“Have you been in conversation with them?” Silas asked.
Alessia made a face. “We try not to work with masculine entities.”
Silas said, “What if I did it?”
My hands dropped from my cup. The three of us looked at him expectantly.
“What if I was your liaison between masculine entities so that you didn’t have to open your party up to communication with them?” he asked.
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I drew blood. I couldn’t believe what he was asking.
“But that wouldn’t solve—” Alessia began to say.
“Let him do it,” O said with finality. “Silas can serve as our liaison with the others, and I will speak with him so that neither you nor the others have to.”
Alessia pulled away from the island. “We don’t work with men. What kind of safe space will we be if we let one in?”
“He’ll be an independent contractor,” O said firmly. “He’s an archangel who defected for this cause alone. Marlow believes in him, and clearly, the other realms trust him with Hell’s bride. He’ll have insights into Heaven that no one else has. And if I’m not wrong, Silas: You have nowhere else to go, do you?”
Alessia looked deeply unhappy. With a dry bitterness, she said, “I really hate your gift sometimes. Do people ever tell you you’re difficult?”
“Often, ma’am.”
O extended her hand for my burner phone. A moment later, she said, “I’ve punched our numbers into your saved contacts. Please try not to lose this one. No one else changes phones every time they hop realms.” Then to Silas, she said, “I’ll send instructions with how to liaise with me directly. And, at the end of the day, if you need a realm, I have somewhere you can go.”
I didn’t understand my body’s reaction to this. I wanted to speak over him, to say that no, he wouldn’t be going anywhere, but that was not for me to decide.
“Who knows,” O said. “You may be able to switch to your real name in my realm, as I do mine. Whether or not humanity survives their apocalypse, you’ll have somewhere to go.”
I hated everything about it.
But since I didn’t hate O, nor did I hate a version of reality where Silas got his happy ending, it was hard to argue with her sentiment.
“You did well, Merit,” Alessia said with a wink. “I was right to bet on you.”
“And…” I cleared my throat, doing my best to appear nonchalant. “There’s nothing else you know about the situation with Apep? No helpful data?”
“We’ve told you everything we know,” O said. There wascomplete finality in her words.
“You’re off, then?” I asked. “Did you fly here just for this meeting?”
“Fly.” Alessia nearly giggled. “Of course not. But it seems someone has warded your place so thoroughly that we were forced to use the lobby like peasants. We couldn’t cross your threshold without an invitation, which was excellent work on the warder’s part.”
“The Prince of Hell,” I said.
“Mmm,” Alessia hummed, as though she was still uncomfortable with granting him credit where credit was due. She said, “We’ll do you the favor of exiting through the front door so that your poor receptionist doesn’t think we live here now.”
I saw them to the door and pretended I was put together as I waved goodbye. I waited until the elevator dinged before I turned to Silas. Softly, I said, “I guess we found you somewhere to go.”
His eyes had a downturned quality, almost as if he might cry.
He looked at me sadly before saying, “Your life is complicated enough, Marlow. The least I could do was take myself out of the equation. Besides…” He lifted his hand as if to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear as he’d done once before, but this time it fell to his side. “I meant it when I said it: I don’t regret anything that’s happened between us. Even though I know you’re always going to choose him.”
