The absinthe burned its way down my throat as I studied the freshly signed treaty, its edges still faintly smoking from Vexis's touch. The silence of the throne room stretched like a predator poised to strike until asmodeus finally broke it.
"Zoraya won't forget this humiliation,"he croaked, shifting his wings uneasily.
I smirked. "Good. I want her to remember exactly what happens when she dares me."
The remnants of the royal treasurer twitched at my feet, his breath coming in wet, ragged gasps. His eyes, wide with agony and lingering madness, locked onto mine, pleading silently for a mercy I had no intention of granting.
I nudged him with the toe of my obsidian boot. "Take this back to Ashkent," I commanded. "Let Zoraya see the cost of defiance."
With a snap of my fingers, the treasurer vanished in a swirl of sulfurous smoke, dispatched to his queen's court as a warning.
Asmodeus tilted his head."And if she retaliates?"
I leaned back in my throne, the lost souls embedded in its frame wriggling beneath me. "Then we escalate."
---
But Hell had other concerns.
Before Asmodeus could respond, the ground trembled, a deep, resonant shudder that sent fissures racing through the obsidian floor. The chandeliers swayed, it's glass frames trembling
A breach.
And not one of ours.
Asmodeus's feathers bristled. "Heaven? "
I was already on my feet, my glass shattering against the floor as the familiar, sickeningly stench of divine interference filled the air. "Worse."
The walls of my throne room rippled like water, and then he stepped through, golden-haired, radiant, and a grin of creulty slashed across his face.
"Brother," Michael greeted, his voice laced with false warmth. "It's been too long".
My claws lengthened, my true form bleeding through my human flesh. "Not long enough."
Michael's gaze flicked to the treaty in my hand, his smile never wavering. "I see you've been busy. Forging alliances with mortal kingdoms now? How... quaint".
I let the parchment burst into hellfire again, the ashes scattering between us. "What do you want?"
His wings, those perfect, gleaming abominations, flexed slightly. "A reckoning is coming Azhrael, he was the only one who dared to call me by my birth name . The scales are tipping he continued, and when they fall..." He tilted his head, his eyes glowing with holy fire. "You'll wish you'd stayed in the dark."
Then, just as suddenly as he'd appeared, he was gone, leaving behind only the faintest trace of a scent and the echo of a threat.
Asmodeus let out a slow breath. "That was new."
I flexed my fingers, the embers of hellfire dancing across my knuckles. "He's scared."
"Of what?" Asmodeus asked
I grinned, sharp and vicious.
"Of us."