Read Entice: An Ignite Novella for Free Online

at him. “Wanna try explaining why you were rooting around our room?”
    I scan Azael’s side of the room and see that his precise arrangement has been slightly altered. The drawer to his nightstand is maybe an inch ajar, the three vials on the table top angled at forty-five degrees instead of ninety, and the corner of his bed is wrinkled as if someone sat on it. Of course Azael would notice. He’s always compulsively keeping his things just so.
    On my side, however, it is impossible to see what has been touched, opened, moved, or taken. It’s just as messy as I had left it. Toppling towers of parchment, knots of bedsheets... There’s nothing particularly valuable to be stolen from me. At least nothing irreplaceable.
    “You two were late, and I got bored.” He blows air from his lips to shift the hair that has fallen back over his eyes. “Now could we please be civil about this?”
    “Civil.” Azael scoffs. “Don’t know the meaning.”
    “Adjective,” I inform him as I move to pick up the pocket-sized leather notebook just out of reach of Gusion’s fingers. The pinned demon’s eyes widen as I pull it close to me and flip through the first couple of pages. “Courteous and polite. As in, ‘The concept of civil behavior is foreign to Azael because he has never behaved in a courteous or polite manner a moment in his life.’”
    He waves away my definition. “Sounds horrible.”
    The thin pages of the notebook feel like brittle wings between my fingers, but the paper is pulpy and strong. I turn page after page, my eyes dancing over so much ink I’m surprised the entire book isn’t heavy with the weight of its contents. It’s full of illegible scribbles and symbols that layer over one another in a messy knot of ink. I open it and hold it out for Gusion.
    “Gus—mind if I call you Gus?” I raise an eyebrow but don’t wait for an answer. “Want to explain what this says?”
    His eyebrows pull together. “Classified.”
    “We’ll see about that.” I look at the pages again and try to untangle the strange words. Sliding my dagger back through my belt, I turn through a few more pages, tracing the jagged lines of angry letters. “Does this say...” I chew on my lip. “Something about man? ”
    I feel him flinch under me and press my knee into the dip between his ribs harder.
    “And what is this curving symbol? Descent... Or, no, that’s not it. Stolen? Who is Lilith?”
    “Shit,” Azael says, taking his foot off of Gus’s wrist. “You’re him.”
    “Who?” I look up to Az, not yet moving my weight off of the stranger. I want to decode more of his text.
    “Get up, Pen. He’s our handler. He delivers the assignments from Lucifer, monitors us, reports back.”
    “I don’t want to be handled,” I begin, and Azael laughs.
    “I’m not here to handle you—I, you see—” Gus sputters. “I’m an advisor, I predict outcomes, perceive chain reactions before they even begin—” He shakes his head. “I’m here to assist you!”
    Still I don’t move. I flip to another page and vaguely recognize a symbol. “Garden.” I point to the tiny, jagged character with a finger. I think I’ve seen this before.
    “Get off of him, Pen!” Az hauls me to my feet, takes the notebook, and tosses it down onto Gus’s chest.
    “I was reading that,” I protest.
    Gus takes the small book and tucks it into his pocket as he stands up. “What part of classified don’t you understand?”
    “I don’t believe in censorship,” I smirk back at him. “It leads to arrogance, corruption, and secrets. Ask Heaven about it some time.”
    When he stands up, I realize just how tall Gus is. He towers even over Azael and looks down at us both with disdain. Dusting off the back of his dark pants, he crosses in front of me and pulls up a chair from the corner of the room. He sits down, folding his lanky frame awkwardly on the tiny chair.
    “Please sit,” he instructs us.
    Azael sits down on the edge of his bed,