Read Online Entice: An Ignite Novella by Erica Crouch - Free Book Online Page A

doesn’t want this to be a long conversation. If he sits down, he’ll be too engaged. But if he continues standing, he may fall over.
    “We know what Naamah and Botis are planning. Kind of.”
    “Kind of?” And the notebooks unfurls again, ink spreading across more pages.
    “Something about a damn apple,” Azael interjects. “We went to visit our supposed teammates to discuss strategy and they shut us out. Us. As if we were the ones pining to work with them... They should be so lucky.”
    “An apple.” In the state he is in—turning through pages of his notebook so fast I’m sure they’ll rip, his eyes glued to the symbols that scrawl across previously blank pages—the only thing Gus seems to be able to do is repeat segments of our conversation back to us. It’s starting to irritate me.
    “They refuse to work with us,” I go on, “and tried to hide what they were planning when we sat down. But I saw the symbol for apple and some mention of it being forbidden. We’re not really sure what it means, but we’ve decided to do the opposite of whatever they’re doing.”
    “Is this some kind of test?” Azael asks. He runs his hands through his hair and around his neck like he’s trying to strangle himself. I’m worried he’s unraveling under whatever pressure he’s put on this assignment, and we haven’t even truly begun. “Are we pitted against one another? Because, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for competition, but it would’ve been nice to have a warning. Especially from our supposed advisor .”
    “No.” Gus shakes his head. “You all will work as a group. It’s the only path that leads to complete success of all involved—a cohesive attempt to sully the human. Otherwise things will fall apart. It’s not a test.” He looks up, glancing around the room at anything but us. I’m not sure I entirely believe him. “It’s an assignment,” he finally manages. “Failure is not an option.”
    “Never said it was,” Azael spits, clenching his fists until his knuckles drain of their color.
    “I did not mean to imply you did. But it is imperative that you know what’s at stake.”
    “You don’t think I know? That I don’t understand?”
    I watch as rage buffets Azael like the waves of an ocean. It rocks him back and forth, rises and falls. His behavior toward Gus, in response to the topic of Eden, leads me to believe it is more important than I realize. Azael doesn’t know the danger his life is in, but he still sees even the suggestion of failure as a sentence as grave as death. Completing our task in Eden will be my way of proving to Az—to Lucifer—that I’ve committed to my choices. Gus’s words spin through my head again. Failure is not an option.
    “You don’t seem to care.” Gus shrugs, as if it was obvious. “Everything appears to be a joke to you.”
    “Not when it counts.” The words grind out from his clenched jaw.
    Gus nods, scratches at the scruff on his jaw. “According to my briefing on you, you follow orders well enough but don’t seem to have any potential of your own.” He pauses to touch his mouth, as if he’s half confused at what he’s saying and whether he should go on. He does. “Adam, I believe, will fall into temptation. It is bound to happen sooner or later. Sooner is preferred, but... He has choice. Unlike you.”
    I push myself to the head of my bed, into the very corner of the room, and try to listen unnoticed.
    “Your fate is sealed, Azael. I don’t see you ever changing the course of action you take to arrive at your ultimate destiny. Not with how heedlessly you go on. But if you can be involved in the corruption of Adam—in the corruption of man himself—you’ll be remembered, regardless of your ending.”
    “My ending ?”
    “Your path may change, but the destination never will.” Gus’s voice is little more than a whisper, little more than a warning.
    “And what exactly is my ending?”
    Gus raises his eyebrows in surprise.