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‘Aren’t you going to take that off?’ I shake the numbness out of my hands. ‘You look like red death on demon wings.’ ‘Good. That’s how every angel should look.’
Paige climbs off her ride and pets a locust with her small hand. ‘Shh. It’s okay. That’s Penryn.’
‘Call me a sentimentalist, but I like the idea of you in one piece. Besides, she’s not the only one who might be interested in your tasty flesh.’ I tilt my head. ‘Who told you I was tasty?’ ‘Haven’t you heard that old saying? Tasty as a fool?’
His eyes drift up to my midriff. ‘If you’re worried about pervs breaking into the house, it’s not going to make a difference whether I’m in this outfit or in baggy jeans and a sweatshirt. Either they’re decent human beings or they’re not. Their actions are on them.’ ‘It’ll be tough for them to take any action while I’m pummeling their faces. Disrespect will not be tolerated.’
The second my thigh touches his, he moans and shifts, throwing his arm around me. He pulls me back toward his hard body.
He moans and kisses the nape of my neck. He works his way up to my mouth. His lips land on mine, hot and wet and sucking. His tongue sweeps in, teasing mine.
How can the world end in a giant fury of biblical proportions yet still leave room for embarrassment?
‘I can go with one of the locusts.’ I stiffen in his arms and try to lean as far away from him as I can. ‘The hell you will.’ He runs a couple of steps before spreading his wings.
‘Just this once,’ he says almost more to himself than to me. ‘Just one moment.’ Then he leans down and kisses me. It’s the kind of kiss that I’ve been dying for since I was born.
Sometimes, I feel like my whole life is lived in this twilight space between sunshine and darkness.
The world is coming to an end, my sister is a man-eating monster, there’s a dying man in the store with us, and we’ll be lucky to survive another night. And I’m here drooling after a guy who doesn’t even want me.
A couple of guys with construction-worker tans and muscles turn to ogle me as we approach. Beside me, Raffe makes a low growl. The guys take one look at him and glance respectfully away.
‘We thought about busting you out, but Obi thought it was more important to get those people off Alcatraz.’ ‘We wouldn’t have agreed if we’d known your mom was there.’ ‘Pain in the ass, let me tell ya.’
I crack open the windows and scream, ‘Hey, you! Dinnertime! I’m over here, you scabby rats! Come and get me!’
The best I can hope for is that people get a few minutes to run while the hellions are busy tearing me apart. It’s a Penryn party.
By the time she reaches me, the hellions have all run off. ‘Are you okay?’ she asks. I nod. ‘How’d you do that?’ ‘It does stink something awful, doesn’t it?’ My mom wrinkles her nose at me. I stare at her, speechless, before I let out a weak laugh.
My mother turns to me with exasperation, as if I’m embarrassing her. ‘I’ll explain it to you when you’re older.’ I stand under the trees and blink several times at her. It’s all I can think to do. ‘When I’m older? Seriously?’
‘I’ll just have to go back and find the next one in line.’ ‘Mom, no.’ ‘They want to do this. It’s an honor for them. Besides,’ she turns to follow the woman, ‘they come with their own sheet for easy cleanup.’
their own sheet CRYING
‘Plagues?’ I ask. ‘Why is everybody trying to make plagues?’ ‘What’s an apocalypse without pestilence?’ asks Josiah.
‘Is this goodbye?’ I ask. He nods.
Then he presses his lips to mine. His warmth spreads out from my lips down into my chest and stomach. Time stops, and I forget about everything else – the apocalypse, my enemies, watching eyes, monsters in the night. All I feel is the kiss. All I am is Raffe’s girl. Then he pulls back.
‘You’re smarter than you look,’ I say to Raffe. ‘But not as smart as he thinks,’ says Howler.
‘She is a Daughter of Man. And she is traveling with me. But she’s not my Daughter of Man.’ What kind of answer is that? ‘Oh. So she’s available?’ asks Howler. Raffe gives him an icy look.
‘Don’t drop me.’ I cling tighter and press myself up against him a little more. ‘Never.’ There’s so much confidence and assurance in his voice. ‘I have you. You’re as secure as can be.’
Cyclone steps forward. ‘They need a firm hand, Commander.’ He looms over the hellions. ‘Do what we tell you, or you die.’ He makes a tearing motion with his hands. A hellion pisses at him, squirting a yellow-green stream of foul-smelling liquid that Cyclone barely avoids. The other hellions seem to snicker.
The truck swerves left, then right, like the driver is drunk. Beside me, I hear a cackling full of genuine joy. My mother is behind the wheel.
I bang on the window. ‘Mom, slow down. You can stop the truck.’ She speeds up.
Lmaooooo
‘Hi, Mom.’ ‘This ghost angel told me that you were inside that demon over there.’ She points to Beliel who seems on the verge of losing consciousness in the passenger seat. ‘He said that you might come out any minute. I didn’t believe him of course. That’s crazy talk. But still, you never know.’ She shrugs. ‘And look what happened.’ She squints at me suspiciously. ‘It is you, isn’t it?’ ‘Yes, it’s me, Mom.’
‘Oh.’ I look at Raffe with a watery smile. ‘Even the locusts are afraid of my mother.’
‘You’re not in a cult, are you, Mom?’ ‘Of course not.’ She looks at me like I just insulted her. ‘Those people are all nuts. They’ll regret having sold you out. I made sure of that. If Paige eats someone, it’ll be someone outside their cult. It’s the worst punishment they can imagine.’
Crying shes so fucking funny
‘But if it had to happen to someone, it might as well have been Beliel.’ He turns and walks away from Beliel’s ravaged body. ‘No one will miss him. He didn’t have a friend in the world.’
Why do I feel so sad
‘They won’t let any part of him fall to the ground,’ says Raffe in a quiet voice. ‘His brothers will keep him from falling.’
his brothers 😭
‘Why don’t you want it?’ ‘I have better things to do.’ ‘Like what?’ He opens one eye and looks at me. ‘Like convince a stubborn girl to admit she’s madly in love with me.’
