***

The plan was for Asmodeus to wait for Lilif at White’s palace. A scout had told them that she spent some of her time there while the White King and her Marids were in the Mortal Realm searching for Charlie. Lilif hadn’t moved her army from Azazil’s palace grounds, but they had grown quiet and were no longer exhausting themselves with a useless barrage of energy against the protection the kings had placed around it.

Ari waited in tense silence in the parlor with the Jinn kings. Asmodeus had left hours ago and still, there’d been no telepathic shout to bring her to his side.

“Do you think he’s turned?” Shadow asked the room.

Azazil immediately gave a gentle shake of his head. “He would not betray me.”

His certainty did nothing to appease Ari’s nerves. If Asmodeus wouldn’t betray Azazil, then what the hell was taking so long?

“Maybe I should just go,” Ari murmured. “Make sure he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing.”

“I think that might be best,” Gilder agreed.

Ari waited for the go-ahead from Azazil, but none came.

Until two hours later and Asmodeus had still not called on her.

“Fine.” Azazil flicked a hand at her in a beleaguered gesture. “Go.”

Her head turned and her eyes met Red’s. With mirrored grim expressions, Ari gave him a small nod and then closed her eyes, thinking of the parlor in White’s palace where Lilif spent the most time. She heard the flickers of flame around her and then she was moving at the speed of light, her hair whipping around her until the hiss disappeared and her body stilled.

Her eyes flew open in time to watch Lilif fly across the room and smash against the back wall, a mirror shattering into pieces around her. She fell to the floor and raised a hand to slow the descent of glass raining upon her. As the shards descended, they melted into liquid, harmless.

Asmodeus was a blur of wind across the room and his fist came down into Lilif’s chest, reminding Ari of the time he’d ripped the Seal of out her. A horrific, squishing, crunching noise was abruptly interrupted by Lilif’s shriek of pain as she gripped Asmodeus’s wrist and gazed up at him in anguished betrayal.

“Brother?” she murmured.

Asmodeus froze, his expression tortured as he gazed down at her. “Lilif,” he whispered hoarsely.

“Don’t,” she begged.

Seeing his hesitancy, Ari rushed forward. “Kill her. Asmodeus, kill her!”

“Do not listen to her. If I die, you will not survive. I am yours and you are mine.”

“She tried to kill you!” Ari yelled the vital reminder. “Kill her!”

She watched the war in his eyes and felt the world tilt beneath her feet as his shoulder slumped and he hung his head. What he didn’t see was Lilif’s expression change, the brittle hardness settle on her features as she drew back her own fist.

Knowing exactly what Lilif intended, Ari didn’t have a second to think. Using her incredible Jinn speed, Ari crossed the room in her own multicolored blur and stood on Lilif’s arm before she could punch into Asmodeus’s chest.

It broke under her foot and Lilif screamed.

And then Ari was flying back, her head smacking against the wall with an eye-watering wince. She managed to find her feet, blinking away tears of pain so she could assess what the hell had just happened. To her surprise she found Asmodeus standing between her and Lilif.

“What are you doing?” she groaned, about to push herself off the wall when flames erupted behind him and Lilif disappeared into the Peripatos.

Despair washed over Ari and she let out a low moan.

Asmodeus glanced back at the empty space behind him and clenched his jaw before turning back to Ari.

“You let her go,” she growled, forgetting who she was talking to. “You had her and you let her go!”

That’s when the lieutenant attacked her.

His hands were bruising around her upper arms, his breath hot and angry in her face. The room spun as he crashed her against the opposite wall. Just as Ari was about to fight back, his grip loosened and he pressed her there, but the violence was leaking out of him.

She blinked, trying not to tremble as he glowered down into her face. “She is my other half,” he breathed raggedly.

“And you are asking me to destroy her. It would be like destroying myself. Do you have any idea what you are asking?” His voice cracked with emotion. Despite her fear and distrust of him, Ari felt his sincerity and pain and couldn’t help but offer comfort.

She wrapped her small hands around his wrists and leaned closer, speaking softly so as not to incite his rage again. “I do. I do know what I am asking. I wish that I weren’t, but there is no other way and I am so sorry for that. But we have to do this together, Asmodeus. If I could, I would do it alone. I would save you from this.” His jaw flexed and his eyes searched hers for sincerity. “I can try to save you from the worst of it. I can be the one to draw the sword upon her. I’ll spare you that.”

After a moment of quietly contemplating her face, Asmodeus’s features hardened and he leaned in so close their lips were almost touching. Ari sucked in her breath, her heart pounding with fear at his proximity. “It is your fault I have to do this in the first place. If not for your favor, Lilif would still be hidden.” He brushed his mouth gently over hers and she dug her nails into his wrist in an effort to warn him off, her head pressed against the wall. He smiled unhappily, wickedly, against her lips before peppering kisses along her jaw that made her shudder.

He stopped at her ear and whispered, “If you’re still alive when this is over, I’m going to make you feel the same pain I feel.”

Abruptly he let her go, stepping back and allowing her room to breathe. Ari fought to control the shaking throughout her body, her chin jutting up defiantly in an effort to assure him he didn’t frighten her. But he was Asmodeus. He knew. He smirked at her fear, knowing he’d won.

“Let’s get back to Azazil,” he murmured lazily.

Determined to at least win something, Ari shook her head. “I have a better plan.”

***

“So, this is weird, right?”

Charlie turned around from the sink where he’d been quietly doing the dishes, lost in thought. His mom and Mikey were upstairs taking another nap. There wasn’t a whole lot else to do. Fallon’s parents seemed cool, and they were chilling out in the sitting room with Michael’s brother Gerard and his wife Megan, watching some Scottish soap opera.