1. Medusa

W e all stood at the bay window of Pepper Crane’s house and watched the angels drop from the sky. I’d seen something like this before and we all thought the world was ending. It was a different time and word didn’t instantly spread like it did now. The angels didn’t land in the part of the world I was living in, so we all just assumed it was some kind of omen.

But Kat had seen this before. The angels usually kept to themselves in their realm, except when they didn’t. Kat was there when they came en masse, slaughtered half her village, and dragged her girlfriend away from her. She was older than I was but I mostly knew what that was like.

Kat wanted to make sense of her loss and read a lot about angels over the years. She couldn’t begin to explain why they started all of this, which choir was responsible, or if it was all of them, but she’d given us some decent intel.

Pepper and Kat joined us at the window. Pepper Crane was a human, but a pretty formidable one. Not even this had her scared, unless she was hiding it.

“I hope you planned for this,” Pepper said.

“We were hoping, but we also don’t know what we’re dealing with yet.”

“We’re all raised with thinking the angels are the good guys who protect us,” Pepper mused.

“Some of them are,” Kat said. “At least, they used to be. They have a hierarchy among them. Some protect Yahweh, some are his messengers. The lower angels are involved with humans. Historically, they’ve either been jealous of humans or wanted to live among them. They’ve never really been interested in the supernaturals until they suddenly were.

“My girlfriend, ages ago, was a Grigori. They go by many names in different cultures, but they are the most humanlike of all angels. Some of them are truly horrifying in appearance. I don’t think any of the Grigori have actually met Yahweh. They get their orders from one of the upper choirs who are supposed to be getting them from Yahweh.

“The Grigori are vast because their job is to watch and protect humans. Some of them follow any order they are given, no matter how vile, and some chose to disobey and fall. I still don’t know if it was the other Grigori who reacted badly to that and massacred my village, or they were just following orders. I also don’t know who or why they manipulated humans the way they did.”

“I was thinking about what Athena said that gods operate on belief and supernaturals’ lifespans. A lot of you haven’t faded away because of supernaturals and their belief. I’m not trying to speak for any of you, but you don’t seem that different from us except for the magic.

“Humans change religion all the time. Sometimes, we find it where there never was any. Our parents raise us a certain way and then we grow up and find our own. I’m fairly certain a lot of you followed Yahweh and thought the angels protected you a few centuries ago. Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to tell everyone to stop the witch burnings instead of starting all of this?” Pepper asked.

“It depends,” Dionysus said. “They intentionally keep themselves isolated. They live in one of the many afterlives and there are definitely some supernaturals there from before all this. I’ve never been there and I haven’t exactly spoken to anyone who has been. I don’t know if the angels actually interact with the souls.

“Literally everyone has their origins story and most of us got it wrong. The only gods who know for sure where they came from are the ones like me—children of gods. Most of us have gotten together and bounced theories off of each other.

“Most of the gods who live in other realms visit this one often enough for us to have met them. Even the various afterlife gods have taken a vacation. Anubis is really into competitive chess and comes to at least four tournaments a year. Ereshkigal keeps reinventing herself as a fashion model. She’s gorgeous and walks fashion week every year.

“My father was fucked up, but he was also created with all these preconceived notions in his head that he was the supreme sky daddy and the king of all gods. I went no contact after he let my stepmother curse me with madness, but I heard he had a bit of an existential crisis when the Romans created his double and he fell out of fashion.”

“I left shortly after that,” Athena said. “Everyone was mopey instead of asking questions. I left to ask them.”

“I think what my siblings are trying to say is that you’re dealing with beings that haven’t experienced that yet. A lot of the angels don’t get near their god and the ones that do haven’t watched him question anything. The angels that did question things and wanted to live among humans were violently brought back home.

“None of those angels falling from the sky have had any reason to question literally anything. Whatever reason they have for doing all of this, they probably think it was righteous and justified. This is also a pantheon that is big on collateral damage. This could get really violent if we’re dealing with the same angels Kat dealt with,” Persephone said.

“Fuck,” Pepper said. “Can we even fight them?”

Hades just grinned. He had this way of smiling sometimes, where he looked like he was about to murder everyone on the planet. It got Persephone all hot and bothered, but it was a little unnerving sometimes.

“Angels are just like any other supernatural. Their tears won’t work on them, but everything else they gave humans to subdue the supernaturals will. Kat fought them once. We already know their wings are their weakness. We’ve also got three fully trained furies and one baby fury who could disable a whole choir from across a soccer field.”

“Um, maybe don’t rely on me,” I said. “I’d probably take down everyone.”

Alecto clapped her hands.

“The furies don’t usually get involved in battles, but one time, we had this epic team up with the Valkyries to fuck up some Saxons. It was a ton of fun. And if you’re too green to focus on unleashing the fury, you still have other senses you were pretty good with at the bar. We can use that.”

I adored how supportive the furies were. I was pretty shit at it right now because it was so new to me. It would be a disaster to put me in a fight and rely on me. They gave me shit all the time, and I loved them for that. They were supportive when I needed it.

“Guys?” Benji called. “People are posting angel sightings on social media and those fuckers haven’t come in peace.”

Shit.