“Fuck you,” Joana said.“Use some goddamn free will.Don’t end the world, Michael.”Her heart stuttered, then her gaze flashed to Satan once more as she realized what should have been obvious from the start: “The devil was the one trying to save this world from apocalypse, wasn’t he?”Neither Michael nor Satan replied to that, neither did the archangels.And so — Joana laughed, felt her shoulders rattle with the force of it, as she inched back, blood cold.‘The world is so fucked up.’She wished that Michael hadn’t jumped before her, wished Satan had just ended this all right then.
Carefully, Uriel turned his horse away, and when he gave it a light kick, it began to walk.The sea of angels parted before him, and the humans hurried to follow suit, some taking this moment to begin running, to head where so many humans must be.“All of us will escort Satan,” said Uriel, “then we will return to finish the job.”But he stopped to look up at the stars.“The world will be no more, and the anti-Christ will be cast to the lake of fire.”
‘Tadeo,’ Joana wanted to wail, ‘where are you?Where are you?I have to tell him not to return.They’ll kill him if he returns.’
“Yes, Uriel,” said Michael, and Uriel, then Raphael — who looked back to the chief prince for too long before twisting his face back to follow the angel of wisdom — then Gabriel, who stared at Michael for some moments, as well, before he turned to Uriel.Only then, the chief prince faced Joana once more, reached for his helmet, lowered it over his head.He promised again, “I will return for you.”
Words a tangle in her throat — Joana watched.Michael went to a winged horse, armored but not enough to hide its body the color of blood, and lifted the chained devil on a silver saddle.When an airstrike, down just a few streets, flared the sky in orange, Michael didn’t react, not when the ground rattled nor when humans yelled out in terror.None of the angels said a word at all as the people took one another’s hands, began hurrying away, shouts of fear trailing behind them.Joana’s vision hazed, and she felt her knees knock together.Darkness bloomed over her eyes before some hands came over her, some voices asked what had just occurred; it was Tadeo’s family, his aunt, one of his cousins.But Joana could only painfully choke up in response.
CHAPTER27
Shivering, Tadeo held onto Dante as he lowered his face, furrowed together his brows.The last of his beastly features receded slow with wet squelches, then he felt himself wobble, but one of his hands clutched at Dante’s jacket a tad tighter for stability.All of his body continued to ache and itch.And he might’ve been too hasty to transfigure back into this body — all his organs felt tilted, awkwardly shifted from their typical positions, some too heavy.In the pit of his stomach, there was a burrowing hole that some insides dribbled into.But Tadeo could only look ahead.The angel who had led him here, the beautiful Dina, who bore an empty expression as he stood on the shore; he appeared to be listening again.In the last instance of this, Tadeo had thought he was consulting God.But he felt no holiness now, nor divinity, as water lapped at his ankles.Something was wrong.The stars still screamed.
The thuds of feet running called Tadeo’s attention, and he weaned himself off the soldier’s support before looking to all the angels he’d freed from the sea.Many of them sprinted, stumbling, and laughing as they came up to the sand to collapse onto it, over stomach and over knees, in what the anti-Christ couldn’t help but find reminiscent of soldiers arriving home victorious, yet agonized over the horrors of war they’d endured, never once worth their lives.Up ahead, the dark-skinned, braided one stood, staring forward, still holding onto the chain leash of the twitching, one-winged Watcher.
“What the fuck is going on out here?”Dante asked, his hand returning to Tadeo’s arm, squeezing it.“What did you do?How long has the sky been screaming?”
Immediately, Tadeo grumbled, “It wasn’t like this before I came back for you.”
“For me?”Dante tilted his head toward Tadeo, then chuckled.“So, you really came back for me,papi?”
Tadeo scoffed — and he did not allow himself to acknowledge the burn on his cheeks, told himself it was angry irritation — “What?You really thought I’d leave you there?”Dante lifted the wrist stump where his hand used to be, and that was answer enough.“That was different.Look, I don’t need you to forgive me.”
“I wasn’t going to,papi.”
