Page 17 of The Devil You Know

“No,” Michael refused bluntly. “Can’t you see? The fox is leading me up. It makes sense now. If God left anything here for us to find, he would place it in the very middle of the island at the very top. The answer is there, on the peak. I know it. I can feel it.”

He turned back to what he was doing, making his way up slowly. I wanted to tear my hair out.

“The fox isn’t leading you anywhere! He is an arctic fox, for crying out loud. Bane probably just misses snow and the top of the mountain is the only place he can find it,” I said.

“Wait. Bane? He?” the angel frowned.

“Ah. Yeah. I made friends with him and named him. At this point I think he adopted me.”

“Isn’t it usually the other way around?”

“Only with dogs. And that fluffball has a good deal of a cat in him, so he definitely adopted me. Come down, and I will show you how cute he is when he comes to hang out at the lake.”

“I’m going to the top,” Michael said, stubborn as a mule.

“Really? You are?” I snarled, suddenly angry. “It seems to me you will die from hunger before you reach the top. You won’t make it without my help.”

“I don’t need your help,” the angel snapped, eyes furious.

I proved my superiority easily by climbing to the ledge Michael was laboriously working towards and standing there with crossed arms.

“Just give up, angel. God is dead and there is nothing of him left here. He’s not coming back. He left us. Left you.”

“No! Shut up! Just shut up...” Michael climbed the rest of the way in a burst of strength and he was shaking now, tears ready to fall from his eyes. “Please, he can’t...”

Seeing him breaking down like this, I couldn’t help my hand reaching out to comfort him. Maybe breaking down completely and bawling like a baby into my chest would be good for him. A catharsis. I thought he was ready to accept the comfort.

He wasn’t.

He pushed me away.

And I...

I slipped.

As I was falling backwards through the air, a laugh wanted to bubble up in my chest. How poetic, being cast down by the Archangel once more. Michael’s horrified expression made everything even funnier in a way that made me want to sob or maybe howl with rage.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the mortal body to shatter.

Such a shame I was flying without wings. I tugged at the empty place inside of me instinctually and...

Oh. My wings. My wings. I have wings! I spread them as the world shifted around me, the island scattering like a dream. With a beat of my wings I skidded to a stop just above the ground.

I was free of the island. And not only that. The feelings I had for Michael... they frosted over and shattered like my human body was supposed to. After all, he had chosen God, the dead God, over me, even when the key to God letting us out of the trap was apparently killing me. The Almighty bastard wanted me to suffer. That was his farewell gift to me.

He succeeded in making me suffer, I thought as I sensed an angelic presence nearby, but maybe I should thank him. He rid me of a weak spot, after all.

I teleported to Hell before Michael could open his mouth to say anything.

Chapter 7

The first thing I did in Hell was beat a demon to death. After that, my subjects were much more careful with their questions and their words. No more accusations of incompetence, weakness, or betrayal. Even if I knew many still thought about it. They left hounding me with questions and getting in my way to Abaddon.

“I just got a report that Michael is back in Heaven,” the persistent asshole said. I just wanted to curl into a ball. Or maybe organize a death tournament so that I could feel my power properly and stop being irrationally afraid it would be taken from me once more.

“I know,” I grunted.

“We should prepare. Who knows what the angels would do now that they have their leader back. They had been in a frenzy and we are pretty sure something monumental had happened up above while you were gone.” His tone was so blank I just knew an inferno was raging underneath as he followed me.

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