Chapter 61:
– Harry –
Rome.
Rossweisse walked beside me in jeans and a soft cream sweater that clung to her in ways that drew stares from every man we passed. Her silver-white hair was tucked under a brown beret she'd insisted made her look "local," which was a generous assessment given that she was easily the most beautiful woman on the street and had the height of a Norse warrior. I'd swapped my school robes for dark jeans, a navy t-shirt, and a leather jacket Lyna had stuffed into my storage space a while back.
Two tourists in the heart of church territory on a mission Azazel didn't even fully brief us on. Brilliant.
"I should have been more specific," I muttered, kicking a loose pebble down the narrow street. "When Odin offered to find Arthur Weasley for me, I should have negotiated proper terms."
Rossweisse glanced at me from under the brim of her beret. "Hindsight is rarely kind."
"Yeah, well, hindsight's a real prick." I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets. "Two unconditional favors to the All-Father. What was I thinking?"
I wasn't thinking. I was thinking about Arthur. About Ginny crying on my shoulder. And I know I'm the type of guy that would do it again for someone I care about.
Rossweisse slowed her pace. After a moment, she reached over and threaded her fingers through mine. That took me a bit by surprise. "Take it as a learning experience, Lord Harry," she said softly.
I looked down at her. She was looking ahead, cheeks faintly pink, like the casual hand-holding was costing her some kind of internal battle. "Just Harry," I said. "You're stuck with me for the weekend. The 'Lord' thing is going to get old fast."
"Mm." She didn't quite agree, but she didn't argue either. We walked in silence for a few steps, our hands still linked. Then, quieter, she added, "It's also my fault."
I raised an eyebrow. "Your fault?"
"When you first met with Odin." She kept her eyes fixed on the street ahead. "Lilja was at the ice cream parlor with you. I was the reason she was distracted. I was..." Her cheeks went a deeper shade of pink. "I was having a public breakdown about being the only unmarried Valkyrie in Asgard."
"Ah." That was what had happened.
"...Had I not been carrying on like that, Lilja would have been paying attention. As your Queen, she would have intervened. She would never have allowed you to make such an open-ended bargain with Lord Odin." Rossweisse squeezed my hand. "She would have negotiated for you. She's very good at protecting what's hers."
She really is. Lilja goes feral when anyone tries to take advantage of me.
"So," Rossweisse continued, lifting her chin with sudden determination, "I take full responsibility for the situation. I will keep you safe this weekend, Harry. We are in church territory, and the risks are real, and I will not allow anything to happen to you!" She finally looked up at me. Her green eyes were fierce and serious, the same shade as Lilja's, and for a moment I could absolutely see why she was the strongest Valkyrie in Asgard.
I couldn't help it. I grinned.
"What?" she asked, suspicious.
"You sounded super reliable just then." I bumped my shoulder against hers. "Like, properly competent. It almost made me forget about all the brandy you put away in Azazel's office an hour ago…"
Rossweisse's mouth dropped open. She let go of my hand and smacked me on the arm.
"Ow!"
Bloody hell, she hits like a Bludger.
"We all have our vices," she huffed, marching ahead of me with her chin in the air. "And I don't drink that much."
I grinned. "You made a sad noise when I took it away from you. Like a kicked puppy."
Her cheeks puffed up. "I did not!"
"You went 'hnnnnnnnnn' and your lip wobbled." I mimicked the noise she made at the end.
Her lashes fluttered. She looked away. Her teeth caught her bottom lip, worrying at it. The street noise drifted around us, distant church bells and someone shouting in Italian about laundry. "I just..." Her voice was small. "I miss her. Lilja. Even now, knowing she's well and happy with you, I miss having my little sister next door. We used to have breakfast together every morning. She'd come into my room and steal half my pastries and pretend she hadn't."
Oh…
"And working for the All-Father..." She let out a breath that was half a laugh. "It isn't quite what I thought it would be when I was a little girl. I imagined glory and great deeds. I imagined a wise lord who would value his Valkyries." She shrugged stiffly. "Mostly I file paperwork. And get teleported to other realms on my days off…"
My chest did something complicated. "Rossweisse..." I never got to finish the sentence.
Her head snapped up, eyes going wide. Before I could even register what had alarmed her, she'd grabbed a fistful of my jacket and yanked me sideways with shocking strength. Stone and shadow swallowed us as she dragged me three steps deep into a narrow alley between two ochre buildings.
Her body pressed flush against mine. Every inch of her.
Her chest crushed against my chest, and there was nothing subtle about it, the soft, heavy weight of her tits flattening between us through the thin cream sweater. Her thigh slotted between mine. Her free hand clamped over my mouth, small palm cool against my lips.
"Shhh," she breathed, so close I felt the word against my cheek.
What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck...
I went still. My heart hammered against her ribs through both our shirts. Her green eyes locked onto mine, wide and serious, and she tilted her head fractionally toward the mouth of the alley.
I followed her gaze.
Out on the main street, a patrol of four men in long pale coats walked past in tight formation. Exorcists. "Are you sure you sensed something dark around here, Father Nicholas?"
"I thought I did, but maybe I was mistaken…?"
"Let's try searching a few blocks over then. It was probably nothing. No devil has been foolish enough to infiltrate the Vatican ever since we caught the traitor witch Asia Argento healing that devil filth!"
They strode past talking in low Italian, and disappeared around the next corner.
I counted to ten in my head. Then twenty.
Rossweisse let out a shaky breath. Her shoulders sagged with relief. Her hand slid down from my mouth to rest against my chest, right over my pounding heart. "They didn't sense us," she whispered. "Thank the Norns. Not me as a Valkyrie, not you as a devil."
