but it’s going to happen. But before we do, we’re going to kick the ever-loving shit out those Conclave bastards and we’re going to crush Nathan Kane into the dirt. It’s time to win this fucking war.”
I wasn’t prepared for the roar of approval. The Chairman seemed like he was about to say something, but shook his head instead. Opheran grinned and clapped me on one shoulder as I turned away from the crowd. “Portal up, please,” he said.
The imps tore a portal open in front of us. “Proceed, Marquis Isaiah Bright,” the Chairman rasped.
“Good luck,” Opheran said quietly.
We stepped through the portal.
The Throne of Heaven stood before us, a region completely cut off from the outer world by a transparent gray boundary. A Gate resembling raw, wrought iron stood in front of us. Beyond the Gate we could see the Throne itself. Stairs cut from white marble led up to a wide, circular platform. At the center of the platform, a golden seat awaited. As ostentatious as it was, the power emanating from it made it seem as if the display was far less than it deserved.
“So, we go through all that bullshit from the demons,” Tink said. “And not a peep from the angels?”
“The Seraphim thought it best we keep this quiet,” Caleb said.
“Makes sense,” I said. If anything would cause angels to riot and mutiny, allowing a demon to sit upon the Throne of Heaven would be it. “So, let’s take a look at this Gate and see if we can figure out how to open it.”
Both of them turned to stare at me. “Wait a minute,” Tink said. “Wait just one fucking minute here. Are you telling me you came up with this idea without knowing how to open the Gate?”
“I thought this would be the easy part,” I said. She tried to stab me, but her heart just wasn’t in it.
Caleb was examining the Gate. “It has the same triangular pattern as we saw on the Gates of Purgatory, but it’s not like we can bleed on it. There’s no keyhole either. I don’t want to get much closer. I don’t think I’d like what would happen if I touched the barrier.”
“Me either,” I said. I walked forward to stand next to Caleb and the pressure from the barrier was like a strong headwind. Tink might go flying if she tried coming up here. A small plaque built into the structure of the Gate almost dead center caught my eye and I stepped over to look at it more closely. Instead of iron, it looked like carved granite. “Did you see this?”
Caleb frowned. “See what?”
“Maybe it doesn’t appear to angels since you can’t open the Gate,” I said. “It’s a small plaque with an engraving. Says ‘Give to receive, stand to sit, love to love’. How cryptic.”
Tink snorted. “Did they really enjoy riddles? Come on.”
“It could be taken in a great many ways,” Caleb said.
I stepped back and considered the words. Giving to receive, standing to sit, loving to love, all of them were sacrifices of a sort, and the other two Gates had required sacrifice to open. My answer was simple. I stepped back up to the Gate and held my hand up. “So, I don’t know the formality of how this works,” I said, conscious of how ridiculous it seemed to address an inanimate object. “But I’m going to give you something very important to me.”
The Gate seemed to shimmer in front of me. Nothing else changed, but it felt like I had its attention. With one hand, I clawed the other open, deeper than I usually did for a spell or circle. Red blood seeped out of the wound and splattered on the ground. “I’ve held my status as a halfblood as a point of pride for my entire life. It defines me, really. I’ve stood with one foot in each world and it tears me apart sometimes, but in the end, it’s always where I find my strength. So, accept this as my sacrifice. My humanity.” I turned my power inwards and forced blood out of the gash in my hand.
Blood pooled in front of me, inches from the Gate and barrier. A trickle began rolling uphill into the barrier and vanishing as soon as it touched the invisible line. The pressure of power from the Throne grew, but I stood my ground against its challenge, just as any demon would. The gush of blood finally dropped to a trickle, then ichor oozed from the wound instead. Before it could drip to the ground, I used it to seal the gash and stared down the Gate. “And so I stand in front of you, Isaiah Bright of House Asmodeus, the First Gatekeeper, a demon. Open.”
There was no ceremony, no challenge, no surge of power. The barrier was there and then it wasn’t. The Gate swung open silently. The pressure from the Throne diminished, but I could still feel it pushing against me. Thirteen steps led up to it, the first one just a foot away from the open Gate. I took a step forward, tense against whatever surprise might decide to strike me down.
