“It’s a ridiculous plan,” Saul said, his face set in such a scowl it looked almost painful. “And I don’t see how it helps us. So what if we make Dougal more desperate? It doesn’t follow that he’d show his face on the Mortal Plain. He’ll just whip his supporters into even more of a frenzy.”
“The thing is,” Raphael said, “at some point, it’s going to occur to Dougal that the one thing he can do to flush Lugh out of hiding in time to keep himself out of prison is to come to the Mortal Plain and set himself up as bait. He knows we have to kill him, and he knows we can’t get to him in the Demon Realm. But if he can come here and lure Lugh into a trap, he might finally be able to secure the throne.”
Saul waved his hand dismissively. “That’s not a plan. It’s just wishful thinking.”
“I disagree,” Raphael said, still calm and reasonable. “I’ve been involved in many a plot with my dear brother, and I know how his mind works.” He turned to me, but he was looking right through me, his gaze and his words meant for Lugh. “You and I will never fully understand one another. But Dougal, I understand.”
“And he understands you,” I countered, not waiting for Lugh’s reaction. “Won’t he see your handiwork in all of this and know it’s a trap?”
Raphael shook his head. “He thinks he understands me, but he doesn’t. If he truly understood me, he’d never have let me in on the conspiracy to kill Lugh in the first place. He knows I’ve betrayed him, but I’d stake my life that he still doesn’t understand why. I’m sure he thinks I did it because I felt it was in my best interests. The idea that I might actually be loyal to Lugh would never occur to him.”
“Me either,” Saul mumbled, though again it was clear he meant Raphael to hear him.
Raphael turned to glare at his son, and he had that weird glow in his eyes that demons seemed to get when they were well and truly pissed.
Uh-oh, Lugh’s voice whispered in my head.
“I’ve heard just about enough out of you, son,” Raphael said, and the frost in his voice made me shiver.
Saul leapt to his feet so fast he knocked his chair over. He never took it well when Raphael called him
“son,” which was no doubt why Raphael did it on a regular basis.
Raphael stayed seated, but the glow in his eyes brightened. “Get over yourself!” he growled. “Is berating me really so important that you feel it appropriate to disrupt a council meeting for it? We’re talking about killing Dougal, preserving Lugh’s life, and putting him back on the throne, and all you care to contribute is the occasional insult in hopes that one will wound me?”
Saul stopped dead in his tracks, his face reddening with something other than anger. I was impressed with Raphael’s strategy. There was nothing that Saul could say now that wouldn’t make him look like a selfish hothead who’d be more useful guarding our prisoner upstairs than participating in our meeting. He swallowed hard, his cheek muscles twitching as he ground his teeth. But he managed to tamp down his rage.
Saul righted his chair and dropped into it without another word.
“Do you really think this plan will work?” I asked Raphael, trying to get our meeting back to order.
Raphael blinked a couple of times, like he’d forgotten where he was for a moment. Then his eyes focused on me.
“I think it might work. Nothing even close to a guarantee. But don’t you think a plan that might work is better than no plan at all?”
I had to admit he had a point—if William was telling us anything that resembled the truth. “How confident are you that Dougal really is feeling the heat?” I asked. “If we’re not sure we believe the rest of William’s story, why should we believe that?”
“I’m pretty confident that he’s telling the truth about Dougal’s difficulties. People—both demon and human—are more apt to support a winner, and I’d say Dougal is looking less and less like a winner as time goes on.”
“Since you were part of Dougal’s inner circle once,” Adam said, “you know a lot of the players involved, right?”
Raphael nodded. “Indeed. And I see where Alexander’s defection would make them very uneasy. There are a handful who are as loyal to Dougal as we are to Lugh. But there are more than a handful of opportunists like William. And, apparently, Alexander. I would have pegged him as one of the loyal handful, but I guess I was mistaken.” He turned toward me. “I believe William’s story, and I believe Dougal’s troubles give us a legitimate chance to lure him to the Mortal Plain. But it’s up to Lugh to decide whether he thinks it’s worth a shot.”
“One question before we make a decision,” I said. “What are we going to do with William if we don’t want to try Raphael’s plan?”
The silence in the room was deafening, and suddenly no one wanted to meet my gaze. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what that meant.
“We’re going to kill him,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. I’d been involved in a peripheral manner with the death by fire of several demons now, but each time it happened it was because someone—
either Raphael, or Lugh, or, most recently, the state of Pennsylvania—had taken the decision out of my hands. I wasn’t sure I had what it took to participate, or even look the other way, if I had a choice.
Raphael broke the silence. “If we don’t have a use for him, then we can’t afford to keep him alive. You know that.”
I did, but that didn’t mean I was happy about it. I turned to Brian, who’d been avoiding my gaze just like everyone else.
“What about you?” I asked. “Can you really just sit by while we commit premeditated murder?” He’d managed to stomach killing Der Jäger, but that had been in the heat of the moment, with a more tangible and immediate danger. This was an entirely different kettle of fish.
Brian shrugged. “I’m really hoping Lugh will go for Raphael’s plan so I don’t have to deal with it.” He swept a glance over Lugh’s assembled supporters and shook his head. “If these guys decide William has to die, there’s no way you or I can stop them.”
An uncomfortable truth, but truth nonetheless.
I decided I’d join Brian in hoping not to have to deal with it. “What do you think, Lugh?” I asked. “Do we go with Raphael’s plan to send William back to the Demon Realm?” Please say yes, I added as a mental aside.
Yes. With some conditions.
I relayed his answer to the council while sighing in relief.
nineteen
LUGH’S CONDITIONS MADE A LOT OF SENSE. THAT didn’t mean I had to like them. To guard against the possibility that William would continue to side with Dougal, we had to take extra precautions to ensure our safety, with Raphael being the most vulnerable of all. Therefore, Lugh decreed that none of us should be living alone right now, and every “household” should have at least one demon in it.
Even though the words came from Lugh himself, and were therefore tantamount to law, there was a lot of bickering about who would stay with whom. No one, of course, wanted Raphael, but Adam and Dom bit the bullet and invited him to stay with them. Brian could stay with me, and Barbie could stay with Saul—I think they were practically living together already anyway. That left only Andy. I wasn’t real anxious to have him moping around my apartment, but neither Saul nor Barbie had a spare room in their apartments, and Andy and Raphael in the same house seemed like a recipe for disaster. That left only me.
With the living arrangements worked out, the council meeting broke up. Only Raphael, Adam, and I entered the Black Room to speak to our prisoner.