Page 21 of The Halo & the Heathen
“God?”
She smiles and reaches out, but she doesn’t cup my cheek. She only pretends to. “You came to give me something, child.”
Her smile is pained, too.
Something isn’t right.
My demon’s words ring in my ears.
I hold up the halo, but as the hosts around her gasp, I don’t offer it to her.
She looks at it, greedily. “You could only have made me happier if you had dragged my errant child back to me whole, halo and all.”
“I want you to cure my sister,” I say and her smile vanishes, but only for a second before it returns, still false.
“So it’s not a gift?”
I grip the broken circle tighter. “Where are all of the other people?”
“What other people?” she asks.
No one has climbed that staircase in a millennium.
God smiles down at me like she is the benevolent creator, not the wrathful creature the oldest stories tell.
“No one gets to heaven.”
“This is not the place for humans.”
Then what’s the fucking point?
I shove the anger and frustration back down inside of myself, packing it tight. It doesn’t matter right now. Skye is all that matters.
“I’ve come to trade the Devil’s halo for my sister’s health.”
“I am God. I don’t do things simply because humans beg.”
“I’m not begging. I came to buy her life, no matter the cost.”
“You were the cost… and you are spoiled.” She sneers down at me. “You’ve defiled yourself too greatly, Iona.”
“Thief,” one of the angels hisses.
“Fornicator,” says another.
“You have willingly lain with the Nameless.” She looks behind me. “Your soul is still connected to that foul creature.”
I look behind me and see the faint glimmer, like a strand of silver thread unraveling from me like I’m made of fabric.
“You won’t save my sister, because I was too weak to withstand temptation?”
“Shehas to prove herself. You can’t do it for her.”
“She can barely stand!” I look past God, to the heavenly hosts. They all seem bored.
I’m not wanted here.
“I came here for a miracle.” I clench my jaw so tight, it should hurt, but it doesn’t. “You’re supposed to be love. How can you do this?”
