Haru’s smile grew sharper, like the blade of a knife. “I prefer Dis, for now. Less… strictures.”
“Mm. Interesting to hear.” Lucifer gestured at the door beyond. “We’re here for Mister Celamentum.”
Haru stroked the golden door with clawed fingers and it shimmered open. “Be our guest, Master Morningstar. As always.”
“Enjoy your stay in Dis, Haru Sakai. As always.”
The fox licked his teeth as we passed, amber eyes glinting.
We walked into a quiet vestibule. Like the door, the walls were burnished gold, shining with the faintest possible light.
I waited until the door closed again, but Lucifer leaned in before I could ask. “Do not ever go anywhere alone with Haru, unless you do want to end up as a snack.”
“I wasn’t planning on it. Why didn’t you let me speak?”
Azazel had taken on his shimmery half-form, where only bits and pieces of him were visible. “The highest law in the Consortium is that no words of violence will be spoken outside of this chamber. Not so much as an idle threat. The law applies to everyone.”
“What makes you think I was going to make a threat?” I asked indignantly.
Lucifer gave me a dry look. “You were going to threaten to beat his ass. No, don’t even try to deny it.”
I swallowed my denial.
“If Lucifer himself walked back out there and threatened Haru in any way, he would be banned from the Consortium forever. Or Haru would have the right to claim penance.”
“What does claiming penance involve?”
“He could… ask for a part of you relative to the strength of the threat. If I told him I would kill him, he could petition for one of my wings. The Master and Madame here would likely grant it.”
“How do they get away with that?” I demanded. Lucifer tugged my braid forward so his feather was clearly showing. “Doesn’t that supersede your rule here?”
Azazel shook his head. “Remember that talk we had about interdimensional deities? There are a few places in Hell that they’ve touched. Small places, like spiritual cold spots. Laws are… different here. The usual hierarchy doesn’t apply.”
“Let’s just say the Tower of the Consortium was already here when Satan built his kingdom,” Lucifer said grimly. “Parts of Dis were built around it.”
“And… now it’s a restaurant. Seems like a steep dive from being an interdimensional cold spot. Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.”
Lucifer led me to another door past the interior vestibule. “The restaurant is a front to bring in money and keep Master and Madame rich and happy. This is where the true power of the Consortium lives.”
We were on a broad balcony overlooking a tiered Circle. Tables were clustered in private groups, small fighting arenas had been set up on the tiers, but at the very center, where an arena floor should be…
Instead of an obsidian floor, there was a giant eye.
10
Melisande
It was milky and sightless, gazing upwards. All the light in the room emanated from the pearl-and-snow striations in the iris.
I could hardly breathe from the enormity of it.
“What the fuck is that?” I asked, ashamed to hear a small quiver in my voice.
As I watched, the eye rolled a little to the right, but the edges of the pupil, like a vast dark lake, didn’t move. It was so massive, I felt like I could jump inside that foggy center and keep falling forever.
“Remains,” Azazel said with a note of distaste. “Whatever touched this place left a little of itself behind.”
“And you know this how?”
He glanced at the eye again and looked away. “I spent quite a few years here after my sacrifice. When I was mad and unable to come back to myself.”
“A few years? Try a century.”
The new voice was deep and unctuous. I tore my gaze from the giant eye and looked up at a man in a plum pin-striped suit.
He was nearly as wide as he was tall, with a shaved head and little curling horns. A small button nose jarred incongruously against the rest of his broad facial features.
“Pleasure to see you, Mister Celamentum.” Azazel sounded like it was anything but.
“And what about me?” a breathy female voice asked. Mister Celamentum turned to the side, and a woman walked around him.
Or that’s what I thought at first. I realized they were walking in tandem, because Madame Silenda was fused to his side from hip to shoulder. His suit segued neatly into a shimmering satin gown in the same shade, but where his face seemed like a mish-mash of proportions, hers was flawless planes, like she’d been cut from a diamond.
“And even more of a pleasure to see you,” Azazel said politely, and Celamentum laughed.
“You always say the kindest things.” Silenda smiled, but even the warmest expression on a face that sharp would still look cold.
“What’s this?” Celamentum asked, and the two of them moved forward smoothly. Too late, I realized I was the target of his curiosity. “Ahhh, you have the angel. Must be nice, not being alone anymore, eh, Morningstar?” He looked me up and down greedily. “I would know.”
Lucifer kept his arm firmly around my shoulder. “She’s not for sale.”
I wasn’t ashamed to say I nestled myself a little closer than necessary, glad that Lucifer had pulled his token forward in my hair for all to see. The way Celamentum looked at me was the way a starving man looked at a steak.
“That’s too bad, too bad,” he murmured, stroking the belly of his suit.
Silenda reached around herself and slapped his hand. “Please. You have your choice of flesh.”
My stomach started churning. What the hell kind of place was this?
And I’d thought Belial’s arena was hard to adapt to.
“So if you’re not interested in selling, perhaps you’re here for entertainment?” Celamentum asked, tearing his eyes from me with an effort.
“There’s the rub, Mister Celamentum.” Lucifer’s smile was cold and haughty, the remote expression I’d seen on his face the first time
