“She still has unimaginable power. We felt it the same as you did. It just needs to be strengthened down here for a few months, and she could spare us all of this,” that angel argues.

This…is not the argument I expected. In fact, I’m not sure what this argument even is. It’s stealing some of my kick-ass-and-take-names vibe.

“She’s not designed for that. For the last fucking time, she never was!” Lucifer shouts, slamming his fist down on the stone table so hard it cracks. “You can’t change the game at the final stage!”

“It’s not a game, Lucifer!” one of the angels states emphatically.

“It’s all a game!” Lucifer says in a somewhat crazed tone.

Hera swirls her chalice and takes a sip. The Twins flick a triangle piece of plastic through finger-posed football goals. Manella is asleep. Cain is rolling dice and cursing the snake eyes. Lilith is rifling through her purse, pulling out rocks that turn to liquid. The liquid starts turning into little figurines of clay men.

Shaking my head and turning away from the distraction, I return my attention to the vehement argument still underway.

“She’s simply not capable at this point. Never was,” Lucifer is saying.

“Because she shared her balance with them,” Rafael snarls, pointing an accusatory finger at my guys.

I guess that means they’ve noticed us and find us to be a tedious detail in the grand scheme of things. I prefer to feel important when people are toying with me and erecting ridiculous expectations.

I’m not even sure what ridiculous expectations are being placed on my shoulders, but it’s sort of the gist of the argument going on.

“It doesn’t matter what she did, because she didn’t compromise the integrity of her balance. She never has! You killed her and tipped the balance.”

“It would have shattered had I not been right!” Rafael shouts as he leaps to his feet, breathing heavily…but his anger visibly starts to deflate.

He blinks and clears his throat before sagging back to his chair.

“No. It’s because of all she did to bring them and herself back that the balance didn’t fully shatter,” Lucifer says on a snarl, then he smirks like he’s won when Rafael says nothing in return.

“Why was I killed?” I ask, cutting in with a direct question.

Lucifer starts to answer, but I’m sick of his circling commentary that never really leaves me feeling like I’ve learned truthful information. Instead, I look at one of the angels, who is staring at me with a horrified expression.

I think it’s the first time I’ve been truly noticed since our badass entrance went ignored.

Well, all the angels, sans Rafael, are staring at me like they’re horrified now.

“I’ll hear it from the good guys who aren’t supposed to be able to tell lies. Though…clearly that manipulation rule is up for grabs,” I go on.

They just continue to gape at me.

Lilith gives me a dramatic roll of her eyes.

“Suuuure. She puts on a sexy angel costume and that’s attention-grabbing. So immature.” She shakes her head, muttering under her breath, “I’d look better in it.”

She forgot to mention the red horns on my head that are holding up the fuzzy white halo. I smirk when they continue to gape.

It’s rude to be so impure in front of the pure, but these guys did kill me and helped torture me recently.

My heart and body are both still sore, so the memory is still really fresh. It grates on that petty impurity of mine.

“Someone should start answering,” Cain says, leaning up. “She’s got that crazy look in her eyes, and they’ll follow her lead. You’ve spent too long pissing them off.”

Cain is officially my new favorite sibling.

I recant that when he reaches down and scratches his balls with a firm look of concentration on his face. Man, with the effort he’s putting into that, they must really itch…

I just threw up in my mouth.

“Just over five centuries ago,” the angel closest to me starts on a huff, eyes averting my distracting ensemble that is sheer and very indiscreet, “our champion faced Jahl.”

There’s the bubble popping in the background again, shattering that suspenseful build that’s been steadily growing.

“What does that have to do with me?” I ask, not letting on that I don’t know this Jahl person.

“Our champion lost,” Rafael says quietly, still staring down at the table. “It should have been impossible. He was the perfect counter balance to Jahl, but still, he lost. And Jahl almost got loose into the world.”

“Who is Jahl?” I finally have to ask.

