The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,65

his head. "I think that's a fitting term. The angelic word literally translates as a master's house with property and value. At any rate, those aren't the only slaves. The rest are managed by thrones and malakim. We have dedicated breeding facilities in the more open and less fertile areas. Those probably have the largest concentration of population. The thrones manage the workgroups and handle the corpses, using those to feed the trees."

I shook my head with a groan. "That's disgusting. You know that, right?"

"I happen to agree," he told me. "That's why I created my stable. It gives them more freedom in an environment closer to what they would have had on their native planets. It's not perfect, because I blended the housing of Vesdar, Earth, and Tyrnigg together, but it's what I could do."

Okay, so maybe my father wasn't completely bad. I still wasn't okay with this. "And their training or experience?" I pressed.

"It's different for each one," he said. "Some tend the orchards. Others clean our homes. If there is something that we don't want to do, there is a group of slaves that were trained to do it. For us, this system works better than spending aether, and it creates more at the same time."

"And how many of the current population were born here?" I asked.

Uriel blew out a breath as he thought. "Probably around forty-five percent of them." He paused to lick at his lips and then asked, "Why?"

"Because I want to take them," I told him. "I just need to know what I'm looking at so I can plan how to make it possible. I mean, with Michael out of the way, this is the best time to do it."

That had his complete attention. "What do you mean with Michael out of the way?"

And now I was totally confused. "Has he already gotten out of the box?" I asked.

"What box?" Uriel demanded. "Sia, what are you talking about? You mean the prison he made for you?"

It seemed we were talking in circles, so I just started from the beginning. "Yes the prison, box, cell thing he had in his backyard that I told you about when I was here a week or so ago. The one he tried to throw me in, but I put him in it instead and then locked it."

"Ah, ok. Sadly, all I know is that he's been directing things all week long," Uriel insisted. "Nothing has been said about him being locked away for any length of time."

"Wait," Luke said, interrupting. "Have you seen him?"

Uriel paused. "No, but that's not unusual. Stieviel has been relaying his directions..."

Luke's brow furrowed. "The dominion?"

"Yes," Uriel said, dragging out the word. "Michael has had him running his errands for centuries now."

Something in the back of my mind clicked. "Does he happen to have, like, a weak wing and maybe a messed-up leg?"

"He does," Uriel said. "How do you know that?"

"Because that's how I got out of Michael's house. I couldn't open the door, but he was coming in, so I grabbed it before he could close it." I looked over at Luke. "That's the angel I told you about who looks like Ronwe."

Suddenly, I had both of their attention, although that was when Kacira decided to return. When she opened the door and walked in, both angels turned to look at her. She didn't seem to care. Kacira made a straight line for me, holding out a large cup of coffee. As soon as I took it, she eased herself down on the cushion next to me, just far enough away so that she wasn't invading my space.

"I added cream and sugar the way I like it. I hope that's okay?"

I took a sip before answering her, and found it was pretty close to how I made my own. "This is good. Thank you."

"What do you mean he looks like Ronwe?" Uriel asked.

"His skin is like a purplish silvery color, and one side of his body is weaker and scarred almost as if burned. The difference is that this angel has feathers and Ronwe has leather wings, but their faces are almost identical." I looked over at Luke. "I'm not kidding, they could almost be twins."

"And both of them are crippled," Luke said as if he was thinking something through. "So how did this dominion end up in such a powerful position? Relaying Michael's orders isn't something for such a low choir."

"He worked his way up," Uriel said. "I mean that rather literally.