15

"Thank you for coming," I greeted all of the angels gathered… And Loek who was standing off to the side. "And thank you for skipping the normal bullshit about me summoning you or whatever. The situation going on is way bigger than that and you all need a mediator. Given I trust both sides—minus Gabriel—I'm the—well, I'm really the only choice."

I shrugged when Brax gave me a less than flattering look.

"And we're not going to solve it all today. This is a first step ." I glanced at Loek. "You can't just go back. We both know that. You've said you became what they accused you of, and I don't think you want to go back after they betrayed you." I saw it in his eyes but didn't make him say it.

"But I don't want to go back to the way things were either," he seethed.

"No, and many of your siblings agree with that and have been fighting to change things," I said firmly, glad when he backed down. "Even before this all came to light." I gave them a moment to settle. "Now, Michelle proposed an idea that I think has a lot of promise but will probably need some tweaking and we can all discuss with equal voices.

"Some of you are way more sexist than you realize, and a good part of why she didn't speak up before is your fault. Accept that and understand you were just as complicit in all of this. You all need to get it together and work on yourselves. Loek, you could have pulled some of them aside—everyone could have handled this differently or better, but you didn't.

"That is the past, and while I'm not saying forgive and forget, the world is close to ending and we have to handle this shit now . So as Mother Earth's descendant and champion, this is what I'm handling, and you guys can work the rest out later in therapy like Lucifer and no, I'm not cracking jokes here. Fucking try it if it could help."

"What's the idea, sunshine?" Brax asked after several moments.

"That you and Loek take over as the bosses, one Heaven and one Hell, but not enemies . Evil has to exist for balance. Darkness has to exist for light to shine. Loek believes those were the orders your sister received before she was killed but never got a chance to relay them. So someone needs to talk to whomever, and I'm not allowed to know that part.

"You will have a bit of a sit-down on a regular basis like…" I wracked my brain a moment. "Anne Rice wrote about god and the devil having coffee or something and talking about the state of things." I gave them a moment with that. "And Michelle wants the jobs to be shuffled about and I agree . She's burnt out and has seen only the worst of humanity thinking us ants.

"You're all burnt out on your jobs after thousands of years. So right now it's all hands on deck, but then you change shit the fuck up and all pitch in. Maybe take a decade at a role and musical chairs it. For one, you'll appreciate how much work goes into each role like my right hands do by working together and observing their companies.

"They never brush Keegan off as just the cleaning company president. They understand it's a minefield and migraine of work to coordinate all of those jobs with all of those employees and magic to get the cleaning contracts done. Plus, all the fucking special requests and confidentiality issues. Because they've seen it. You all need to see what the others do a bit more."

"I agree, and I am burnt out with my role," someone said, and clearly he had enough influence that others listened because slowly people agreed. He looked at Michelle. "And I am sorry for how I treated you, Sister. I'm also sorry if it came off as sexist. I did not mean it that—I was over the line, but I can only explain it as I lost my mind when I realized it was all a lie."

She nodded. "I understand, Brother, and have felt the same. I did not know. I would never have kept quiet if I had known . I had some doubts and questions. I was too scared to speak up and didn't feel supported if I would." She glanced over at Loek. "I'm sorry I didn't, Brother. You deserved better from me. Especially once I grieved our sister."

Loek gave a swift nod and that seemed all he could handle in that moment so I moved on.

"Gabriel will be punished with the job he never wanted." I bounced that around. "So to speak. He wanted to hold too tightly to everything and his way or the highway? Now he will with the demons. Going forward every demon deal has to be cleared through him if it follows the rules or not."

"You cannot be serious," someone whispered in horror.

Michelle shot me a glance, and I nodded for her to go ahead. She cleared her throat and stepped forward. "I struggled with this too, but it was Soraya who helped me see—free will is the staple of what the powers want for the people of this world. They have to make their own choices. We always focus on evil being the war we cannot win.

"We were never supposed to see it as a war . The fight we fought was to never allow it to become chaos and it has. Demons have their place in everything or they would not exist. The ones who cheat need to be erased. The deals that are against the rules broken." She swallowed loudly. "I also agree with Soraya that a full audit of everything needs to be done."

