I shook my head. “I don’t know about that. I just want to stop Samael from murdering more women.”
“The Free Men think it’s not just the murders. They say Samael actually wants to end the world. An apocalypse, the angels taking over. They want to make us their slaves. They want us in chains.”
Dread slid through my bones. I knew Samael had some kind of master plan, but not what it was.
“So you’ll do it?” he asked.
“Do what?”
He fell silent, his throat bobbing. “They want you to kill him.”
I stared at him. “How?”
“First you have to seduce him. Do you think you can do that?”
“I already have. I mean, I’m not sure if it was enough. It wasn’t—”
He clamped his hands over his ears and shut his eyes. “I don’t need the details.” He pulled his hands away. “But from what I’ve heard, it doesn’t have to be the whole … thing. Kissing is enough for most angels.”
“I’ve certainly done that.”
He looked furious with me for a moment, then his cheeks went pink. “Okay.”
I didn’t have time for his prudishness. “What next?”
“Are you sure you’re up for this?”
“Whatever it is Finn, I’ll do it.” I said it right away, without even thinking about it. "If Alice is dead, then I have almost nothing left. Just you and Zahra. But Mum has lost her mind and my sister is gone, and she was one of the strongest people I knew, and …” I trailed off, and the screaming rose once more. "I'll do whatever it takes, and I don't care if it's risky.”
I wanted him to die. It wasn’t that I wanted him to suffer, but he simply needed to go. If he didn’t, more mortals like Alice would lose their lives at his hands.
Finn nodded solemnly. "Do you think you can get in and out of the castle again?”
I frowned. "I didn't get permission to leave today. I snuck out. But if I’m careful, I can probably sneak back in at night. I don't think they have any idea that I can scale the walls. And I’ve found a route to move around the castle that no one else seems to know about.”
“So you could get in and out of his bedroom without him seeing you?”
I nodded. “There’s a secret passage. I don’t think he even knows about it.”
“Okay. Look, I don’t want to make you too nervous, but I do need you to understand that if you mess this up in any way at all, you could …” He cleared his throat. “Explode.”
I let out a long, slow breath. “We’re talking about a bomb, I take it.”
“It’s designed to be planted in a drawer. Is there something he opens every night?”
“He has tea every night, I think. He pulls it out of a little drawer by his hearth.” My nerves were electrified. “How does it work?”
“Give me a minute.”
He rose from the table and closed the wooden shutters, so no one would be able to look inside. Then he locked the front door. Anticipation made my pulse race, and I watched as he crossed to the two men in the corner.
Finn pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and slid it across the table to the two Free Men. One of them shot me a pointed look over his wineglass. Then he raised the glass, like he was toasting me. I thought I saw a flicker of disdain in his eyes, but I supposed for men like him, someone like me would always be trash.
I didn’t really care what he thought. I had a job to do, and that was about it.
One of the men rose and went through a door at the back of the pub. A moment later, he returned with a brown leather briefcase. He handed it to Finn, who took it very carefully from his hand.
Finn crossed back to me, his face red, visibly sweating. He was breathing heavily as he slid the briefcase across the table, and his hands were shaking wildly when he reached to open the brass latches.
I grimaced. “Maybe I should do it, Finn. You’ll set it off.”
He nodded, sweat pouring down his temples.
I turned the briefcase to face me, then shot a glance at the two Free Men in the corner. They were watching me carefully, and one of them nodded, touching his forehead.
I took a deep breath, and popped open the latches.
My heart started pounding as I slowly inched up the lid. There, neatly tucked into the briefcase,