Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
The meeting room was one of the more archaic rooms in Lucifer’s estate, both in décor and function.
Once upon a time, they had used the room regularly, discussing everything from establishing functions in Hell to how to expand their doctrine, such as it was, among the humans.
The large space bordered on cavernous, nearly as dark as a tomb.
This room had never been fitted for electricity, as Lucifer preferred the ambiance when discussing ‘matters of import’. As a result, the deep shadows creeping down from the high ceilings were repelled only by the pillar candles situated on tall pedestals along the walls.
Mags came into the space quietly, her footfalls muffled by the deep blue carpet runner that led the way to the massive round table in the center of the room. Behind her, Remi, Rag, and Judas followed, fanning out towards their usual seats at the table.
“So, what’s the latest calamity on the agenda?” Judas swung his feet up onto the oak table, leaning his chair back on two legs and folding his arms behind his head. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a formal meeting.”
“Put your feet down,” Mags chastised, settling into her chair and smoothing her skirt. Judas ignored her.
“She said feet down, Judy,” Remi snapped, kicking his chair as she passed behind him and sending the young man sprawling to the floor.
“Rude!” he yelled, scrambling up and righting his seat. Remi only flipped him off over her shoulder, sinking into her own chair and offering Mags a bright grin.
Mags gave a small smile in return despite herself, even while turning her chastising tone on Remi. “You didn’t need to dump him on the floor.”
“Oh, but it made me feel better.” Remi’s grin widened, only to melt sharply into a scowl when her own chair was pulled from under her. She hit the ground hard. “Hey!”
Judas laughed, reaching for a high five from Balthazar who gripped the chair with an innocent expression as he examined his nails.
“Dick,” Remi hissed, jumping up and jabbing her finger into Bal’s chest.
“What?” he purred, in a voice like dark honey. “It made me feel better.”
“You’re all behaving like children,” Luce declared, striding into the room and giving them all a hard look. He waved his hand and a strong wind swept briskly through the space, pushing them all into their chairs and moving the chairs up to the table. “Please try to act your ages.”
“But that’s boring,” Bal grumbled, his dark hair falling over his eyes in a tousled wave that he shoved back with a jangle of his many layered bracelets.
“Yes, well,” Luce sank into his seat with a heavy sigh. “It’s about to become decidedly un-boring around here, so enjoy it while you can.”
“We’re still missing a few,” Rag pointed out, dragging Remi’s hand off the table so he could hold it in his own. He’d learned a long time ago that it was a simple trick to keep her calmer, and he had a sneaking suspicion this meeting would require that.
“Not for long,” a new voice called, and the door opened again to admit a statuesque beauty with flashing blue eyes and a high black ponytail that swung as she moved. She walked with an easy swagger, leading an even taller man with waves like honey falling in his face and brushing his shoulders.
“Camiel,” Luce greeted warmly. “How fares the work in the Pit?”
The woman’s full, ruby-painted lips parted to reveal a sharp smile. “Bloody and terrible, as they deserve.”
“You’re a beast, my darling,” the blonde leaned down to nuzzle her neck.
“While I love your love, Sachiel,” Lucifer said, and the fondness on his face confirmed his words, “I do have some important information to share, if you can be disgustingly sweet while sitting?”
“Of course.” Sachiel released his wife, letting her lead him to his seat where he pulled her into his lap instead of her own chair. Remiel pretended to vomit, and Rag fixed her with a look that clearly called her a hypocrite.
“Gross,” Judas made a face, but his longing tone didn’t match his feigned disgust.
“Don’t be bitter because you’re single.” Bal kicked his own feet up on the table, drawing a tired frown from Mags, but no argument. Judas gave her a betrayed look, and Remi narrowed her eyes but was restrained from dumping his chair by Rag.
“Did we call a meeting just to comment on everyone’s love lives?” Glory was the last to enter, smiling apologetically as she slid gracefully into her seat.
“This meeting was called to discuss an impending cataclysm, actually,” Luce said dryly. “If everyone could focus long enough to do so. Mags, if you wouldn’t mind sharing your recent vision?”
She swallowed hard, wringing her hands, and Camiel reached over to place a soothing hand over top of them.
“Breathe, honey,” she murmured, and Mags nodded, smiling gratefully.
“Well, I should start back at the beginning, I think?” She paused, chewing her lip. “You all remember, when Foster was born, I had that horrible vision—”
“Of him ending the world,” Sachi supplied, earning a tired sigh from Luce and a pointed glare from his wife for interrupting. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Mags said. “Yes, that one. Unfortunately, it has become…more likely to pass.”
