“Prove it.”
“I’d love to. How do I do that without you swinging a sword at my face?”
Cygnet’s brow twitched. I couldn’t tell if he felt embarrassed about that or not.
Instead of answering my question, he reached down, picked up a small pebble, and threw it at my legs. It bounced off.
“Dude,” I said.
“Hmph. The demon would’ve deflected the blow, so I trust that you’re human... for now.” He paused, then asked, “Does Faust come and go as he pleases?”
I shrugged. “Pretty much. Honestly, since I’ve gotten... closer to Sagitta, Faust hasn’t been around that often.”
That awkward feeling returned, crawling over my skin like ants. Talking to Cygnet was already weird enough without bringing up the fact that I’d been intimate with his brother. And then there was Sagitta’s mic-drop moment in the doctor’s office. I was sure he’d regret that when he woke up.
Cygnet must’ve remembered that particular comment, too, because his face flushed. “I don’t need to know about that.”
“Cool. Then we’re on the same page.”
“I only want to kill the demon possessing you,” Cygnet stated.
My eyes widened. Maybe we weren’t on the same page after all.
“Kill? What happened to exorcise?” I asked.
Cygnet’s mouth curved into a snarl. “Hasn’t Sagitta told you anything? Once demons are on our side of the veil, you must kill them. If you don’t, they respawn in Hell and all your hard work is wasted.”
The words weighed heavily on me. Sagitta hadn’t mentioned anything like that. He never said his mission was to kill Faust, only to exorcise him.
The idea of killing anything, even a demon, didn’t sit well with me. Faust was annoying and got me into trouble sometimes, but he’d never done anything evil. Just because I didn’t want him possessing my body didn’t mean I wanted him dead. I was unaware that demonscoulddie.
“Yes, we sure can,” Faust confirmed. “But don’t worry, dear. I’m as hard to kill as a cockroach.”
For some reason, that didn’t reassure me.
“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “Faust’s not, like, a bad guy.”
Cygnet’s entire aura changed. He stomped towards me, furious.
“You idiot! He’s ademon! His entire existence is morallywrong!”
Even though I was a foot taller than Cygnet, and even though I knew I wasn’t in any real danger because of Faust’s powers, I instinctively backed up. Cygnet’s anger was almost tangible, like an array of daggers aimed in my direction.
“Chill out, man,” I said, holding up my palms.
Cygnet stopped. He took a few hard breaths that barely seemed to calm him down. “Faust is not your friend. You can’t trust demons, no matter how friendly they act. All they know is selfishness and destruction. They ruin people’s lives. Why can’t you get that through your thick skull?”
I backed up another step, intimidated by his fury. “I know. I mean, I thought I knew that. But Faust hasn’t done anything bad.”
Cygnet looked like he was about to pop a blood vessel. “God, you’re stupid. I can’t believe my brother is giving you the time of day.”
“Hey, come on,” I said, offended.
“Faust was evicted from Hell. Did you know that?”
I paused. Sagitta mentioned that when I first arrived at the temple, but back then, I wasn’t curious enough to dig deeper.
“Evicted... Like, kicked out?” I asked. “How does a demon get kicked out of Hell? Was he, like... too good of a person?”
