Nicolas nodded, looking miserable.
They didn’t stay to watch the casket get lowered into the ground, but before they left, Nicolas approached it, bracing his hands on the section where Daniel’s head would be.
“Bye, little brother,” he whispered, one thumb stroking the polished wood. “I’ll hold you in my heart always.”
After a few more moments of silence, they turned as a group to go.
The sky above them brightened inexplicably. They all stopped, raising their faces to the night sky as a streak of light traveled across the indigo blanket. It was far too big and low to be a shooting star, and the color seemed wrong. It was too golden.
“What the hell wasthat?” Malachi asked.
“A shooting star?” Nathan guessed.
“Never seen a shooting star like that,” Luke said.
When Ashmedai noticed Nicolas had paused, he stopped. Nicolas was looking at Ira, on the other side of the casket, who was frowning at it as though trying to solve a puzzle. Shaking his head, he looked away—and met Nicolas’s eyes.
“What is it?” Nicolas asked, calling the others’ attention back to them.
Ira gave him a pursed smile. “It’s not important right now. Julian mentioned gathering at his place. We should go.”
Nicolas turned away blankly, apparently unwilling to press. Ashmedai looked at Wolf, who shrugged one shoulder. He didn’t know what was going on with Ira, either.
They would find out eventually, one way or another. Time stopped for no one, even those frozen in it.
Chapter 25
Nicolas
Since no one had cooked,Julian ordered pizza and had it delivered to his and Valac’s house. It smelled divine, but Nicolas couldn’t stomach the thought of eating anything right now. The surreality of being back here after the last time, when they’d all been filled with such hope for the future, felt like lead in his gut. His eyes were dry, but his grief was a ball and chain around his neck. It would take him time to adjust to the weight of it.
He didn’t talk, but no one seemed to expect him to. The conversation rose and fell around him, and his one constant was Ashmedai, taking his meager weight like a rock. He didn’t know how he would have survived any of this without Ashmedai.
Maybe Ira was right. Maybe it was fate that brought them together. Perhaps God had recognized that Nicolas needed someone special to stand by his side.
His eyes found Ira, sitting on the sofa across from him and picking at a piece of pizza crust. He hadn’t eaten much,although none of them seemed to have their full appetites right now.
Ira looked up, whether by happenstance or something more, and offered Nicolas a small, knowing smile.
“Ask.” He sounded resigned.
The rest of the room went quiet.
Nicolas took a moment, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to know the answer, but he already knew he would ask anyway. “Did you know it would happen?”
Ira sighed. “No. And that’s the strange thing.”
“Why is that strange? Prophets don’t see everything,” Nicolas said. “Could you have just missed seeing that part?”
Ira’s brows drew together, and his head tilted thoughtfully. “No. The strange thing is that… everything I’ve ever seen has come to pass—until now.”
“What do you mean?”
Ira spoke slowly, each word measured. “There are things I saw in Daniel’s future that can’t come to pass now that he’s gone. That’s what I don’t understand. I’ve never had a vision that didn’t come true. How can it be that Daniel was killed and his future cut short—the future I saw him have?”
Talon inhaled sharply, hesitated, then said, “There are ways for a human soul to come back. They just wouldn’t be human anymore.”
Ira shook his head. “Daniel would have to go to Hell for that, and it would take centuries for him to return. Ashmedai, did he have a dark soul? Would he have gone to Hell?”
