Divine Intervention (Black Rose Auction #2)

Chapter 1

1

TLALLI

G rassy hills stretched over the landscape before Tlalli, cradling the sprawling mansion like gentle hands. It was an impressive estate for the area, and though she had seen so many places now that it was hard to keep them all straight, she would always find some gratitude for even the most mundane creativities of humankind.

It was difficult, though, to enjoy anything with Anthony prattling on at her shoulder, his grumbled words about something that happened at least an hour ago taking away from the fresh air and pretty pillars. She did her best to pay him no mind, ignoring every mention of her name for attention or otherwise. She was over it. She was over everything he and the Dominion had ever brought into her life.

“Come on, Goldie, help me out!” Anthony called.

“I’m not your nanny, Anthony, help yourself,” she cooed back condescendingly.

That had not been his name when she met him. That was the name Michael had given him the day Anthony officially joined the angels’ elite ranks, which was the more shocking aspect of this situation. While plenty of other mortals—with and without magic—had aided the angels over the centuries and continued to do so, few had ever been officially inducted into the Dominion itself, much less been given audience with its governing body—the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel.

And the worst part? Anthony had done so little to earn it.

It was Tlalli who had planned and carried out the heist at Anthony’s estate—or rather, Anthony’s father’s estate—and it was Tlalli who had endured dating Anthony to do so. It was Tlalli who had made his father, Cahuani, trust her until that trust was a weakness, and it was Tlalli who had ensured that Anthony was able to escape the home he swore was a prison. And had she not done all of that, he never would have made it to the Garden of Eden much less into the Dominion.

Still, the moment they reached the Garden, it became quite clear what Michael’s motives had been for using her. It wasn’t because he respected her or her abilities. It was because he had planned to offer her to Anthony as a prize for betraying his family.

Michael held to that intent even now despite Tlalli making clear she wanted nothing to do with Anthony.

For the past four years, Anthony had been as insufferable as he was inescapable. Michael continued to pair them up regardless of Tlalli’s demands and pleas, and by now, disenchantment had taken root in her chest. This wasn’t what she had signed up for—playing sidekick to a selfish, arrogant mortal playacting as an angel. After all the flack the angels had given her for having a Nahualli for a mother, watching them put this jackass on a pedestal was like taking a shot to the chest. Every single day.

Like Anthony and her mother Mecati, Tlalli was also one of the Nahualtin, ancient sorcerers native to the land that settlers now called Mexico. Once she joined the Dominion, she was forbidden from utilizing her Nahualli magic except of course when it benefitted the angels, something Mecati had been mortified by. She wondered if Anthony had been given an exception for that too although she doubted he would take one anyway. He had done everything in his power to leave his old life behind. Meanwhile, Tlalli had done everything to cling to hers.

She had been unwilling to relinquish her name first and foremost. It was one boundary she had warned Michael that he would never be allowed to cross. He had respected that for a good while. Then Anthony had come along.

When Anthony first met Tlalli, he and his shameful lack of creativity had nicknamed her “Goldilocks” because of the golden locs she often donned in human form. She could grin and bear it at first when they were alone on Earth, but once they returned to Heaven, it became increasingly unbearable once the other angels began to join in. No matter what she said now, they merely whisked it away, adding their own variation of the name to the tune of Anthony’s incessant laughter. That was when she realized her fate amidst the angels had been sealed. They would always see her as nothing more than a toy, the gift Michael had given Anthony for turning on his own. And if she remained in Heaven, there would be no way to change that.

Of course, she could not simply leave. There was no “leaving” Michael, and therefore, really no “leaving” Anthony. She doubted she would just slip away anyway. She was too petty, too spiteful, too angry, to just walk out and let them think they’d scared her off. No, when the time came for her to leave, she would not do so quietly. However her escape came about, she would ensure that it shook Heaven and the Dominion to its core.

She simply had to find a way to do that.

When they reached the mansion, the ornate front doors opened before them, permitting them entry into a spacious hall. Though she was not looking forward to spending several days surrounded by mortals and demons, she figured it should be easy enough to lose Anthony in this place. At the very least, she’d enjoy the distance from Michael.

