AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He’s an archangel,” I said with a grimace, gesturing wildly. “Power out his wazoo, in charge of a huge part of Heaven, thousands of angels under his command, member of the Council of Seven who only bow to Metatron and Shekinah!”
“And I,” she said with a look that made me shiver, “am the daughter of an archdemon and Lucifer, King of Hell, First of the Fallen, only challenger of God’s own might. What makes you think I couldn’t take Gabriel’s place if I so wished?”
Eep. I honestly did not want Naamah as my enemy.
“Now,” she said, taking me by the elbow and steering me over to sit in an alcove beneath the huge window of her parlor, “tell me what you found out. Which stable is it?”
I took a deep breath and described the location and all the details I’d picked up, down to the number and position of the guards. I avoided mentioning how Azazel had been doing, stalwartly refusing to bring up the mental image of his plight even though it was seared into my mind as painfully as a hot iron would brand skin.
Luckily, Naamah didn’t ask about Azazel’s condition, likely because it would contribute nothing to our scheming, would only divert our attention, and detract from the plan.
“All right,” she said once I’d finished. “I’d thought that’s where he might be, but I needed the confirmation. Now that I know, I can set everything in motion. I’ve long been putting pieces into place for this, and now I just need to make a few adjustments for it all to be ready. I’ll make a few calls, send out a couple of messages, and then you can make your move.”
I hesitated. “That sounds like…you’re not coming with me?”
“No.” Her eyes held a hint of sadness. “As much as I would like to storm in there and take out a few angels to liberate my son—whom they’ve been hurting”—she bared her teeth—“I can’t risk being directly involved. I hold a lot of sway here in Heaven, it’s true, but even my power and standing have their limits. If I should be found out to have helped a demon trespasser escape from the clutches of Heaven, whether they punish me or not, it will have devastating consequences.”
I gulped. “How so?”
Naamah shook her head. “This is about more than just me and my own safety. The fate of the world rests on the status quo around me not changing. If I am charged with treason and punished according to Heaven’s laws for that, it would violate the conditions of the truce they struck with Lucifer. And knowing him, he’d lay waste to all of Earth if I am harmed.”
A shiver stole down my spine. I’d seen enough of his wrath being unleashed on the human world to know how catastrophic that would be.
“But if I am implicated for treason,” Naamah continued, “and Heaven doesn’t punish me for it, it will undermine all of their laws, all of their authority, fostering resentment and discontent among the angels. And there’s no telling the long-term consequences that would have. I am already a weird exception to a lot of the rules up here, and the authorities have been indulgent with my eccentricities. But I cannot be completely above the law. It is therefore imperative that they can’t have evidence that I freed the first and only demon prisoner in Heaven.”
Pressing my lips together, I nodded. “That makes sense.”
She touched my hand. “I won’t be there by your side, but I will pave the way for you and give you as much of an advantage as I can deliver. I’ve had years of planning for this, and I’ve got a few things up my sleeve to make sure you can get in and out with as few eyes on you as possible. Those I can’t pull away, you’ll have to deal with on your own, but I’ll give you the means to do so.”
“How? My fighting skills might have improved after training with Azazel, but I don’t think I could incapacitate half a dozen guards on my own.”
She smiled and summoned two glasses of amrit, handing me one. “Here’s how.”
And then she launched into a detailed explanation of all the steps of the plan. For what seemed like hours, we went over every facet, and while it pained me to know that Azazel continued to be tortured every second of my being here, it was too important not to spend the necessary time on making sure I understood exactly what I needed to do, and in what order.
We truly only had one shot at this, so we had to make sure I wouldn’t fail. And I had to give it to Naamah—she was deviously creative with the things she’d come up with for this plan. One part especially reminded me so much of Azmodea’s antics that I had to tell her.
In response, she grinned at me. “Where do you think I got that idea from?” At my surprised laugh, she added, “I’ve been seeing my daughter regularly ever since I ascended. We talk a lot. And I am so very, very proud of her.”
My eyes filled with warm wetness, and my chest ached sweetly. I was so, so happy that Azmodea had finally gotten her mother back, that she could reconnect with her. I remembered how sad she’d been when she’d told me that she couldn’t even recall what her mother looked like.
And thinking of mothers…
My eyes widened as it hit me, the realization of this crucial fact having been hampered by all my other concerns so far. My heart stumbled. Suddenly, I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs.
“Zoe?” Naamah asked. “What is it?”
“My mom,” I whispered, something breaking inside me as my mind put all the pieces together. “She…she was dying. Before I was turned into an angel, back when I was in Hell. Azazel had found out that she had cancer and that she…that she wouldn’t live…past the next year.”
I blinked through the fog of tears in my eyes and swallowed past the lump in my throat. “She was slated for Heaven. And it’s been eight years.”
Naamah’s lips parted.
“That means she’s here,” I croaked. “She’s here, in Heaven. She’s been here all this time, and I didn’t know because I didn’t remember her. I could have visited her, talked to her, hugged her—” My voice broke.
“Zoe…” Naamah said gently.
I furiously wiped my tears away, my mind spinning wildly with this new realization. “What will happen to me after I rescue Azazel? What are the next steps?”