"Mm," I managed. Don't think about her tits. Don't think about her tits. Don't think about her tits.
It was, of course, all I could think about. Her sweater had ridden up half an inch during the dive into the alley, and I could feel the bare skin of her hip where it pressed against my hand. I hadn't even realized I'd put my hand there. My palm rested against the soft curve just above the waistband of her jeans, warm and smooth and impossibly inviting.
Her face was inches from mine. Her lips were parted. Her cheeks were flushed pink from the rush of adrenaline, and her green eyes were still huge, still locked onto mine, and her chest was rising and falling against my chest in fast, shallow little gasps that did absolutely nothing to help my situation downstairs.
Three full seconds passed before Rossweisse's brain caught up to the rest of her body.
I watched it happen in real time. Her gaze dropped to where she was pressed flush against me. Then to where my hand sat on her bare hip. Then to her own hand on my chest. Then to my mouth, which was about four inches from hers. Then back up to my eyes.
Her pupils blew wide. "Eep!" She did not, however, move away.
"Rossweisse," I said carefully.
"Y-yes?"
"You're still pressing me into a wall."
"Yes."
"With your, ah. Your whole body."
"Yes…"
"Are you planning to step back at any point?"
"Yes…?" A pause. "In a moment."Her hand was still flat against my chest. Her thigh was still pressed between mine. And I could feel, with terrible clarity, that my body had taken note of every single one of these details and registered its enthusiastic opinion against the front of her jeans. Her eyes went very, very wide. "Oh," she said in a tiny voice.
"Yeah."
"That's..."
"Mhm."
"...impressive."
I choked on my own breath.
Rossweisse made another small squeak, finally peeled herself away from me in three careful, mortified inches, and clapped both hands over her face. Through her fingers, muffled and despairing, came the words "I am a professional. I am a professional. I am a professional."
I leaned back against the warm brick of the alley wall, ran a hand through my hair. This is going to be a very long weekend.
– Lilja –
Lilja crouched behind a wrought-iron balcony railing two stories above the cobbled street and watched her king flatten her sister against an alley wall like he was trying to learn her body shape through osmosis.
Goddess preserve me, those two have the situational awareness of a pair of drunk house elves.
"Your older sister is one sneaky bitch and she totally has the hots for Harry," Serafall whispered cheerfully beside her, propping her chin in her hands. "Looks like he's getting another peerage member pretty soon, ufufu."
Lilja shot her a flat look. Serafall was crouched next to her in full magical girl regalia, pink frills and starry tights and all, which made the entire concept of "sneaking" feel deeply offensive to the laws of physics. The only reason no Roman tourist had spotted them yet was a paper-thin notice-me-not charm and the fact that Serafall had, with great and unnecessary smugness, layered her own demonic veil over both of them.
"She does not have the hots for him," Lilja muttered.
"Mm-hmm."
Down in the alley, Rossweisse made a noise that Lilja had not heard her sister make since they were children, and Lilja decided, in the privacy of her own skull, that she was absolutely not equipped for it.
How had it come to this?
One word: Serafall.
That, really, was all the explanation required. And Lilja, despite knowing better, had said yes, because she was a furious queen who did not trust Odin or Azazel for one second to send her king and her sister into the freaking Vatican without close oversight.
Those two scheming old men! Sending Harry into church territory! How dare they!
"Oop," Serafall said. "They're done awkwardly flirting and pretending it didn't happen. They're moving."
Lilja blinked back to the present. Down below, Rossweisse had peeled herself off Harry and was walking very stiffly out of the alley with both hands clasped in front of her like a schoolgirl going to confession. Harry followed at a careful one-meter distance, also walking very stiffly, also for reasons that did not require Lilja's imagination.
"We need to follow them," Serafall said, already swinging one leg over the balcony railing.
"Who are we following?" The voice came from directly behind them.
Lilja and Serafall both jumped a full inch off the stone. Serafall's leg slipped on the railing and she had to throw her weight backward to keep from pitching face-first off the balcony. Lilja's hand went to her hip where her rapier should have been, except she had left it at Hogwarts because she was supposed to be incognito.
She turned. And gaped.
Standing on the balcony behind them, with no door open and no sound of arrival and absolutely no business being there, was perhaps the most beautiful woman Lilja had ever seen in either of her lives.
Perfect heart-shaped face. Long, shining blonde hair that fell in soft waves past her waist. Baby-blue eyes that were impossibly large and clear and seemed to hold a gentle, slightly worried question inside them, as if she had simply popped over because she had heard her name and wanted to be helpful. Skin like cream. A smile so kind it physically hurt to look at it directly. She wore a deeply form-fitting nun's habit, black with starched white at the collar, cut so well it looked tailored by a couture house rather than a convent, and it followed every curve of her body with a devotion that was probably itself a small sin.
She was more beautiful than Marlene. Marlene is going to be so jealous when I tell her this. I'm going to leave that part out.
"Damn you, Gabriel!" Serafall declared, jabbing one finger at the woman's chest. "What are you doing here, my sneaky nemesis?!"
Lilja sputtered. Nemesis? Gabriel? As in the freaking archangel Gabriel!? We were caught sneaking around Rome by an actual archangel…
Gabriel tilted her head. "This is heaven's territory," she said. Her voice was bell-soft. "I'm supposed to be here. What are you doing here, Serafall?"
"We," Serafall announced, planting both fists on her hips and puffing out her perky chest, "are following my son on his very important secret mission as he searches for the Slash Dog team that you evil angels abducted!"