Given that the auction they were attending was on neutral territory, the archangels and the Puri—governing bodies of the angels and demons respectively—had certain stipulations for the duration of everyone’s coexistence here. One of these stipulations was that the governing bodies were not allowed on the premises, and they could not be in direct contact with their representatives. This meant Tlalli and her little team would have no help from Michael or the other archangels. They were on their own.

Though Tlalli had insisted she could do this alone, Michael had been adamant about sending not only Anthony but also Elias, one of the oldest angels. Tlalli had always felt that it was a bit of a cheat to send Elias on any team mission when he could probably take on a whole legion of demons on his own. Yet Elias had long since lost his lust for the work, so he acted as a glorified babysitter for Anthony—and by extension, Tlalli—a role that he was taking on more and more frequently. Rather than making her life easier, this made everything worse.

Of course, the most infuriating part about this job was the fact that Anthony didn’t have to be here at all. He had nothing special to offer, but he kissed so much of Michael’s ass that he got to tag along on all of Tlalli’s trips as he pleased. She had pleaded with Michael to keep Anthony in the Garden. With so many mortals attending the auction and a demon delegation inevitable, she thought Michael might see how much of a liability Anthony would be. Michael hadn’t. He never did when it came to Anthony.

She was sick of it. She was sick of all of it.

“I’m gonna need you to lose the attitude, like real quick.” Anthony’s voice was so close to Tlalli’s ear that she nearly jumped.

“I’m gonna need you to learn what personal space is,” she shot back coldly. “Like real quick.” She could hear his teeth grinding.

“Don’t forget what you are, Goldie.”

“Of the two of us, only one has forgotten what they are, Anthony, and it’s not me.”

Before he could retaliate, the concierge came into view alongside a few other mortals that Tlalli became acutely aware of all at once. She rolled her shoulders, trying to get used to this skin again.

Though she had been born and raised in her human vessel, tailored for her at birth, she had spent a substantial amount of time in her “divine form,” as the angels called it, the past several years. Since her mother passed, she had continually limited the use of her human form, and now, it felt like a coat that no longer fit as well as it used to.

She ambled along the edge of the lobby as Anthony and Elias checked them in, taking in the guests that had already arrived. She could sense the presence of demons but could not pinpoint their location, meaning they were likely not down here at the moment. Still, they had arrived first, meaning they already had the upper hand.

Tlalli didn’t know much about this ancient chalice they had been sent to retrieve, but she knew it was important. Michael had made that quite clear. To her at least. Failure could very well be a death sentence.

Anthony’s hand landed on her ass, and on instinct, she whipped around with her fingers curled into a fist.

“I swear, Anthony, if you put your hands on me one more time?—”

“Don’t act like you don’t know who you’re talking to,” he said, his grin spreading wide.

Like his name, the vessel he now inhabited was not the one he had when she met him but one fashioned for him by the Dominion, one he had been allowed to customize. The pale skin, the ice-gray eyes beneath his shades, the slick brown hair... It was even more unsettling to be touched by this body. She was virtually being touched by a stranger.

“I know exactly who I’m talking to. Do you?” Though immediately, she decided she was done with the conversation. “You know what? I need some air.” She turned and decided to head in whatever direction her feet fell first, then search for an exit.

“You better be in the room the moment I say so,” he called out. “We have things to do, baby.”

She waved him off with a flick of her wrist, disregarding the demand altogether. She would get back when she got back, when her skin no longer felt so tight and his face didn’t look so punchable.

Once she made it back onto the lush grounds, she felt much better and began taking in the scenery at her own pace. She took her time in the gardens, and once she wandered out of those, she indulged in the breeze coming off the lake before heading for the boathouse and dock just down the slope from her.

Mecati used to talk about living a simple life in a cabin by the sea. Even when Tlalli was older, they would sit at the table for a cafecito with fresh pan dulce and talk about doing it. A few more years, just a few more years , they would say. A few more years, and there would be peace between Heaven and Hell. A few more years, and Tlalli could return to Earth full-time.

They both knew it was a lie.

