Chapter 33
Gunnar shoved the door to Rina’s office open, not bothering to close it behind him. She didn’t look up right away, forehead resting on her fist as she read over shipment manifests.
No sense bullshitting around. “Kushiel is here.”
“The Rigid One?” Rina snapped to her feet. “Where’s Virtue?”
“Dunno, but Innocence is in the bar with him right now.”
“Why?”
“Buying me a minute to get up here.”
“Fuck,” she hissed out, set to push by him when footsteps echoed up the stairwell, a voice following.
“So charming, this place at the ends of the Earth,” Kushiel said, heavy boots creaking the old wooden stairwell. The angel paused at the top platform, glancing down at his fancy shoes and the bits of mud and snow he’d trailed in after him. “Katerina Yaga, I assume?”
He canted at the waist, the barest echo of a bow.
Rina at her full, impressive height was still about six inches shy of Kushiel’s golden, well-kept curls. She walked right up to him, all cool business outward despite that spike of fear over Virtue. Gunnar leaned back against the wall.
“Rina is fine,” she said, extending her hand in greeting. They shook, both pointedly ignoring Gunnar’s presence for the moment. “I have to admit, I’m getting a little tired of important guests showing up unannounced.” She folded her arms and leaned on her desk, a brow cocked. “There’s a passenger manifest for a reason.”
“Ah, forgive me.” Kushiel bowed, deeper this time, hands tucked behind his wings. “I didn’t wish to draw unneeded attention before my arrival.” He turned then, hooded gaze in Gunnar’s direction, a smile turning his lips up. “Imagine my surprise to find John Dust 78102 here in Nizhny.”
Fucking liar, he reeked of it, and by his expression, he didn’t give a single shit.
“Go by Gunnar now,” Gunnar said, shooting back a lazy shrug, calm until he needed to be something else entirely. “Should have been in my release paperwork.”
To Rina, he said, “I assume as you’re acquainted with Mr. Gunnar here, you’re aware of the changes in the Vilestars Accord?”
“Old news, sure.” Rina said.
“Because of course you would have handed him over to the proper authorities in the Dominion, had you not been aware?”
“Neither here nor there, really, unless the current Accord shifted again?”
“It has not, but words on paper and magical bindings do not change the nature of a thing simply because of wants and wishes.” Kushiel smiled, thin-lipped. “I am doing my due diligence, being that two vilebloods, both released from the Manhattan Penitentiary of which I oversee, have taken up residence here in Nizhny. I’ve come to ensure they are treated fairly under the new Accord regulations.”
More lies, and the angel let them fly without a care, knowing damn well Gunnar smelled each and every one.
“That number, however, did not include Mr. Gunnar who, unlike the other two men, was a documented criminal before his release. And it seems my reasons for coming all this way have increased.”
Rina smiled too, her grin toothy, her scent dangerous. “I’m not some wilting flower. I’m an Independent, and this is my territory, proven again and again over the years. If any vileblood had given me trouble, I’d have taken care of it.”
“Yes, daughter of the missing Baba Yaga and a dead human legend, your efforts are becoming known. The monsters at the edge of civilization, carving their place in the dark and cold. No shock then, to find this criminal,” Kushiel gestured at Gunnar, “among others you keep comfortable at your table.”
“Do you have a point?” Rina asked, gesturing at her desk as an answer. “Because I’ve got shit to do, which includes making sure you have a ride home in the morning.”
The angel chuckled, shaking his head. “I’d heard you favor directness. How very human of you.”
“Nothing but Aperien blood in my veins, angel. What do you want?” Rina’s scent soured, annoyance giving way to anger now, especially given her fear for Virtue. If that was the next thing coming down the pipe for this “justified” crusader. “Nizhny is independent. I don’t answer to you.”
Kushiel smiled at her, the patronizing look one might throw at a child speaking out of turn. “Perhaps, but the Accords of the Icelandic Citadel of Knowledge are universally respected, even where they are not enforced. Would you truly risk the ire of the unifying force in our broken world? Become known as the Independent who defied the general armistice that keeps the peace among the ruling powers?”
“The hells are you really after?” Rina snarled.
