Reaver(50)

Revenant had liked him better as Pestilence.

“None of your business,” Lorelia said icily. Revenant wondered if she’d noticed the huge-ass hellhound creeping up behind her. Ares rarely went anywhere without one of the fucking things.

“You’re the grumpiest Watcher ever,” Reseph said. “I thought Gethel was bad. And Harvester. And Revenant—”

“I get your point,” Lorelia interrupted. She shot him a look of disgust. “It must have been so much easier to deal with you when your mind was broken.” She turned to Revenant before she could see Reseph’s expression darken. Why was she antagonizing them like this? “Maybe you could share why you’re here?”

“Gladly.” He was so going to take advantage of being the good cop. Any opportunity to make a Heavenly puke look bad was worth jumping on, and Lorelia was making it easy. “The underworld is abuzz with the news that your ex-Watcher, Harvester, has been rescued from Satan’s favorite torture chamber.”

“So?” Thanatos, whose Horseman name was Death, stared at Revenant, his yellow eyes flashing with impatience.

“So…” Lorelia drawled, her tone contemplative, “if Reaver is missing, maybe he’s involved with Harvester’s escape.”

Limos scoffed. “Why would Reaver help that bitch? She tortured him, tried to start the Apocalypse, and helped Pestilence try to kill Thanatos’s son.”

“I’d like to know the answer to that, as well,” Lorelia said.

“Maybe he didn’t go to rescue her,” Reseph offered. “Maybe he went to kill her.”

Ah, so they didn’t know Harvester had allegedly been a spy for Heaven. Granted, it wasn’t common knowledge even in Sheoul; Revenant knew only because his Watcher Council had filled him in and Satan had, for some reason, included Rev in his inner circle. But Revenant would have thought Reaver would share the information with the Horsemen, given that Harvester’s machinations had helped them behind the scenes.

“Well?” Limos tapped her foot in the sand. “Are you going to tell us?”

He was tempted to reach out and strangle her, but that would ruin the good-cop thing he had going. Plus, she was pregnant, and while he didn’t give a shit about the brat, he had rules to follow, and the rules said he couldn’t strangle pregnant biblical legends or in any way harm said biblical legends’ children.

“Harvester is a traitor,” Rev said. “She was working for Heaven.”

All eyes went comically wide and fixed on him.

“Yup. True story. Heaven arranged her espionage plan before she fell.”

“Are you really saying,” Ares began in his deep, resonant voice, “that she infiltrated Sheoul in order to be a spy? She didn’t actually fall?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Apparently, everything she did was done to avert the Apocalypse and help you guys defeat Pestilence.” He shrugged. “She hasn’t admitted to it, even under severe torture, but it’s pretty obvious what happened.”

“But she was working with Pestilence,” Limos protested.

“She pretended to be working with him.” Revenant couldn’t hide his disgust. He’d always been more of a stab-you-in-your-chest kind of guy than a stab-you-in-the-back sort. He liked his enemies to know he was coming. “I don’t know the whole story, but Reaver learned the truth around the same time he learned he was your father.”

Lorelia let out an impressive snarl. “That stupid angel,” she spat out. “If he went after Harvester, then he’s the traitor. His foolish actions could start a war between the realms. We’re already dealing with what Lucifer’s birth could bring about if he’s born.”

If? Odd way to phrase that.

“You’re talking about our father.” Limos’s voice cracked like a whip. “So I’d be very careful what you say next.”

“Spoiled brat.” Lorelia’s dove-gray wings flared high. Girl was pissed. Although… there was something a little off about her anger. It was… overdone, and again he wondered what she was up to. “You do not speak to me in that way.”

Thanatos stepped closer to the Watcher. “She speaks in whatever way she wants to. Especially to angels with sticks up their holy asses.”

Oh, this was getting good. Revenant wished someone would make popcorn.

Lorelia roared in anger and struck out with a lash of power that lifted Thanatos off his feet and hurled him into the side of Limos’s party hut. Thanatos went through the wall like a cannonball.

“Bitch!” A sword appeared in Limos’s hand, and the yellow flower in her hair wilted.