bolstering his vanity. “Any form of art in my likeness is priceless.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” I mumble.
“What was that?”
“I said—”
For the second time tonight, Echo’s hand slaps over my mouth. “I think Delta had a little too much Stupor blown into her face tonight.”
“Yes, let’s all calm down,” Iceman intervenes, stepping up beside me.
Echo gives me a look that says, behave, before dropping his palm away. I take a steadying breath, looking at my wings. “Stand down,” I order, hoping that if I sound like a general, they’ll listen. Luckily, they do.
Avarice slips outside but leaves the doors cracked, letting the ambiance of the party filter in. Tazreel takes a moment to look at each of the guys, still posturing with his wings. Even though he looks ageless, you can tell that he’s ancient. The power and influence he possesses is incomparable to anything other than what was rolling off of Lucifer himself.
“I will not allow this grouping to happen under my roof.” His words clang like metal falling to the floor, sending vibrations through my feet.
“Fine,” I retort. “We were just leaving anyway.”
His eyes snap to me. “Leaving? You cannot leave. You are my newly discovered progeny. You will need training on how to be a Nihil.”
I shake my head, letting my tangled hair shift over my back. “The only training I’ll be doing is how to help stabilize the Hellgate.”
He scoffs and runs a hand through his hair, his wings finally dropping back as he shakes his head. “That job is beneath you.”
“If that’s the way all Nihil think, that’s probably why the Gates are fucking breaking in the first place,” I reply hotly. “You guys are supposedly powerful. Why aren’t you helping to fix the Gates? Isn’t balance and all of that the thing you value most?”
“I’m Pride. I have enough to balance as it is,” he grits out. “And if they”—he points a finger at the guys—“are not up to their task, then they can get another bloodline to help them like they’re supposed to.”
I snort at his declaration. No shit, he’s prideful.
“That’s exactly what they were trying to do when I stepped into this whole Hellgate mess,” I tell him, exasperated. “The issue is that no powerful demons want the job. Outer Ringers don’t sustain the gate long enough before they’re completely drained and die. And no one else is stepping up. The Hellgate needs a stronger demon to help sustain it. I’m a Nihil, which means I’m more than up to the task,” I argue, upset that he just doesn’t seem to get it or care. How can Hell’s upper echelon of demons not understand the importance in what I’m saying?
“You should be leading armies and preparing for end times, not living in the Mortal Realm, protecting ungrateful humans unworthy to stand in your glorious presence,” he declares, completely serious.
My eyes feel like I could shoot lasers out of them and burn his stupid hair right off his head. “Those ungrateful humans deserve our protection. If all of you in Luce’s little circle would get off your pompous asses to help, maybe the Gates wouldn’t be in such bad shape, letting unauthorized demons sneak through to the Mortal Realm all the time.”
His eyes harden like cement. “Careful, daughter. I may not be able to punish you, but I still outrank you, and you will treat me with respect.”
I take a deep, calming breath. “Fine. I’m sorry,” I say, trying not to grit my teeth as I say it. “But the Gate is breaking. Maybe I’m not leading an army, but I am helping to prevent one from storming out and fucking with the balance you swore to adhere to. Isn’t that good enough? Isn’t balance and all this sin and sacrifice supposed to be for the greater good?”
“If things are as bad as you say, then Luce will take care of it,” Tazreel says dismissively, and I can practically feel steam shoot out of my ears. I’m so damn frustrated by his blasé attitude. “There is more to the realms and maintaining balance than you know, Delta. Yes, the Hellgate is important, but so are a great many other things that you have yet to learn. Those things are what your bloodline is intended for. Not Gatekeeping.”
“Gatekeeping is for the Gatekeepers, right?” I press. “Too bad there aren’t any of them left. Guess it’s up to us to guard it and help as much as we can.”