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  “I’ll have no choice but to engage you directly if you don’t do as I say,” said Kasos.

  “Don’t do it,” I said at last. “He’s obviously possessed.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Midori, seeming frightened.

  “Like, by an angel. He’s acting and sounding entirely different. I bet if he turns around we’ll be able to see it in his eyes.”

  “Angels can do that?”

  “If he’s ‘possessed by an angel,’ then we have all the more reason to attack him, don’t we?” said Kasos, and she ran at him suddenly and punched him in the back.

  I might not know much about fighting, but I feel she could have made a better move strategically. The punch met his broad back weakly. Kasos was stuck for a moment, fist still clenched.

  Then Haywood reacted, spinning on his feet and drawing his gun directly to Kasos’s forehead. As expected, his eyes had been drained completely white, with hundreds of tiny eyes springing up to replace them.

  Not only was it painfully obvious how scripted the whole encounter was, it was also obvious the angel that was (possessing or not) Haywood had little idea of how to use a gun. While the muzzle was right to Kasos’s head, he held the gun loosely with one hand, fingers not even near the trigger. If he had meant harm, he would have acted by now.

  Midori was gripped by the situation, though, sitting down and watching with wide eyes. I joined her on the floor, and she grabbed my hand, squeezing it for security. She really was taken by this show.

  “Give me a reason I shouldn’t kill you all right now.” Haywood was now speaking in a voice completely unlike his own, much more mechanical and wooden.

  “Common sense?” I suggested. “Pity?” I eyed the rest of Haywood’s firearms just a few inches from my feet.

  “Erika, don’t,” said Kasos, looking at me with wary eyes. “Wait for help to arrive. Or sacrifice me if you will. But don’t risk yourself. Wait for someone who can handle this. Your life is your most important asset.”

  “I’ll get help!” offered Midori, scurrying to her feet. A look from Haywood and a quiver of his gun stilled her.

  “I don’t see the problem here, frankly.” I wasn’t even sweating.

  “Erika!” shouted Kasos and Midori at almost the same time.

  I grabbed a pistol from Haywood’s bag and fidgeted with it for a few seconds before figuring out a good grip. I aimed it toward Haywood, and, finding it shaking, took a deep breath.

  He immediately took his gun off Kasos and aimed it back at me. “Seems like this is a standoff.”

  “We wouldn’t be if my allies would actually do something.”

  “I don’t want to break it to you,” he said, “but that’s not what you’re expected to do.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think I’m missing out,” I said.

  Haywood’s hold on his gun was just as loose as I expected, and it only took a sudden grab at it for him to drop it to the floor in surprise.

  When he went to reach for it, I took another deep breath and shot.

  And then I shot again.

  And one more time for good measure.

  “Erika!” Kasos yelled, visibly angry. She seemed to be crying, but I doubted her tears were genuine.

  “I’m not done yet,” I said.

  And I shot her next.

  7

  THE UNFORTUNATE thing about shooting an angel was, it turned out, that they took more than one shot to die.

  Haywood seemed dead enough, but Kasos reeled, seeming to no longer try and maintain her human shape. She was still on her feet, but she seemed to have lost gravity, her body held at an impossible angle as she shook off the bullet. In a few moments she settled about an inch in the air, absolutely still.

  I didn’t want to look away, but glanced to Midori. She seemed to have fainted, and I was nearly relieved. I wasn’t sure if I should try to shoot again—the first one clearly hadn’t had much of an effect.

  Kasos then seemed to surge as her body glowed at the seams, tugging at the skin, and all at once like a million pores, her skin erupted into a sea of eyes.

  Always with the eyes, these angels.

  Her skin had gone a sickly metallic cerulean, and from her back blossomed a pair of great wings that tugged at the edges of the tent.

  Then, like she knew what I was thinking, she tore the tent open in one swift move. All at once we were exposed to the unwelcome night air.

  I got up steadily, using the gun like a shield. Kasos rose a few more feet before settling at one elevation. She bobbed in the air slightly, but made no motion to attack.

