Page 21 of All's Hell That Ends Well

For Zoe to have been claimed right after her fall, someone must have been waiting underneath that gate for her. And that meant they had known Zoe would fall, and when.

Which pointed to this whole thing being orchestrated, with someone in Heaven pulling the strings and letting a contact in Hell know about it.

“Have you had any word from Naamah yet?” Azmodea asked.

“None.”

And that was the part that worriedmethe most. There was no way my mother would be oblivious to the fact that Zoe had fallen from grace already. Not with how much she’d been involved in the entire mission and how much of an eye she’d been keeping on Zoe. Plus, the Angelfall gate was located on Gabriel’s premises, and with how rarely an angel was exiled these days, Zoe’s sentencing would make waves enough for Naamah to hear about it even if she’d missed Zoe’s arrest at first.

She had to know about this, and yet she hadn’t sent a message through her channels.

Azmodea shifted on her seat. “There are only a few possible explanations for why that is.”

“Yeah.” I rubbed the blade a little too forcefully. “And I don’t like any of them.”

There simply wasn’t a good reason for Zoe to fall this early and without notice from Naamah. Either Zoe had been made by the authorities due to someone else’s interference, and my mother had been implicated as well, resulting in her arrest along with Zoe, which would account for the lack of communication…

Or Naamah hadn’t sent word because she’d engineered the fall against our agreement. And the only reason for that would be that she didn’t want me to be the one to claim Zoe.

My chest felt like someone had poured acid in my lungs.

I couldn’t fathom the latter possibility. Couldn’t think about how it might be true.

And yet the only other explanation would mean my mother might be in danger, her position in Heaven compromised, and the fate of the world hanging in the balance as the authorities weighed how to respond to treason from the one angel who needed to be untouchable in order for Lucifer to abide by the truce.

The rising tension inside me snapped with a roar that deafened my ears, and I shot up from my seat, the sword in my hands, and swung for the armchair to my right. I slashed and hacked and stabbed at the cushions, channeling the rage sprung from fear and frustration that threatened to burn me from the inside out unless I gave it way through violence.

Moments later, the only things left over from the armchair were splintered wood, shreds of fabric, and the soft filling of the cushions that floated down to the floor. My free hand clenchedand unclenched, and my skin still felt too hot, my muscles buzzing with too much energy.

“You really need her home,” Azmodea said with incongruous calm, considering I’d decimated furniture mere feet from where she sat. “So you can work off some of that tension in a more pleasant way than destroying your own property. A proper fuck would do you good.”

I shot her a dark look and growled, “Having her home is exactly the problem,isn’t it?”

“You always did have a temper,” she muttered and sipped on a drink she’d summoned.

I was about to give her a temper-fueled response when the flap of wings above made me snap up my head. High in the gloom of the ceiling, two yellow eyes glowed.

“Mephistopheles,” I greeted the cat, my heart ramming against my rib cage. “What news? Were you able to trace Vengeance to her destination?”

Azmodea sat up straight, her eyes shrewd.

Of course,Mephistopheles said.

I stared into the void.

The void stared back.

“Well?” I barked, my patience fraying precariously.

Well what?he asked with infuriating nonchalance.

My fingers clenched around the sword hilt.I can’t kill the cat. I can’t kill the cat. I can’t…“Where did she go?”

You will not like it.His voice sounded far too close to a purr, given that he was delivering news that would probably make me go berserk.

“Of course not! She shouldn’t be anywhere but here!”

Take a guess where she is.His tail swished in the dark.

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