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  “I think—” Midori started, but I stopped her with a hand raised in front of her face.

  “It was rhetorical, I know why. It’s as Fex said: many angels are simply Watchers. They watch but do not think. They see, but do not tell.”

  “Then what’s the point of them? Why do they watch? Why would the more advanced angels even bother keeping them around?”

  “You may have me there. But I’m not even sure there is a reason. All I know is, Han may keep himself surrounded at night, but I doubt any of those angels are smart enough to remember who killed him. I could do it tonight, and it wouldn’t even matter if they saw.”

  “What if you’re wrong and they are the smart sort who could quite easily tear you to shreds? Or what if they can communicate with other angels and alert them that you’re not to be trusted?”

  “I’m fairly confident. But you probably ought to kiss me for luck before I go.”

  Midori rolled her eyes. “You’re such a reckless idiot! I’d better not even wish for luck and head right to straight-up praying,” she said with great exasperation.

  “Don’t sweat it. I’ll be back before you know it,” I promised, and I went out the door.

  The air was heavy with the sweet mist of autumn, and the crackling of the fire appealed so much to me that I almost wished to sit down for a moment before I dealt with Han. He and his companions sat perfectly side by side a few feet from the fire.

  “Erika,” said Han. He still had a friendly air to him that I would miss when he was dead. “What are you still doing up?”

  “Enjoying the fire. Are you cold?”

  “Cold? Why, the fire is right there. I’m searing with heat.”

  “Are you sure?” I walked over in front of him, barely feeling the heat dance on my back. A breeze kicked up. I began to walk around behind him.

  “What are you doing, Erika?” he asked.

  I came around again behind his head. I had brought my bag, and despite my desire to just go all out on the drama, I reached in and took a step back before firing.

  It’s a good thing I winced when the flare ignited, for the light it provided was as bright as the sun. At such a close range, the flare’s shell really just bounced off Han’s head, but it was enough. The force knocked his head down a bit, but the fire caught on with unnatural enthusiasm, like oil on water.

  The still-burning shell also set the ground aflame. As much as I wanted to put it out and prevent another incident like the first camp, I knew I had to run. I dropped the flare gun and dashed as fast as I could back to the tents.

  “Everything is going to be on fire. We have to move.”

  Midori looked up from her book. “Again? What is it with you and fire?”

  “You do know I had a flare gun, right? Now come on, grab your stuff.”

  This time we hadn’t even bothered unpacking, so cleanup was short. Back outside the flames had spread. While I had no way to tell if Han was indeed dead, nothing seemed to indicate otherwise.

  “Should we sneak out somewhere?” asked Midori.

  “I don’t know, maybe it’d be more convincing if we ran?”

  “I don’t feel like running right now,” Midori complained.

  We watched the center of the camp burn for a minute. “Let’s just go with a fast walk, okay?” As we started for the perimeter of camp, I looked back one last time.

  Obviously something had to go wrong. God forbid anything work out the way I planned.

  It may have been a simple detail that might not matter at all, but it seemed to me there should be more angels in the sky. When the last camp had burned, they had all flocked together, free of their human forms. But where were they now?

  “Something’s up,” I said to Midori, before running back to the site of the campfire. Fex stood a way off, kneeling in front of someone’s body. Han’s body was entirely missing. But most importantly of all, the Watcher angels were waiting for me.

  They had dropped most of their human forms, just enough to show off their array of eyes and their long misshaped heads. They had moved themselves to a number of places to avoid the slowly creeping graze of flames, but they all turned to me at once.

  “Are you sure?” they said as one. From across the site, I saw Fex look up and give me a panicked look. He obviously hadn’t been expecting this either.

  “What?” I said. Maybe it was more for myself than anyone.

  “Are you cold? Are you enjoying the fire?”

  “What?” I said again. The flames were causing me to sweat. I watched Fex bail on me and began to step backward slowly.

  “Are you sure?” they said once more in unison. “Are you cold?”

  “Wait.” I stopped. As hard as my heart was pounding, it was clear I had been right. They could watch, but they could not think. They could repeat, but they could not form their own words.

  “Are you enjoying the fire?” they repeated. Still, I didn’t want them around. They were stuck on speaking just my words, but if they lived to say anything from Han’s side of the conversation to someone capable of thought, I would be doomed.

  As if in response, the Watchers said, “Erika. What are you doing, Erika?”

  I pursed my lips. This was going to be tricky. The flare gun was amidst the flames, and even if the fire was growing slowly this time, it was still a fire. I couldn’t get too close.

  I had an idea then, very luckily I might add. Things are only tricky if you allow them to be, or if you think only in elaborate schemes. Sometimes the simplest ideas can be all you need.

  These Watchers were a group of seven, all scattered by flame into little pockets where they’d be safe. Atop rocks and old still-wet logs mostly. Cautiously I picked up a solid tree branch that had not begun to catch fire. Wielding it with two hands, I held it carefully as I made my way to the closest Watcher.

  As I thought, the Watcher did not move at my approach.

  “Are you cold?” they said.

