Raffe sighs. ‘You were right. I left to hunt “the nephilim monsters” only to find they were just children. Gabriel said the spawn of an angel and a Daughter of Man would grow into a monster. I didn’t want to kill them while they were still harmless, so I waited. And waited. Generation after generation, to root out the evil that I’d been warned about.’
He shakes his head. ‘But none came. I searched everywhere for nephilim monsters, but they were just people. Some of them were particularly large people, and they had fewer children than most. The children they had were sometimes especially talented and beautiful, but nothing monstrous. And eventually, the bloodlines thinned among the humans to the point where it wasn’t uncommon to have at least a drop or two of angelic blood in a population.’
‘I knew it was a lie,’ says Cyclone.
‘Thank you, Archangel,’ says a Watcher with a tuft of spotted feathers on his wing. ‘Thank you for sparing them.’
‘My orders were to kill the nephilim monsters,’ says Raffe. ‘Gabriel’s words exactly. I found the nephilim. I can’t do anything about it if none of them were monsters. I did my duty.’
‘But you stayed a long time, didn’t you?’ I ask.
Raffe nods. ‘If I went back too early to report on my mission, Gabriel could have clarified his order to just kill the nephilim and sent me back.’
Now I understand. ‘You were waiting until the nephilim blood thinned, until no one could identify one.’
Raffe shrugs. ‘Or until one of them turned monstrous. Preferably two. Then I could have come back and said that I killed the nephilim monsters as ordered.’
‘But that didn’t happen,’ I say.
He shakes his head.
The Watchers look like they need a moment. Some of them find a rock to sit on, while others just look away or close their eyes for a minute.
‘Why would Gabriel lie and make a rule that an angel who married a Daughter of Man would fall?’ asks one of the Watchers.
‘Maybe he didn’t want to taint the angelic bloodline with our human blood,’ I say. ‘Most angels think of us as animals.’ I shrug.
‘How long have we been here?’ asks Thermo. ‘Our children have great-great-grandchildren?’
‘From your perspective, I don’t think it’s been long since you fell,’ says Raffe. ‘But we’re from a different time. In our world, your fall is ancient history.’
The Watchers exchange looks with each other.
‘You have to get us out of here,’ says the Watcher with the spotted tuft. ‘Please, Commander. Who knows when Judgment Day will come.’ His voice cracks at the end.
There’s desperation on their faces.
‘It’s one thing to die in battle,’ says Beliel, ‘but to die in the Pit, or worse – to live eternally in the Pit . . .’ He shakes his head. ‘It’s incomprehensible. We’re being punished for nothing.’
‘Uriel says that Gabriel went insane,’ says Raffe. ‘That he hasn’t actually spoken to God in eons. Maybe never.’
Most of the Watchers stare at him openmouthed. A couple of them, though, nod as if they had been suspecting this for some time.
‘I have no idea if it’s true,’ says Raffe. ‘Nobody does, except for Gabriel. But it does seem like he was wrong about the nephilim. I’d been telling myself that it was a mistake. But now . . . who knows what else he was wrong about?’ He glances at me.
‘In the end, it doesn’t really matter,’ says Hawk. ‘Our loyalties are to you, whatever happens.’
‘Do you have a plan, Commander?’ asks Thermo.
‘Sure,’ says Raffe. ‘The plan is to bust you out, then you’ll help me take down Uriel.’
Everyone’s face changes. I’m not sure if it’s awe or disbelief. Maybe a little of both.
‘Don’t get excited,’ says Raffe. ‘We don’t know if we can all get out. And even if we can, we don’t know what’s waiting on the other side.’
He glances at Beliel, who looks excited at the thought of getting out. ‘Sacrifices will need to be made.’
42
The Watchers are sure there are more hellions in the direction where the first ones came from. We decide to split up to increase our chances of finding them.
‘Howler and Cyclone, come with me,’ says Raffe. ‘The rest of you, split into small groups and each take a direction. We’ll meet back here.’ He looks at the sky. ‘How do you tell time here?’
‘It’ll get hotter,’ says Thermo. ‘We can meet when we feel like we’re baking.’
‘That’d be now,’ says Howler.
‘We’ll meet when Howler feels like he’s burning and the rest of us feel like we’re baking,’ says Raffe. ‘Ready?’
‘Uh, can I go with Thermo?’ asks Howler.
‘Thermo?’ asks Raffe. ‘The last time I assigned you with him, you said it was dangerous to pair up with him because you were afraid you’d fall asleep on the mission.’
‘Yeah, that’s why he’ll be the odd man out, and if I go with him, I won’t have to go with you and your Daughter of Man.’
‘Good point,’ says Cyclone. ‘Can I go with Howler and Thermo? They’re helpless without me.’
Howler snorts.
‘What’s wrong with going with me?’ I ask.
‘No one wants to be stuck with love birds.’ Howler shakes his head.
‘Awkward,’ says Cyclone, already walking toward Thermo.