Fuck. He still couldn’t believe she’d done it—damned herself like that, when for two thousand years, all she’d dreamed of was earning her wings. And now she couldn’t.
Because of him.
He would have to make it up to her somehow, even if he could only make sure that she spent the rest of her life happy. He’d spoil her and make love to her and treat her like a damned queen.
They just had to kill her brother first.
“Idess?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes. I can do it.” She tightened her grip on the crossbow, grabbed his hand that held the dagger and suddenly, they were in a cavern deep inside Sheoul. The walls were lined by live demons crucified on twisted crosses, some being eaten alive by various hell-creatures.
Rami stood just three feet away from Lore and Idess, jaw-dropped and gaping.
“How—”
Idess released Lore and hurled the wine powder in Rami’s face. The fallen angel screamed and clawed at his eyes. Taking advantage of Rami’s misery, Lore buried his sword in the angel’s gut, and Idess cried out at the gruesome sight of her brother being impaled. Steam hissed from the wound, a wet, grotesque sound that was joined by the slide of bone on steel as Rami stumbled backward and off the blade.
Chasing the momentum, Lore swung, a blow that would have decapitated the angel if it had landed. But the bastard wheeled away in a blur, and the tip of the sword only nicked his throat.
He backed against a wall, teeth bared, clutching his gut and glaring at Idess, who had him in her crossbow’s sights. “You bitch.”
“Rami, please. Listen to me. I’m sorry. What I did was stupid. Selfish. I know that—”
“You know that? Your self-serving exploit kept me on this hellhole of a planet for two extra centuries!” he bellowed. “And then it got me kicked out of Heaven, you cocksucking whore!”
The crossbow started to shake. Lore inched closer to Idess when all he wanted to do was shove the sword up her brother’s ass. Her voice shook as hard as her weapon did. “What I did was unforgivable. But it affected you on Earth, not in Heaven.”
“You have no idea.” Rami circled them, his movements as sinuous as a snake’s despite the hole in his gut. “I learned of your betrayal days after my Ascension. Did you know, sister, that once bitterness takes root in an angel, it grows like a weed? Grows until the soul becomes shriveled and polluted with hate, which is not welcome in Heaven. It is your fault I was expelled.”
“No.” Idess wanted to cover her ears, to block the ugly truth. “No!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Lore swung the qeres-coated sword, but Rami wheeled away again, and Lore caught only a glancing blow to Rami’s shoulder. Still, the wound smoked and hissed, and Idess knew very well how much it hurt.
“So protective and possessive.” Rami snared a two-pronged pitchfork tool from a barrel and stabbed one of the scaly rat things that had been gnawing on the foot of a crucified demon. “Like an animal,” he said, as he watched the helpless creature squirm in agony on the tines. “Because that’s all demons are, Idess. Lowlifes. Lower even than the animals humans feed on.”
She might have agreed not long ago, but over the course of two thousand years she’d seen animals with more heart than some humans, and recently, she’d witnessed demons with more compassion.
Easing forward, she concentrated on keeping her voice soft and soothing. “Rami, you used to tell me that there was always balance in the world. If that’s true, and you know it is, then not all demons are bad. Like the one you took. Rade is innocent. You have to give him to us.”
Rami scoffed. “Innocent? He’s an insect. Have you never stepped on a cockroach?”
“Oh, Rami.” Despair sliced at her heart. “What have you become?”
“What I am is because of you!” he thundered.
“We can make it better. We can go to Father—”
“Better?” He laughed, but there was no joy in the sound. “Do you know what will make it better? Your complete and utter ruination. I wanted all your Primori to die so you would never Ascend. I wanted you to fail. To feel the humiliation I felt when I learned what you had done to me.”
Lore hurled a morning star, and though Rami twirled out of the way, it caught him in the shoulder. Rami ripped the weapon out of his flesh and threw it to the ground. “I’m disappointed in you, assassin. Roag swore you were competent, despite the fact that you failed him. Now I’ll have to slaughter Kynan myself. And once I have the amulet, I’ll bargain my way back into Heaven.”
“You’re insane,” Idess gasped. “They’ll never accept you.”