“Yeah, I guess,” he said. The others were nodding in agreement. “She’s been through a lot…seen some things that somebody like her…”
Francis seemed as if he wanted to say something else, but stopped and had some more to drink.
“Not just her,” Angus spoke up, turning his coffee mug in his hands. “As of tonight, the entire world has seen things the likes of which have never been witnessed on such a grand scale.” The sorcerer got up from his chair, going to the coffeepot for a refill. “Little girls promising a message from God, things emerging from the shadows, a swirling black hole in the sky…”
Angus looked directly at him as he poured.
“An angel flying into that hole and exploding in a flash of heavenly light.”
He set the carafe back down and took a quick sip from his cup as he returned to his seat.
“As of tonight…I would say the whole goddamned planet has changed.”
Remy had hoped that maybe, somehow, the rational, thinking minds of the world would have explained it all away as some sort of mass hallucination brought on by…he didn’t know exactly. He expected those same rational brains to fill in the blanks.
Didn’t sound like that was in the cards this time.
“That bad?” Remy asked.
“Pretty bad,” Francis said. “More than two thousand dead, and that was just a result of the television broadcast. We haven’t even gotten a number yet on how many as a result of what happened on the plaza.”
Remy felt the weight of the world push down even further on his shoulders as he remembered the message given to him in his subconscious.
There’s a war coming.
“Did Ashley get in touch with her folks?” Remy asked, needing to change the subject.
“I gave her my phone,” Francis said. “But she said that she wanted to wait until you woke up…to talk with you before…”
Remy understood what he needed to do. Nodding, he finished his cup and set it down on the table. As much as he’d rather not, he needed to speak with Ashley, to explain to her how sorry he was for getting her involved in his insane world.
“I guess I should get up there,” Remy said, motioning toward the door. “What room is she in?”
“Maybe you should take it easy for a little while longer,” Francis suggested. “Give her some more time to wrap her brain around everything that she’s gone through.”
“I think she needs an explanation now,” Remy said.
“Angus and Squire are going to be hanging out for a while. Why don’t we get some Chinese and…”
“What room?”
“Gave her the key to 1G,” Francis said, resigned to the fact that he was going.
Remy headed toward the stairs that would take him up to the lobby and was halfway up when Francis called up to him from below.
Standing on the stairs, Remy turned to see what he wanted.
“Can I talk to you about something?” Francis asked.
“Can it wait until…”
“It’s about Ashley,” Francis spoke out, his features frighteningly still. “And what I could do to help her.”
The discussion he’d had with Francis lingered like a bad smell in his thoughts as he stopped before the door to apartment 1G.
He looked toward the stairs to see Francis reach the first floor.
“I’ll wait out here,” he said. “If she says yes.”
Remy nodded, chilled by Francis’ suggestion, but also feeling a twisted sort of relief that the option he was going to present to her even existed.
It would be up to her to decide.
Remy knocked lightly upon the door and waited.
“Yeah?” called a tiny voice from behind the door.
“It’s me,” Remy answered.
“Come in.”
Remy opened the door and stepped into the apartment, closing the door gently behind him. He noticed that every bit of lighting had been turned on, making the barren walls of the empty apartment seem to glow. Ashley was sitting at the far end of the living room, up against the wall, beneath the open window. It was raining softly outside, and a gentle breeze that carried the smell of fire and magick wafted into the apartment.
He left the door to stand on the border of the hallway and living room, not wanting to get any closer to her. Ashley tensed as he stood there, pulling her legs up closer to her body and refusing to look at him.
“Are you all right?” he asked her. “Do you need to see a doctor?”
She shook her head no, sniffling, a wad of toilet paper appearing in her hand to wipe at swollen, teary eyes and a running nose.
“The first thing I want to say to you is how sorry I am,” Remy told her.
“For what?” she asked, still refusing to look at him.
“This never would have happened if it wasn’t for me and what I am.”
“What are you?” The question was quick, harsh, as if she’d been waiting for the opportunity to present itself.
“I’m an angel…a Seraphim.”
“Like, from Heaven and stuff?” Ashley asked, sniffing again.
“Yeah, like that.”
“That’s pretty nuts,” she said, and started to laugh, but she was soon crying again.
“It is pretty nuts, and it’s why I’ve kept it a secret from you all these years.”
“Does anybody know?”
“Mulvehill found out by accident. Francis, who’s got issues of his own. Marlowe…”
“Marlowe understands that you’re an angel?” she asked. It was the first time she’d looked at him.
“Yeah, I can talk to him just like I’m talking to you. I can speak and understand any language. It’s one of the angel perks.”
“You can speak dog?”
“Dog…cat…wombat…yeah, anything that has any kind of language.”
“Did Madeline know?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah, about that-”
“Wait-if you’re an angel, how could you have a mother?” she wanted to know.
“She wasn’t my mother,” Remy admitted with a sigh. “She was my wife.”
There was silence as the answer slowly permeated.
“I knew it,” Ashley said finally. “I knew there was something different about you guys…about your relationship. Mom said that she thought you might be one of those gay guys who’s really close to their mothers, but I knew you weren’t gay.”
“Your mother thinks I’m gay?” Remy asked, finding out more than he cared to.
“Yeah, she did at first,” Ashley said. “Now she doesn’t know what you are.”
“I can’t believe your mother thought I was gay,” he said.
“What would you think?” she asked. “Good-looking guy, lived with his mother, now lives alone with his dog.”
“You think I’m good-looking?”
She laughed softly. “Is also very neat and tidy.”
“Neat and tidy? I’m a slob.”
“I’ve never seen a dirty dish in your sink…ever, and I’ve known you for, like, a hundred years.”
“That’s because I seldom eat at home.”
“Not even a dirty glass or cup. It’s freaky.”
“But you didn’t think I was gay,” he said to her.
She shook her head. “I just thought you were…eccentric.”
“You and your mother didn’t have any kind of bet, did you?” Remy asked, trying not to smile but completely powerless not to.
Ashley was smiling back, and he saw her old self finally breaking through the darkness he had caused.
“With my dad,” she said, and started to laugh. She looked at him then and the fear was gone.
“Your dad? I think I need to sit down.”
Remy came into the room, lowered himself to the floor, and leaned back against the living room wall, no more than three feet from her.
“So no money has exchanged hands yet, I gather?”
“Nope,” Ashley said. “There’s been nothing definitive yet to say who’s won.”
“How’s it feel to be right?” Remy asked.
A shadow passed over her pretty face, and she studied something underneath one of her fingernails.
“You’re probably wishing I was gay.”
“That would have been normal,” she said. “Easier to understand.”
“Is there anything that I can say or do to make it easier for you?” he asked.
He could see her thinking. It looked as though it might’ve hurt.