I followed Florian as he got to his feet. I wasn’t quite sure I liked where this was going. Sadriel was circling Belphegor like a shark. Was she insane? He was one of the Seven, and she was just some rank and file celestial bureaucrat, as far as I knew. So maybe she had a managerial position, like she told me all that time ago. She still wasn’t a seraphim, or an archangel. Not as far as I knew.

“So you caught me.” Belphegor folded his arms, rolled his eyes, and huffed. “I’m not holding shit back. I really have no idea where this other sword is.”

“But I might.” Sadriel pushed her pen against her cheek, smiling smugly.

“Whatever you’re trying to accomplish here, Sadriel – why?” I still wasn’t convinced that she was doing anything out of the goodness of her own heart. That was one of the most important things I’d learned about the entities: the celestials, the infernals, the gods of earth. There was no such thing as purity of good or evil, not as far as I’d encountered. Everything was hopelessly gray when it came to the supernatural.

“I am hoping to prove, Mr. Albrecht, that I am a more capable ally than you thought. I am attempting to demonstrate that I do not necessarily mean you harm. You are, as I have tried so very hard to explain, a curiosity for our department. An active nephilim. It would be a shame to see you perish, with the fullest extent of your abilities unmeasured, unrecorded. Such a pity.”

Data. That was what Sadriel wanted. Numbers and lines and charts, things to measure. As long as I knew she wasn’t out to kill me, then fine. I nodded, dropping my arms to my sides – exposing myself.

“Do whatever it is that you think needs to be done.”

She smiled curtly, her heels clicking as she approached. “With pleasure.”

Sadriel placed one smooth hand against my forehead – not exactly what I expected – and I stood there, noting the warmth of her skin, which was at least closer to human than Belphegor’s raging ambient temperature. Her hand smelled of flowers, the kind that you can never remember the name of, but that your mother loved so much.

“I sense it. This gift from Arachne. This – Veil of Surveillance, was it? Something’s wrong.”

Belphegor chuckled. “Sure is. It’s tainted. I don’t know why I didn’t notice before.”

My head jerked at the sound of his voice. “Are you serious? Wait, what do you mean tainted?” I yelped when Sadriel forced my face back into position, making it so that we were eye to eye. “Hey, watch the face. And the neck. And the everything else.”

The Veil had melted right into my face, all over my eyes. Could the two of them detect it from the lingering magics of Arachne’s gift?

“Hush, Mr. Albrecht. This blessing she gave you was meant to locate a missing sword, yes? The truth of the matter is that Arachne has done quite the opposite. The Veil of Surveillance is a misnomer. She has ensorcelled you to become blind to Laevateinn’s presence.”

Florian gasped. “Why would she do that? What was the point?”

A second hand clasped me by the chin, and I almost flinched away in surprise. Sadriel stepped even closer. What the – where were her pen and clipboard? How many hands did this woman have?

“I need your consent, Mason Albrecht. Allow me to modify the enchantment.”

My mouth gaped for a couple of beats as I searched for my answer. “Will – will it hurt?”

Belphegor cracked his knuckles and paced closer, taking a deep toke of the vape pen he produced out of nowhere and coughing as he chuckled out a cloud of thick mist. “This I gotta see.”

“Jerk,” I muttered. “Okay, Sadriel. Do what you must.”

She whispered words I couldn’t understand, every phrase of the celestial language sounding like a strain of the sweetest music, the world’s most perfect song. The pads of her fingers pressed against my skin. Sadriel spoke one final word, my heart shivering at the beauty of it.

Then my brain caught on fire.

Sadriel’s hand flew to cover my mouth as my head lolled back, as I screamed from deep in the pit of my stomach. I could only see white, ivory fire burning my vision all the way from the back of

my eye sockets. Then the white flame cleared, and I could see again. I wiped at tears that had fallen suddenly, my hand shaking as it found my skin glazed with cold sweat.

Florian’s hand grasped me by the shoulder and squeezed. “Are you okay there, buddy?”

I nodded, no longer in pain, but uncertain, and afraid. Sadriel reached for me again, and this time I really did flinch. She gazed into my eyes and blinked. “Do you see now?”

My lashes fluttered as I struggled to focus on whatever it was she wanted me to find. It was like seeing through my own eyes for the very first time.

“Boring,” Belphegor said. “As if he didn’t already know.”

I glowered at him. “I really, truly don’t.”

Belphegor rolled his eyes again, then snapped his fingers, disappearing into a pillar of crimson fire.

Tags: Nazri Noor Sins of the Father Fantasy
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