"Sister, we would have to spend time there and…" a male said and slowly glanced at Loek.

He smirked at them and let his black wings show. "Some of you may get dirty? You should. You let this all happen. Why should you be lily white when you've been letting souls suffer in my plane when you failed at your jobs?"

I couldn't even get upset that he riled people up with the shot he took because he wasn't wrong.

And it was a shot I would have taken as well if I was in his shoes.

After some back-and-forth, it was agreed that Gabriel would start from the oldest demon deals ever to review—meaning the ones that would be the most "dirt" of evil—and the others would start with the newest deals and work backwards. That would also have them involved first-hand in rescuing any souls or setting things right that they should.

Loek seemed less angry as he watched his siblings pushing to make things happen and wanting to jump in.

It was a seriously productive meeting, and the more that was settled and plans drawn up, the calmer everyone seemed to be. I couldn't understand being older than actual time like them, but I did know how scary major change was. I went from being the rebel to a massive coven leader and elder of America.

That had been huge and knocked me around for a while.

I was still being knocked around by being the head of all enchanters.

Constantly.

Always.

And it becoming calmer wasn't in sight, so that made it more difficult.

Unfortunately, something horrid happened while we were having our powwow. Really, really horrid.

Helen was waiting for me when I arrived back with Brax, Michelle, and Loek to talk specifics about how to handle Gabriel. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she handed me the tablet.

I swore under my breath as I listened to the news reports. There were over two dozen more cult suicides. Over two dozen groups of thirty-two people committed suicide together all over the world. How? How could one cult be that powerful and coordinated and—nothing ever worked that well!

Until the last clip put everything into place. Someone was translating for the woman speaking in a language I didn't recognize immediately.

"It all seemed fishy," the woman said firmly. "Why would an angel tell us to kill ourselves to become champions for Heaven? How would that help this issue with too many souls not going to where they should? And why didn't the police listen to me? All they did was call my sister crazy and lock her up. I told them that something more was going on and to help those people!

"I don't know if they were given drugs or brainwashed, but now they're all dead. Locking my sister away did nothing to help thirty-two of our citizens. This all sounds like evil more than what an angel would do if they're even real. I wonder if the police are part of that evil, and now they won't release my sister saying she's responsible! How can they not let her speak to a doctor even?"

"Oh, for the love of fuck," I rasped.

"We've already got someone there to help the sister and talk to the woman directly," Helen promised. "So far, the count is over seven hundred just last night. Whoever was doing this clearly thought they were about to be caught and got the rest of them to finish in one go? I just don't know."

"No, but I have a feeling I know who would," I growled and teleported away to the warehouse where I had demons trapped to power the circles sending souls where they belonged. "Which of you knows who was pretending to be an angel and having humans kill themselves supposedly to save Heaven?"

I didn't wait for them to lie or pretend they didn't know anything. Most probably didn't, but I was over this shit.

Summoning the five oldest demons, I knew they would know. They clearly had high enough positions to know a lot.

I started with the oldest, going toe to toe with him without fear. He took a swipe at me and I blocked it, smirking when he couldn't hide his shock.

"The game has changed, demon," I purred, shocking everyone there. "I've been blessed that I'm on the right path. None of you can touch me now and I don't even need the holy water."

"Soraya, what is all of this?" Loek whispered, clearly having followed me with a bunch of his siblings.

The demon's eyes went wide and he knelt. "Lord Lucifer, I had no idea you have returned to—"

"Silence, you scum!" he bellowed, shaking the whole warehouse with his power. He took in and let out several breaths before he moved over to me. "What is all of this?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I'll tell you all of my secrets and what I'm up to when you do, Lucifer ."

Yeah, I wasn't shocked when he flinched.

"Tell me what you know," he ordered the demon.

The demon stood and instantly started talking as if he didn't have a choice. "It's a group of young demons. They are working together since they don't have the red eyes yet."

"Demons who don't have red eyes?" I whispered, not knowing that was possible.

"They only gain red eyes once they commit their first evil," he explained.

Meaning the demon who was helping me had lied to me. He'd done something evil since he'd become a demon when he'd said he'd never completed an assignment. A small lie probably because "evil" could be so subjective, but something to still file away for later.

