Bitter felt a sudden tug in her stomach, a quick discomfort. “Oh no,” she said out loud. Vengeance had said it would find another hunter. Where better to look than in Assata? “They’re here.”
Blessing whipped her head around. “See now, I really don’t like how you said that. Who’s here?”
Bitter listened. The air had a faint buzzing sound to it. She turned to Miss Bilphena. “What did these spirits look like?”
The woman shook her head. “It happened so fast. I could feel them, the air got so heavy. Ube told us to get the children out, and Hibiscus called seclusion immediately.” She gave a faint smile. “I had to pull it together for the little ones—they pick up on everything.”
Alex put a hand on her arm. “Thank you, Miss Bilphena. We’ve always been lucky to have you.”
“Oh, shush.” She dabbed at the corners of her eyes. “I gotta get back to the babies.”
Alex grimaced. “They’re not going to like me interrupting seclusion.”
“It’s unusual times, my dear. They’ll survive.” Miss Bilphena glanced at Bitter and Blessing. “It’s nice to meet you, dears.” She straightened her shoulders and pulled warmth around her like a force field as she headed back to the children.
“Come on,” Alex said. “Atrium’s this way.”
They went through the kitchen into another wide hallway, this one lined with shelves of plants and art. “How large is this place?” Bitter asked.
“The whole block,” Alex replied. “But don’t tell anyone I told you that.”
“The whole block?” Blessing laughed. “That’s not possible. It’s too big to stay hidden.”
Alex didn’t laugh back. “Not if you got the right people protecting it.”
They came to a set of large wooden double doors, and the feeling in Bitter’s stomach intensified, almost like she was about to throw up. Alex took a deep breath. “Here goes fuck all,” she muttered, then she pulled the doors open. The buzzing in the air redoubled into a high-pitched whine as the doors creaked loudly; then everything dropped into a dead silence. Bitter blinked at the change in light—the atrium was full of glass, a black sky spread out above the domed ceiling. There was grass under their feet, like they’d just stepped into a hidden garden. Fireflies rose through the air, and lamps hung from chains all around the space, spilling a fiery glow between the citrus trees and flowering bushes. About twenty Assata kids were gathered in the center of the atrium around a weeping willow. A boy with two long braids and beaded earrings was posted by the doors, and as soon as the girls walked in, he took one look at them and let out a piercing whistle to alert the others.
“Masks up!” he yelled, pulling the scarf around his neck to cover his nose and mouth, hiding his high cheekbones.
“Yo, chill,” Alex said. “It’s just me.”
“I don’t know who the fuck they are,” the boy shot back. The Assata kids by the weeping willow were pulling up their hoodies and turning away from the doors.
“What’s going on?” Bitter asked.
Alex sighed. “They’re protecting their identities. From outsiders.”
One of them broke off and loped over in long, aggressive strides. He was wearing a black T-shirt, and the cut of his muscles showed under the fabric. He didn’t bother covering his face.
“Y’all need to get out,” he said. “Now.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Good to see you too, Hibiscus. How you been?”
He glared at her. “We’re in seclusion, Alex. You brought strangers to the house? Who even let you through?”
“Miss Bilphena did. You wanna go take it up with her?”
Bitter held her breath as she watched them stare each other down. When Hibiscus narrowed his eyes but didn’t say anything, Alex gave a brief nod. “This is my girlfriend, Blessing, and her best friend, Bitter. We gotta talk to Ube.”
“Ube’s busy. We’re in seclusion.”
“I know how it works, asshole. You think I’d be here if it wasn’t an emergency?”
Hibiscus growled in the back of his throat with frustration, then dropped his hostility, lowering his voice. “Look, Alex, we got a bigger emergency here. It ain’t no time for outsiders.”
“Yeah, we heard you had some spirits drop by?” Blessing smiled sweetly at Hibiscus, and Alex groaned.
“Angels,” Bitter corrected.
Blessing nodded. “Right. Angels.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Alex glared at them. “Can you let me handle this?”
“You taking too long,” Blessing snapped. “We don’t have time for all this Assata bullshit.”
“Whoa,” Hibiscus said, “now hold the fuck up—”
He was interrupted by the smooth, deep voice everyone knew, the one that washed silence in around it.
“What’s going on?” Ube asked. He’d rolled up silently, and his face looked drawn with stress. Bitter realized she didn’t know how late it was, how long they’d all been up without sleep. She hadn’t even been out there; Ube must have been exhausted.
“We got outsiders,” Hibiscus complained.
Ube flicked him a look. “Alex isn’t an outsider.” Hibiscus looked like he wanted to argue that point but decided to hold his tongue. Ube turned to the girls. “What’s up?”
Alex folded her arms. “Sounds like we both had some visitors we need to talk about.”
Another voice rang out through the atrium, shaking the glass with its dead weight. Bitter felt the ache in her stomach ease up as the sound washed over her. It was Vengeance.
“Let the gates through,” it commanded.
Ube tightened his mouth and stared at them for a moment, then spun around to return to the Assata gathering, jerking his head for them to follow. Hibiscus waited for a beat, then walked behind the girls like he was there to contain their presence. As they made their way through the small crowd of Assata kids, Alex raised her hand in greeting, but only a few of them raised theirs in response. The rest just tracked them with suspicious eyes. They were standing in a thick and tight circle, but they parted for Ube as easily as water, opening up right to the center.
Blessing hissed in a breath when they passed through the circle. A handful of figures stood in the middle, shaped like people, but made of nothing like flesh. There was a glimpse of feathers tipped in blood, delicate sheets of fire, metal, and mercury. In the front stood a figure made of smoke, with a scaled head and seven yellow eyes.
“Vengeance,” Bitter whispered, shocked to see it outside of the shape she’d painted it in. The angel turned its face to her, eggshells clacking in its neck. It was so terribly foreign in this world, it distorted reality with its presence.
“Child,” it said, guttural and deep, “have you come to hunt?”
Ube looked at Bitter, his eyes narrowed, his knuckles tight as he gripped the armrests of his chair. “How do you know it?” he asked, his voice clipped and sharp.
She wilted under his dark gaze. “It’s—it’s complicated,” she managed, her voice thickening around her tongue. There were entirely too many people looking at her.