‘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.’

‘How did you get us out?’ asks Raffe.

Josiah rubs his face. ‘After my little argument with the guard, I took Beliel. But Beliel is big and heavy even in his shriveled state. I couldn’t fly with him, but I had to get him somewhere safe until you came back. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her.’ He points to my mother. ‘Or her.’ He nods to my sister, who lands in the trees with her locusts.

‘And how did you end up with them?’ I ask.

‘Your mother found out the cult sold you out,’ says Josiah. ‘And she and your sister trekked here to rescue you.’

I look at my mother, who is nodding as if to say, of course we did. Wiry gray now streaks her dark hair. When did that happen? For a second, I see her through the eyes of a stranger and see a frail and vulnerable woman who looks tiny next to the brawny angels.

I look at my sister up in a tree. She’s being carried by a locust the way I used to carry her from her wheelchair only a couple of months ago.

‘You went to the aerie?’ My voice wavers a little as I look back and forth between my mom and sister. ‘You risked your lives to rescue me?’

My mother gives me another too-tight hug. My sister twitches the corners of her lips up despite the pain it must cost her to move the stitches on her cheeks.

My eyes sting at the thought of the danger they faced to rescue me.

‘Paige has three large pets with scorpion stingers who can fly her out at any time,’ says my mom. ‘I told them they’d be in big trouble if anything happened to her.’

‘Oh.’ I look at Raffe with a watery smile. ‘Even the locusts are afraid of my mother.’

‘I can see why,’ says Josiah. ‘She came with a group of shaved-headed humans who were requesting safe passage marks on their foreheads.’

‘Amnesty?’ asks Raffe. ‘Uriel’s giving some of the humans amnesty?’

‘Just the ones who gave her up.’ Josiah nods toward me.

The muscles in Raffe’s jaw dance as he clenches his teeth.

Josiah shrugs. ‘Your mother somehow convinced those people to wander into the aerie after they received their amnesty marks. Uriel had to drive them out like rats. Your sister also distracted the angels by doing flybys with her three locusts. We all kept looking to see where the rest of the swarm was. While everyone was distracted, your mother set the place on fire. She is one fierce woman.’

‘Fire?’

‘What do you think caused that explosion?’ Josiah nods in appreciation. ‘I never would have gotten Beliel out if it wasn’t for all the distractions your family caused.’

Josiah gestures to the truck. ‘Once I convinced your mother that you were inside Beliel, she convinced me we needed to ride in this vehicle. It got us out, but I’m never going to ride in one of those metal coffins again.’

‘Amen,’ says Thermo, who still looks queasy.

Mom has a smudge on her forehead. It looks like ashes, but I know that it’s the amnesty mark. It looks just like the smudges that Uriel’s soldier gave to the cult members who sold me out.

‘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.’

45

A groan reaches us from the passenger seat of the truck. We walk back toward Beliel and open the passenger door.

He’s in bad shape. There’s blood everywhere.

He opens his eyes sluggishly and looks at me. It’s a relief to see him with eyes in his sockets. I wonder how long it took to grow them back?

‘I knew I recognized your voice from somewhere.’ He coughs. Blood bubbles out of his mouth. ‘Been a long time. So long I thought it was a torture dream.’

How long did he spend down in the Pit, taking the punishment for an entire squad of newly Fallen?

‘I actually thought . . . I actually thought, once, that there might be hope,’ says Beliel. ‘That you might come back and figure out a way to take me with you too.’

Watchers gather around behind me.

Beliel’s eyes lift to look at them. ‘You’re all just like I remember. You haven’t changed at all. As if it just happened this morning.’ He coughs again, and his face scrunches in pain. ‘I should have made you all wait with me in the Pit.’

His eyes drift closed.

He takes a shuddering breath and lets it out. He doesn’t take another.

I look up at Raffe, then at Josiah.

Josiah shakes his head at me. ‘It was too much for him. He wasn’t doing well after you guys went through him. His healing slowed down, almost stopped. He was in no condition to handle so many coming through. I don’t think biological beings were really meant to be gateways.’

Josiah sighs. ‘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.’

46

The Watchers decide to do a proper ceremony for Beliel. We drive until the aerie is long out of sight before we stop to bury him.

‘Do we even have shovels?’ I ask.

‘He’s not an animal,’ says Hawk. ‘We won’t bury him.’

There’s an uncomfortable silence as the Watchers gently pull Beliel’s body out from the car. None of the guys will look at each other, as though stubbornly and silently insisting on something that each thinks the other might object to.

Finally, Cyclone speaks up. ‘I’ll be a bearer.’

‘Me too,’ says Howler.

The floodgates open, and all the other Watchers speak out, volunteering to be bearers.

They all look at Raffe, waiting for his approval. Raffe nods.

‘What?’ asks Josiah, looking baffled. ‘After all he’s done, you’re going to bestow an honorable—’

‘We know what he’s done for us,’ says Hawk. ‘Whatever else he’s done since then, it looks like he’s paid the price. He’s one of us. We should give him the proper send-off that we couldn’t give our other brothers in the Pit.’