“Just be glad that I have some principles, and—” Tadeo shook his head, told himself to stop talking about this, then wrenched his arm away.The water swirled around his feet at the rough movement, and he expelled some of the cool air stuck to his teeth.“Tell me what you were doing with the angels before I freed them.”At that, the soldier’s expression flickered, and his smile fell.“What?”
“Tadeo,” Dante began, voice dropping to a whisper.“I don’t think the demons are the only evil ones here.”When Tadeo quirked a brow, the soldier explained: “I spoke to them in Hell, and they told me that they worked together with the angels to imprison these Watchers during the great flood.After that, God gifted Hell to them, to the devil specifically.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Tadeo replied bluntly.“They must’ve been lying to you.”
“Look, I’m not stupid enough to believe demons at their word, but there was an angel down there, too, and—” Dante, sighing, nodded his head in the direction of those they’d freed.“Güey, just look at them.”Though hesitating, allowing Dante’s words to sink deep into his bones first, the anti-Christ trailed his gaze to examine the Watchers once more, their huffs, their twitching, their stumbling, their grunts.Like animals, they panted, frantic eyes following every movement, their teeth bared.
“Tadeo…” Both the young man in question and the soldier turned their heads at the speaker — the leader of the captive Watcher angels, seemingly — the least bloodied of them: Azazel.He was beautiful and wide-eyed, but the sadness that haloed his head made him ghostly, as well.When he spoke again, it was in that angelic tongue that was utterly unknowable to humans.
“I’m sorry,” Tadeo told the angel.“We don’t speak your language.”
Though Azazel didn’t reply, he parted his lips again, then he turned to Samyaza, who was looming behind him, a low reverb starting to sound in his throat.“Be calm,” Azazel soothed before he felt a tug on the lower end of his robe, and he saw one of the other Watchers had come to him — Danel, on his knees over the sand.He was rasping, eyes clenched.“What’s wrong, brother?”He spoke kindly, all the animosity between them faded now.Thousands of years bound beside one another had forcefully done away with hatred.It does away with most things — it breaks one down, removes them from their interests, from experiences, from who one once was.When you become nothing but suffering, then there’s little left to distinguish yourself from other sufferers.“Can you speak?”
Danel’s hundred wounds bled onto the ground as he used his other hand to clutch at the hair he’d cut short — as many other Watchers had done to their beautiful, angelic locks once upkeep became impossible.He rasped, “It hurts.The stars.”He held on tighter to Azazel’s robe, put himself against his side as a child might.Nearby, the slow Baraqiel was dragging the body of the faceless Kokabiel before dropping the angel of the stars on the shore and doubling over to pant and shiver, wings folding back inside himself.
“Dina,” Tadeo finally called, forcing himself to address the one who’d caused all of this.“What’s happening?”
Blinking, Dina finally seemed to fall from his trance, and he tilted his head, as if he didn’t remember Tadeo for a moment.“Oh.”Then he replied, beautiful but too hollow: “We’re saving your Earth, Tadeo.This must happen to save it.”
Azazel watched Dina carefully, not understanding the words but not trying to.His mind was occupied; that angel there, Azazel was certain, was his close friend from Heaven, but the great reunion he would have expected, that he’d imagined would occur if he ever saw that sweet little angel again, was absent.Didn’t Dina recognize him?‘Don’t you care that I stand before you?You act as if I’m a stranger to you, and I feel that you’re a stranger to me.’Why?
Tadeo’s answer was shakier, uncertain, confused.“The sun is dark.This isn’t what’s supposed to happen, is it…?I know this.It’s a sign of the end.”
‘Lie to him,’ said Apsinthos.
‘Lie?’Dina replied, heart stuttering.‘But how?’
‘Lie to him, or it will all be over.You must lead him to destroy the world, or you will never have Heaven again, Dina.’
‘But what if he doesn’t want to?If I can’t convince him?’
‘His wrath will consume him, angel.All you have to do is keep him on this path.He will become their destroyer.Lie to him.Lie.’
