Cwall turned his gaze away, flames smoldering in the empty pits of his skull. “Yeah, but the kid… she was buried last week.”
Luce felt his blood run very cold. He had seen the dark circles under Foster’s eyes, felt the tension that was seeded down to theyoung man’s core, but he had thought it was the weight of his intentions wearing on him. It had in fact been guilt.
“Why didn’t you bring this information to me sooner?” Balthazar shot up from his chair as if he would lunge over the table to throttle the imp.
“I didn’t realize it was connected at first,” Cwall shrank back from his boss, but didn’t flee. “But I overheard him sayin’ it was for a ritual, an’ that he has ta do another one.
“We’re too late,” Camiel said, shaken, and gripped Mags’s hand reflexively.
“No,” Luce extended a hand to Mags. “The Gospel, please.”
Judas recoiled. “You have ithere?”
“The Gospel ofPeace,” Mags clarified, pulling the tome from her satchel and passing it into Luce’s hands. “Our last and best hope, especially if this has already begun.”
“This book contains essentially a step-by-step process on how to tithe for the fabled Armor of the Gods,” Luce said, casting his steady gaze around the table, “and instructions on how to forge each piece.”
Bal sank into his chair. “How is this going to fix everything?”
“And it better fixeverything,” Remi snapped from where she was pacing up and down the carpet after wriggling out of Rag’s grip.
“Enough,” Luce snapped back at her. “I’ve had quite enough of your backtalk, Remiel, and if you all would justshut up,I could give you the answers you seek.”
They went silent, restless but willing to wait—or at least not wanting to piss Luce off any more than they had. Remi halted her pacing but glowered at the Devil, holding the back of her chair in a white-knuckled grip.
“Thank you.” Lucifer fixed each of them with his glare in turn to ensure he had a captive audience. “There are five pieces that make up the Armor of the Gods, and once upon a time I beganto forge them. Jehovah, in his ceaseless fear of being usurped, panicked after only one had been crafted and locked the book away in his Vault so the others would not be made.”
“Which one—” Sachiel started to speak but was quick to bite his tongue as Luce and Camiel both turned to glare at him, the latter placing a dainty hand over his mouth.
“Sorry,” she said sweetly, and Luce sighed.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, waving a hand. “I know where it is, and I'm working on a plan to reclaim it. The hard part will be crafting the others, as it has never been done before.”
He rifled through the pages of the book with one hand as he spoke, opening the book to display a glittering title: The Belt of Truth.
“Is that the first piece we’re making?” Rag leaned closer to try and view the page.
“If by ‘we’ you mean ‘me’, then yes,” Luce sighed. “Unfortunately, this is a task I have to undertake alone.”
“Why?” Glory peered up through her lashes at him, concern written in the lines on her brow and the frown on her lips. “Can’t we help somehow?”
Luce offered her a sad smile. “You’re sweet for asking, but no. I need to be the one to do this.”
“But—”
“If you want to help,” Luce cut her off gently, “you can focus on keeping things running behind the scenes. Hell won’t stop needing governance simply because I have other things to focus on.”
“I heard you’ll be taking over my shifts at soul intake.” Camiel leaned forward, resting her elbow on the table and smirking at Remiel, who scowled back. “I’m looking forward to being able to focus more on the Pit.”
“Don’t make me regret that decision,” Luce shot Cami a warning look. “I have enough on my plate without having to worry about this realm falling into chaos too.”
“Of course not,” Cami dialed up the sweetness to sarcastic levels, and Luce narrowed his eyes at her. She sobered at his expression. “Aw, come on Luci, I’m kidding. You can trust us.”
The Devil had his doubts. But he forced a smile onto his face for the sake of morale, and nodded. “I know that, of course. With so much to be done, I think it best we should adjourn this meeting for now.”
Rag rose from his seat and laid a hand on Luce’s shoulder. “If we’re going to get to work, we should start by having the delicious dinner I’ve made for us all.”
Remi made a choking sound. “We need him to fix the world, we don’t want topoisonhim!”