Gabriel's whole face lit up. "Oh!" Her hands came together in a delighted little clap. "The Canis Lykaon is in Rome? I always liked that little puppy, he's so well-mannered. Tobio is such a sweet boy too, he sent me a Christmas card one year, did you know? It had a picture of the dog wearing a tiny hat. It was the cutest thing." Then her expression clouded. "But..." She frowned in a way that put a small adorable wrinkle between her brows. "I haven't heard anything about Azazel-san's famous Sacred Gear team being captured. Are you sure? That doesn't sound like something we'd do."
Serafall narrowed her eyes. "That sounds exactly like something you'd do, you sneaky angel."
"Serafall!" Gabriel's cheeks puffed out in offense, and Lilja experienced the deeply confusing supernatural sensation of an archangel pouting. "The church wouldn't abduct people. We're the good guys. We help people. We sing on Sundays and feed orphans."
"Mm-hmm."
"It's true!"
"Mm-hmm."
"Serafall!!!"
"Mm-hmm!!!"
Gabriel's hands fluttered helplessly. "I would know if we'd captured them! I would have immediately let them all go!"
Lilja was shocked at how earnest Gabriel sounded.
Serafall's pout collapsed. Her wand lowered an inch. A slow, dangerous, magical-girl-villain-arc smile crept across her face. "Lily-tan," she said sweetly, without taking her eyes off Gabriel. "Did you hear that? She doesn't believe us. She says the Church wouldn't abduct people."
Lilja had no Idea where Serafall was going with this, but she decided she might as well play along. What else did they have to lose at this point? They were already caught. "I heard, Serafall-sama. I don't buy it!" She actually did buy it though. She doesn't think she ever met a more sincere being in both her lives. It made her feel a bit guilty.
Serafall grinned with Lilja playing along. "Naïve, isn't it? I don't buy it either."
Gabriel's mouth made the tiny "o" again. "Ehhhh?"
"Then," Serafall declared, straightening up and striking a pose with one hand on her hip and the wand pointed skyward, "let's have a bet!"
"A bet?" Gabriel looked confused. "Gambling is a sin…"
"This is just a small wager. A simple one!" Serafall twirled the wand between her fingers. "If the Church did capture the Slash Dog team, and we prove it, then you can't get Harry, Lily-tan, Rossweisse, or me in trouble for sneaking into Heaven's territory! Not a peep, not a complaint, not a letter to ther other Maous who will definitely scold me…"
"Mmm." Gabriel tapped a delicate looking finger against her chin. "I suppose I can agree to that since I know the church is innocent—"
Serafall's smile turned even more sneaky. "And," she purred, "you also have to appear as a villain on my TV show! And—" Serafall continued, "I get to defeat you. Heroically. On camera. With a special transformation sequence. And there will be a musical number."
Gabriel tilted her head the other way this time. "...A musical number? Hmm. I do like music…" Gabriel considered this. "Also, I have never been on television… Ok, but what do I get if I win…?"
Serafall's smile dropped a bit.
…A couple minutes later, Lilja couldn't quite believe what she just heard as the terms of a bet made between two of the most powerful women in the world. How could Serafall bet something so reckless? And yet, Serafall looked like she refused to believe losing the bet was possible.
Serafall looked incredibly smug as she crossed her arms under her breasts and had a proud grin on her face. "I won't be losing this one! My Harry-kun will uncover all the church's evil deeds!"
Gabriel's beautiful face had a determined expression. "The church is innocent."
"Hmph! We will find out won't we?" Sefafall declared and then turned to Lilja. "Okay we need to keep following Harry and your sister."
Lilja nodded. She then turned her eyes back towards the alley where she had seen Roseweisse pressed up against Harry. Lilja blinked when she noticed something was wrong. Harry and Roseweisse were both gone. They had apparently moved on and continued their search while Lilja got distracted by Serafall and Gabriel…
"Oh…"
"Er, which way did they go?"
"That way… I think?"
– Harry –
Another half hour of wandering Rome blindly, casting our supernatural senses out into every shadowed side street and sun-bleached piazza we passed, and Rossweisse and I had come up with absolutely nothing.
"I should be able to sense them," she muttered for the third time, her brow furrowed beneath the brim of her beret. "Both Tobio and Lavinia carry Longinus-class Sacred Gears. The power output on those is enormous. Even at suppression, even sealed away, the bleed-off should register at least faintly."
Brilliant. So either they're not actually in Rome, in which case Azazel sent us on a fishing expedition without a map, or someone's wrapped them up tight enough to muffle two Longinus signatures.
I voiced the second half of that thought out loud.
Rossweisse nodded grimly. "It's the only explanation that fits. Whoever has them placed them inside powerful holy barriers. Suppressive ones. Probably layered, probably consecrated, probably ancient." She rubbed at her temple as we walked. "Which is what we've been scanning for. Holy barriers strong enough to mask two Longinus signatures. The problem is..."
She didn't have to finish.
"The problem is we're in the Vatican," I said. "And every third building has a holy barrier around it. Half the bloody streetlamps probably have a minor blessing on them."
"Quite." She sighed. "I've covered roughly a quarter of the city with my senses so far. Cathedrals. Convents. Private chapels. A reliquary museum that gave me a headache just walking past. There are dozens of viable sites where they could be hidden, and I would need to physically scan each one at close range to rule any of them out. We don't have that kind of time."
"Have you got any other ideas?"
She bit her lower lip and shook her head. Her green eyes had gone faintly damp around the edges, the way they did when she was frustrated with herself, and her shoulders had taken on the apologetic slump of a woman who hated failing at her job. "All we can really do is keep searching, Harry. And hope for a miracle."
Yeah, I'm sure a devil and a pagan warrior angel are going to get a miracle in the middle of Rome… I thought sarcastically.
