Page 92 of A Serpent in the Garden

“I don’t see any wings,” Valic called, visoring his eyes with a hand, his own white robe eddying about his feet.

“It’s early yet,” Finn called back, his shimmering gold profile limned in strengthening sunlight.

“How can you even hurt him?” I asked. “Aren’t they immortal?”

“They’re not immortal.” His gaze was back on me and he wore yet another condescending smile, dark hair wild in the breeze. “They’re just hard to kill. I’d love to do it in front of a crowd. Let him watch them watching him, burning to a crisp. It would be a terrible blow to his ego. Imagine the misery of his final thoughts, all those people watching, gasping, learning he’s not nearly as invincible as he pretends.” His eyes shone with wicked amusement.

I looked away, fumbling with yet more buttons. “And you’ll be able to find him, even if he’s invisible amongst the humans?”

“There’s a rumor he actually might show himself and speak,” Finn said, though he sounded skeptical. “They’re all aflutter, apparently. He’s said to speak with the voice of God. You can understand their excitement.”

“You think it’s just a rumor?”

“I think it would be terribly idiotic for him to show himself to a crowd of humans, but never have I known one to be as narcissistic as Luceric. There’s nobody who could punish him for stupidity these days, no God to keep his angels in line; He’s probably off designing new universes and to hell with the one he left behind.”

I struggled out of my last extra layer as I got to my feet, the better to take in The Crossing. It looked hewn by God himself, every building wrought of stones that shone opalescent beneath the dawn: blushing pink, pearly white, scarlet and gold and orange. “Does he give blessings so freely to many cities?” If he did, I’d never visited one of them.

“When God was at the reins, none of them were ever quite so generous with their blessings.” Finn stood beside me, looking down at the city rambling out beneath us. “Say what you like about God; when he was here there was at least a proper order, a balance. Now you’ve got jumped-up little pricks like Luceric swooping about, mucking everything up.”

“Are they all like him?”

A flash of gold as he glanced down at me. “No. There are enough good, reasonable ones in the bunch but it hardly matters when they won’t leave their precious city to deal with the bad apples. Still up there waiting on their father to return.” Finn tugged me by the elbow, turning me to face him. “The rest needs to come off, too.” He fingered the hem of my borrowed shirt.

Ice in my right arm. Of its own accord, my hand swung up in a graceful, practiced arc and smacked him across the face. My palm exploded in pain at the moment of impact, a sputtering succession of half-finished curses flying from my mouth.

Finn did not budge. The only thing that changed was his slight smile, which grew into a grin as he caught me by the elbow. “Remy, she can’t wear black in the city. She’ll stick out like a monk in a brothel.” He pulled from his bag something white and airy and handed it over, still smiling as he turned his back on me to gaze out over the hilltop.

God. I cringed as I flexed my fingers. Don’t you ever do that again. I’m surprised my hand didn’t break.

It was a reflex. He was practically begging for it.

The dress was long enough to scrape the grass. It covered me completely but looked as though it would easily turn transparent if the light was right, hazy and vaporous, more of a suggestion of a dress than anything substantial.

“Does it fit?” Finn called back to me, the wind nearly whipping away his voice. “We don’t have many options in Hell. I got that off one of our cousins in Fang. Their damned have no need of clothing.”

“It’s fine.” I was struggling with the sash at my waist when Finn turned to face me.

“Do you need help?” he asked.

“Finn,” Remy said sharply.

A lifted brow. “Yes?”

“She knows how to dress herself,” Remy said, even as he took over my hands and clumsily tied the sash, closing the distance between me and his brother. “Do you have any sort of plan for this or are you just going to improvise? You’d better separate him from the crowds somehow and hit him the first chance you get before the seraphim catch wind. You have to take him quickly or you’ll have hordes of them swamping you, and even you probably can’t fight off dozens of them at once—”

In the glow of the new sun, Finn’s eyes shone hard and unblinking. “Yes, thank you. I’m familiar with the seraphim.”

“Your fire might not do a fucking thing to them—”

“Valic’s blades will. Hell-forged and sharp enough to shave with. I’d imagine my fire burns hotter than theirs; mine is demonic. And your ice might make them vulnerable.”

“I don’t know anything about that power. It comes when it wants. It’s not reliable in a fight.”

“Yes, well,” Finn said testily, “Whose fault is that? You should have let your mother train you. I saw what you did to Marcic’s face. You can do it again.”

“I don’t want her getting close enough to seraphim to try it. I had to touch Marcic to make that happen. I can’t touch a seraph without burning her.”

Finn made an exasperated noise. “I don’t plan on letting anything harm her.”