Wolfe walked into the kitchen in his workout shorts and a tank top, yawning so hard his eyes were closed for a moment. It had been that kind of couple days—his soul was tired.

  He immediately noticed the smell of coffee and bacon, and opened his eyes to be greeted by a sight that felt like it should have been out of a harem novel, although a slightly weird one. Shel was cooking in the kitchen in just one of Wolfe’s shirts, and her two lantern angels were working beside her. Each still couldn’t put down the lantern in their off hand, so they weren’t making as much progress as they could, but surprisingly to Wolfe, they seemed to know what they were doing.

  He supposed Raphael was the Divine Lord of Kindness, and maybe cooking a nice meal was under that rubric. But it still wasn’t something he would have guessed the lantern angels knew how to do.

  He walked up behind Shel, who gave him a glowing smile over her shoulder before turning back to cooking. Wolfe wrapped one arm around her and then lightly goosed her. She pushed into him a bit and giggled.

  No shorts, Wolfe thought, a slight stirring of his younger self coming through. Shel was gorgeous, and at the moment, she was downright sexy as well.

  “You weren’t at all interested last night, what changed?” Shel asked while snuggling back against him and continuing to cook.

  “Eight hours of shut-eye,” Wolfe said honestly.

  Shel and even Sorenia laughed at that, which also surprised Wolfe—A sense of humor was up there with cooking skills in things he wouldn’t normally assign the lantern angels.

  “So what got you guys cooking?” Wolfe asked.

  “Well, you were sleeping in, as you mentioned, so I thought I could make breakfast,” Shel said. “It’s hardly a thing, especially since you usually do it anyway. I got Sorenia and Liurenia helping me, and for a while Malviere was helping as well, but she, well…”

  “Can’t cook to save her—or anyone else’s—life,” Liurenia finished with a laugh. “I don’t think that small, pleasant things are really the forte of the Infernal faction.”

  Then she held up her lantern. “Although this makes it a bit of a chore as well, I’ll not deny.”

  Sorenia nodded hard at that.

  “Well, I appreciate it, truly. Where’s Cereboo?”

  “We gave your mutt a double helping and sent him on his way,” Liurenia said, very primly.

  “Hey, you can’t call him a mutt,” Wolfe replied with a laugh. “I mean, his parentage is extremely prestigious.”

  “Who’s his mother?” Liurenia asked with a smirk.

  Wolfe stopped at that, briefly stunned by the question. “You know, I’m almost fifty percent sure you’re just giving me snark over my Infernal companion, but that is a honestly question I’d like to know the answer to. Somehow, I’ve never thought about it.”

  All three of the women—one beautiful mortal and two cards—slowed at that, as if none of them had ever considered it either. After a moment, Liurenia shrugged and they picked the pace up again.

  “Speaking of, do any of you know your parents?” Wolfe asked.

  “We were born at the beginning of time as true angels,” Liurenia said.

  “Do you remember it?” Wolfe asked.

  Liurenia and Sorenia had troubled expressions.

  It was Sorenia that spoke, and her voice was hesitant. “No… I can’t remember most of my life from before I came to this realm as a card. I remember a few things, and I can hear Raphael’s voice instructing me, but I can’t remember anything else about him. And only a few battles and moments other than that. I assume that there are things that I wasn’t meant to be able to convey to mortals.”

  Wolfe could tell it bothered her, and he wasn’t that interested in all the theological connotations anyway. “Well, how about we eat this food you’ve so kindly prepared for us, then call Rhett and Fern over.”

  “Rhett?” Shel asked nervously.

  Wolfe tightened his arms around her. “Yeah… Fern has been talking to him. He’s going to do what he’s going to do, but he knows too much to just leave out now. At the very minimum, I need him to not be after me.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Alright, I’ll call them,” Shel said, turning around in Wolfe’s arms awkwardly before stepping back and holding a plate heaped high with breakfast food out in front of her.

  ***

  Rhett sat at the table, slumped over for the first time that Wolfe could ever remember seeing him. His head was in his hands, and his elbows were on the table as he stared at Wolfe.

  Everyone still on their extended team except Miriam and her remaining people were there as well—Shel, Fern, and the cards of all four of them. All stared at Rhett.

  After a moment, Rhett spoke. “Fern tells me that you didn’t choose any of this—that it was triggered because of things that they are doing to you, and to other good and innocent citizens. Is that true, Wolfe? Tell me straight.”

  Wolfe put his hand over his heart. “It is, I promise. I was planning on facing down he remaining Noimoire gangs, but I was planning to do it right this time—your way. I swear to you by my patron Cerberus.”

  “I’ve never heard you swear by a god before,” Shel said.

  “I’m trying to tell Rhett how much I mean it. Adam and his people brought this war to me, not the other way around. But he may have started it—I’m gonna finish it.”

  “And there’s the cheesy one-liner,” Shel said sotto voice.

