Page 45 of Malice
She huffed. “Make plans and God laughs. Is that what you’re getting at?”
“Perhaps not God this ti—” Grim began, but before he could finish, the power cut off, leaving us in the dark, save the tepid daylight that crept under the closed curtains.
Merri jolted, then laughed at herself. “I was warned three times this morning that the power could drop at any moment, and I still jumped.”
Christian made a disgruntled sound, calling my attention to where he had settled in a chair behind our group. “What?”
“I have no service. Nothing.”
Malice pulled his phone from his pocket and examined it for a moment, his expression hardening. “Me as well.”
“Do you think the whole grid went down?” Grim asked.
Chaos nodded. “It was only a matter of time.”
“I cannot do anything about the phones, but we have an automatic generator.” Christian frowned as he said the words. “It should have come on by now. I will go check and see what happened. Perhaps a branch fell on it or something.” He got to his feet, calling over his shoulder as he made his way toward the door. “I’ll be right back.”
I snickered. “Someone’s never watchedScream.”
“What was that?” Merri asked.
“First rule of... nevermind,” I murmured. Jokes were never as good when you had to explain them.
“Whilst he’s gone,” Malice said as he tapped his phone until the screen lit up. He held it out to us just like Christian had when we’d watched the video of Paris. “Hades sent this to me this morning. Luckily I had the foresight to download it. Apparently we’ve been missing quite the rise of the resistance, of which we are an integral part.”
“Well, that’s hardly news, is it?” Merri said, rubbing her arms. “I’d be more surprised if you’d told me we got to sit this one out.”
“Feeling the strain of being the chosen one, kitten?” I teased, voice low and only for her.
She cut me a glare. “I told you, she dies in the end. Twice.”
Malice heaved a sigh, pulling our focus back to the matter at hand. “They’ve amassed quite an army.”
“It won’t be enough,” Chaos interjected.
“No, but we aren’t alone in this anymore. Our goal is still the same, but when we fight, we fight with allies.”
“We’ve never needed allies before.” Chaos’s voice was a low murmur. He was right. We’d only ever had one goal. Bring about the apocalypse.
“We’ve also never had to take a side before,” Grim pointed out. “We were always supposed to remain neutral.”
“Our counterparts set this into motion when they chose Lucifer.” Malice was pacing now, as though he was working to figure out a puzzle.
“So this is about balance?” Merri asked. “They chose a side, and as a result, you ended up on the other?”
“No,” I said, a little surprised by the vehemence of my reply.
“Then why? What made you choose?”
The tension in the room thickened, the air heavy like just before a storm. My first thought was,You, but before I could say what was in my heart, Grim spoke.
“Lilith. She changed it all when she charged us with taking you.”
It wasn’t necessarily a lie, but I knew Grim well enough to know that he was minimizing the situation. This might have started off as us repaying a favor, but I would bet everything I was that it stopped being solely about that weeks ago. Being around Merri, beingwithMerri, had changed things.
No. It had changedus.
We used to be cold and uncaring. Focused only on our needs, our goals, our purpose. But I saw the cracks in all of our facades start to widen and grow. Soon, I’d be more human than horseman. Because of her.
