The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,107

come up with some plans. I'll take Sia to Angelis and scout things out. I'll do all of it, but I have one condition."

"Name it," Nick said.

So Luke looked at the dragon. "No loopholes. No take-backs. No tricks. Every member of the First Legion will have the life of an outworlder, the inability to die, and the security that we think we have now. All of us will work together to fix your little screw-up, but when it's over, we get to be happy. No adding something else to torture us as an experiment. No loopholes that we can't think about right now to make all of this worthless."

I cannot promise love, the dragon said. I have no influence over that. I can only promise that I will take care of you if you help me take care of my worlds.

"Then give us the midworlds," Luke said. "Angels can have Heaven. Demons can have Hell. Us? We will reign over the worlds in the middle. They will be our home, and we can punish the people on them - or help them - as we see fit."

Done. The dragon blinked, making it clear she'd just struck a deal with Lucifer. The five of you shall be the Devil's army. She will decide your fate, not me, and I give her the midworlds as her own, but only if she can defeat the angels of Heaven.

25

Lucifer

I felt the deal with the dragon slide into place in my mind, and yet I'd offered nothing back. There was no guarantee that we would make this happen - or even that we'd try. And yet, it appeared that this creature was able to lock in her side anyway. More than anything else about her, that terrified me.

But God? I couldn't tell if the rest of my legion actually believed her or if, like me, they were willing to hear her out but still had reservations. Yet her knowledge of life in the early days was eerily accurate. Since I remembered the evolution of dragons, that made even more questions, unless this body was nothing more than a skin.

I didn't want to ask, though. At least, not until I had the chance to talk to my legion alone, and that wouldn't happen for a little while longer. Because, since we were already on Vesdar, the next step was talking to the Unaffiliated Angels of Vesdar, which Sam had dubbed the UAV. So, once we'd asked God all the questions we could think of, our group headed over there, deciding to slip straight into the town this time.

When I stepped through the veil, I wasn't surprised to see that Nick and Sia had arrived first. Bel was right with me, while Sam and Ron slipped in a fraction of a second later. Then we waited, politely, until we were noticed. Yet I had to know one thing, so I took a single step.

Nothing stopped me. I was not glued to my spot, which meant that our deal with these people still held. Knowing how angels worked, I wasn't quite ready to trust that. Thankfully, it didn't take long before a child shrieked and pointed at us. Within seconds, people began moving - mostly to gather around us to gawk. Then, with a rush of wind, a single angel landed before our group, but it was not Phanuel.

"Muse!" he said, folding back his wings to reveal it was Vehuel. "And the rest of the First Legion. I hope it is a pleasure to see you again."

Sia's lips split into a smile and she headed toward him with her arm out. "Vehuel. Please tell me things on Vesdar are better?"

He pressed against her in a quick hug. "With the angels of Heaven, yes. With the war? Sadly, no. We're still working to shield our loved ones, and it appears that Sayeptal may grow." Then he turned to Nick. "Satanael, you look less thrilled than normal."

"We came to ask for help," Nick said, lifting a hand to hold off questions. "It's not an emergency, and there is no threat to Vesdar, but we'd love to talk about it with you, to see if the UAV is interested."

Twitching his fingers, Vehuel breathed, "Phanuel," and then turned, extending his arm toward the side of town. "Let us relax. There's no need for our demonic friends to stand like spectacles."

Bel grunted at that. "Unlike last time?"

Vehuel didn't answer until we'd passed the edge of the crowd and there were a few less