Azagoth by Larissa Ione

Chapter Twenty-One

Eight days had passed since Lilli returned to Sheoul-gra, but to Azagoth, the realm now seemed like Heaven.

He could tell she missed being able to time travel, but maybe he could arrange for an artifact that would allow her to get out of here every once in a while. He’d heard that some objects, such as the one her torturer had possessed, could transport the user to a very specific time and place.

Better than nothing, he supposed.

He’d been keeping her busy with plans for the newest Inner Sanctum level, and it wouldn’t be long before construction would start. She’d also been tending to the new growth in the realm, but soon she was going to need a definitive purpose. He just hadn’t figured out what. He definitely didn’t want her involved in soul reaping or visiting any of the Inner Sanctum levels.

A tap on his office door brought him out of his planning, and he hoped it was Lilli, in from outside for a lunch break and, if he was lucky, a little between the sheets action. Or on the floor action. Or against the wall action. Or maybe if he was very lucky, she’d done something deserving of a spanking.

He wasn’t particularly picky.

“Come,” he called out.

The door burst open, and the Four Horsemen’s Heavenly Watcher, Harvester, swept in, dressed in super-skimpy attire as usual. Her mate, Reaver, must love her barely-there black leather miniskirt and thigh-high boots. Azagoth needed to get that outfit for Lilliana, ASAP.

“Azagoth.” Harvester brushed her long black hair back from her face. “I assume you’re calling in that favor I owe you?”

“I am.” He sat back in his chair and folded his hands across his abs. “I need an angel to be dead.”

She gave a haughty sniff. “You do realize I’m not a fallen angel anymore. I can’t go around killing angels for fun. Not that I wouldn’t like to, mind you. But sadly, Heaven frowns on angels who assassinate other angels.”

“You will handle this,” he said, allowing a thread of warning to weave into his voice. “When I allowed you into the Inner Sanctum to rescue Reaver, you agreed to bring me one item and one person of my choice. Stamtiel is my person.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Stam? Heaven has been looking for him for years. Do you know where he is?”

He nodded. His network of spies and people who owed him favors had made fast work of his request to locate the bastard. “He abused Lilliana. I want his soul.”

“Can’t you send your griminions out to give him a heart attack or something?”

“Come now, Harvester. You know they can only kill demons and evil humans.” And even then, there were rules he had to follow.

“Hmm.” Tapping her chin with one blue-lacquered nail, she appeared to consider that. “Swear to me that if I agree, I will be free of my debt to you.”

A strange request, since that was the deal they’d struck already, but what the hell. “I swear.”

“Then I agree.” She shrugged. “So how are things going with your...what should I call her...prisoner?”

He looked past her shoulder at the female just now entering the office. “Why don’t you ask Lilli?”

Lilliana strode inside, giving Harvester a polite, but forced, smile. “Hello.”

“Lilliana, this is Harvester.”

Lilliana checked up short, as if she’d hit an invisible barrier. “H-Harvester,” she stammered. “I, ah, know your Reaver.” Wincing, she shook her head. Damn, she hadn’t even been this flustered when she’d met him. “I mean mate. I mean, I know your mate, Reaver.”

Harvester cocked her head and studied Lilli. “Have you fucked him?”

Lilliana choked. Maybe he should tell Harvester to stop messing with her, but this was kind of amusing.

“N-no.” Lilli waved her hands vehemently. “We’re just friends.”

“Oh,” Harvester said brightly. “Then you can keep your head. And geez, don’t be so nervous. Also, you should probably know that it was your friendship with Reaver that got you sent down here.”

“What?” Lilli blurted breathlessly. “How?”

Harvester’s smile was sour. “Raphael and Reaver have a...past. Now that Reaver has been raised to Radiant status, he’s far more powerful than Raphael, and he can’t strike at Reaver the way he wants to, so he’s finding other ways to punish him. When you did Reaver’s Christmas shopping, it gave Raphael a reason to go after you.” Her tone turned apologetic, something Azagoth had never heard from the notoriously prickly angel. “You got caught in the crossfire. I’m sorry.”

Lilli looked down, and for a long moment, Azagoth feared the worst. That she was wishing she’d never gotten involved in a power struggle between an archangel and a Radiant.

But when she looked up again, there was fire in her gorgeous eyes. “A couple of weeks ago, this would be upsetting news. But today? I think I’m very fortunate that Raphael has it in for Reaver.”

Harvester rolled her eyes, but Azagoth’s heart got all stupid happy. Then a thought occurred to him.

“Harvester,” he began, “if you knew why Lilliana was sent here, then you must have known about Stamtiel.”

Now her eyes went wide with exaggerated innocence. “Moi?”

He stared, and she huffed.

“Okay, fine. Yes, I knew. And I suspect that Raphael was involved in Lilliana’s kidnapping as well. Stamtiel was Raphael’s friend until he went rogue. Raphael denies that they are still friends, but he’s also a lying bastard. I’d bet my shiny new halo that Raphael put Stamtiel up to kidnapping Lilliana, but I think her escape wasn’t part of the plan. In any case, I’d already intended to destroy the bastard for what he did to her. You didn’t need to call in my debt to you.”

Now her odd request earlier, that her debt would be paid if she killed Stamtiel, made sense. If he’d known that she was already planning to kill Stammy, he wouldn’t have wasted the request on her. Well, fuck. But he had to admire her cunning.

She turned to Lilliana. “I also knew you didn’t sleep with Reaver. I was screwing with you. That, I’m not sorry for. Now,” she said, “if we’re through here, I have an angel to hunt down.”

“See Zhubaal in his office.” Azagoth stood. “He’ll give you the information you need to find the son of a bitch.”