I opened my mouth to say something supportive. Something about how we still had the whole weekend, and how we'd cover more ground tomorrow, and how between the two of us we'd find some thread to pull on.
"Bark! Bark!"
I blinked. The sound had come from somewhere very close to my left foot. I glanced down and found myself looking directly into a pair of enormous, bright, intelligent black eyes set into the small, fuzzy face of a pitch-black puppy.
It was sitting bolt upright on the cobblestones, plumed tail curled neatly around its paws, head tilted up at me with the kind of expectant patience that suggested it had been there for some time and was wondering when, exactly, I planned to acknowledge its presence. Its little pink tongue was out. One ear stood up. The other flopped.
It was, without exaggeration, one of the cutest fucking things I had ever seen. It was also directly in the path my next step would have taken. Another half-second and I'd have stepped right on its tail.
"Oh, hey there." I crouched down on the warm stones and grinned at it. "Sorry, little guy. Didn't see you down there."
The puppy let out a soft, pleased yip and butted its small black head against my outstretched hand.
I scratched it between the ears. Its fur was soft and surprisingly cool to the touch, and it leaned into my fingers with an enthusiasm that suggested I had just become its favorite person in Rome. Its tail thumped against the cobblestones in steady, joyful beats.
"You get lost, buddy? Hm? Where's your owner?" I rubbed under its chin. The puppy's eyes squeezed shut in bliss. "You're a cute little guy, aren't you? Yes you are. Yes you are. Look at you. Look at this face."
I always liked dogs, except for Aunt Marge's dogs. That woman should have been in jail for animal abuse and training her dogs to be vicious assholes.
Above me, Rossweisse cleared her throat. It was a very particular kind of throat-clearing. The kind that suggested she was about to say something delicate and was bracing for my reaction. "Harry."
"Mm?" I scratched the puppy's chin again. Its back leg started doing that involuntary kick.
"That's…um—"
"Mm?"
"Um, that dog you are currently petting—"
"This very good boy, isn't he?"
"I suppose—he is a very good boy," Rossweisse said carefully, "and he is also a Longinus-class Sacred Gear."
My hand froze mid-scratch. The puppy opened one eye, gave me a look of clear and personal betrayal at the interruption, and butted its head pointedly back against my palm.
I stared at it. It stared at me.
"This is Canis Lykaon," Rossweisse said, in the voice of a woman who had been trained from childhood to deliver impossible information in a calm, professional tone. "The Black Dog of the Underworld. One of the thirteen Longinus. It manifests as that puppy when sealed, and as a beast capable of devouring divine beings when released." A pause. "Tobio's partner."
I looked back down at the puppy. The puppy gave me another yip, butted my hand a third time with greater insistence, and demanded resumption of services.
I resumed scratching on autopilot. "So," I said slowly. "We found the dog."
Roseweisse nodded and half smiled. "We found the dog… Without Tobio..."
Rossweisse crouched down beside me. The puppy's tail thumped a greeting at her too, but its body stayed firmly leaned against my shin, as if it had picked me and was sticking with the decision. Up close, I could see now what I'd missed before. There was a faint, almost-invisible shimmer around its small body, like a banked heat that didn't belong to anything in the natural world. A power so dense and so well-controlled that it barely registered until you knew to look for it.
Bloody hell. I just rubbed the belly of a Sacred Gear that can eat gods.
"Which means," Rossweisse said quietly, "that Tobio either sent Canis to us deliberately, or Canis escaped on its own to find help."
Shit. I sighed. "And in either case..."
"In either case, Tobio is somewhere in this city, and he is in trouble." She looked down at the puppy, her expression softening. Her finger came up under its chin, very gently. "Hello, sweet one. Where is your boy?"
The puppy's tail stopped wagging. It looked up at Rossweisse with those huge, intelligent black eyes, and a small, mournful whine escaped from somewhere deep in its small chest. The shimmer around it pulsed once, like a heartbeat, and I felt the air thin around us in a way that had nothing to do with Roman weather.
Then it turned, took three steps away from us down the side street, and looked back over its shoulder.
It very clearly wanted us to follow.
I straightened up slowly.
Rossweisse did the same beside me. Her hand brushed mine, and this time she didn't take it back. "Well," she said softly. "There's our miracle."
I looked down at the puppy, who was now sitting patiently at the next corner with one paw lifted, waiting. "Yeah," I said. "I suppose it is."
– Lilja –
"Fuck…"
Lilja blinked.
Beside her, Serafall blinked.
The two of them went very, very still on the rooftop they were currently crouched on, three buildings down and one story up from where Harry was now following a small black puppy down a narrow side street.
That curse had not come from either of them.
Slowly, in perfect synchronization, Lilja and Serafall turned their heads.
Gabriel was standing behind them in her form-fitting nun's habit, with her white-gloved hands clasped tightly together in front of her, and her cheeks were the exact color of a ripe tomato. Her enormous baby-blue eyes were locked on the puppy in the distance.
Lilja openly gaped at her.
Did she. Did she just— That word should not be physically capable of coming out of that face.
"Gaaaaaaaaaaabrieeeeeeeeeeeel," Serafall purred, drawing the name out like a cat working over a piece of yarn. The smile spreading across her face was the most dangerous one in her repertoire. "Did you just fucking swear?"
Gabriel's eyes went huge. "I did not!"
"Oh, sweetheart. Oh, Gabe-tan, my nemesis." Serafall pressed both gloved hands against her own cheeks in theatrical wonder. "Am I the first person in the history of creation to hear the most innocent archangel in Heaven say a bad word? Is this real? Am I about to be the first witness to a divine miracle?"
