Page 153 of Terror at the Gates

“I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. I was trying to do a good fucking deed.”

“Is that really true, errand boy?” Gabriel countered.

I couldn’t tell if they were seriously fighting or just fucking with each other, but that was how I felt around Cassius all the time.

“I’mfine,” I said, cutting them off quickly. “Thanks for bringing my phone, Cassius.”

I glanced at him before leaving the foyer.

“Lilith—” Cassius called after me.

“Just let her go, man,” said Gabriel.

I retreated to my room and set my phone on the dresser, hand hovering, trying to decide if I should text Zahariev, but knew it would get me nowhere. Whatever he’d learned today, he would only tell me in person. I was going to have to be patient, a virtue I didn’t possess.

Coco waited for about an hour before she came to my door with Cherub, knocking softly. By then, I’d taken a long bath and changed back into the shirt Fawna had given me.

“Is Zahariev back?” I asked.

“Not yet,” she said as she climbed into bed beside me.

We were facing each other with Cherub curled upbetween us. I was looking out the window at the fading daylight.

“Do you know what I can’t stop thinking?” I whispered.

“What?” Coco asked.

“If my parents are in paradise, then Esther cannot be.”

“Why not?” she asked, brows lowering.

“Because it will mean that theBook of Splendoris correct and that there is only one way in.”

She was quiet for a moment and then asked, “Is it not possible that they all made it? That instead of only one, there are multiple roads to paradise?”

I stared at her for a moment and then snuggled close, saying, “Sounds like a sweet dream.”

Zahariev

“The bomb went off near his face,” said Dr. Mor. “I’m guessing he opened something on his desk, maybe a drawer.” He paused and then asked, “You’re not going to let her see him like this, are you?”

I met his gaze as we stood on either side of Lucius’s body. He was in a bag.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” I said, though at least if she asked about suffering again, I could say truthfully he didn’t.

I stepped away from the body.

“You wanted to show me something else?” I asked.

“Just another one,” he said.

I thought he meant body until he pulled the sheet back. Then I realized what he was really saying.

It was a body, but the same pinkish-purple jelly he’d found on Burke and Koval was oozing from the man’s eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

“This one’s a utility worker. He was found deceased on the ground at a substation in Nineveh,” he said. “I think it’s the same creature you told me about before. What does Lilith call them? Demon blobs?”

“Yeah,” I said.

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