End of Days (Penryn & the End of Days #3)(31)

I glance at Paige, who is singing Mom’s apology song to her locusts perched on the branches above her. I walk over to her. ‘If I leave for a little while, are you going to be okay on your own?’

She nods. From the edge of the shadows, Mom walks back to us. I’m not entirely sure whether Paige is better off with or without her, but since Mom is walking back alone, we must have at least a little time before her next shenanigans.

I walk back to Raffe. ‘I’m all yours. Let’s go find that church.’

I’m not as familiar with downtown Palo Alto as I am with downtown Mountain View, so it takes us longer than I expect to find the churches. The first one only has a tiny strip of stained glass, and I’m guessing that’s not the one they meant. When someone says ‘the church with the stained glass,’ I assume they mean a whole lot of stained glass.

Downtown Palo Alto used to be the hip spot to be. It was known for its waiting list restaurants and cutting-edge startup companies. My dad used to love coming here.

‘Who’s looking for you?’ I ask.

‘I’m not sure.’

‘But you have guesses.’

‘Maybe.’

We walk down a street lined with craftsman houses. The cute suburban neighborhood seems to have mostly survived, except for a few blocks where houses have been randomly destroyed.

‘So is it a military secret? Why aren’t you sharing your guesses?’

We turn a corner, and there’s the church with the stained glass.

‘Raphael,’ says a male voice from above.

A ghostly shape floats down toward us from the church’s roof. A painfully white angel lands in front of us.

It’s Josiah the albino. His skin is as unnaturally white as I remember, and his eyes are freakishly blood red, even in this dim moonlight. He looks like pure evil. Backstabbing creepy bastard.

My lip twitches in a snarl, and I pull off the teddy bear, gripping the handle of my sword.

Raffe stays my hand.

‘I’m glad to see you’re well, Archangel,’ says Josiah. ‘That was quite the scene last night.’

Raffe arches his brow arrogantly.

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ says Josiah. ‘But it’s not true. Look, give me two minutes to explain.’ It’s amazing how a guy who so blatantly betrayed Raffe could sound so sincere and friendly.

Raffe is scanning the area. Seeing him do this reminds me that this could be a trap and that I shouldn’t get distracted by my anger toward this scum.

I glance around and see nothing but quiet shadows in what was once a sweet little neighborhood.

‘I’m listening,’ says Raffe. ‘Talk fast.’

‘I talked Laylah into agreeing to change back your wings,’ says Josiah. ‘For real this time. She swore to me.’

‘Why should I believe her?’

‘Or you,’ I say. It was Josiah and Laylah who tricked Raffe into having demon wings in the first place. There’s no reason to believe they’ll do anything but trick him again.

Josiah turns his bloody eyes to me. ‘Uriel blames Laylah for the locusts turning on us last night. He says no one else but the doctor who created them could have that kind of control over them. He has her locked in her laboratory. He would have killed her, except she’s in the middle of creating some plagues for him. That, and she’s the only one who can maintain his growing army of monsters.’

‘Plagues?’ I ask. ‘Why is everybody trying to make plagues?’

‘What’s an apocalypse without pestilence?’ asks Josiah.

‘Great,’ I say. ‘So we’re supposed to trust a known liar who’s cooking up apocalyptic plagues? And why would we even care what happens to Laylah? Serves her right for transplanting demon wings onto Raffe and playing Dr. Frankenstein with human beings. We’re not just biomass to be shaped into whatever dolls she wants to play with.’

Josiah looks at me, then back at Raffe. ‘Does she need to be here?’

‘Apparently, she does,’ says Raffe. ‘It turns out that she’s the only one I can trust to watch my back.’

I stand a little taller when he says that.

‘Laylah didn’t know.’ Josiah shifts his body to make it clear he’s talking to Raffe. ‘I warned her not to get involved, but you know how ambitious she is. Look, you can trust her this time because you’re her only hope out of this mess. Uriel will kill her when he has everything he needs from her.’

‘Kill her? You mean set her up for a fall?’

‘No, I mean kill her. He was furious with her, wouldn’t believe a word she said when she told him she had nothing to do with the locusts turning on us. He flew into a rage and told her he killed the Messenger and he could kill her too. The Messenger, Raffe. Uriel killed him.’

An image of the winged man who called himself Archangel Gabriel, the Messenger of God being shot down over the rubble of Jerusalem flashes through my mind. They looped it for days on TV.

Josiah shakes his head like he’s still having trouble believing it. ‘Uriel said Gabriel had gone insane, that he hadn’t actually spoken to God in eons, that he’d made up all the rules that God had supposedly commanded him to make. He said there was no reason why Uriel couldn’t be Messenger, that he could lie as well as Gabriel. So Uriel had him killed. Killed. He admitted it.’