Page 109 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“Oh?” Raising her brows, she scratched Mephisto behind his ears.

“The archangels who are being sent to parley with us are Uriel, Gabriel, and Raphael.”

Zoe paused in petting Mephisto, her expression darkening. The air grew thick with her power, and through our bond, I felt her fury.

“Both Gabriel and Raphael have seen you,” I continued, “and they know you’re the angel who was recently banished from Heaven for helping a demon prisoner escape.”

Her eyes narrowed, her mien becoming even more sinister.

“Now, I don’t think the fact that you’re a traitor to Heaven would negatively influence their response to the request to transfer the terms of the truce to me, even when it’s clear that you’d be Queen of Hell. After all, every single demon is considered an enemy of Heaven anyway, and all of the Fallen are considered traitors. It’s still in Heaven’s best interest to accept the truce transfer.” I tapped the letter against my palm. “But your presence might be risky for Naamah.”

Her face fell. “How so?”

“So far, they have not figured out that the demon they caught was me, Azazel. I never gave them my real name, and none of them had seen me beforehand to recognize me. And even Raphael is unlikely to realize the demon he saw was me because the only time he visited my cell, the angel in charge had just shattered the bones in my face?—”

Zoe’s power surged with such violence that it caused the lamps in the room to flicker and the air to vibrate. “Thosemotherfuckers,” she snarled with the kind of ferocity that made me want to tumble her right there on the couch.

“I want you to remember that mood,” I said with a smirk, “for later when I get back. You’re fucking hot when you’re vengeful.”

“Charmer,” Zoe muttered, but there was a smile tugging at her lips.

“Back to my point. Raphael likely didn’t see my face clearly because it must have been badly messed up, so it stands to reason that he won’t recognize me at the meeting. But if they see you standing next to me, with us obviously being a couple, that will change. Because the official story is that you fell in love with the demon prisoner, and that’s why you helped him escape. So when you show up a while later being my official lover, the correct assumption will be thatIam the demon you rescued in Heaven.”

Her throat muscles worked as she swallowed hard. “And they’ll immediately connect the dots and figure that Naamah was involved in the rescue after all…seeing as the demon prisoner was her son.”

“Exactly. As soon as they put that together, Naamah’s excuse that she didn’t know what was truly going on and didn’t help you organize the escape won’t hold up anymore, because it will not be believable that she wouldn’t have known I was in Heaven, and that she wouldn’t try to save her own son once caught. Furthermore, they’ll have to—correctly—assume that she likely facilitated my infiltration, considering we’d been meeting regularly on Earth as part of the truce terms.”

Zoe was chewing her lip, her eyes troubled. “And that’s exactly what she was trying to avoid when we planned the rescue. Because it would have incalculable consequences if that knowledge got out.”

I nodded. “It’s highly risky. They can’t exile her from Heaven for treason because then the truce would be null and void.Neither can they punish her harshly within Heaven because it would violate the terms of the truce. But if word got out that she committed treason and is spared from punishment, it would incite unrest within the angel populace and could endanger the societal order in Heaven. They just had a conspiracy within their ranks, angels working with demons to kill Lilith and bring about Armageddon, and they would be rightfully scared what kind of new rebellion it would incite if Naamah were allowed to prance around Heaven as a traitor.” I paused for a moment. “Not to mention that some rogue angels might try to harm or even kill her in retaliation for her treason.”

Zoe blanched. “She wouldn’t be safe anywhere in Heaven anymore, would she?”

“She’d likely be put under strict house arrest or worse in order to protect her.”

“She’d be locked away again.” Her voice cracked, her expression one of horror. “Just like she was down here.”

And considering how much my mother valued her freedom, how much she craved being able to go where she pleased, being yet again sequestered away would crush her.

“Yes,” I said somberly. “Our best bet is to try to hide the fact that you’re with me for as long as possible—and therefore hide the connection from you to me that would indicate I’m the demon who escaped from Heaven. At some point down the line, I think it won’t be a problem anymore if they realize that you and I are a couple, because as time passes, it becomes more likely that you would have found another lover in Hell than the demon you’d fallen in love with in Heaven.” I shrugged. “As far as angels know, demons are fickle lovers. Lucifer and Lilith have always been the exception with how long and steadfastly they’d stayed together.”

Zoe nodded with a pensive expression. “Yeah, it’s best that I stay here. And not just because of the risk of you being recognized.”

I gave her a curious look. “Do tell.”

“If I see that bastard Raphael again,” she snarled with her teeth bared, “I can’t guarantee that I won’t launch myself at him and try to gouge his fucking eyes out. He owes me my pound of flesh for torturing you.”

Smirking, I shook my head. “While I am very enamored with this vindictive side of yours, what Raphael and his people did is nothing any demon in Hell wouldn’t have done to a trespassing angel in their territory. He was justified in his actions—it was his right. You’ll have to temper that blazing fury of yours when it comes to him.”

Zoe raised both brows and lifted her chin, giving me the kind of pre-triumphant look that heralded she was about to make a point that would put me in my place. “Tell me,darling,” she said oh-so-sweetly, “how well would you be able totemper your furyif it were me Raphael had tortured?”

I narrowed my eyes, and an involuntary growl rumbled out of me at the mere thought of Zoe coming to harm like I’d had at the hands of Raphael and his angels.

“What would you do to him,” she whispered with fierce knowledge of the answer, “if they’d taken one of my eyes?”

Flashing my teeth, I snarled, “I’d incinerate him on the spot the next time I saw him.”

Sending me a sinfully sweet smile, she murmured, “There you have it. Let’s pray to Hell I never run into him again, because otherwise I will personally be the reason you’ll have to renegotiate the truce.”

---