The monument’s front door swung open like a saloon gate at high noon. Snow coated the grassy knoll and paths surrounding the monument, flecks of frost dancing around in the windswept night air.

  Alarm bells were starting to chime all over the city. Minutemen, summoned to see what all the stir was about at a monument erected in the name of a man who’d brought peace to this nation. Well, like Washington said, that war was long since over, but mine wasn’t.

  I stopped, my boots crunching on ice. There he was, standing a road’s width away from me. Ace Ryker. The man who’d made me what I was today, and the man I’d provided the same fate. A match made in Hell… or Heaven. Who gives a damn?

  Mischief filled those cobalt eyes I’d never forget. Rime peppered his thin mustache and beard, making it match his solid white get-up and even whiter hat. His right hand hovered over the grip of his revolver. His left, a lasso, secured right next to the cursed harmonica he’d used to brainwash Chapelwaite.

  “Didn’t think you’d show!” he called out.

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I replied.

  “Where’s your bitch?”

  I didn’t let him goad me, knowing his tricks. “Off into the sunset. You’re too late.”

  “Oh well. I’ll settle for you, Crowley. We’ve got a dance to finish.”

  “And what do you think Shargrafein thinks of that?”

  “Who?” His brow arched in a way that surprised me. He wasn’t bluffing. I guess I never really considered it to matter if he had her or another angel pulling his strings, but it did give me an idea about how to beat an unbeatable foe. It was entirely ludicrous and probably wouldn’t work, but damn, would Rosa be proud.

  “The angels,” I clarified for him. “They don’t like it when you abandon their missions. Trust me.”

  “Yeah, well, they’ll get used to me.” He snickered. “Unlike you, I get results. They want a whore, well, they’ll settle for you first.”

  More alarm bells sounded, accompanied by rolling carriages and horses snorting.

  “Won’t be long before this place is swarming!” Ace barked. “If any of ’em tries to take you from me, I’m gonna start slitting throats. So, you plan on drawing first, or should I?”

  I spread my arms, showing my hips and their empty holsters. No rifle strapped to my back.

  “A true outlaw never misplaces his iron,” Ace said. “Then again, you’ve never been much of one.”

  He drew his LeMat, twirled it once, and play-aimed it at me. He winked as he pretended to pull the trigger.

  “Bang!” he shouted, then tossed it aside. “Ain’t a Scuttler alive who’d say I ain’t fair.”

  “Too bad you got ’em all killed.”

  His smirk as he shrugged finally pushed me over the edge. I could only endure so much. I charged at him with nothing but my fists at the ready. That’s how I needed this to go. Up close and personal.

  His smug, shit-eating grin watched me the entire way. He didn’t even bother to move as I rammed him, shoulder first, driving us both to the ground. I’d like to say I needed to make a show of it for my plan to work, but really, I just wanted carnage.

  My fists rained upon his face, chipping bone, sending dusty fragments of skin and muscle billowing. He got a leg under me and flipped me off. I landed with a roll and quickly got my bearings.

  While he stood, I came at him with a wild haymaker. He ducked under it, then grabbed the hem of my jacket and pulled it over my head. Elbows crashed down on my back, which I only knew because it sent me to my knees. Then, one of his knees cracked across my jaw, sending a tooth flying along with my body.

  Oh well, it’d grow back.

  I bounced back to my feet, yanking my coat into place, and we circled each other, neither of us breathing heavy or breaking a sweat. Two immortals who couldn’t feel normal pain beating the ever-loving shit out of each other like drunks after too many bottles.

  “Oiee, you got some bite in you now, boy!” Ace chomped at the air like a mad dog. “C’mon, then!” He waved me along with both hands, and I obliged.

  I unleashed a string of powerful swings, though brawling had never been my forte. He evaded them with ease, and as I came in for the biggest blow, he sent two jabs into my sternum.

  The familiar sting of silver had me reeling. My eyes fell to see he had a pocket pistol concealed in his sleeve, and had sent two silver slugs through my torso. He looked down at it and feigned surprise.

  “Whoops. Forgot about that one.”

  Then he shrugged and emptied the chambers at me. My vision was splotchy from the silver, so I dove to the ground and let the bullets all sail over me. Next thing I knew, he’d grabbed my back and heaved me into the lower wall of the monument. Stone cracked, and we went right through to the inside.

  As the dust settled, three of him rose before my vision settled. He grabbed me by the collar, held me against the metal grate of the lift, and drove a fist into my cheek. Once. Then another.

