We both turned to Garrett.
“I don’t exactly have a guest room.”
We looked at each other and nodded.
“Ready?” I asked.
We gathered him into our arms, and I was surprised at how gentle Reyes was with him. But carrying an unconscious Daeva was like carrying a limp lion made of spaghetti.
“By all means,” Garrett said. “Take my room.”
“Gawd, he’s heavy,” I said, grunting.
“You know, I could get him myself.”
“No, I got this,” I said, right as I slammed his head into the doorframe. “Shit. You think that’ll bruise?”
Reyes fought a grin and lost.
* * *
We got Osh settled in Garrett’s bed. Swopes wasn’t nearly as annoyed as he pretended to be. He was concerned. He was traumatized. Cookie was on her way over to help watch over him. We’d agreed to take shifts until he woke up.
Reyes and I took first watch as Garrett went out for sustenance.
I lay beside Osh on the bed, touching the lines that were getting lighter and lighter. Only a few gashes remained. We’d stripped him and bandaged the worst of them.
Reyes was sitting in a chair across the room, his shirt unbuttoned and open, a beer in one hand and resting on a knee. He was so fierce. So powerful. And he was just sitting there drinking a beer. Eyeing me as though trying to figure me out.
“How did you do it?”
I tucked a strand of hair behind Osh’s ear. “It’s called god glass.”
“That’s what you had in New York?”
“Party favor. Kuur brought it, but he didn’t know the rules of the game. He didn’t bring enough for everyone.”
“And how does it work? How does one trap a god, for instance?”
“They must be in a form where you can draw blood. You put one drop on the god glass, say their name, their true name, and presto. They are trapped until you decide otherwise.”
“You’ve had it for over a week?”
I cleared my throat. “Yes.”
“And you’ve known that I was a god for over a week?”
“Yes. My father … let me know. He told me you were created from one of the gods of Uzan.”
“Why would you not tell me about this?”
I closed my eyes. Lowered my head. Whispered the truth. “In case I had to use it on you.”
He went completely still. After what seemed like an eternity, he asked, “And why would you have to take such drastic measures?”
“I didn’t know how much of you was … you and how much was an evil god from a prison dimension.” The irony that he’d been in prison in both his celestial and his human forms was not lost on me. “I didn’t know if you’d be a threat to Beep or not.”
“That was good thinking.”
I looked over at him, surprised.
“I’m not worthy to be a father. I never was. It just took Satan going to the convent, possessing me, reminding me who I was, what I was, to force me to come to my senses. I am worthy of neither of you. I wouldn’t trust me, either.”
“Reyes, that’s not what I meant.” When he said nothing, I asked, “How much do you remember about being Rey’azikeen?”
His irises glittered under his lashes. “You mean, do I remember you sending me to prison?”
I glued my lids shut.
“Do I remember my own brother creating a hell dimension just for me?”
I said nothing. His pain washed over me. Or perhaps that was mine.
“No. Not really. I remember my brother being so frustrated with me, so worried for his little dolls here on Earth, that he created a world where he’d hoped I would grow and learn something. I remember a god from another dimension, a god so beautiful the stars would sooner burn out than turn away from her, begging my brother to send me to her dimension. To a kind of prison, yes, but to a place where I wouldn’t be left so utterly alone. A place where I would not slowly go insane.”
My lids parted. Just barely.
“I remember her sacrificing her life to my brother. Bartering with him. Offering to be the reaper of his world if he would give me, a selfish piece of shit who wouldn’t give her the time of day, another chance.”
He closed his eyes and tried to wrest control over his emotions.
“I remember being so full of piss and vinegar, I studied and studied until I found a way to escape the dimension the beautiful god locked me in so that I could wreak havoc across the universe and, in turn, allowed Mae’eldeesahn and Eidolon to escape in my wake.”
He was gripping the beer bottle so hard, I thought it would explode.
“To call Uzan a prison was a fallacy of the greatest measure. It was a paradise that your ancestors created for souls that were somehow lost. Somehow disoriented and adrift. But all I could see was the fact that I was locked there against my will.” He laughed under his breath. “I don’t deserve you or Elwyn.”
“You don’t think that perhaps you’ve paid for your sins a thousand times over?”
“How so?”
“Lucifer? The Dendour? Earl Walker?”
He studied the bottle in his hands, scraping at the label absently. “Should I leave you two alone?” he asked, changing the subject.
“He’s taken,” I said, accepting the fact that forgiving himself was something Reyes didn’t do. “Osh. By someone very special.”
“And who might that be?”
This might be a little hard for him to swallow. Tact was definitely in order. Or I could just blurt it out and watch his expression go from content to disbelief to horror to a bristly, murderous kind of fury. I chose door number two. “He’s destined to be with our daughter.”
Reyes’s expression slowly changed from content to disbelief to horror to a bristly, murderous kind of fury. “Oh, hell, no.” He shot to his feet. “A Daeva? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Just like a dad.
“Yes, a Daeva. But I wouldn’t dismiss him so offhandedly.”
He whirled around and scowled. Not really at me. Just in general. “What do you mean?”
I pressed one corner of my mouth together in thought. “Okay, you know how I was the grim reaper all my life, then suddenly I’m also this god from another dimension? And how you’re the son of Satan all your life, then suddenly you’re a god from this dimension? Who does that? Our lives are so weird. I think that maybe Osh is something else, too.” I traced one of the dark lines on his face. “I think there’s more than meets the eye. I see greatness in him, Reyes. I see a power beyond our imaginings. I see him giving his life for our daughter.”