"I did not say a bad word, Serafall!"
"Hehe! You said the eff word."
"I did not."
"You said it like a sailor on shore leave."
"I did not!" Gabriel's face had gone past tomato and was approaching some shade Lilja didn't have a name for. The archangel fidgeted in place, her fingers tugging at the starched white collar of her absurdly form-fitting habit, then at the hem, then at her own sleeve, like she didn't know what to do with her hands now that they had committed a transgression.
"There are only three women here currently," Serafall continued, ticking them off on her fingers with naked glee, "and it wasn't me. And it wasn't Lilja. So that just leaves... let me see... let me do the math..."
"Stop counting on your fingers!"Gabriel finally gave up and pouted.
Lilja had to physically look away.She cleared her throat. "Ahem." Neither woman looked at her. "AHEM."
Serafall was leaning in close to Gabriel's burning face. "Say it again."
"I will not."
"Just once?"
"No."
"For science?"
"For Father's sake, Serafall, stop."
"For me?"
"No."
"AHEM," Lilja said, loud enough this time that a pigeon on the next gable startled and took flight. Both of the other supernatural beings on either side of her finally turned to look at her. "We need to keep following Harry and my sister. It looks like they found Tobio Ikuse's Sacred Gear, which means the Slash Dog team is in Rome after all."
Serafall's whole face lit up. "Which means," she said slowly, her grin sharpening to a wicked point as she swung back around to face Gabriel, "I am going to be the one winning the bet. And I am going to be right, after all, that the evil angels in your church abducted the Slash Dog team." She struck a little victory pose.
Gabriel's whole posture wilted. "It might not be us," Gabriel mumbled at the rooftop tiles.
Lilja pinched the bridge of her nose very hard, took a slow steady breath, and reminded herself that her king was three city blocks away, walking behind a Longinus Sacred Gear shaped like a puppy, with only her overworked older sister to keep him from doing something stupid. "If you two don't hurry up," she said in her flattest tone, "we're going to lose them again. And it took us twenty minutes to catch up the first time." "Right!" Serafall straightened, all business in an instant. "Mission focus time! Gabe-tan, we are continuing this conversation later, and you are saying it for me on camera. I guarantee an episode with you swearing will break all TV records!"
"I am absolutely not!" Gabriel called out, but Serafall was already sprinting along the rooftop in a flutter of pink frills.
Lilja exhaled, looked once at Gabriel, who was standing there looking small and pink-cheeked and faintly betrayed by her own vocabulary, and then took off after her sister-in-law-slash-mother-in-law-slash-king's-mother in a controlled vault from one tiled roof to the next.
The Archangel followed after them, her nun outfit vanishing in motes of very bright white light that covered everything like a camera flash.
Lilja had to squint against the holy radiance as Gabriel's true form manifested. A flowing white dress appeared on Gabriel's perfect body, the fabric clinging to her curves in a way that should have been modest but somehow wasn't. Twelve beautiful white wings burst from her back in a cascade of feathers and divine light, spreading wide enough to block out the sun.
Show off.
Lilja and Serafall released their devil wings as well. Lilja's midnight black wings unfurled from her back with familiar weight, while Serafall's demonic wings erupted in a shower of pink sparkles because of course they did.
The three of them launched into the sky above Rome, soaring over ancient rooftops and bell towers.
Hehe, devils flying over the city. What a clusterfuck this would be politically, Lilja thought, grinning despite herself. The Pope is probably having a stroke right now if any of the Church's detection wards are working.
She could hear sounds of fighting toward the outskirts of the city, exactly where Harry and Rossweisse had been following the black dog. Explosions. The crackling of magic. A distinctly canine howl that sounded far too large to come from a puppy.
Lilja, Serafall, and Gabriel all landed on another rooftop, crouching low behind a stone parapet. They were ready to intervene if needed, but for now they just watched.
Lilja was surprised when she sensed multiple sources of demonic power coming from a run-down looking church below. Not holy energy. Not the righteous burning fury of exorcists wielding blessed weapons.
Devils. Those are devils down there.
There was an explosion as part of the church's wall blasted outward in a shower of stone and dust. Through the opening, Lilja could see Harry and Rossweisse currently battling devils, not exorcists like she would have expected.
Rossweisse had summoned at least twenty spell circles that spun around her like a silver storm, firing bolts of compressed magic that punched through devil bodies.
Harry was in the thick of it, his water blade singing through the air as he carved through enemies with brutal efficiency.
Gabriel suddenly had a smug look on her face. She narrowed her blue eyes at a very nervous-looking Serafall. "Well, well, well..."
The magical girl Maou saw her son Harry fighting against devils and sighed heavily. "Fuck..."
"Language," Gabriel said primly, though her smug expression didn't fade.
Lilja sighed. "At least Harry and Rossweisse are kicking ass down there. And that little black dog is scary. Look at him dicing up his enemies…" The pitch-black puppy had grown to the size of a small horse and was currently tearing the throat out of a devil who had tried to attack Harry from behind. The divine beast shook its prey like a chew toy before tossing the corpse aside.
"It looks like the Church is innocent," Gabriel said smugly to Serafall. "And I win the bet."
"Fuck…" Serafall eloquently said again.
Suddenly, one of the devils below shouted loud enough for even the people on the rooftop to hear. "We're losing! Tell those priests to send us backup!"
Gabriel's face immediately fell, her smug expression crumbling into shock. "What?"
Serafall pointed at Gabriel. "Hah!"
Lilja couldn't help herself. "...Does that mean you both technically win the bet?"
