Chapter Twenty-Two
Twenty-Two
The meeting with the Queen and the archbishop was scheduled for just after sundown. I had spent the day squiring the Devil to a horse auction, a literary salon, and an afternoon tea, which meant I was already exhausted by the time we arrived at Buckingham Palace.
The Devil, however, was in fine fettle, no doubt expecting archbishop evisceration at the hands—or fangs—of the Queen.
We were ushered into the same room we’d met in prior. The Queen and Prince Albert were there already, as was the Duke of Astelwyth. The latter already looked annoyed, which seemed to be his default mode, particularly when it came to matters relating to the Devil.
The archbishop was the last to arrive.
He was a tall, stout man, perhaps about fifty years old, wearing his churchly garb and a matching pious expression. I didn’t pity him, per se, but I had to admit to feeling a twinge of sympathy for what he was about to endure.
I didn’t wish evisceration on my worst enemy. Not that I had one; perhaps the closest would be the family neighbor who’d asked my father for my hand in marriage because “I need a good, sturdy girl to have my children and milk the cows.”
My father had told him where to go with his proposal, thank goodness.
Eventually, he’d married the village widow, who’d made him milk the cows and do all the other work on their property while she passed judgment.
It seemed to be a happy match, so I couldn’t hate him for that long.
Queen Victoria was seated at one end of the room, again on something that raised her up higher on her seat so she could look down her nose at the rest of us, who stood in front of her, arrayed like some sort of display.
The Devil kept darting furious looks at the archbishop, who appeared to completely ignore the Prince of Darkness, while the duke ignored the Devil.
I kept my attention firmly fixed on Her Majesty, as did Prince Albert, and Marcellus was equanimous with his attentiveness, regarding all of us in equal measure.
“Thank you all for coming,” she said at last. “We will not ask you to sit. This should not take that long.”
The archbishop finally seemed to understand that this might be about him, since he took one wary glance toward Marcellus, then jerked his head back again.
“We have heard, Archbishop Martins, that you have received information as to our honored guest’s whereabouts while he has been here in London,” she continued, nodding toward the Devil.
“And what is more, we are aware that there have been two attempts on the Devil’s person—or his son’s—during those times.
” She paused; then her mouth opened to reveal her fangs, which made my blood run cold.
And that only made me wonder if she caused that effect on particularly hot days so she could have a refreshing beverage.
“We will hear your explanation,” she finished.
There was dead silence in the room for a long moment.
“Your Majesty,” the archbishop said, his voice heavy with condescension, “there is a simple explanation.”
Another pause.
The Queen’s fangs lengthened, and I held my breath.
“You see, we in the Lord’s service are very concerned about the presence of the Devil among our flock. I merely wished to monitor his movements, so I discovered where he would be so we could respond appropriately should there be anything untoward.”
That word again—untoward. It was difficult to see how there could be anything more untoward than multiple types of species now roaming the earth with impunity, but likely that was what had the church up in arms in the first place.
“And the knife that my son caught?” the Devil said, visibly irate. Smoke wafted from his head and his hindquarters. I didn’t want to think about the latter too much. “Was that part of your monitoring as well?”
The archbishop held his hands out in a placating gesture. “I understand some of our members might be a bit too zealous in their devotion to the Lord. I told some of them these details, and I am sorry that they were not responsible with the information, but—”
What he was about to say was cut off abruptly as Queen Victoria swooped down from her chair, grabbed the archbishop by the shoulder, forcing him to kneel, and then bit him, hard, on the neck.
His eyes widened, and he managed to blurt out “The Lord will judge me” before his expression went blank as he died in front of all of us, Queen Victoria draining him of every drop of his blood.
She lifted her head, her fangs dripping, and gave a ghastly smile. “But I will judge him first.”
The whole thing lasted for perhaps five minutes at most, but it felt like an eternity. I couldn’t look away, even though I was horrified, and I felt as though I was going to vomit, but then Marcellus wrapped his arm around me and drew me close to him, murmuring something low and soothing.