And eventually, a few more years was all Mecati had, and time went by far too fast for them to ever make it to the sea. Mecati was taken by a mortal illness that Tlalli failed to contain alone. In her desperation, Tlalli had run to Michael to beg for his help despite how the Dominion abhorred all mortal magical practitioners. She’d wanted to believe he would make an exception. She’d wanted to believe she was worth one.

Yet Michael denied her. He denied her and spat on her mother’s name all in a single breath. She could still hear his response clear as day in her head.

Every breath a witch takes upon the Earth is a gift they do not deserve.

Maybe that had been the beginning of the end of her belief in them. Maybe that was when she’d realized that she was just as expendable as her mother, no matter how devoted she’d been to the Dominion. If not, she had surely realized it after being all but bound to Anthony. Either way, the lesson had been learned. She had done her best to deny the decay of her belief the past few years, but she could do so no longer. Now, she just needed a way out.

The sun began its descent far too quickly, and eventually, she knew she could not stall any longer. She was hoping she at least had her own room in the suite, but she would not hold her breath. Despite prior threats she’d made regarding the sleeping arrangements, she didn’t trust Anthony to be so polite.

Even in the Garden, he failed repeatedly to respect her boundaries, invading her space and pushing his luck. In one of the most recent incidents and one of the final straws, he’d attempted to let his hands wander, and he caught her hands in response. Of course, as soon as he recovered from her retaliation, he ran off to tell Michael, who had the audacity to scold her. Now, she spent most of her free time attempting to put as much distance as possible between her and Anthony.

She no longer felt comfortable sleeping in the Garden, finding reprieve only in Stasis, where she could briefly step out of existence, where the only ones able to summon her were the archangels. Sometimes, she wished she could stay there for good, if only to escape Anthony’s overwhelming entitlement.

She decided to stop for a drink in the lounge before she continued upstairs, but she came to a halt the moment she crossed the threshold.

At the long bar counter on the opposite side of the room sat a familiar face, slightly obscured by the brim of a black cowboy hat. It was a face she hadn’t seen in four years, one she had hoped to never see again, and yet one she would never forget. It was the face of a man she had betrayed.

It was a pretty face nonetheless. In fact, Anthony’s father, Cahuani, was the upgraded and improved version of Anthony in almost every way, even before Anthony took on his new form, so much so that Tlalli had almost regretted having to rob Cahuani. With his flawless dark-brown skin and matching eyes that seemed to peer into your soul from beneath enviably long eyelashes, he’d pinned her in place with one of his looks on several occasions. He was slightly shorter than her, with a solid build and a smile that could knock you back a few feet, a smile he likely hadn’t flashed in a while. He hadn’t just lost his only son in the past four years. He’d lost his wife too.

That, Tlalli luckily wasn’t responsible for. At least, she didn’t think so.

Both of Anthony’s parents had been Nahualtin too, powerful ones, who had—according to Michael at least—sold their souls to the devils. All Tlalli had known about them before for certain was that they had been well-known in Heaven, and she had assumed that was how Michael and the Dominion knew who to target for the heist. She had also assumed that Anthony having a treacherous heart was merely a stroke of luck. It wasn’t until after the job was done that she realized that couldn’t be true. Michael had known what Anthony was long before Tlalli entered Anthony’s life, and he had already promised Tlalli to Anthony before she ever decided to seduce him as part of the heist.

That thought alone made her blood boil.

From what she could see, Cahuani was alone, sipping his glass of dark-colored something and scrolling through his phone with his eyebrows knitted. She could still remember the anger in his face as she disappeared from his estate with not only his son but also a priceless item entrusted to him by the Puri. Meaning she and Anthony had not just robbed his father but the Seven Deadly Sins as well.

She had always figured it would catch up to them eventually, especially when Michael cared so little for their safety, but today was not the day. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Cahuani was the last person in either faction that would violate the truce. And the longer she thought about it, the more he looked like an answer to her prayers rather than a consequence of her actions.

Maybe it was desperation. Maybe naivete. Either way, she was beginning to think that this could be an opportunity. This could be her way out. If it was, she had to reach for it. If there was a chance, she had to try. After all, what did she have to lose?

Apparently not enough.

Licking her lips, she smoothed out her dress and made her way to the bar.