“Seriously?” Moloch asked.
“Let’s hear him out,” Sandranella said. When Moloch glared at her, she shrugged an elegant shoulder. “You can always behead him after.”
Astaroth shot her a grateful look. “Moloch,” he said, turning to face the demon. “Just to confirm, you support pureblood demons only, right? You don’t believe any other species have a place here?”
“Other species are weak,” Moloch said. “By allowing them access to our plane, we invite that weakness in.”
“And fornicating with them is out of the question, of course.” He projected his voice to reach as many ears as possible.
“Obviously.” Moloch nudged Calladia’s leg with the toe of his boot. “But of course you have no qualms about associating with filth.”
Astaroth nearly tackled the demon right then and there. He took a deep breath. “Then would you care to explain why you’ve been skimming from the high council’s gold reserves to pay your elven mistress?”
Silence fell. Moloch’s eyes widened.
One heartbeat passed, another . . .
Then everyone started talking and shouting at once. Hybrids screamed accusations from the crowd while council members turned on each other, bickering about what was true and who knew what.
“Silence,” Baphomet shouted. “Enough of this nonsense. Either kill the mortals or die yourself, Astaroth.”
The other council members looked uneasy though. Murmurs passed down the line, and Sandranella stepped forward. “Tell us more, Astaroth.”
“Gladly,” he said, feeling a burst of spiteful glee. Astaroth had been hiring investigators to tail Moloch since their rivalry had begun, but it wasn’t until he’d discovered Moloch had a secret off-plane bank account that he’d thought to engage human hackers to infiltrate the demon’s online accounts. Humans were always more resourceful than others gave them credit for. “He’s been carrying on an affair with an elven woman for the last fifteen years. He built her a mansion on Earth in a place called Miami, as well as several more on various planes.”
“You don’t know that,” Moloch gritted out between clenched teeth.
“Remember when we were on the brink of creating an alliance with the dwarves?” Astaroth asked the rest of the council. “They were facing a gold shortage, and we had gold to spare, so we proposed financing some urgent infrastructure upgrades in exchange for more favorable tariffs on imports and exports between planes.” Demons operated on the barter system for the most part, but they did hoard various currencies to hold their own with capitalist species.
“I remember,” Sandranella said. “Baphomet changed his mind on the morning of the vote.”
“I concluded the terms weren’t beneficial enough for us,” Baphomet said, looking uneasy.
Astaroth had believed him at the time. Even knowing Moloch’s perfidy, he’d assumed Baphomet had noticed their own gold shortage and covered it up while investigating. He’d never believed the incorruptible Baphomet had finally been corrupted.
“The gold we were going to offer went missing,” Astaroth said. “Moloch funneled it away, and Baphomet covered up the loss.”
Baphomet’s glare was murderous. “These accusations are treason.”
“How is it treason?” Sandranella asked.
“I am the head of the council!” Spittle flew from the demon’s mouth.
“The high council is more than just you,” Sandranella said. “That you believe yourself to speak for all of us, no matter what, and that you see any accusations against you as treason, is proof you are no longer fit for the position.”
That sent the other council members into an uproar. They shouted and pointed fingers, each faction accusing the other of corruption and lies.
“This is the problem,” Astaroth shouted over the din. “We are no longer a council comprised of multiple viewpoints, and we’ve been prioritizing our own power ahead of the well-being of the plane. We have effectively adopted a two-party system, which anyone on Earth can tell you is a recipe for disaster.”
Moloch’s fingers flexed on the hilt of his sword. “You have no proof to back up these spurious accusations.”
Except Astaroth did have proof: written journals locked in his den, scans saved to an external hard drive in his London flat. The hackers had more records. And if Moloch stealing from the demon plane to pay his nondemon mistress wasn’t enough to sway the council against him, this next piece ought to do it.