  “Don’t bother,” she croaked.

  “Let me go and I won’t shoot,” I said, rattling the gun as if that helped emphasize the threat.

  “You shouldn’t bother with this, Erika.”

  I shot at Kasos two more times, my hands shaking so much that I doubted either bullet made contact.

  “Please,” Kasos said.

  “I’m sorry for shooting at you, but can’t you just let me go? I’m not a threat to you. I have no interest in anything you’re doing. I just want to… go.”

  I think Kasos sighed then. It was rather hard to tell, her body fading in and out of the corporeal realm, but something in her throat shook and breathed. “We like to be precise.”

  “Ah,” I said, stuttering on the sound. I looked about—Midori was still on the ground, and camp appeared to suddenly be deserted.

  I was, admittedly, out of ideas, but I was sure I’d think of something. Or maybe Fex would; after all, he had to be somewhere around here. He surely knew he depended on me if he wanted someone to do his dirty work, and I dimly hoped he’d find a way to step in and insure my survival.

  Nothing happened for what felt like too long. Finally, I decided enough was enough and made a run for it. Midori’s body only crossed my mind when it was too late for me to go back for her.

  I had dropped the pistol somewhere in the process of making a mad dash for the forest, but I regretted that the moment I realized Kasos had begun to follow me. The gun had proven useless, but it was still a comforting weight to carry, and I felt frantically naked as I tried not to look behind me.

  I ran as fast as I could, which when I think about it, isn’t that fast. But I was hyped up and moving fast as my feet could carry me, jumping around and zigzagging, like Kasos was some easily confused animal.

  She lunged at me suddenly, her claws grazing my cheek with a long gash. I kept moving and weaving around the tents with little sense of direction. The fact Kasos hadn’t stabbed me through the gut by now was likely a decision on her part. What, did she want me alive?

  I am notably not athletic, and I only made it to the border of the campsite before I succumbed to exhaustion. Taking huge, shuddering breaths, I ducked behind a tree. It was instinct, if anything, that caused me to hide, as Kasos had obviously seen where I went.

  “You don’t have to die,” Kasos said. Something in her voice made it sound like an offer.

  “I don’t want to die,” I wheezed pathetically.

  “We’ll find a way to preserve you as we search for someone better. We are not unkind. I only wish you wouldn’t run.”

  And then everything began to burn.

  I don’t know where the blaze came from, but all at once it was there and terribly everywhere. I was facing the woodlands, but I could feel the heat and hear the crackling embers. It had started in the same way sound rushes you after you take off a pair of earmuffs: very, very quickly.

  The heat waves battered my skin, and I got up slowly. The smoke was not doing wonders for my shortness of breath.

  Kasos had turned to face the camp, and I stood beside her, cautiously glancing to see if she noticed. The brush around the perimeter of the campsite was aflame and slowly branching between tents along small patches of grass. There was no clear sign of an origin point.

  I looked up at Kasos again. Midori was still in the camp. I considered asking Kasos, quite politely, if I could grab her. Th
en I decided to just make a run for it.

  Running was not my strong suit, but it was aided by a sense of desperation only a forest fire can bring to a situation. I took off my coat and one of my jackets, using the latter to cover my mouth and eyes. I was nearly blind, and had to stop to lift the shirt and check my surroundings every few seconds. The fire was growing unnaturally fast, so much so that I met it in the center of camp.

  I hurriedly removed my masking shirt and suffered through the smoke in order to search. I found the tent Kasos had destroyed, but Midori wasn’t there. Had she woken up and already found her way to safety? My head was hazy enough that I spent another minute in the center of the camp, running in circles and checking each tent.

  As the fire approached me, I started to run back. And then, as I came coughing back to where Kasos still stood, I had the sense to follow her line of sight.