No one looks thrilled about me needing to know.

“It’s not a who but a what. The child I never had after I was refused the right to use my blood,” Lucifer states, eyes on me. “It would have been my first. It was created to catch the impurities that escaped to keep all of it from spilling into the world. Hell is messier than a place of pure intent. We have more spills.”

He stands, electing to sit on the edge of the table, presumably so he can see me better before he continues.

“It was a failed creation from the beginning. Without my blood, Jahl never grew into a true being. It could mimic emotion but not feel it, and it was pure, unadulterated evil when the shaky balance of it collapsed in a short amount of time. There was nothing to do but lock it away until a champion could be trained.”

Glancing around, I notice no one even bothers to react to his words, my guys included. I guess they’re all just glossing right over the fact the Devil just called something else pure, unadulterated evil like it’s a bad thing. Not terrifying or anything. Got it.

“Jahl couldn’t catch all the runoff as intended,” the angel next to Rafael tells me. “Hell really is far too messy. It was doomed to become imbalanced, even if it had become a being.”

“As a being, it would have had more weaknesses,” Lucifer says, going off on another tangent, because clearly they have centuries of unresolved issues, along with half-brokered arguments.

“Back to how this has anything to do with me,” I say, gesturing to myself.

“You’re all a bunch of spoiled, self-serving, disrespectful abominations, and yet you think your life carries more merit than anyone else’s,” Rafael says through gritted teeth, angry eyes finding mine.

“Yeah, and you’re just a selfless, compassionate, sweet little angel, aren’t you?” I drawl with a quirked eyebrow as I cross my arms over my chest in disbelief. “I just healed, in case you want to take a few more swings at me. I think I leveled-up, so it may be more interesting this time.”

I feel Jude’s hand subtly move to my back, touching me through the lacy fabric there, like he’s preparing to channel from me.

He’s stupid if he thinks we’re facing them head-on. We’ll have do this sneak-attack style.

Ezekiel is going to need to go first to see how well War works against hell spawn and angels. My lazy siblings will have to pitch in that way.

“You see it as much as I do. Me killing her and you killing them restored her balance completely. Those pieces are back where they belong. That’s why the balance didn’t shatter. She fights him, or we do this all over again,” Rafael says, spitting the words out at Lucifer.

I almost point out that Manella was the killer of my boys, because we like shit really complicated around here. It feels like they just expect us to be okay with all this dying now that we’ve managed to return with no memories of the events.

“Over my cold, dead, fucking body,” Lucifer says with an eerily chilled tone, eyes on Rafael like he’s daring him to make a move. Weirdly, a drop of black blood drips from his nose. “I’ll fling you in there with him and see how well you fare, brother, long before you touch my daughter again.”

“They are tools. They are not your true children,” Rafael growls.

Rafael moves around the table, and Lucifer slowly stands, straightening out his jacket like he’s calm and cool, but ready to kill someone.

It’s when he’s calm that he’s the scariest.

“Can I beat Jahl?” I ask as the two move toward each other.

Going phantom, I quickly zap myself between them reflexively, surprised to find myself standing in this predicament.

They both stop advancing, standing on either side of me.

“No,” Lucifer says, at the same time Rafael answers, “Yes.”

Who to believe? The lying Devil, who has manipulated me one too many times, or the unbalanced angel who killed me and enjoyed slinging me around for the purpose of exposing a lie in place of the truth…

There really is a damn balance to every decision. It’s becoming tedious now.

“If she could beat him, you killing her would have shattered the balance,” Lucifer growls.

But…it could be more circling commentary with well-placed words to manipulate the entire situation.

“She’s twisted this entire situation to her benefit! It’s what she does. She’s selfishly selfless!” Rafael snaps.

“Selflessly selfish,” I amend, causing Rafael to scowl down at me. “You got it backwards.”

“You’re actually both,” the twins say at the same time. “Depending on the motives and the circumstances.”