Page 62 of Each Their Own Devil

“I think I need to sit down.”

Though her eyes were half-closed, she still sensed the uneasy shifting in the room. There was a reason they had held this meeting in a random gallery. No Astraelis had ever been allowed in the Otherlander war room, let alone the Messenger herself. But what she wanted now was the comfortable chair she usually occupied there—the one with its soft leather upholstery—if she was about to tell everyone she loved that they were all about to die.

Or maybe not, said a little voice that was utterly and entirely her own.After all, you know where the First is hiding.

In the end,she realized, many wars could have been averted if only the leaders of the respective armies were so tired, humiliated, and starving that they were willing to share a few bites of cheese and wine in silence in a dusty room that held too many of one side’s secrets.

Aleja wasn’t quite sure when Val had joined them, but he was here now, huddling in the corner beneath his incomplete mask, his bandaged arm cradled against his chest.

No one had said outright that they were waiting for Aleja to speak, but it was obvious all the same. Even Nicolas, seated in his usual chair with an untouched goblet before him, had his silver eyes locked on her face. For the first time in many months, it was uncomfortable for Aleja to be the sole focus of the Knowing One’s attention, considering that nothing she was about to say would be well-received, even by her husband.

For a moment, she was jealous of Violet, who sat by Val in the corner. Aleja almost missed the days when the only person she had to worry about was herself—a scared kid with dark red hair, whose family only ever talked to her out of necessity, assuming the devil would one day take her as the last sacrifice to fulfill her great-great-grandfather’s bargain.

“I know where the First is,” Aleja said. “But it’s not going to be easy to get to her, even if we weren’t going to have to face mutineers along the way. She is surrounded by Authorities who are rallying to protect her.”

“I can help with that,” Violet said softly from the corner.

“There are too many,” Aleja told her, momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to be plotting how to destroy her once best friend.

“All I have to do is draw them away. I can control them, Al. Let me help.”

The Messenger drummed her fingers on her knee. “You’ve proven you can control two at once, Violet. If what the Lady of Wrath is saying is true, then we can expect an army of hundreds. They will not be so easily swayed, and by now, the entire hive mind is familiar with your abilities. If we launch an attack, their first priority will be taking you out. Their next will be eliminating your High General.” The Messenger nodded toward Taddeas. “They’ll want revenge for the two he killed; all the Authorities feel great pain when one of them dies. They will have seen the Dark Saint of Greed through the eyes of their fallen comrades.”

When Aleja glanced at Taddeas, his jaw was set. “If they’re coming after me, then they’re not coming after my soldiers. I can live with that.”

“No one has mentioned yet that this plan involves getting the Otherlander and Astraelis armies to fight together,” Orla said. “Whoever here feels confident enough to negotiate that truce, please raise your hand.”

There was a long silence before Amicia placed her elbows on the table and dropped her chin into her hands. Her bandages were gone, but a pale pink swath of skin on her forearm had yet to fully heal. “My devotees might be convinced to lay aside their differences, considering the stakes. If I talk to them, they might be able to sway others.”

Nicolas nodded slightly. “Do it, Amicia. Val, how long will you need to get the First to assume a physical form?”

“These theories are untested, mind you. Maybe she’ll do us a favor and get so angry that she’ll manifest to kill us all.” Val sighed and adjusted the lower half of his mask, trying to flareout the bottom to compensate for the missing feathers. “But the magic should take no more than ten minutes. This, of course, assumes I’m still alive when we reach her and that the Third is by my side. After the ritual, all we need to do is have him whisk her through his realm and into oblivion.”

“Wait. This whole plan hinges on the Third’s cooperation? Can I remind you that the Astraelis trapped him? He wants no part of this,” Orla snapped.

“He’ll do it.” Again, came Violet’s quiet voice from the corner. “I talked to him a lot while I was in the Astraelis realm. He loved a human woman once. I think he would have let the world crumble if only it meant she could have spent another day with him. And even in his pain, he knows that if this universe ends, it will be like she never existed. I think he’s helping in his own way. If he truly wanted the Avaddon to come, he would have said nothing and let us squabble until the world exploded.”

Maybe Violet didn’t notice the way Bonnie was looking at her from across the room, but Aleja did. It was a complicated expression, and Aleja knew she couldn’t parse it, even if she tried; she had spent her own long months unable to understand her dueling feelings for Nicolas.

“Then we need to get to work,” Nicolas said. His wings spread slightly, forming a black backdrop behind him. “Taddeas, Orla, Aleja—you’re to stay back with me and the Messenger to discuss strategy. Amicia and Bonnie, start recruitment efforts. Convince our soldiers that it’s in their best interest to put aside their differences and march with the Astraelis for now. Merit and Val, you get to work on the logistics. We should be ready to set out in a matter of days.”

“What should I do?” Violet asked, shifting uncomfortably in her chair.

“I suggest youhide, Violet Timmons,” Nicolas answered. “The Otherlanders may be coaxed into working with theAstraelis out of necessity, but they’ll have a harder time accepting a traitor back with open arms. If you truly want to help us, then don’t give anyone a reason to try to stab you in the neck before we can march on the Astraelis realm.”

“I can do something!” Violet said, slapping her hands against her thighs.

Bonnie addressed Violet directly for the first time. “If you truly want to help, then keep talking to the Third. Remind him why our lives are precious.”

“Okay,” Violet said in a half whisper that Aleja only understood from the shape of her lips as they moved.

“I’m scared, Nic.”

“Me too,” Nicolas said. Aleja could barely remember what she had said to prompt his response.

The gray streak by his left temple was invisible now, dampened by the bath they had shared. Aleja could hardly recall the act itself; only the incense-like scent of the soap lingering on her skin proved it had happened at all.

Her mind had been elsewhere—back in the Astraelis realm, perhaps, or lost in the strange inner world she had discovered after eating the violet fig. The red fig still sat tucked in her satchel, but it was not alone. The immortality-granting fruit that Louisa had bargained away remained inside its little golden box.

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