“Cain’s going to forbid this,” I mutter when she stops to take a breath.

  “Fuck Cain,” she says. “He doesn’t own us. We’re more than this job, aren’t we?”

  “Yeah, we are.”

  Sarah spends the rest of the night with me. We don’t go much further physically, and I have no expectations of it. This kind of healing takes time. She’s fighting her own battles, and I’m fighting mine. It’s enough that she falls asleep beside me, that she trusts me this much.

  I can’t easily sleep with her in my bed, so I spend the evening reading the book she gave me. By the end, I understand everything. We’ve devoted so much time to each other, Sarah and me. We’ve nurtured each other from childhood, breaking through walls while keeping one another from crumbling completely. I get it now. What is essential is invisible to the eye. We aren’t just cogs in a machine called the House of David.

  When I wake in the morning, she’s still beside me. The Little Prince sits open on my nightstand. I decide to return Don Quixote to the library. I don’t care to finish it anymore.

  Aiden’s already in the cafeteria, swigging sugar from a pixie stick. “Want some?” he asks when I sit across from him.

  I shake my head. “One of these days, your teeth are going to drop out of your head.”

  “We have dental, don’t we?”

  I shrug. “Last I checked.”

  “Then I’ll just get new teeth.”

  I pass him the rest of my breakfast hash. “Eat something real.” He takes it grudgingly, and I suddenly realize how odd it is that he’s even here. “Weren’t you scheduled to go to Ethiopia?” As far as I know, Aiden was set to join the team investigating rumors about the possible existence of the Ring of Solomon, which is supposed to give its wielder control over vast demonic forces. It’s likely bullshit, but Aiden was excited about it when he found out he was going. He’d always wanted to see Ethiopia.

  He balances his fork on the edge of the plate I gave him and pushes his hair from his eyes. “They don’t want me working with Orion.”

  “So, they sent him over you? You have seniority. You’re a Judge.” The unfairness of it all doesn’t escape me. This is highly unusual. “I’ll talk to Cain about this.”

  “Don’t.” Aiden picks up his fork again. “He’s made his decision.”

  “Well, it’s a stupid decision.” I lower my voice because the cafeteria is filling up with people.

  Joshua sits next to us and tears into a roll with his teeth like he needs to kill it before he eats it. “What’s a stupid decision?” he asks through a mouthful of bread.

  “Cain chose Orion over Aiden for Ethiopia. It’s absurd.”

  “Hmm…” Joshua knits his brow. “Normally, I’d disagree with you on principle, but you’re too right this time. That guy’s as unstable as they come. It’s been six months since his family was killed, and he’s not any better. He just keeps getting worse. It’s like each mission sends him a little further over the edge.”

  Something stirs deep in the pit of my stomach. This isn’t right. None of this makes sense. This just isn’t how the House of David operates. I stand.

  “Where’re you going?” Aiden asks.

  “Ethiopia,” I answer.

  “Then I’m going with you.”

  “No, you aren’t. You’re too important, you and Sarah both.”

  Joshua swallows the food in his mouth. “Can I come?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I say.

  He grins. “Because I’m not important.”

  “Exactly.” My tone is serious, although I think Joshua meant it as a joke. “Aiden, you have to look after Sarah. Don’t let her follow me, okay? No matter what she says, keep her here.”

  A familiar voice behind me says, “And why do I need to be kept here?”

  I freeze, so Joshua answers on my behalf. “Because Eden and I are going to Ethiopia to… What are we going to do, Eden?”

  “Orion’s lost it,” I say to Sarah. Her hair is still mussed from sleeping, and it’s all I can do to keep from smoothing it for her. “He’s not himself anymore, and he’s only getting worse. We’re putting a stop to this mission.” I take her hand, and she doesn’t pull away. “Look, I get it now. You’re my rose, and Aiden is… my dead volcano or something.” Joshua snorts, and Aiden looks confused. Sarah bites her lip like she’s holding in a riot. She’s the only one who knows what I’m talking about.

  “Why am I a dead volcano?” Aiden asks.