“I want justice,” he answered simply. “All I’ve ever desired and served. This man you shelter murdered the human woman who secured his freedom mere hours after his release, then fled the ESC.” His gaze flicked to Gunnar’s, the weight of it making his skin prickle at the threat. “I will take him back to the Manhattan Penitentiary and bury him in the dark where he belongs.”
The room warmed, the angel’s eyes brimming with golden light, a halo ringing behind his head, chasing shadows from the dark corners of the room. “Will you stand in my way, Katerina Yaga?”
Gunnar growled, because he sensed Rina kind of wanted to do something stupid, like grab her sword and take a swing, and there was no way the pair of them could go toe to toe with one of the original Aperien angels, spawned from likely the strongest mythos to manifest into reality. Kushiel could kill them, easily.
Leave Nizhny without a leader, the door wide open for fuckers like Dimitri to lay claim. Audrey out here in the dark with monsters alone.
“She didn’t know,” Gunnar said.
Those gleaming eyes snapped to Gunnar’s black gaze, and Kushiel’s smile was luminous. “Ah, well, such a straightforward solution, then.” The angel didn’t turn back to Rina. “John Dust 78102 is a parolee, his freedom as a vileblood only guaranteed if he conducts his life free of new crimes.” A deep chuckle, the room sweltering. “Are you aware of many lives this creature has taken to justify his freedom?”
“As I understood it, all that came before his parole. That human you’re saying he killed after he got out, didn’t she die in hellfire?” Rina asked. Gunnar silently thanked her for leaving Audrey out of this, at the same time gritting his teeth. Why was she pushing him? “Vilebloods aren’t demons.”
Kushiel didn’t even blink. “There are always ways.”
“You got proof he did it?” Rina pressed. “You want to push this in my town? Bring the Citadel in. You’ve got the clout, so call in an Archivist and see what they think about Accord adherence. Do it properly.”
Kushiel huffed in disbelief, echoed in his scent. “You would risk your livelihood for this thing?”
“Two seconds ago, you were barking about the rights of vileblood. You really here for justice, Kushiel?”
The angel’s bolstering died back, the warmth leaving the room in a rush and the golden light receding. “You’re truly a fool then, perhaps mad as your mother?” Rina sneered at that, but Kushiel was unbothered, still in disbelief. “You truly believe that if I called down a tribunal upon this pathetic swatch of sticks and swamps and monstrosities, righteousness would fall to your side? You would stake your future, all you’ve built, on the word of the worst of the abominations to walk God’s green Earth since we became blessed with reality?”
“Lots of pretty words, when all you’re really saying is you’ve got the bigger stick,” Gunnar drawled.
The angel was on him a second, hand around Gunnar’s throat, lifting him from the floorboards and crashing him to the wall. Heat wafted from his skin, the raw, century’s old fury an aroma Gunnar would never forget. His eyes were glassy, far, far away. Gunnar really understood Kushiel at that moment, and how little he had to do with what drove this Aperien’s entire existence.
“We should have taken babes to the sword during the war, but we chose mercy. We should have slain your kind in the womb, but we feared to become the same as the monsters,” Kushiel whispered, teeth grinding. “Instead, we watched those deserving give their lives, again and again, until we finally put your source to the blade, one after another. And yet, they live on. In you, in the vilebloods overflowing the hells and walking free, all because one human girl loved a monster.”
It stung more than it should have, his mention of Audrey, but then Kushiel dropped him. Gunnar hit his knees, inhaling and wheezing against his half-crushed throat.
The angel let out a sour laugh, ruffling in his wings as he smoothed his suit jacket. He turned to Rina then with a nod, his scent ripe with decision. “If a tribunal is your wish, you will have it. But consider what you protect, and what other evils might be brought to light when the gaze of the untied fall critically on your precious little haven for deviants.
“The demons chased from the Velvet Emporium. Do they truly cage their feedings? The berserkers self-exiled from true civilization. Do they still bring humanity into their fold, breaking the most sacred of the Accords to protect the dreamers who gave us life? And your pack of beasts, dire wolves of all things, breeding unchecked.
“You believe a tribunal is the answer? That all those you shelter would pass muster?
“Or you can hand over this single vileblood for the justice long overdue and keep those you shepherd safe in the dark, where they belong. I expect your answer before the train departs.”
And then Kushiel left, hands folded behind his back, his slip in demeanor a memory as he strode casually back down the stairs, the room chilled in his wake.