Chapter Fifteen
After our cinnamon rolls and coffee, Azrael and I went home, leaving the freshly converted Angels with Satan. Austin didn't have any episodes while we were gone, and Salem had tuckered out the kids. They were sleeping in a pile inside the play castle, feathered wings spread over them like blankets. It was so adorable that I took a picture. If only the God Realm had Instagram.
While we were gone, my other husbands, Torrent, Artemis, and some of the Intare had hashed out a plan for the church-bomb (oh, that sounds awful) and luring the Host to it. An Intare crew was already at the site with Torrent and Artemis, laying out the foundation.
“Where's Trevor? Did he go with Torr?” I asked my men.
“No, he went to secure Moonshine and close it temporarily,” Odin said. “He's afraid Jerry will target it.”
“I hadn't thought of that.”
Then the man himself came striding into the dining hall. “Minn Elska, I need you to see something.”
“What is it?” I stood up. “Is Moonshine all right?”
“It's fine. This is something else.”
“Should we all go?” Odin asked.
“I can only take one person, and I think it should be Vervain.” He held his hand out to me. “Come on.”
I took his hand.
“Hold on.” Odin stood up. “What—”
“Sorry, Odin, but we need to go now or someone might step into the spot I secured. We'll fill you in when we get back.” Trevor pulled me out of the dining hall and into the tracing room.
He didn't stop there but went straight to the wall and slapped his hand on the stone. In seconds, the magic of the Aether pulled us in, and we zipped through its energy, coming out in a shower of blue sparks. I was instantly assaulted by the sound of weeping and voices crying out in another language.
“Is that Italian?” I whispered, peering around the dark crevice Trevor had traced us into. “Where are we?”
“Shh, we're behind the statue of St. Longinus in St. Peter's Basilica.”
“So thatisItalian they're speaking.” Then I blinked. “They made Longinus a saint? Isn't that the guy who speared Jesus?”
“Yes. I think it was supposed to be merciful.” He went invisible, but I could still feel his hand in mine.
“It sounds like there's a crowd out there. Are you sure we should go invisible?”
“The crowd is why we have to cloak ourselves. I don't want anyone to see us come out from behind this statue.”
“Oh. Right. Hold on, why did you tell Odin you were worried about losing this spot? No one's gonna come back here.”
“Because I didn't want to waste time answering his questions. Like I'm doing with you right now.”
“Rude,” I muttered and went invisible.
Trevor pulled me around the side of Longinus's plinth. A short stone railing barricaded the nook the statue stood in; Trevor and I vaulted over it. Well, he vaulted; I sort of rolled. As I was rolling, I looked up at the immense statue to the extended hand that was, of course, holding a spear. A saint? Really? I thought the Catholic Church had higher standards.
“Whoa, what's that big thing with the columns over there?” I asked Trevor.
“The Papal Altar.”
“Wow.” I stumbled as he pulled me toward the left, my gaze focused above me on the gold-painted designs of the arched and domed ceilings. And yes, there were several types of ceilings in that single cathedral. Oh, and the domes weren't your average domes either, they had windows ringing them to bring in the light. “The Catholics don't do plain, do they?”
“This is their main church, Minn Elska. Or one of them at least.”
“Right, but . . .damn.”
