“Aramael?”
Seth went quiet for a moment, staring at their hands. Then he looked down at her. “I don't know.”
A new wave of cold washed through Alex. In the distance, she heard the wail of sirens. “Caim didn'tâhe didn'tâ” She paused and made herself form the question she needed to ask. “Aramael is all right, isn't he?”
Seth's black eyes went soft. “I thought you saw.”
“Saw what? Damn it, Sethâ”
“Aramael killed Caim, Alex.”
Relief, hot and heavy and sweet, would have made her collapse if she hadn't already been on the floor. Aramael was alive. And the monster was dead.
“Thank God.”
Seth remained silent, his jaw flexing. The sirens grew nearer.
“Seth? What is it?” Alex realized that he hadn't actually said that Aramael had lived and her belly turned liquid. “He is alive, isn't he? Seth?”
Seth sighed. “It's not that simple.”
She wondered if she had enough strength in her arms yet to smack him. She scowled. “Nothing is ever that simple with you people.”
The sirens died into silence outside her house. Seth lifted his head to listen and took his hand out from under hers.
“They'll be coming in soon. I need to get you out of here.”
Alex smacked at the hand heading for her nose. “Not until you tell me what the hell is going on with Aramael.”
“I don't have timeâ”
“Make time.”
He glared at her. “No wonder you've caused so much trouble. Fine. He's alive. Now let me get you out of here so we can take care of things before the place is overrun with firefighters.”
Alex pushed away the distraction arising from the
take care of things
idea. “That doesn't tell me anything, and you know it. Where is he? Is he hurt?”
Quiet sympathy emanated from Seth.
“Aramael destroyed another being, Alex. He committed the unforgivable in the One's name. The repercussionsâ” Seth broke off and then finished, “The repercussions are immeasurable at this point.”
She remembered then. Swallowed painfully. “The pact with Luciferâhe broke it.”
“Let's just say he opened doors we would have preferred to keep closed.”
She sat in silence, still cradled against him, listening to the sound of splintering wood downstairs, the muffled shouts from her lawn, the roar of flames that surrounded but did not touch her. Seth placed his hand over her nose and she winced at the crunch of cartilage moving back into place. A little more strength trickled back into her body. She thought about the repercussions Seth had mentioned.
More monsters at large in her world, undoubtedly. Monsters, and a war beyond mortal imagination. The Apocalypse. All because an angel and a human had dared to touch, dared to connect.
“Where is he now?” she asked quietly.
“Hold on.”
Seth wrapped his other arm around her and a sudden explosion shook the house. The flames along the hall fell back for an instant and then flared anew, higher than before. Alex shrank back into the shelter of Seth's body. The shouts on the lawn receded.
Seth looked down at her reassuringly. “We need to keep the firefighters out,” he explained. “It will look as if you were attacked by the killer”âhe touched her throatâ“and that he died in the fire. There will be questions, but when the killings end, the investigation will close.”
“My houseâ” Alex stopped. A war between Heaven and Hell loomed and she worried about her house? “Never mind. Tell me where Aramael is.”
“The Archangels have him.”
She wouldn't know an Archangel from a Guardian, but something in Seth's tone made her heart go cold. “I take it that's not good.”
“No.”
“But you'll help him.”
“I'm sorry, Alexâ”
She pulled away and turned on him. “He killed Caim because of me.”
Seth nodded.
“He told me that he and Iâthat we were a mistake.”
“Yes, butâ”
“So this is how Heaven handles its mistakes? By punishing the victim? How the hell is that ultimate good?” Alex threw her arms wide. “What the
fuck
happened to justice?”
“I told you, it's not thatâ”
“If you say it's not that simple one more time, Seth Benjamin, I swear to God I will kick you in the ballsâangel or no angel.”
Seth raked his fingers through his hair, his forehead furrowing. “This is out of my hands, Alex. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to help him.”
He stared at her, frustration stamped between his brows. “Fine. I'll try.”
“Not try. Help.”
“Damn it, Alexâ”
“He doesn't deserve this, Seth.”
Seth's angry gaze held hers for another moment and then he closed his eyes briefly, opening them to regard her in defeat. “You're right. He doesn't, and I will do everything in my power to help him.”
Alex released a long, unsteady breath. “Thank you.”
“
Now
can I please get you out of here?”
“I want to see him again.”
“You're joking.” Seth stared at her and then groaned. “You're not joking.”
“I want to say good-bye. I should have that much.”
Seth was silent for so long that she wondered if he'd heard her. Then a gentle hand stroked her head. “Yes,” he said. “You should.”
He carried her down the stairs, removing whatever protection he'd placed over her as he descended the last few steps, he explained, so that the heat would sear her skin and her lungs and the smoke would sting her eyes. So that she would emerge from the fire looking like she'd been caught in it and there wouldn't be questions about how she'd emerged unscathed. He set her down in the front hall, steadied her, sheltered her from the worst of the heat as she coughed and struggled for air. Wiped away the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I'll try my best,” he said. “For everything.”
Then he stilled the flames between her and the door and pushed her through the smoke, and she stumbled across her porch and into the waiting arms of a half dozen firefighters.
THIRTY-SEVEN
They took him to Mittron's office, depositing him with a telling lack of care in the middle of the floor. Aramael staggered, righted himself, and threw himself at his winged captors.
“Damn you both to hell!” he snarled. “She's still alive! I have to go back to herâ”
The Archangels' wings meshed together, forming an impenetrable wall. A barrier no one short of the One could breach. Where Aramael was strong, backed by Heaven's wrath, the One's enforcers were strongerâtheir power rooted in her Judgment. Cold, compassionless, absolute. The chill from their touch would linger on his soul for a long timeâand he would beat himself bloody and senseless against their might before they moved a feather from his path.
