I clapped my hands, then rubbed them together in parting. “Well, Gents, I wish I could say it’s been a pleasure, but whybother with the lie? Now, I have business in the city, and unless you wish to be mauled by a tiger, I’m going to need the three of you to step aside.”
It was BW’s time to laugh, though the drip of sarcasm at every forced note added a piece to a puzzle.
Heaven had found my human. Three angels were here. They claimed to be here for a courtesy. BW found the idea of me walking toward the house amusing…why?
Unless…
My self-assuredness fractured. My hands went limp at my side.
Tits cracked into a self-congratulating grin the moment my face drooped. The men behind him exchanged meaningless, performatively masculine gibberish. I hated their delight in my suffering.
I looked up at the interlocking wire of scribbled arms and legs of my legion. The alley darkened with their shadow. I gave them a slow, single, shake of the head. “No.”
I understood now why Tits had moved back with his men. I was in no place to ask favors, but I was so close. She was right there. It was unfair. It was cruel. It was downright diabolical.
Tits exhaled. “I’m afraid so. Hell has a weak spot. And Heaven wants you to know that you’ve shown your hand. Your human?” His laugh wasn’t even cruel this time. A quiet huff, no performance, no need for frills. “Our human.”
My eyes unfocused. She was within spitting distance. I could have wrapped my arms around her. I could have helped her, guarded her, loved her, begged her to see me. But she was a snow hare trapped behind a fence.
“Can I touch it?” I asked.
He hadn’t been expecting this. Perhaps they didn’t realize how quickly I’d put it together.
Lucky spoke for the retinue. “I think it’d be easier for you if you did.”
The others made a habit of chastising him, but he was unruffled by their judgment. He wasn’t here for their approval. It wasn’t veryangelof him.
I took a few careful steps forward before lifting my fingertips. Each step grew smaller, as I closed the space between myself and the host of heavenly soldiers. I was less than an arm’s length away when my fingertips hit the shock of bottled lightning. Pale tendrils spread from my gentle touch, spreading and disappearing like clear ice cracking and filling, as the snaking, electric lines revealed the dome surrounding her house.
Tits strode forward, inches from the unseen protective layer. He could easily reach through and grab me, unaffected by its voltage. I’d have to learn their real names to see if this handful of angels could put up a good fight, even if they couldn’t kill a god, or if I was facing archangels.
My legion had uncoiled, but remained on the roofs around us, as if prepared for how desperately I wanted to hold the broken parts of myself together.
She was right there.
Rightthere.
My legion, trying desperately to stop me, plucked sharper memories from the muffled remnants of disregarded advice. Those who had departed Hell without signing the treaty had put their money on a champion horse. They’d scampered off to Heaven, ready to suck the cocks of whoever would be the most powerful.
“She’s not at the market today,” I said slowly, “because it’s the Sabbath. She and her family…”
“She’s ours,” BW was quick to interject.
“The prayers are hers,” Lucky said. “She, specifically, is praying against all who stand against her God.”
In the twisted tangle of paths laid out before me, how hadn’t I considered the single, most obvious obstacle between myself, my human, and the prophecy? It wasn’t the interference of meddling gods. It wasn’t their fae, their agendas, their vendetta against my vow for bloodlust, nor their shortsightedness, as we decided how to handle the viral pandemic that was Christianity and its spiritual contagion.
“You could just kill her.” I heard the deadpan words as if they happened somewhere beyond myself.
“If she dies, we get rid of the immediate problem. What if she’s reborn somewhere that hasn’t been exposed to our King’s message? We kill her, and we roll the dice. You may get your shot at her, after all.” The piece of information Lucky volunteered might have been comforting under other circumstances, but here? Now?
She wouldn’t be harmed.
No torture, no puppeteering, no…anything.
Tits took two long steps toward me, abandoning the safety of his shield, forcing me backward toward the dead soldier.
“I could kill you today, you know,” he said. He dropped his voice so only I could hear. “It would be so easy. Hell’s Prince gone”—snap—“just like that. But Hell would retaliate, of course. We’d win. It’s been predestined. But who would we lose in the process? See…” He puffed his chest. I stood my ground this time, eye to eye, chin to chin, as he leaned as close as he dared. “We’ve been racking up victories before the world even knew we were in the fight. And this prize piece you’ve been hiding up your sleeve? We really appreciate you exposing the wildcard. We can’t tell you what it means that you gave us everything we needed to win without spilling a single drop of angelic blood.”