  “Because you never know with you,” I answer like it couldn’t be simpler. “Listen. Cain doesn’t care about us. He thinks he’s the House of David, but he’s wrong. We’re the House of David. Orion, too. I have to stop him before he destroys himself, and I can’t have you two with me. If Orion hurts one of you, I’ll have to kill him, and I don’t want to kill him. Please, stay here. I’ll be fine. Joshua’s coming with me—”

  “Because I’m not important,” Joshua adds proudly.

  Sarah squeezes my hand. “Okay, Eden. Just this once, we’ll hang back, but only because it makes sense strategically. Next time, we’re coming with you, and Cain can fire all of us if he has a problem with it.”

  * * *

  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia—Mission: Bring Orion Home… Again

  This mission is Drew’s, but I imagine, had Drew been allowed to choose his team, Orion would not be on it. Cain has his fingers in this, no doubt.

  I track down my favorite pilot and tell him where we need to fly. I also tell him to ready the jet immediately and secretly. Joshua manages to get hold of some confirmation briefs that let us know the mission is taking place just outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s busy capital.

  According to legends, Emperor Menelik II, who claimed to be a direct descendant of King Solomon, had the Ring of Solomon passed down to him through his family line. At one time, the ring was said to be hidden in The Menelik Palace. Then it was moved to Entoto Maryam Church. Now it’s supposed to be buried somewhere on Mount Entoto, and the Djiboutian side of the Djiboutian-Eritrean border conflict has supposedly found the exact coordinates. Just what they plan to do with an army of demons, I can’t begin to imagine. Understandably, the Ethiopian government would rather not take a wait-and-see approach, which is why they hired us to break up the excavation.

  By the time we arrive at the base of Mount Entoto, the sun is setting. Joshua has been chatting my ear off the entire flight, but I don’t mind. He can have all the one-way conversations he wants. It gives me time to think, which I’m in desperate need of, considering I’ve planned exactly none of this excursion.

  Even as we make our way up the mountain in ATVs, I’m still debating what to do. There’s a chance, however small, that reports of Orion’s unhinged behavior are exaggerated. Maybe that’s why Cain hesitates to act. Whether Orion is killing people is beside the point. He’s been hired to solve unsolvable problems, and casualties are to be expected. He shouldn’t be condemned just because he can suddenly do the job without hesitation. Wasn’t that what I wanted from him? I thought it was, anyway.

  We follow the coordinates until we get close, and then we park to walk. The forest around the mountain is filled with eucalyptus trees. The way their bark peels, revealing streaks of different shades, makes their trunks look like running watercolor paint, like an artist’s abstract rendition of a forest. It’s something someone might hang on their living room wall, a peaceful scene, which makes the warzone we stumble into all the more jarring.

  I nearly trip over the first body I see. The soldier’s camouflage is even more effective after he’s dead than it probably was while he was alive and breathing. I kneel and pull an arrow from his body. The build of it is distinctive. Drew modifies everything, from his carbon compound bow right down to the shaft of his arrows. Much like my scythe, the only ancient parts of his weapon are Damascus steel. His arrowheads were supposed to have originally belonged to Archangel Uriel, but I doubt the archangel’s aim was quite as impeccable as Drew’s. Joshua and I stumble upon body after body. Every one of them died by Drew’s hand, and every one of them has an arrow through his heart.

  When gunfire rings out, Joshua and I leap behind the nearest tree. “Stay behind me,” I order. I have the Finger of God. I make a better shield, though we’re both wearing STP armor. Between us, we have two semiautomatics. We came ready, so we ease our way in the direction of the fired shots. A shadow shifts in the waning light. “Drop your weapon!” I shout, my gun locked and ready. The shadow doesn’t move.

  “Eden? What are you doing here?” the shadow finally says. I recognize Drew’s mellow voice immediately. My relief is enormous. I was not prepared for a firefight. My hands are shaking too much. The truth is I’m relying on Joshua to make any necessary kills.

  “I thought you might need backup,” I answer.

