“I don’t need your trust. I’ve told you the truth. If you are killed, Lavius is vulnerable. The details of arranging your death and subsequent rebirth are up to you.”
“Rebirth?”
“Oh, I’m sure you don’t want my input on that. I might be lying. I am a demon, you know.”
I set the wine glass down with a thunk. “Shut up and tell me.”
He stared at me for a moment, his silence pointing out my stupidity louder than words. “Rebirth, as in coming back to life, resurrection, reanimation.”
“It would be a temporary end?”
“It would be an end. But if you had someone powerful enough on your side, it might be temporary.”
“And there are no side effects to…I’d still be…I wouldn’t come back as a zombie, right?”
His mouth curled in a smug smile. “Have you ever met a zombie?”
“Answer the question.”
“If you were brought back to life, you would still be you. Soulless, because, obviously.” He waved a hand down his body as if I’d forgotten he was currently in possession of my soul. “But still you. Your life force, your spirit,” he winced as if it pained him to say the words, “that could never be lost.”
My pulse was sort of erratic and my skin was damp and cool. If I’d had emotions at my disposal, I’d guess I was both terrified and kind of hopeful. If I could take out Lavius without risking that the book fell into his hands when we broke the spell on Ben, then this chance might be worth it.
But I knew Myra, Jean, Ryder, and probably a pile of other people would not agree with me on this. They also wouldn’t trust it would really work with nothing but a demon’s word to vouch for it.
I stared at Bathin, and he returned my gaze, easy, direct, clear. As if he was showing himself to me, letting me look past his nature, or maybe past the disguise he wore for everyone else, all the way down to the realness of him. The bits that made him tick. The stuff of him that was, maybe still not good exactly, but not cruel, not evil, not toxic.
“We do it fast,” I said. “We do it now. And we do it with people who will trust me, because no one will ever trust you.”
“Hurts so much,” he said airily. “And yet I go on.”
I closed my eyes and worked through what I’d need. Worked through who I’d need.
“Okay,” I said opening my eyes a few minutes later. “I have a plan. And you’re going to do everything I say.”
“At your service.” His words were smooth and calm, but his smile was wicked and dangerous.
Was I making the stupid choice? Maybe. But this plan had a lot going for it: surprise timing, hitting a vulnerability Lavius wouldn’t expect us to use, while protecting our own vulnerabilities: Ben and the book that could not fall into Lavius’s hands.
And if we could keep this fight out of Ordinary, or at least away from all the people and creatures Myra was currently corralling for backup, so none of them were risking their lives?
So my sisters weren’t risking their lives?
That was more than worth the choice, stupid or not.
Chapter 18
Bathin made some kind of excuse of not caring who I dragged into our plan, since he didn’t really know anyone in town and no one would trust him anyway. He told me he’d rather hang around my house, prying open my old diaries and laughing at my angst.
I left him to it (I’d burned all my old diaries when I’d turned twenty-three and spent a night reading them in embarrassment and horror).
If we were going to pull off a preemptive strike we’d need to have everyone on board and the plan set in action before midnight.
I’d thought about asking Myra to help me do this, but she would have cuffed me to the holding cell bars until next year.
Jean was in no state to pull off something like this, nor would Hatter or Shoe be up for the whole murder-your-fellow-officer I was going for.
I briefly considered Bertie because she was a Valkyrie, and familiar with war, death, and delivering spirits to specific places. But I’d have to listen to her lecture me about how stupid the plan was and if, by some remote chance, I actually talked her into it, she’d would force me into indentured servitude of rhubarb contest judgings and whatever other horrible community events she dreamed up.
