Page 140 of Bones

And then he shriveled, his skin a rotted husk as it fluttered to the ground.

“That’s it?” Juno looked around to where the remaining Absolve members were empty, rapidly decaying corpses. “That can’t be it, right?”

“Maybe?” Denny said.

“No,” Aurora and Lilith said at the same time again.

“My intuition is telling me something else is happening here.” Lilith slowly approached the body. “What the hell is wrong with his eyes? Is he a cyborg?”

We rushed over to see.

The rest of his body was scorched earth, but his eyes remained the normal size. What wasn’t normal was the things floating in them.

“Worms? Was this whole thing because of brain worms?” Denny asked.

That fullness.

“Souls. Thousands of them.” I crouched down to look closer. Black, gray, golden, dimmed. Some stolen and some bartered. All of the pilfered or sacrificed souls were in his being. And once he died, the windows to the soul…

That stupid fucking saying strikes again.

“I tried to send a message to Levi, but I don’t think it’ll go through from down here. Hopefully, I have War to Satan roaming because I really don’t want to touch those.”

“That’s fine. We’ll take them.”

We whipped around.

For the love of?—

“Angels,” Lilith said.

Two of them stood in the now open doorway. Both looked to be men in their late thirties, but neither was true.

They weren’t men.

And they were much,mucholder.

“We were sent to retrieve the souls.” Wearing a burgundy suit, he styled his black hair like Elvis. He gave a kind and peaceful smile as he held a hand out.

The other was dressed much less formal in ripped jeans, a cut tee, and scuffed leather boots.

They were angels but… not.

I scooped the eyeballs up and was grateful they didn’t feel like eyeballs. Instead, it was like marbles in my palm. “We’re set.”

“You can’t keep those, Dubhloach. You know that.”

“And you can’t have them,fallenangels.”

It was a guess I tossed out because the greedy, lustful way the one in the casual clothes was eyeing the death and destruction in the room was far from fucking heavenly.

Aurora’s expression of pure awe fell to stark terror.

“Fuck.” Suit angel let out a long groan. “First, we had to deal with that bastard for centuries. Do you know how annoying it is to spend time with someone who always thinks they’re the smartest person in the room? Of course, you do. He made you sit through his villain monologue so you’d understand how intelligent he was before you died. Now imagine dealing with that for centuries. We’re literal angels.I’mthe one who told himabout how powerful souls were. An angel from Heaven with a divine order to create Absolve. But did he just obey? No. He had to make everything so damn convoluted so he could prove how clever he was. He warded his body to make sure we didn’t cut him out once we had enough souls for paradise. Which, yes, fine, was the plan, but still. It was a frustrating obstacle. And thanks to all that preservation, he knew he couldn’t harness your souls until he’d gained enough power, or they would rip him apart. It tookforever. When we were still in Heaven was one thing. It felt like a few months for us, so no biggie. But now that we’ve been banished here? Human Earth is Hell. And…” He gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Look at me. Doing a damn soliloquy myself.” He shrugged. “Whatever. You took care of him and his warding in the wall, so thanks for doing us that solid. And he came through in the end by finding you. The great and wonderful Four. Hand over the souls—the ones in the eyes and your own—and we’ll uphold that deal he offered. We’ll let you live in our new paradise.”

“Isn’t that just Heaven?” Juno asked.

“Fuck no.” Anger pinched casual one’s face. “You of all people should get that, War. Created to help humans who would rather kill themselves and each other. Cursed to live amongst them. Forced to serve them. Your entire purpose is stopping those hairless primates from pressing the self-destruct button. And for what?” He threw an arm out toward the devastation, his eyes going hooded. “For them to trade their eternal afterlife for a few years of authority or money or pussy or whatever.”

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