Page 65 of The Devil's Viking

“Well said, Guardian Michael.”

At the Master’s voice, the men all whirled around, then snapped to attention.

“Such devotion and faith in your Master is commendable,” Master Gideon told them. “It’s heartening to see that Guardian Michael never wavers in his belief.”

Michael lowered his head and bowed but inside, he was dancing a jig. Not only had he eliminated his biggest foe, but he’dalsomade Guardians Adam and Nathaniel look petty and lacking in faith. This was indeed a marvellous day.

“Guardian Michael,” the Master said now. “Bring Iris down to the basement.”

“Yes, Master.”

He started to walk to the back of the van, delighted at how everything was going. The best part of all this was that even if that whore insisted thathe’dbeen the one to kill Zachariah, nobody would believe her. Who would take the word of a runaway servant over a solemn, dedicated disciple?

Suddenly Master Gideon turned and said, “Guardian Michael?”

“Yes, Master?”

“Where are the Right-Guardian golden wings? Did Zachariah have them on when he fell?”

“No, Master. Neither of us were wearing our uniform in Colorado, so his wings are in his suitcase.”

“Excellent. Make sure that you put them on before coming down the basement, will you?”

Michael’s breath stopped. “I – yes – yes, Master. Thank you, Master.”

“You are welcome… Right-Guardian Michael.”

**

Elle came to slowly. The first thing she felt was sickening pain in her head; the second was extreme cold. Even as those things really sank in, something else swam to the top of her consciousness:

Damp. Rotten. Mould.

That smell… I know that smell.

Oh, no. Oh, please no.

But it was no good: before she’d even opened her eyes, she recognized the freezing cement floor under her naked body, the steadydrip dripof the pipes over her head, the piercing cold air.

She was back in the basement.

She cracked open her eyes, then immediately wished that she hadn’t, because there in front of her – naked and in a cage – was Guardian Jonah. Blood ran from the gash across his throat, down his chin and chest, and onto the floor in front of him in a red-black puddle. There was no way to tell how long he’d been dead, but the fact that hewasdead was indisputable.

Elle stared at him for a few seconds, realized that she didn’t care that this man was dead, didn’t care about it in the slightest. Jonah had been an abusive piece of shit, a bully and a coward, and ifthiswas how he’d reached the end of his life, she was OK with it.

It occurred to her that it was most probably going to be how she reached the end of her life too – but shewasn’tOK with that. Not in the slightest. Regrets began to wash over her, along with the fervent and hopeless wish that she’d never snuck out of Satan’s Bar alone.Howcould she have been so stupid?Howcould she have walked straight into the trap set by those assholes Michael and Zachariah?

Zachariah… something about him was tugging at the corners of her mind, and she blinked hard, trying to clear her thoughts. She frowned. Whatwasit about him? Something –

“Well, good evening, Servant Iris.”

She gasped and sat up, her head shrieking in protest at the sudden movement. There was Guardian Michael, but something was different about him. He looked even more smug and pompous than usual, if that was possible, and her stomach turned over at his expression. He looked like he’d won something, something big like the lottery… but money meant nothing here at the Garden, not to anyone except Gideon. So why was he so triumphant?

He stepped forward into the light cast by the one exposed bulb in the room, and she saw the flash of gold on his chest, above his heart. That was when it came roaring back to her all at once, on a wave of horror and terror: Zachariah was dead, dead at Michael’s hand… and if the angel wings were any indication of the story that Gideon had heard, Michael had successfully pinned the murder on her. He’d said that he would, and sure enough, when it came to his own advancement and her destruction, he was a man of his fucking word.

“Yeeees,” he crooned. “That’s right. I’m Right-Guardian now, because I brought you back to Master. You should know, Iris, that he’s very,veryangry at you. I can imagine that your next few days will be really awful, but you deserve it, don’t you?”

“Fuckyou,” she rasped, her throat sore and dry. “Fuck youandyour cheap little bullshit pin. You’re pathetic… a grown man kissing Gideon’s ass just because you’re too weak to stand up for yourself and make your own way in life. You aren’t even a man. You’re a piece of shit.”

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