I gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry, Shem,” I whispered.
He shrugged and grinned. “I would say it’s not your fault, but it was.” He and Ramel exchanged an amused look. I rolled my eyes and cleared my throat.
“Anyway.As we know, Yahweh uses the confessions from mankind to power the Sorter of Souls. The more confessions He has, the faster He can reincarnate souls. Have either of you ever wonderedwhyit’s important to Yahweh to regenerate souls?”
They exchanged a look again and shrugged.
“I don’t know. He’s the creator. I just always assumed He wanted to keep His creations alive.”
I shook my head, smiling. “No. Think about it. He just doesn’t want them to thrive. He wants them tomultiplyand thendie.His church preaches procreation to the point of obscenity despite the fact that Earth is overpopulated. He condemns contraception andsafe abortion.Wedon’t want souls in limbo because they fester. Do you think Yahweh really gives a shit if the souls lose their residual knowledge or not?”
“No, He made that pretty clear when He flooded the entire fucking planet,” Ramel said, giving me a pained look as if he was remembering that time and it left a bad taste in his mouth.
“Exactly.” I held up a finger, beaming at them both. “The reason Yahweh wants more humans created is because every time He feeds a soul through his Soul Sorter, a small,temporaryamount of celestial energy is generated. Energy that He has been collecting since the dawn of time to use against the other gods so He could secure His position as King Dickhead.”
Both Ramel and Shem snorted, and I grinned at them before continuing. “Once He was strong enough to take on another god, I think he targeted Hypnos first.”
Both Ramel and Shem’s eyes flashed, and I knew they were catching on to what I was starting to get at.
“You think He has Hypnos trapped somewhere and is using his magic to keep the other gods asleep,” Ramel breathed, looking amazed. I nodded.
“Yes. More than that, I think if we can slow down the Sorter of Souls, His stolen magic will dwindle, and He’ll fall back to His normal power levels. We may be able to overtake Him.”
“Lilith…” Shem said, standing up from where he had been lounging against the tombstone. “You’re fucking incredible.”
“I’m not even finished yet,” I beamed. “I think the old me was suspicious about all this. That’s why she created the Fountain of Death, in case Yahweh ever managed to put her to sleep. But I also think she created the catalog to harvest celestial energy in a similar way. That was why she was always an even match for Him and why she was the last god to fall. She had been beating Him at His own game for centuries before He finally caught on and trapped her in purgatory. It’s why He was so lenient and didn’t unmake the two of you when you first defied Him. He knew He couldn’t overpower her because she was playing Him at His own game.”
Ramel flicked his butt away and strode up to me, cupping my face in his hands. He was looking at me like he was really seeing me for the first time, his eyes shining in the starlight.
“Lilith,” he breathed, kissing my lips softly. I could taste the tobacco mixed with spearmint on his breath. “You’re fucking amazing.”
I grinned against his lips before pulling away. “See? It’s amazing the things I can do when you let me out of my cage.” I smirked, and I felt Shem press against me from behind, laying his own kisses up the side of my throat gently.
“We’re going to make you come so many fucking times tonight, sweetheart,” he murmured against the sensitive skin of my neck, making me shudder.
I spun in the arms of my demons and looked up at them, knowing I had just impressed the shit out of the two of them.
“We don’t have time for that. We still need to figure out what we’re going to do.”
Ramel frowned. “Destroy the Sorter of Souls, obviously.” He said it without hesitation, as if completely destroying the natural way of life and death was of no consequence to him.
I frowned. “We can’t destroy it. Mankind would perish. I was thinking we couldslow it downor stop it from working long enough for us to get the upper hand. We can’t risk mankind being affected.”
Ramel snarled. “I don’t give a fuck about mankind. I would let them all rot if it meant keeping you safe, Lilith.” He touched my chin, and I could see the panic and desperation burning in his eyes.
I scowled at him. “Well, I wouldn’t. We will need to find a way to replace Yahweh once we’ve taken Him out and fix whatever it is we need to break to overthrow Him. I will not allow mankind to suffer for this. If we do that, we’re no better than He is.”
Both Shem and Ramel looked like they didn’t give two shits whether or not they stooped to Yahweh’s level, but I did, and if I was ever going to fight them on something, it was going to be this.
“Don’t worry. I have a plan for that too.” I smirked, casting my gaze to the Infernal Woodlands. The ominous tree line loomed in the mist-shrouded distance, and I could feel the magic of the woods pressing down around us like it was a physical thing.
“Do idea seeds work on angels the same way they work on humans?” I asked.
Shem raised an eyebrow. “They might. We would need to test it.”
I gave them a conspiratorial grin.
“I wonder… If all the angels that run the Voodoo stores suddenly had the idea to shut down for renovations at the same time, how much would that affect Yahweh’s power supply?”