  I brought the end of the branch to the Watcher’s chest, and pushed at it lightly to test its reaction. Nothing but a wobble.

  “Cold?” they said. “Why, the fire is right here.” I pushed the Watcher strongly, forcing it to lose its balance. At last the Watcher stumbled backward and into the fire. “I’m searing with heat.” The other six echoed the cries of their seventh member.

  They did not seem to mind the death of their own. They did not move, except to shuffle whenever the flames got too close. It was downright easy to push the rest of them to their deaths; once they fell on their backs, they simply sat there and burned.

  The fire stung my eyes as I got to work poking the Watchers into the fire, trying not to breathe in the smoke or the scent of burning flesh. This was downright disgusting, and God knows how many problems with breathing I was going to have in a number of years if this habit of everything I visited burning to the ground continued.

  Still, in a couple minutes the Watchers were all gone. The last one had looked at me with what seemed to be a painful twinge of awareness, and feebly whimpered, “What are you doing, Erika?” before finally succumbing to the flames.

  As the last Watcher burned to death behind me, a nasty wave of emotions came over me that I fought to suppress. I had wanted to do this. The smell of death and smoke came along with my success, and I had to look past the grotesque nature of my actions to enjoy it. I had come here to do something, and I had done it.

  These were Watchers, these were expendables, really nothing more than background clutter. Getting caught up in a moral dilemma would do no good. The angels had killed everyone on Earth. Knocking a few of them off should be fair game. There weren’t any laws left to the land—if I wanted to kill angels, I could. If I wanted to spare some of them, say Fex, I could.

  Midori was still waiting where I left her, and she took a moment before talking.

  “Don’t run off like that ever again.”

  “It’s okay, I took care of the problem. I had to get rid of the Watchers.”

 
“I could have helped, you know. Don’t feel like you need to protect me here.”

  “There’s no way I would have let you come with me. It was dangerous, disturbing, and smelled of burning flesh.”

  “I know I usually don’t want to do anything violent, but in this case, I would have liked to come along. Even if I can’t fight, I’m capable of keeping out of danger… and I’d prefer a slight burn over sitting alone and wondering if you’re going to come back.”

  “It’s not like I doubt you.” Far from it actually. If it had come to a full-out fight against an angel like it had with Kasos, I would have been relying on her to hopefully do the angel thing again and save me. If she even could do it. If the angel possessing her had stayed with her so long before that one fight, was there a chance it was still nearby?

  “Then act like it,” Midori scolded.

  “So have you seen Fex? He ran off when he noticed the Watchers were still alive.”

  “I may have seen him flee into the forest, but that could have been anyone. Speaking of anyone, have you seen anyone? You just killed Han and his Watchers, but what about all the other angels in the camp?”

  “It’s night. Maybe they got trapped in their tents?”

  “Wouldn’t they just turn back to their true forms in this type of situation?”

  “Maybe they burned before they had the chance.”

  Midori looked down. “That’s… dreadful.”

  “And yet, frighteningly necessary.”

  14

  “DON’T YOU want to turn the radio on?” asked Midori. The night was too dark and cold to bother walking very far from the camp. We had settled down for the night off to the side of the road on a grassy slope.

  “We should have just stolen a tent,” I said.

  “The radio, Erika. Do you want to listen to it tonight?”

  “I thought you hated it?”

  “It does seem… unnerving. But if you draw some sort of comfort from it, there’s no reason to not listen in. It does fill up the silence of the night at least, which is something I normally detest. But you know, since I stopped sleeping, anything distracting is welcome.”

  “I don’t get what you have against hearing it. It’s just people talking about useful things. There’s literally no downside.”

  “Well…,” Midori said, trailing off without resolution.

  I took the radio out of my bag and started fiddling with the tuner. The channel always seemed to be in a different place, though perhaps the dial had just been moved by accident while still in my bag. I nudged the dial along, going point by point and taking care not to skip a single frequency. All I received was static.

  I frowned. “Maybe they’re not airing tonight? It’s a first, but it’s possible.”

  “Perhaps you flipped a switch or pressed a button by accident? Accidentally changed the settings?” suggested Midori. “Here, let me see it.”

  She took the radio into her lap and fiddled about with it, taking a closer look. “I don’t actually know anything about radios,” she said. “Maybe we should just press some buttons and see if anything works?” She did so, trying every button and receiving only static.

  And then in what was a frightful occurrence, she tried a button and a light turned on. It was a streetlamp, just a few feet from where we were staying. The static of the radio, now ignored, fizzled out. Another light came on down the road. And then another, and another. Soon the whole length of the highway was lit.

  “There’s no electricity for them to be running from,” said Midori, frozen.

  “Obviously.” I got up, eager to investigate. It had to be the work of some sort of angel.

  I went into the street, marveling at the first artificial light I had seen in ages. I surveyed the surrounding woods, looking for a reflecting eye or a shimmering movement but found nothing.

  Midori had not moved, and in fact it appeared she was doing her best to stay very still. “I don’t see anything that could have caused this,” I said.

