Twin scrolls that can’t be read by anyone other than the kings—the thought makes my skin crawl.
“Anything else?” I ask.
“Valery barely talks to me,” he mumbles.
I rub a hand over my face. Max is my best friend, but when humans are trying to hurt or kill Charlie, I don’t really have time for his love life concerns. “Max—”
“I know. We’ll talk later. Not over the phone,” he says. “Too painful.”
“Call me if you hear anything else.” I roll my eyes. “And try to stay cool about Valery, man. You guys will be fine.”
“You think?” he says, his voice sounding very much like an eight-year-old girl’s.
“Got to go, dude.”
Max grumbles and hangs up the phone. Seconds later, I’m ringing Red. I woke up ten minutes ago, but already I feel like we need to get moving. I can’t be stagnant when the collectors and sirens are out there. Red picks up on the second ring.
I fill her in on everything that’s happened, and just like Max, she agrees we need to get to one another.
“We thought about booking a flight to get home faster,” I say. “But we didn’t want to be stuck in one place too long.”
“No, that’s good,” Valery says. Her voice is almost back to normal, though I can picture the worry lines etched across her face. No one expected this. The collectors returning? Sure. But them playing with humans? Lucille is obviously getting less wary of igniting war. “I’ll call Kraven and get you guys back here quickly.”
“The dude with wings?” I ask, enjoying the fact that Red used our nickname for ex-Boss Man even though it’s out of character for her formal fashion.
“Yeah, Dante. The dude with wings.”
“He going to fly us out of here on his back?”
Valery doesn’t respond to that. She doesn’t like talking about Kraven’s ability to wing out. Probably because she doesn’t know how he does it, or why he can do it when she can’t. “I’ll get back to you soon.”
“Hey, Red,” I say. “Thanks for telling me about Blue. That was swell of you.”
“Charlie wanted to tell you herself,” Valery explains. “Besides, I wasn’t very pleased with him after he paid you a visit in Denver.”
Well, that’s something. At least Valery was pissed that Blue screwed with me by writing creepiness on my hotel mirror. Ass. Though it would have been nice if she’d admitted she knew it was him when I expressed concern that night. Or if she had, I don’t know, told me she knew I didn’t have Charlie’s soul.
“You know, I guess the sirens are after me, right?” I say, testing her. “I mean, they just want Charlie’s soul back.”
Valery doesn’t say anything.
“Hello?” I say, sarcasm dripping from my voice. “Did our connection go bad or something?”
“Blue told me you know,” Valery finally says. “Look, Dante, we just found out ourselves. Kraven paid you a visit a few nights ago and reported back that you didn’t have her soul. But we didn’t want to say anything until we were sure the collectors had it.”
I don’t ask when Creeper Kraven paid me a visit, or how they finally figured everything out. I don’t care. “You should have told me. The second you suspected, I should have known.”
“I wasn’t allowed to. There’s structure among the liberators,” she says. “I’ve told you this before, but you have no idea how bureaucratic it can be.”
“Angels and red tape, who knew?” I growl, my temper rising. “You know what? Maybe I’ll take Charlie and run. If the sirens found us, it won’t be long before the collectors do, too. If you guys won’t keep me in the loop, then it’s time for me to work alone. And let me tell you, my gut says to get Charlie out of the country without an assignment or a new liberator tagging along.”
“Listen to me,” Valery snaps. “Aspen’s safety is Charlie’s safety. Understand?”
“No, I don’t understand that at all!”
Valery sighs. “Look, I promise I’ll try to keep you more in the loop. I know you care about Charlie, and you’ve made a lot of changes that prove it.”
Guilt sits in my stomach like a hot coal. Because how much have I really changed when all it took was for Charlie to be out of sight for me to revert back to my old ways? “It’s okay,” I say, finding it hard to speak. “I know Big Guy can’t divulge everything, but you’ve got to tell me this: what are the twin scrolls?”
“Who told you?” Valery barks.
“Who cares?” I respond, happy to have surprised her. “What are they?”
Red pauses. “I’m not supposed to—”
“Yeah, yeah. Hierarchy and bureaucracy and paperwork and all that crap. Just forget it; I’ll figure it out on my own.” I’m being difficult, but I’m also giving Red an out, because I really don’t want her to get slapped around for not playing Honorable Liberator. I know she respects the system, and nothing I say is going to change that.
So it surprises me when Valery speaks next. “The twin scrolls are two separate documents, both with the same exact verbiage, created centuries ago,” she says, her voice hesitant. “When Lucille was cast out of heaven, and he stole the dargon which made our cuffs, he also stole one of the scrolls. I’ve been told he can read it, but that none of the other demons can.”
My mind whirls. I can’t believe Valery knows that Lucille stole the remainder of Big Guy’s dargon. I figured that was a story only I knew, but I guess Big Guy is more generous with the information.
“What Lucille doesn’t know,” Red continues, “is that whatever was written on the document he stole was meant for him. God knew he’d steal it, and it was intended as a last-chance sort of thing.”
“Last chance?”
“Right. God decided he wanted Lucille to know about his plans for humankind’s future. His thinking, if I understand this correctly, was that if Lucille allowed God’s plans to continue without interrupting them, then he would be allowed back into heaven.”
“Why would Big Guy give him that chance?”
“Because he’s merciful.”
“Because he’s vengeful,” I respond. “Because he can’t wait to kick Lucille back down when he fails.”
“One day, you’ll get it, Dante,” Valery says. “But I’m not going to try and convince you how amazing he is.”
“Oh, so you’ve met him?”
Nothing.
“Didn’t think so.”
“I’ve got to go,” she says. “I’ll talk to Kraven. We’ll get you back here. Just take care of yourself.”
I hang up, and only after the line is dead do I realize Valery told me to take care of myself. Not Annabelle or Aspen or even Charlie. Myself. I’m not sure how Big Guy operates, but some of his liberators are pretty cool, I decide. And maybe that means something.
Stuffing the phone in my pocket, I see Blue walking toward me. I’m still furious that he kept the secret of Charlie’s soul from me. I mean, Valery has her recent promotion to protect, so I know she doesn’t want to mess anything up. But Blue? He’s a new liberator like me. I thought we were friends. Kind of.
As he gets closer, I forget about my anger and instead remember what took place in my room last night. If he knew about Charlie and me, how would he react? It doesn’t matter, because I’d never tell him, or anyone else for that matter. That moment was between us, and I don’t want to share a single piece of it.
“Hey,” Blue says, wiping powdered sugar off his mouth. I glance down and see a package of mini doughnuts in his hand. Guess some things never change. “I wanted to apologize for not telling you about Charlie’s soul. I almost told you outside Aspen’s cabin.”
“So why didn’t you?”
Blue’s gaze falls to the floor, and some of my irritation dissipates. He runs a hand through his curly hair. “I’m trying to believe in Big Guy’s plan.”