The secretary’s desk outside Tarkenton’s office was empty, and the principal’s door was closed. Cam straightened the APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION T-shirt he’d picked up at the thrift store, finger-combed his hair, and knocked.
The door swung open.
He stepped in hesitantly, seeing no one.
“Mr. Tarkenton? Sir? You wanted to see me?”
“Arrrrrrrrrgggghhhh!!!” Roland and Arriane jumped out from behind the door and doubled over with laughter. Arriane slammed the door behind Cam and locked it.
“Sir!?! You wanted to see me?” she said in her best Cam voice.
“That is the funniest shit I’ve seen in centuries, sir,” Roland said.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Cam said. “Forgive me for trying to blend in here.”
He found himself hugging Roland, then Arriane. They were the last people he had ever expected to turn up here, but Cam had never been more grateful to see friends.
“You are going for it, man,” Arriane said, wiping her eyes. She’d shaved her head and was dressed all in black. The only color on her was the bright orange fringe of her false eyelashes. “And I love that. But, uh”—she grimaced, glancing at Cam’s midsection—“what’s up with the wheat belly?”
“Lucifer’s idea of fun,” Cam said. “He thought it would be a turnoff, but Lilith can’t even see the difference—at least she couldn’t see it, back when she liked me. I don’t know about now.” He looked at his friends, overwhelmed with emotion. “How did you guys get in here, anyway?”
“Also Lucifer’s idea of fun,” Roland explained. He looked exquisite in a tailored pin-striped suit and a lavender French-cuffed shirt, and he smelled like expensive cologne.
“Right,” Cam said, understanding instantly. “He knows he’s going to lose, so he wants you two to talk me out of going through with the bet.”
“Could be, brother,” Roland said, “but we’re in agreement with him on that.”
“In other words,” said Arriane, “what are you doing, Cam?”
“If I’m not mistaken,” Cam said, “the last time I saw you, you suggested I fix my mistakes. Remember?”
“Not like this!” Arriane shoved Cam. “After Luce and Daniel earned your sorry soul a second chance…I just—I mean—dude.”
Back at Sword & Cross, Arriane and Roland had spoken of Luce and Daniel as if the angelic lovers were a model of love the rest of them should follow. But the way Cam saw things, Luce and Daniel had really only ever cared about each other, and that was fine with Cam. They had never intended to start a revolution.
And yet, somehow, they had. Because of Luce and Daniel’s choice to risk everything for love, Cam was here in Crossroads.
“I’m not seeking advice,” Cam said.
“That hasn’t stopped Arriane yet.” Roland leaned against Tarkenton’s desk. “Why throw your eternal future away on a rigged bet with the devil? And then, when he makes an offer to let you out of that bet, why refuse?”
Cam could see it looked impossible from the outside: fifteen days to get a girl to love him—a girl whose hatred of him had been forged by three thousand years in Hell. But Cam didn’t care what it looked like. In his heart, there was no question that he had to save Lilith. It wasn’t a choice. It was a measure of his love for her.
Arriane took Cam’s shoulders and pushed him into Tarkenton’s leather swivel chair. She balanced the principal’s bronze hog in her palm. “Look, Cam. You’ve always been self-destructive. We get that, and we love you for it, but it’s time to stop playing games with Lucifer.”
“He never loses,” Roland said. “Maybe once in a violet moon.”
“I can’t do it,” Cam said. “Don’t you see? This is how I honor Luce and Daniel’s choice to give up their immortality. I have to save Lilith. It’s the only way I can save myself.” He leaned forward in his chair. “The person I love is being abused. What happened to your sense of duty? The Roland and Arriane I know would never forgive me if I didn’t try to get Lilith out of here.”
“We had a sense of duty when it came to Lucinda’s fate,” Arriane said. “But Lilith is so much less important than Luce. A blip on the radar.”
Cam blinked. “Maybe to you.”
“To everyone,” she said. “That’s why we all spent six thousand years following Luce around. She faced a choice with cosmic implications.”
“Lilith matters, too,” Cam said. “She deserves better than this.”
“Are you at least taking her to prom?” Arriane asked, and sighed. “I’ve always wanted to go to prom.”
“I haven’t asked her yet,” Cam admitted. “The moment hasn’t been right.”
“You are so off your game!” Arriane said. “Maybe Ro and I can help in that department. After all that practice with Luce and Daniel, we’re masterminds of the romantic setting. Think about it?”