Page 42 of Midnight in the Garden of Okay and Meh
“I couldn’t even if I wanted,” Desi replied, anger driving out some of the pain.
“Thus,” Bael continued, examining a few silver pieces upon the mantel, “speaking as I do for the other princes, I will accept your terms with the exception that, instead of being banished from Abaddon, you be banished to the Akasha. The Thirteenth Hour, to be exact. It is ruled over by the Court of Divine Blood, a fitting captor, do you not think?”
Desi ignored the sly dig, well aware that at least two of the princes knew about his dalliance with Parisi. Idly, he wondered when Bael had taken up the mantle of leader. He’d been so caught up with Parisi and the babe ever since she told him he was to become a father that he hadn’t been paying attention to the politics of the other princes. “It matters little where I go.”
In the end, though, he mused as he strolled over to where Bael was examining a gold goblet, he would suffer untold misery for the rest of his life being separated from the two people who held his heart, so he didn’t care if he was miserable out in the mortal world or locked away in the Akasha.
He plucked the goblet from Bael’s hands and replaced it on the mantel.
“So be it,” he said, and gestured to his steward, who promptly pulled out two large pieces of vellum upon which had been written the contract. Alongside them, a small but sharp dagger was set before the steward bowed his way out of the room.
“The blood moon?” Bael said, holding out his hand.
“Sign first; then I will relinquish it.” Desi met Bael’s gaze, and recognized the power that crackled around him. Somehow, the former dragon had managed to gain a significant amount of dark power. The thought flitted through Desi’s head that if Bael kept the relic for himself, he might well become impossible to overthrow. “Not my problem now,” he murmured as he watched the five princes sign both contracts in their own blood, binding them to its terms with an unbreakable blood oath.
Desi picked up the chain holding the blood moon and, after tracing his thumb over it one last time, set it on one of the contracts, nicked his finger, and signed.
Then, with a look at all five princes, he collected one of the vellum copies and left Abaddon, immediately falling into a deep, dark abyss.
TWELVE
Sally
“I figured they’d call you in on this.”
Sally smiled at the phone as she hurried across the velvety green expanse of grass in the corner of Hyde Park, heading for the men’s toilet block. “You have learned exceptionally quick, Sasha. How are things going there?”
“Fine and dandy. The stable cat had another litter of kittens, and that makes two in two years, so I’m going to take her in to have her fixed. One of the kittens has orange stripes.” Sasha, the current Sovereign of the Court, had what Sally thought of as maxed-out eccentricity trait. She was quirky beyond quirky, although Sally had to admit that it was one of her charms.
“I’ve always enjoyed people who march to the beat of their own drummer,” she said aloud.
“Me, too. Drummers are always so sexy. And they have good rhythm. So, you just called to tell me you’re going to breach one of the most revered tenets of the Court?”
“Well, of course, darlin’!” Sally saw in the distance two familiar figures heading toward the area that contained the toilets. “You didn’t think I was going to spring Desislav the Destroyer without telling you.”
“It goes against everything the Court stands for,” Sasha said, somewhat muffled as if she was rubbing an orange-striped kitten on her face. “It violates at least three Court dictates that I can think of.”
“I can think of six, but that doesn’t really matter, does it?” Sally hurried toward the low building just visible through a clump of trees and shrubs.
“I suppose not,” Sasha answered, sounding somewhat thoughtful. “Not that I could stop you if I wanted, but I do feel obligated as current Sovereign to remind you that by freeing a man deemed so evil by his own fellow princes of Abaddon they banished him to the Akasha, you may well be releasing an apocalypse upon the mortal world.”
“They’ve faced worse,” Sally replied, then was forced by curiosity to ask, “You don’t think you could stop me?”
“Nope.”
She thought about that for a moment, then smiled at nothing. “I must remember to tell Terrin. He will be so pleased.”
“Really?” Sasha asked.
“Of course. He is the most powerful of the two of us. I was always just the showy one. He much preferred to stay in the background and manipulate things to give people the best chance at succeeding.”
“That’s why I asked him to continue what he was doing—unofficially, to avoid red tape,” Sasha said, murmuring softly to what Sally imagined was the mama cat as she gave back the kitten. “He’s been busy taking care of a revolt amongst the mages. The magister people thought we could help, so Terrin decided to tackle the problem.”
“I never found mages revolting,” Sally mused. “It’s their shoes, I think. They always look so expensive.”
The silence that resulted from that statement told her Sasha clearly didn’t follow her logic, but she didn’t have the time to explain her personal philosophy regarding shoes and the nature of the human spirit. “I see May and her handsome dragon, and I believe the demon Effrijim is just ahead of her, so I must leap into action. Do you have anything you wish for me to pass along to them?”
Sasha gave a hint of a chuckle. “Other than my hope they aren’t releasing death upon the mortal and immortal worlds? No. I’m sure you’ll do what is necessary.”
