The Devil's Playground

seventeen

WE WERE ALL SHOCKED SPEECHLESS. WHAT THE hell was Raphael up to now? I silently asked Lugh that question, and his response was Your guess is as good as mine.

It wasn’t exactly the first time Raphael had veered away from the official plan, but this was far more drastic than any of his previous deviations. I couldn’t imagine where he was planning to go with it. I had a momentary temptation to argue with him, but I had little trouble squelching it. Whatever Raphael was up to, he’d committed us all to that course of action when he’d opened his mouth. I heartily wished we hadn’t brought him along.

“Now that we’ve been reunited, cousin,” Raphael said, “tell me what you’re doing on the Mortal Plain acting as my brother’s stalking horse.”

William shook himself, and it seemed to effectively disperse whatever clouds were in his mind. “How do I know that you’re really Lugh?” he asked. “For all I know, you could be one of Dougal’s people trying to hammer the final nail in my coffin.”

Raphael smiled, and there was just a hint of condescension in his voice when he spoke. “If I were one of Dougal’s people, the lid would already be firmly nailed shut. But you can examine my aura if you don’t believe me. And I can examine yours at the same time.”

Neither Saul nor Adam looked surprised at Raphael’s offer, but Dominic and I shared a puzzled glance.

Our auras are too indistinct on the Mortal Plain for us to recognize each other with absolute confidence, Lugh explained. Der Jäger’s ability to distinguish auras on the Mortal Plain was part of what made him so extraordinary. But we can sense each others’ power to some degree. William will know from Raphael’s aura that he is one of the royal brothers. Dougal would be able to tell the two of us apart even on the Mortal Plain, but William will not.

And can Raphael tell whether that’s really William? I asked.

No. He’ll know if he’s truly one of the royal cousins, but he won’t know for sure which one. I don’t suppose it matters much one way or another.

Raphael reached out his hand, and William clasped it. The two of them closed their eyes and sat motionless for maybe thirty seconds. Then they opened their eyes at the same time and let their hands fall back to their sides.

William was not looking quite so frightened anymore, the expression on his face showing a cunning that had been missing before. “How do I know you’re not Raphael? Or Dougal, for that matter?”

Raphael’s eyebrows arched. “Do you think this interview would be quite so … civilized if I were Raphael?”

William’s face paled, and he shook his head. I wondered if there was anyone in the Demon Realm other than Dougal who wasn’t terrified of Raphael.

“And surely you don’t believe Dougal would show his face on the Mortal Plain?”

William thought that over for a moment. “He might,” he decided. “If he thought coming here would lure you out of hiding. There’s only so long he can keep his supporters in line with threats and unfulfilled promises. He sent me to the Mortal Plain and painted a big target on my back because he was afraid I’d break ranks and report him to the council. Once Alexander backed out …” He shrugged.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s started thinking about damage control. Dougal still has plenty of advocates on the council, but if his supporters start talking, even his strongest advocates might agree that it’s prudent to appoint a new regent pending word from you that the allegations are false and Dougal is your choice.”

Raphael’s lips curved in a satisfied smile that looked like no expression I could ever imagine on Lugh’s face. “He would find that … most awkward, I imagine.”

William snorted softly. “That’s one way of putting it.”

“I’m glad to hear that Dougal’s road is not as smooth as we’d thought. We’d feared that he had time on his side, but it sounds like it’s more on ours. Most heartening.”

“I don’t understand why this is so heartening,” I said. “So what if Dougal loses his position as regent?

He still has Lugh’s True Name.” I belatedly realized I should have said “your” True Name, not

“Lugh’s,” but luckily William assumed the question had been meant for him.

“He can’t do anything with Lugh’s True Name unless he has someone on the Mortal Plain who’s willing to do a summoning. He’s already losing supporters now; he’ll lose a lot more if he has to step down as regent.”

“But surely he won’t lose them all,” I protested. “And all it takes is one or two loonies and Lugh is toast. Literally.”

William acknowledged my point with a nod. “I make no claim that Lugh’s troubles are over. Merely that Dougal’s foothold is not as strong as it once was. The throne will not be secure until Dougal is dead.”

“Dougal and all his followers,” I said.

It was Raphael who answered me. “No, only Dougal has to die. Unless they have Dougal to put on the throne in my place, they have nothing to gain by attacking me. If Dougal’s dead and they kill me, then the throne would go to Raphael. And no one wants that.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you sure no one wants that? What about Raphael? Maybe he thinks the throne looks comfy.” Okay, so maybe this wasn’t the best time to stick pins in Raphael. Still, he was making me very uncomfortable right now, and I didn’t understand why he was pretending to be Lugh.

Raphael met my eyes steadily. But then, he’s never had any trouble lying to someone to their face.

“Raphael can hardly be bothered to care for a single human host. Do you really think he’s interested in caring for all of demonkind? There’s a lot of power that comes with the throne, but there’s a lot of responsibility as well.”

He has a point, Lugh said in my mind. I honestly can’t imagine Raphael wanting the throne.

I held up my hands in surrender. “Just thought I’d ask.”

“Was Dougal right to suspect you?” Raphael asked William. “Would you support me above him?”

