Page 74 of Hopelessly Teavoted
“Make sure we don’t see you again,” Persephone said softly. She meant that there were no other remaining objects. To see her again would be to kill Azrael, but the warning hung unspoken in the air. They all knew. “Tell my children to be proud of who we are. Harts. Capable of love and magic, and so deserving of both, no matter how people may at times mistreat our people, and mistreat others in our names. Remind them that we have a duty to help mundanes. To mend the world.”
Persephone gave Vickie a stern look and continued, “Protect Azrael. Don’t let him burn.”
Hand to her mouth, Vickie was unable to stop the gasp. Persephone didn’t really think her capable of making such a mistake, did she?
Vickie’s fingers flamed a little now, leaving ash prints on the rope. It wasn’t just her magic working; it was her magicwarning. Warning that she could kill him if she touched him now, and warning that if she even so much as looked at him after Halloween, she would.
Persephone looked sympathetic as the noose burst into flames. She and Benedict were saying something more, but it was too late. All Vickie could do was relay Persephone’s final warning. “They said this is the last you should see them.” She left out the obvious, that if they did again, he would die. “They said you deserve love. And magic.”
Azrael’s eyes were dark now. Angry.
“I want those things. I also want to wring the neck of the devil that did this to us. That made it so that we can’t touch without destruction.”
“We should be more concerned with the greater devil that traded with a human. Your mom said he will be looking for a witch soul. To anchor his power.”
“He would want that by Halloween.” Azrael’s knuckles clutched the wheel even tighter.
“So if we don’t figure out who it is by Halloween?”
“Not only do we never get to see each other again, but also he gets the kind of power that serves as a shield. That protects him from repercussions from any sort of crimes.”
“Why would someone do that?” She pushed her sunglasses up and pressed her palms over her eyes for a moment.
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “Think about it, Vickie. I think you’re right that this is a man. The sort of man who would grab for power, in the world and the workplace, and then brag that he was infallible. It’s usually a politician, sometimes a businessman. Think about the men we hear of who walk away from assault with community service, with positions in the land’s highest courts. In the land’s highest offices. More often than not, they’ve traded for that kind of shielding, whether in spells, or in human riches.”
“Fuck,” she swore. “So this could be bigger than Hallowcross. Bigger than us.”
“Right. If we don’t stop this person before the veil thins, this is power that poisons the world.”
She didn’t know what to say. He needed her reassurance, but she couldn’t think of anything that would make him feel better about it all. So she reminded him of the only thing that she could control.
“Your mother said she loves you, and she’s proud of you. She meant it, Az. I’ve seen you with her mending spells. You’re just like her, making the world better, bit by bit.”
“Does it even matter when the people on the other side are making it worse in such drastic leaps and bounds?” He sounded tired. Defeated.
“Itmatters, Az. Kindness always matters. Small instances of it add up.”
They spent the rest of the drive in silence, neither one able or willing to go on with words. It was enough to sit together tothe sound of the radio, to know that they sped toward danger and could try to stop it.
And maybe she could consider moving forward in how she felt too.
Vickie could stop pretending. She could tell Az she loved him still. That it wasn’t just the incident, or the longing, but all of him, then and now, the way he cared so deeply, the way he wanted to heal sadness and sorrow when he saw it, all blended into higher love and magic than she’d ever known. She loved him enough to sacrifice ever touching him again. And when she was ready, if they survived this, maybe she could seal their love in a way that would fix things between them for good.
CHAPTER 23Azrael
Az hated that Lex was out there somewhere knowing how he and Vickie were suffering. But he had bigger problems to solve; whoever was behind the Brethren of One Love had made a deal so evil it was ironic that they would masquerade as angelic while hunting witches and humans to fuel their power. It crossed over from the order and organized chaos of devils. This was how demons could be made. Even greater devils were lawful; Az had met Frankie out in California. He was one of the execs at a firm Azrael had interviewed at, and he had told Az they could only hire him if he was willing to use minor witchery to prepare ready-to-use spells for executives. He’d absolutely despised that guy, and yet he still had rules. Give and take. Trade of power for power. He wasn’t half as bad as what was going to happen in Hallowcross if they let the church seize control.
Just like angels weren’t necessarily kind, devils weren’t inherently cruel creatures. They were often charming and well-to-do, andalwaysstrikingly good-looking. They embodied a wide range of good and evil intentions. They just had more power than most to act upon them.
Azrael wasn’t sure how he’d fare matched against one in combat, and as they pulled up to the old church, he hoped he would never have to find out. The thought of fighting something worse than the devils made him a bit sick to his stomach,so he pushed that thought away. That was a problem for later Azrael. For now, he had a grave to rob.
Gray mist wreathed the top of the stone spires, cut through with gorgeous designs in dark stained glass in some places and iron bars with jagged scraps of what once must have been lovely panes in others. Right away, they set off for the mausoleum, Vickie’s pink jacket in sharp contrast with the muted greens of weeping willows and the overgrown gray path in the graveyard.
Here and there, trees sprouted from graves and vines leeched the stone monuments away from humans and back to nature.
“Who was the Prague Punisher?” Vickie whispered.
“Seriously? You want me to tell you about a murderer in a graveyard? While we prepare for maybe our most dangerous magical encounter yet?”
