37. Chapter 37 #3
“I gave you everything I could.” Finn’s ever-present smile turned cold despite the heat rippling off him.
“For months I’ve wandered around out here, planting seeds, asking around, making contacts, and when one finally has something for me, all you can do is sneer that they didn’t get news back quickly enough?
I can’t help when the information comes in.
The person who lit the fire doesn’t live in this city.
They didn’t catch wind of this celebration until about five minutes before you did, so I’m very sorry if the timing displeases you, but I’ve done the best I could with what I’ve been given.
Should I have shrugged it off? Should we have waited for a better moment that might very well never happen?
Over six years he’s made himself scarce, and that’s entirely your fault, by the way, all your schemes and antics were about as subtle as the Noachian Flood, so I must admit I’m very surprised by all this newfound restraint —”
“I don’t want her to die.” Remy slapped my hand to my heart. “If you’d waited ten more seconds my mother might have let me out and she wouldn’t be involved.”
“Well, there’s little to be done about that right now.
” Finn narrowed his eyes down at me. “Obviously I would prefer nobody but Luceric died, either. Which is why our time now would be better spent planning than arguing. Valic had a point earlier.” Finn gestured to the empty field around us.
“We ought to do it here. Draw him away from his humans, like you said.”
“How?” Remy climbed to my feet. “He’s not going to come charging over just because we ask nicely.
He’s not going to be flagged down by a pair of demons.
Playing with him, torching him slowly, torturing him like some damned soul, isn’t going to get us anything but dead if the seraphim come screaming down from the skies to save him, which they will, the second he calls out for them. ”
“I can set the field on fire, let him look the hero trying to quench the flames. He wouldn’t be able to, not even if he harnessed the ocean, but—”
The word hero sparked something in my mind.
It seemed, from what little I knew of him, to be something Luceric valued.
Saving those damned souls, visiting blessings so freely upon this city, handing out boons to these citizens who I currently looked just like, in my barely-there white dress, with my respectably clean hair, my milk-white, unsoiled skin.
If Remy hadn’t been too busy arguing with Finn, he might have heard my thoughts.
“Look at me,” I interrupted, caught in the sudden glare of two sharp demon glances.
“I’m human. He wouldn’t hurt me, would he?
I’m something that needs his saving, not something to fear.
Maybe Finn can act like he’s attacking me to draw Luceric near if he shows.
Hasn’t everything he’s done, stealing souls from the In Between, blessing this entire city, been because he styles himself as some sort of savior? He wants to be beloved.”
Finn and Valic exchanged looks, but if they said anything I didn’t hear it over Remy’s objections.
I don’t want you getting involved.
I’m already involved.
I don’t want you getting hurt.
I don’t either, but would Luceric really harm me? I allowed a pause for him to answer, but he didn’t. I don’t think he would, not from all I’ve heard.
You’ll be caught in a literal crossfire—
I’m sure Finn would blink us out if things get too ugly, I cut across him, and I’m not exactly a helpless victim when I’m currently playing host to a demon.
You don’t think he might recognize you’re possessed?
Maybe not from afar. Maybe he wouldn’t notice until it’s much too late.
No. I don’t like this.
Well I don’t like how fickle you’re being, I said, firing up. This is what you wanted. That’s why I agreed to come here in the first place.
I never wanted this. I never wanted you in danger. I didn’t even want you going in the fucking wood because I was afraid you’d die—
“It’s not your choice, Remy,” Finn said loudly, as if he’d heard the argument in my head. “All choice was taken from her the second your own idiocy landed you in her body and if she wants to do this, then who are you to stop her?”
“She’ll just be bait.” Valic lifted himself up on his elbows, still sprawled out on the grass. “It’s not like we have any better options.”
“Bait can be hurt or killed as easily as the two of you.” Remy sounded as if he’d like to knock their heads together.
“I don’t think you’re appreciating what she’s offering us,” Finn snapped, looking at me as if he could scarcely believe what he was seeing.
“She’s giving you what you’ve wanted for years, handing it over on a silver platter, and you’re turning up your nose?
Riquin can’t help us and Casper is unreachable.
We are all we have right now. How badly do you want him dead?
I seem to recall it consumed your every waking thought.
You almost let it kill you once, right here in this city. ”
I felt no denials from Remy, just sullen, silent agreement. There was a sickness in his anger, an obsessive volatility, and it would never go away. Not until he saw Luceric properly dealt with.
“My mother is going to kill us if she catches wind of this,” he finally muttered.
Finn arched an eyebrow. “Oh?” Big smile, blinding teeth.
“And what will she do, throw you and me into a Frost cell? We can’t freeze.
I doubt she’ll banish you into another human given how unsuccessful her first attempt was.
Fury will lie through their teeth and swear Valic never left.
Even if she can prove you and me weren’t there during the lockdown, I’ve already laid a rumor about hunting for a wild chimera I wanted to bring back to Flame.
Perhaps I asked for your assistance. It’s not as if any other Frost demon is friendly enough to help me out.
It was a dreadful emergency and we were sadly unsuccessful but we had to try.
It was a chimera, for God’s sake. What a boon to Flame it would have been. ”
“A chimera.” Remy barked out a laugh, as if this was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard. “The second the council learns of Luceric’s death, they’ll know who made it happen.”
“The council might know it was us but if I show them all the evidence I collected over the past six years I doubt any of us will be punished very harshly. Even if we are, I’d consider it a fair exchange to don Hellguard armor and work beneath a fool like Marcic for a few years.
I always wanted to spend more time with the hounds. ”
Remy brought my hand to my throat, dragging my thumb across the hollow, where my pulse beat. “You have to promise me you’ll blink her out if things start to go wrong. I mean it, Finn.” He focused on his brother’s golden eyes. “The second it starts to look bad.”
“I would shield her with my own body if I had to,” Finn said, smiling slightly as a gust of playful wind ruffled his hair.