  Even through the thick smog I could see the angels and their glowing forms. They had returned to their true states, most of them the balls of wings and eyes I had grown accustomed to. While they hung in the air without much movement at all, a great slowly rotating circle of them had formed a perimeter around the campgrounds.

  In the very center, slightly lower than the rest, was an odd sort of angel I had never seen before. It took a moment for me to recognize this new addition as Midori, and my heart sank. I suppose I had seen it coming.

  She was quite a sight, skin radiating light, hair suspended around her head like she was underwater, and a halo of eyes encompassing her head. She was nearly beautiful, but I wasn’t willing to let the whole “creepy eye monster” thing get past me yet. She was an angel, and she was burning everything.

  She waved her hand and a pattern of sparks elicited another wave of flames. I watched next to Kasos with an odd sort of kinship, a heavy air of confusion as to what was happening and why.

  Then Midori turned her head in a slow circle. When she was facing me, she stopped. And dove.

  I stepped back, tripping on my heels and falling to the ground. I got up and faltered for a few more steps until I was securely behind a tree, and forced myself to stay there. No need to turn around and see what was happening. Kasos would defend me. Maybe.

  There was a high-pitched screeching and a physical thud. Then a sound precisely like scissors. I edged my way around the tree.

  Seeing her up close, I was again struck by how pleasant Midori looked with calmly closed eyes and surrounded by soft light. Unfortunately, this observation was hindered by the scene before me. Midori had Kasos pinned to a tree, struck through with a blade that resembled a sword but was fused with her flesh.

  Midori looked like a religious icon, and barely moved her arm to strike again, this time cutting one of Kasos’s arms cleanly off. Strange vine-like tendrils struggled to reconnect it, but Midori neatly severed them too.

  Kasos withered, letting out a pitiful whine as Midori cut her to shreds. Was this the only way to kill her, or was Midori reveling in her attack?

  Midori struck her blade directly into Kasos’s head, right between what remained of her human form’s eyes. She screeched and retched, throwing her body around. Soon she was struggling to move, and within seconds she was barely twitching.

  I peeked out farther from behind the tree. “Uh…,” I said, hoping to politely catch her interest. When she caught my eyes, I stepped back.

  Midori turned her head and raised her palm to the sky, and the circle of angels stopped moving and scattered like flies. And then she lowered her hand, and the resulting gale put out all the fires and smelled sweet like mint.

  She began to drift back into the campground, and I followed her from a few feet behind. She was visibly losing energy, and by the time she reached the center of the ashy camp, she had collapsed. Above her, the night sky seemed to glimmer, the stars barely shining from above the smoke.

  I ran to her body and cradled her head in my hands. She was breathing calmly, evidently fast asleep.

  I was unable to lift her, so I decided to wait for her to wake in the dying ashes. She was an angel, and she hadn’t so much as saved my life as she had suddenly killed another angel. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t need to, but I wanted to wait for her to wake. I liked her. Or at least, I liked the idea of her. A naïve girl, who needs me to survive, hiding a dangerous secret. It felt like an element from a bad bit of drama.

  Plus, I hated being alone. I needed to regularly talk to someone who wasn’t myself.

  A new scent began to well up around me, like a thousand herbs and a drop of dew, and I was joined in waiting by a moth made of crystals and starlight.

  I almost didn’t notice it; I certainly didn’t bother to move away from it. The moth was only sitting there, waiting. There was only one eye located in its transparent body, a sphere whose pupil was always facing me no matter where I looked. I almost wanted to pet it. It wasn’t that freaky; actually it was almost sort of pretty.

  It looked at me, and like a cicada it began to split open and a familiar creature’s head emerged. It was the deer from the forest, and it blinked at me, settling down by my side.

  There was little to be surprised by when it came to dealing with angels. They very rarely followed the laws of logic, physics, and God knows what else. So I was actually apathetic about the whole one-eyed, crystal moth-deer-angel thing. Call it overexposure, if you will.

  I guess it was… nice of the deer thing to show up, though. I wasn’t sure what was happening. All I knew was I was waiting, and that I had to wait, and I was going to wait until Midori woke up again.