"I warned you," I seethed. "I warned you no more cheating."

"Our magic allowed us to do it, so we're allowed," the demon said with a sneer.

"I don't give a fuck what your magic allows," I bellowed, grabbing his neck and squeezing. "I told you that if you did anything else against Mother Earth's natural order, I am the punishment you will face! Lying that people are dying for Heaven when you are an agent of Hell is against the fucking rules!"

I threw him down into the circle and started to say the spell to shred the demon.

But Loek covered my mouth with his hand. He quickly removed it when Brax stepped towards us, obviously not wanting the fight. He kept my gaze though. "I applaud what you're doing but don't absorb that much evil. Don't take that power into you."

"I'll just use it to fuel the circles sending souls back like they're doing now," I argued.

He studied me a moment. "As you wish." He shocked the shit out of me by reaching through my circle and touching the demon, shredding the being and absorbing him. Then he went over to the "battery" I had made and released all that magic, his wings coming out as he did.

And when he was done, one of his feathers turned white.

"Loek," I breathed as others gasped. I pointed to his back where he couldn't see when he looked at me. "I think the powers upstairs are making it clear where your path to forgiveness or redemption is. Seriously. Your feather just turned white."

He blinked at me for a full moment before throwing back his head and laughing. It took him several minutes to calm down, but he beamed at me when he did. "I always knew you were the path to save me, Soraya. I thought maybe as my mate, but now I understand you're Raphael's salvation that way. You're the kick in the ass I've always needed to make me feel validated. Thank you."

I smiled at him. "You've done the same to me a lot too, Loek." I was glad he was in such a good mood because I had bad news for him. "I want those new demons shredded too. No more pussyfooting around this shit. Every time they step over the line, an old one dies, and the ones who did it die. The kids need to be smacked back into place for balance ."

He took in a slow breath and let it out. "Alright, this I will handle it. I won't agree to everything yet until I see my siblings truly step up and get involved as they promised instead of just words. But for now, I will agree to that and make it clear that is the new law of my plane."

"That's more than fair," I accepted. "Thank you."

He nodded and then shot Brax a look like he expected results before popping away.

I focused on the other four eldest demons I had trapped. "You're lucky he's nicer than I am because I was going to shred all five of you. You heard it from Lucifer now what the rules are. Take it back and make it clear this shit is over or you're next." I sent them back before they could even reply.

"You are the only person who can say they're harsher than the Devil and be correct," Brax muttered, sounding like he wasn't sure if he was making a joke or genuinely confused.

"Don't look for a lot of emotional health here, love, I don't have it and I'm a lot of wrath most days," I grumbled even as I accepted his hug. "Plus, I'm the one who has to go face the people of this planet and be blamed for all of this. Somehow, it will undoubtedly be my fault."

Oddly enough, most didn't blame me. The press were waiting at the coven house hoping I had some sort of answer, and I gave them what I had once they quieted down.

"I can tell you with absolute certainty that an angel will never ask anyone to end their lives for their purposes," I said firmly. "I also just confirmed with a demon I trapped that it was demons lying about being angels that did this. I was called in by people I'd worked with before, but there were no traces of magic. There were no signs of demons at the sites.

"There are human cults, and everything pointed to that until this last massive event. I'm sorry for the families. I cannot be everywhere all of the time and do everything. The police were looking into it and following leads. I was also a bit busy with the US government trying to raid my coven, so I was protecting my people.

"A few months ago, a local UK government was trying to steal from enchanters before the prime minister stepped in. I have millions of livelihoods on my shoulders and a very large coven that relies on me to keep them safe as well. Please understand that no matter my magic, I am one woman. Even with all of my talented and well-trained help.

"We cannot do everything and be everywhere. We had no knowledge that anything involved fake or believed angels. Religious cults exist all over the world. I cannot stop them either, and free will exists. If people would stop yelling at us for everything—blaming us for everything, then we could actually answer real questions when they come up.

"Someone could have connected us with that poor woman who was trying to help her sister, and we could have gotten on the news to say angels would never have been a part of this. But instead of coming to us before, too many just want to yell at us after and blame us. I am tired of saying this, but I—and enchanters by extension—cannot keep being the problem and the solution."

I wasn't really sure what else there was to say?