Gabe mulled this over.
“You think you could stick Ares in an object of some kind?”
I considered this but pursed my lips and shook my head.
“Not without the other parts of me. I’m only a third of my full power right now. Besides, I don’t know if there’s a material on this planet strong enough to hold him.”
Gabe frowned thoughtfully, and his gaze fell to his scepter, which was leaning innocently against his chair.
He picked it up and ran his fingers over the shiny gold bar almost tenderly as if he and this weapon had formed some kind of bond.
“What about something not of this world? Do you think this could hold him?” He handed me the staff, and I jumped at the violent shock of energy that tore through me the second my fingers touched the cool surface.
“Shit… whatisthis?”
Gabe shrugged. “No clue. Yahweh made it to kill demons. Turns out it works on angels, too. I kept this one, but there are others.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “This would definitely be strong enough. ButI’mnot.”
“What about with the help of a full coven?” Luna asked thoughtfully.
“Maybe. But it’s looking like gathering a full coven will be more work than it should be.” I gestured around us to the mobs of buttoned-up churchgoers that had taken over Salem.
Luna thoughtfully toyed with her protection spell jar.
“My mom’s still ok, and there are still a couple of women showing up for the circle. What if we worked with them to make more of these jars and started like… I don’t know.Snatchingpeople.”
“You’re starting to sound like Shemhazai.” Gabe grinned at my friend, and my heart warmed as her eyes lit up.
“I’m almost honored that I’m devious enough to be compared to a chaos demon,” Luna laughed, and Gabe’s grin widened.
“It could work,” I said, tapping my chin. “Sköll and Fenrir can act as the body snatchers, and we’ll plant them with protection jars and free them of whatever brainwashing Raz has clearly planted on them.”
“We’ll need to test it first,” Luna observed, and I nodded.
“I know just that gal.”
Luna and I smirked at each other, and I almost laughed out loud at the twinkle of mischief in my friend’s eyes.
“Willow won’t know what hit her.”
Alexa play: Exile - Bonus Track by Loveless
After we had a solid plan, I left Hecate and Luna to get to work on crafting the spell jars we would need for phase one.
I needed to find Shemhazai, and I needed to do it quickly. It wasn’t that I was worried Raziel would make a move on him.
Somehow, I knew Raz wouldn’t seek him out. He was playing a bigger game than that. This was some twisted mind game that I didn’t fully understand yet. I just knew he wouldn’t play a hand as obvious as kidnapping.
He wanted the satisfaction of Shemhazai coming to him, or worse, me betraying him and handing him over myself.
I don’t know how I knew this. Maybe it was just all the time I had spent suffering through Yahweh’s games.
It was a feeling, a gut instinct, and I knew better than to doubt myself.
What Iwasworried about was Shem’s self-destructive tendencies. If I didn’t find him quickly, there was a very real chance he would disappear on me again, and I was worried this time it would be for good.
Shem wasn’t at the bar I’d found him at that first time. He wasn’t at Hexand Haven either.
