At his post in the executive board room, Taige kept his features neutral and his stance relaxed—the complete opposite of his churning insides. His Darklings hadn’t returned from their reconnaissance mission. The three had specific instructions: Go to the farm. Canvas the area. Kill no one. Return to Vegas. How fucking hard was it to follow orders? Those brainless bottom feeders. Somehow merging the Darklings with humans had further reduced their collective IQs to minus twenty.

He had to know what happened to them. Were they dead by some random act of fate or did they meet a violent end? Not that he cared either way about how they died. He cared about them meeting the end at the farm, and if that were the case, who killed them? Michael? Another angel? Another demon? Something unknown? He had to get there. That meant he had to get away from his Demoni Lord. Not easy when every second of his day was spent catering to his lord’s needs. At best, he’d grasp a few precious moments of privacy to implement his plans.

A phone rang. Someone had broken one of many cardinal rules. No electronics present that Malphas did not control. He couldn’t risk a picture at an inopportune moment. At times, Malphas’s personal control was thin enough for him to lose form. The last thing he needed was that image on social media. Ignorance truly was bliss until all the Demoni Lords were free and the need for secrecy had ended. More importantly, it was an issue of control. As with all lords, they had to dominate in every arena. In Hell, the lords mixed as well as oil and vinegar. They kept to their own areas, letting their minions do their fighting since not one of the four could beat the other, and they refused to form allegiances. That would have to change when Taige freed them.

An underling of the CFO reached into his suit pocket and fumbled with the device. Malphas paused his speech to the board of directors of his latest acquisition and angled his head a fraction toward Taige.

Taige moved from his position as the unfortunate man dropped his phone. The device skidded across the carpet to lodge under his boss’s seat. By the time he retrieved it and blubbered out an apology, Taige had gathered the man’s notes from the table and had him by the collar, leading him out of the room.

“I’m sorry. I forgot it was in my pocket. It’s my wife. My daughter has been s—”

“What is your position here?” Taige interrupted.

“I’m assistant to Mr. Williams, the CFO of the—”

“You’re fired.” Taige signaled to an armed guard. “Escort him to his office, allow him to collect his personal items, make sure to take his ID, then escort him off the premises.” Taige angled away as the man sputtered. He didn’t return to his position in the boardroom, because his phone vibrated in his pocket.

He crossed the hall and stepped into the stairwell. Only then did he reach inside his pocket and glance at the message on the screen. A set of longitude and latitude coordinates from Aiden. Taige pulled the energy out of the air around him to form a pocket dimension. He stepped into the small, glowing sphere and exited in Africa on the eastern slope of Kilimanjaro, next to Aiden, a fellow Spaun. In all the millennia spent in Hell, they had never cared for each other. Belonging to different lords would do that, but their mutual cause brought unity where none had existed.

“Do you see, Taige?” Aiden pointed to the tropical forest spread out before them.

Taige didn’t need to see when his nostrils were filled with the scents of dead angels floating on the evening air. The floral abundance was further proof on the once dry plains. “What happened here?”

“What we discussed worked.” Aiden slapped Taige’s shoulder and ran down the slope to frolic amongst the greenery. Arms open wide, the fool spun, fell back, and let the lush foliage cushion his body.

Confused, Taige joined him in the foliage and dragged the Spaun to his feet. “Refresh my memory, what did we discuss?” The last time they’d met was over three years ago.

Aiden took Taige by the shoulders. The absolute glee on his face was a contradiction to the rows of sharp teeth showing through his shifting façade. “I built the army of Darklings inside the humans. Like we planned. Then flipped the spell and let the Darklings out to hide the humans. The subterfuge worked. The Celestial Army killed those whom they were to protect, thus killing themselves. I am brilliant.”

“We planned this action for a future date yet to be determined.”

Aiden shook his head. “That date has come and gone. I started building for the future we planned immediately. Good thing, too. When you told me about finding the Cruor, I knew the time to act had come.”

Not sure whether to be excited or panicked, Taige said, “What exactly did you do?”

“I lured the Celestial Army here, lined the battle with humans shrouded by the Darklings inhabiting them. The angels saw their enemy, not those they were sent to protect. Their first wave fell on the Darklings, slaughtering them like sheep, until the shroud lifted and red blood, not ash, soaked the field. They fell to their knees and the rest of my army swept in for the kill.”

Taige was stunned. The victory was… “Did you kill them all? Is the destruction of the Celestial Army complete?”

Aiden shrugged. “Some still live. Not enough to make a difference. They’ve just finished collecting their dead and the human remains. Saw Michael and Gabriél. They had no idea I was here, hidden in a pocket, watching them mourn. Oh, it was a glorious sight and all because of me!” Confidence oozed from the Spaun.

“They will be back,” Taige said. “If there is one angel left, he or she will fight.”

Aiden took Taige by his shoulders. “The retreat horn sounded. You know what that means.” Façade completely gone, Aiden’s grin encompassed his entire face. He shook Taige hard, demanding he join his excitement.

Finally, Taige did. His façade sloughed off and he joined his fellow Spaun in the merriment. They fell to the ground and ripped out the foliage, the flowers, the trees, symbolically killing the angels all over again. The Celestial Army had never retreated, because they’d never been defeated. Until now. The playing field had irrevocably changed in their favor. The time of the Spaun and Demoni Lords had come. He just had to get Malphas out of the way.

Taige stretched his hand out over the field, a sense of urgency building within him. “We need to find a way to collect their spilled grace. This much essence should be enough to open the portal to Hell.”

“I thought only the essence of an archangel could close and open the portal.” Aiden questioned.

Taige’s gaze widened to encompass the width and length of the newly formed tropical forest. “So many angels died here. The odds are in our favor that one of them had to be an archangel.”

Aiden clapped with glee and jumped to his feet. Suddenly, he dropped back down on top of Taige. “Tell me.” Aiden pressed their misshapen foreheads together. “Tell me you have the Cruor.”

Before Taige could answer, the ground shifted beneath their feet in a great, heaving wave. The earth shuddered. To human eyes, it would’ve appeared as if a billion fireflies had taken flight in the daylight. Taige saw the event as it truly was. The spilled grace of the slaughtered angels was returning home. Streams of grace separated from the dirt, grass, flowers, and trees, and raced into the blue sky.

“No!” Taige shouted. Enraged, he tossed Aiden aside when he tried to silence his bellow. “So close! So, close. I won’t be denied. Not this time. I refuse! Do you hear me? I will not be thwarted!” he shouted to the sky.

Aiden erected a dimensional pocket around them, cutting off sight of their defeat. “All is not lost. I will collect what I can without being killed. Now be quick and tell me you have the Cruor.”

“I don’t,” Taige snapped. “But I will soon. I, too, have a plan in the works.”

Aiden opened his mouth, no doubt to demand an explanation.

“There’s no time. I have to return or face scrutiny, scrutiny we don’t want. Collect what you can. Hurry.” Taige exited the pocket dimension and formed another before detection. He returned to the board room in time to meet his master at the entrance glaring at him. Taige swallowed his ire and plastered a smile on his face. In this job, kissing ass was second nature and he was very good at it. He’d do what he had to get back to the farm.