“You’re saying the sort of justice Kathan sold us on doesn’t exist. True justice is outside mortal comprehension.”
“In a nutshell, as the saying goes.”
“Then what is true justice?”
“You want me to condense an incomprehensible concept down into a few simple words so you can make a decision about your next course of action?”
“In a nutshell, as the saying goes,” I said.
He smiled. “That’s one of my favorite things about you, —.”
We waited.
“Death,” He said. “Death and Hell. That’s the short version.”
“That’s why you created me? To send the whole world to Hell?”
“Sometimes it does seem like a mass extinction would be the only way to remove evil from the world, but there’s a reason I haven’t done it myself in all these years. Even right now, there’s a reason I’m not stepping in and smiting up the place. Can I show you something?”
“What is it?”
“One man—”
“We already know about Jesus. Everybody knows that story.”
“Not Him. I love My Son and take great pride in what He did, but He already paid the price for humanity. The man I want to show you is something else altogether. Sort of the opposite of sinless. But I’ve been waiting for him. I still am.”
He reached up and touched my forehead before I could flinch away.
And I saw.
Tough
By the time Harper and I made it back to the tattoo parlor, the earth was shaking nonstop under our feet and the thunder sounded like one long rumble with bombs detonating every now and then for good measure.
Addison and Drake and a couple younger kids met me at the door.
“What’re we doing now, Tough?” Addison asked. She looked scared.
Drake crowded up next to her. “Yeah, what’s the plan?”
Clarion waited for me to push through the crowd to him, then he lowered his voice and said, “The humans are looking for some answers from somebody who used to be one of them. Without Scout here, they’re expecting you to lead them.”
Harper shot me a look, but didn’t say anything about how them expecting me to be the new leader pretty much summed up how fucked we were.
Lonely was hanging back near the stairs. He nodded his head in that half-peck when he saw me.
What’d you see when you did the flyover? I asked him. What’s going on with the fallen angels?
“Kathan and his legions are regrouping. The Destroyer…” He shrugged like he was adjusting a pair of wings instead of shoulders and cocked his head. “I don’t think she’s in this world anymore. Some of her power is, but I don’t think her soul is.”
What’s that supposed to mean?
“Only one being can be in all places at all times,” Lonely said, “But there are certain beings that can move parts of themselves into more than one place at a time. I think the Destroyer is one of them. That’s what it feels like.”
Clarion nodded in agreement. “The crow and me talked it over. We think she decided to go after God before she blows the world apart.”
Can she do that?
Lonely nodded. “If she wasn’t going after the Creator first, she would’ve kept all of herself here and the world wouldn’t be around for us to have this conversation in.”
“Which means Kathan got his way,” Clarion said. “At least to some extent. Now he’s using the Destroyer to take down God so he can rule over the world.”
When you say it like that it sounds retarded. Is there anything else we can call it?
“Kathan’s takeover?” Lonely smirked. “How about ‘become king of the earth?’ That’s what Bailey and her witch friends keep calling it.”
That sounds less retarded. I looked from Clarion to Lonely. So, we’ve got to stop him. I don’t want that fucker ruling the world, even if Desty kills…even if she can take Him down. Hell, I don’t even want Kathan to know whether he was right about her or not. I want him and Rian and every other asshole angel waiting for me in Hell when I get there. Any word on the reinforcements?
Lonely relayed the question to Clarion.
The old one-eyed coyote shook his head. “It’s a long drive from here to Wisconsin. They’ve probably made it there, but we can’t trust phone lines, so we won’t know anything until they get back into town. Even speeding, it might be until tomorrow before we hear anything back.”
Waiting sounds like shit.
“Waiting might be all we can do right now, tarnished one,” Lonely said. “It’s too late to save your girlfriend. I’d say it’s pretty clear she doesn’t want to be saved, anyway.”
Harper turned to look at me, her eyebrows scrunched together. “Your girlfriend? Desty?”
I took a deep breath and blew it back out, then nodded. It wasn’t really a conversation I wanted to spend time trying to have, even though I probably owed Harper an explanation of what she was getting into at some point.
Clarion saved me from having to go into it. “We either throw away a bunch more lives on attacking when we’re not ready or we wait a few more hours, regroup, and try to form some sort of plan. Two, actually. One that takes into account the extra manpower and one that doesn’t, just in case they don’t show.”
That still sounded like shit, but I didn’t want to get anyone else killed so soon. I took another long breath and realized that I was doing it so that broken rib would spike and the pain would clear
