7 Ariuk
Ariuk
I regretted saying that Dante was going to make some ridiculous demand. It wasn’t ridiculous, it was downright absurd.
Raphael didn’t even understand half the words out of Dante’s mouth but I did. Having escaped one too many times to see how the humans lived, I had picked up on a thing or two. Not even the chocolatey goodness running down my throat could make this moment better.
“You want me to what?!” I hissed. Raphael nudged my shoulder, reminding me to behave but I had given up on playing the perfect angel. Jophiel thought that I would actually be okay with earning my place back in heaven even though I was here because of Uriel’s mistakes. Fuck that. It wasn’t right.
I would rather live in hell.
Dante was having too much fun with this, enjoying my shocked expression that was slowly morphing into pure rage.
I had been taught for nearly thirty years that these emotions were of the Devil but I was lying to myself if I didn’t believe that this was my essence and my true feelings.
He picked at the chocolate cake he had bought before smacking his lips together, eyes dancing at my expense.
“It’s just a small thing. You have mentors in heaven but we do things a little different down below.
We sent them to Earth to truly use their gifts.
However they choose to do so is on them but when they return, they must be able to wield their essence on command. ”
“You have practicals?” The only angels that were allowed to leave Heaven on a regular basis were archangels and the few that were tasked with gathering wandering souls.
All of our lessons had always been in a special section of heaven, never on Earth where we would eventually one day be required to use our gifts and persuade humans that through divine intervention that Heaven and Hell was real, and that paradise awaited them if they would just believe in God.
The truth of the matter was much worse, not that I knew how it all worked. Gathering souls involved tricky tactics and smooth words—a process that I would have expected out of Dante rather than angels.
Dante frowned and glanced over at Raphael. “What have you all been doing up in Heaven? Everyone used to conduct their practical evaluations on Earth. Ah, of course. I must have ruined that little project. After all, to the little minions running paradise in the sky, Earth is evil.”
He chuckled, a hearty sound that somehow made me feel welcome as he turned his attention back to me. “And what gift have you brought me, sweet girl?”
I slurped the rest of my drink obnoxiously, sad that it was already gone. “I don’t have one,” I mumbled. Here we go. Was he going to ridicule me too?
His gaze narrowed, the blues of his eyes crackling like a raging ocean. “Someone’s been lying to you, Ari. I can see your essence all around you.”
He leaned forward, his fingers brushing through the dark presence wrapped around me. A gasp fell from my lips as his power mingled with mine, confusion plastered on my face.
“That’s mine?” I whispered as he sat back.
Dante nodded. “Has no one taught you that either? Seriously, Raphael, what are they teaching up there? This poor girl has spent her entire existence being told she has nothing because whatever she is doesn’t fit into one of your neat little boxes.
” He ran his tongue over his teeth beneath his upper lip as he folded his arms across his chest. “You can’t understand your essence if you spend all your time trying not to feel it, Ari. ”
I didn’t exactly know what he was talking about, especially since the essence lingering around me looked too much like the darkness that had consumed Uriel.
It was evil as far as I knew, and every moment sitting here in front of the Devil felt more comfortable than it should have.
Maybe that was what bothered me most. I wasn’t becoming numb without my soul or whatever other bullshit explanation I’d been clinging to. Some of this was just me.
Dante snorted, pulling me out of my dark thoughts.
“I have no idea who’s putting silly ideas in your head.
No, I can’t read your mind, but I can guess.
” His expression lost some of its amusement.
“Whatever that essence turns out to be, it doesn’t get to make your choices for you.
Your emotions are yours. What you do with them is yours. ”
And… that just made me feel worse.
I angrily shoved the empty latte farther away from me, wishing there was still enough left to drown the thought in sugar. I was so bothered by the fact that maybe I was evil that I almost missed Raphael’s nearly silent apology.
“I’m sorry for her.”
An archangel apologizing to the Devil. This just keeps getting better.
Dante waited for me to gather myself before stealing my attention again.
“Back to the matter at hand. The practicals. We usually have a guide or two to monitor them. Your task should you choose to accept it is to check in with them, see if they are able to utilize their gifts, and then move on. Simple, really.”
