Free Sword's Blessing by Kaitlin R. Branch Page B

lady, and you think we’re bad?”
    “It was for our own good!” Giselle snapped before checking herself. Why was she defending them again? She took a breath, bowed her head. “Or so they said. He wanted to marry me.”
    “Ah ha, and the whole Angelic curse. I can see why they’d be worried. Repeating the biggest embarrassment of their race.” He leaned back. “Okay. I’ll give you a few options. A choice of damnations, if you will.”
    Giselle frowned. Those were never kind words, but at least she might be able to choose her hell.
    “Choice one.” The Lucifer held up a finger. “We do just as your Fore asked. You ship back, I get my access to Angelic info on Cyrene.”
    “No.”
    “Patience, patience. You might find that the best option. Number two.” Another finger. “I raze your mind for every shred of information you’ve ever absorbed about Cyrene, remembered or not. I’ll be as careful as I can, but they don’t call it razing for nothing. Then I’ll dump you back with Eli and whatever that Inbetweener’s name is.”
    “Samantha. Option three?”
    Lucifer grinned. “You become my bait. You faced her once, right? And got away because of Samantha and Eli’s intervention?” Giselle nodded. “Good. She’s probably angry at you. Very angry.” His eyes burned. “You go out there. You stand and look her dead in the eye again. And you try and fight her. You might walk away, you might not. It depends on how quickly I can trap or kill her.”
    Giselle swallowed. “Is that the end of the options?”
    “Yep.” The Lucifer leaned back, an easy grin on his lips. “Up to you. Certain entrapment, certain madness, or the tiniest chance of going back to the man you gave up your blessings for?”
    “I thought you said this was a choice of damnations,” she said.
    “I like to give people a chance to fight,” he replied, chuckling. “Lends a certain chaos to the world, because the unexpected almost always happens. Can I take that as ‘option three’?”
    Giselle took a deep breath, looking at her hip. Her sword still hung there, polished and reflecting the light of the Lucifer’s fire. She shivered. This wasn’t for the Lucifer. This was for Armand. For Manas. “Yes. Option three. I will be your bait.”
    He chuckled. “Perfect.”
    * * * *
    They were still in the southern United States, she knew that much. They were in a pine forest though, fragrant with sunlit needles. She could also smell the musk of swamp water. Giselle stood fast, waiting. The Lucifer had said if she just stood in one area for long enough, Cyrene would find her eventually. If she moved from the area, they had agreed he could take that as permission to deliver her to her superiors.
    “What about the Messiah?” she asked, “Did he condone this?”
    The Lucifer chuckled. “The Messiah is a lot like The Lucifer. We don’t give a damn, so to speak, about the little things. He’s probably too busy trying to keep the balance in order.”
    Giselle sighed. He was right, of course. Though the Lucifer took an interest in the balance, in the end it was down to The Messiah to keep it steady, and if rumor was to be believed, that was getting more and more challenging. Still, it stung she could be forgotten, their lives could be laid down into option one, two, or three. So she stood where she was and hoped Cyrene at least found her soon.
    The forest went silent. Giselle drew a breath and felt out, as Armand had described in Las Vegas, for the miasma of madness. She licked her lips. Yes, now that she had felt it once, it was impossible to miss. She was here. Slowly, Giselle drew her sword.
    “There you are, little miss.” Cyrene’s voice was rougher than it had been last they met, and Giselle frowned. With one powerful swoop of the wings, she took to the air, just as Cyrene lunged. She pulled up her feet and Cyrene passed beneath. “I’m amazed you’re alone. The boy abandon you?”
    She made kissing noises as she turned around, and