  “Heard about Seditio’s involvement, did you?”

  Seditio? But they’ve been so quiet lately. I thought they’d already gotten what they wanted out of us—Orion’s psychotic break. “What’s Seditio got to do with this?” I say, edging closer.

  “That’s what Rion’s trying to find out.” There’s a rustle in the trees to our right. Drew already has an arrow ready. He pulls down his night vision goggles, slides around the tree to aim, and fires. There’s a groan and a rustle as his prey falls in the brush.

  “Where is Orion?” I ask, suddenly worried.

  “He’s interrogating a soldier.” Drew points behind him. “West of here.”

  I glance at Joshua, and he seems to understand. “West it is,” he says.

  Drew readies another arrow. “Care to explain?”

  I suppose he deserves an explanation, if nothing else. “I’m not really here to back you up. I’m here to monitor Orion. He’s not okay, and Cain doesn’t care.”

  “Won’t argue with you there.” There’s more gunfire, and Drew shoots one more fighter before lowering his bow. “I think that’s all of them. Let’s go.”

  Our trek through the forest is all but silent. We have nothing and everything to say to each other. There’s a sickness in our organization, and all of us feel it. I have no doubt about that. I stumble once, and Drew catches me by the elbow. “Didn’t you bring night vision?” he whispers in the dark. I shake my head. “That’s a rookie mistake. Here.” He hands me a spare pair, and I put them on. “Sorry, Josh,” he says. “I only have the one.”

  Joshua shrugs and continues on his way.

  Several yards in the distance, I catch sight of two figures standing beside a rock wall. I grab the back of Joshua’s shirt to stop him from getting too close. “I want to see what he does,” I explain, my voice barely a whisper. “He may only be gathering intel.”

  I also want to gather evidence for Cain, so I flip on the recording device in my night vision. After a moment of observation, it becomes clear why one figure barely moves. A soldier has been pinned to the wall with a short sword. I don’t know where the hell Orion got that weapon, but I’m taking it from him as soon as we get back. Close range is not his style, or it shouldn’t be, anyway.

  “Don’t you lie to me again,” Orion growls at the soldier. “Why are you really here?”

  The soldier whimpers. “I already told you. We’re looking for the ring—”

  He’s interrupted by Orion’s knife point against his cheek. “I warned you. I’m not a fucking fool, and you’re not a rogue Djiboutian soldier. Why did Seditio send you here? What do they want with us?”

  “I… I don’t know,” the soldier’s voice breaks. Orion slowly draws his knifepoint down his victim’s cheek, splitting it from eye to chin while the man screams. It must be agony. Every time the soldier squirms, the short sword in his shoulder cuts a slightly bigger hole in him.

  Joshua starts to charge in, but I tug him back. “I need evidence,” I murmur. “Or this will just keep happening.”

  “I’ll give you a choice,” Orion says. “Option A: give me the information I want. Or option B: die an excruciating death. And remember, option B is the default. Not making a choice is not an option.”

  I swear, even through the green glow of my night vision, I can see the exact moment the soldier finally breaks. He sobs like a baby. He’s scared and alone, at the mercy of a sadistic madman. He must feel the way Orion did in the hands of Whiteface. Maybe that’s what Orion is trying to accomplish. Maybe Whiteface was a better teacher than even he suspected.

  “Seditio’s leader hired us,” the soldier says between sobs. “She said her organization would fund our cause… if we just rattled you a bit. If we could keep you from finding the ring or discovering… it didn’t really… exist… she would…” The soldier has lost too much blood. He’s fading fast.

  Orion punches him in the face. “She would what? Wake up, you weak fuck! What does Mary Denau want with me?”

  “She wants… you… to…” The soldier nods his head and starts to slide down the rock despite the sword in his shoulder.

  Enraged, Orion pulls the sword from the wall and swings it at the soldier’s neck. I stand shocked. I expected him to hesitate, to give me time to stop him, but he didn’t. He just sliced through the man’s throat like it was the easiest thing in the world.

