Devil's Crossroads by Z.J. Cannon

Author:Z.J. Cannon [Cannon, Z.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Z.J. Cannon
Published: 2022-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

He didn’t die, of course. It’s not that easy to kill an angel—I would know, I’ve tried to kill enough of them. A few more hours, and he was good as new. He probably lost most of the blood that human shell had in it, though. I had a feeling he would be the one getting a written complaint from his landlord this time around.

I stayed with him until he healed up all the way. Seeing as how it was my subjects who had carved him up in the first place, it was the least I could do. Even if he didn’t deserve it.

I wasn’t sure he knew I was there. He was pretty out of it most of the time. He fell asleep after a while. After that, I sat with him long enough to watch his human body finish knitting itself back together, and then slipped out the door before he could wake up. I couldn’t let him open his eyes to find Lucifer, lord of Hell—former lord of Hell—sitting by his bedside. Bad for my image, and all.

I wasn’t even sure whether he’d been aware enough during that whole mess to remember who had saved him. I figured if he did, I would hear about it at our next chess game. Or not. Who even knew whether he would bother showing up anymore? He’d been enough of a no-show when he hadn’t had an apocalyptic crisis to deal with.

But I woke up the next morning—all right, the next afternoon—to an insistent knocking at my door. After five minutes of pressing my pillow over my head and hoping the visitor would go away, I stumbled out of bed and opened the door to find Uriel standing in the hallway. He was still wearing his Onyx getup, even though by now he had to know he wasn’t fooling anyone.

I blinked at him. And blinked again. He had never come to my apartment before. After a while, I had stopped inviting him. I hadn’t even known he remembered the address.

“What are you doing here?” I finally asked—which, all right, wasn’t the friendliest of greetings, but in my defense, I had just been rudely awakened.

“I came to thank you,” said Onyx, with that flat, serious owl-stare of his. “For saving my life.”

I didn’t look him in the eye—I had learned my lesson last time—but that stare was unnerving enough even without meeting it straight-on. Honestly, I didn’t know how he ever managed to pass for human.

“Oh. Right. So you remember that, then.” I shifted from foot to foot, and wondered if I was supposed to invite him in.

“I remember.” He let the silence stretch on just long enough to be awkward. Then he said, “If I’m remembering correctly, you enjoy human cuisine.”

I blinked again at the change of subject, well aware that I had spent more than half this conversation blinking at him like a dummy. “You could say that.”

“I’d like to share a meal with you at a human restaurant.

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