Revenant(9)

“Finally, I had to threaten to torture her precious babies,” Satan continued. “That’s when she gave in and chose to send Reaver to Heaven. She knew, as I did, that Reaver was the good twin. The one worth saving.”

A spear of pain punched through Revenant’s chest, which he’d long thought was bulletproof. “No,” he argued, forcing a steady, neutral tone, “she knew Reaver was the one who couldn’t hack it down here.”

Satan’s bark of laughter sent hellrats scurrying from their hiding places. “Heaven wouldn’t have taken you. Not with my blood in your veins. Why do you think no one came to rescue you? Your soul is corrupt, and it’s only grown more corrupt. Tell me, since you gained your memory back and were raised to the status of Shadow Angel, has an agent of Heaven contacted you to welcome you into their loving embrace? No?” He bared his teeth. “And they never will. Mark my words.”

Revenant had never known Satan to be able to read minds, but it was almost as if he’d looked into Rev’s and latched onto his deepest, most secret desires. How could Revenant not want to know the place where he and Reaver should have been raised together? How could he not want to be accepted by those who had treated Reaver like family?

A silent snarl rose up in Rev’s throat. Fuck it. He didn’t need his angelic family. He had… okay, so he didn’t have a family. But hey, as long as he had a warm female in his bed, he didn’t need one.

“I have no desire to be welcomed into Heaven’s loving embrace.” But would it kill them to offer? To at least give him the opportunity to choose for himself? He was an angel, after all, just like all the other haloed pukes. Just like his brother.

Satan’s doubtful smile said he wasn’t buying it. But then, the Prince of Lies was suspicious of everyone. Liars assumed everyone lied. “Then you’ll have no problem proving it to me, right?”

“And if I do have a problem with it?”

“Then you should ask Harvester what happens when someone close to me pisses me off. Now, I’ll ask you again: You’ll have no problem proving your loyalty to me, right?”

Fuck. There wasn’t an inch of Harvester’s body, outside or inside, that Satan and his cronies hadn’t peeled, smashed, cut, macerated, or defiled… and she was his daughter. The only one of his offspring to be conceived while he was still an angel. He’d actually loved her, so what would he do to Revenant, whom he barely tolerated?

“Of course not,” Rev ground out.

“Then here’s the deal, son.” His black gaze lifted to the wall behind Revenant, where hundreds of bone rings hung from hooks.

Halos, they were called, because they’d been cut from the skulls of angels. Revenant’s own mother was up there, hanging in a place of prominence and ultimate insult – from a mounted upside-down crucifix.

“You,” Satan continued, “will bring me the head of an angel. And not some simpering, wimpy Cherubim or Seraphim. I want an angel from the Order of Thrones or higher.”

As far as strategies went, that was brilliant. The moment Rev killed an angel in cold blood, Heaven would close all its doors to Revenant.

What Satan didn’t know was that Heaven hadn’t opened any doors to begin with.

Satan slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair – which, fittingly, had been fashioned from human arm bones. “Your answer.”

Revenant bowed his head. He’d never liked angels anyway. “Your will is mine.”

“Is it?” Satan’s eyes glowed with unfathomable evil as he locked gazes with Rev. “Do not fail me, my son. You’ve seen how I punish traitors, but what I’ve done to them will be child’s play compared to what I’ll do to you. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“Good. Because taking out a single angel is just the beginning. As a Shadow Angel, you can go places I can’t and take out entire legions of angels. Your power will be my sword, and your primary objective will be to decimate Heaven’s angel population, including my darling daughter, Harvester,” Satan said, and Rev saw his relationship with Reaver go from antagonistic to full-blown Cain and Abel. “You have until Sanguinalia to bring an angel’s head to me.”

Sanguinalia, one of Sheoul’s most important holidays, would take place in a week. Which meant Revenant had seven days to get everything he wanted from Heaven before he killed an angel and confirmed to everyone that he’d deserved to be the twin who was left behind in Sheoul after his mother gave birth.

“Go,” Satan continued. “Take care of Gethel. I want Lucifer to be born healthy and powerful. I’m eager to have him at my side again.”