Chapter 45
“Can he do that?”
“You can’t have thought this through!”
“Only a poor leader abandons their team.”
“Quitting? You’re quitting?!”
“This will come down on all our heads!”
With all of them shouting or snarling to be heard over one another, Saer couldn’t do anything other than raise his hands, calling for order. One by one, the Daemoenica held their tongues.
Saer knew his proposition wouldn’t be favorable, but he hadn’t expected their level of vehement rejection. At the very least, perhaps the Twins…
He was doing this to find a way out for himself, but also them. To separate from a maker who didn’t deserve their loyalty. Frenzied Hellsfire, how he wished they could see!
He should have prepared better.
The muscles in his neck and jaw wound tight. Saer fought his own temper, answering their elevated voices with one comparably soft. “Your feedback is noted. My mind can’t be changed. I’ll talk through logistics, I’ll answer questions, but I won’t entertain any persuading.”
Arek leaned back, arms crossing over his chest. The frustrated energy emanating off the twin coerced Alus to reach an arm around his doppelg?nger, rubbing his back as one might try to soothe a beast with hackles raised.
“If you’ll excuse the frankness, Sir Anarchy,” Alus said, “you haven’t harvested a soul or gone back home for centuries now. How does your declaration change anything?”
“It might not change anything at all,” Saer replied. “But you all deserve to know my intentions.”
Arek huffed but still didn’t look at Saer. The barest hint of a growl percolated in his chest.
“What do we tell Father?” The hushed and shellshocked question came from Kalia at the far end of the table.
Saer had to fight his instinct to cut into her for using the word ‘Father.’
She doesn’t know any better. She doesn’t see. None of them do.
The memory of the last thing the fallen angel promised Saer in the horrors of Kalia’s chamber slid through him—You will come back to me.
Lucifer had drawn Its line in the sand. Their maker expected Saer to come to It, and he was content in shoving the fallen angel’s words back in Its face.
Pride.
“Tell It, It can come find me if It wants to talk.”
A petrified stillness permeated the Daemoenica. Saer had never referred to their maker in less familiar and insulting terms to them—It instead of him or father. Not even ‘our master’ or ‘our creator.’
Runeak recovered first. “Who leads the Daemoenica, if not you?”
“Why not you, Runeakael?” Saer asked.
Again, the faint tipping of her head to the side, which Wrath did when considering something. “I am not eldest.”
Smirking for the first time since the post-lunch discussion started, Saer glanced towards the Twins.
Arek shook his head once, dismissing the distraction.
After observing Greed’s response, Alus shrugged and lifted a wayward cup of fruit juice. “To Mistress Pain, Queen of the Hells.”
Only those who knew Runeak well enough would see the way her lips twitched with, for her, a glowing and approving smile. Pride undulated off her in surges. Having gotten the answer to any inquiries she had, she stood and went back to her fire pit stump to resume work on her latest figurine.
With an anxious undertone, Errshek went next. “Are we going to be punished for this?”
The Twins and Kalia had both shared Lucifer’s vile temper and targeting of the rest of his kin. With all the conviction in his sinew and bones, Saer pushed his challenge further. “Turn Its ire on me. Say whatever you have to.”
The dread on Envy’s face increased three-fold. “But—”
“If you remain loyal and fulfill your duties, our maker will spare you. Save yourself, Errsheken.”
Envy’s throat bobbed.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.” The sharp edges in Arek’s voice could have sliced clean through a grown man’s ribs.
Saer growled and turned his full attention to the twin across the table. “Are you looking for a fight, Areknar?”
“I’m looking for logic.”
“Easy, Bro,” Alus said from Arek’s side.
Arek snarled and shrugged off Gluttony and his placations. He stood.
Saer rose to his own feet. The two stood a near match in height, Saer the brawnier of the pair, but Arek filled the empty space with his fury.
“Do you consider any consequences to your actions, or do you blindly follow whatever impulse happens to take you? Is it ‘Hells be damned’ to the rest of us?”
“I’m doing this for us!”
Each time Saer raised his voice, Arek’s volume elevated to match. “Are you? Because it looks like everyone else really wishes you wouldn’t.”
“That’s not my problem.”
“Yes, you fucking imbecile, it is!”
Rage burned in Saer’s throat. “You have no idea the sacrifices I’ve made for all of you!” Neyu’s unmaking flashed behind his eyes, and he drew a sharp breath to shove it in their faces.
“Arek…” The ill-at-ease interjection rose from Errshek, and Saer choked on the revelation lodged in his throat.
If you say it, they won’t believe you. He didn’t know how he knew, but he did.
Envy pressed a palm to his stomach, gazing at the twin with a combination of apprehension and confusion. Fingers flexing at his gut, Errshek hesitated before finally speaking his mind. “You’re envious.”
Arek bared his teeth and turned away. “Your radar is off.”
Envy blinked, then lifted an eyebrow.
Arek exhaled, bowing his head and crossing his arms over his chest. “As the First and favored, you’ve always done what pleases you,” he sniped, ignoring Errshek. “The rest of us don’t have that luxury. And yes, if I’m being honest…” Lifting his eyes, he met Saer’s gaze. “I resent that.”
Errshek pressed his hand harder into his gut, then bowed his head.
Alus rose and stood next to his twin, putting a hand on Arek’s elbow. This time, Greed didn’t push him away.
“I also begrudge that we’re fractured as it is,” Arek went on. “More is better. You do this…” He shook his head. “Who’s to say we’ll all survive it?”
Saer lifted his chin. “Our creator won’t unmake you.”
“But will he command you, or any of us, to unmake one another?”
“No.”
The Twins blinked and shared a skeptical glance. “You seem awfully sure,” Alus said.
With a slow nod, Saer allowed the confidence to seep into his tone.
“Destroying Neyu had the opposite effect our creator desired.” Rather than reeling him closer, the command had propelled the First well and truly away from Lucifer.
The fallen angel was flawed, but not a fool—It wanted to keep Its children near and loyal.
Unmaking any of the others, whether by one another or Lucifer Itself? Such a tactic would push Saer even further away. His maker wouldn’t take that risk with Its—as Arek said with such bitterness—First and favored.
He avoided voicing the majority of his thoughts. “It won’t make the same mistake again.”
Still shaking his head, Arek tightened his crossed arms in front of his body, lowering his gaze again. Alus leaned in and feigned a whisper, “Asshole or not, he’s still our brother.”
His smile tinged with sadness, Saer obliged him with the required response. “I’m standing right here.”
The exchange drew a smirk out of Arek at the same time he growled, lavender eyes still fixed on the ground. “We can’t go with you.”
He might have been speaking for the Twins alone, but Saer could tell he meant the rest of their kin as well. He lifted his challenging focus once more to Saer.
The heaviness, despite his expectation, settled low in Saer’s stomach. Even so, he tried to keep it out of his voice. “That’s why the invitation is open.”
Nonplussed, Greed huffed. “How will you accomplish it?”
It was Saer’s turn to shrug, an arrogant, if sad, curve pulling at his lips. “How, indeed.”
Arek opened his mouth to dig further, but Runeak’s voice interrupted them from behind. “It is finished.”
She stood, putting the final touches on the last figurine in her nimble, ebony fingers. Focused on the model, Wrath took the few steps required to get to her cot and crouched to put the ultimate piece in place.
Even from his vantage point, Saer could tell she had created a scaled-down version of herself in her fiercest Daemoenic form.
On top of the miniature’s head rested a tiny crown of razor blades.