Iniquity (The Premonition, #5)(73)

“In theory, yes, but what other body could a soul inhabit—”

“Angel.”

Byzantyne appears to have stopped breathing. “What you suggest is…”

“…Is what you’ve always wanted—to be an angel with a soul. To prove to everyone that angels are worthy of redemption—more so than humans.”

He can hardly contain his glee. He attempts to hide it though. “Still, even with an angelic body, your soul would not die, it would fall to me.”

“If I lose and you kill my body, then my soul is Sheol’s, but I won’t lose.”

“I want your soul mate as well”

“No!” I nearly shout it. “You never get him! He goes free!”

“But you’re together. He’s part of you.”

I can’t let Nicolas suffer for eternity. If I lose my soul to Sheol, I want him to be free. “I will see that our soul mate connection is severed.”

“You would give up your soul mate? For a Power?” This makes no sense to him. I have to keep him unbalanced.

“I’ll do it to see you cease to be—to banish Emil to Sheol for eternity. It will give my soul mate peace like he has never known in any lifetime.”

“You think your soul mate is too good for all of this?”

I want to wipe the smirk off his face. “My soul mate is the best part of us. I’ll pay the cost of this, not Nicolas.”

“Does he know that you’ve fallen in love with your guardian angel? It’s why you force him into mission after mission—so you can be near Xavier,” Byzantyne taunts.

I cringe at how well he knows me. “I accept mission after mission to fight my inescapable. You play Emil whenever you can because you know I’ll agree to face him. It’s you who is obsessed with me.”

“Oh, I am obsessed, Simone. I would love to have you all to myself and violate you in every possible way.”

He means every word. “You know nothing of love, Byzantyne, and that’s how I’ll beat you.”

“You’ll beat me with love? That sounds salacious. I’m so looking forward to it. Now let me tell you what I demand in exchange. I cannot have you return as a more powerful being and have you unmatched by us. That hardly seems fair to have the strength of an angel with the latitude given to a soul. It’s gluttonous of you, Simone. Unless…” his scheming gaze falls on Emil, “I’m allowed a champion of my own.”

I close my eyes briefly. “You need a champion? That’s a little cowardly of you. Are you afraid of me?”

“Afraid? No. I merely seek to maintain a balance, and because I don’t have a soul, I will require a soul to act in my stead. I choose your inescapable, Emil. He will return here as a half-angel. He’ll dance circles around the pieces of your broken heart.”

Emil, who kills for fun, can’t believe his good fortune. He knows what this could mean. He’ll be one of the most powerful beings in the universe. He’ll believe himself God-like, even though he cannot even imagine how miniscule he really is.

Emil sizes me up once more, his depraved soul growing darker. “I accept,” he says without hesitation.

“Does Heaven agree?” Byzantyne lifts his eyebrow to Atwater and waits for him to respond.

Atwater pauses for a moment. His eyes become white, losing any indication that he has irises as they disappear. His body trembles as if enduring a shock from some outside force. It only takes a moment for his eyes to become normal once more. He stops shaking. “Heaven accepts.”

“I still feel as if Simone is getting the better part of this bargain.”

“What is it that you want?”

“I want you blind. You have something planned. I don’t know what it is, but you came into this lifetime hoping for this outcome. Didn’t you?”

“You know I can hardly predict what will happen when I enter a new life. There are too many variables to ever know the outcome of a life.”

“It’s not so hard when you know the players.”

“But I never know the setup, do I?”

“Don’t you? Still. I want you to go into this next lifetime with no prior knowledge of these negotiations. You don’t get to know who you are or why you’re here. And whoever is sent to protect you from us will be blind to the goal of the mission as well.” Byzantyne looks down at Xavier on the ground. My guardian angel is unconscious, having succumbed to the pain of having his wings readjusted. “He doesn’t get to know your mission either.”

“We don’t have to know the goal of the mission or that it involves you and Emil when I return here. It’ll be the only logical choice though, given Emil is my inescapable and you’re his handler. What other reason would I have to come back here?”

“As you say,” Byzantyne accepts my logic. “You will be born into this next life as a human, so you will know nothing of Heaven or your inescapable. You’ll follow the biological progression of an angel with an angelic body. You won’t have angelic strength until you begin to evolve. When that time comes, if you make it that far and begin your evolution into angel, you will lose Xavier and whoever else is protecting you. They must ascend. You’ll be left on your own. No one else is to be told of your arrival on earth or your purpose here.”