as I edged around him.
“Apologies,” Michael said stiffly. He slowly sat back down and frowned at the mess. “Fuck. Waste of good meat.”
Every second spent in Michael’s presence was opening a small crack in the back of my mind, one that started small and was growing larger by the second. He was an archangel, but… he drank, he swore. Things that were proscribed to the Choirs. Even Gabriel and his like had tried to hide their worst tendencies among others of their kind.
“I just wanted to be the one to rip the little cunt limb from limb,” he finally said.
I sympathized. Really, I did. “Tascius already did that. So, you can rest easy now- he’s dead and gone.”
The gears in Michael’s head were clearly turning. He looked up at me and squinted, his gaze running up and down and finally resting on my wings. “You were in Heaven, then? Did they ever find Raphael?”
I slowly shook my head. “Nobody was looking for him. We were forbidden to discuss his absence.”
“Forbidden by who?” he demanded.
I set my jaw, hating the memories. “Gabriel, of course. And Barachiel, Raguel, and Selaphiel.”
His lips twisted in a sneer. “I should’ve known. Raphael vanished years before Gabriel betrayed me, but those four… they were tighter than a virgin’s-” He cut himself off before finishing that sentence, catching Tascius’s narrow-eyed glare. “They were good friends. Let’s just say that. After Raphael disappeared, God became… distant. He no longer spoke to us as he had before.”
Michael stared at the ground, then raked a hand through his tangled hair.
“Then what?” I prompted gently, my heart pounding. Everything I’d feared was turning out to be at least somewhat true. Gabriel and his kind… they were the worst kind of traitors.
“I suspected foul play, that’s what!” Michael boomed. “For an archangel to vanish without a trace? Unthinkable. And God’s silence… he was turning his face away from us. But I was the fool who trusted Gabriel’s word when he said Raphael had been seen in Hell…” He shook his head. “Pure fucking idiocy.”
I found myself saddled with an emotion I was unfamiliar with feeling towards archangels: sympathy. He hadn’t abandoned humanity in our time of need; he’d just been screwed over by the same guy as everyone else.
I came to a decision as he sat there, shaking his head in dejection.
“Michael. I’d like to propose to a trade.”
He looked up, his golden eyes hollow. I took that as an encouraging sign to continue.
“We’re hunting several people right now. It’s going to take everything we have, and, as you can see-” I glanced at Tascius, giving off his moonlit glow- “One of our number is going through some unprecedented changes. If you could be the one to guide him into this new form, then… we could help you search Hell for Raphael. After we’ve accomplished our mission, of course.” Michael just gazed at me steadily, his eyes slightly narrowed.
Despite his foul mouth and mood, there was something I trusted about him. The sense of his power didn’t give me the same chills of trepidation I’d always gotten from Gabriel and the others.
And with Tascius no longer guessing at the changes the transmutation might force on him, perhaps we’d stand a much better chance at finding Lucifer and Vyra soon.
Michael finally stood straight up, walking as far as he could. The chains holding him there clanked with every step. “Deal. Now where are we going and who are we hunting?”
I glanced at Azazel, who shook his head minutely and made a tiny little ‘get on with it’ motion behind his back, out of Michael’s sight.
“We’re searching for Lucifer Morningstar and a succubus named Erisvyra D’ailani. They’ve been captured by Satan… who we will be killing, of course. He went on the run after our first attempt, but once I’ve repaired the Sword of Light, I intend to try again. Driving him out was how we found you at all.”
Michael nodded, his wings rustling. “Excellent. Lovely plan. Now get these bracelets off my legs. The sooner we find them, the sooner I get to return home and make these bastards sorry they were ever born.”
I had to give him points for enthusiasm. One of the Chainlings unlocked the manacles, and Michael stepped out and stretched his wings, nearly filling half the cell for forcing Azazel to lean back.
Then his gaze landed on the empty tankard. “But first, is there any more whiskey?”
8
Belial
“Are you sulking?”
One of my ears twitched backwards towards the sound of Melisande’s