T
he day had arrived. We couldn’t magically appear in the hangar, so we took the horses. The angels got into a minor spat over whose horse I was going to ride on, and Leif actually got involved this time. I thought all three of them were going to get in one of the famous fistfights I’d heard so much about. I ended up settling it by saying I’d been on Aeron’s horse plenty of times, and I’d take Leif’s horse on the way there and Dice’s on the way back. They grumped, but they accepted it.
It was so lovely sitting on Leif’s horse with his muscular arms wrapped around me. Leif’s horse was more on the playful side, especially when he had sugar. He was always nipping at my ears in ways that were so ticklish.
The moment of truth had arrived. We were at the hangar. Everyone knew I was painting Dice’s plane for him, and I couldn’t wait for him to see it. His people couldn’t either. They had thrown this massive tarp over the nose of the plane and tore it off with this gigantic flourish when he arrived.
Dice scooped me up and spun me around.
“It’s beautiful. Will you tattoo this on my chest when this is over?”
“We should all have Ariel tattoo our horses on us. It’ll be a bonding moment. Talking Asher into that is going to be an enormous pain in this ass, but it would be special,” Leif said.
I tried not to think about Asher. He was still this massive mystery. I knew he didn’t want to be with me, and I wasn’t all that on board with having an orgy with him either. Still, I seemed to be collecting Horsemen at an alarming rate, and meeting Asher would probably be just as awkward as Dice because he knew about the painting.
Dice looked like he intended on flying the plane in leather trousers and kitten suspenders, but he wouldn’t let me on his plane until I’d put a jumpsuit on over my clothes and had been strapped into a helmet. He handed me a headset, popped his helmet on, and hopped into the cockpit.
“Any last words?”
“Um, don’t you need someone on the ground, making sure we don’t all crash into each other?”
Why didn’t I think of that before I hopped in the back of this plane? I knew Dice could handle himself, but what about all the other people out there flying?
Dice just chuckled and checked my seatbelt.
“Already handled. We’ve got a retired airport employee at the Orlando airport, and it has power. She’s got us, and I’ve got you. You ready?”
“Yes,” I squeaked.
This could only happen to me. Only I would have my first time in a fucking plane be a fighter jet driven by an angel to bomb Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. Seriously, if we got to retire in Mexico, I wanted a totally dull existence until I died after that. I wanted to play bingo with Miss Mabel and never have to deal with Antichrists and zombies ever again.
I squeezed my eyes shut when the engine roared to life. We had to wait our turn. Some of the people who were going as far as the West Coast and Mexico were leaving first. We weren’t going far. Aeron was taking care of New York and the surrounding states, and Leif was handling the Midwest. They both left before us.
When it was finally our turn, I was gripping the armrest and shrieking curses as we took off down the runway, but once we were in the air, it wasn’t so bad, even if it was loud.
“You good now, Speedy?”
“Much better.”
“Did you know if you look to your left…the plane will tip over?”
“Dice!” I yelled, trying to swat at his helmet.
“Seriously, though. Look out the window. It’s pretty.”
I’d never been afraid of heights before, so this didn’t bother me. Crashing the plane certainly did, but looking down below didn’t. I could really see the devastation the last bombs had caused, but I could also see where nature was fighting back. Greenery was trying to grow again, even if it looked like some ancient trees had died.
I looked out the window and focused on the radio chatter during the flight. I had no idea what any of it meant, but it was mesmerizing. Someone was sitting at a booth in Orlando and controlling everyone. Fucking amazing. I didn’t understand a single word out her mouth, but I was going to have to paint her something special for doing this.
It felt like Dice was slowing a bit.
“I’m going to be dropping here. This is the perfect, unpopulated spot for the aerosol to hit all three states.”
It was so uneventful. Dice pressed a button, and the place shook a little. He turned us around, and we started flying home. It felt like something bigger should have happened. We dropped a bomb on three states, and all the zombies were going to die.
And nothing happened.
Did I even want it to? It made me feel better that my father was shit out of luck when it came to stopping us, but it also filled me with dread. The Rage Heads were supposed to be his soldiers in his war against Heaven. If all he did to stop us was Leonard and a random Bubba, did he have something even bigger planned when we came for him?
Because we were coming for him, and we were going to try to kill him. He didn’t just piss off the Four Horsemen. He pissed me off too.
And I was coming for him.