I resisted the urge to laugh. There had been enough observation classes in heaven for me to know how fucking dangerous this task was. Some of the angels’ gifts above were terrifying. I could only imagine a demon’s gift. A shudder ran down my spine. “Why can’t you do it?”
“Need an objective eye and all the other guides quit.”
Immediately, my hackles went up as every red flag shot up from the depths of hell. I waited for him to explain why they had quit and why he thought I would ever succeed in the position he was putting me in.
“Yes, well, my creations can be a lot and there’s a few of them. You want your soul back, don’t you? It’s just a small ask. Might take you a week. One for each day.”
His breathing quickened as his gaze shifted to Raphael and then back to me, almost as if he thought I wouldn’t take the job.
“Wait, seven?” I stared at him. “You personally made seven creations?”
Dante licked chocolate from his fork. “I did.”
“At the same time?”
His smile spread slowly. “More or less.”
Raphael went unnaturally still beside me.
“Why does his face say that’s horrifying?”
“Because Raphael has always been dramatic.”
“Dante.”
“Fine. Seven is unusual.”
Only archangels were allowed to have creations that they mentored and only ever one at a time. A creation was not only a gift but a direct link to an archangel’s essence. Too many creations at one time and the archangel would not be able to uphold their duties as well as mentor effectively.
Each creation carried a direct pull on its creator’s essence, and too many at once could leave even an archangel stretched thin. Gabriel had been given two but that hadn’t worked out very well for him. Dante had created seven. At the same time. No wonder he needed help.
“Why do I feel like you’re stringing me along?” I finally asked, meeting his gaze. He seemed amused at my lashing out, which was a far cry from how the archangels usually reacted to my antics.
“Not sure how you ever got that idea.”
“You’re the Prince of Darkness. You literally introduced yourself like that.” Raphael tugged at my hand under the table but if they thought I was just going to roll over and bow down to yet another angel—fallen or not—that thought they owned me, they all had another thing coming.
“I did.” Dante leaned back, rubbing his fingers along his chin. “I see how that could be misconstrued. One of my gifts, or should I say curses, is that I can’t lie. It’s not in my nature. I truly do need you to check on my creations and see that they’re doing alright.”
I knew the bastard was hiding something from me but getting information from him was like pulling teeth.
The longer I sat here, the longer I’d get nothing.
My frustration was growing. “That’s what you want in return for my soul?
” This didn’t even make any sense. Dante couldn’t even watch over his own demons?
That sounded suspicious as hell. “Fine, when’s babysitting starting?
” It couldn’t be too hard unless they had fire powers or I had to go to hell to do it.
Silence filtered between us, Raphael frozen beside me. He seemed a lot more worried about Dante’s intentions than I had thought he would be, which worried me as well. I waited for Dante to elaborate, watching him hide the hint of a smile, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
“Sweet girl, my creations aren’t in need of daycare. Just a little bit of guidance. Purity, to be exact.”
And now I was even more confused. Of all the possible angels that Dante could have gotten in this deal, he had chosen the least pure of them all. If his demons needed purity…
“Wait, why do they need guidance? Aren’t they already in training?
You just said I had to check them out and report back to you that they were able to use their gifts.
How am I supposed to know whether their gifts are strong enough?
Can’t you just do the same thing you’ve done with the other… uh… hellions.”
Dante barked out a laugh. “We do not call them hellions, although I quite like the term now that you’ve said it.
Sweet girl, we don’t have training camps like heaven does.
That’s so… barbaric. Their entire learning experience is on earth including their practicals, to learn, to adapt, to figure out their gifts.
What better training ground than the one they are going to utilize when they graduate to full status? ”
The pure horror that flooded through me at the thought of hellions running around earth…
“And,” he continued, “they are given guides to ensure that they do not disrupt the balance of the realms. Not too much, anyway. Raphael, she looks like this is the first time she has ever heard of this! I might need to break my vow of avoiding dear old dad and ask him what’s been going on upstairs. ”
“Without a gift, she was unable to pass her lessons,” Raphael pushed out.
I growled at him. “But I read the goddamn literature and they never taught that.”