  From behind my back, a cold voice spoke. “I prefer talking to people in good lighting. Makes it easier to read their faces.”

  I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Fex!”

  “Yes!” He grinned, dropping his creepy facade. Well, almost. “Things went about as smoothly as I was expecting. Good job.” He raised a hand. “High five?”

  “How do you even know what a high five is?” I asked, but I high-fived him regardless. “I thought things went pretty bad. Way to bail on me, though. I could have used some help knocking those Watchers off.”

  “You know why I had to go. No way I was going to get caught killing my own. I wasn’t even sure you were going to make it.”

  “Wow, you’d just leave me to die so you would have a slightly better chance of not getting caught killing your superior?”

  “I play a rough game, I know.” He clicked his tongue.

  “So are you two done hanging out yet, or should I wait a couple more minutes?” Midori asked. “Why are you back here now, Fex?”

  “Uh, isn’t it obvious? The magical lights, the extra skip in my step, my heightened posture—I’ve been promoted.”

  “I was hoping you’d look different,” I said. “I’m very unimpressed.”

  “Hey, I do look different. Just not my human shape. Why would my human form even change? It would just confuse you.”

  “So what are you now?” asked Midori. “Or, what were you before?”

  “Well, all technicalities aside, I’m a Seraph. All technicalities counted, I’m like just one-tenth of a Seraph. I’ve been slightly… disgraced. Had all my power taken away. But I’m back now! To one-tenth of my actual power, that is.”

  “That’s still pretty pathetic,” I said.

  “It is,” he agreed. “I’m only at the level of a regular angel right now. But it’s better than before, where I was quite literally powerless. If you hadn’t realized it by now, working those camps is punishment. The only people they cram there are rejects and exiles like myself. But now it shouldn’t be long before I’ve climbed all the way back to full strength.”

  “Does this mean you’re done with us?” Midori asked.

  “I hate to break it to you, but none of us will ever be done with you. You, along with a couple others, are why we’re even here. It’s not like we’re here to watch the trees sway. Speaking of which, you two better start watching your backs. You’ve been noticed, and while my superiors have chosen to keep you alive as an experiment, you might soon be on your last legs. Play nicely.”

  “You’d think we’d be in much more trouble than that,” Midori pointed out. “After all, twice now we have all been together at a camp, and twice now that camp has burned to the ground and had its leader killed. That’s a definitive pattern.”

  “It is fairly obvious, but luckily my boss isn’t one for noticing delicate patterns like that.”

  “Who is your boss?” I asked.

  “My boss? My boss?” Fex did a fake and airy laugh. Then he dropped his tone back to business. “I can’t talk about such matters with you. We may be illegal conspirators here, but I still have to protect myself. I should be going now, before my absence is noticed.”

  “Will we meet again?” I asked as he walked away, each streetlight flickering off as he passed.

  He turned back to look at me briefly, before continuing forward. “Yes, I think so,” he said. “I do like you. You’re possibly my favorite right now.” He disappeared into the night.

  “Hm, he’s getting much more friendly now, isn’t he?” Midori had her hands on her hips. “Like, what does he think he’s doing?”

  “Well, at least he’ll stay off our backs for a while. I’m going to sleep now. Tomorrow we’ll be making a lot of headway to the lake.”

  “I’ll be—” She sighed. “—here.” She settled into her sleeping bag every night, but I would never understand how she kept herself busy without sleep. She closed her eyes, and it was almost like she was dozing off. But her breath was too
short for that.

  The moon still had yet to emerge. It had been a cloudy series of nights. In the pitch dark, it was hard to see my hand in front of me. I decided to fall asleep instead of try.

  THE NEXT morning went smoothly enough. We were on the road after I ate a quick breakfast, and the weather was warm and bright. As the fall drew on, the days and nights were starting to get far too chilly. We still had sleeping bags, as well as the ability to find blankets and other supplies in empty cars. It was just that we could only do that for so long. As warm as we could get with piles of blankets and clothes, it wouldn’t be enough when the first snow came.

  Of course, I wasn’t expecting snow until mid-November, which was long enough away that we hopefully would have found shelter, if not civilization.

  “The herd looks good today,” Midori said.

  “‘The herd’? What are they, cattle?” I shielded my eyes from the sun to glance at the ever-increasing amount of angels above us.

  “They might as well be. They’re calm, peaceful, and gigantic. And beautiful. I bet we’ll hit lakefront by nightfall. We’ve been on the road long enough now.”

  “Yeah, I agree.”

  The air was that of autumn, the scent of decaying leaves and freezing soil. The wind was harsh on our backs, but the sun gave just enough heat to even it out. The chill of early fall kept my eyes open and my cheeks tingling.

  I had a good feeling about today.

  It was a feeling that was quickly spoiled when I spotted Gav’s familiar face on the sidelines. Frankly, I didn’t care if he was possessed by an angel or just himself at this point. I did not want to deal with his inconsistency.

  “Don’t look now,” I said, nudging Midori, “but Gav is back. Maybe if we ignore him he won’t bother us.”

  “I doubt that’s going to work on him, no matter who he is at the moment.”