Just as I think that the flaming body between them must be burning them to a crisp, a new set of Watchers relieve them and take over the flaming burden. The others fly, crisscrossing each other like a net far below the body. Bits of burning debris fall, much of it burning out before reaching the other Watchers. The bits that continue to fall, the Watchers catch, one by one.

‘They won’t let any part of him fall to the ground,’ says Raffe in a quiet voice. ‘His brothers will keep him from falling.’

In the distance, the Watchers weave a beautiful dance in the dawn sky beneath Beliel’s shower of fire.

Chapter 47

47

I stand by a tree on the side of the road and scan the sky above us. The Watchers are done with their ceremony and are flying back to us.

‘We need to get back,’ says Josiah. ‘The contest announcement should be happening soon. And then the big scramble for recruits will start in earnest.’ He glances at the Watchers, and I know what he’s thinking. It’s going to be a tough sell to get angels to join with the half-feathered, half-skinned Watchers.

‘We have to try to convince some to join us,’ says Raffe. ‘And we’ll work with whatever we have. We can’t let everyone fall, and we can’t allow a civil war to start.’

I won’t be shedding tears for Uriel’s angels if they fall. They’ve earned it as far as I can see.

He looks at me. ‘Earth would be the battle ground if there’s a civil war among the angels. Everything in this world will be scorched to the ground, regardless of who wins.’

Just like the Pit. We would be like the hellions – half starved and insane, cowering in the shadows, constantly in fear of our angel masters.

I have to clear my throat before getting my question out. ‘Isn’t that what they’re doing now?’

‘Your civilization was destroyed, but your people would survive, at least in pockets around the world. The apocalypse was never meant to annihilate an entire race. It was just the big event before Judgment Day. But the direction Uriel is taking everybody in . . .’ He shakes his head. ‘If anyone survives that, I’m not sure you’d recognize them as human anymore.’

What did the hellions look like before their invasion?

I’ve tried not to think much about the future, but in the small moments when I’ve let myself do it, I assumed that there would be a time after the angels were done with their rampage. Our world would need to be rebuilt, but there still would have been people somewhere, wouldn’t there?

Locusts, the resurrected, the low demons. We’ve already been pushed beyond the limits of humanity. If this continues, earth will be the new Pit.