Page 45 of Grave Consequences
“Why was your brother preparing for this job though? If Guardians live so long, wouldn’t you just assume that you’d live a normal life? Whatever constitutes normal for Hell, I mean.”
“Things with the Gate were volatile at the time. There were two Guardians then—Jerif’s and my ancestors—but the Hellgate was calling for a third, so they were waiting for a third to accept the position. Whenever the Gate goes through a transition like that, it seems that dissatisfied demons in unrest somehow get alerted and start causing trouble. So my family selected my brother as the better option between the two of us and started training him, just in case.”
“Ah,” I voice in understanding. “So right now, with the Gate being more volatile…” I trail off, not wanting to finish that curious thought.
“Each of our lines are training several of the demons they think could be called upon in the event we die,” Jerif morbidly finishes in answer to my unspoken question.
“Wow, that sounds intense.”
Everyone nods and falls silent for a moment. I want to toss out some cheerful comment like,well, don’t worry guys, I’m here now and all is well again, but I don’t actually know if that’s true, and even if it is, for how long? How long do we have before the Gate wants a sixth or seventh Guardian? Will it just keep demanding more until it eventually breaks? But I banish that thought, because we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it, or hope we somehow figure out a way to never come to it.
“So what does your brother do now?” I ask, hoping to change the direction of all of our thoughts to something less ominous.
“He works for an Avarice think tank,” Iceman states casually, but I don’t miss the slight scrunch of his nose as he says that, as if he thinks it would be the worst job ever.
Avarice...why does that name sound so familiar?
I get lost in thought as I try to place where I’ve heard that before. “Wait. Avarice... Tazreel called that jewelry-loving dude that name right before we came back home.”
“Yes. My brother works for him,” Iceman confirms.
“So...Avarice is his title? And your brother works for his Hell company or something?”
“I guess you could look at it like that. That male at the party is the Abdicated responsible for the entire sin of Avarice, which is why Tazreel called him that.”
I blink at him. “Avarice is…”
“The sin of wealth and material greed,” he supplies.
“And your brother works for him? In athink tank?” I question, really fucking confused.
They give me a funny look. “Did your dad—I mean Tazreel,” Echo quickly corrects when I give him a glare, “not explain to you that he’s Pride?”
I snort incredulously. “He didn’t have to explain that. I’ve never met a more arrogant, prideful, prick in my life.”
He shakes his head, running a tattooed hand over his shaved head. “No, not like that. I mean, yes, I agree about him being a proud prick, but he didn’t explain to you about how Pride works?”
I stare at Echo for a beat.How Pride works? Like the parade?
“Um...does Hell do something different for Pride than we do here?” I ask. “Is it less rainbow-y or something?”
“What?” Jerif cuts in, confused. “What do rainbows have to do with Pride?”
I saw plenty of same sex action in the orgy my wings forced me to fly all over, so either Jerif is oblivious or we’re talking about two different things.
“Pride? Like the Gay Pride celebration? Is that what you’re talking about?” I ask. Jerif runs a hand down his face as if he’s been trying to teach me Shakespeare, only to realize I can’t read Dr. Seuss.
Everyone stops and looks at me, giving me thathow does she not knowlook.
“Shit. Did I start speaking another language again?” I ask, bringing my hand to my lips and mumbling against them as though I can feel the words and figure out what language they are. It doesn’t help. It’s like trying to smell your own breath by breathing into a cupped palm...totally useless, and yet, I can’t stop doing it.
I once saw this spelling bee, and the kid that won would hold her hand in front of her mouth and sound out the words. It was a lot of awkwardly heavy breathing, and I remember thinking that even though she won, images of her sex-breathing on her hand would haunt her for life. Right now, at this moment though, I totally get it. Maybe she was also trying to make sure the answer was in English and not Demonish, or whatever it was called.
“For fuck’s sake,” Jerif sighs, shaking his head at me. “Not Pride as in the parade, Pride as inPride.One of the seven deadly sins.”
“Oh.”
Crux starts to crack up, but Iceman and Echo just look at me with shock. “Maverick, the Abdicated that you had dinner with are the Generals of the Seven Sins. Tell mesomeoneexplained that to you,” Iceman pleads incredulously.