With a roar of frustration, he gave up his assault and stood in the center of the room, hands fisted, chest heaving with exertion, heart shredding within him. “Bastards!” he spat.
One of the ArchangelsâRaphaelâturned glittering eyes on him, then crossed his arms and stared into the distance. Aramael glared at him for a moment more and then spun to face the door as it opened to admit the Highest Seraph.
New fury, ugly and personal, rose in him. “You son of a bitch!”
He leaped for Mittron's throat. Heard the rustle of a wing that wasn't his own. Picked himself up from the opposite wall. Swiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand, he glowered at Raphael, now standing between him and the Highest.
“You've no idea what he's done,” he told the Archangel. “Thisâall of thisâis because of him.” He turned his glare on Mittron. “I'm just not sure if it was accidental or deliberate.”
Mittron raised an eyebrow. “Serious accusations, Power. I assume you have evidence to back them?”
Aramael wiped another drip from his nose. He didn't know what, if anything, Seth had found, but the Highest's supreme confidence told him that a search for information had probably been wasted in the first place. He stayed silent.
“I didn't think so.” Mittron looked to the Archangels and inclined his head. “Thank you for bringing him so quickly. If you wouldn't mind waiting outsideâ” He broke off and glanced at Aramael. “But bind him first.”
Aramael fought, but the skirmish with the Archangels was brief and ineffective, ending with his wings held motionless and his hands bound before him with a length of soft but unbreakable rope. Panting, he sent Mittron a murderous look as the door closed behind the Archangels.
“So,” Mittron said. “The business of your future.”
“No,” Aramael snarled. “Alex first.”
“The woman is the least of your concerns, Aramael. But if it will allow us to move forward, she lives. Apparently the Appointed shares some of your regard for her.”
The relief flooding through Aramael turned confused, complicated by a dozen other emotions: gratitude for Seth having saved her; jealousy at the idea she would wake in the Appointed's arms and not his own; wrenching loss at the knowledge he hadn't had the chance to hold her again. That he never would.
He forced muscles to relax. She lived, he told himself. For now that was enough.
Had
to be enough. He had more pressing matters to pursue. “Why?” he asked. “Why have you done this?”
He thought the Highest might keep up the denial, but without the Archangels present, Mittron seemed willing to relax his guard. Happy to share.
“Change, Aramael. You were a perfect, predictable catalyst for change. With the help of your brother and the Naphil, of course.”
“Change? What change?”
Mittron's face turned reminiscent. Brooding. “He was never good enough to sit at her side,” he murmured. “I tried to tell her that. To warn her he could not be trusted. She didn't listen to me, of course, and she was broken. Destroyed by his betrayal. I was the one who held her together through it. I advised her, guided her, watched over her. I did everything for her. Without me, the mortals would never have survived.”
Aramael shook his head to counter his confusion. Mittron seemed to be speaking of Lucifer, but Aramael didn't remember the events the way the Highest described. The One had been devastated, yes, as had they all. She had even been compassionate to a fault, perhaps, but she had never been less than the One, the ultimate power in the universe. Had never been weak in the way Mittron described. Had she?
He thought of the One's marked and continued absence from her angels' lives; how more and more of her instructions and wishes had been filtered through Mittron over the millennia. His blood ran cold, chilled his heart. Had they really missed something as monumental as the One's slow breaking down?
“But it made no difference,” Mittron continued. “She relied on me, yes, but never really saw me. Never saw that it should be me at her side, that it should have been me all along.”
Aramael's wings gave an involuntary twitch against their bonds. He thought he might choke. “This was about
ego
?”
The Highest's brows became an angry slash. “Careful, Power. I haven't yet meted out your sentence and it can still change.”
“I don't give a damn about my sentence. The One's decision had nothing to do with you. She swore she would never place
anyone
that high again.”
“She will have no choice once Lucifer declares war.”
“He can't. Not with the pactâ” Aramael stopped. He stared at Heaven's administrator, and in a single, awful instant of clarity, understood his part in Mittron's drama. Saw beyond the pain of losing Alex, the grief of denying his brother, and the anguish of betraying the One. Saw the impact of his actions on the universe. His voice went hoarse. “I broke the pact.”
“With an act of war against your own brother,” the Highest Seraph agreed. “Just as I knew you would when I conceived of this idea four and a half millennia ago, when Caim wanted to come back to the fold and your testimony swayed the One to deny him. You were both so angry with one another, so betrayed. You were on the verge of striking out at him even then. You only needed a little motivation. A little guidance.”
“But how?”
“Your soulmate had not yet been given a vessel, it was an easy matter to arrange for that vessel to be Nephilim. Easier still to tamper with your cleansing so you would recognize her when the time came. Easiest yet to convince Caim there might be an alternative route to his return.” Mittron stood up from his chair and stretched, looking smug. “Once events were put in motion, it was a matter of patience. The mark, I might add, of a brilliant tactician.”
He picked up a paper and came around to hand it to Aramael. “Not the kind of tactics I can reveal to the One, of course, but I will have ample opportunity to prove myself against Lucifer.”
“Aren't you forgetting something?”
“The agreement?” Mittron waved a careless hand. “Covered. Remember, I've had several millennia to work out the details. I must admit to a qualm or two when the Appointed became involved in matters, but I've used the opportunity to ensure that I've erased all my tracks now, and when the time comes, Seth will no longer pose a problem.”
“No.” Aramael shook his head, ignoring the paper in the Highest's outstretched hand. “This is insane. You're talking about the end of the mortal race and possibly our own.”
“The mortals are expendable, and I am more than capable of looking after our own.”