“I just saw him yesterday.” Judas frowned. “He’s been a little tetchy lately, but he didn’t seem particularly…world-endy.”
“‘World-endy’,” Remi parroted slowly, as if it was the dumbest thing she’d ever heard.
Mags cleared her throat loudly, clearly becoming frustrated by the constant interruptions. “Yes, well, in my newest vision he was murdering a child, so I’d say he’s definitely on the path to ‘world-endy’.”
The silence was abrupt and heavy, the tension palpable. Balthazar stopped fiddling with his rings. Judas’s fingers froze where he had been drumming them against the table, splayed in midair. Sachiel went pale, and Cami looked like she might vomit.
“You didn’t tell me that part, Mags,” Glory whispered, her sultry voice hoarse. “You said he was looking for the Gospel of Lazarus.”
“Wait, wait, no.” Judas leaned forward, splaying his hands on the table. “We talked about this. Fos mentioned the gospel, and I shut it down.”
“You knew he was doing this?” Lucifer leaned in too, but his expression was much angrier than Judas’s mix of confusion and anxiety. “You knew, and said nothing?”
“No!” Judas protested, fixing him with a glare. “He mentioned it, and I thought I talked him out of it. I thought it was handled! But reading a forbidden text has nothing to do with killing children!”
“It does if you know what’s in the Gospel of Lazarus.” Lucifer leaned back, rubbing his hands over his face. “It’s basically a how-to guide to Necromancy, and all of the rituals require human sacrifice.”
“What?!” Remi leapt up from her chair, snatching her hand away from Rag to slam her palms to the tabletop. “How could you keep something like that from us?”
“Why is it even still allowed to exist?” Sachi frowned. “Wouldn’t destroying it be better?”
“No one believed the rituals would work,” Mags said softly. “I lost my brother to madness in his pursuit of recreating Christos’s miracle.”
Luce laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I should have destroyed it for that reason alone.”
“No.” She shook her head, hair falling in a curtain over her face before she swept it over her shoulder. “In a way, it was a bittersweet memento, preserved as a warning not to dabble in the dark arts. We could never have known that hiding it wouldn’t be enough.”
“We need full transparency,” Rag said, drumming his fingers on the table. “I understand why we didn’t know before, but that can’t continue.”
Bal hummed in agreement. “You can hardly expect us to mount a successful opposition without all the details.”
“Which is why I called this meeting,” Luce leaned forward, planting his elbows on the table and steepling his fingers in front of him.
“There are several ‘rituals’ in the Gospel of Lazarus; all various attempts to bring back the dead. Most are nonsense, but some, in the hands of a Divine being, have real power.”
“The first ritual,” Mags whispered, “is the death of a ‘being of purity’. The most obvious candidate is a child, I suppose.”
The outrage and disgust in the room was palpable.
Glory had her hands clasped over her mouth in horror, while Balthazar looked murderous, gripping the table’s edge so hard his knuckles strained pale against his tanned flesh.
Remiel was equally furious and would have likely thrown her chair across the room by now if her husband didn’t have her biceps in a death grip.
Sachiel had taken on a greenish tinge as if he might be sick.
“No,” Judas was the first to speak, looking conflicted. “He wouldn’t. I know Foster, and he just wouldn’t.”
“It’s an evil book,” Mags countered, her expression pained. “It holds my brother’s madness, his essence. It has a way of…influencing you.”
“Not ta mention,” a gravelly new voice broke in, “he’s got other bad influences.”
“Cwall,” Luce blinked in surprise. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
The demon drifted toward the table, batlike wings carrying his skeletal form across the space. “I heard mutterin’ about a meetin’ and I thought ya needed ta hear my update.”
“By all means,” Luce gestured for him to continue.
“It’s not good news,” he said, trying to prepare them for the impact. “Fos… well, he killed a kid.”
Remi scoffed. “I thought the Eyes were more reliable, we already know about Mags’s vision.”
Cwall turned his gaze away, flames smoldering in the empty pits of his skull. “Yeah, but the kid… she was buried last week.”
Luce felt his blood run very cold. He had seen the dark circles under Foster’s eyes, felt the tension that was seeded down to the young man’s core, but he had thought it was the weight of his intentions wearing on him. It had in fact been guilt.
“Why didn’t you bring this information to me sooner?” Balthazar shot up from his chair as if he would lunge over the table to throttle the imp.