She’s finally so far gone that I can’t even try to figure out what the hell she’s saying.
“But it’s fine. We shall have your revenge once I’m finished destroying Jahl,” she coos, patting Fluffy’s head. “We’ll hunt them all down. Every last one. It’ll be a movie about your heroics after that.”
I glance over to Jude, who is gaping at her like she’s lost her damn mind. Gage shrugs, sighing, clearly just as lost as all of us.
“The old you named that motherfucking thing Fluffy?” Jude finally asks.
She peers over, blinking as though she’s forgotten we’re standing here at all.
“She’s such a sweet, fluffy ride. I can see why the old me named her that,” she states in a prim tone…before baby-talking the two-ton beast again.
“If you’re done getting reacquainted, we should get moving. There’s a limited window to reach the Pure Branch for today,” Harold cuts in.
Shit. I forgot he was here.
Fluffy starts immediately, as though she’s decided to take lead, and I have to jump out of the way when the heat rolls off her, almost burning my skin without even touching me.
“How is that thing more pure than we are?” Gage asks very seriously.
“It’s not. But it can handle the maze that keeps others at bay. Paca trained all your animals to do so. She also ensured you could be the only ones to ever mount your steeds. Fluffy can’t be mounted by anyone but her. Not even hell-spawn can withstand that heat. Only The Apocalypse can,” he tells us with no emotion. “It was just another form of bragging rights for that crazy bitch,” he adds in a muttered breath.
The Four Horsemen follow along behind The Apocalypse, as a fallen angel trails them, so they can prepare to save the world…while The Apocalypse talks about revenge on all unicorns to a bull that snorts several times in what sounds like agreement.
No one’s ever going to take us seriously.
I can’t even deal with this shit right now.
Chapter 24
EZEKIEL
My eyes skim the nearly invisible barrier that separates the gray purgatory from…the endlessly black piles of sludge just beyond.
The ground looks to be corroded, and bubbling piles of something akin to tar sputter and spit for as far as the eye can see.
“So this is Jahl’s terrain,” Jude states quietly.
My eyes lift to Paca as she sits atop Fluffy, quiet, her eyes serious, as a small drop of black blood falls from her nose. She catches the drip before it lands on Fluffy, and she cracks a grin.
“Would you dive in that to retrieve my crown if I lost it?” Paca asks me, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Could you take this more seriously?” Harold grinds out. “Just for now?”
Her eyes cut to him, and they narrow, as her smile slips like it was an illusion all along. “Fluffy might get hurt if I take this too seriously at the moment. You shouldn’t have just sprung this on us. A little more forewarning would have been nice.”
“Jahl grows in power almost daily right now, and the Pure Branch continues to weaken. It’s paramount, above all else, to investigate him thoroughly until the fight, in case new threats—”
My breath hisses between my lips as some of that goop turns into a humanoid form, and several begin joining it, until fifty or more rise within a few seconds. Even Harold seems surprised by this, and he stumbles back a step.
I can smell fear rolling off him. He doesn’t show that sort of fear toward Paca, who he helped kill, and who he betrayed. Yet this thing terrifies him with a few gooey puppets.
They begin bashing against the invisible barrier, smoke sizzling from their forms.
“I take it this is new,” Paca states in a dry tone, as the tar-mouths of the forms open and release heavy groans.
“Surrender yourselves. Join me,” those thousands of voices all scream at once in a shriller pitch than before.
I actually wince when they begin repeating the phrase over and over again.
“I’m not sure how this thing manages to seduce people into turning over their minds and souls,” Gage states as he hops down from his horse and moves closer to Paca’s side.
She hops down as well, her gaze flicking around as though she’s casually taking it all in. I see the muscle jump along her jaw, a telling sign the scary wheels inside her fucked-up head are churning.
Something crazy always happens when she gets that look.
“Only Rafael or one of the other archangels will be able to lift the barrier enough for you to rush in. It will take some time to open, but it closes very rapidly. Just a warning,” Harold informs us, keeping a bigger distance from the transparent cage than we do.
“From death comes life upon a grave misdeed. Only then can one sow a truly destructive seed,” Paca says quietly to herself.
“What does that mean?” Jude asks her, eyes narrowing.
She blinks, shakes her head, frowning as she stares at the multiplying goo humanoids.
“It’s another of those stupid riddles that just popped into my head. Lamar and I found it in one of the newest journals,” she murmurs to herself, seeming almost lost in thought. Her eyes quickly flick to Harold and before we can ask more questions, she asks, “Why isn’t Rafael down here showing me the ropes?” she asks, even as the puppets continue to multiply in hordes.
“Because he’s still healing,” he bites out. “However, his balance seems almost steady. At least, it’s steadier than it’s been in a very long while.”
