He paused to let his mouth curl into a fraction of a smirk, but that fell the moment he spoke again. “I think she should be stripped of her position.”
“My position?” Isadora peeped.
“SILENCE!” Peregrine roared, making her sink into a ball. “You have no say in anything to do with this matter. You are lucky we did not dispose of you ourselves.”
“I thought you loved me?” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes.
Those tears would break me in a heartbeat, but they did nothing to Peregrine. “Maybe so, but I am faithful to my God over anyone else. I am the first being of Gehenna, and as such, I knew my position and my task from the day this universe was created until this very moment. As rulers of Gehenna, you shouldallknow your place. You jeopardized my God’s safety, and therefore, have diminished my trust in you.”
“How could you say that, after all we’ve been through…?” she sniveled.
He brought his gaze away from her. “I am a demon, Isadora, as are you. We are not loving creatures.”
Isadora broke down and continued to sob into her legs, not of fear of her punishment, but of devastation over Peregrine’s cold words. I myself had no clue that the rulers of Gehenna thought so fondly of me, enough to turn on one another, but this news was not exciting. I hated that they would damage relationships over my wellbeing, especially ones that had been built for centuries. I was just a twenty-something nobody; how could I hold a torch to a girl he helped raised for ten thousand years?
“Your sentencing?” Elias pressed.
I stuttered wildly as I searched for an answer to give them. “I, um, really d-don’t know?”
“Then I will choose for you.” Peregrine raised a hand and latched onto Isadora’s hair, making her cry out and pull on his grasp. “You will spend the same amount of time as Atlas in my Layer for your betrayal. You will be haunted by the souls of those lost to this catastrophic battle and forced to listen to them scream for the next century.”
“Harsh,” Phillip commented.
“Peregrine, please, I swear I meant no harm! He told me he could bring back my sister!”
“The one who you killed? The one you slaughtered? The one you betrayed to become ruler of your Layer? Your list of betrayals just gets bigger and bigger!”
Isadora quivered. “I, I didn’t-…?”
“I will hear no more of this.” He snapped his fingers, which made two demons appear instantly. “Take her to path twenty.”
“Maximum sentence?” Decimus gulped, finally blurting something.
Peregrine’s eyes were now crimson again. “It is deserving of her crimes.”
“Peregrine, please, I’m sorry! Please don’t do this!” Isadora cried as the demons dragged her back into Gehenna. She fought against them desperately, but they were powerful and did not budge at all.
Once the portal closed, Peregrine turned back to me with a lifeless expression. “I will command her Layer while she is out of commission.”
“I, I see…” I heaved in shame.
He finally answered my burning question. “Your father was sentenced to a hundred years in Decimus’s Layer for his violent crimes. It will be equivalent to a years’ time in your Realm.”
“A y-… WHAT!” I went to fling myself from my bed, but the crushing weight of my wounds sent me back into the sheets. Evris and Arabella jumped up to try and help me, but I shoved back against their hold and wheezed until I could breathe again. “You sentenced him… to a hundred fucking years in that shithole?” I barked out, reaching for my oxygen mask to help me stumble the words out.
Peregrine held on firm despite my overwhelming anger. “Yes, we did. Crimes like his cannot go unpunished, Nicodemus. I am sorry that things have worked out this way, but we were as lenient as we could be…”
“Set him free,now,” I commanded.
Elias looked to Peregrine, unsure of what to do, but Peregrine only stood and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. He placed a hand on my knee, trying to be sympathetic, but it wasn’t working. “You are not our God yet, young Elemental, and though I respect you as one, you cannot have the final say this time. Atlas Crawford dug his own grave this time. You need to respect our command over Gehenna and over this matter. Be lucky we punished him and not Caelum; the beings there are much angrier than us, and would have sent him our way regardless.”
I gripped his shirt sleeve tightly. “Please, Peregrine, don’t torture him like this. He’s already been through so much in life… I don’t want to do any more damage.”
“Did he consider that when you were killed and sent to Gehenna? He was too scared to come down and find you himself, and instead, let you and Odysseus suffer. He is good at keeping his nose clean, and has weaseled out of many situations that should have been a grander event than they were. We all must face our actions when they bite us in the ass. You faced yours, and now, he must face his.” He stood and conjured another portal to leave. “I will let no harm come to him, but my decision is final. You may be cross with me now, but in time, you will understand why I have done what I have. I hope this does not damage our relationship.”
Aloysius departed with him, as did Arabella, Elias, Phillip, and Beatrix. Evris and Decimus lingered a moment longer, both riddled with guilt as they watched me weakly sob into my casted hands. Decimus tried to lay a tender hand on my head but I jerked away, making him flinch. “Nick, you know I would never do this if I had a say…?”
“How could you torture my father, after all he did for you?” I choked out.
