“Azazel wants dominion,” she counters. “Humans were given dominion over the Earth, and they’re doing a spectacularly shitty job of caring for it. But if you swear a blood oath to the League, we can make sure past mistakes are corrected. Before it’s too late.”

“If I still have the same blood,” I answer. Then, “Besides, Azazel is an angel, right? What makes you think some puny little spell is going to make him do your bidding for eternity, anyway?”

“It’s not about ‘doing my bidding.’” Viviane frowns. “He wants a better world—he told me so himself when we met, and he said I had a part to play in it. It’s just…” She flings out a hand, rolling her eyes again. “That was over two hundred years ago. Rasputin claims to have met Azazel in his last incarnation, and to have received some sort of benediction from him or whatever. It’s all bullshit, of course, the guy is not dealing with a full deck. But … I can’t leave anything to chance. The moment the Ascension occurs, I need to be able to look the Corrupter in the eye and know he remembers what he said to me. A blood oath binds people as tightly as family, and I need him to feel that.”

“Rasputin has my family,” I blurt, the words hurting my ears.

Her eyes widen and then close, and she curses. “That son of a bitch. I should have just killed him when I had the chance.”

“He gave me five days to pledge myself to the Northern Wolf.” I’m desperate enough by now that my next statement comes out with no trouble at all. “If you save them before that, I’ll … I’ll swear an oath to the League.”

“I see,” she murmurs, studying me shrewdly. “That could possibly be done. We don’t know where Rasputin’s headquartered himself, so we’d have to do some reconnaissance. We’d have to find out where your parents are, and how they’re being guarded. We’d need manpower … It wouldn’t be an easy operation.” Her jaw shifts minutely. “Take the oath first, and you’ve got a deal.”

Tears blur my vision. “If I take an oath to you, and he finds out—which he totally will, because you said magic is a pond, and ripples and beacons and whatever the fuck else—he’ll kill them!”