I started to turn to Zayne, my body so incredibly weary. Vaguely aware of others approaching us, I heard Zayne inhale sharply.
“God,” he whispered, staring up at the sky.
My head jerked upward, and I blinked, because I wasn’t sure if I was seeing what I thought I was or if it was some kind of trick of the imagination.
The grace had stopped moving.
“Can you see it?” Zayne asked, moving to my side. “It’s like...it’s frozen.”
“I can see it.” I didn’t dare take my eyes off it. “What is this, Lucifer?”
He didn’t answer.
Or maybe he did and his response was drowned out. The sound reminded me of fireworks sizzling and crackling as they shot into the sky—if there were a thousand of those kinds of fireworks going off at once. It was all I could hear for several moments, and then the mass of tainted grace shattered into millions of sparks of light.
I jerked, reaching out and grabbing Zayne’s arm. His skin was steady and hot under my hand as my fingers dug in.
“Trin?” Zayne said.
Was this it? The end of the world as we knew it came in a beautiful display of golden light? “What?” I asked as the sparks began to drift downward.
“Your hand.” Zayne turned to me, one of his wings brushing across my arm. He folded his hands around mine. “It feels like a chunk of ice.”
How my hand felt didn’t seem like a huge priority at the moment. Vaguely aware of him rubbing my fingers between his, I struggled to remain standing under the weight of what we were watching. The shining filaments were beautiful, reminding me of fireflies, but the moment they landed—the moment a human was touched by one of them, they’d be corrupted by what was inside Gabriel.
“Your hand isn’t warming.” Zayne slid his palm over my arm. “Your arm—”
“God did it,” Lucifer said, voice ringing with shock. “God actually did it. Look.” Lucifer reached out as one of the flakes, mostly white now, drifted toward us. “It’s...is this snow?”
I started to ask him how he didn’t know what snow looked like, but then realized that he’d been in Hell for...what? Thousands of years? I doubted it snowed in Hell. Or that he could remember what snow looked like.
“It is...snow.” Zayne’s hands were still on my arm. “Look, Trin. It’s snow.”
Pulling my gaze from the flurry, I looked down to my arm, to his hands. Little white flakes landed on his skin, evaporating on touch and leaving a glistening speck behind. “Is it contaminated?”
“It doesn’t feel evil.” Those ultrabright eyes met mine. “Does it feel evil to you?”
I shook my head as the snow continued to land on my arms. “It feels like snow.”
“It’s not evil,” Lucifer said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “I know evil. It’s snow and it’s...” He groaned in disgust. “Aw, dammit.”
“What?” My heart skipped a beat as I looked over to him.
He stood with his hands on his hips. “It’s not contaminated.”
“Why do you sound like that’s a bad thing?” Zayne demanded.
Better yet, why did Zayne suddenly sound as if he were standing in a tunnel even though he was standing beside me? I looked over at him. His features were fuzzy—well, fuzzier than normal, and I...
“It’s full of goodness,” Lucifer spat. “It’s pure, and it’s getting all over me. I’m going to need to shower this crap off.”
That was good... That was beyond good and beyond what any of us had been too afraid to hope for. God stepped up. He or She or Whatever stepped up. Tears filled my eyes, but I...
“I bet you’re up there laughing, aren’t you?” Lucifer shouted. “Dusting me with the equivalent of a heavenly glitter bomb? Really?”
I stared at the snow as it gathered on my arm. It didn’t melt.
“After all I’ve done for you, this is how You repay me?” Lucifer continued to rage. “I’m going to have to take five showers and I know I won’t be able to get the stench of humanity and goodness off me.”
Zayne twisted toward me, a laugh in his voice as he said, “We did it, Trin.”
We had, but...
I tried to swallow, but my throat felt weird, like it was narrowing. “I don’t feel right.”
The sound of Zayne’s wings snapping back ended in his shout. I didn’t know why he yelled my name, but then I was suddenly in his arms and he was above me, his face going in and out focus.
“Trin! What is it?” Zayne wasn’t waiting for my answer. His hand swept over my chest and down my stomach. He halted and then yanked up my shirt, swearing. “You’re wounded.”
“It’s just...a punch.”
Zayne’s hand trembled against my stomach as he cranked his head around. “Lucifer! Stop your bitching and get over here!”
“What?” I asked, or I thought I did. I wasn’t sure as I struggled to lift my hand long enough to look down. I saw my stomach, but it looked weird. Like the skin was...like it was turning gray and spreading.