  And then we’d hit the road.

  I assumed I’d learn about what happened to Fex at some point. And where Gav had gone. And maybe I’d get an explanation about why and how Midori had killed Kasos.

  But for now, waiting.

  8

  THE DEER-ANGEL settled next to me with a hiss of steam. We sat for an hour before Midori stirred, blinking awake slowly.

  I leaned in close. “Are you okay?”

  “I think so. I’m not sure what happened. Where are we?”

  “We haven’t really moved.”

  I helped her stand up, and we surveyed the long dead embers.

  “Was there a fire?”

  “Don’t you remember anything?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. There was some fighting in the tent, with Haywood and Kasos, but I don’t remember past that….”

  “Uh, well. A lot happened. They’re both dead; everyone else fled.”

  “But how? And why?”

  “You don’t remember a thing?” I didn’t want to mention what had really happened. If she didn’t remember being an angel, then maybe…. I didn’t have an end to that thought. There was something hopeful about the concept. “Angels came. They killed Kasos, burned the place down, and left. I decided to wait and check you were okay.”

  “Weren’t you scared the angels were going to kill you too?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve made it this long.”

  “So where do we go from here?” She dusted her clothes off, but the pristine white of her dress wasn’t going to come back that easily. “I guess it’s time we took that walk in the woods.”

  “Might as well.”

  I’m not an idiot; I know how unwise it is to withhold information in times like these. I just didn’t want to spoil Midori’s bright outlook or have to be the one to inform her about her whole “magical death angel” secret identity. In fact, I wanted to spend as little time possible mulling it over. I’d come clean to her later.

  “So why did angels attack the camp?” Midori asked as we set out on our way.

  “They attacked because they’re dicks,” I said. “Oh. And because Kasos was an angel too. Most people in the camp were, in fact. I don’t know why, but I do know we’re going to avoid camps like that in the future.”

  “She seemed so nice,” Midori said brightly. “And to think, all she ever wanted was to live with other humans.”

  “All angels are bad, Mid
ori.”

  “Who are you to judge? It’s not like every angel can be cut from the same cloth—they’re just as diverse as us, maybe even more so considering all the orders and forms they come in.”

  “Maybe you’re right; maybe they’re not all the same. They’re all different shades of evil, but trust me, they’re seriously up to no good. Kasos was killed probably because of some angelic turf war, not because she was a brave and holy rebel. I think most of the angels are some sort of hive mind anyway.”

  “I’m not going to trust you. In fact, I’m going to keep believing what I want to believe. You are free to do the same.”

  “The closest thing to a good angel that I met was one who was dead set on murdering Kasos so he could get a promotion.”

  “Just because we’ve yet to see proof of something, doesn’t mean it isn’t real.”

  I did sort of know of a good angel. At least one that wasn’t immediately malevolent. But the moth-deer angel had left without a sound a while ago.

  Suddenly, Midori mumbled miserably, “Damn it!” I realized she had noticed her tent, or rather, the remains of it. She ran over and dug through the cinders. “Nothing!”

  “I’m sorry all your… stuff burned up.”

  She sighed. “It’s nothing. I mean, they’re nothing. I’ve been meaning to throw it all away anyway. I just—I guess I’m still reluctant to let it all go.”

  “What is all of it, though?”

  “Oh, nothing at all,” she said airily, which was my cue to stop asking.

  I decided to check my tent as well, which had miraculously avoided much damage. My possessions hadn’t, though, and I found my backpack too severely damaged to continue using, as well as the clothes inside. I wasn’t sure if the food was good, but I figured I would find more to eat later.

  In the corner, unscratched, was my radio. I picked it up and brought it out for Midori to see.

  “Is that yours?” she asked. “Seems pretty bulky to lug around.”

  “There’s a radio show that comes on at night. Real human voices. It’s amazing!”

  “Please listen to it away from me, then. I don’t sleep too well with background noise.”