Page 16 of By An Angel's Grace

“You’re very sure of yourself and not giving me much to work with.”

“I gave you your girlfriend.”

“Because she was a threat to yours,” he said. “And she’s changed.”

I shook my head. “Iaoel is the same as she always was, and that’s your problem with her.”

“She’s lost her visions, and rituals over a seers’ eyes are hardly as reliable.”

I shook my head. “She’s as focused on her visions as ever. Who knows, maybe when the one she’s dedicated to resolves itself, she’ll get the others back.”

“That’s never going to happen,” he snarled.

“Maybe, maybe not. Her visions have a strange way of working themselves out.”

“You’re not helping your cause.”

“You didn’t help your own cause having me dragged into Hell. Any chaos that’s there now is still on you. But you have a whole realm again, and your power back, because of me. I got Adelaide and her self-determination back, yes. That was the deal, and I kept my end. I’ll keep it this time, too. But if you try and take any of that away from her, or anyone else, through you, or agents under your orders, I promise you, it will cost you.” This time, I was the one tightening my grip on my blade.

“Then you’ll get your vacation, the safety of your girlfriend, and the rest. I’ll keep things in order. I’ll even sweeten the deal.”

“How so?”

“The souls from the Fifth who helped your girlfriend.” Last time we’d fought in Hell, their deeds there had moved them to purgatory, despite the influence of the fifth circle of Hell pushing them to constant war.

“What about them?”

“I release any claim on them. You can send Azrael around to fetch them.”

I tried not to show my surprise. Any souls were of value, and some of them had been in Hell a long time. And then the rest of the conversation came back to me. If Iaoel’s wings were showing signs of gray, he likely didn’t want any more reminders of the events that caused so much chaos, and especially didn’t want constant evidence to other damned souls of the reality of upward mobility in the layers of Hell.

“Not sure it works that way. They’d still need to...”

He nodded. “They’re prepared to ask forgiveness, if they find their way back within God’s sight. Are you going to argue over details, or do we have a bargain?”

He’d find ways to try and work around it, no doubt. On the other hand, I didn’t at all doubt he’d do a lot to have the gates sealed for a time, and a chance to recover. I’d also left myself a rather large out. “We have a deal. Now get out of here.”

Within seconds, Adelaide and I were alone again, and the only sound was her shallow breathing.

* * *

“You really trashed the bike.It didn’t deserve that,” Gabriel said, inspecting the crash site.

“Take it to Joe. He’ll fix it better than new,” I said. “Particularly if he hears that Hell is going to back off of overt influence on Earth for a while.”

“So you actually believe him?” Gabriel asked.

“I believe that he really doesn’t want us knocking on his doors again.”

“But you think he’s got something planned?”

“I believe he has a few hundred things planned, but he had a big chunk of Hell stolen from him, and it’ll be in hostile hands for who knows how long? I believe he lost some of his most powerful allies, untrustworthy as they are. And I believe that he didn’t realize Iaoel would lose her visions. I think he was counting on that to make up for some of the loss. Now isn’t the time he wants a fight.”

“And later?”

“Later we’ll deal with later. I’m on vacation. I haven’t taken one in a couple thousand years. I plan to enjoy the rest of it.”

“And then get your happy ass back to the office and get back to work?”

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