  Half the table had a chuckle, but Rhett remained dead serious.

  “What are you going to do?” he asked, his finger tracing the outline of the demonic face on the table but his eyes boring into Wolfe’s

  “We have four days, nine hours, and twenty-one minutes till Adam gets back,” Fern cut in, her voice barely above a whisper. “Although he already sent Nathan, which I didn’t expect. So my other predictions might be wrong as well.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” Rhett said, his eyes never leaving Wolfe’s. “What. Are. You. Going. To do?”

  “You know the answer, Rhett,” Wolfe said, his voice heavy. “Do you want me to spell it out? Are we not doing the hypothetical thing anymore?”

  “How many?” Rhett asked.

  Wolfe knew he was asking about bodies.

  “Three, if I get a perfect run. But reality, or the gods, have never been that nice to me. Good money is, the number will be far higher.”

  “Is it worth it?”

  Wolfe hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. “I know it is, like the gods themselves told me, because one did.”

  “What?” Rhett barked out, leaning back.

  “I saw a vision, Rhett,” Wolfe said, his voice heavy as he remembered the night he got his cards. “A vision of Noimoire, a Noirmore that was in chaos, pain, and suffering, with death everywhere, if I didn’t take out the other family heads. Now, as a maybe separate thing, Adam wants to make the law tyrannical and use criminals, even people with baby crimes, for parts or, I don’t know, sex toys or something.”

  Rhett stared at Wolfe as he talked. “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”

  Wolfe shrugged. “C’mon, would I make some bullshit like this up?”

  Shel laughed at that.

  Rhett still didn’t so much as crack a grin, but he nodded. “You’ve never been a big yarn spinner, that’s true. You just clam up and lie by omission, most of the time. I suppose you’re probably telling me the truth.”

  “Then I can count on you?” Wolfe asked.

  Rhett hesitated, but then shook his head no. “I can’t be a part of this. Maybe that makes me a coward, but turning away, for no profit for myself, after all the deep evidence of corruption that Fern showed me… maybe I can still hold my head high when I’m judged. But joining you on a rampage? It betrays everything I stand for. I’ll watch after Fern when needed, and I won’t stop you. But that’s all I can do, Wolfe. I get it—when the law itself is unjust, revolution is justified. But this is still a borderline case. It’s one individual is inside the system, poisoning it.”

  “So help me remove it,” Wolfe said. “Then the system you love so much will work, right?”

  Rhett didn’t answer directly. “I hate myself for even going this far, Wolfe. For letting you go, knowing what you plan. It’s as far as I fall…” his voice went softer. “For now, at least.”

  It didn’t make sense to Wolfe, but he had never been a follower of the rules. He turned to Shel.

  She nodded, which Wolfe took to mean that she understood Rhett and wanted him to drop it. Although Wolfe wasn’t completely sure that was what Shel meant.

  Wolfe turned back to Rhett. “Okay, well, I appreciate that.”

  Rhett nodded. “I’m going to head back home—I really don’t want to be present for anything else. If you need a place of safety I’ll provide it. Well, unless you go completely insane in your fight and innocents get hurt. I won’t forgive that. But providing that protection is the most I can do.”

  He stood up. “I’ll see myself out. I really hope you know what you’re doing, Wolfe.”

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Wolfe replied.

  Rhett gave one more tight nod of his head, and then turned and exited the room, his footfalls slow and heavy on the marble floor.

  After a few moments, Shel let her breath out. “Whew. I was really worried about Rhett turning you in. What we’re doing is… kinda crazy. Way off meta.”

  Sorenia chimed in. “I worry that we’re corrupting him, although he could stand to be a bit more supportive of those trying to recover from having fallen.”

  Wolfe ignored that, instead turning to Fern. “So, next mission?”

  “It’s going to be a lot harder, but we need to take out the Singh next. They’ve got multiple deckbearers, and, more importantly, way more gunmen. Of the two, they’re the bigger threat than the Renfeldt. And, thanks to your humiliation of Gopal at the arena last year, they already dislike you. He’s gunning for you himself.”

  Wolfe shrugged. “He’s a chump among chumps.”

  Fern closed her eyes. “The chair I’m sitting on, the demonic carving under my fingers, my frustration held in check,” Fern said, then opened them and stared at Wolfe. “You told me you were worried because Nathan almost took you out, because you didn’t have the training, and ran in half-cocked. Don’t make the mistake again, please. For my sake. Take the Singh seriously.”

  Wolfe rolled his eyes, but nodded. “I will, I promise. Sorry, they weren’t ever the biggest threat back in my enforcer days.”

  “They’ve gotten stronger, both from picking up a lot of the pieces you left after your rampages, and now through Adam’s patronage. They’re stronger than the Grimm family was at its height, now.”

  Wolfe held his hands up. “I said I’d take them seriously. What do we need to do?”

  Fern turned her laptop around and leaned over. “So, here’s the plan…”