Halo Goodbye by Nazri Noor (mind reading books txt) 📕

sweeping by, “it’s all pretty suspicious. The Prince of Gluttony has his disgusting paws all over this. Dubois is an excellent chef, but I can’t imagine him being totally innocent.”

He rubbed a towel against his head, already finished with a quick evening shower. I thrust my palm out at him, refusing to put my hand down until he returned my high five.

“See? He gets it. Something’s off and we’ve got to investigate it further.”

Artemis shrugged. “If you say so. But keep it down, I don’t want any more yelling. Priscilla and I are almost done and this is the good part. The love interest is waking up from her coma. It’s hilarious, she’s been out for a month but her mascara is on point and everything. Gotta love television. Come on, Priscilla.”

She swept off towards the rec center. Priscilla followed, but not before giving me a huge grin and a wave, clutching the cookbook to her chest like it was a beloved new teddy bear.

“I’m just glad we’re on the same page,” I told Samyaza, heading back to my hut.

“Like father, like son, right? I think it’s better to be cautious than complacent about it.”

I held my hand up for another high five. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. Better safe than sorry.”

He chuckled, slapping my palm as he walked me to my front door. “We should all turn in, pick this up in the morning.”

I nodded, pushing my door open, yelping at the sight of the woman who was waiting just past the threshold.

“Or,” she said, way too chirpy for the time of night, “you could stay up a little longer and catch up with your old friend Sadriel.”

7

To the untrained eye, Sadriel could have passed for an exceptionally well-put-together executive, the kind of unflappable, powerful woman who brokered huge deals before breakfast while wearing a severe bun, angular glasses, and a charcoal pantsuit. But to us, Sadriel was the angel of order, and apparently a very important member of a very unfortunately named surveillance department up in the high heavens.

But what she was doing in my bedroom, and how long she’d been in there, was anybody’s guess.

I frowned at her. “How are you in one piece? I thought I trained Box to alert me about intruders. He isn’t very good at it, so he just eats stuff. You’re lucky you aren’t missing at least one of your limbs.”

“Oh,” she said, stepping to one side, and kneeling to pat my errant pet shapeshifter on the head. “Do you mean this fine little gentleman right here? Yes, yes. Who’s a good boy?”

Box, whose favored form was that of a box, or more accurately, a wooden treasure chest, tilted his lid up for more head pats. His long, horrible tongue probed at the air as he made a sound somewhere between purring and yipping from deep inside his gaping maw, which was lined with teeth sharp enough to cut through steel. They were certainly good enough for chewing on squirrels he found on our walks out in the Nicola Arboretum.

I shook my head at him, grunting. “So all it takes is some affection and you turn on me just like that? I wonder how much worse you’d be if Sadriel had shown up with snacks.”

That did it. Box broke off from Sadriel, tottering up to my shins at the sound of one of his favorite words. I sighed and relented, rifling through the drawers in the one desk I owned to retrieve a baggie of doggie snacks. In my sleepiness, I’d also forgotten my manners.

“Listen, let’s make this quick, for whatever reason you’re here, but Sadriel, this is Samyaza. He’s my – ”

“Your father, yes.” Sadriel kept her hands clasped together in front of her, nodding curtly at Samyaza. “We’ve met.”

Samyaza offered her a weak smile. “Surely you can muster a friendlier greeting than that, sister. It’s been ages.”

Sadriel sniffed. “It certainly has been a while, brother. But you do understand the nature of my work, yes? A huge part of it is looking after the mess you and the other Grigori made of the world.”

I could feel the temperature dropping in the hut as the two angels stared daggers at each other. Sure, I wouldn’t have existed if it weren’t for Sam, but maybe Sadriel had a point. There wouldn’t be so many lost and isolated nephilim if the Grigori, quite literally, had not dicked around so much.

Box licked the last bits of crumb and doggie snack seasoning from my fingers, then clomped away again, retreating to a dark corner to do whatever it was mimics liked to do. I wiped my hand on the back of my jeans, clearing my throat softly.

“Happy reunion, huh, guys? So, uh, anyway. It’s late, Sadriel. If you had something important you wanted to talk about, let’s make it quick.”

She focused on my face, then brightened, clapping her hands lightly together. “Oh, of course! You’re going to love this, Mr. Albrecht. I’ve spoken to the people upstairs, and I’ve campaigned for a very special reward for your very special and very brave actions.”

She said “very” thrice, and “special” twice. I cocked an eyebrow. “Actions? You mean the whole deal with Durandal and Roland?”

Returning the dead paladin’s holy sword had been the key to stopping the zombie invasion that had very recently threatened to overwhelm Valero. I didn’t realize it’d been such a big deal for the high heavens, but I did remember Sadriel mentioning that they were happy it was over.

“As I’ve previously explained,” she said, “the people upstairs are delighted that the balance of life and death has been restored, vis-à-vis the normal influx of souls into their respective underworlds and afterlives. Having all those dreadful revenants bursting out of the soil truly was upsetting the delicate equilibrium. And so, your reward, an emblem of heaven’s favor.”

Samyaza scoffed. Sadriel ignored him, practically beaming as she extended her index fingers and traced a perfect circle in the air. Her fingernails left arcs of