Covenant (16 page)

Angela thought of her own name, how the mother who hated her had given it out of misplaced guilt, all because an angel in her dreams had leaned over Angela's cradle.

Angela relaxed a little. “And how about what you felt for me?” she said softly. “Was that the truth . . .”

“I hated you at first,” he whispered. “Because you rejected me. Then, I realized we are alike. I can't leave you alone with feathered wolves. I want to be by your side. Angela, you said you would never sit on Lucifel's Throne. But remember, it might be your destiny. There might be no way to fight it anymore, and I want to be by your side when—”

“That's not why I'm here,” Angela snapped. She pulled away from Kim.

He stared at her, smiling bitterly. “No, of course not.”

“Sophia was abducted, Kim. And I'm here to find her and take her back.”

Kim shook his head. “It's exactly like you to think there isn't more to all of this. Have you thought about
why
she was abducted?”

“Because Lucifel is insane,” Angela hissed, suddenly irritated.

Kim gripped her arms so hard it hurt. “Or to get the both of you exactly where she wants you—helpless. Babylon is a web of intrigue, Angela. Remember, not every demon shares Lucifel's ideals. But some of them do. Take one wrong step, and you'll plummet off the cliff.”

“I've done that plenty of times and survived,” Angela said petulantly. She ripped her arm away from Kim. “But now I know how to keep myself from falling in the first place. What are you doing here, Kim? The same demon that guided me through the labyrinth so far said that he was keeping you here, just for me. But I walk into this craziness to find that Lilith thinks you're
her
prize to give. I want to know what this is all about, and what you have to do with it. Whose side are you on?”

“Yours,” Kim said, his face utterly serious. “Lilith is protecting me right now, Angela. She offered to spare my life in exchange for getting you into Hell. I'm the black bird she believes dropped you at her doorstep. What she doesn't know is that Python, the son that hates her, is the one who slipped me into her nest. She thinks I'm a devoted human worshipper, nothing more. She's a powerful ally, Angela, but a dangerous enemy with no desire to see Hell's regime turn upside down. She doesn't want you on Lucifel's Throne any more than Lucifel does. This celebration is a trap.”

Angela's blood ran cold. “Then why would Python bring me here if he knew that?”

Kim's gaze hardened. “Hatred is a powerful instigator of chaos. Think of it as a slap to his mother's face.”

That sounds right, and yet . . .

Angela remembered Python's words about seeing the truth. Something told her Kim knew nothing about that little detail.

“I'm flattered by his confidence in me,” she said sarcastically, trying to hide her growing anxiety. She glanced at the smiling faces around her. “Are they going to try to kill me? Right now?”

Now those smiles seemed so fake. Her pulse raced like mad.

“Soon enough,” Kim whispered. His hand on hers shook. “The idea is to tempt you with the glamour of being their new ruler. To get you drunk with time and a sense of power. To make you forget why you are here in the first place. My job was to make sure of that, while in exchange Lilith would protect me from Troy. But I won't do it, even if Troy rips me to shreds.” Kim touched her blood-red hair. “I'm going against so many things for you. The least you could do is thank me.”

“What other kinds of things?” Angela said softly. There was a gentleness to Kim's gaze that frightened her as much as the demons in the room.

“My adoptive father's, for one,” Kim said. “Do you remember that night you asked me about my cross necklace, and I told you my father gave it to me. I didn't mean the Jinn father that I killed. I was talking about the other one.”

Angela blinked at him. Heat and pain scorched through her all at once. “You're like Stephanie . . .”

Kim shook his head. “I felt sorry for Stephanie when we first met. She and I shared a similar history. So my adoptive father encouraged our association. If Stephanie had been the Archon, I was given the order to kill her and eradicate the threat to Lucifel's position. Maybe—considering the kind of person she was—I would have. But I couldn't do the same to you. You'd done nothing to deserve the burden on your shoulders.”

He said that, yet demons didn't seem like the type to adopt out of pure charity.

Hadn't Python said there was always something more behind everything?