  Now he stands over the body, screaming at it. “You weak motherfucker! You weak, weak, weak motherfucker!” He swings the sword repeatedly at the dead man’s neck, hacking through muscle and bone with a violent rage I never thought I’d see in another person, let alone my golden-boy brother.

  Before I can fully wrap my head around what’s happening, Drew moves in. “That’s enough, Rion,” he says. The authority in his voice is crystal clear. “He’s already dead.”

  Orion swings the blade one more time for good measure. Then he straightens up and laughs. Joshua wasn’t exaggerating. If anything, he was understating the situation. I turn off my camera and make my way toward the monster. “Orion.”

  He whirls on me like a thing possessed, sword drawn and ready. Then he stops, squints in the dark, and grins. “Oh, Eden! It’s only you. I thought you were going to cut off my head.”

  “I still might,” I mutter. “What the hell are you doing? Desecration of a corpse? It wasn’t enough that you tortured and murdered the man?”

  He shrugs and wipes his blade off on his pants. The whole front of him is already spattered with blood. “What does it matter?” he says. “He can’t feel it if he’s already dead.”

  “But you can.”

  “Right.” He sighs, irritated. “What are you doing here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be holed up on the Gate?”

  “I came for backup.”

  “We didn’t need backup,” he says under his breath.

  “Listen.” I grab his arm and squeeze. “The mission’s over. We’re going home.”

  “I’m not finished yet.”

  “Yes, you are.” I dig my fingers into his arm, and he yanks it away from me. “This is an order from your superior.”

  Drew joins me. “It’s an order from two of us, Rion. The mission’s over when I say it is, and I say we’re done.”

  “Fine.” Orion marches away from us without looking back. “If you’re cool with losing.”

  Drew’s eyes widen, and he murmurs, “He’s about five minutes from calling me weak. The second he does, I’ll be sleeping with one eye open. That boy’s a cannonball. He’s going to crash through anything that gets in his way.”

  I clench my jaw and dig deep for the compassion I once had for my brother. “He just needs a purpose. Right now, he’s lost.”

  “I don’t think so, Eden.” Drew shakes his head and hangs his bow on his pack. “Rion already knows what he’s looking for.”

  12: your own

  Orion

  Eden thinks I’m weak—I’ve no doubt about it now—and because he believes my weakness is inherent, any strength I gain, he’ll attribute to sickness. In his world, I can’t possibly become stronger. He’s wrong, but when I find him waiting in my room shortly after the prematurely ended mission, I know there’s no way I’ll convince him of it.

  He leans against my desk with his arms crossed, waiting. “We need to chat, Orion.”

  “I don’t recall inviting you in.”

  “I’m your brother. I don’t need an invitation.”

  So, he’s going to use our dubious biological relationship to invade my personal space now? “You just made that up.” I sigh because I don’t have the energy for this right now. “Just say what you came to say so I can get on with my life.”

  He narrows his eyes like he can’t believe I’m disrespecting him. He doesn’t know that respect has to be earned, and he’s quickly losing mine with the weakness he’s embodied lately. “Look,” he says. “We both know this job comes with a certain amount of violence, and obviously, a certain level of indifference toward death is necessary in order to do what has to be done. But you’ve exceeded that level by… well, by a lot actually.”

  I shrug. “Does it really matter? I get the job done, don’t I? I serve the House just like you wanted me to.”

  “I never wanted you to desecrate corpses.”

  My temper starts to rise, but I repress it. No good can come of proving his point. He thinks I’ve lost it, and it’s up to me to prove I haven’t. “It’s not what you think,” I say, although I’m not convinced myself. “I just need to make them less human to deal with their deaths. It’s a coping strategy. Like yours. I cut them up so they don’t look like people anymore.”

  He shakes his head. “You cut them up before you kill them too. This isn’t a coping strategy. You enjoy their suffering. You’re no better than Whiteface.”

  With that, all my attempts to keep my temper go out the proverbial window. “How dare you!” I scream. “You have no idea what he did to me! You have no idea what I went through! How dare you compare me to that… that demon!”