I had no idea he could even be soothing, so the shock of that was enough to keep me from emptying the contents of my stomach onto Queen Victoria’s plush Oriental carpet.
When the Queen finally let go of him, the archbishop’s body swayed, then toppled onto that same carpet, but with no blood spillage, because it was all gone. Handy for housecleaning purposes, I supposed.
She wiped her mouth with a lace-trimmed handkerchief, as elegantly as if she’d just taken tea and not a member of the clergy, then returned to her chair, assisted by Prince Albert, whose fond gaze was even fonder.
“That should take care of that,” she said. She arched a brow at the Devil. “Are you satisfied, my lord?”
The Devil’s expression was decidedly grumpy, and I was guessing he wished he could have been the one to off the archbishop, but he couldn’t very well say something when she had taken care of things so handily.
“Yes, thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Then,” she said, leaning back in her throne, “if you would leave me, I find I need a postingestion nap. Albert, can you fetch me a blanket?”
“Yes, my love,” he said, and I realized that was the first time I’d heard him speak.
“We’ll be returning to Clarence House, Your Majesty,” Marcellus said. His father was still glowering at the dead archbishop on the floor. “Unless you need assistance clearing this away?” he said.
“No, we have people for that,” the duke replied curtly.
Of course they did.
Marcellus, the Devil, and I left Buckingham Palace. As we stepped outside, the Devil immediately began walking in the opposite direction from Clarence House, while Marcellus and I watched him leave.
“He’s going to one of the clubs,” Marcellus observed. “He’s going to want to blow off some steam after that. He does not like it when someone else gets to have all the fun.”
I shivered as I thought of what constituted “fun” in Hell. It was a darn good thing I was not considering moving there, no matter how much I’d fallen for the demon at my side, because I didn’t think I could handle that kind of frivolity.
“Should we go back?” I asked.
He gave me an appraising look. “I’d like to find something to eat. What about you?”
The thought of eating at the moment should not be appealing, but apparently I was becoming a more sophisticated human, because I felt a twinge of hunger.
“Yes, I could eat,” I said. “Let’s just walk.”
We strolled out of the gates and made our way to a bustling restaurant, filled with families and coworkers and servants on their nights off.
He ordered ale for both of us, and then I chose an array of dishes, since I knew Marcellus still hadn’t had all the food London had to offer.
“The Exhibition opens in two days,” I said when I had eaten enough. Marcellus was still working his way through an excellent roast chicken and potatoes, along with a side of stewed turnips.
“Yes, we’ll be heading home after that,” he said, which answered my unasked question. Damn it.
I pushed my heartbreak aside for a moment—I had all the time after he’d left London to deal with that—and moved on to my next plan.
Never let it be said I was unprepared. “In which case,” I said, keeping my voice as neutral as possible, “I’d like you to take me to one of those clubs tomorrow evening.
” I’d spoken to Lily and gotten as much information as I could to ensure we wouldn’t have any consequences.
A long silence followed.
He put his fork down and reached across the table to take my hand. “Really? I wasn’t certain how you felt, and I didn’t want to—”
“I want to.”
His heated amber gaze met mine. “I will make it worth your while, Cora.”
I knew he would. It would be a memory that would have to sustain me for the rest of my life—not that I was going to remain on my own for all that time.
I wasn’t going to be a martyr to love or anything.
Just that I suspected that whatever I found in the future wouldn’t be at all like this.
I’d push aside all my inconvenient emotions and feelings tomorrow night and just focus on what it felt like to be with him, to lose myself in the passion and, yes, lust we shared.
That would be enough. It would have to be enough because it was clear he was expecting nothing more.
I wished that weren’t the case, but it was obvious.
And I wasn’t going to be the pathetic human begging a supernatural being to change their ways because I was determined to live a human life, with monogamy and marriage and all the things I’d expected before the Great Revelation.
I hoped, however, that when I fell in love again that it was with a human, because I didn’t know if I could take this kind of heartbreak all over again.