So why had Kim's demon foster father adopted him—of all people—as a son? What could Kim do that no one else could?

“It haunts me,” Kim said. His warm lips kissed the edge of Angela's ear. “Who are you, Angela Mathers?” Kim's face, usually so distant and cold, softened with real longing. “I need to know. You are not Raziel reincarnated. You're someone else. I think that is the real key you need to search for. It's the secret that Sophia has shut away within herself. It is the cause of Raziel's mysterious death. It might be the salvation of everything.”

Angela closed her eyes, drinking in the strange but heady perfume clinging to Kim's clothes, the strength in his body.

She thought of Israfel with a sudden bitterness.

The music swirled around her, and for a moment she did find a refuge in forgetting everything else. How much more pain could she take?

Then she returned to her senses, and reality struck her like an arrow to the heart.

I have to get out of here.

Angela's mind flashed to Sophia, and to the lilting music Sophia often played on their recorder back in Luz. It was eerily like the music Angela heard now. Classical and unearthly, filled with sensual beauty with notes that gave you wings to soar to new worlds. She saw Sophia laughing, twirling around to the music. Sophia grabbed Angela's hand and forced her to dance with her, still laughing.

But how can I escape? There are demons everywhere. They'll know if I try to leave . . . Think, Angela. THINK.

A suave voice interrupted Angela's dream. A long shadow darkened her world. “May I have this dance?”

Angela opened her eyes as a tall figure slipped between her and Kim. Kim's face blanched and the crowd swallowed him, but strong hands gripped Angela and whirled her helplessly away. She looked up at her new partner and found herself face-to-face with a glittering snake's mask. Exquisite silver thread had been embroidered into her new partner's collar and coat. “Hey—” She struggled against him. “What are you doing!”

Fear tightened her throat. Her face flushed.

“Welcome to the ball, my beauty.” The demon lowered the mask and smiled at Angela. Python's familiar orange eyes blazed right through her. “It seems you're not too bad at playing Cinderella. But it's too early in our little tale for you to rest in your prince's arms. And it's unfair of you to deny other suitors a chance to impress you.”

Python tried to kiss her hand, but Angela twisted it sideways.

“What do you think you're doing?” she said again, incredulous. Blistering panic shot through her. The room chilled, and she swore her breath frosted the air. Her heart pounded in her ears like a drum. “Your mother will know you're here.”

Python winked. “On the contrary, she'll never know I'm here unless she sees me. Considering that she has yet to scream and cry, she hasn't seen me.”

“Thank you, then, for showing up to make things difficult,” Angela stammered angrily, trying again to pull away from him. “But I'm not going to be your pawn. You're right. I've made a decision after all. That I'm leaving.”

Python yanked her violently close so that their faces were an inch apart. He scanned her up and down approvingly.
How dare he
. Angela was about to spit in his eyes but never got the chance.

“Tell
them
,
” he whispered, “not me.”

He nodded his head to the left. A throng of demons approached, carrying a throne more impressive than Lilith's on their shoulders. It was glaringly obvious they meant for Angela to sit on it.

She searched the crowd, but Kim had vanished in a sea of faces. Oh, God, what if they'd found out Kim was helping her?

“Forgive the awkward pun, but I suppose the ball is now rolling,” the demon whispered. “So much for sweet dreams, princess. Temptation has arrived. Since I already know your decision, I can pity you in advance. But forgive me if all I can do is watch the drama unfold. Besides—I wouldn't want to miss the long-awaited revelations. Ah—so there she is . . .”

His eyes looked up, searching a balcony. Python must have found his mother at last.

He let go of Angela abruptly and vanished like smoke into the crowd. Angela staggered before the advancing group of demons. They dropped the obsidian chair in front of her with a menacing
thump
.

“May I help you, Sovereign?” A female demon with platinum blond hair gestured for Angela to sit. “We've brought you a throne.”

“I don't want it,” Angela muttered in a panic.

“Surely, you wish to be our ruler,” the blond demon continued, though her eyes glittered dangerously.

