The Night Everything Fell Apart (The Nephilim Book 1)(28)

“What good will that do? He’s already seen me.”

“His near-death experience came before his Ordeal, when he was brashly confident. Now, he’s filled with doubt, torn by forces he doesn’t understand, teetering on the brink of despair. You should have little trouble sending him over the edge into madness.”

Maweth threw up his hands. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It won’t work, I tell you. Not with Arthur. That one’s not afraid to die. Not before, and not now. Getting another look at me isn’t gonna—”

“Silence!”

Dusek lifted his hand. The face on his ring snapped its eyes open. Twin golden beams shot out. They knocked Maweth on his butt even before he realized they’d hit him.

Fire ignited on Maweth’s skin. The ring’s unblinking eyes fed it. Golden flames leaped across Maweth’s body, clinging and burning in patches of utter agony. He dropped to the desktop, writhing. Dusek leaned over him, an odd smile twitching his thin lips.

Maweth swatted at the flames. It only made them jump higher, burn hotter. “Ahhhhhhhhh! St-stoooooop! Make it—stop—”

“Perhaps I will,” Dusek said. “When you’ve learned proper subservience.”

“Please.” Maweth rolled and, even though he knew it was hopeless, swatted desperately at his robe, his skin, his wings. “I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.” He hissed as the ring blinked and bits of golden fire combusted anew.

“Stop,” he sobbed. “Just make it—”

“Stooooooooop!” The cry arrived with a popping sound. “Stop it noooooow!”

A sweet wave broke over Maweth’s body. The fires sizzled and died, leaving nothing but cool bliss. Heavenly bliss.

Oh, crap.

He jumped to his feet and threw himself between Lucky and Dusek. For all the good that was gonna do. The cat was out of the bag now, and nothing was going to shove the spitting feline back in. Dusek stared at Lucky, his expression one of pure astonishment. It was rapidly replaced by a light of pure, evil calculation.

“You idiot.” Maweth grabbed Lucky by the wings and shook. “I told you to lay low.”

“I couldn’t!” Lucky exclaimed. “He was hurting you.”

“It was just pain. He can’t hurt me permanently.”

“Well, well, well.” Dusek moved a step to the left, affording himself a better view of the cherub. “What have we here?”

“Oh, come on,” Maweth muttered. Surely Dusek could manage something a little more creative than that.

“How long have you been hiding this creature?” his master demanded.

“Not long,” Maweth said quickly. “Not long at all. And besides...” Surreptitiously, he extended one foot behind him. “He was just leaving.” With a sudden jerk of his leg, he kicked Lucky off the desk.

“Oof.” Lucky tumbled halo-over-heels then righted himself in mid-air, wings buzzing. “What the heck was that for?”

Maweth picked up a stapler and heaved it at him. “Holy crapshoot, Lucky. Fly! To the door. Get outta here!”

Lucky looked to the door, and back at him. “Leave you?”

“Yes. Go. Now!”

Thud.

Dusek was across the room, his hand on the door. The shut door.

Maweth’s shoulders sagged. “Jumping Jehoshaphat, Lucky. You’re an idiot. Do you know that? A dolt. A lunkhead. A moron, a clodpole—”

Lucky fluttered down beside him.

“—a numbskull,” he continued furiously. “A bubblehead, a saphead, a nimrod—”

The angel sniffed. “For not abandoning you?”

“—a pinhead, a doofus, a lamebrain, an imbecile, a meathead, a—”

Dusek approached the desk. “Are you quite done?”

Maweth looked up and abruptly shut his mouth. His master smiled broadly. Showed his teeth, even. His eyes gleamed. It was an awful, awful sight. Maweth inched closer to Lucky. Snaking his left arm around the angel’s shoulders, he pulled him tight to his side. Lucky clutched at his waist.

Several moments ticked silently by.

“An angel,” Dusek said at last. “Well. One could hardly have predicted this turn of events.”

No, Maweth thought sourly. One could not have, even if one had guessed at it for half of eternity.

The gleam in Dusek’s eyes sharpened. He moved close. Too close, as far as Maweth was concerned. Lucky turned and buried his face in Maweth’s robes.

“I see a new path,” Dusek murmured. The face on his ring smiled.

That ring really, really creeped Maweth out. He averted his eyes from it. “Um...and what path would that be?”

With a smooth motion, Dusek reached out and plucked two feathers from Lucky’s wings.

“Ouch!” Lucky cried, jerking around. “Hey! Give those back.”

Dusek tucked the feathers in his breast pocket. His chin jerked toward the mirror. “Into the quicksilver. Both of you.”

“But—” Lucky said.

“Now.”

“But—”

“Forget it, Lucky. There’s no arguing with him.” With a swirl and a pop, Maweth dove into the quicksilver, pulling Lucky after him.

Once inside, Lucky collapsed. “That was scary.”