“Wait!” I turned to see Tink scowling up at me. I hadn’t even noticed her approach. “I have something for you before you go.”
“What’s that?”
She grabbed my shirt, hauled me down, and kissed me, long and hard. “I don’t care what you are anymore,” she said as she released me. “I just wanted to send my love with you. I’ll be waiting.”
“Took you long enough to admit it,” I said.
“Oh, go fuck off already.”
I grinned and looked back at Caleb, who was just beginning to smile. I waved a salute to him. “I’ll catch you both in a bit,” I said, turned, and set my foot on the first step.
As my foot hit the step, time seemed to stop. Everything seemed to warp and bend around me. Colors intensified. It reminded me of the time I tried LSD in college, but the drug hadn’t given me any sense of power. This did. I could warp and bend everything around me, I could define the colors, I could push myself forward. I did. I took another step.
“I’ve been expecting you,” he said. I turned my head to see him sitting on thin air to my right. “I’ve been waiting for a long time, Isaiah.”
“I didn’t think five hundred odd years would be very long for you,” I said, taking another step up. “Of all the things I thought I wanted to be as a kid, God wasn’t on the list.”
“Most kids don’t have enough imagination. They all want to be scientists or actors or presidents.” He was still sitting in the same place next to me, even as I took another step up. “So, what do you want to know?”
“Should I call you God?” I asked him. “Yahweh? Jesus, or what?”
“Call me whatever you like. We’re the only ones here, so I’ll just assume you’re speaking to me.”
“All right. So have you been trapped in here all this time?”
“Afraid not.” He smiled. “This is just a fraction of myself I left here for you. You can take as long as you like to get to the Throne. When you sit down, I vanish for good. Until then, I’m here to answer whatever questions you might have.”
I considered all the questions I could never ask as I hit the fourth step. “You know, I feel like I’m going to know all the answers to all my questions once I sit down, so why bother?”
He chuckled. “It’s not going to come to you so quickly, Zay. You’ll have the power of the Throne, but there’s no manual on how to use it, and it’s not as useful as you might think.”
“It’s still infinitely more than what I have.”
“Infinity’s a big thought,” he said softly. “There’s an infinity
out there waiting for you. It’s so easy to fall into it and spend infinity within. I recommend it, when you have some infinities to spare.”
I took another step up, then another before I could lose momentum. Halfway there. “I guess I do have a question for you. Why’d you give up?”
“Give up?” His tone was oddly similar to Hikari’s when I had asked her the same question.
“You and Lucifer let yourselves die. I know you did it to release us all from your will, but seriously, why’d you just give up? I can tell even from here you could have just rearranged things.”
He waved a hand in the air. Two motes of bright light spiraled tightly together, a third orbiting them at a small distance, some smaller sparks caught between them. “Let me tell you what happened.” The three motes of light congealed into one. “In the beginning, there was one world. I cannot tell you whether it existed before us, only that we came into existence together. We worked together, shaping and guiding life as we saw fit, until we were satisfied with what we had created in our own image.”
“The race which split to angel and demon.”
“No. Now, this first race decided to create Thrones for us. They promised us the Thrones would amplify our powers, honoring those who had created them. At first, it seemed true, but they lied. We had never even considered the possibility. The Thrones weren’t amplifying our power. They were absorbing it.”
“What?”
He gestured at the spark floating in midair. It stretched and split into two. “The race we had created in our image coveted our power and they created the Thrones to take it, no matter how long it took. Before the Thrones could absorb all of our power, we used them to sever ourselves from their world. While we could not retrieve the power the Thrones had stolen, we could ensure they would no longer leech ours. The power we used was nearly enough to destroy us, but we succeeded. A new world formed under our Thrones. Lucifer and I swore we would not make the same mistake twice. This time, when we sculpted life anew, we did not give them the strength to stand against our will.”
The Demon Behind Me Page 29
