He shook his head. “But it explains a lot.”

“Like what?”

“Rey’aziel. He was so different. So much more powerful than anything else Lucifer had concocted. Even more powerful than himself, which didn’t make sense. No one could figure out why. The Dendour put him through hell, literally and figuratively.”

“The Dendour?”

“Like … teachers. Trainers. Only worse.”

“And they put him through hell? Why?”

“Who knows? Jealousy, maybe? But he overcame every obstacle they threw at him. They tried every way they could think of to kill him. They beat him. Starved him. Tore apart his—”

“Stop,” I said, covering my ears. After a moment, I asked, “And Lucifer just let them?”

“He wanted his son to be strong, so yes. But now I know, they couldn’t have killed him. No matter what they did, he wouldn’t have died, so they got progressively harder and harder on him until—”

“Until?” I asked, almost desperate to know.

“Until he stopped them,” he said matter-of-factly. “He’d had enough one day and killed every Dendour there. Snapped their necks like they were twigs. Then he went in search of others. Anyone who’d wronged him in any way. They call it Auya s’Di.”

“Day of the Blood,” I said. I sat back and tried to imagine it, but how does one imagine a child growing up in a hell dimension? It was beyond my comprehension.

“To get a better concept of what he did that day, imagine a ten-year-old attacking and killing an army of trained soldiers with his bare hands, then going to search for more.”

“Are you saying Reyes was ten?” I asked, alarmed.

“Not at all. He was much younger at that time. If you’re comparing him to human years.”

Had he just been destined to be abused? First in hell from legions of demons and then on Earth with Earl Walker? My heart ached for him, but I felt something else from Osh that I couldn’t quite identify.

“What?” I asked him.

“Nothing.”

“Osh, I mean it. What are you thinking?”

“What if that part of him is still evil?”

“That’s what I’m trying to decide.”

We looked at the god glass in my hand. Stared at it.

“Who wants another beer?” Garrett asked.

It was a bit much to take in.

26

Don’t borrow trouble.

Gotcha.

So, then, can I rent it?

—CHARLEY DAVIDSON

“So, your plan?” Osh asked me after they’d both downed a few beers. It was good for them. Let them relax. Take it all in.

Apparently they were ready for more.

“Yeah, about that. You both have to open your minds.”

“Damn,” Garrett said. “This is going to suck, isn’t it?”

“Not for you,” I promised.

“For me?” Osh asked.

I nodded. “Sorry. But first think of this. We know what area one, if not two, of the gods of Uzan are in, right? I’m assuming it’s still there?”

“It’s making its way east, leaving death and destruction along the way, but yeah. It hasn’t caught on to the fact that we moved Beep and the Loehrs three days ago.”

“I think that, since I know the general area where it’s at, I can find it.”

“And what are you going to do then?”

“Why, trap it, of course.” I jingled the pendant, dropped it, scraped it back up, then held it up again, thankful it was indestructible.

Garrett laughed softly into his beer. Not because I’d dropped the pendant, but because of the sheer impossibility of our situation.

“Let me get this straight,” Osh said. “You’re going to walk up to it, open your little pendant, and tell him to jump inside?”

I snorted. “No. There is a process, and I know what it is.”

“And we can tell none of this to Reyes?” Garrett asked.

“Nope.”

“Not until we know where his allegiances lie,” Osh said.

“I’m pretty sure we know, but what will happen if and when, like me, Reyes learns his true celestial name?”

“The name he had as a god?”

I nodded to Garrett. “Yes. Which part of him is the stronger? Which part will take over? The good news is that when I learned my name, I was still me. For a little while. Until I exploded, lost my memory, and vacationed in New York State. But I’m back, and I’m still me.”

Osh shook his head. “That’s a lot to hope for considering the alternative. But you’re forgetting something.”

“What?”

“You’re forgetting that you are this bright-ass light any god within a thousand worlds can see. He’s going to see you coming.”

“Maybe not.”

When I didn’t explain, Osh questioned me with the quirk of a brow.

“This is where the open-mind thing comes in.”

“It gets better?” Garrett asked.

“This is a prime opportunity, Osh,” I said, trying to convince myself as much as him. “We can’t let it pass us by and regret it later.”

“Unless you have a better plan than walking up to him with your light beaming like a signal beacon and stuffing him inside that little necklace, I’d say we probably should.”

This was going to get tricky. Very, very tricky. But I knew Osh’s future to a minuscule degree. Could anything I do change that?

“But what if I could walk up to him undetected?”

Osh frowned. “Still a stupid plan, but how?”

I glanced at the carpet again. Thought about what I was doing. How many ways this could go wrong. Then I thought about Beep. I thought about her destiny. None of us mattered anymore. Not really. Not that we ever did. We were simply the foundation of what she was going to achieve.

“Charles?” Garrett said.

Whatever happened from here on out, this would change our friendship forever. I would be hated, and that was okay, too. If this worked, I would be saving my daughter’s life. Giving her another chance to do what she was meant to do.

If it didn’t … none of this mattered, anyway. I could not let this opportunity pass me by. I just hoped he would understand that.

I released a long breath. Slowed time. And attacked before he knew what I was doing.