“Do you want to go to the alley now?” he asked.

“Nah, we’ll wait and go with J.B. later,” I said.

“Very well,” Gabriel said.

He took my hand as we flew home. It was lovely just to be with him, not to hide my emotions, to know that I could touch him if I wanted and no one could take him away from me.

We landed in the backyard, smiling at each other.

“So I see that it is true,” said a strained voice from the porch, and we looked up.

It was Nathaniel.

12

IF I’D THOUGHT NATHANIEL LOOKED MUSSED YESTERDAY at Samiel’s trial, it was nothing compared to the way he looked now. He was positively ragged. He looked like he hadn’t showered or combed his hair, there were huge bags under his eyes, his shirt had been buttoned incorrectly and the tails were left hanging out of his pants.

Nathaniel stalked toward us, and I backed up half a step. He had a slightly crazed look in his eye, and I wasn’t sure what he would do.

“I did not believe when I heard,” he said. “I did not believe that such a thing would be possible, would be allowed. I did not think you would defy your father and the laws of the kingdom so utterly by permitting this thrall to defile you.”

Nathaniel raised his hand toward me but Gabriel stopped him with a hold on his wrist. Nathaniel wrenched his arm away.

“Do not touch me, slave,” he spat. “You have already given me insult by touching my betrothed.”

“She is not your betrothed,” Gabriel said softly, but there was an undercurrent of steel. “She is my wife.”

I stepped between them before Gabriel lost his temper with Nathaniel and went all nephilim-power on his ass. I didn’t need another mess to clean up.

“Leave Gabriel out of this,” I said. “And while you’re at it, leave Azazel out of this, too. This is about you and me. I told you I wouldn’t marry you. Repeatedly. I don’t love you. I never felt anything remotely resembling affection for you. You convinced yourself that I would have to follow Azazel’s word and marry you anyway, but I wasn’t going to do it.”

“You must follow the accords of Lucifer’s kingdom!” Nathaniel shouted, and he looked totally unhinged now. “Even Lord Lucifer himself must cleave unto them!”

“Yeah, about that…” I said. “I think he just plays along with the Grigori because it amuses him to do so. Don’t kid yourself that Lucifer has to follow anyone’s whim but his own.”

“You are speaking blasphemy,” Nathaniel said, and his hand went around my wrist.

I felt Gabriel move behind me but I put my other hand on his chest, holding him back.

“Get your hand off me before I blow it off,” I said to Nathaniel. “You’d better remember what I did to you the last time you touched me without permission.”

The memory hung in the air between us—Nathaniel holding me down, me blasting him with so much power that it left his muscles and bone exposed, unable to heal for weeks.

He let go of me, his eyes narrowed. “You have done me an insult by treating me thus.”

I resisted the impulse to rub the place where he had touched me, to wipe my skin clean.

“You’re the one who’s always going on about Lucifer,” I said. “Fine. My marriage to Gabriel was Lucifer’s will. I’d like to see you try to cross him.”

Nathaniel backed away from me, his wings spread wide. “You have laid me low publicly, to be humiliated before all the courts. Everyone knows that Lucifer indulges you, that you are permitted to run wild. I do not blame Lord Lucifer for his affection for you, for I, too, was guilty of this.”

I gave him a look. “The only thing you cared about was the status you would get when I married you. Now you’ve lost that. Don’t act like it was love for me that’s breaking your heart now.”

“It is all falling apart,” Nathaniel muttered. “I will not forget this.”

He took flight in a whirl of anger, and we watched him go.

“Well, I didn’t expect that,” I said.

“I did,” Gabriel said.

“Why?” I asked. “Nathaniel’s like J.B. He’s a rule-follower. I figured that whatever Lucifer said, he would go along.”

Gabriel looked troubled. “You have insulted him on many levels. You have defied your father, who is the head of Nathaniel’s court. You have publicly broken your betrothal. You have shown no regard for his feelings. And, worst of all, you have wed a thrall, the lowest caste of the courts.”

“You’re not a thrall anymore,” I said fiercely, my hands on his cheeks.

“Not to you. Not to Lord Lucifer, perhaps. But although the members of the court must now treat me as a free man, they will always consider me a thrall. And it is that insult that Nathaniel will find hardest to swallow.”

