Cipher (Demonica Underworld #8) - Larissa Ione Page 0,60

stay long, either, knowing that their mere presence would burn holes through the veil like acid.

Hades nodded. “Understood. I’ll put my repair crew on standby.”

“No.” Azagoth glanced over at the portal the angels would be coming through at any moment. “I don’t want you to fix any damage their presence causes.”

“The fuck you say?” If Hades had ever been more stunned by anything, Azagoth wasn’t aware of it. He cleared his throat and added a hasty, “My lord?”

Not in the mood to either explain his command or be questioned about it, he snapped, “Go. They’ll be here in a moment.”

Hades popped his wings and lifted off just as Reaver and Revenant stepped out of the portal.

Reaver stalked toward him like a bull, his expression shadowed with fury, his pristine white and gold wings flared high above gleaming crimson and gold armor. Revenant flanked him, his black and silver wings folded tamely against the backplate of his light-absorbing ebony armor, but there was nothing tame about his bared fangs. Both angels were prepped for battle, and Azagoth flooded his body with power in response.

“I warned you not to release souls.” Reaver’s voice, singing with strength, vibrated the very air. “I warned you not to kill Bael.”

Guilty as charged on point A. But point B was a bust. Not for lack of trying though. His disappointment in not being brought Bael’s soul was almost crushing.

“Chill the fuck out, boys,” Azagoth said. “If Bael was dead, his soul would have come to me, and I’d be dissecting it right now.”

Sure, it was possible that another incredibly powerful demon or fallen angel had destroyed or devoured his soul, but the odds of that were so low as to be preposterous.

Reaver looked out over the stark terrain of what was basically the antechamber to the rest of the Inner Sanctum, and Azagoth wondered if he noticed the demons in the distance, slowly moving toward them, drawn by the power emanating from the two angels.

“You’re wrong.” Reaver turned back to Azagoth. “Griminions couldn’t have harvested his soul. He and his brother Moloc were...aberrations.”

Azagoth scoffed. “What do you mean, aberrations?”

“They’re twins,” Reaver said. “But they are one.”

Revenant’s head cranked around to stare at his brother. “Say what?”

“They share a soul,” Reaver explained. “To kill one of them means reuniting their two halves and making the remaining ‘brother’ whole. And much, much stronger.”

Well, wasn’t that interesting. Azagoth had succeeded in killing Bael’s physical body. Unfortunately, the fucker was still alive inside another body, and even stronger than before.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

“You couldn’t have shared that information sooner?” he gritted out.

Revenant jabbed Reaver in the shoulder. “No shit.”

Reaver glared at them both. “I didn’t know either, assholes. I just found out a few hours ago when I looked them up in the Akashic Library.”

Man, Azagoth missed the Heavenly library that contained details about every human, every event, every thing in the history of the universe.

“So?” Revenant crossed his arms over his chest, his spiked gauntlets clanking against his armor. “What’s their story?”

Azagoth was curious as well. Not because he gave a shit, but because information was a weapon.

“Apparently,” Reaver began, “their split-soul is why they were banished from Heaven as the youngest angels in history. According to the texts, they were devoid of empathy, and they delighted in hurting others. Humans, animals, other angels. They were going to be executed, but Moloc escaped. Bael couldn’t be executed for fear of reuniting the souls, so the archangels cut off his wings and kicked him out. Moloc performed a ceremony and his own wingectomy, and he fell too. Both joined up with Satan, and here we are.”

Minor setback. Azagoth just had to kill Moloc now. MolocBael? BaelMoloc? Whatever. Minor. Fucking. Setback.

So why didn’t it feel so minor? Alarm bells were ringing hard on this.

“Listen to me, Azagoth,” Reaver said. “I know you killed Bael. You fucked up. Don’t do it again. Don’t kill Moloc.”

“Or what?”

“Or you’ll cease to exist.”

Klaxons joined the alarm bells, and an entire symphony of warnings vibrated his body now. “You’re threatening me?”

“No, Azagoth, I’m telling you.” Reaver’s voice went low, ominous, his wings quivering with the force of it. “If you kill him, all that you know, all that you are...will be destroyed.”

Sudden fury seared Azagoth’s veins, hot and potent. “Do you not understand what Bael and Moloc want? They want Satan freed and Revenant deposed, and they’re killing my family to make it happen!” He rounded on Revenant. “Why can’t you do anything about this? You’re the fucking King