Dead Moon Chapel

thirty-three

HEKATE WAS NOT THE ONLY demon here. After the three of them left the throne room, she led Abel and Zora around to another corridor. At the end of it was a library crawling with more monsters. Abel had to cover his face with his hand to keep the scent from attacking his nose with a burn.

"Do we smell foul to you?" Hekate wondered. She stretched her arm out to the library, allowing Abel and Zora access first.

"It's nothing personal." Abel blinked away a few stray tears. "You don't carry the scent with you, but other demons do."

"Fascinating. It must be your heavenly nature that can detect Hellish influence."

Abel scoffed. "I'm hardly heavenly."

"But you are the angel, no?"

"It's complicated."

Hekate led the two of them to a small table in one corner of the room. She slid out a chair for Abel, though Abel felt like he should be pulling one out for her. "We have time. Elaborate."

"Actually, we don't-"

"Hush, Zora," Hekate chided. "Abel, tell me about your situation. What makes it so complicated?"

Abel sat down in the chair he was offered. Hekate ignored the prospect of a chair entirely and sat instead on the table.

"Well, I have every hallmark of an angel. Wings, eyes, halo. And I can kill the most powerful demons I've ever encountered if I need to."

"And you have needed to?"

"Yes. I was... defending someone. Another demon, actually."

Hekate studied him. "The demon you are trying to save, no?"

"That's the one." Abel looked down at his hands. "When I killed that demon, my only thought was that I wanted his pain to end. She had to die for it to happen. And he... he's in pain now. My mission isn't complete until his pain is gone."

He was startled by the feeling of a hand in his hair. Hekate ran her long claws through the tousled mess, eyes distant. "To live and to love is to feel pain, child. To want his pain eliminated forever is to want him dead."

Her words twisted his middle the way someone might wring out a wet rag. "No, I don't want him dead. I just... I want-"

"You want to take away that which tortures him. I understand." Hekate shifted, returning her hand to her lap. "So tell me, then. What complicates all that is heavenly about you?"

"Right." Abel picked at his fingernails. "Well, aside from l... my particular fondness for a demon, my power grows when I speak blasphemy."

"What a fascinating discovery. I've never heard of that before. An angel empowered by blasphemy." She taps her chin while she considers this. "Could it perhaps be your angelic nature growing in order to fight the blasphemy?"

"No. When I'm like that, I enjoy the feeling. I crave it, even. It's addicting, and it makes me want to seek out sacrilege rather than fight it. If I were a real angel, I would want to fight it. But I'm... something else entirely."

Hekate hummed. The table shook as she pushed to her feet. She circled around to Abel's other side, where Zora was already poring over a stack of books. "If you can successfully summon your demon from Hell, I will believe that you are not an angel. Your claims are convincing, but if you can pull this off, you'll really have me."

"Very well. How do we start?"

"First, we get rid of these books." Hekate slid them away from Zora, much to Zora's dismay. "There is only one book you need."