“Tell him he’s welcome. I’ll help him restore the rest once I’m finished punishing him,” she states too brightly, eyes flickering with that volcanic color. “So is this all it does?” she asks, tossing a thumb carelessly in the direction of the tar puppets.
“No,” Harold says with a glare.
“Then…can we see the next trick? This one is tired already.”
“This one is new. Those things touch you, and it could prove difficult to move once you’re in there. Already you were going to have to ride your beasts in there to—”
Paca gasps and leaps onto Fluffy’s back like a damn kangaroo, covering the bull beast’s ears.
Fluffy whimpers.
“Don’t scare her! I can’t let her in there. She’s shaking, the poor thing. Those unicorns fucked up her confidence. They shall pay!”
She lifts a fist into the air, shaking it as though she’s full of conviction and determination.
“Can you stop talking about motherfucking unicorns?” Jude barks.
Paca blinks and looks back at us.
“What were we discussing?”
“Why did I bother?” Harold gripes as he starts moving along the side.
The tar puppets follow him, and I mount my horse once again, inwardly groaning when Paca taunts the puppets.
“Nanna nanna boo boo. You can’t get me, and I’m gonna wipe the floor with you,” she sings with a childlike tone before she sticks her tongue out at the cage.
“Surrender yourselves,” the collection of creepy voices chimes.
“Surrender this,” Paca volleys, flipping them all off.
I’m not sure what else Harold expected from the day, but Paca seems weirder than usual. Or maybe not. It’s sometimes hard to tell.
“We’ll have to find another way to deal with the tar,” Paca carries on, as Fluffy seems to slowly relax.
“The only other way to combat the tar is to avoid it. And you can’t avoid it, so—”
“Let me work that out. I’m sure some of my own new tricks were gathered in preparation for all I could possibly face. The old me was super diligent in predicting and planning. Did they tell you about Ninety-eight Degrees?”
Harold turns, but Jude waves him off. “Don’t ask,” Gage adds, rolling his eyes.
“What? That was amazing! I never get any gratitude,” Paca prattles on, the way she often does when she’s deliberately trying to distract us…
“What are you up to, hell-spawn?” I ask, my gaze raking over her in suspicion.
“I don’t want to unveil my plans while it is listening,” she says, shooting me an are-you-an-idiot look.
Right.
That makes sense.
Fucking hell. Now I really do feel like an idiot.
Bristling, I return my attention to Gage, who is looking away from Paca, a concerned expression etching his features. He looks slightly confused and worried at the same time, but I don’t get to ask questions, because she’s right about the fact we need to limit what we say right now.
Later.
We’ll discuss it later.
Or at least we’d better.
Still, as I survey Paca, her lips turned up in a smile, her eyes darkened with concentration, I notice her subtly catch another drop of blood that falls from her nose.
She’s working hard to pretend to not be serious right now, but her nose only bleeds when she’s so serious that it gives her a migraine. She flashes that smile toward me, wiggling her eyebrows.
“When we’re done here, I want you to be my favorite,” she tells me.
Like a stupid fuck, I almost fall off my horse, and her smile turns more genuine as I fumble to stay atop it.
I really have gone and lost my balls to her purse by this point. No wonder Jude is really freaked out about the love thing.
“I can’t help but wonder if you can make them war,” she muses idly, glancing over her shoulder.
“Not through that cage. And I thought you wouldn’t give away your plan in front of prying ears,” I say quietly.
“It already knows you’re War. It’s the things it doesn’t know that will give us the edge,” she says in such a muted whisper I almost miss it.
“It already knows their individual horsemen powers will have little to no effect, as I’ve heard you already discovered,” Harold butts in, rolling his eyes. “There’s more to see, but it seems as though Jahl is holding back today as well,” Harold says on a tired sigh, glancing up at the sky. “And time is coming to a close for our visiting window. We’ll have to start the trek back soo—”
A thunderous roar vibrates the ground, and we all jerk our attention behind us as the tar sprays into the air, the puppets bursting into liquid to join the spew. Steam rises, proving it’s as hot as hellfire in there, as it all twists and turns.
For miles.
And miles.
And motherfucking miles.
This thing can be everywhere at once with more reach than we prepared for. It’ll take more than just one blast of power to trim back the front lines of its defense.
Tension ratchets up as it sprays higher and higher into the air, an intimidating show of power as puppets start raining down, spears forming in their hands, much like the one that split through Jude.
Death’s jaw grinds as he moves closer to the barrier, watching as they all throw the spears. The spears simply glance the transparent cage, bouncing back with a lot of force, but that doesn’t stop them from continuing to heave them at us, as the spray intensifies within the cage.