The Stars Never Rise

He shrugged and seemed to be listening to something we couldn’t hear—Finn, of course. “Anything’s possible, but I haven’t noticed any higher percentage of demons among the private citizens here than in half the towns we’ve been in this year. Finn agrees. In fact, there’s a lower percentage in New Temperance than in some of the bigger cities, like Constance and Verity.”


“So, are those cities run by demons too? I mean, it can’t be just New Temperance and the TV people the news station sent, can it?” Reese said. “That’s too much of a coincidence, and my dad always said that coincidence is just conspiracy dressed up for show.”

Devi huffed. “Your dad was a heretic and an idiot. There’s no way two of the largest postwar cities in the world are being run by demons.”

“My dad was a patriot and an advocate for free access to the true history of the world.” Reese clutched his muffin so tightly it crumbled between his fingers. “And at least I know who my dad was.”

I was surprised by such a juvenile, spiteful jab from Reese until I saw his face and understood the truth behind his words—he was still mourning his father.

Devi’s eyes narrowed, and I spoke before she could return fire. “But if it was the whole Church, wouldn’t you guys already know that? I mean, you’ve been all over the country looking for other exorcists, right?”

No one seemed to have an answer. Finally, Maddock shrugged. “We’ve been around, and I’ve seen the occasional demon wearing a police cassock or hospital whites, but I never really thought about it because I’ve never seen them in large numbers.”

“Most of the cassocks we see these days are on TV,” Devi added. “And that demonic eye gleam obviously doesn’t show through the camera.”

And, of course, they’d had to leave their own homes as soon as their exorcist skills—including the ability to identify demons—manifested, just as I would have if not for Melanie.

“Okay, so New Temperance probably isn’t the only town being run by the Unclean.” Maddock sat on the arm of the couch, from which he could see the rest of us. Except Finn. “So, we have several unanswered questions. First, how many of New Temperance’s Church officials have been possessed? Second”—he ticked his points off on the fingers of his left hand—“how many other cities and towns are being run by demons?”

“Third, how the hell did this happen?” Devi interrupted. “How can a town’s entire governing body—even one as small as this civil infection of a settlement—get possessed without anyone noticing? I mean, it had to start somewhere, right? With one teacher or cop or doctor? I get how Nina didn’t notice her mother was a demon, because she’d been a demon all along, but the deacon? Are we seriously supposed to believe no one noticed that the deacon of New Temperance was suddenly evil one day?”

Grayson shrugged. “Maybe there wasn’t much of a change to notice. Demons killed Nina’s mom, and the Church killed Reese’s dad. Demons hunted all of us, and now the Church is hunting us. If you think about it, demons and the Church are kind of like matching bookends. They’re both cruel and evil and homicidal, and stuck in between them you have—”

“Us,” Reese finished for her. “Both us, exorcists, and us, the general public.”

Devi looked more bewildered than angry. “So, what do you have when the demons are the Church?”

They stared at one another, at the table, and at the ceiling, trying to come up with an answer, but all I could think about was my mother. The demon I’d known all my life, yet had learned nothing from. Even after I’d found out she was Unclean, my mother had spoken in riddles and nonsense, and I could hardly tell one from the other….

And suddenly the answer was there, staring me in the face. Laughing in my face.

“New Temperance. That’s what you have when the demons are the Church.”

“What?” Reese frowned.

“Finn’s making weird noises,” Grayson said. “He’s kind of…groaning.”

Because he’d figured out what I finally understood. What none of the rest of them could see yet.

“You get New Temperance,” I repeated. “And Verity. And Constance. And Solace. And Caridad. And every other town that survived the war, if I’m even close to right about this. My mom told me, but I didn’t listen. I couldn’t understand.”

“She told you what?” Maddock’s brows were furrowed in confusion.

I’d said, The war is over. We won.

Yes, we did, she’d answered, and I could still see her smug expression in my mind.

I turned to Devi. “There was no first postwar possession in New Temperance, or anywhere else. No one noticed Church officials suddenly getting possessed, because they didn’t suddenly get possessed. The demons have been here all along, just like my mom, only on a larger scale. That’s why they’re hunting us. That’s why their exorcists are fake.”