Council for multiple infractions; for shifting the timelines enough to give Leo a faint chance for life, when they had decided to allow him to die. When she refused to assist them to go back far enough in time to destroy the Mithrans before they could be born. When she helped you, against their advice. And when she failed to keep their age-old enemies, the salamanders, from the Earth. They decided the infractions had piled high enough and they punished her.”
I didn’t know or care anything about salamanders. I cared about my godchild. “And if I let her go? Break the crystal right now? Will she go crazy and bite everyone in sight?”
“She may. Or she may die. Soul has two choices for recourse. She can help the arcenciels destroy the origination of the bloodline of the Sons of Darkness, or she can dive through a rift and be saved. She refused the former option. And there are no rifts available to her.”
“Why not?” I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from his lips.
“All the others are buried beneath the oceans, lost in the deluge that resulted at the end of the last ice age, or surrounded by Mithrans or they open into the middle of a mountain. The arcenciels have been cut off from their world for millennia.”
My entire body stilled. Even the pain seemed to pause for a bright, shining moment. Slowly, I repeated, “‘Surrounded by Mithrans.’ That’s why they want the Mithrans all dead? Because the vamps have access to a rift?”
“But of course. Why else?”
But of course. As if I had known, as if everyone knew. Had I bothered to ask why? Had I asked and accepted some excuse that made no sense? Because this . . . this made total sense. “‘All the others,’” I repeated. Except the rift only I knew about. Well, me and the one arcenciel I had seen come through. Had that one found the others yet? They were searching for her, so no. She was young and the young dragons were more interested in sightseeing and playing and hunting than they were in helping their species accomplish their ends. I frowned, thinking it through. “So if there was another available rift, then Soul and the rest of the arcenciels would give up on the plan to kill the vamps.”
“Not exactly, but a close enough summation. With the goddesses not everything is always so clear.”
“Uh-huh.” Soul hadn’t seemed overly interested in gaining entrée to the rift. But maybe, in reality, she was desperate to do so and had been hiding her need to gain the upper hand in any bargain I might make. I held the long quartz crystal up to the light. “And if I just break it, she might die because she isn’t in her dragon form. So she can’t help me, and without her to interpret for me, neither will the dragons.” And Beast wasn’t responding and I might have hurt her. And I had a terminal illness. And EJ was in the hands of the monsters. Somewhere. Time was very, very short.
The Anzu still hung from the chandelier, looking alternately amused and irritated, though at the moment leaning toward amusement. He recognized that we were bargaining for something and considered me inept.
“Don’t you owe me a boon?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “You utilized my debt to make me your Enforcer instead of Eli Younger.” His eyes were narrow and he was grinning. Enjoying this.
I was frustrated and in pain and getting close to blowing my cool. Which would not help this negotiation. Not at all. I shoved down on my anger and affected a curious expression. “Mmmm. You’re blood sworn to me as my clansman in Clan Yellowrock. Under that relationship, would you consider helping me to track and kill the Son of Shadows, in your Anzu form?”
“My little bird form is outside of that agreement.”
“As the Enforcer to the Dark Queen, would you consider helping me to track and kill the Flayer of Mithrans, in your Anzu form?”
“No matter the relationship, my little bird form is outside of that agreement.” He pushed back from the chandelier, deliberately making it swing, like a kid on a playground. Yeah. Amused. Enjoying himself.
I shifted on the pile of pillows and the Anzu feather tickled my bare stomach. So far as I could tell, I was out of options. “Fine. I have something to offer.” I stopped. I had to be careful. A lie in the midst