How stupid she felt. Fatally stupid.
“Is everything coming back to you now? Making sense?”
“Where’s Nina?” Angela spilled out the words, tormented suddenly by her ignorance. The Grail was worthless at the moment. If anything, Mikel would kill her before she could use it, if it had any effect at all. The angel hadn’t seemed severely injured by the Grail’s contact before this. Merely irritated.
Stephanie pushed a lock of hair from her eyes, amused. “Oh, she’ll be just fine, Angela.”
The way she said her name—the effect was worse every time. Angela’s insides knotted and her breath seized up. The blackness around them seemed to throb, like they stood in the center of the Devil’s heart. But Stephanie took as much notice of it as she did the Ladder. Either summoning it had been less momentous than Angela had thought, or it wouldn’t make a difference in the end.
“Mikel.” Stephanie’s eyes flickered back to their usual green. “You call her so, but in reality she has no name you can understand. Because in her state of being, she doesn’t need one.”
Angela stared at her wordlessly.
“She’s her mother’s daughter.” Tears appeared in the corners of Stephanie’s eyes, as if every word were painful to say. They contrasted so sharply with her dead expression that Angela could barely think. “And did you know she is also a copy of one of Lucifel’s attributes? And much like that part of her mother, she can move from body to body, sucking away at the life of her host?”
Stephanie’s lower lip trembled.
For a brief moment, her own personality emerged, and then just as quickly it disappeared, her expression cold again.
“But,” she continued, as softly as before, “at least Mikel can wander. Unlike her caged mother she had the ability to explore the Realms and taste every one of them. Did she bother telling you how she would often come here, feeding off the souls of the dead?”
Angela clutched at her stomach, struggling with another wave of nausea.
Kim had warned that Mikel was dangerous. Angela had done her best to be more cautious. And yet, in a stroke of bad judgment, she’d practically invited her into the Netherworld—barely questioning the disappearance of her parents and her torturous memories. They’d vanished under Mikel’s power, leaving absolutely nothing behind. Now it made sense—the eager, almost hungry, shine to Mikel’s eyes, her small hand lifting the glowing sphere to her mouth, and why she wouldn’t explain where it had gone afterward.
She’d devoured it.
Justice had been served in its own incomprehensible way, yet Angela couldn’t find her former satisfaction. Instead her breath hissed out between her teeth, and her lungs shuddered in the new, dense air, echoing her frustration, denying her the release of screaming out her anger. The atmosphere thickened, whirling and choking her with a swirling mass of black dots, their silhouettes glowing strangely against the void. They were like flies, buzzing for her eyes and ears, hazing over Stephanie’s figure as she began to advance again.
“It certainly changes things, doesn’t it?” Stephanie said. “When you realize that some people are born to be killers, no matter how much they try to fight it. I fought with that destiny myself. And finally, it became clear to me—”
She took a step closer, her hand outstretched for the Grail.
“—that there’s no point to it at all. Why be born, why die, when there’s no meaning to the process? Isn’t silence the true ideal? No memories, thoughts, or pain can be found in a void. Because the pain, you see, is a detail that’s always bothered me. I can’t fathom the reason behind its existence—and I’ve pondered that existence for a long, long time.”
“You’re wrong,” Angela snapped. “You’ve forgotten why people want to be alive. Or maybe you never even knew to begin with. It’s so they can be with other people and feel complete.” Her thirst for Israfel. Nina’s hope to have friends. Kim’s need for pleasure and affection. Sophia’s longing for the Archon. Yes, they were the desires that kept them alive and moving in a common direction. “Do you really need to do this, Stephanie? I can end your life, if that’s what you want. All I need is a chance.”
“Oh, the Archon is surprisingly generous.”
Adrenaline shot through Angela, burning into her heart.
Yes, that’s what she was. At last, the definitive moment had come. But Stephanie, of all people, was not the first person she’d expected to agree. Why wasn’t she upset? Or maniacal like last time?
“But stop and think, Angela. Lucifel’s own worshippers fear her. They keep her caged, strung up in adamant chains. And with good reason, because she could suck their life away”—Stephanie’s eyes glowed gently—“with a single touch. Consider, then, what it would mean for you to take her place. You—a weak human mistake who happens to shelter Raziel’s soul.”