Chapter 45
Forty-Five
We walked over to the bar, passing Raphaela and the Envies. At least, Everi wasn’t there with her. Raphaela wouldn’t be able to tolerate someone as desperate as her.
Raphaela looked at me, and I eyed her, then looked away. Raphaela didn’t belong here. She wasn’t one of us. She wasn’t a Lust or a Pride or an Envy. Wouldn’t fit in with the Wraths, Sloths, or Gluttons. And Greed … Greed was way out of the picture for her.
She was a misfit. She should’ve stayed in Heaven.
I could feel her reaching out for me, begging me to look back at her, to take her back, to love her back. But I didn’t turn back, I wouldn’t take her back, and I couldn’t feel anything toward her. She would be a fallen angel without a home, cast out into the Pits of Tartarus.
When Eros and I reached Dani and Biast, Dani jumped into Eros’s lap and curled her fingers into his chest. “Did you have fun?” she purred into his ear, loud enough for me to hear it. There were red marks where Biast’s fingers had been.
“We did,” Eros said, glancing up at me.
She smiled. “Good,” she said. Then she waved her hand toward Biast. “You can go now.”
I snorted and sat down in the seat Dani had been in, between Eros and Biast, placing my hands on their shoulders and squeezing tightly. “Leaders of the three strongest kingdoms in all of Hell.” I nodded toward the rest of the party and smirked. “Look at them all.”
“Fucking bulls,” Biast said under his breath, staring out at the crowd.
There were people from all the kingdoms, dancing and laughing and being gosh-darn jolly together. All following after their leaders blindly. No mind of their own, especially those Envies.
“We will rule Hell and Heaven soon,” Dani said, crossing one leg over the other and making eye contact with Raphaela across the room. “The three of us.”
* * *
When the party was over and Dani and Eros were both passed out on my bed, I walked out onto my balcony and into the cold. Breathing it in. Welcoming it. Rejoicing in it. I had felt cold for all my life, yet inside, the bedroom was warm with their body heat and with something more.
From up here, I could see all of Pride. The people down below. The lights flickering on in the town. The snow pummeling down on the crisp white walkways. It was bliss. I felt so much bliss.
Suddenly, someone banged on my door. Eros grumbled from the bed, opening his eyes briefly. They were a hazy black mess. I told him not to get up and hurried to the door before they could knock again.
As soon as I opened the door, a guard grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room, rushing down the hall. “Commander, you have to see this.”
We walked down a few flights of stairs to the Chapel Room, and I stopped when I saw my two guards lying dead on the ground and the door wide open.
“What the fuck?”
I hurried into the room, my eyes growing even wider.
It was gone.
The Crucifix was gone.
My heart thumped against my chest. Those damn Envies. One must’ve died trying to steal it. Fuck, it probably burned through all of them by now. Only angels could wield its power, and yet not one angel resided among them.
The only angel close to being able to wield its power was Dani, but Dani would never steal it. She had no use for it. She was strong without it.
Unless …
Raphaela.
“Where the fuck is she?” I shouted. “Raphaela, get the fuck out here right now! Don’t you dare even think about—”
“Commander, we believe this happened during the party,” my guard said, nodding. “Raphaela has been watched since last night. She would not have done this. She couldn’t have.”
There were quick footsteps, and Raphaela appeared at the foot of the stairs. Her hair all jumbled, her eyes tired. She didn’t look like she knew shit. My jaw twitched, and I punched the nearest wall.
No, it wasn’t like me to get angry.
But whoever it had been knew what they were doing. Setting a trap. Leading me astray. Taking things for themselves. So many names and people crossed my mind, yet I didn’t know who it could be. All I knew was that there had been one group of people desperate for that cross—Envies.