Horus's face crumpled into adoration.
“Astie, your father told you to go play with Deme,” Hekate said. “Go on now. Be a good girl.”
“Okay, Mommy,” Astie said and toddled off toward Deme's blanket.
“Astie.” Deme held out one of her dolls and a flower grew around it to blossom in the doll's hands.
“Thank you!” Astie took the doll and cradled it to her chest before kissing Deme's cheek.
“You're welcome.”
The girls started playing with their dolls and it took me a second to realize that I wasn't the only one staring and smiling at them. The whole group had gone quiet to admire the adorableness of the two little girls.
Horus, of course, came out of his trance first. “Now, what was I saying?”
“You were about to say that you think it's a good idea to investigate Heaven,” I said and smiled.
Horus snorted and smoothed the lapels of his suit. “I was not.” He glanced at his wife, who had a purple brow lifted, and cleared his throat. “But if everyone else feels that it's necessary, so be it.”
Thor and Pan had left their children at home, with the kids' mothers. So Thor was free to take over the conversation. He leaned his beefy forearms onto his knees and said, “I think it's important that we do this. This person, whoever they are, is not letting up. And things like this usually escalate. It's obviously meant to undermine Jesus's rule, and we can't have that. Especially not with the Human Realm in such an unstable state.”
“What's so unstable about the Human Realm?” Blue asked.
“My love, you need to leave our territory more often,” his wife, Eztli, Goddess of the Blood Moon, said.
Blue, also known as Huitzilopochtli, Aztec God of Sun and War and Father of Vampires, scowled at this suggestion, the skin around his jade eyes crinkling. “But why? I have all I need there.”
Eztli sighed. “Because the Human Realm can be fun. Remember how we used to go out? Why don't you join me next time I go drinking with the girls?”
The girls Eztli referred to were vampires. Nuff said about the drinking, right? Good.
“The Human Realm is still processing the knowledge that faeries exist,” Thor said, ignoring the couple. “But now, they're also dealing with witnessing the battle with Jehovah.”
“I thought that was handled?” Blue asked and looked at Jesus. “My condolences and congratulations.”
“Thanks, man,” Jesus said. “On both.”
“Itwashandled.” Thor rolled his eyes. There always came a time in our God Squad meetings when Thor would lose patience with everyone's crap and it looked as if that time was drawing nigh. “But there are factions of humans who believe Jehovah's lies about being King Arthur. They are upset about his death. And they blame Azrael for it.”
“What rubbish,” Blue drawled.
“Indeed,” Horus said.
I looked back and forth between them and snickered. How had I never noticed the similarities in their personalities?
“Rubbish or not, this is not the best time for Heaven to be divided,” Thor said.
“And it's heading that way,” Jesus said. He shook his head. “Angels can be such a bummer. And none of them will smoke a bowl with me. If anyone should smoke the groovy greenery, it's them.”
“You want the Heavenly Host to get high?” Brahma asked, his dark eyes twinkling. “Oh, that's fantastic.”
“Aren't zey already high?” Kirill asked.
I snorted a laugh and fist-bumped him.
“Maybe I should step down,” Jesus said.
“What?” Azrael nearly shrieked. “No, Brother. You care about our people. That's more than they ever got from Jerry.”
