LILITH (DEMONOLOGY I)

XII

The huntsmen weren't too thrilled about Thalia. Most of them gave dirty looks and stuck up their noses. Only Luna and Clay greeted her.

"Hello there, miss," Clay said. "I'm Clay Walker, the boss around here." He was being unusually pleasant, whether it was because Thalia was a Nephilim or . . . other reasons, I wasn't sure. Either way, I took a step closer to Thalia to establish what was going on between us.

"I'm Luna Sanders, the girl who saved Finn." Luna wasn't as pleasant as Clay, and it didn't take me long to realize why. Luckily, Thalia didn't notice, as she just kept smiling. "And I'm also the one who told him the truth about Wynne."

"Ah," Thalia said. She gave me a strange look, as if she suspected someone wasn't being truthful.

After a short moment of awkward silence, Clay stepped in.

"Well, I'm sure Finn here has already told you about our little scheme. We're planning out the fine details. You can join us if you want."

"Just one minute please," Thalia grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. "These people all look batshit crazy. How are we supposed to do what we need to with that Clay guy watching us like a hawk?" Oh, so she agreed that Clay was a nutcase. I was glad to know I wasn't alone on that thought.

"Don't worry, he's all bark and no bite. We'll be able to do what we need to do, but first we have to do this raid on Hell." I reassured her that everything would be fine. We had been up for hours the night before plotting our retaliation. All we had to do was keep the Holy Shield out of Heaven for as long as possible, and it would be smooth sailing from there.

"Look, we can leave now and deal with this ourselves. They have a bunch of humans, demons and fairies. Together, we can do this much more efficiently than they can."

"But in order for this to work, we need to stay with them. If we leave now, they'll do things as they please, and it'll make things much more difficult for us. We only have a few days left with them, then we take off, okay?"

Thalia stared me down for a few moments. I knew how she felt. She had already established herself as a criminal when she ran off with me, she was well aware of that. She had risked it all because she trusted me, but she wasn't ready to risk it all for the Shield.

Ultimately, she gave in. "Fine, but as soon as we seal Hell, we get to Heaven before they do." I nodded and steered her back towards the huntsmen.

"So, miss," Clay said. "Follow me and we'll begin continue to devise our plan." I took a step forward to follow them, but Clay stopped me. "Not you, D'elia. You didn't complete your assignment from yesterday. Since you obviously can't take care of yourself, you'll be going with Luna on a scout. Maybe she'll show you how to do things properly." I watched Thalia walk with him towards one of the trucks. She waved me goodbye as they pulled out off the green fields and disappeared. Note to self; beat the shit out of that asshole Clay before this is over.

"Well," Luna said, tapping my shoulder. "Come on, those angels aren't going to kill themselves." Reluctantly, I followed her into the dense forests up ahead, further and further away from Thalia and Clay.

"So, you and Thalia are really good friends, huh?" Luna asked as she gathered the last of the angel ash.

We had been sent out to take down an array of angels, supposedly Rhett, Nel and Alec, but that's not who we had found. Instead, we had found a group of young, uncoordinated angels. They had no synergy whatsoever. One of them even shot the other with an arrow. We had made quick work of them. Luna was gathering the ashes to make weapons, similar to how Thalia gathered ash and made grenades out of them.