Chapter 24
So? Did you and Mace do it?
Scotty nearly choked on her moussaka as she read the missive from her sister, who was sitting across the family dinner table from her. Thursday dinner had been a thing in her family since she was born, and if you missed it, you’d better have a good reason.
Having sex with Mace wasn’t a good reason.
Not that it would happen anytime soon. They hadn’t talked about it since they, well, talked about it.
And after their workout with her father this morning, they were too tired—and too thrilled—to discuss it.
Mace and Blade had gone home to rest and heal, and she’d done the same.
A two-hour nap and a relaxing swim in the crystal sea surrounding the island had her right as rain again.
Just in time for dinner.
No, Scotty sent back. And to keep her sister from prying more, Scotty asked her a question. Out loud, not in an annoying holo-missive.
“What time is the ritual tomorrow?”
Aleka looked over at her. As usual, she was elegant and classy in dress pants, heels, and a white silk blouse.
A jeweled band held her hair in a shiny cascade of rose gold to the middle of her back.
Meanwhile, Scotty’s was up in a tangled, frizzy ponytail, her tank top was inside out, her denim shorts were ratty, and she’d kicked off her flip-flops half an hour ago.
Sometimes, you just had to not give a shit.
“One p.m.,” Aleka said. “Greenland time. We’ll do the ritual at Uncle Thanatos’s.”
Scotty both dreaded it and couldn’t wait. What if it didn’t work? No. She couldn’t think that way. Not after scolding her father for the same thing. “How much more prep do you have?”
“Not much. If Eva worsens, we can do it earlier. Mainly, I just want to make sure we get this right, because we’ve only got one shot.”
Dinner grew quiet as the brutal reality sank in.
Cara quickly changed the topic. “Did you girls hear the big news?” she asked as she reached up to pet the massive hellhound lying next to her.
Hal didn’t usually hang out in the house, but a member of his pack had recently been slaughtered by a fallen angel, and he was “feeling vulnerable.” Scotty had no idea how a hellhound could feel vulnerable, but for the millionth time, she gave thanks that she hadn’t inherited her mother’s gift for either healing the beasts or communicating with them as Aleka had.
“Is it about Gabriel?” Aleka asked. “An Archangel losing their wings is news that travels at light speed.”
“He’ll need to watch his back.” Scotty put down her fork and took a piece of pita bread from the pile in the center of the table. “Demons will want to drag him to Sheoul, and everyone else will want him in their possession. Can you imagine what could happen to him if The Aegis got hold of him?”
“No one is getting hold of him,” Ares said. “I’ve granted him asylum. He’s under my protection so long as he stays on the island.”
“So,” Scotty said with a wry smile, “we got hold of him.”
Her father gave her a proud wink. “He’s a treasure trove of information. Even disgraced, his value is immeasurable. He’s already given us some good intel on Lilith and the fallen angel we’ve been after.”
“Fearr?” Scotty gave a satisfied nod. “Uncle Thanatos has been obsessed with killing her for years.”
As Wraith’s BFF, Thanatos held a grudge against the fallen angel for her part in killing Wraith. Didn’t matter that Azagoth brought him back. Fearr was on borrowed time.
“Has Gabriel said what happened in Heaven?” Scotty asked. “What does he know about Gramps?”
Her father’s expression was troubled. “As we’ve already heard from Azagoth and Stryke, power changed hands. The Thrones are in charge, and Reaver is being held prisoner, along with all the Archangels.”
“I don’t understand,” Aleka said. “How can they hold Grandpa prisoner? He’s a Radiant. He’s the most powerful angel in existence.”
Anger made a vein throb in Ares’s temple. “They’re using the Archangels’ power to hold him. But Gabriel thinks he might have given Reaver a little push to free himself.”
“Someone needs to get word to Revenant,” Scotty said. “He could bust Gramps out.”
Ares stabbed a juicy slab of roast lamb on the serving tray and hauled it to his plate. “Heaven sealed Revenant inside Sheoul. My sources say he’s under constant attack by Satan’s sympathizers, and he’s isolated himself in the B’lal region, where no one can reach him.”
“Grandpa managed to get inside Satan’s fortress and rescue Harvester once,” Aleka pointed out. “Maybe we can figure out a way to get in.”
“Reaver had to cloak himself in evil to do it. We can’t do what he did. Only Reseph has ever set foot in the heart of the B’lal region, and it was when he was Pestilence.”
Scotty suppressed a shudder. She’d heard the stories about her uncle’s time as Pestilence, when he’d gone so evil that even all these years later, her family still hadn’t fully recovered.
