around.
But right now our plans coincided. He had told me to stay put and go to sleep, and I was exhausted, with a comfortable bed beneath me. I stretched out, kicking off the sandals Allie had given me and wiggling my toes. I’d need to find out what they’d done with my clothes and the euros I had stashed in an inner pocket of my jeans. I’d have to find a bank where I could trade them in, but that shouldn’t bedifficult once I reached civilization. Depending on how far civilization was.
I could hear the rough cries of the seabirds above the rush of the surf. The sound of the ocean had to be the most soothing noise in the world.
I closed my eyes and slept.
“S HE’S GOING TO WHAT ?” Michael demanded, furious.
“She’s going to die,” Martha said in a tight voice, clearly distressed. “On her twenty-fifth birthday. One month from now.”
“And why the fuck did you wait till now to tell me?” Michael snarled.
“Behave yourself, Michael,” Allie said, sitting next to Martha at the table. “It doesn’t do to badger people.” The six of them were alone in the vast meeting hall: the two ruling couples, Raziel and Allie, Azazel and his wife, Rachel, otherwise known as the demon Lilith, plus Michael and the seer.
“I don’t badger people. Am I badgering you, Martha?”
The seer looked up at him out of troubled gray eyes. “You’re trying,” she said quietly. “You know I can’t control these things. Visions have been coming to me in bits and pieces, and sometimes they are simply shadows at first. The last one was clearer. She’s going to die on her birthday, in battle. You will bed her, blood her, train her, and she will then die for us.”
“No,” he snapped. He wasn’t sure why. She was an albatross, an unwanted complication in his life when he desperately needed it to be simple. They were telling him it was finite, yet he refused to accept what was plainly a reprieve from a life sentence.
“I don’t see why it bothers you so much,” Raziel said from his seat at the head of the table. “You fought this from the very beginning. You don’t want her in your life. This should make it all very convenient—in a few weeks’ time, you get to be the grieving widower. And this gives us one very crucial piece of information. The key words are she dies in battle . We’ve had no idea when Uriel is planning to strike. Now we know.”
“Now we know,” he echoed tonelessly. “Is there anything else you’d like to share?”
“Nothing I haven’t already told you,” Martha said, bearing up under his intimidating glare. He could usually scare the pants off most of the inhabitants of Sheol. Unfortunately, the five people in the room were impervious to his fierce temper. “You must consummate the marriage for the prophecy to come true. If you don’t bed and blood her, everything changes, and I can’t see what changes those are. They are so full of blood and darkness that I might as well be blind. You have to take her, Archangel.”
“You mean if I don’t take her, she won’t die?” he demanded.
“I don’t know. It’s possible we may all be destroyedby Uriel’s armies if you don’t fulfill the prophecy. The only way we know we’ll be safe is if you complete the bond.”
He felt cold inside. “No,” he said. “It was one thing bringing her here to help us. I was willing to make that sacrifice. But I’m not going to sign her death warrant by completing this ridiculous marriage, one I never wanted in the first place.”
“She’ll almost certainly die anyway,” Raziel said, his voice even. “And she would have died if you hadn’t brought her here. We simply changed the place and manner of her death. And we’ve given her four more weeks.”
Michael whirled on Martha. “Is that true?” he demanded. “Can you guarantee she’s going to die no matter what I do?”
“No,” Martha said, and he felt a measure of relief. Martha was incapable of lying. “I believe her to be
But right now our plans coincided. He had told me to stay put and go to sleep, and I was exhausted, with a comfortable bed beneath me. I stretched out, kicking off the sandals Allie had given me and wiggling my toes. I’d need to find out what they’d done with my clothes and the euros I had stashed in an inner pocket of my jeans. I’d have to find a bank where I could trade them in, but that shouldn’t bedifficult once I reached civilization. Depending on how far civilization was.
I could hear the rough cries of the seabirds above the rush of the surf. The sound of the ocean had to be the most soothing noise in the world.
I closed my eyes and slept.
“S HE’S GOING TO WHAT ?” Michael demanded, furious.
“She’s going to die,” Martha said in a tight voice, clearly distressed. “On her twenty-fifth birthday. One month from now.”
“And why the fuck did you wait till now to tell me?” Michael snarled.
“Behave yourself, Michael,” Allie said, sitting next to Martha at the table. “It doesn’t do to badger people.” The six of them were alone in the vast meeting hall: the two ruling couples, Raziel and Allie, Azazel and his wife, Rachel, otherwise known as the demon Lilith, plus Michael and the seer.
“I don’t badger people. Am I badgering you, Martha?”
The seer looked up at him out of troubled gray eyes. “You’re trying,” she said quietly. “You know I can’t control these things. Visions have been coming to me in bits and pieces, and sometimes they are simply shadows at first. The last one was clearer. She’s going to die on her birthday, in battle. You will bed her, blood her, train her, and she will then die for us.”
“No,” he snapped. He wasn’t sure why. She was an albatross, an unwanted complication in his life when he desperately needed it to be simple. They were telling him it was finite, yet he refused to accept what was plainly a reprieve from a life sentence.
“I don’t see why it bothers you so much,” Raziel said from his seat at the head of the table. “You fought this from the very beginning. You don’t want her in your life. This should make it all very convenient—in a few weeks’ time, you get to be the grieving widower. And this gives us one very crucial piece of information. The key words are she dies in battle . We’ve had no idea when Uriel is planning to strike. Now we know.”
“Now we know,” he echoed tonelessly. “Is there anything else you’d like to share?”
“Nothing I haven’t already told you,” Martha said, bearing up under his intimidating glare. He could usually scare the pants off most of the inhabitants of Sheol. Unfortunately, the five people in the room were impervious to his fierce temper. “You must consummate the marriage for the prophecy to come true. If you don’t bed and blood her, everything changes, and I can’t see what changes those are. They are so full of blood and darkness that I might as well be blind. You have to take her, Archangel.”
“You mean if I don’t take her, she won’t die?” he demanded.
“I don’t know. It’s possible we may all be destroyedby Uriel’s armies if you don’t fulfill the prophecy. The only way we know we’ll be safe is if you complete the bond.”
He felt cold inside. “No,” he said. “It was one thing bringing her here to help us. I was willing to make that sacrifice. But I’m not going to sign her death warrant by completing this ridiculous marriage, one I never wanted in the first place.”
“She’ll almost certainly die anyway,” Raziel said, his voice even. “And she would have died if you hadn’t brought her here. We simply changed the place and manner of her death. And we’ve given her four more weeks.”
Michael whirled on Martha. “Is that true?” he demanded. “Can you guarantee she’s going to die no matter what I do?”
“No,” Martha said, and he felt a measure of relief. Martha was incapable of lying. “I believe her to be
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