“I don’t know.”
“I’ve got it. He was just so, so . . . blond. Do you think he colors his hair, or does he have, like, Swedish demon heritage?”
Val rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t think of the word blond? I’m blond.”
“Not at the moment you aren’t, gorgeous.” He nestled closer into her red mane. “But, gee, your hair smells terrific.”
She lifted Reggie off her shoulder and placed him down on the ground. “You’ve just talked yourself out of riding privileges for a while.”
“Oh, come on,” he whined. “It was a compliment!”
She moved toward Nathaniel out of earshot of the rest of the partygoers. He stared at her with annoyance as she hobbled over on her ridiculously high heels.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was quiet.
“Tell you what?”
“About the key, of course.”
She shrugged. “What was I supposed to have told you?”
“The truth.”
“You wanted me to tell you we were looking for the Key to Heaven?”
“Yes.”
Val rolled her eyes. “Look, I know we haven’t been keeping a score card here, Nathaniel, but in case you’ve forgotten, you’re a demon. I didn’t tell you what we were looking for because .
. .” She trailed off as she searched for the right words.
He crossed his arms. “Because you don’t trust me.”
She nodded. “Precisely.”
“I see. And the fact that your power over me keeps me from being able to lie to you—that wasn’t a consideration in letting me know what we were up against?”
“I don’t know how far that power goes. Or how long it will last. I couldn’t take the risk that you’d try to take the key for yourself.”
He nodded, jaw clenched. “And now you are willing to throw yourself shamelessly at that self-obsessed asshole in order to get what you’re after.”
“If I have to. Yes.”
“You’re a fool.”
Val crossed her arms and felt her face begin to flush again. Only this time it wasn’t from embrassment, it was from anger. “I don’t need to explain myself to you. I’m doing what I have to do for Barlow, okay? A good friend of mine who is also a fallen angel. He’s dying, just like Julian said. I need to use the key to send him back to Heaven before it’s too late. And even aside from that, I need the key back so Julian doesn’t have a chance to use it. The damage he’d do by gaining access to Heaven will destroy everything. Like, we’re talking major high-budget universal damage.”
He looked away, toward the sparkling swimming pool surrounded by the Mayor’s beautiful guests. “Finished?”
“Not even slightly. But on this subject I am.” She leaned against the palm tree, feeling slightly exhausted from her speech.
“And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“Will you use the key for yourself? Send yourself back to Heaven?”
She paused. “Probably.”
Nathaniel scoffed at her. “‘Probably’, she says. You know you will.”
“That’s really none of your business.”
“You are my business, remember? If you succeed at going back to Heaven . . . I fail.”
She felt a chill at the thought. “I can’t help you there. That’s just the way it is.”
“So you’re going to all of this trouble to save the world like some comic book heroine. Save your friend. And then maybe, just maybe—if there’s time—save yourself.”
“That’s right.”
“That’s so selfless of you.”
She stared at him for a moment, not liking his sarcastic tone. “I guess it is.”
He laughed and shook his head. “You’re fooling yourself. None of the other stuff matters to you. You’re getting the key for yourself and only yourself. So you can go back. Just like the so-called good deeds you tried to do in Niagara Falls these last couple of months. You think you were doing them because you were trying to help the greater good? No. You were doing it to earn your heavenly Brownie points so they’d forgive you and take you back. Face it, angel, you’re just as selfish as the rest of us. And just as big a liar.”
She narrowed her eyes. “How dare you say that to me!”
“Because it’s all true. You’ve been selfish in this whole thing just so you come out the winner. Even if your idea of winning is to go back up to your safe little predictable cloud and get back to your easy, perfect existence, doing whatever it is you did up there. No risk, no excitement, no rush. Just same old, same old. You have been given the chance to do something different for a while as a human, but you’re too damned scared to embrace it.” He turned away from her.
She grabbed his arm to make him look at her. “I’m too scared to embrace being a human?
You’re . . .” She glared at him. “You’re too scared to embrace a human.”
He shook his head incredulously. “What are you babbling about now?”
“Earlier, remember? You pushed me away? I get that it’s against the rules. That you can’t get too close to one of your assignments. I figured that out all by myself, even without Lloyd’s help. So don’t talk to me about being scared when you’re obviously the one who’s petrified.”
He glared back at her, his eyes stormy gray. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Val felt so frustrated, she couldn’t help what came out of her mouth next. “What is this?”
“What?”
She bit her bottom lip before continuing. “Are you just playing games with me—is all of this just to make me feel something for you so you can use it against me to save yourself and your job? Or does this mean something to you?”