Chapter Eight
Although she could've just tried to lean forward and invite Emily over, it seemed more polite to go over from their box to her box next door, as if they were keeping a formal meeting appointment, which they were. Just as Veronica was about to knock on the door to the suite, it opened and a familiar face met them with a scowl.
"Well, if it isn't the prodigal daughter," Sandalphon said to them. The angel was dressed in a business suit a shade of white bordering on vanilla, the barest hints of yellow toning the fabric. It certainly looked expensive. Her hair was done up in a bun with a pair of chopsticks sticking through it, a little blend of eastern tradition to go with her Asian appearance, contrasting to the very strictly Western cut of suit, the front of which did little to conceal the angel's ample bosom. Underneath one arm, she had a closed leather portfolio, several papers in the middle of it obscured from view. "You're a little late on this one, darling, because I'm afraid your chances of success have dropped precipitously since I was allowed to make my presentation first."
"You've got quite the stones on you, little angel," Tabitha said with a wicked smirk. "Still feeling chafed by your time amid the first for your little transgression? Perhaps the fire singed your wings in a way you aren't accustomed to? They scorch off more than a few feathers?"
Sandalphon shot her a look that could wither away a thousand dreams, her brow furrowing in clear annoyance. And yet, for as intense as the glare was at first, it withered and died on the vine, leaving only regret in its wake. "All I am seeking is a fair game, Daughter of Lucifer, and you should be seeking the same."
"I am," Tabitha replied. "Which is why I held your feet to the fire when you broke them."
"
Broke
them?" Sandalphon scoffed. "I did little more than give them a slight
bend
at the very worst. An inconvenience. A trifle of trouble, at the very worst, and even then, extreme dramatics have been deployed. To call such a minor thing a break would-"
"Would be
exactly
what the arbitrators have decided," Tabitha said, shaking her head. This was the sort of thing she'd excelled at in school - finding the holes in someone's arguments, rifling through them and then widening them up so much that all the light came in. "Look, I get that you're doing your job and your job is be the opposition-"
"Don't
tell
me what my job is, little princess-"
"But all
I
am asking for is a fair game, a chance to prove what I am capable of, to stand or fall on my own. One set of rules that we both abide by. That's what the accords are there for; that's what the
arbitrators
are there for. We're not playing for the same team, but let's just both agree to abide by the rules of the game, and maybe we can set the animosity aside."
Sandalphon looked at Tabitha with a curious expression for a moment, considering the statement before the appearance of hostility faded again from her visage, leaving something far more complicated behind instead. "Alright, little devil. I will agree to your terms as long as you abide by them yourself."
Tabitha smiled a little bit, as if there had been a little bit of weight lifted from her shoulders. "I am nothing if not a servant of the law." She even offered a little mock bow.
"In the spirit of your peace offering, then, let me extend you something in kind," the angel said, immediately making Tabitha slightly nervous again. Kindness from the enemy should always be looked upon with cautious and suspicion, she thought, and realized it was the kind of lesson her mother would likely approve of. "You may find this Nephilim you are going to speak to now has been disinclined to believe you. There is a specter of impropriety I did not introduce. I assure you that wherever these seeds of malice have come from, they are not from my hand."
"Where are they from?"
"We're not the only players with stakes in this game," Sandalphon said, looking around, as if she expected to see adversaries appearing at any moment. "There are several personages on both sides of the equation would love to see you win, see you fail, or just generally cause trouble for everyone involved in the process. Keep your eyes and ears open and perhaps you will prove to be your mother's daughter after all, for better or worse. It is not my place to judge."
The angel moved past the two of them, and for a second, Tabitha glanced at the angel's back, noting how bulky and thick the suit was along the back. She couldn't help but wonder if there were actual feathered wings bound down beneath it, and what they might look like should they be opened and extended towards the sky. Tabitha somehow knew it would be both achingly beautiful and yet somehow fear inducing also.
"Do be polite if you happen to bump into Merlin," Tabitha said, wanting to get one last barb in. "He seemed in a particularly prickly mood."
Sandalphon turned back to ask a question, but the person running the Queens of Ragetown luxury box closed the door behind them, cutting her off from being able to follow up on Tabitha's closing statement. There was something fun about that, being able to have the last word when the angel clearly had further questions about what she'd just said. Just because they weren't openly enemies didn't mean Tabitha couldn't get some amusement at the angel's expense.
"So you're the hot shit dragon lady everybody's talking about?" Emily said with a laugh, looking at her across the room. "You seem more smoke than show to me."
It was Tabitha's first chance to get a look at her latest target up close. The girl was certainly as pale as she'd looked at a distance, her skin bordering on albino but obviously just a light shade of pale, which made the blue dye in her hair pop even more contrastingly. But when she got close enough to offer her hand for Emily to shake, Tabitha caught the most surprising thing about the young woman - her eyes were
violet
, not blue but a genuine shade of lavish purple, so perhaps Emily was partially leaning into albinism, or perhaps it was an offshoot of her being a Nephilim.
"And you were supposed to be smarter than the kind of person who makes hip shot judgements about people she hasn't even really spoken to," Tabitha said with a smile, offering her hand. "Tabitha St. Cloud. I understand you're looking for someone to make your money problems go away."