Instead, I quickened my pace. He didn’t follow me. He didn’t say he’d make it go away if I agreed to the match.
He didn’t need to. I knew the score. Knew the score and was, bluntly, done with it. I wanted nothing more to do with Tyz’vel. I wanted him dead. No, I wanted him locked up in a cage.
I idly wondered if that could be arranged. Maybe, just maybe, I could find some other demon lord willing to ally with me to stomp him down. It might get me into trouble, but…
But it might work, too. Thruor was too honorable to do it, but…I was Loki’s daughter. That meant, well…
It meant that I could get away with stuff like this, I thought. Maybe. I glanced around but, sadly, saw no ravens.
Odin’s opinion on the matter would be valuable. Still, if nothing else would get him to back down?
I’d run the risk of being smited by Odin again to save Mike. That was probably a little bit of my mother speaking.
She, I thought, would understand. Loki would probably high five me.
The question was, how did I find a demon lord? Without unleashing another one on the world. It was a shame I couldn’t have somehow got him and Apep to fight each other.
No, I thought. My instincts told me that would have ended up with far too many deaths.
So, a demon lord. I realized what I needed was a really competent black magician. I shuddered.
No. I shouldn’t do this. I shouldn’t make any kind of deal with Hell. Was there somebody else, something else that could sit on Tyz’vel? The archangel Michael came to mind, given he was supposedly really good at beating on demons.
The angel I’d met had given me the shivers. The deep shivers, in fact. I certainly didn’t want to deal with a more powerful one.
But maybe it would work better. Rivals but not enemies. That was what Thruor tended to say on the matter.
I changed my course, heading for the nearest church. It wasn’t Will’s church. It was a square, classical type building labeled St. John’s.
I stepped inside and, as always, felt a little bit uncomfortable. I didn’t belong here.
Not enemies, no, but never friends.