Gabe tried to envision the Code as a woman, one that he could negotiate with. What if he approached the Code not as a slave but as an equal concerned about the greater good, a dynamic reality the Code had no way of knowing, due to its own static nature?

"I see it," Gabriel said, frowning. "You're saying a deity must look at the Code as one of many factor instead of the only factor."

"We preserve it and the order of the worlds by any means necessary. If that means we break the Code to save it, then so be it."

"Past-Deidre broke two rules and quit. Are you saying she didn't have to?"

"There was much more to what she did. She broke the rules from the time-before-time, of which there are three: mates, blood, fate. No one can fuck with the bond each of those has to one another. The result of a deity breaking one of the three is basically the destruction of the world. She played the Code the same way she played each of us. We didn't band together to stop her, because she had …dirt on all of us," he explained. "Only the deities can force another deity to resign. No one wanted to cross her."

"Except you."

"You want to know how?" Fate's eyes glittered as he rested his elbows on his thighs. "I revealed her mate to her. You've never seen anyone so angry."

"You told her about me, and she spazzed. Great." Gabe mumbled, infuriated by past-Deidre once more.

"You think I told her the truth?" Fate grinned. "She wanted it to be you. I lied my ass off and told her it was the Dark One. Learn a lesson from your predecessor. Don't fuck with me."

"That was the bet she lost?"

"Yep. Said she knew who her mate was supposed to be. I pulled her Sight, so she couldn't tell I was lying, then asked what she'd wager on it. I lied. I set up the chain of events millennia ago and knew if I could push her enough in one direction, she'd go peacefully over the edge," he said. "She made deals with a few people she shouldn't have to try to outmaneuver a fate that didn't exist, thereby breaking all three - mate-blood-fate - without annihilating the worlds as we know it. She was fucked, though."

"The underworld cracked, and the demons came," Gabriel guessed. "She knew she was done."

"Exactly. I then called in the favor she owed me from the bet I actually lost."

"You made her pay up?" Gabriel asked.

"Damn right I did. At that point, everyone was collecting, or trying to."




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