“No,” Angela said. “I don't. I don't want your Throne. All I want is to leave.”

The female demon reached for Angela's wrist, and Angela screamed.

“NO.”

The dancers stopped. The music faded to an eerie silence. Everyone stared at Angela from behind their masks with open surprise.

She was the cornered mouse, and they were the cats. Her entire body shivered.

Angela backpedaled more and knocked into one of the tables covered in goblets. One of the glasses fell and smashed at her feet, scattering shards everywhere.

Red liquid pooled on the floor near her boots. Slowly, the other dancers closed in on her from every direction. High above them, Lilith stepped toward the edge of an onyx balcony carved with pentagrams. She watched Angela with terrifying superiority behind her eyes. Her voice carried down from the dark heights, rising above the lonely noise of the great fountain in the room. “What an unwelcome turn of events,” Lilith said condescendingly. “You would refuse your Throne, Archon? You would abandon your loyal subjects? Abandon me? How much smarter it would be of you to stay here. To . . . rethink your decision.”

Angela pressed against the table.

That was the temptation and it had failed. So now—

“Well, Archon? Will you be our new ruler? Because if you will not—I'm afraid to say there's no real place for you here.”

Lilith already knew there wasn't a place for Angela. If Angela wasn't killed now, it would be later.

She grasped at one of the glasses behind her and threw it at the nearest demon, splashing his wolf mask with the red liquid. He barely flinched and continued to walk toward her. Angela gripped her left arm glove and started to slide it off, lifting her hand high.

Some of the demons backed away cautiously.

Lilith's laughter rang through the room. “Now this makes for an interesting night.” She looked to the female demons on either side of her. “I suppose the Archon has given us her final answer. But she'd do well not to act too rashly. Behold your prince,” she said, snapping her dark fingers.

Two of the male demons emerged from the midst of the crowd, Kim held between them. He struggled, and one of them cracked him powerfully across the face.

Angela hesitated. She glanced wildly at the demons as they neared her.

Kim breathed hard, glaring at Lilith. A nasty handprint swelled on his cheek. “We had a deal,” he shouted at her.

“And you broke it,” she snapped back. “So much for your promises of success.” She whirled back around to face Angela, pointing at the fountain. “Make her drink!”

Kim's face lost the little color it had left. He struggled harder. “Wait! Wait! I can still help you—”

“Enough!” Lilith shouted back. She pointed again at the fountain. “Take her!”

Some of the dancers rushed Angela, grabbing her. She screamed, struggling as hard as she could. A menagerie of masks with teeth and scales surrounded her. Cruel hands grasped her own and yanked them behind her back, tying her wrists together with a cord. The same female demon who'd initiated the curtsy in her honor now laughed in her face. The male demon who'd introduced her to the crowd grabbed Angela by her hair and dragged her toward the fountain.

The closer she came to its shining black stone, the more life and warmth fled her body. A familiar smell washed over her. Nausea followed it in heavy waves.

Drinking that red fluid would be the worst thing Angela could possibly do. What was Python's motivation in letting this happen? What could this have to do with the truth?

Finally, she reached the fountain.

Angela turned her head aside.

Two demons gripped her by the face and forced her to gaze down at her reddish reflection.

“It looks like Lucifel has won after all, Archon,” Lilith said, her voice echoing with chilling effortlessness throughout the chamber.

Rough hands shoved Angela's face into the liquid. She sputtered, shooting up and out of it for breath. The hands shoved her down again and splashed the liquid into her mouth as she surfaced. Uproarious laughter filled the air.

Her vision swam. The world darkened. A resounding buzzing noise, like the beating wings of a giant fly, overwhelmed her. Angela swallowed as she gasped for breath, and the liquid poured down her throat. It was salty and oddly sour. She coughed and slammed against the smooth floor, distantly aware of her fingers clawing at the stone.

Sophia . . .

Angela had no more ability to think or to pray. There was only that one word, encompassing everything.

Then the nightmares took her.