Dark Union (The Descent Series) by SM Reine Page A

ordinary man, aside from the way the heat didn’t touch him. But she could almost make out the haze of a gray halo behind his head, and it made her queasy.
    She didn’t realize she was backing up until her back hit the trailer. It took all her willpower not to claw at her palms with her fingernails.
    “What do you want?” Elise asked, and she was pleased that her words barely slurred.
    “I’m here for the mediation.”
    “You’re in the wrong place. The summit is in Silver Wells.”
    “The Union is in Silver Wells,” he corrected. “The summit is wherever the ethereal and infernal delegations meet with kopis mediation. We’re only waiting for the infernal delegation now. And look—here he comes.” Nukha’il nodded beyond the trailer.
    Elise glanced around the corner and saw nothing but night.
    Pressure built in her skull. It was the weight of a thousand eyes on her back, like an entire stadium of men watching her. A sudden wind hissed through the sagebrush and sent rocks skittering across the dry ground. Her braid whipped behind her. She squinted, shielding her face from the dust.
    Something heavy thumped against the other side of the mobile home, making the walls rattle. A cat yowled.
    As quickly as it started, everything went silent again.
    The McIntyres’ cat slunk out from under the trailer, sat between Elise and the angel, and curled its tail around its paws. It focused on her. The pupils had devoured the entire eye, making its stare hauntingly black. A halo of dark energy surrounded the cat’s head.
    Dana’s cat had been possessed by a demon. Leticia would be pissed.
    The infernal delegate is present.

    The words slithered up Elise’s spine, and a thousand voices whispered in echo of the first. The cat had been taken by one demon, but the entire infernal delegation was in the night surrounding them, giving weight to the shadows.
    “And so am I,” said the angel. “I am Nukha’il, the ethereal delegate. Elise?”
    They were both waiting for her to complete the triad. There were formalities to that kind of thing—a ritual. She had read about previous summits in James’s books, but she never expected to be involved.
    Adrenaline cleared her head of the alcohol’s haze. “The human delegate is here,” she said. “We can start.”
    With that simple statement, the quality of the air changed. The breeze died. The night became silent, almost reverent.
    The infernal delegation put forth a dozen issues for consideration at the summit, said the cat. Its voice was silky and masculine. It struck a chord in Elise, like she should have recognized the speaker. We have so much to discuss.
    Nukha’il turned his cool blue gaze on the cat. “There is only one item worth discussing.”
    Is that so?

    “Don’t waste my time. Angels have no interest in the matters of Hell. You want to discuss territory rights? Expansion?” Nukha’il shook his head. “Tell your children to expand as they like. None of it will matter soon. Not if the quarantine has been broken.”
    If discussions are such a waste of your time, then perhaps I will encourage my children to expand into Heaven. Would that be worthy of your lofty attentions?

    “Please. The Council of Dis would crush them by its own rules.”
    “We don’t need to discuss the gates,” Elise said. “It’s under control. They’re in my territory, and I’m going to protect them.”
    You are human. You are weak.

    “I’m not just any human.”
    “She is the one who is above us all,” Nukha’il agreed.
    Elise paced. Every step made the fog lift from her mind a little more as her fast metabolism burned away the liquor. “So let me do it.”
    “The gates are too dangerous—even for you.” He gave a deferential nod. “We must watch them. Metaraon has mentioned patrolling them personally.”
    Metaraon. He was the second most powerful ethereal being in existence. Elise wanted him around about as much as she wanted to break her other hand.
    She didn’t have