“Lies like the one where we go about murdering them on the street?” Ishmael countered coolly, settling into biting ice if she was going to be all fire. Every sentence of hers was filling the cavern with more smoke, more reason for her to continue about her mischief, stoking the heat of hate both ways. Ishmael didn’t care if humans hated them, or they hated humans. He didn’t care if everyone was thought equal. It didn’t matter, as long as he was free.
Which meant Azazel was a problem.
He took the blood pop out of his mouth, regarded her with a rare solemness, without his usual smirk. “I don’t want to watch them throw you in a cell,” he said honestly. He didn’t. “But I can’t have you bringing the caverns down with you. And I can’t let you ruin what I’ve built here.”
He cared about Azazel - of course he did - but there were other people he cared about now. And much fun as she had once been, she didn’t seem to have aged at all in her afterlife, hadn’t changed a bit. He didn’t need her now. She couldn’t help him.
Maybe it wasn’t too late to help her, though. “You can still have your fun,” Ishmael said, wishing she would only listen for once in her life. Everyone was always telling him how to live, but from what he’d seen, he had struck a better balance than all of them put together. “But there are smarter ways.”
Which meant Azazel was a problem.
He took the blood pop out of his mouth, regarded her with a rare solemness, without his usual smirk. “I don’t want to watch them throw you in a cell,” he said honestly. He didn’t. “But I can’t have you bringing the caverns down with you. And I can’t let you ruin what I’ve built here.”
He cared about Azazel - of course he did - but there were other people he cared about now. And much fun as she had once been, she didn’t seem to have aged at all in her afterlife, hadn’t changed a bit. He didn’t need her now. She couldn’t help him.
Maybe it wasn’t too late to help her, though. “You can still have your fun,” Ishmael said, wishing she would only listen for once in her life. Everyone was always telling him how to live, but from what he’d seen, he had struck a better balance than all of them put together. “But there are smarter ways.”
