Page 58 of Midnight in the Garden of Okay and Meh
“The threat is Abaddon, of course,” Desi answered. “The terms of our agreement were that I would accept banishment to the Thirteenth Hour, and no harm would befall my son.” He turned to look at me. “What I don’t understand is how you became a demon. Parisi’s woman swore she would see the Court protected you.”
“They did,” I answered, then scrunched up my face as I wondered whether I should tell them what happened before I met Aisling. I decided it didn’t really reflect me in a good way, so I’d tell them later, once they appreciated just how fantabulous was my form choice. “And if you’re talking about Mags, she was there for a long time, and got me into the sprite cadre. Then she moved on to the Beyond, and a few other Sovereigns rolled through, and the last time I saw Hildegarde, she told me that my future lay outside of the Court, so I headed out and ended up hanging around Abaddon for a few hundred years.”
“Hildegarde,” Parisi said on kind of a snort. “She was naught but a ...” She stopped and frowned, then looked puzzled. “She was ... who was this person? Why do I know her, but don’t?”
“It was the spell I cast upon you as you entered the Beyond,” Desi told her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close to him.
“You bespelled me?” she asked, suddenly bristling with anger and, to my surprise, also armed with a wickedly sharp dagger, which she held to Desi’s throat. “I do not take kindly to people casting spells upon me!”
“My love, my stars, my moon,” he said, shaking his head as he moved her hand so he could kiss her. “I could not ask for a better sign that your memories can be restored.”
“Dude,” I said, eyeing the dagger. “Being upside down for sixteen hundred years has done a number on your reason, ’cause it just ain’t normal for someone who loves you to pull a knife on you.”
“You don’t know Parisi as I do,” he said, smiling at her.
She smiled back and, with a move so fast I almost missed it, stuck the dagger back into the side of her boot. “Perhaps you do know me, after all,” she told him, and probably would have gone in for another kiss, but at that moment, Ysolde spoke.
“I’m so sorry, I hate to be the one hurrying people along, especially those who are long-lost and somewhat amnesiac due to mind wipes, but it’s date night tonight, and Baltic says he’s taking me to a nursery so I can browse amongst the plants.”
“That’s a date?” Allie asked, then apologized. “Sorry, I don’t mean to harsh your date-night mellow.”
“Ysolde loves plants,” was all that Baltic said, but the look they exchanged was unmistakable.
“I think maybe it would help zip things along if we updated Parisi and Desi about the current state of Abaddon,” Aisling said. “There’s been a big turnover the last twenty or so years. More recently, Bael has been trapped in the Duat, the Egyptian underworld, ruled over by his uncle. Asmodeus was killed by Bael before he went to the Duat, and a couple of the other demon lords got kicked out, banished to the Akasha, or outright killed.”
Desi’s head snapped around at the mention of Bael. “He is gone? You are certain?”
“Which one?” Aisling asked him. “Bael?”
“Yes. He long sought the blood moon. I can’t believe he could be confined with it in his possession. That should not be possible.”
“That’s because he doesn’t have it. Or rather, he didn’t have it when he went to the Duat,” Aisling said, glancing at Drake.
“Sally could explain the actual events, as she was involved with part of it,” Drake said, one finger rubbing his chin as he looked into the distance. “But as I recall, she said the Tools of Bael had their origin in a powerful relic. I don’t believe she named it, but if you say Bael had a hand in your banishment, then it makes sense that your relic was used in the creation of his three Tools.”
“Where are these Tools?” Desi asked, leaping to his feet as if he was going to rush right out to go claim them.
“Destroyed,” Aisling said. “They are no more. Drake used to have all three, but in a story that’s way too long to tell now, they went into Asmodeus’s custody for a bit, then were destroyed with Sally’s help.”
“Destroyed?” Desi sat down again, his face stark. I wanted to say something, but remembered Aisling telling me to take it easy on my parents for a bit while they got used to being reunited with me, so instead I just sniffed his knees in a supportive manner.
He absently patted me on the head. He gave nice pats.
“Let me be sure I understand this situation.” Parisi, who had been looking sympathetically at Desi, pinned Aisling back with a hard look. “You’re saying that this Bael person responsible for sending Desi to the Thirteenth Hour is no longer a threat to him?”
“He never was a threat to me, not so long as I held the blood moon,” Desi said, his brows pulling together.
“And someone,” Parisi continued, “one of you dragons or Dark Ones, said that the Court had domain over this Hour.”
“That’s what we were told by Finch and Sally,” Christian answered. He, also, was frowning.
I looked over at Drake. Frown. Baltic—frown. I decided that was the look of the day, and furrowed my own brow, wondering what Desi would do once he realized what Parisi was chasing.
“I pointed out that Asmodeus, who was the second-most powerful demon lord next to Bael, was killed, and there’s a new lot of demon lords running Abaddon,” Aisling reminded him.
I saw the moment the penny dropped for Desi. He stood up slowly, his hands first flexing, then curled into fists. “The blood moon was destroyed, in whatever form it was. Bael was banished. The other two princes who founded Abaddon with me are long dead. In short, anyone who posed a threat to Parisi and Effrijim are no more.”
“Uh-oh,” I said under my breath. I think Parisi heard me, but she didn’t pay any attention when I got up and moved over to sit on Aisling’s feet, leaning back on her.
