“You’re free to apologize.”
“I’m good,” replied the soldier, then both of them laughed.“Anyway, I heard they’re gonna set up a carne asada nearby.You know, for the end of the world.You should eat.”
Tadeo blinked.“How did you know I’m hungry?”
Before he could reply, a sharp hiss sounded above, and Tadeo jumped to his feet.Far above, there was a figure, dark face painted with white, wings spread behind him in what might’ve normally been a blue shade but seemed black beneath the darkness of a red moon.Even from here, Tadeo could tell who it was — Azazel, the leader of the Watchers, holding the end of a chain that connected to a collar on another angel, Samyaza.Dozens of the other Watchers rose behind him slowly; and remembering what the armored angels from God had done, all the humans who saw them cried out in fear or simply hurried away in strategic silence.Tadeo tried to raise his hand, to tell Dante, or any of the others standing behind him, that these were the Watchers.He had freed them.Under Dina’s guidance, he had broken the chains that were dangling from their wrists now.But Tadeo’s words died in his throat when the angels flew, headed for one of the low-hanging stars.
Hours ago, Azazel had whispered, “The Lord doesn’t offer justice.”Samyaza had been tugging on his tunic, grip tight, desperate — but he ignored it.“We must build it with our own hands.”‘But how?’
As if hearing his thoughts, Kokabiel had giggled, catching the attention of Azazel and all the other Watchers who were still in the yard after Dina left; they saw the angel of the stars grin greatly as he lifted a finger, pointing it up.
And Tadeo watched as one Watcher threw his chain at one of the many stars, narrowly avoided its bulging eyes and mouths, whipping off a squelching piece of itself.Like an organ set aflame, the piece catapulted only to splatter against a building and engulf it in rage of fire.And then there were screams again like the town had just suffered another strike.Even the ground shook beneath, and Tadeo’s breath caught as he distantly heard Dante curse.Then, another Watcher did the same as the first, sending another piece of molten sun down onto a car to explode it and send humans running in the opposite direction.
“Hide—” Tadeo gasped, looked at the soldier, then his family, before hurrying toward his mother’s wheelchair, where an aunt was paralyzed.“Get out of here!Get out of the streets.Get everyone out of the streets!”Heart a battering ram on his ribs, Tadeo felt his skin prickle and begin to pull taut over growing, beastly muscle.Overhead, more and more Watchers were swarming the sky above, and the anti-Christ morphed further, lowering to pounce and run after them.
“Tadeo!”Joana’s voice called, and instinctively, he froze, looked to his side.“They’re all heading north!Don’t chase them!”A rumble built in his throat, and his lips curled back to reveal infinite teeth — but Joana stared back, panting, hair stuck to her face in sweat.Behind her, there was another woman, one Tadeo didn’t recognize, with faux blonde hair and a luxury top.“Look!”And where she pointed at the Watchers flying away from them — crossing over the reddened river — and there was a distant boom.“Don’t call them back here!”
But so much rage shook Tadeo that a snarl slipped out of him, his entire body trembling, and feathers began to tear out of his body like daggers.Except, he heard screams again, and he saw, from his periphery, humans crying out in terror at him.‘Beast.’Tadeo remembered what Satan had said.‘Anti-Christ.’He remembered the devil’s laugh.‘My child.’“No,” he rasped, but his own voice scared him, and his heart burst, filled his lungs, his mouth, his eyes with blood.He remembered, suddenly, the copper taste of death, of darkness, of pain.The burn in him.Hell, scorching his insides.‘I’m sorry,’ he’d thought in the desert.‘Mom and dad.For dying.For what they did to me.For all that I’m going to do.’He’d done it for them.He’d done everything for everyone but himself.He’d needed to be their saint, their savior, because it was the only thing that could make anyone love this mutilated boy that he was.
And then Tadeo ran — not toward the Watchers, not toward Babylon.Praying he could arrive at death again and, this time, not be turned away at the door.
CHAPTER34
Baal said: “Michael will return for you.For all of us.”
At this, Satan laughed.
Finally, the devil had returned to Hell, and he sat on his throne, curved forward, as if tired, with the screeches of animal spirits and roars of flames in his ears — all from outside his shivering tower.Like a starved stomach, Hell rattled and gurgled wetly, masses of flesh dripping down the walls and the ceilings that the Leviathan crept through.And dozens of demons were gathered, peppered along the steps that led up to the devil’s chair, the few of the thousands that’d tried to rush in to see the rescued Satan.Some of them were dukes, including Asmodeus, who’d finally gotten hold of his golden walking stick again.He was out of the demons’ armor already, had left with his horse, whereas Rosier remained in the dark suit.And all of them watched when Satan, dressed in sheer tunic, in jewels, in a four-horned crown, lifted his golden head, then finally replied, bitterly, “Is that any different than how it always is?”A chuckle trickled along some demons.“He has hunted me, hunted all of you, since we escaped Heaven.”
The regent of Hell clenched his jaw, but a touch of fond amusement fell over his eyes.
“Don’t take it as surrender, then,” the devil said, “that we must leave this place.We marched from Heaven, and we marched from the Earth, and we’ll continue to march for our freedom from God.”‘From a wedding between Jerusalem and her Creator.’“Do not despair.Remember this not as the day that we abandoned Hell but the day Michael was defeated and the city of angels was sieged.”He set his hands on the armrests, then pushed himself up to stand, all of the devils he’d reared staring up at him — all the devotion that had certainly waned in his absence growing alight again.“Now, gather the belongings you cherish most and prepare to abandon Hell.”Elegantly dragging a hand through the air, Satan gestured at the trembling underworld around them.“The fires may rage, but we’ve ruled them for centuries.Don’t be afraid — act.”