Serafall and Gabriel turned to look at her simultaneously, their expressions nearly identical masks of indignation.
"What!? No! That's not how it works!" Serafall whined, stomping her foot on the rooftop hard enough to crack the tiles.
"Regardless of whether some of our priests have betrayed us," Gabriel said stiffly, her wings rustling with agitation, "those are still YOUR devils down there. Which means I didn't lose either." She pointed at Serafall with shocking aggression for someone so angelic. "That means you have to follow through with your end of the bet if I have to follow through with mine. I will appear on your show, AND you will also lend me your son Harry…"
"That's stupid though!" Serafall's voice had gone up about three octaves into full whine territory. "I only agreed to your stupid request because I was 100% sure I wouldn't lose!"
What does Gabriel need Harry for?
Lilja felt a spike of nervousness. She kept her eyes on Harry and Rossweisse below. The backup from the Church hadn't arrived yet to attack them. Rossweisse had just flash-frozen three devils solid and Harry shattered them with a pressurized water lance that punched clean through all three bodies.
"Lady Gabriel," Lilja said carefully, "what do you need Harry for anyway?"
"I bet she just wants to steal him from me!" Serafall pointed her finger dramatically at Gabriel. "I knew he was too handsome! We made a kid that's too irresistible, even to a lonely virgin like Gabe-chan!"
Gabriel's perfect face turned scarlet. Her twelve wings fluttered in distress and her hands came up to cover her burning cheeks. "I—that's not—you can't just say—"
Lilja stared at the Archangel. Gabriel took several long seconds to compose herself, visibly wrestling her embarrassment back under control. When she finally dropped her hands, her face was still pink but her expression had firmed into something more resolute.
"I need to borrow Harry for a peaceful diplomatic mission," Gabriel said stiffly.
"That's the vaguest thing I've ever heard," Lilja said flatly. "Who? Where? For how long? And why my King specifically?"
Gabriel bit her lip. "I promise on Father's name that no harm will come to him," she added, glancing at Lilja. "And if he helps me, I will also pay off the other favor he owes to Odin in his stead…"
– Tobio –
Tobio's captured friends were shouting and cursing angrily at Valper Galilei from their cages along the wall. Lavinia's normally gentle voice had gone sharp with fury as she spat insults at the bastard in Italian. Natsume's cat ears were pinned flat against her skull as she hissed and rattled the bars. Even Sae, usually so composed, was screaming threats about what she'd do to him when she got free.
If. If we get free…
Valper stood in front of Tobio with that same disgusting smile he'd been wearing for hours. The old man was working with turncoat priests, Fallen Angels, and even devils. All of them gave Tobio serious bad guy vibes. The kind of people who'd sell out their own mothers for power or money or whatever twisted shit motivated them.
Tobio was covered in blood and bruises from the beating two priests had given him on Valper's behalf about an hour ago. His left eye was swollen nearly shut. His ribs screamed with every breath. Pretty sure at least three of them were cracked. Blood crusted under his nose and in the corner of his mouth, copper-tasting and disgusting.
But I haven't said shit. Not a damn word.
Valper had been trying and failing for hours to get information out of Tobio about Azazel, Sacred Gears, research locations, contacts, safe houses. A bunch of other stuff Tobio could barely remember through the haze of his concussion. Every question had been met with silence or sarcasm, depending on how much energy Tobio had at the moment.
"You will talk," Valper hissed, leaning down close enough that Tobio could smell his rancid breath. "Or I will kill you and your friends, you damn foreigner brat."
Tobio just smirked, even though it made his split lip crack open and bleed fresh. His dog had secretly snuck away a while ago when nobody was looking. Jin knew the plan. Get help. Find someone. Anyone.
Help should get here soon. Right? I hope so. Please let Jin have found someone.
"Go fuck yourself," Tobio said, his voice rough and cracked.
Valper's face twisted with rage. He straightened up, turning away, his hands clenching into fists. "Fuck! This is a waste of time! Everything has gone wrong since Kokabiel died!" He spun toward the group of devils and priests standing near the door. "We should just kill them all and extract their Sacred Gears and get out of here! Hiding in Rome was good cover, but staying any longer will be risky!"
Oh shit. He's serious. He's actually going to do it.
Tobio's heart hammered against his broken ribs. Lavinia screamed from her cage. Natsume threw herself against the bars hard enough to rattle the entire structure.
Suddenly there were explosions. Loud ones. Close. The sound of fighting and dying devils outside filtered through the walls. Screams. The crackling of magic. A distinctly canine howl that made Tobio's chest swell with hope.
Jin. That's my boy.
Valper and the priests looked very nervous, their heads snapping toward the door. One of the devils called desperately for backup, his voice high with panic.
A minute later, the door was blown completely off its hinges. Wood exploded inward in a shower of splinters. The heavy oak door sailed across the room and embedded itself in the far wall with enough force to crack stone.
A guy with black hair and startling blue eyes strode inside next to Jin, who had returned to his smaller puppy form. The newcomer looked young, maybe Tobio's age or a bit younger, wearing casual clothes now splattered with blood that clearly wasn't his. He carried himself with easy confidence, a blade made of impossibly pressurized water spinning lazily in one hand.
Holy shit. That's devil magic. But his aura feels... different. Not pure devil. Something else mixed in.
"Did someone lose their doggo?" the guy asked, his voice light and amused despite the absolute carnage visible through the destroyed doorway behind him.
Jin barked happily and his tail wagged so hard his entire back end wiggled.
Tobio couldn't help it. Despite everything, despite the pain and exhaustion and fear, he started laughing. It hurt like hell, sent sharp agony through his ribs, but he couldn't stop.
