Page 45 of Concluded
“I don’t.It’s conjecture.A hunch.”Grimes spread his arms.“Yet I know it’s him.And Spanos, this isn’t me wanting to meet my father.Well, I suppose there’s some of that too.But I’ve been waiting over a century to meet him, and I could wait more.He’s anangel, though.Not half like me.Imagine how valuable he could be to our cause—or how dangerous he could be if the other side were able to use him.”
Of course, Dee had no idea what angels were capable of.He wasn’t even sure what they truly were, and whether they were literally holy creatures like in religious texts or just another kind of NHS.Tenrael, after all, was a demon, but he wasn’t trying to drag anyone to the depths of hell.Assuming hell existed.
But maybe it didn’t matter whether angels were superheroes.Because Dee had been told that the balance was precarious.It might take nothing more than a small breeze to tip things irrevocably one way or the other.
Before he could speak up—and he wasn’t sure what he was going to say anyway—Achilles sighed.“He’s been in that place since before you were born?”
“Perhaps,” Grimes said.
“How long is that?”
“I was born in 1897.”
While Dee did the math, Achilles swore under his breath.His complexion, normally warm, had gone sickly pale.“Almost a hundred thirty years of… nothingness?I guess maybe an angel could survive that physically.But what about his mind?”
“I don’t know,” Grimes said quietly.
This was a lot more uncertainty than Dee was comfortable with.Nobody knew for sure whether Grimes’s father was held captive in the black hole.If he was, nobody knew whether he’d be willing to help, and if so, what he could do.And to top things off, it seemed uncertain that he’d possess the mental capacity to do anything at all.
Oh, and even assuming everything was great with the angel, Dee had no idea whether his own powers were strong enough for someone to wish their way into—and out of—the black hole.
But hadn’t both Abe Ferencz and Achilles lectured Dee about the power of hope?It was time for Dee to hope, dammit.Possibly for the first time in his life.
“I’ll do my best to help,” he announced.
Everyone stared at him.And a funny thing happened: they all looked at him with relief and admiration.They—a hero, a half-angel, and a frigging demon—were regarding him as if he were someone worthy.Dee sat straighter in his chair, confident for one of the first times in his life that he’d made the right decision.
Well, that kiss the night before had been the right decision too.He was also sure of that.
Grimes gave him a small smile.Dee had the definite impression that the guy smiled very rarely, but this one seemed genuine.“Thank you, Mr.Martell.”
“You might as well call me Dee.But you know my real name is Damnation, right?”
“Were either of your parents capable of foreseeing the future?”
“I doubt it.They’d both have made better choices if they could.”
Grimes smiled again.“Then we won’t assume that your name is a prophecy.”
“I’d like to assume the same about my name, please,” Achilles chimed in.Dee must have looked puzzled, because Achilles explained.“In theIliad, the Fates say that Achilles will live either a long uneventful life and be forgotten after he dies, or a short one where he’s remembered as a hero.I’d prefer Option C.”
Dee, who had no clue why his parents had saddled him with Damnation, now wondered what Achilles’ parents had been thinking.Was it a common name among Greeks even nowadays, a nod to their heritage, or a wish for their son’s future?Dee might ask him sometime, if he got a chance.
In the meantime, he needed to say something else.“There’s a complication.We’re not at all sure I have enough juice to grant your wish.If I can’t do it at all, I guess we’ll figure that out pretty quickly.But what if I get you there and then the magic sort of fizzles out and you’re trapped?”
Grimes frowned.“I’m willing to risk?—”
“Master.You do great harm to our cause if you cannot return.We need you.Ineed you as well.”
“Jesus,” Grimes muttered.“Okay, then Dee can give me two wishes, one for each leg of the trip.”
Dee had already considered this.“I’ve never granted someone more than one wish at a time.Ashley tried to do a couple of doubles, just small things, and it didn’t work.I’m guessing that transporting you to the black hole is not a small thing.”
“Then give me a one-way ticket and I’ll figure something out when I’m there.”
“Your father is an angel and he’s had over a century to figure something out, but he’s still there.Apparently.”
“I don’t care!”Grimes snapped.“I’m not going to just walk away from this.I can’t.I’ll?—”
