My cell phone began to ring, and Nathaniel went to fetch it from the dining room table.
“It’s J.B.,” I said as I clicked it open. “What’s up?”
“Sokolov was fired,” J.B. said. “Thought you would want to know.”
“How did that happen?” I asked. It seemed too good to be true. Everything was falling into place.
“Upper management got wind of that plan he had to get rid of you. He was working with one of Lucifer’s kids, that one that you told me to ask about,” J.B. said.
“Zaniel,” I said.
“Well, I guess somebody decided that was the last straw. Apparently he’s been off the reservation for a while, using up Agency resources in an attempt to take you down. The board decided that they had enough, so he’s out.”
“It sure is nice not to have to worry about being attacked from all sides for a change,” I said. “I might even get a full night’s sleep for the first time in six months.”
“I won’t,” J.B. said. “Puck is gone, so there’s a huge power vacuum in Faerie. There’s going to be a lot more infighting and a lot less posturing there for a while.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, and meant it.
“You’re just lucky that Lucifer took you out of the running as heir to his kingdom. He’s got a lot of kids, and I bet it’s going to get messy over there. In the court of the Grigori, too,” he added.
I hadn’t thought about that. I could, I suppose, technically be still linked to the Grigori by my ties to Azazel. But it wasn’t my problem, really. Plenty of others would vie for the head of court, and I didn’t want any part of that mess.
“I just thought you’d want to know that you don’t have anything else to worry about from this quarter,” he said. “And I hope that you invite me to the wedding.”
“I love you,” I said, laughing.
“And I will always love you,” he said, although he meant it a little differently than me. Then he hung up before I could say anything else.
Nathaniel was watching me with a frown on his face. “I feel like I should be jealous, but I am not.”
“You don’t have anything to be jealous of,” I said. “J.B. and I—well, I guess you could say we were never meant to be. There was a time, I suppose, a window where if he’d only told me about his feelings, he could have had a chance.”
“But once Gabriel arrived, there was no one else,” Nathaniel said.
“Yes,” I said. “But now Gabriel is gone, and there is you. And there is no one for me but you.”
Nathaniel knelt at my side, and kissed me again. Adam wiggled in my lap between us.
“Maddy,” Beezle said, his voice breathless.
I broke away from Nathaniel at the urgency in Beezle’s voice.
“What is it?”
“The shapeshifter,” Beezle said. “He’s standing in the middle of the backyard. And so is Sokolov. And he’s asking to see Jude.”
“Sokolov?” I asked. “The shapeshifter? I thought Alerian was his master, that it was all part of the big Lucifer/Puck/Alerian scam. What does this have to do with Jude?”
Beezle shook his head. “I guess the shapeshifter wasn’t connected to that mess. And I don’t know what it’s got to do with Jude, but he and Samiel are going outside now.”
Nathaniel and I hurried after Beezle and down the back stairs. I stopped when we reached the back porch. Samiel stood there, watching Jude face off against Sokolov. The shapeshifter stood to one side, wearing the face of someone I’d never seen before.
“What’s happening?” I asked Samiel.
Remember how Daharan said that Jude’s problems came from his past? I guess that guy isn’t really Sokolov.
“No, he isn’t,” Beezle said, and his voice was full of wonder. “I never looked at him properly before, all the way down. I should have seen. I should have known.”
“Who is it?” I asked impatiently.
“Michael,” he said.
“Michael?” I said, looking at Sokolov’s fat little body and bald head. “Michael the archangel? All this time?”
No wonder Michael had seemed familiar to me when we had met. It wasn’t that his power had given birth to the Agency. It was because I’d seen him before, and had not known.
“Yes,” Sokolov said, and then he was not Sokolov. He was tall and golden and beautiful, and his eyes were made of flame. “All this time.”
“J.B. just told me you were fired from the Agency,” I said. “What were you doing there in the first place?”
“What do you think?” Michael snarled. “Keeping an eye on you, as I was told to do. Trapped in a human body, hiding my power. And the board has finally released me. They have always been suspicious of my connection with Lucifer. And once they discovered my other activities they let me go. All my centuries of devotion have been for naught.”
“The board? You mean, the board is . . .” I pointed my finger toward the sky.
“Yes,” Michael said. “They told me to watch you, to ensure you did not become a threat to humans. And I did what I was supposed to do.”
“You were supposed to torture J.B.? To set the Retrievers on me? To act like a petulant child at every turn?” I asked, feeling anger rising inside me. Adam made a little noise in my arms.
“You would act thus if you were more powerful than the sun and forced to submit to humans,” Michael said. “But all of my actions were approved and condoned by the board. All of them, except two. Working with Lucifer’s son, and working against Judas’s pack.”