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The others were silent a while, but eventually Corrigan said what they were no doubt all thinking. ‘Go on, Cade. You’re the one who’s never been comfortable with your own attunements. Besides, I doubt you’re going to find diabolics willing to sell you Infernal spells any more. It won’t be any fun killing you for using that recruitment spell on me if you’ve got nothing to fight back with but your lousy personality.’

He had a point there.

Funny how I hadn’t even considered using the Apparatus myself until now. I guess maybe it was because a quieter, wiser part of me already knew what attunement I would choose when I lay down inside of it.

‘See you all on the other side,’ I said as I walked through the door.

Chapter 55

The Virtue of Malevolence

An hour later, I stumbled out of the fortress, which now looked more like a poorly made child’s toy shaped out of clay that hadn’t set right. Someone was waiting for me outside.

‘If you’re going to hit me,’ Tenebris said, ‘I should warn you I’ve got a bit of a glass jaw.’

The diabolic walking freely on the Mortal plane was the first sign that our realm had changed. We were no longer its masters.

‘It’s not like you to gloat,’ I said.

He smiled. ‘That’s just about the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.’ He breathed in deeply, then let it out all at once. ‘Damn, but the air smells like rotting arsehole out here. How do you stand it?’

‘It’s not so bad. I imagine you’ll learn to appreciate it after a while.’

He apparently took that as licence to come closer and brush some of the dust off my shoulder. ‘If you say so. Anyway, look, buddy. I just came to say I’m sorry for how things turned out.’

‘You mean for having manipulated me and my friends into murdering the Seven Brothers, not to protect our world from the Pandorals but so your bosses and the Celestines could turn it into one big fucking battlefield?’

‘Hey, no need for false modesty, man. You also killed off most of the Pandorals for us.’ The little shudder that went through him seemed genuine, for once. ‘If I’m being honest, Pandoral magic freaks my employers out. Too unpredictable. Also, it’s gross.’ He sniffed the air, curled his lip in disgust, then sighed as if overcome with unavoidable sadness. ‘Anyway, I’ve got some bad news.’

‘What’s that?’

‘I can’t be your agent any more.’

‘Yeah, I figured.’

The diabolic hugged me and proceeded to pat me awkwardly on the back. ‘Buck up, old pal. You’ve always been resourceful. You’ll figure something out.’ He let me go and took a step back, wagging a finger in the air at me like I’d just been caught with my hand in the cookie jar. ‘Word to the wise, though, Cade: don’t fuck with us. The Celestines and the Devilish rule this world now. They’re finally getting the Crusade-To-End-All-Crusades they’ve dreamed about for millennia. You guys had your chance, you screwed it up and now we’re in charge. So do yourself a favour, okay? Either pick a side, or find someplace quiet to hide out for the next century or so while my bosses figure out how to win this war.’

‘Good advice,’ I said. Since the world had turned utterly perverse on me, I grabbed the diabolic and returned his hug, whispering into his ear, ‘Thanks for everything, old buddy.’

As we parted, he gave me a quizzical smile like he couldn’t tell whether I was being snide or not. That gave me a little hope, at least.

‘See you around, Cade,’ he said, and headed down the path that led towards the town.

I waved goodbye. Hopefully someone would stick a pitchfork in him. If not, the bag of spell-sand I’d snatched from the pocket of his coat– which had been in his possession long enough to be attuned to him– would come in handy the next time we met and I tortured him to death.

The heavy thump of familiar footsteps made me turn.

Corrigan came to face me. ‘So what did you pick?’ he asked, then, as was typical for him, stopped me from answering. ‘No, let me guess. While lying there in the most potent magical device ever built, knowing you could attune yourself to any plane you wanted– like the Tempestoral plane, for example– you chose something feeble.’ He jabbed an accusing finger into my chest. ‘You went with Fortunal magic, didn’t you? All those jobs where you pretended to be a chance mage, and now you’ve gone and made yourself one.’

I coughed. ‘Seems to me we could use all the luck we can get, don’t you think?’

He threw his hands up in the air. ‘You’re so predictably sentimental it almost makes me sad to think you’re not long for this world, Cade.’

I started coughing again. I’d probably be doing a lot of that, given what I’d just done to myself.

Corrigan thumped me so hard on the back I nearly choked on my own tongue. ‘I didn’t see you get injured during the fight,’ he said. ‘What’s the matter with you?’

‘Nothing. Bug in my throat. Speaking of injuries, you still planning on killing me?’