Harvester nodded in farewell. “Oh,” she said, as she strode out the doorway, “I almost forgot. Reaver left you a present outside.”

The moment Harvester was gone, Lilli turned to him. “A present?”

Azagoth groaned. “I had Hades hold Reaver in the belly of a giant demon in Sheoul-gra’s Sanctum for three months. The present is likely not a good one.” He took her hand. “Let’s go see what we’re in for.”

Once outside, he inhaled the air, thick with the fragrance of apple blossoms. He still couldn’t believe the transformation. And then he saw it. Movement in one of the trees.

“Doves,” Lilliana whispered. “There are doves in that tree.” She pointed excitedly. “And rabbits. Look over there!”

“Animals.” He stared in awe. He hadn’t seen anything but demon critters since he’d come here. “But they can’t survive here. Not with the demon animals.”

Cat appeared next to them. “I helped Reaver bring in the animals,” she said, but he barely heard, too stunned by this new turn of events. Reaver should hate him, and yet...he was helping to make sure Lilliana was going to be happy here.

“He brought some other Unfallens to help clear the realm of demon creatures,” Cat continued. “And we brought in several wolverines to help with the smaller things. And one of the Horsemen’s mates, Cara, said she’ll loan you a hellhound too, if you need it.”

“No hellhounds,” he said quickly. “They’ll eat the Earth animals.”

“She said she can tell it not to,” Cat’s voice held a note of admiration. “Apparently, they listen to her.”

Still, a hellhound would be a last resort. The things were vicious, unpredictable and, frankly, they were assholes.

Harvester exited the building and trotted down the stairs. “Are you two dense? The animals aren’t the surprise.”

“You’re such a pleasant person,” he muttered.

She grinned. “Right?” She glanced over at Lilliana. “Do you think you could make use of that?”

Lilli blinked. “Of what?”

Harvester pointed at the portal, and Lilliana gasped. “A chronoglass! Oh, my God. Where did you get it? How did you get it?”

Harvester held up her hands in a not-me gesture. “It was Reaver’s doing. Idess overheard Azagoth say he broke his, and when she told Reaver, he made it a mission to secure one. I’m pretty sure he stole it from the Time Travel Department, but hey, it’s yours now.”

Lilliana broke away from them and dashed to the chronoglass, where she hugged it. Actually hugged the thing.

“Thank you, Harvester.” He lowered his voice, even though Lilli was out of earshot. “I know you don’t owe me anything anymore, but if you happen to run into an angel named Chaniel, I would consider it a personal favor if you would beat the crap out of him.”

“Who is Chaniel?”

“Lilliana’s father.”

One shoulder rolled in a shrug as she started for the portal. “Consider it done.”

Lilliana let go of the chronoglass long enough for Harvester to transport out of there. The angel waggled her fingers at them as her body started to dematerialize. “See ya.”

Lilliana and Azagoth lingered for a few minutes after Harvester left, both so enthralled with the amazing work the Unfallens were doing. Azagoth still couldn’t believe that not only had Reaver arranged all of this, but that people were actually volunteering to help clean up his realm.

“Azagoth?” Lilli squeezed his hand.

“Hmm?”

“Why do you think Unfallen are suddenly being grabbed and dragged to Sheoul?”

“I don’t know.” He watched a cottontail rabbit do some kind of spazzy hop and sprint. “Fallen angels have always made doing that a sport.”

“But according to Cat, they’re being hunted.” She looked over at the unused buildings. “I was thinking that since the buildings aren’t being used...”

Of course! His Lilli was brilliant. Besides giving her a purpose and the Unfallens a safe place to live, it would breathe even more life into the place.

“That’s a great idea,” he said. “And bonus, there’ll be a lot of people who will owe me in the future.” She gave him an exasperated look. “What? I’m evil.”

She heaved a long-suffering sigh, but the faint smile on her glossy lips gave her away. “I don’t think you’re half as evil as you believe yourself to be. Come on,” she said, tugging him toward the chronoglass. “Let’s get it into your library. And then, I think we deserve a vacation.”

“Where to?”

“Anywhere in the world you want to go.”

There were so many places for him to choose from, but when it came down to it, he didn’t need to leave to discover the world.

Lilliana was his world, and finally, for the first time in his life, he was content right where he was.

* * * *

Six months flew by before Lilliana knew it. Of course, in the grand scheme of an angel’s life, six months was like a thousandth of a second.

And that’s what it had felt like.

Even on the bad days, when Azagoth had to deal with some new, intense emotion he wasn’t prepared for, time flew by. She didn’t feel the need to escape into the chronoglass every day, and in fact, she and Azagoth hadn’t gone anywhere in a week.

She loved her life in Sheoul-gra, and as long as she didn’t visit the Inner Sanctum, she could almost pretend Sheoul-gra was a paradise.

A paradise full of griminions, fallen angels, and demons who came and went as they worked out deals with Azagoth.

Demons aside, she wouldn’t give up her life here for anything. She was even doing good work with the nearly one hundred Unfallen angels who now called Sheoul-gra’s outer buildings their home.

Every day she helped them to improve themselves and work their way toward making up for whatever sin had gotten them kicked out of Heaven. When they became discouraged, she reminded them that Reaver, now one of the most powerful angels in existence, used to be Unfallen. It was rare that a fallen angel could earn his or her way back into Heaven, but it happened, and she wouldn’t give up. Not on the Unfallens. Not on anything.

This was her realm. Her future. And Azagoth was her mate. She was made for him and he for her.

And as she lay next to him in the huge bed where they both slept in the middle, she fingered the new, unenchanted key necklace he’d given her and realized that freedom wasn’t about wide, open spaces. It was about being able to make choices.

And she chose Azagoth.

Forever.