Page 94 of Bent Out of Shade
“Speaking of…” I wiped a breadcrumb off the table. “That’s why I wanted Giulia’s ring. To get the name of my parents’ killer.”
“And?”
“I got it, but…” What was the right opening line for this conversation? Hey, did you hear the one about the fallen angel and the Banim Shovavim? I stood up. “Come with me.”
I led him upstairs into my office, where I used my whiteboard to lay out everything I suspected about Dumah: from Arlo to Learsdon’s whispers, Nora and the amulet, and most especially the murders of Fred McMurtry and my parents.
My throat was dry after all that, so I got a glass of water, drinking it at a snail’s pace at the kitchen sink. I hadn’t dared look at Laurent’s face while I told him the story. I’d deserve his anger for giving Dumah and the dybbuks free rein, but if all I saw was disappointment? My stomach ached.
“The angel now has the means to escape Gehenna,” he said upon my return. “So why hasn’t he?”
“My assumption is that he needs my Banim Shovavim magic in conjunction with the Ascendant to free him.” I stood by his chair, studying the whiteboard. “I thought I was being so clever tossing it in. What have I done?”
He pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me. “I fear that it was always going to come down to you procuring it for Dumah. If you hadn’t handed it over, who knows what would have happened? He’d already started using others to get to you, Professor Learsdon, the ones who kidnapped Emmett, Nora.”
I absently traced hearts on my yoga pants. “Dumah can coax people via whispers into doing his bidding, but if he could grab me himself or personally rough me up, he would have.”
“He outsourced killing your parents and McMurtry.”
“Yeah.” I shivered and snuggled back against Laurent’s chest. “There’s no evidence that Dumah has consorted with demons, though as a fallen angel, it wouldn’t surprise me that he has access to them.” I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter who or what he used to kill Mom and Dad. It was his call.”
“McMurtry was a loose end,” Laurent said. “But why murder your parents and not Calvin Jones, who hired them to steal the Ascendant from Tatiana, since Jones was the one who ended up with it?”
“He wasn’t Banim Shovavim.” I twisted around in Laurent’s hold. “Arlo’s attempt to free Dumah must have been aborted by Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sammaneglof, and if my parents”—my voice cracked—“refused to help Dumah, they were put on his hit list.”
I gripped his hands. “We have to get the Ascendant back.”
Laurent laughed, then at my expression, stopped. “You’re serious.”
“Dumah hasn’t used it yet. He needs me to use my magic with the Ascendant to free him. I feel it in my gut. If I get it back and destroy it, it’s over.”
Laurent ran a hand through his hair. “Even if that’s the case, hell, especially if it is, you can’t just waltz in and hand yourself to him.”
“I won’t be caught. Dumah is focused on me, either because of my parents or because I gave him the Ascendant, but how long will he wait now that he has the magic amplifier? What’s to stop him from finding a willing Banim Shovavim to break him out? What happens to the dybbuks then? Are they still imprisoned, or do they all come with the angel, free to roam the world until every last one has found a host?”
“Merde,” Laurent said softly.
“That’s not all.” I buried my face in his neck, breathing in his cedar scent and wishing I could get my erratic heartbeat to slow down and match his steady one. “I kind of promised to get the Ascendant for the Leviathan to escape the Kefitzat Haderech where he’s been exiled by Senoi, Sansenoi, and Sammaneglof for being an abomination.”
Laurent groaned, his hands loosely clasped at the base of my spine. “Unpromise him.”
“He’s stuck there and Pyotr’s been telling him about our visits. I think he’s lonely. And he did heal me. Twice. He could have left me to die.”
Laurent ground his teeth together.
“Now you’re mad because I keep getting into these lethal situations,” I said, not lifting my head. “But it’s not as if I have a death wish. Honestly, it’s the opposite, but back to the Leviathan. If Dumah hasn’t used the Ascendant yet, then I can use my cloaking to steal it back. And sure, if Zev can detect me under my cloaking then Dumah has a damn good shot, but you need to consider the fact that Gehenna is a real place, not a hidden space, so the KH should get me there. If I get the lay of the land, then conceivably I can enter close to the most likely hidey-hole Dumah has stashed the amplifier.”
Brushing my cheek against the shifter’s shoulder, I sighed. “Which is where you point out that Gehenna isn’t on Google Maps, and I say that we don’t need that because there’s an estrie who just spent who knows how long there.” I propped a hand under my chin. “Though you’ll rant, rightfully so, about trusting an estrie, especially one that I helped lock up, but I’ll reply that we don’t have a lot of choice and maybe there’s something I can offer her. To which you counter that the KH doesn’t go to hidden spaces, so why would it go to a place only the dead can access? And even if it does, should I really be alerting those three Banim Shovavim–hating angels where I’m going? No, I shouldn’t, but we can avoid all that if you’d just open a portal to Gehenna, which is what I wanted to ask you to do in the first place except for the fact that you’d freak out.”
Laurent’s jaw hung open, his brows furrowed and a look of fascination on his face.
I dropped my voice into a growly impression of his. “I refuse to send you on a suicide mission. Non, Mitzi. I will not help you steal from the angel who killed your parents. You’re insane for even considering it.” I sat up, shaking my head. “Forget it. The amulet was destroyed so I have some time before Dumah contacts me again to come up with another plan.”
Laurent’s snort turned into full-on belly laughs, his giddy mirth lighting me up like the brightest August day, except for one thing.
I punched his shoulder. “This isn’t funny.”
He crossed his arms. “No, because I do not sound like Pepé Le Pew. How vile.”
