“It seems strange to me that they would let you into the program if they genuinely feared you would harm the people around you. I wonder if they were using you more as… an experiment, if you will.”
Isaac’s stomach swooped at that. “What kind of experiment?”
“New training methods, or ways of ensuring compliance, maybe. For example, I believed in the cause because I believed in doing the right thing. I believed God wanted us to protect people. I still do, I suppose, but I no longer believeit has to be under the guild’s banner. But somehow I don’t think that’s what they taught you to believe, was it?”
Isaac scuffed his shoe on the pavement. “No. Sloan’s word was law. There was no higher authority for me than him. Even Hawley and Maxwell would do what he said. If he told Maxwell to cut a therapy session with me short, he would do it without question, even if it was against his medical advice. If I disobeyed, I was punished harshly. Guilted with threats of eternal damnation, whipped until it hurt to sit back.”
“Shit,” Nathan murmured. “Sloan ruled you with fear.”
“He did.”
“Thatreallyconcerns me. If he starts teaching new generations to behave that way, we would have a cult of zealots on our hands—no offense.”
“None taken. I think there are probably already some zealots in the guild’s ranks. People are falling for Sloan’s new, hateful ways too easily. And sometimes I still don’t feel like I’ve completely shed that mentality.” At Nathan’s concerned look, he quickly added, “I’m not going back there, don’t worry. But I still catch myself questioning whether I’ve made the right choices. Whether I’ll go to Hell for what I’ve done.”
Nathan smiled at that. “I worried about the same thing. I don’t think Hell is something we have to worry about anymore, in that sense. And we know first-hand now that demons aren’t actually as bad as the guild believes.”
That was true, and hearing it from someone he respected soothed the undertow of anxiety that had taken root in him when he fled HQ. He didn’t believe any of them would be there if they thought doing so would damn their souls, and he also didn’t believe any of them were going toHell. They were all too good, still filled with holy righteousness not in spite of their demonic partners but maybe because of them. Because disregarding even demons wasn’t in their nature. Perhaps demons were God’s creatures just like everything else, and that made them worthy of love and respect.
“Are we okay, you and I?” Isaac asked. He’d never been able to put his finger on why it bothered him that he was being forced to report on the dissenters, but now he suspected it was because some part of him had known they would have the same reaction Nathan had. They’d think him a traitor, a bootlicker, and that didn’t sit right with him.
“We are,” Nathan said after a beat. “I understand why you did what you did, and I don’t blame you for focusing on survival. And knowing what I know now, I’m just glad you broke their hold over you and got away. No one deserves to be treated the way you were.”
Whatever quiet doubts Isaac still harbored fell away at those words, not because he believed them but because Nathan did. Nathan was always one of the best paladins. Isaac had always been a little jealous of him, how self-assured he was in his choices. He did the right thing, made the right calls, and he knew it. Knowing he believed in Isaac was bolstering. He could do this, forge his own path with Shadrach away from the guild, if he had good men like Nathan in his corner. One day maybe he wouldn’t need the others to act as his moral compass, but for now, it was reassuring to know they were there.
“Aw, how touching,” an unfamiliar voice sneered.
Nathan and Isaac drew their blades in unison as five figures materialized out of the darkness. All of them had red eyes, but somehow Isaac didn’t think they were going to beas friendly as the ones at the Rink. The one in the middle held a revolver, aiming back and forth between them.
“Neither of these is Talon’s human,” one of them said.
“Then we’ll take these two and demand an exchange,” the one in the middle said. “These humans are bleeding heart paladins, right? They won’t want us to keep them.”
“Like hell I’m getting involved in another hostage situation,” Isaac murmured.
“Another?” the third halfling repeated, nose wrinkling in confusion. “Did we kidnap one already?”
Isaac tilted his head toward Nathan. “Go left,” he hissed.
“What?” the gun-wielder said, interrupting his companion, who was still talking. “What did you just say? Don’t move a fucking muscle, holy man.”
Isaac clicked his tongue, and he and Nathan burst into motion at the same time. He went right while Nathan went left, and just as he expected, the gunman didn’t know who to aim at. He had a split second of indecision, wheeling from one to the other, and that was all it took for Nathan to pivot and slam into him. Isaac rammed into one of the others, slicing the halfling’s throat and turning as another approached. He threw one of his daggers, and it sank into the halfling’s chest.
“Isaac!”
He spun. Nathan had an arm around the gunman—though the gun was thankfully nowhere in sight, having been knocked out of his hand—and the other two halflings were closing in on them.
Isaac leaped into action, his blood singing with adrenaline. The halflings tried their best, but he had a sword and a bloodthirst that wouldn’t be denied. He cut one of them to ribbons, stabbed him in the heart, and watched his body fall.As he advanced on the remaining on, Nathan turned away from the gunman, who collapsed to the ground.
“Isaac—”
Isaac barely heard him as he laid into the last halfling standing. It was stupid of them to only bring one gun. The halfling punched him, and the pain buzzed in his jaw as his blade entered the halfling’s chest, all the way up to the hilt. Hot black blood spurted across his knuckles, and the body fell from his sword, leaving him panting in the silence.
“Damnit, Isaac,” Nathan said.
Isaac turned toward him in surprise. “What?”
“I wanted to keep one of them alive. We could’ve questioned them.”
