Ube looked like he was having a hard time processing it all. “And now they want to go on a killing spree.”
“Justice,” Vengeance corrected.
“I’m not sure murder counts as justice,” Bitter shot back.
Vengeance remained unbothered. “Worlds burn when the angels return. All monsters must die.”
Hibiscus clapped his hands together. “I’m with it. Let’s not keep everyone waiting—they getting stressed out.” He turned to the rest of Assata. While Ube spoke like a prophet leading the people, Hibiscus spoke like a soldier who wanted nothing more than to fight.
“Assata!” he called out, his voice booming through the atrium, hungry and hot-blooded. It was smoothed into silk, a warrior on a pulpit. Everyone gathered snapped to attention, their eyes fixed on him. “Do not be afraid of these spirits. Our prayers and the prayers of our Elders have been answered! Today we stand with angels among us, come to bring the war to our oppressors, to cut them down with holy fire. We have run from them for too long—tonight we draw the line. Tonight they will run from us, they will know what fear tastes like, bitter and bloody in the backs of their throats!”
As Hibiscus spoke, Vengeance wrapped itself around him like a wraith, its smoke passing harmlessly through the boy’s flesh, so it looked like they had become one terrible thing together. Instead of frightening Hibiscus, it seemed to fortify him. His voice grew even more certain, more steady. “We can end this. We can topple those in power out of their seats and reclaim Lucille for the people, at whatever cost. There cannot be one more death, one more person lost in our fight for freedom. Since they will not give us justice, we must take it!”
Vengeance’s scaled head snaked high above Hibiscus, its yellow eyes raking over the humans. “Do not be afraid,” it said, glitching its voice into the ice-cold charm. “We are here to help you. We are here to protect you. You are the innocent, and we will be your shield. We will hunt together, human and angel. The world will burn, and from its ashes a glorious morning will arise.” Some of the Assata kids still looked nervous, but Bitter could see the change happening in a lot of the others, the hope that was awakening in their eyes, because the presence of the angels was an impossible thing, which meant that victory had just become possible, the world had just opened past the stretch of their imaginations. They all wanted this to end, they all wanted to be safe, and now Vengeance and Hibiscus were offering them that in exchange for one vicious hunt.
Bitter slid up to Ube, who was clenching his jaw so hard that it carved his face into sharp lines. “We have to stop this,” she whispered. “Before it’s too late.”
Ube turned to look at her, and she flinched. There was something behind his eyes, something as dark as a lost ocean. “How do you stop an angel?” he asked. He looked out at the faces of the Assata kids, the brightness of hope illuminating them one by one like a spreading fire. “I think we are already too late.”
Bitter stared at Ube. “You have to try! They’re talking about killing people!”
His face was grim. “I know.” Hibiscus was still talking, telling the Assata kids how a new future was finally close enough for them to wrap their hands around. Ube came up next to him, and everyone’s eyes shifted over to the boy they knew as their voice in the desert. Hibiscus trailed off into silence, realizing he had lost their attention and Ube hadn’t even said a word yet.
A girl in all red with a thick fro piped up. “What do you think, Ube?” she asked. “Are we going to war with these spirits?”
“They’re calling themselves angels,” Ube replied. “And when they say hunt, they mean that they are going to commit murder.” He swept his gaze over the group. “My question to y’all is, do you want that blood on your hands?”
“You talking like it’s regular people who are going to die,” Hibiscus interjected. “We’re talking monsters. We’re talking Dian Theron. You gonna defend that man’s life?”
Ube glanced over at him, then made eye contact with Vengeance, who was still wrapped around Hibiscus. “Can you give us some space? This is a human matter.”
Vengeance unwound itself from Hibiscus and slithered over to Bitter, settling beside her. “Is this how you humans decide things?” it asked her. “All this talking.”
“We take life seriously,” she snapped.
“Why?”
Bitter shot a glare at the angel. “What the hell you mean, why?”
“What is a monster’s life? How many lives have these monsters taken? How many lives will the hunt save?”
Bitter hesitated. “It doesn’t matter if they’re monsters,” she replied, but there was a fault line in her voice because she did wonder how many people would be safe if people like Theron were just … removed.
Vengeance stared at her, seven yellow and unblinking eyes pinning her down. “It should matter.”
Hibiscus was facing off with Ube. “You wanna stand here and tell us all that Theron deserves to live? After the shit that man has done? I never thought I’d hear you protect him.”
A murmured gasp went up from the Assata kids, and Ube’s eyes turned to black coals. “You really wanna go there with me, Hibiscus?”
Blessing leaned over to Alex. “What’s going on?” she whispered. “This shit just got mad tense.”
Alex looked as shocked as the others, but she shushed Blessing with a quick hand over her girlfriend’s mouth. “Not now,” she whispered back.
“I’m just saying!” Hibiscus looked unrepentant. “Your mom would still be here today if she hadn’t worked for Theron. If he didn’t cut their health care and stick them all in those damn warehouses. Now you saying we shouldn’t take him out?”
Ube’s voice was a thin blade slicing from his tongue—even the air drew away from the sharp edge. “First of all, keep my mama out your mouth,” he said.
Most of the Assata kids murmured in agreement. “That was out of order, Hibiscus,” one of them said.
“Yeah, man. Not cool,” another echoed.
Hibiscus raised his hands. “My bad. I overstepped.”
Ube kept talking. “Second of all, none of us have the right to decide when to end another person’s life! That is not justice.”
The girl in red frowned. “But, Ube, they decide that all the time with us. Chijioke is dead because they decided.”
“That’s what I’m saying.” Hibiscus gestured to the doors of the atrium, to the rest of the safe house. “Those babies in there, do we keep doing this until it’s them being shot in the streets? We supposed to be making a better world for them, where they can feel loved and cherished, and how we gon’ do that when all we doing is dying? What are we gonna tell them—that literal angels came down to help us win this battle, but we refused?”
“Yeah, man.” The boy with long braids had left his post by the doors to join the group. “This shit isn’t even about justice anymore—it’s about survival. Either we die or they die.”
Ube raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so you ready to kill folk now, huh? You feeling that froggy?”