From the far wall, her cousin Dex waved her over.
“Come on, this way,” she told Frannie.
They ran for Dex, dodging bunk beds and frantic family members. When they reached Dex, he pulled them close and took them behind some bunks he’d fashioned into a small enclosure.
“You three are with me tonight,” he said. “If Khain shows up, we go right out that door and don’t worry about anyone else—they can take care of themselves. My truck is parked outside. We’ll go straight into the hole.”
Frannie hugged Dex tight with one arm. Sage took Paisley so Frannie could grab him in a bear hug.
“I’m scared of the hole,” Frannie said into his shirt, “but I’m scared of Khain more.”
Dex patted her head. “Don’t be scared,vix, you’re with me now.”
Frannie smiled faintly. All around them, family members continued to talk and shout.
“What’s going on?” Sage asked.
“We heard Khain say, ‘make it so’, plain as day, like he was right in the room with us.”
“We heard it outside,” Paisley said. “Like he was right next to us.”
Dex booped Paisley lightly on her nose and smiled at her, then said, “Markham thinks it’s sign 698.”
Sage gasped. “698. I thought we were still in the middle 600s. What’s the sign?”
Dex shook his head, his expression dark. “Not sure. Uncle Benld thinks it’s sign 722 and I know which one that is: ‘Avodis marked. The beginning of the end has begun.’”
Sage almost fell over. Frannie let out a little squeak, then buried her face in Dex’s chest.
Out in the open area of the room, the others stopped talking and yelling, and after a moment, even the crying stopped. The silence was so unnaturally held that Sage peeked around the bunk.
Nana White was standing near the middle of the room, glowering at Markham and Benld. They bowed their heads and backed away from her and each other.
“The traitorvod, Grey Deatherage, was indeed marked,” Nana White said.
“Then these are the end days,” Benld said.
“Perhaps so, perhaps not.”
“How was the demon able to mark avod?” Markham asked.
Nana White turned her gaze on Markham but did not answer.
“He ate the angel,” someone else said from a far corner of the room. “That made him strong enough.”
Nana White turned and looked into the far corner. “Did he?” she said lightly.
Sage didn’t know what to think. She’d been taught in school that Khain had captured an angel 25 years ago and held him in a special enclosure inside his home in the Pravus, and that he ate the angel a little at a time for energy, but she also knew that many in her family didn’t believe that. They called it a myth, a fancy story.
Nana White turned again, looking at each of them in turn. “Rex Brenwyn is no more. Thevodhave killed him. Grey Deatherage is now your primary concern.” She dipped her head. “After the demon himself, of course.” From across the room, she met Sage’s eyes, then she turned and walked out.
Sage hurried to the center of the room and in a loud voice said, “Everybody—lockdown ends tomorrow afternoon.”
There was a weak cheer, and then the others started talking again. Sage retreated into the tiny cave Dex had made from bunk beds.
Dex lifted his chin at her. “You sleep. I’m on first watch.”
Sage shook her head. “You can’t stay up all night.”
