Sigillum ex Fatum [UNDER EDITING]

Chapter 36

Gabriel dropped a very heavy, very old tome onto the table. "It's Belial."

"Fucking Belial!" Mikha'el spat immediately.

I glanced between them. "Er—who is Belial?"

"He is one of the nine princes of the Order of Novenary," Gabriel explained at Mikha'el silently but visibly seethed. "The Novenary is not to be trifled with. Belial and Abbadon are especially bad—pure corruption, with Belial being the prince of wrath."

"God told me to show the archangels Hell through a scry pool as a warning of what awaited them should they Fall, and the bastard was looking right at me, grinning, as I did," Mikha'el spat. "To peek into Hell is largely forbidden—we have certain treaties in place with Lucifer to stave off outright war."

"What?!" I could not believe my ears. "Treaties—with Lucifer?! How have I not heard of this?!"

"Only archangels are privy to this information. What happened to Auriel and Metatron would be considered a good day if these treaties were not in place," Gabriel said, looking at me gravely.

"And on the other side of the coin, what us angels would do to Hell?" Mikha'el snorted. "Keep in mind Heaven far out numbers all of Hell."

"Then why don't we just storm Hell and be done with it?! If we truly out number Hell by that much, then—"

Gabriel cut me off. "God still loves Lucifer."

I slammed my mouth shut.

"That does not leave this room," Mikha'el said seriously, a threatening undertone to his words.

Gabriel rifled his wings, almost as a nervous tic. "If Lucifer were to ever come to God and seek his forgiveness, God would accept him back into the fold with open arms. However, he is too prideful to do so."

"And God is too prideful to extend an olive branch," Mikha'el said.

"Thus," Gabriel said with eyebrows raised, sounding sad and frustrated all at once, "Heaven and Hell remain in a stalemate."

I clenched my hands into fists. "While humans are caught in the crossfire!"

Mikha'el waved his hand. "We have hit a tangent. How in God's good name are we going to take down Belial?"

"Are we sure it's Belial?" I said. "The demon I saw come out of Auriel was female."

Mikha'el laughed. "For as brilliant as you are, Sera, you really are daft sometimes."

I'm sure the look I gave him was as though I had just sipped soured milk.

"All demons are tricksters," Gabriel said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "He was so concerned with concealing who he was, of course he would have made himself look different as well."

"We'll know soon enough," Mikha'el continued, "they're working with Auriel and Metatron as we speak—"

Suddenly the doors to the room we were in were thrown open. We all looked; Auriel was billowing towards us. I had rarely seen him look as angry. I had also never seen him so intimidating. Black lightning and natural flames flicked off his wings. There had never been a reason for me to see his angelic powers, and, to be honest, I had come to see him more as a scholar than a weapon of God.

I swallowed. He was scary.

He came over to our table and slammed both hands on the table, hunched over. He glared, looking downright feral.

Mikha'el smiled, nonplussed. "Good day, brother."

"Belial. Belial. Belial! The bastard's name is Belial, and I am going to kill him." Auriel spat out, looking at the three of us individually. Suddenly he had a knife in his hand, silver and gleaming, and he held it up to us. He began to shake. "We are going to raid Hell, kill anything in our way, and when I find him I'm going to slit his throat for what he's done."