Nathaniel raised his hand toward me but Gabriel stopped him with a hold on his wrist. Nathaniel wrenched his arm away.
“Do not touch me, slave,” he spat. “You have already given me insult by touching my betrothed.”
“She is not your betrothed,” Gabriel said softly, but there was an undercurrent of steel. “She is my wife.”
I stepped between them before Gabriel lost his temper with Nathaniel and went all nephilim-power on his ass. I didn’t need another mess to clean up.
“Leave Gabriel out of this,” I said. “And while you’re at it, leave Azazel out of this, too. This is about you and me. I told you I wouldn’t marry you. Repeatedly. I don’t love you. I never felt anything remotely resembling affection for you. You convinced yourself that I would have to follow Azazel’s word and marry you anyway, but I wasn’t going to do it.”
“You must follow the accords of Lucifer’s kingdom!” Nathaniel shouted, and he looked totally unhinged now. “Even Lord Lucifer himself must cleave unto them!”
“Yeah, about that…” I said. “I think he just plays along with the Grigori because it amuses him to do so. Don’t kid yourself that Lucifer has to follow anyone’s whim but his own.”
“You are speaking blasphemy,” Nathaniel said, and his hand went around my wrist.
I felt Gabriel move behind me but I put my other hand on his chest, holding him back.
“Get your hand off me before I blow it off,” I said to Nathaniel. “You’d better remember what I did to you the last time you touched me without permission.”
The memory hung in the air between us—Nathaniel holding me down, me blasting him with so much power that it left his muscles and bone exposed, unable to heal for weeks.
He let go of me, his eyes narrowed. “You have done me an insult by treating me thus.”
I resisted the impulse to rub the place where he had touched me, to wipe my skin clean.
“You’re the one who’s always going on about Lucifer,” I said. “Fine. My marriage to Gabriel was Lucifer’s will. I’d like to see you try to cross him.”
Nathaniel backed away from me, his wings spread wide. “You have laid me low publicly, to be humiliated before all the courts. Everyone knows that Lucifer indulges you, that you are permitted to run wild. I do not blame Lord Lucifer for his affection for you, for I, too, was guilty of this.”
I gave him a look. “The only thing you cared about was the status you would get when I married you. Now you’ve lost that. Don’t act like it was love for me that’s breaking your heart now.”
“It is all falling apart,” Nathaniel muttered. “I will not forget this.”
He took flight in a whirl of anger, and we watched him go.
“Well, I didn’t expect that,” I said.
“I did,” Gabriel said.
“Why?” I asked. “Nathaniel’s like J.B. He’s a rule-follower. I figured that whatever Lucifer said, he would go along.”
Gabriel looked troubled. “You have insulted him on many levels. You have defied your father, who is the head of Nathaniel’s court. You have publicly broken your betrothal. You have shown no regard for his feelings. And, worst of all, you have wed a thrall, the lowest caste of the courts.”
“You’re not a thrall anymore,” I said fiercely, my hands on his cheeks.
“Not to you. Not to Lord Lucifer, perhaps. But although the members of the court must now treat me as a free man, they will always consider me a thrall. And it is that insult that Nathaniel will find hardest to swallow.”
“I don’t care,” I said, and I kissed him. “You’re mine now, and none of them will take you from me. Not Nathaniel, not Azazel, not even Lucifer.”
He smiled briefly. “My very small champion.”
“I keep telling people not to underestimate me,” I said.
“I don’t,” Gabriel replied. “Now let us go inside. Beezle is sure to be faint from hunger pangs by now.”
I laughed, and we went into the house, a house that felt a lot more like home when he was by my side.
A little after seven the five of us—J.B., Gabriel, Samiel, Beezle and me—stood in the alley where I’d found the permanent portal. I cast the magical net again to pinpoint its location.
“It’s still there,” I said triumphantly.
J.B. shook his head. “I can’t believe my mother wouldn’t have closed the portal. You told her of its presence.”
“Maybe she wasn’t able to close it. I told Gabriel there was something about this portal that seemed very permanent,” I said. “Regardless, we can get in from here a lot faster than if we drove.”
Samiel tapped my shoulder. I don’t know if this is such a good idea. Beezle said the last time you came through here there was a big, tentacled monster.
“Yeah,” I said, remembering the horrible squishy thing in the swamp. “But I killed it, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow at me. “You do not think that Amarantha will have replaced that monster with another? The portal leaves the border of her land open to attack.”
“And I suppose you all think that Amarantha will just let us drive up to the front gates like we did last time,” I retorted. “What with the price on my head and all.”
“I suppose this is the best way,” J.B. said reluctantly. “There is likely to be heightened security everywhere. My mother was paranoid even before you managed to kill two of her favorite pets.”