Ezul’s face turned a deep pink. The coloring looked unnatural on his too-white skin.
“You got all of that from a pizza topping?” Morgana was definitely impressed and a little amused.
“It’s his thing. He’s the pizza wizard,” Elliot said.
Miles peeked around Ossy. “He’s weirdly accurate.”
“I will not harm a beloved.” Ezul glared at Joel, then turned to Morgana. “You have my word.”
“I didn’t say you’d hurt us,” Joel said, turning to me. “I am a beloved, right?”
I nodded.
Joel turned to Ezul again. “I said you’re not here because you care about us. You’re here because Donn, the god, is probably losing his shit all over that Bureau of yours, and you don’t know how to make him stop. Like, he’s a god and shit, right? He probably disappears people for no good reason all the time, just because he’s an angry little man-child. I guess I’m saying he’s acting like a spoiled brat of a god.”
Ezul blinked at Joel. The corners of his mouth lifted into what was probably meant to be a smile, but Ezul just looked constipated. “He’s right. About all of it.”
Morgana met Ossy’s gaze. “Go with Ezul. Be careful, but please bring Phineas to me safely.”
Ossy’s tanned, chiseled jaw tightened with agitation. “No one will hurt him. They’ll have to go through me.”
Cael had been right. Something more was going on between Ossy and Phineas. “Is he your beloved, Os?”
“What? No...” Ossy frowned. “Maybe. But how did I not recognize it before now if he was?”
Ezul raised his hand as if he were in class. “I may have an idea.”
Ossy just frowned. “The big boss man had something to do with it, didn’t he?”
“I believe he has ways to block you from your beloveds when you’re in his realm.”
Joel shrugged. “He is Donnie Death, the god of the underworld, after all.”
Ezul smiled for real at Joel the second time. Perhaps Joel had grown on him. He had an endearing quality. “Exactly.”
Ossy grabbed a cloak from the hook by the front door, then turned to Ezul. “Are we doing this or what?”
Ezul nodded, then turned into a shadow again.
“Holy fucking shit!” Miles and Joel said in unison.
Ossy and Ezul disappeared as if the air had swallowed them.
I met Morgana’s gaze. “Donn’s gathering the demons.”
She nodded. “Ezul all but confirmed it.”
“How much sway does Donn have over the hellhounds?”
“If he can convince Gwynn to join him, he’ll have them, too.”
Gwynn was the head of the hounds and didn’t always follow orders, especially not from Donn. Those two had a hate-hate relationship. But she’d proven time and again that she’d do anything for the right price.
“We can’t win against the hellhounds.”
“We can’t win against an army of demons, either, Grym.” She glanced at Elliot, then addressed me again. “If we can appeal to Aengus.”
Aengus was the god of love and, to reapers, very untouchable, but I understood her angle. The only problem was that asking the god of love for help meant they’d have to request an audience while in his realm. And he wasn’t known for his fighting ability. But he’d had a beloved at one point, and perhaps the reapers finding their beloveds was his doing. If so, then they needed him to follow through. “This is his doing, isn’t it?”
