Page 120 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“Right there with ya.”

“And I am, by nature, skeptical of all things divine?—”

“That would include half of you, boo.”

“Quiet,” he said with a low laugh. “What I’m trying to say is that I believe this is…ordained to be.”

I sucked in a breath and leaned away from him. “Who are you, and what have you done with Azazel?” I narrowed my eyes. “And did you justshushme?”

His sly grin did things to my belly. “I like to live dangerously.” His expression turned serious. “The way Shekinah almost prompted you to come up with that idea, and looking at how she gave us the information that Lucifer’s descendants could take the power…” He shook his head. “I believe there’s a reason for it. If God isn’t entirely dormant, if he’s still watching and hasn’t gone completely hands-off, and if Metatron and especially Shekinah actually do have some connection left withhim, then whatever divine afflatus she might have had just now would point her in the direction of solving this dilemma. Think about it. God wouldn’t want Lucifer-slash-Death to implode and take out the world. Nor would he want any of the other contenders to have access to that kind of power. Shekinah wouldn’t have suggested that I be able to hold that force if that option were doomed to fail. That wouldn’t be in God’s interest, would it?”

I chewed on my lip and pondered his explanation. “You think this is part of God’s grand plan?”

“I’m not sure hehasa grand plan, no.” He tilted his head. “Not in the sense that he foresaw all of this happening at the beginning of time. It’s more likely that he’s making it up as we go along, but I think that he, more than anyone, could possess an intuition for how things will play out, a strategic sense of the possible outcomes of a situation. And he might just intervene enough to nudge the course of events in the direction that will deliver the outcome he desires. In our case, it would mean that the sudden insight he granted Shekinah—that I could take the power of death from Lucifer—indicates that I’d be successful with it. Otherwise, why show her the possibility of it? God would gain nothing from my failure to take the power. He needs that force to be contained, and by someone who won’t use it for evil. In that, our goals align.”

I uttered a dry laugh. “Look at us, being on the same page as God for once.”

One corner of his mouth tipped up in a sardonic smile. “The irony is not lost on me.”

“All right, then,” I said softly after a moment. “Let’s do it.”

He raised my hand and placed a kiss on my palm, his eyes tender as he looked at me. “So, do I have your permission to take on the mantle of Death, my love?”

“You don’t need my permission,” I whispered. “I’m not your boss.”

“But you’re my partner.” He still held my hand and now laid it over his heart. “And we decide matters of importance together. I will not steamroll over you, not now and not in the future, when you rule at my side.” Lightning flashed in his eyes. “My queen.”

My knees threatened to buckle. He was turning me into mush, one perfect word at a time. “I love you,” I said and grabbed hold of the front of his shirt to steady myself. “And I’ll have your back in this. Take the power, if that’s possible, and let’s hope it’ll help us secure our rule.”

With a nod, he turned, and together we walked back to Metatron and Shekinah. When we told them the news that Azazel had agreed to take the power of death from Lucifer, they both responded true to their respective character—Metatron with an expression somewhere between reluctant relief and skepticism, and Shekinah with dreamy joy.

“What I don’t understand,” I said, glancing between both, “is how you’ve kept this information secret from Lucifer for millennia—out of certainly justifiable fear of what he’d do with it—but you’re A-OK with us knowing it, with Azazel knowing it, when he’s the one who will have access to all that power now.” I squinted at Shekinah in particular, since she was the one who’d blurted out the secret, whereas Metatron would have kept a tight lid on that info. “You don’t have a problem with Azazel being aware of just how powerful he’ll become? Aren’t you—or God—afraid of what he’ll do with that knowledge?”

Shekinah shook her head, her smile bright and pure.

“Why not?”

“Because you care.”

I raised both brows and blinked rapidly. “Me? But I’m not the one who’ll hold that power.”

“You are the reason he will never use it to destroy the world.” Her pearl-colored eyes traced from me to Azazel and back. “That bond of yours is powerful. It will be the tether that keeps him grounded. Your heart is human still. I would wager it always will be. And since his heart is bound to yours, there will forever be a reason for him to care about humanity. Therefore”—she looked directly at Azazel—“we deem you safe to hold this powerandthe knowledge of it.”

Azazel inclined his head, then slid his gaze to me and murmured, “I told you—you’re a good influence.”

My cheeks blazed even as my heart jumped with happiness. Clearing my throat, I said, “Let’s go tell him, then.”

CHAPTER 35

When we’d gone to Tokyo to meet Metatron and Shekinah, we’d used the gate at Azazel’s new estate that led to the city of Nagoya, which was only a short flight from Tokyo. It was the nearest portal to the meeting place that we could access from Azazel’s palace.

On the way back, however, we opted to go through the Tokyo gate that Lucifer himself owned and which opened directly onto the premises of his palace, in order to get to him faster. It was the gate I’d jogged past when I’d collected Vengeance after Mephisto had told me she was trying to claw her way into the palace.

God, that seemed so long ago. So much had happened since then, so much had changed.

Not the least of which was the security situation and the general condition of the estate. For example, the gate was now flanked by guards who checked us as we stepped through the portal.

When they recognized Azazel, they sank down onto their knees and muttered a deferential greeting. I raised my brows. Hemust have really left an impression in the weeks he’d spent here doing cleanup at Lucifer’s side. They’d greeted him much the same way they’d address the big boss himself.

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