見ぬが花
minu ga hana
“Not seeing is a flower,” “Reality is never as good as your imagination”
~Japanese proverb
Horus
Her eyes roll into the back of her head as red blood runs down Ethan’s mouth, dripping onto the white couch. She starts yelling in Japanese, and even though I’m a god, my territory was always Egypt. I know English, I know Farci, Hebrew, Greek, and Armenian. I can read Hieroglyphics. But I never left the ancient world; doing so was never my purpose or calling.
Ethan stumbles back, his eyes glowing green. “Past lives.”
I almost roll my eyes. “Everyone has past lives, vampire.”
“Not like this.” He shakes his head. “Not even close. She’s been thrust into eternal purgatory, a loop of loneliness.”
Timber grunts. “I think I know what that used to be like.”
“And you call us your friends,” Alex grumbles. “So, where’s her origin? Egypt? Greece? Seems to be the theme here, some great powerful, wonderful immortal made a really poor life choice or mistake, lost their power, had them shielded…” The guy actually yawns. “Is she a lesser god trapped in a human body?” He mimics playing a tiny violin. “Figure it out so we can fix it, so it doesn’t cause damage to her human body or soul or—” He checks his watch. “Be right back. I need a sandwich.”
Ethan lunges toward him, but Cassius stops him in his tracks and shakes his head. “Sometimes it’s easier when he’s not present for group projects.”
Ethan wipes his face and spits blood onto the floor.
I sigh and look down. “That’s a new area rug.”
Timber nudges me. “How do you even know what that is?”
“Do not follow his TikTok,” Cassius warns.
I roll my eyes. “Can we talk about the problem at hand? We’ve hired some sort of”—I point at her—“something, but she needs our help.”
Cassius crosses his arms. “Heaven wouldn’t tell me even if I begged. Our job is to fix, and their job is to watch.”
Have I mentioned how much I hate the no-intervening rule?
I guess now that my powers are limited, it’s not like I could truly do a ton other than make her levitate, see visions, or help restore her soul and memories, but I have no way of doing that if I don’t know what she is.
“She’s of Japanese descent,” I muse aloud, but mostly to myself. “When The Watchers fell, the twelve brothers were sent to the twelve corners of the earth in order to earn forgiveness for the rest of the fallen while they suffer in the Abyss.”
I swear I can hear Alex roll his eyes as he yells from the kitchen, “Trust me, we know, we’re kind of on the same team now, got one of them on the council, the other knits sweaters for the homeless—we’re covered in that arena.”
“Except one,” Cassius whispers.
I frown. “There’s one missing?”
“Oh no, Alex knows exactly where he is,” Timber says. “It’s more or less getting there, and getting him to talk, which I highly doubt he’d actually do since he tried to destroy the world and, oh yeah, kill all of us, mainly Alex. But can you really blame him?”
“Bannik,” Cassius whispers his name like a curse.
Meanwhile, Kit lies there, nearly motionless, her hands draped at her sides, her skin pale, tiny specks of blood drying to her lifeless neck.
I don’t know her, but in the last few hours, I feel like we’ve traumatized her for life, she’s going to wake up and scream monsters, and she’ll be right because this won’t make sense without her memories.
Bannik’s name is familiar; he was the angel who condemned Archangel and Watcher Sariel for sleeping with a human, for forgetting his place and his purpose in life. That caused a great hatred between Bannik and the woman whose son is currently standing in front of me.
Cassius. A Dark One. Half human, half angel, until his father sacrificed his power to Cassius and ascended back from where he came.
Where I help rule.
The sky.
It shook the immortal realm. What did one actually do with a half-human half-angel who had all of the knowledge of the heavens and all of the failings of an imperfect perfection? Constantly pulled in two directions, constantly wanting to return to their origin but lusting for what human life provides.
No god ever envied Cassius.
And now that I know him personally, I realize that maybe the world would have been a better place had we all had people who followed their hearts despite the ramifications. Otherwise, how else would we have a king of the immortals like Cassius?
I’m sure that one percent part of him that’s human still causes the rest of him to struggle, but at least now the Creator smiles down on him and the rest of us—for now.
Unless something happens.
I know that’s why he’s always so diligent.
“He was the one closest to my father,” Cassius whispers. “The one who warned him, who resented him for losing his position of power.” He sighs. “Bannik has no traces of good left in him; believe me when I say that.”
“None,” Alex agrees, as he takes a huge bite of the sandwich. “Last I heard he was in The Abyss yelling at everything that walked by him, and it’s not like he’s in a dark cave by himself; there’s tons of people there.”
I take all this in and think for a moment. Then, “And he was in charge of which human plane, exactly?”
The room goes silent.
Timber speaks first, his voice low. “Asia.”
“So basically, the only one who would have any semblance of information is currently rotting in the Abyss and hates everyone in this room?” I ask.
“Yup.” Ethan seems calmer; he shoves his hands in his pockets. “So until then, we’ll just guard her, make sure she’s safe. Obviously, she’s not in any external danger. She’s in more danger from us than she is from anything else that could threaten her.”
“So we just live with this mystery and her suffering?” I ask.
Cassius frowns at me. “What else do you want us to do? Our hands are tied. Besides, you’re working with her; you can keep an eye on her and report back. Think of it as your second job.”
“I never wanted a first,” I growl low in my throat.
Timber slaps me on the shoulder. “But the uniform looks really nice on you.”
“If you weren’t the god of the underworld, I’d kill you,” I hiss over at him.
He smirks and holds up his hands. “Sorry, I know this is a hard adjustment for you not to be able to just snap your fingers, but try to behave and make sure that nothing strange happens to her. Oh, and don’t let any demons near her soul. If they find out how ancient it is, they’ll kill each other to grab it.” He looks around the room. “I’d let her stay here tonight since she’ll be out a while. Then you can be the one to explain to her what happened.” He slaps me on the shoulder. “Good luck.”
Timber starts walking off with Stephanie and Hope, who both give me odd little smiles. Cassius follows with Ethan, but Alex hangs back.
“What?” I ask.
He finishes off his sandwich and then shrugs. “I kind of want to stay to watch the shit show of you attempting to explain all of this before she runs away screaming.”
“Out.” I point at the door.
He shoves his empty plate into my hands. “Yup.”
What? As if I can’t talk to a human?
Laughable.
I put the plate in the strange thing that washes the dishes, then I settle in on one of the large chairs and wait for her to wake up.