– Harry –
I glanced around the room, taking stock of the situation. A group of teenagers, beaten and bloody, were locked in metal cages along the far wall. Most looked barely conscious. One girl with cat ears was hissing and spitting despite her injuries. A guy with dark hair and multiple stab wounds was trying to heal himself with shaking hands.
Then I had to do a double take at an older blonde woman in the center cage.
Holy fuck, she's gorgeous.
That had to be Lavinia. Long blonde-white hair that fell past her shoulders in soft waves. A face that belonged on magazine covers. A body that would make angels weep and devils sin harder. Even beaten and imprisoned, she was stunning. Her hopeful eyes locked onto mine with desperate hope.
No wonder Azazel told me I'd know her when I saw her. Jesus Christ—Ow.
"It doesn't matter if your mother is a Satan!" a fat priest with a red face started shouting angrily at me, spittle flying from his lips. "You will still die for your arrogance! Attacking priests in Heaven's territory! I'm sure exorcists are already on their way!"
The hostages I'd come to save all looked nervous.
"No one will be coming to aid a monster like you, Valper," a beautiful voice called out from the doorway.
I turned and saw my mother Serafall, my Queen Lilja, and a gorgeous Archangel with twelve white wings enter after Rossweisse who was right behind me.
Serafall was in her full Magical Girl Levia-tan costume, somehow looking both ridiculous and terrifying. Lilja wore her Valkyrie armor and had her rapier drawn. And the Archangel...
That's Gabriel. That's one of the original Seraphs. What the actual fuck?
Rossweisse frowned at the new arrivals.
Lilja gave me an awkward look that clearly said "I'm sorry, I tried to stop her."
I sighed, not surprised at all. Of course my mother had followed me. And I was sure she was the one who'd roped Lilja into it as well.
Can't do anything without adult supervision, apparently.
Serafall caught my expression and pouted dramatically. "Mou! Harry-kun! You're not supposed to figure it out so easily! I was being sneaky!"
"You're never sneaky, Mum," I said flatly.
The Archangel Gabriel walked gracefully into the room, her white dress flowing around her perfect form, her twelve wings rustling softly. She paused next to Jin, who had padded over to greet her, and gave the divine black dog a nice pet between his ears. Jin's tail wagged happily.
"Good boy," she said softly. "Such a brave puppy for finding help."
Then she straightened and turned her beautiful but furious glare at the obviously evil priests. Her blue eyes blazed with righteous anger, and holy light began to radiate from her body in waves that made Valper and his followers stumble back.
"You have betrayed your vows," Gabriel said, her voice still gentle but carrying absolute authority. "You have tortured the innocent. You have conspired with devils and Fallen Angels. You have brought shame to the Church and to Heaven itself! I will handle your punishment myself!"
…A couple minutes later, I was waiting outside the ruined church with Serafall, Lilja, and Rossweisse. Gabriel had stayed inside to personally oversee the arrests and 'deal with' the corrupt priests. The sounds of holy magic crackling and men screaming filtered through the broken doorway.
Yeah, I don't need to watch that.
Lilja was pouting at Rossweisse, who I noticed was standing much closer to me than strictly necessary. Close enough that our shoulders were nearly touching. Close enough that I could smell that winter-and-flowers scent she had.
Why is Lilja mad at her own sister? What did I miss?
I looked at my mum, who was leaning against a chunk of rubble and examining her nails like she hadn't just helped slaughter a small army. "You couldn't stay away, huh?"
Serafall gave me a deadpan expression that could have cut steel. "You're lucky I didn't stay away. Do you have any idea how stupid it was to accept Azazel's mission like that? And without contacting me first about going to Rome?" Her voice rose with each word. "ROME, Harry! Vatican City! The heart of the Church! Where they have literal God-blessed wards that can detect devils!"
I sighed, knowing she was right. "Yeah. It was dumb."
Really dumb. Monumentally dumb. Could have gotten killed dumb.
"He obviously got his recklessness from one of his parents," Lilja muttered, her green eyes still fixed on Rossweisse. "And it certainly wasn't me."
"Harry was never in danger." Rossweisse's voice was firm, defensive. "I'd lay down my life to protect him."
The words hung in the air for a long moment.
Lilja gaped at her sister, her mouth actually falling open. I felt heat rising to my cheeks despite myself. Those were some serious words. The kind of words you didn't just say casually.
Serafall just had a shit-eating grin spreading across her face. "Not bad, Rossweisse-chan! I permit you to join Harry's peerage! You'll make an excellent Bishop for him!"
"I already have a job," Rossweisse pointed out, though her voice wavered slightly.
"Both my Bishop spots are full anyway," I added quickly. "Hermione and Narcissa."
Serafall waved her hand dismissively. "That's okay! You can just make Narcissa into one of your Pawns instead. She was never really much of a fighter in the first place, and you might have rushed into making her a Bishop without thinking it through properly."
I blinked. "Wait. That's possible? You can switch a servant's Evil Pieces?"
I didn't know that was a thing.
Serafall winked at me. "It's a secret! I can show you how. There's a ritual involved, and some paperwork, but it's totally doable."
"That doesn't matter because Rossweisse still isn't joining my peerage," I said, looking at the silver-haired Valkyrie. "Because she doesn't want to."
"I never said that," Rossweisse cut in immediately.
Everyone blinked at her. Even Serafall's grin faltered for half a second.
Rossweisse's face turned bright red, her pale cheeks blooming scarlet. She sputtered, her hands coming up to fidget with the edge of her armor. "I... never mind! I have a lot to think about first! A lot of things!" She exchanged a long, meaningful glance with Lilja.
What the hell is happening right now?
