Hell's Revelation (Book 3)

Chapter 20

"There's going to be an execution, tomorrow night. That's our opportunity."

Those were the words that greeted us when Frank finally returned to the Inquisitor's quarters.

I'd lost track of how long we'd spent sat there; papers and files spread out across the desk. Even though we'd been over them time and again with a fine toothed comb, and I was certain we'd gain nothing new from reading them again, I couldn't bring myself to just sit and do nothing productive. Besides, running over everything with Jesse seemed like a good idea. The information I'd taken from Lucas would be present in his head already, but there was probably more in those files that wasn't transferred. Besides the more he knew the more firmly I could depend upon his loyalty.

Lucas had joined us after a feeling; feeling somewhat more refreshed though I'd never have been able to tell by the sour look he still wore on his face. The atmosphere around the table had grown considerably more tense upon his arrival too, and any and all conversation was stilted and awkward. I was left to wonder if those two would ever take a moment to get to know each other and bury this bad feeling that seemed to have formed between them, even though they'd spent all of five minutes in each others company. Would they ever even get a chance to change their opinion of each other.

Frank's appearance and his little announcement was a welcome distraction, I could almost have breathed a word of thanks that he returned when he did.

"An execution? That...yeah, actually that would be perfect."

"When else are we more likely to find such a huge gathering of demons?" Lucas agreed. It was nice to see a sudden, even if it was only mild, change in his demeanour at the news. Perhaps he, very much like myself, was keen to see an ending for all of this finally come into view.

The thought of moving on from this, starting out our lives over again – whatever those might be in our changed society – felt almost close enough to touch. Though I knew I could not allow myself to become excited or distracted by the prospect. Who knew if we would even all make it that far.

"Execution?" Jesse exclaimed in a rather horrified tone.

I had to remind myself that although I'd transplanted all the relevant information into his head, and we'd gone over yet more in the files, there was still so much about the everyday workings of Hell that he didn't know or understand.

"Always a public spectacle. And a certain special victim by all accounts, might even draw a larger crowd than usual." Frank leaned his large form in the doorway beside the stairs in a display of supreme casualness, though I caught something in his face that looked like tiredness.

"A special victim? Who?" I asked.

"Don't know. What I do know is that Malick was sent to collect the person by Lucifer himself."

"Wait, Malick? Collecting a soul for sacrifice himself? And on Lucifer's orders? Well, that's rather..."

"Suspicious, yeah I thought so too, Love. We'll need to be on our guard, something about all of this doesn't feel quite right. But, likewise, it's going to be our best and probably only chance."

"Malick knows what our intentions are, whether he knows...quite how far we've progressed is another thing," Frank paused for a second, gathering his thoughts and words back to him. He'd been about to mention something about getting Jesse back, I was sure of it, and I'm glad he held it back at the last moment, we really didn't need to spend any time crafting a story to explain to our latest recruit exactly what had happened before he'd taken a bash to the head.

"So it's a set up, no matter how we look at it. We'd be fools to show ourselves there." I could feel Lucas' hopes for an ending be dashed upon the stones we were surrounded by in that room, and I had to admit my own were not far off the same fate. He was right, if we went to that execution we would most certainly be walking straight into a trap. Unfortunately, I believed we had no other option.

"That might well be the case, but I think we all also know there isn't another choice here, is there?" I looked to Frank wishing for any hope of their being another way to put our plan into action, a vain spark in the dark.

"Sadly not. It's suspicious as all get out. Malick undeniably has something up his sleeves, but I think this is also another step up in Lucifer's grand plan to seize power. As far as I can tell he's still unaware that you've fulfilled the prophecy that was made about you. Malick has done everything he can to keep the big man in the dark."

"But why, aren't they all in it together? I'd have thought he'd go running to his boss with the news as soon as he knew you were back from the dead." Jesse frowned.

"No, he doesn't want anything to derail Lucifer's plans. He knows his own plan depends upon usurping Lucifer at just the right moment, he doesn't have the power or influence to seize total control of Hell on his own, he'll let Lucifer do it for him, and then snatch the seat right out from under Lucifer's arse."

"So if Lucifer becomes too distracted with stopping us he might not ever get that far, and Malick is playing piggy in the middle, trying to manage the both of us." The thought actually bought a small smile to my face.

"And here's hoping it'll be his downfall, Love."

I stood up, folding closed the file I had been half-heartedly leafing through, I knew they were no longer going to be of any help; we'd learned all we could from them. I took a long, lingering look around the room, taking in every detail of the dark chamber that had been a safe home for such a short amount of time; I had a funny feeling that once we left we wouldn't be coming back.

"Well, I suppose we best saddle up then, there's not a huge amount of time to prepare."