The instant Eidolon reached him, prepared to overpower him with his energy, the malevolent god jerked back as though a dog reaching the end of a chain.
Surprised, Eidolon took an almost human shape. He gazed back at me. And if mist could look surprised, I imagined that’s what it would look like.
I plunged a hand into his center. That part of him that had more mass than the rest. It was what he’d tried to get from me. My heart. The core of my being. The very center of it.
In one quick movement, I ripped it out of him, this beast who was after my daughter. I devoured it. Swallowed it whole. Then I absorbed what was left of him, the feeling one of euphoria as his molecules melted into mine.
Reyes looked on, not surprised in the least. When I turned to jelly, he was there. His arm wrapped around me. His face inches above mine.
I reached up and brushed my fingers against his wings. Astonished.
Then I remembered the girl and her grandfather and… and Shawn. Not to mention the pedestrians around us. Were they caught in the cross fire?
Reyes and I emerged onto the mortal plane, and I scrambled to my feet.
People were injured all up and down the street. One woman was hemorrhaging blood by the bucketsful. A piece of glass had pierced her jugular. Others were screaming and running away, their faces bloodied but otherwise okay.
I knelt beside Shawn. He was draped over the girl as though trying to protect her, but his eyes faced heavenward.
I reached down to touch him. I’d heal him first. Then the girl. Then the woman and anyone else. I didn’t think I could bring the elderly man back. Once a god took up residence, there wasn’t much left to bring back.
“You are forbidden,” came a familiar voice.
I didn’t bother looking back. Michael’s energy, along with that of his spies and a few reinforcements, undulated around me. Pressed into me. Suffocated.
“They died because of a supernatural fuckup. They deserve their lives back.”
“You may restore only if the soul has not already been freed. Only if it has not left the vessel and entered our Father’s kingdom.”
I stood and turned to him. “Their deaths were not natural. The blame lies at the feet of a god. This is on us.”
He drew his sword.
And Reyes drew his as his wings slowly unfolded.
“Rey’azikeen, we have no quarrel with you.”
Reyes’s mouth formed a ravenous smile. “Sure you do.”
Michael refocused on me. “You forget your place here. You are reaper. Nothing more. You have no right to use godly powers in a dimension that already has a God. It’s” – he looked up in thought – “cheating.”
“Somehow I can’t seem to care.”
“But it is what you agreed to when you became the portal of this world.”
“I didn’t agree to Jehovah stealing my memories,” I said, pulling arguments out of my ass. Searching for a loophole.
“You did, actually. You made a deal. Jehovah sends the rebel to your prison instead of the hell He created for him, and you serve as reaper in this world until your term is complete.”
“Yes, Mae’eldeesahn told me that much. But why take my memories?”
“Prior knowledge of where you came from would influence your duties here.”
“In what way?”
“Father considers this a probationary period. If you cannot obey His laws, you will be banished. And what better way to make you follow the rules than to take your memories, the memories of what you are and what you’ve done? You were at war for hundreds of thousands of years in your dimension. You came out the victor even though you profess to crave peace. Still, you won. That knowledge could influence your decisions here, as they are now.” I shook with anger until he added, “It was your idea, after all.”
My brows slid together in disbelief. “Why would I do such a thing?”
“Do you know what war does to a being, even one as powerful as yourself? The memories are excruciating. Perhaps you are who you are now because of their absence. Perhaps you wanted to forget what you did to win.”
“Why? What did I do?”
Reyes had stepped beside me. He wrapped a hand around my arm.
“That is not my concern. What you do in this world is – as is restoring a soul that has already been freed. One that has already left the vessel. It is forbidden.”
“These people would not have died if Eidolon had not killed them. It is not just.”
“That is not for you to decide.”
“So” – I kneeled down, threateningly close to the girl – “if I restore these people, I will be banished?”
“Cast from this world forever.”
Anger shook me so hard, my teeth chattered.
“Dutch,” Reyes said, trying to bring me back.
I felt the anger in him as well. Felt it tighten his skin and crave release, but I also felt concern. For me. For Beep.
Michael tilted his head, waiting for my answer.
But the rage that had been bubbling suddenly sprang forth. A sword manifested in my hand and in one blinding movement, I sliced into Michael.
A thin red line spread across his chest, and one corner of my mouth tugged heavenward. “There you are,” I said, mesmerized.
Despite the depth of the cut, he didn’t flinch. His men, however, drew their swords and readied for battle. Reyes did the same.
I was seconds away from summoning my own army when I realized what I was doing. Risking other beings, righteous beings, because… why? I was angry? I was spoiled? Was I throwing a tantrum because I didn’t get my way?
Maybe they were right. Maybe I was a god of war. Maybe I craved it. Lived for it. How incredibly irresponsible.