Lilja's expression softened completely, the anger draining out of her. "I'd love to have my big sister back in my life again," she said quietly. "Really back. Not just occasional visits when Odin gives you a day off."
Rossweisse's eyes went glassy, like she might actually start crying. "Lilja..."
"We could train together," Lilja continued. "Spar. Go shopping. You could meet Harry's entire peerage properly. Asia would love you. Hermione would probably interrogate you about Asgardian magic theory for six hours straight, but in a good way."
Oh. Oh, I get it now. Lilja wants her sister to join so they can be together again. And Rossweisse is lonely and overworked and actually considering it.
"Plus," Serafall added with a wicked grin, "you'd get to quit working for that cheapskate Odin who doesn't even pay you overtime."
"He really doesn't," Rossweisse admitted miserably…
Gabriel walked out of the rundown church with the whole Slash Dog team trailing behind her. All of them looked completely healed of their wounds. Tobio's face was clear of bruises, the cat girl's injuries were gone, and Lavinia looked pristine despite having been beaten and imprisoned.
Obviously Gabriel healed them all. Archangel perks, I guess.
Jin, the massive divine black dog that had been the size of a horse during the fight, had shrunk back down to adorable puppy form. He ran up to me and barked happily, his tail wagging so hard his entire back end wiggled.
"Hey, buddy," I said, crouching down to scratch behind his ears. "Good job finding us."
Tobio stepped in front of me, his eyes serious. He bowed low, formal and respectful. "Thank you for risking your life as a devil to come rescue my team in Rome. We owe you everything."
He's surprisingly humble for someone who wields a Longinus.
"It was very stupid," Gabriel pointed out, her beautiful face taking on a stern expression. "If any other Archangel besides me or Michael had been patrolling today, Harry and Rossweisse would be dead."
Serafall hissed like an angry cat, her demonic aura flaring around her in visible waves of pink and black energy. "If that happened, I'd have turned Italy into a frozen wasteland."
Holy shit, she's serious. Her eyes have gone cold!
I walked over to her and patted her head gently, trying to calm her down before she actually did something insane. Serafall immediately started making happy "Mmmmnh~" noises, leaning into my touch like a content kitten. Her aura retracted back into her body.
Crisis averted. Head pats solve everything!
"We apologize again," Tobio said quickly, his team bowing behind him. "We would never want the Great War to restart because of us."
Gabriel's expression softened slightly, though annoyance still flickered in her blue eyes. "Why were you even here in the first place? I'm not pleased that Azazel is so brazen he could just keep sending people into my territory without permission."
Tobio straightened up. "We were actually here to find out who Kokabiel's contact in the Church was. And, well... we found him." He gestured back at the church where Valper was presumably still frozen to the floor. "The guy used some kind of chemical weapon and poisoned us all before we could capture him."
Gabriel wasn't exactly happy hearing any of that. Her wings rustled with agitation and holy light flickered around her fingertips. But then she glanced down at Jin, who was still sitting by my feet looking adorable, and her expression softened completely. "Because you have such a cute dog, I'll let you go," she said primly. "And I'll cover all this up. But tell Azazel that next time he sends people into Church territory, I expect him to file the proper paperwork."
"Paperwork is important!" Roseweisse nodded in agreement. Her eyes were shining with the light of a secretary who'd been underappreciated for years…
The Slash Dog team bowed again, relief visible on all their faces.
Then Lavinia turned to me. The stunning blonde-haired woman smiled innocently. "Do you want a kiss? Heroes get kisses from the maidens they save, don't they…?"
I blinked. My brain short-circuited for about three full seconds. Yes. Wait, no. Wait, maybe? Fuck, she's gorgeous. What's the correct answer here?
Before I could even consider responding, Lilja smacked the back of my head. Hard. Then Rossweisse surprisingly smacked my shoulder from the other side. Also hard.
"Ow! What the hell?"
"Absolutely not," Lilja said firmly.
"Completely inappropriate," Rossweisse added, her face was bright red.
They're tag-teaming me already…
I rubbed the back of my head and gave Lavinia an apologetic smile. "Thanks, but I'm fine. Appreciate the offer though…"
Lavinia just giggled and waved as the Slash Dog team departed. Tobio gave me one last grateful nod before they disappeared around the corner.
That left me with Lilja, Rossweisse, Serafall (who was now rubbing herself against my arm), and the Archangel Gabriel.
Gabriel turned her attention to me, her beautiful expression shifting to something more businesslike. "Are you ready to depart?"
I was confused. "Wait, what?"
"Serafall lost a bet against me," Gabriel explained patiently. "That means you have to come with me to meet someone."
Huh?
I glared at Serafall, who was still hugging my arm and pressing her considerable breasts against it. "What did you do, mum?"
She pouted dramatically. "I didn't lose the bet! We tied!"
"A tie means both parties fulfill their obligations," Gabriel said primly. "I'm appearing on your television show as a villain, and you're lending me your son."
Lending? I wasn't really a fan of being loaned out like a party favor. Although, then again, my eyes couldn't help but roam from Gabriel's beautiful face to her absolutely flawless body. You know what, I don't mind being loaned out to her after all.
Lilja pinched my side, obviously knowing what I was thinking…
"It will be perfectly safe," Gabriel continued, apparently not noticing my changed expression and still thinking I would say no. "...And I'll even clear the other favor you owed Odin if you come with me."
I perked up hearing that. Not owing Odin any more favors? That's actually a huge deal. The old bastard could call in that second favor for literally anything. "Okay," I said slowly. "Who are we meeting?"
Gabriel smiled mysteriously. "We're going to meet the Lady of the Lake."
XXX