"I'm guessing that's bad."
"Now imagine that same child holding the detonator for a hundred trillion of them."
"Since I'm assuming I'm the child in this scenario and I have a detonator of some kind?"
"You are the detonator, Elle-Ryn, and the nuclear devices, all one hundred trillion of them, are inside you."
I looked down at myself. "I have a bomb inside me," I said, trying desperately to understand.
"Your inability to comprehend the situation is a rather large part of the problem."
"How is something like that even possible?"
"And you prove me right again."
"Quit being a smartass," I said, taking a step closer. The glass trembled and closed in around him. "I get it. I'm an idiot. Now answer my question. How is something like that even possible?"
"It shouldn't have been," he acquiesced. "You should not have come into your powers before your corporeal form expired. You learned your name too soon, and as such, absorbed your powers too soon. As you can see, it was too much for you to regulate. Now you can't remember your name. Any of them. And you can't control your anger. You just tried to kill every person in here with a single thought."
"No." I stepped back until I hit the counter. "That wasn't what I was doing." I glanced around the café. At Dixie and Mr. P and Cookie. "I would never hurt them."
"What is this, then?" he asked me, indicating the glass that hung like sparkling crystal around us. "And this was just the barest hint of a thought. One infinitesimal inkling that didn't amount to a single grain of sand in your Sahara. Can you imagine what you'd do with more forethought?"
Reyes was only a few feet away now, slowly advancing, gaining ground.
"So you've come to kill her?" he asked Michael.
The air pushed out of my lungs as if I'd been punched.
"It cannot be helped."
"I'll make you a deal," he said. "Get off this plane now, and I'll let you live."
But we weren't on a plane. I glanced around just to make sure. Nope. No plane.
"I have been sent, Rey'aziel."
"Then you have been sent to your death."
"I would've thought after the nick I gave you last time -"
"Funny. Most of the blood on my shirt was yours."
Michael rolled his eyes. Did angels really do that? "We could be at this all day."
"What does He want, exactly?"
"The Val-Eeth to do her job. It is why He allowed her onto this plane in the first place. To stop the fallen one."
Reyes tilted his head. "And here I thought He allowed it so she could be the portal. His portal."
He lifted a shoulder. "That, too. But, as it were, there is a loophole in the original agreement with your father."
"Ah. So killing two birds with one stone."
He didn't disagree. "But, alas, it would seem two gods is one god too many." He gave him a chastising scowl. "Five is an invasion."
Reyes took another step closer to me. "We know about the three gods of Uzan. You're strong, Michael, but you're not that strong. I've seen how they fight. And, you know, there is the matter of them being gods. You're going to need our help. We can get all three of them off this plane for good."
He stilled, his lids narrowing. "You can get them off? All three gods of Uzan?"
"Yes."
He thought a moment, let his piercing vision rake over Reyes. "And you're going to cast them out?" He sounded thoroughly unconvinced.
"You of all angelic asshats should know what I'm capable of."
Michael lifted his sword, slowly, nonthreateningly, and placed the tip at my throat. He raised my chin with the cool blade. Studied me. Judged me. "Will that be before or after she collapses the universe with her temper?"
The dark smoke that cascaded over Reyes's shoulders and pooled at his feet materialized into a black robe. He pulled a sword from underneath it and did the same thing, lifted his sword until his blade rested across the angel's throat. "It will be sometime before she collapses the universe with her temper and after I collapse your lungs with my blade."
Unmoved, the angel shot him a sideways glance. "He'll come after you if you fail. Personally."
"I doubt that."
The angel lowered his sword, but Reyes held his steady. He clearly had trust issues. "I have your word?" the angel asked. "You will cast out all three gods from this plane?"
"You have my word."
"No matter the cost?"