Hannah and Lily were going to get tired of dealing with my human histrionics, though I knew they would support me, no matter how many times it happened.
I couldn’t forget that, in fact. I had a good life: a satisfying job, friends who were my family, access to the best tea, and a house that was a home.
And tomorrow I would have what I was anticipating would be a wonderful sexual experience, topping off my month of dealing with the Devil. And his devilish son.
“Well,” Lily said, sounding proud, “you said what you wanted. Very well done, Cora.”
“Well done,” Hannah echoed, while Dante yipped in approval as well. Or that could have been the bit of cheese I’d passed to him.
It was the next morning, which meant that that night I would finally get to do everything with Marcellus I wanted to—and he and his father would be heading back to Hell in a day or two.
“I wonder what your next assignment will be?” Lily mused, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.
She was wearing a dressing gown that made her look even more sensual than usual—it was made of red satin, embroidered with green and black dragons, belted loosely around her waist, while her hair spilled over her shoulders.
Hannah, by contrast, had been up for hours and wore a day gown in some sort of light cotton.
It was specially constructed to allow her wings movement—not like a harpy’s garb, since harpies’ wings were larger and sturdier than fairies’.
Her hair was braided into a coronet, which made her look like an adorable milkmaid.
“I hope it is less exciting than this one,” I said before taking a sip of my tea.
“Mr. Connors said that Lord Hennawi agreed that we could think about adding some staff, which would mean I would be in charge of training them. That would be exciting, I have to admit.” And would take my mind off my heartbreak, though I didn’t say that.
I didn’t have to; my friends knew full well what was in my heart.
“Oh, that is good,” Hannah said. “Do you think they will want to continue hiring humans, or will other supernaturals be considered?”
I nodded. “I’ve thought about it. I don’t see a reason not to hire outside of humans, to be honest. As long as it isn’t one of the mega-supernaturals, like vampires or werewolves, I suppose it would be fine.”
“Like a fairy?” Lily said with a smirk.
Hannah waved her hand. “I didn’t mean that! I was just curious.”
“Mm-hmm,” Lily said, clearly skeptical.
“It’s an excellent question, though,” I said. “We’d—that is, Lord Hennawi—would have to ask the Queen what she thinks. But that is getting too far ahead of myself. I just have to get through the Exhibition and hope that nothing terrible happens within the next few days.”
“While something wonderful happens tonight,” Lily said in an arch tone. “Are you certain you don’t want any advice? Any accessories?”
I turned bright red within just a few seconds, likely a record for me and my reactive cheeks. “No, I will be fine.”
“You’ll have your demon to guide you,” Lily said knowingly. “And speaking of which, I am going to Clarence House to take Keres out this evening.” She turned to Hannah. “How about you? Are you doing anything romantic tonight? It would be excellent if we were three for three.”
Hannah’s cheeks also pinked, and my eyes widened—my housemate hadn’t mentioned any kind of romantic entanglement, so this was an interesting development.
“No, nothing,” she said. “Nothing at all.”
“Mm-hmm,” Lily said again, skeptical but not pressing the point.
“Anyway,” I said, trying to change the subject, “when this is all over, I want us all to go out together. Maybe we can go to the countryside for a few days?” I let my thoughts wander.
“Hannah, you could bring some books, and, Lily, you could get some rest and then feed off some farmers or something. I imagine that country energy is a bit different from city energy.”
Lily let out a surprised chortle, while Hannah gave an enthusiastic nod.
“That sounds lovely,” Hannah said. She jerked her chin toward Dante. “And we can let this one roam wherever he wants.”
Dante let out a bark, as though he understood, which reminded me I needed to investigate just how sentient my dog was—he could be a normal canine, or he could be some sort of enhanced pooch.
I didn’t know. If he was the latter, I wanted to know so I could treat him accordingly.
Though perhaps he was like Hannah and didn’t want to be treated like the rest of his species, just because he met a few requirements.
It was all very complicated being in the post-Revelation world. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.