I grimaced. I had the same question. Yet, I didn’t believe that he was.
“I don’t think so, but would we abandon the idea if he was trying to?”
Yilan thought about it, then shook her head. “No. Because he can’t control what we say, or to whom.”
“Exactly. So, you make this happen, and you tellno one.And you make sure Diadre tellsno one.You only bring in Fetch that you know have the skill, and are steady enough for this. And you make sure they tell no one, either. So, even if Hever hears about it, and knows it’s you, he can’t trap any of you. Because he never knows where you’ll be next.”
Yilan nodded. “You're right.”
“Damn right, I am.” Then I smiled. “The really perfect part is, they’re going to believe you because you’ll be a miracle. A voice fromGod.”
Yilan huffed. “I doubt the Neph’s mediums are interested in listening to God.”
“Of course they aren’t. But they won’t know it’s you, because you’ll sound like one of theirs. A voice out of the dark. It’s fuckinghilariouswhen you think about it. Exactly the kind of deception and misdirection Lucifer uses, and you’re going to use it against him. The irony is delicious.”
Yilan snorted. “It is kind of funny—we’ll use the light to subvert the dark… while they think they’re listening to voices out of the dark.”
“Brilliant.”
“I wish I thought of it.”
“So do I.”
Yilan tipped her head. “Maybe the first ear I need to whisper in is yours.”
I was confused. “What do you mean?”
She got to her feet and walked to me in that lithe, catlike movement she had, her eyes brighter than I’d seen them in weeks, then she laid one hand on my chest and the other on my face.
“I think you need to be reminded that youarethe king, Melek. Divinely appointed, and chosen by the queen of birthright.”
“That’s foryourpeople—”
“Ourpeople. And no, you were the choice ofyourpeople before I even showed up. I just listened to them when you refused to do so.”
“Don’t start on that again,” I growled.
Instead, my mate smiled and patted my cheek. “I guess we’ll see. Because this is only one battle, Melek. We still need otherbattle fronts to force Lucifer to face—and those will be in your hands, I’m afraid.”
I nodded and pulled her against me. “Thank God you’re here to help.”
She smiled, and she kept smiling, even as I kissed her.
22. The Spirit Speaks
SOUNDTRACK:Blindsideby 2WEI and Edda Hayes
~ DIADRE ~
It was deep in the night as I stood, yawning, shrouded in the shadows of a square room with a double-height ceiling that should have felt large to me, but the windowless space was claustrophobic. Each wall had been entirely covered in thick volumes of sweeping velvet curtains that swayed when the air moved. Freestanding shelves at each side held a variety of talismans, bones, and relics. At the room’s center, a round table was hung with a crushed crimson cloth that reflected the curtains’ deep folds.
I stood in the shadows near the tallest of the shelves, which put me to the left of the human woman. She was shorter than me, her fingers covered in gold rings, and the table before her spread with a deck of cards, a blood-red candle at its center.
She called herself Manna, and she was a medium. Apparently a skilled one. She appeared roughly forty years old, though it was difficult to say in the dim light. She’d just finished readingthe cards for the wealthy merchant, who was her landlord, and nowownedher. When he left, she took a moment, shuffling the cards, her shoulders sagging and her gaze unseeing. My heart went out to her.
Like all the mediums Yilan and I had found so far, Manna’s mind was utterly undefended. She kept no mental guards, not even the natural, instinctive barriers any person with inexperience might have. The opposite—she’dtorn downthe walls in her own mind to open it to the voices of…something.That frightened me for her. A mind that open could be accessed by anything. But it made my job easier. There were no defenses to overcome, so there would be no internal conflict when I spoke to her mind. Shewouldhear me.
That did me no good if she spoke to no one of power, and I was on my fourth night of shadow walking between her rooms, and the rooms of two of her sisters, with no useful input for any of their patrons. Once again, it was almost time to leave. Even the city, which seemed to pulse with energy and hedonism deep into the early hours of every morning, was beginning to quiet. It would be dawn soon.
