You could have heard a pin drop. “You want to go to a church?”
Azrames’s expression implied that he understood immediately. “An abandoned one, yes. Any rundown neighborhoods with boarded-up buildings? A deconsecrated church would get the job done.”
Still rattled from the angelic assault, Nia opened her laptop, punched in the password, and pulled up a city map. Her finger shook ever so slightly as she pointed out foreclosure-heavy neighborhoods, then left the boys to their arguments.
“So, this has been your life?” Kirby scoffed as they put two more bottles of liquor in their emergency go-bag. We bustled around the house, preparing our exit, while they prioritized the essentials. “You’re, what, subject to house-shaking and weather changes whenever a pantheon throws a tantrum?”
“You’re being a little flippant,” I said. I was still worried about Silas, and I couldn’t believe how willing my friends were to brush it off like we hadn’t almost died.
Nia disappeared to check on Darius—who we were reassured was neither a threat to the enemy nor on the angelic radar whatsoever—though I suspected she was also taking a few steadying breaths out of eyeshot. It was what I would be doing.
Azrames said, “That’s some incredible warding. Thank your Prince for making a house so impenetrable that we can make jokes in moments after an intended smiting. That said, maybe the angel has a point.”
Nia breezed back into the room, ever the hostess. “I told the hubs that we have to take a girls’ trip. He’s elbow-deep in some video game and, thanks to whatever noise canceling headphones he’s wearing, didn’t ask a lot of questions. Though, if anything happens to him…” She looked seriously at both Silas and Azrames as she said, “I’ll burst through the veil and kill you both.”
God, I loved my friends.
Nia grabbed a dustpan to sweep up the glass shards from the unwanted visit, but Azrames was already on top of it. I let the two of them finish their busy work and helped Kirby load whatever was left of Nia’s liquor cabinet.
“So…that’s angels, huh?” Kirby said.
“That’s angels,” Silas agreed. He took the box from Kirby and began carrying it to the Jeep. It seemed frivolous, but the world was ending, and I supported the need to be drunk through the apocalypse.
Caught between a horned demon and a glistening angel, wine-buzzed, shoulders weighed down by heaps of fantastical information, Nia looked at me and said, “Because you’re the antichrist? That tracks.”
Kirby laughed, nudging me. “Your mom has suspected for some time, right?”
I gaped, ignoring the smirks from the gallery as Azramesmade poorly concealed faces of amusement. “Are you serious? That’s all you have to say? After everything that happened?”
“It seems like what just happened is the confirmation we needed,” Kirby said.
“What!” Nia flattened one hand defensively. She cast a final look toward the basement before heading to the door. “You’ve uprooted our entire worldview in under an hour. We were nearly killed in my home for harboring a heavenly fugitive. Are we supposed to draw the line of disbelief now?”
Azrames leaned toward the glowing laptop screen, propping his elbows on each respective knee and steepling his fingers in front of him. “Okay, humans. We’ve wasted enough time. Everyone who can’t magically transport needs to head to the car.”
I caught the way Silas’s hand was raised in concentration, and I had to believe he was casting yet another shield as we moved from the house to the vehicle. Everyone piled in and buckled their seatbelts. I sat in the back middle with my preternatural bouncers on either side.
“You’re sure the car is safe?” Nia asked.
“It’s not ideal,” Azrames admitted. “But it’s temporary. The two of you are lower down on the list of priorities…unless one of you is a practicing witch? We need all the help we can get.”
“Afraid not,” Nia said from the front passenger seat. “Kirbs, didn’t you date that crystal bitch? She was a witch, right?”
Kirby grimaced apologetically from the driver’s seat. “She was problematic as fuck. White girls have no business selling white sage at the farmers’ market and making dreamcatchers. Besides, she got her tarot from an app. I’m not sure she’d pass a demonic power test.”
“We’ll need a little more juice for what’s next,” Azrames said. “Especially since we’ve seen Heaven flex its power. How about you, Mar? Do you have anyone up your sleeve?”
The comment made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’ttotally put my finger on why. Heaven had been flexing its power for thousands of years. Their interference was nothing new. And yet, they hadn’t truly flexed it toward me…the voices, the angels, the earthquake…they’d been calling for Silas.
As if on cue, he gave my arm a squeeze. “You okay?”
“I don’t know if I want to endanger anyone else,” I said, ignoring the angel to answer Az.
“They may be in danger whether they know it or not,” Azrames said.
Silas was reluctant to chime in, saying, “If you do know a witch, loath as I am to suggest their help…they could begin warding our next location before I’m there to add the finishing touches. We could meet them there.”
Azrames and Silas exchanged a challenging, narrow-eyed look.