“I don’t care,” I said, and I kissed him. “You’re mine now, and none of them will take you from me. Not Nathaniel, not Azazel, not even Lucifer.”

He smiled briefly. “My very small champion.”

“I keep telling people not to underestimate me,” I said.

“I don’t,” Gabriel replied. “Now let us go inside. Beezle is sure to be faint from hunger pangs by now.”

I laughed, and we went into the house, a house that felt a lot more like home when he was by my side.

A little after seven the five of us—J.B., Gabriel, Samiel, Beezle and me—stood in the alley where I’d found the permanent portal. I cast the magical net again to pinpoint its location.

“It’s still there,” I said triumphantly.

J.B. shook his head. “I can’t believe my mother wouldn’t have closed the portal. You told her of its presence.”

“Maybe she wasn’t able to close it. I told Gabriel there was something about this portal that seemed very permanent,” I said. “Regardless, we can get in from here a lot faster than if we drove.”

Samiel tapped my shoulder. I don’t know if this is such a good idea. Beezle said the last time you came through here there was a big, tentacled monster.

“Yeah,” I said, remembering the horrible squishy thing in the swamp. “But I killed it, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at me. “You do not think that Amarantha will have replaced that monster with another? The portal leaves the border of her land open to attack.”

“And I suppose you all think that Amarantha will just let us drive up to the front gates like we did last time,” I retorted. “What with the price on my head and all.”

“I suppose this is the best way,” J.B. said reluctantly. “There is likely to be heightened security everywhere. My mother was paranoid even before you managed to kill two of her favorite pets.”

“Five now,” I said, remembering the spiders in the warehouse.

“I wouldn’t mention that if I were you,” J.B. said. “We want to gather information, not provoke her into trying to kill you on the spot.”

“For Maddy those two things are often intertwined,” Beezle said.

“Remind me again why you never stay home anymore?” I asked.

“Your life would be a lot more boring without me,” my gargoyle said.

We all lined up in front of the portal, Gabriel staring at me blandly when I tried to step in front of him.

“You’re not my bodyguard anymore,” I said.

“Call it the right of a husband,” he said, and disappeared inside.

And the right of a brother-in-law, Samiel added, nudging me out of the way and hopping into the portal behind Gabriel.

I looked at J.B., who appeared ready to knock me out if I tried to go before him, and sighed. “Fine, fine. Go on, be a man.”

When they had all gone through I glanced over at Beezle, who was hovering near my right shoulder.

“Do you have some deep-seated need to prove your masculinity by going into the portal ahead of me?”

“Hell, no. I might get hurt,” he said. “Put me in your pocket. I almost fell off last time we went through one of these.”

I tucked Beezle into my inside pocket. Just his horns and his eyes were visible above the lapel of my coat.

“Heigh-ho, silver!” Beezle said.

I stepped into the portal, eyes squeezed tight, and felt the familiar sensation of being squashed into a pancake while traveling at approximately eight million miles an hour. A second later I flew out at the other end, determined not to land in the swamp on my face this time.

I needn’t have worried. We weren’t in the swamp. We were in front of Amarantha’s castle.

“Well, I was right. It did take less time to get here than by car,” I said.

I touched down lightly on the ground and joined the boys, who all stared at the castle. We were not in front of the structure but rather on the opposite side of the moat that surrounded it. The drawbridge was up and everything was weirdly silent. A half-moon shone, leaving way too many shadows.

“This isn’t right,” J.B. finally said, and his voice was barely above a whisper. “This is the time of night when the court is in full swing. It’s usually like a never-ending party.”

I looked up at the catwalk on the outer wall. There were no soldiers patrolling there and no torches lit anywhere that we could see. All was dark and quiet, almost as if the castle had been abandoned.

I expelled a breath. “We’re not going to find out anything just standing here. We’ve got to go in.”

Gabriel and Samiel nodded, but J.B. just stood there, fists clenched.

“J.B.?” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder.

He spoke through gritted teeth. “She is my mother. I hate her more than you can imagine, but she is still my mother.”

And you don’t want to go in there and find her dead, I thought, filling in the blanks. I squeezed his shoulder and made him look at me.

“Whatever is in there, you won’t be alone,” I said.