To this day, he avoided most family gatherings, and he’d never attended them when Harvester was there.
Scotty wasn’t sure what had gone down between the two back when Harvester was a fallen angel, but the hatred in her eyes when she looked at Reseph had been hard to miss.
“Surely, we can get a message to him,” Cara said. “Your spy network is extensive.”
“Stryke tried.” Ares carved into his meat, making the horse glyph on his forearm dance.
Or maybe Battle was restless, needing to run.
Her father had to release the warhorse from his arm daily, or Battle got twitchy.
“Twice. The first try ended with an entire thread in his intelligence web being snipped. He suspects one of Satan’s loyalists. ”
It seemed insane that, despite Satan not being around—and wouldn’t be until he was freed in another nine centuries—he still had powerful demons doing his bidding. Revenant wasn’t as much ruling Sheoul as he was just barely clinging to power.
“And the second attempt?” Scotty asked.
“Stryke got a lot of heads in boxes.”
“Unbelievable.” Aleka stabbed her fork into her roasted eggplant. “What’s the Thrones’ endgame? Has Gabriel said?”
“He hasn’t.” Ares shoved his plate aside.
“I don’t know if he even knows. Sounds like they kept him in the dark about most things.
” He took a swig of iced tea. “We won’t get any more out of him for a bit.
He’s in some sort of recuperative sleep.
Could last a while, I guess. I have Z keeping an eye on him. He’ll alert me when Gabriel wakes.”
Zhubaal had once been Azagoth’s right-hand man, but after Sheoul-gra’s destruction, the fallen angel and his mate had come to the island with the Memitim. He’d proven to be a valuable asset.
Scotty’s comms beeped. No doubt her sister again. But when she accessed the message, her heart almost stopped.
It was Mace.
Wanna come over? Blade’s hanging with Stryke and Crux in the game room, so you can sneak in and he won’t see you.
They’d agreed that Blade shouldn’t know anything until after it was over, but she hadn’t brought up the hotel idea to Mace yet.
She sent a return message. I’d rather get a hotel.
Mace’s missive came a moment later. I’ll book a room at the Ritz Paris. Meet me tonight.
The moussaka in her belly soured as her nerves kicked in.
“What’s wrong?” Rath’s rumbling voice carried from the end of the table where he sat opposite her father. “You look troubled.”
Now, everyone was looking at her. Great. “Nothing’s wrong. I just have a lot of work stuff on my mind.”
“Are you still in trouble with Kynan?” Aleka asked, and Scotty shot her a glare. She’d managed to avoid the topic of work all night, mainly to keep their dad from asking more invasive questions, and Aleka had just blown it.
Sure enough, Ares turned his intense gaze on Scotty. “You never said why Kynan sent your team to me for training.”
“Sorry, sis,” Aleka mouthed.
Scotty took a big swig of iced tea, buying time to compose herself. “It wasn’t a big deal. We screwed up a mission. There were hostages, and a crystal artifact that got away, and it got kind of messy.”
“Yeah, I know that.” Ares swallowed a bite of pita bread. “But you never said why the mission went south.”
Because I had sex with Blade. “Poor communication.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why? And don’t tell me you don’t know. Your team is held up as a model for how well you work together.”
Dammit. She glanced at her comms and Mace’s message. She needed to get out of here.
“It’s just…things got a little tense after Mace got hurt and Blade and I had to finish a job without him. Kynan chewed our asses. We’re fine now.” She stood and looked at her mom. “Thanks for dinner. Great as usual. I need to go.”
“Scotty—”
“See you at Thanatos’s tomorrow. Bye!” She darted out of there, raced down the staircase, and hopped into the island’s Harrowgate, where she stood for a moment, her heart and mind racing.
She was about to go and have sex with her best friend. Her other best friend. The one she hadn’t had sex with yet.
She should change her clothes. At least put her top on right. Maybe she should shower again. She’d showered before dinner, but she probably smelled like Greek food.
What was Mace like in bed?
The thought interrupted her panicked fear of smelling like Mediterranean herbs.
Excitement filtered through her, quelling her nerves a little.
She’d loved being with Blade, even though things had been frantic, and the setting had been less than ideal.
She couldn’t imagine a better way to have lost her virginity. He’d been perfect.
So, how would that experience differ from the one she’d have with Mace?
You’re not going to have one with Mace if you don’t get moving.
Right. She hurried to her villa, showered, and spent half an hour trying to decide what to wear.
She finally settled on a matching green panties-and-bra set, black leggings, the gray cashmere sweater Aleka had gotten her for her twenty-ninth birthday, and sneakers.
Casual, but classy…and still practical for battle.