“I would be a fool not to say yes, even if I didn’t mean it. But yes, I will support you. I swear to you I didn’t know what Dougal had planned when I started helping him.” He held his head up high. “I can’t expect you to trust me under the circumstances, but I’ll do whatever I can to earn that trust.”

Raphael nodded sagely. “You can start by telling me a little more about this team of yours. Mary said she was supposed to report to a handler once a week, and that he might have jobs for her.”

“Dougal’s trying to make the best of a bad situation,” William replied. “He figured if he was getting pressured to send all these demons to the Mortal Plain, he might as well use them.” He looked up at Adam. “When he first started sending them, he was thinking small. You know, coerce some undesirables to risk their lives to take out some of Lugh’s known supporters, like you. If they got themselves killed along the way, it wouldn’t matter a bit to him. Knowing him, he probably grew that small idea into a bigger plan, but since he doesn’t trust me anymore, I can’t say for sure.”

Up until recently, this “war” had been so covert that Lugh was convinced only Dougal’s inner circle even knew it was going on. But it was beginning to sound like the conflict was mushrooming. If it came down to open warfare, what would happen to the human race? Nothing good, that’s for sure.

Raphael stood up in one fluid, lithe movement. Adam did the same, though William wisely remained where he was.

“I need to consult with my council on the Mortal Plain,” Raphael said. “I’m going to ask you to stay right where you are. If you make any attempt to escape, I’m afraid I’m going to have to kill you. It isn’t something I want to do, but now that you know who’s hosting me, you are far too dangerous to be allowed to go free. You’re either with me or you’re dead. Understand?”

The fear was back in William’s eyes, and he nodded. “I understand. And I’m with you, I swear it.”

“Only time will tell.”

I’m pretty sure Raphael was the only one even marginally comfortable leaving William alone in that room, but that didn’t stop the rest of us from following him out.

We didn’t go far. We gathered in the hallway outside the Black Room and conversed in low, urgent voices. Dominic, Adam, Saul, and I all asked some version of “What the hell are you doing?” at approximately the same time. We didn’t consciously coordinate our movements, but we ended up forming a semicircle around Raphael, with his back pressed to the wall. Hostility rode the air like a static charge, and I hoped a fight wasn’t about to break out.

Raphael held up his hands for silence, and to my surprise, we all obeyed, though the tension ratcheted up another notch.

“I made an executive decision based on the information at hand,” Raphael said. “If Dougal’s back is to the wall as William suggests, then he’ll be actively hunting for Lugh again.” He looked at me. “Dougal and his agents might not be able to tell that you’re possessed right now, but they do know you were Lugh’s original host, which puts a target on your back.”

I had a few choice words I wanted to share about that, but Raphael turned his attention to Adam and continued talking before I could interrupt.

“You’re one of Lugh’s most high-profile supporters on the Mortal Plain, and it would take only the smallest amount of poking around to find out you’ve been spending time with Morgan. That’s makes you—and, by association, Dominic—a target, too.” He stood up a little straighter. “But if Dougal and company believe they already know who’s hosting Lugh …”

A metaphorical lightbulb turned on over my head. “You’re taking a page from William’s book. Making yourself into Lugh’s stalking horse.” Suspicious, nasty person that I am, I immediately noticed the convenient coincidence that the only person outside of Lugh’s council who knew Raphael’s true identity—Shae—was dead. Could it have been Raphael who killed her, rather than William’s team?

But no, surely Raphael hadn’t foreseen that he would be impersonating Lugh.

He nodded. “Exactly.”

“That’s not the kind of decision you should have made on your own,” Saul growled, and he looked mad enough to put his fist through the wall. Or through Raphael’s head, for that matter.

Raphael laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “If you expect me to be a good little soldier and do what I’m told, then you’re obviously suffering from severe delusions. Lugh might have been too noble to let me put myself in the line of fire, so I took the decision out of his hands.” Raphael always made “noble”

sound like a bad thing. Perhaps to him, it was.

“It’s not too late to turn back,” Adam said. “If we do away with William, then no one will be the wiser.” He said that with such a patent disregard for both human and demon life that I winced.

“That would be foolish,” Raphael countered. “You heard what William said. Dougal’s starting to lose control. That means he’ll be getting desperate. That makes him even more dangerous than before. And it could also give us some leverage.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“All his troubles go away if Lugh dies. Our king is completely above the law, so even if everyone in the Demon Realm knew Dougal had murdered Lugh, there would be nothing they could do.”

“That’s a monumentally stupid method of government,” Dominic muttered.

Raphael shook his head. “You don’t understand. It isn’t how we choose to run things. It just is. There is nothing on the Mortal Plain analogous to the power of the demon throne. No one can stand against it. Not for long, anyway.”

“At least, not in the Demon Realm,” Adam amended. “We’d have had Lugh back on the throne in no time if he’d been able to wield his power here on the Mortal Plain.”

I sensed more bickering was about to ensue, so I intervened before it could get started. “So how does your claiming to be Lugh give us any leverage?” I asked Raphael.

“It helps us because, with his back against the wall, Dougal would do just about anything to eliminate Lugh as fast as possible.” His lips curled into what could only be described as an evil smile. “Maybe even come to the Mortal Plain in person.”