At the word, the demons made noises of affirmation, some asking Satan what had happened for him to be caught in Heaven, a few still wanting to know why he’d avoided Hell for so many years, but Baal shouted out, “Didn’t you all hear him?All questions will be answered later.We need to leave this place.Get to it!Hurry!”Other dukes soon followed suit, shoving some of the crowd back, toward the exit from the throne room.
Asmodeus sighed gently, gaze flickering to Rosier at the same time the fruit demon looked up at him — their mutual expressions anxious.Without a second thought, then, the duke of lust took Rosier’s hand firmly, using the other to grip his walking stick and join the other infernal princes in demanding everyone ready for fleeing Hell without panic.‘Unlike the last two times we had to migrate.’He lowered his face, brought it to Rosier’s ear, and whispered, “He didn’t explain where we’re going once we leave Hell, did he?”
Rosier shivered, then whispered back, “I don’t think that he knows.”He squeezed the duke’s talons, and the two joined the crowd hurrying out of the tower, flooding into the largest settlement of demons in the endless sprawl of Hell.
Meanwhile, Baal pushed and snapped at the demons at the end of the lines, trying to usher them all out of the throne room as fast as possible.And once he’d managed, the regent took the enormous doors with both hands, grunted in exertion pushing them closed — the metallic hinges screamed — before an iron bolt fell into place.The sounds echoed off the stone walls, filling the room with a reverberating boom that rang quieter and quieter until silence conquered.Loud, insistent silence, hanging over Baal as he turned his head slowly to face Satan, who was lowering onto his seat again almost weakly.He slumped, as he’d been earlier, and though Baal had to cross the room, right through the center of it, like a proud beggar approaching a king, he noted a pained twitch on Satan’s mouth and empty, wide eyes.Then, suddenly, an angry grimace.
“He wants to kill himself,” Satan snorted cruelly.“He wants to kill me, then himself.He wants the Lord to remake Lucifer for the new Eden.Like a new Jerusalem to wed.”His voice took on a hiss, the walls of poise coming down in a way Baal hadn’t heard in centuries, since the days of emperors.“I’ll kill him first.I’ll harness the fires of Hell to do it.I’ll cook him and eat him.And I’ll spit him out like he’s shit in my mouth.”He remembered the massacre at the casino.He remembered singing for human masses.Sometimes Satan looked in mirrors and saw her.Sometimes, he saw every harlot he’d been throughout history, every man, every woman.Words in their voices were all rushing to him now — praises, teases, songs.
Baal quietly asked, “Is it over?Tell me the truth.Are we all going to burn in a lake of fire?”
Satan shut his eyes.
Outside the tower, chaos reigned.Demons scattered in every direction, some hauling dearest possessions and others running empty-handed, a few heading right for the stolen winged horses, a couple others fighting over them.Asmodeus trekked along, grunting, his walking stick clicking against the stone, occasionally squelching when it landed over patches of Hell’s flowering flesh.It was everywhere — handfuls of meat on walls, on the distant ceiling.The pyramid of mangled bodies that Asmodeus had stood on as he met Dante had crept here, now hovering over the devil’s tower.And the duke furrowed his brow as he said, “We should get home quickly — get what we can.”But whether they arrived promptly or whether they arrived at all depended on Hell’s body leading them there.
Rosier still held Asmodeus’ hand, and he shakily said, “The chest of rings is heavy.”All of their wedding bands that the younger demon had painstakingly maintained and polished, particularly fond of those that had a motif, however small, of fruits.But wherever it was that they were going — could they carry the chest so far?‘What we leave behind might be gone forever.Like the tiles of our kitchen in Heaven, like the mosaics of the bathhouses.Like the ceramic pots in our old house, Asmodeus.Our trees, our beds.’As they hurried down the path, he briefly remembered the first time he’d fallen asleep with Asmodeus pressed to him, the first time they shared a bed.‘I hoped we could have stayed like that forever.I hoped that we could be friends for the rest of eternity.’But now that house was gone; they’d seen a stranger of a building in its place.Over the grave of their love, the angels had made a temple for worship.
Abruptly, Asmodeus stopped, and Rosier stumbled but saw, up ahead, what’d made his husband freeze.Moloch with a few others behind him, many of his followers, the demon Ara, and the Watcher Armoni, holding the chain leash of a winged horse.“Asmodeus,” Moloch called, now in full armor, stepping up, closer to the duke with a charming smile.“I’d be careful heading that way.There’s a lot of fire.”
Asmodeus grunted.“What do you want now, Moloch?Satan is back, and he doesn’t care about your war for his hand.”
Moloch laughed simply and said, “Now, now, Asmodeus.Don’t be difficult.I just wanted to ask again whose side you’re on.Mine or Baal’s.After we leave this place, start anew in whatever new home we make for the demons — I’m going to approach the devil and offer to be his new regent.I want your support when I do it.”When Asmodeus, again, glowered, Moloch’s expression began to darken.“Baal hasn’t been your friend for a long time, has he?Why do you hesitate to support me, then?”
“Fuck the both of you,” Asmodeus snapped, twisting around, determined to see if Hell would bring him and Rosier home if they just went in any other direction, but when he turned, he saw Moloch there, and again, Ara, Armoni, others.‘This is where you’re meant to be,’ Hell was saying.‘Do not run.’
