He slowly inclined his head toward me, his eyes glittering dangerously. “Please, General, by all means, find us some souls tojudge.”
“That is your responsibility,” I hissed. We didn’t have time for this. I could be searching for more infect Damned, informing my military of the infection’s new developments, planning an operation to search for Oliver’s sister, or training with Alexei to remove the wrath desperate for an outlet. Anything but watch the king drown in his suffering and slack in his duties.
“You told Sam to stop his study. Yet you want a cure. How do you suspect he’ll accomplish that?”
“He’ll find a way.”
That was pretty much what Sam expressed. Still, I needed a better answer.
“Has the land given you any other insight on the infected?”
He screwed up his face in thought. The grip around his glass tightened. The veins in his neck strained. Then all at once, he relaxed. “No.”
At this point, I didn’t know why I bothered to ask. But I had one more question.
“Why didn’t you send out the missive?”
“Missive?”
I opened my mouth to remind the drunk of his words when the doors to the hall creaked open.
“Wonderful, a soul to judge.” Lucifer smirked and raised his hand, tipping his drink to the newcomer. The moment I twisted, the temperature plummeted, and the female was fully encased in ice.
For fuck’s sake.
“That is not how you judge souls.”
Lucifer straightened. “And you would know this how, General? Are you connected to Hell?” He stood. “Can you see what I see?”
“No.”
“Then remember your place.” He punctuated his words by flinging out an icicle and shattering the female’s body. Flesh shards clattered to the ground, then dissolved and seeped into the marble down to a circle of Hell.
Over the years, I had judged souls with Lucifer. There was almost a ritualistic pattern to the process, down to the words he said. It changed slightly when the Damned came into play, but he had never once skipped the whole process.
“You didn’t inform her of your reasons behind her sentence or the circle she’d be placed in.” My fingers twitched, tempted to rip his sloshing drink from his hand.
He smiled. “I imagine she’s finding out right now.” He threw back the rest of his drink and steadied himself on the arm of his throne. “I think you’re done here.”
“I disagree.”
Saraqael had broken him. He hadn’t seen her in twenty years. Their bond had been severed for much longer, and still her death defeated him. But I shouldn’t be surprised. He never stopped loving her. For fuck’s sake, he allowed me to stay hidden in his kingdom so I’d one day replace him, so he could be with her without fear the council would punish them.
He couldn’t handle judging souls right now.
Lucifer formed an icicle and slowly raised the tip to my carotid while he continued to hold his chair for support. “I am not asking. I’m ordering.”
I could’ve knocked him down with one kick to his knees. But what would it do?
I wasn’t the king. I had no leverage here. He alone had the ability to look into a soul and deem them fit for redemption or recycling. I was backup, so it wasn’t like I could take his place. Nor did I want to. But I feared what leaving him alone would do.
“Go.”
I stepped into the icicle, feeling it pierce my flesh as I went boot-to-oxfords with him. “Yes, my liege.” My shadows covertly threaded from my palm and absorbed the rest of his drink in the glass and decanter.
Cutting him and infiltrating his mind to speed up his detox pathways wasn’t possible, not unless I wanted a deadly fight. We’d tried that before. It never ended well. That left me with one other option: absorbing his alcohol.
My shadows were designed to absorb blood, assimilating the cells at unnatural speeds through my saliva, giving me the instantaneous power to control minds. Without my saliva, my shadows couldn’t purge whatever we absorbed.