  I spotted a small pool of blood on the ground. Chapelwaite’s blood. A reminder of what he’d used to spill that blood. I sagged just far enough to reach my knife and rose, slicing through Ace’s neck.

  He couldn’t bleed from what would have been a kill shot, but silver sizzled and sparked as he reeled. He growled.

  “Ain’t like you to cheat, Crowley!” Turned out, he had a concealed blade as well. He pulled a hatchet from the back of his belt, like an insult to Mutt’s people who’d used that very weapon, and charged me with the force of a grizzly bear.

  I was barely able to parry his overwhelming swing, and the move sent me stumbling. He wasted no time before engaging again, putting all his fury behind every swipe. Each time I blocked, I struggled for balance over and again.

  Finally, I stayed low and bounced, keeping my feet springy. He drove down on me with an overhead smash that could have broken earth, and I put my legs into it this time.

  Metal clashed against metal as my blade locked under his, both of us pushing to gain the advantage. With my off hand, I dug my fingers into the skin and muscle flapping from the gash in his throat and tore it deeper, releasing more silver.

  He screamed and head-butted me. My head snapped back, slamming hard into the steel grate. A bit of disorientation flooded over me, and he used the lag in reaction to bite down on two of my fingers and tear them clean off. I lost my grip on his throat but managed to use that three-fingered hand to support the other and keep my blade locked under the curve of the hatchet.

  While we deadlocked, he quickly drew the cursed harmonica from his belt and hummed a haunting note, just like the one Rosa had sung to remind Chapelwaite of Ace’s control. My body was instantly compelled to stop resisting without me willing it to do so.

  My knife slid free, and my back hunched. A backhand swing from his hatchet caught me in the side of the head and sent me sprawling through the opening in the wall and out onto the grass. I kept rolling until I was on my back, staring up at the monument from the outside. Silvery lines fizzled in the corners of my vision. I was utterly paralyzed, though my mind begged me to move.

  “All you mangy rats, coming after my crown!” Ace screamed as he stepped outside.

  He staggered toward me, pawing at his split neck and trying to close the loose skin. Horses and carriages were almost on us now. I kept my gaze upward. A low whistling howl rang out, almost like a wolf in the night, though not quite.

  “Every damn one of you fuckers wished you could be me!” Ace yelled. “You all thought you could run the Scuttlers. But you couldn’t, because you’re too fucking weak!”

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  He kneeled on my chest and hulked over me, all his white trimmings marred by dirty ice. Holding the hatchet close, he dragged its silver blade in a slow, thin line across my forehead.

  “We’ll see if the angels mind when I tear you apart piece by fucking piece.”

  My vision flashed. Vacillated. But I didn’t need full clarity to see the weird beast with feathered wings and a tentacle mouth mounting the top of the monument far above. Ace was too distracted with causing me pain to see it, which I’d known he would be.

  I’d had to keep him fighting long enough for Chapelwaite to summon Snallygaster before I could make my next move. He was only just fast enough. But he wasn’t here to save me. No, I never needed that. The beast took to the air with a mighty beat of its sinewy wings. I couldn’t see Chapelwaite on top of it from below, but I did see the female body gently cradled in its talons.

  Maybe the beast had taken a liking to Rosa after all to help like this. I don’t know. What I did know was that even a silhouette of Rosa was enough to be a pleasant last sight to witness.

  That was my cue. I snagged my upside-down cross, gave it a tug to snap the chain, and flung it aside as far as I could. Without hesitation, Shar’s faint whispers clouded my thoughts more than the silver already had.

  “You fool.” I laughed.

  Ace was taken aback. “Me, the fool? Maybe I’ll take your tongue next so you stop blaspheming your new god.” He clutched my jaw and squeezed to fish it out.

  “You let her escape!” I gestured with my chin toward the shadow of Snallygaster, vanishing into the clouds. “Again!”

  He glanced over his shoulder, saw it, saw Rosa, I’m sure, and disregarded it entirely.

  “You think I give a damn?” he spat. “I went through death and back just for the chance to make you know pain like you’ve never imagined.”

  “Yeah, but they want her, you dumb son of a bitch.”

  “They can wait. She can wait. I got all the time in the world.”

  “Time’s funny that way. You think you’ve got it, until you don’t.” I bit at his pawing fingers.

  “Now, now, Crowley. Don’t go all poetic on me.” He dug his thumb into my eye before focusing back on his hatchet work. And since I wouldn’t let him in my mouth, went to saw at my cheeks to force his way in.

  “Put your weapon down!”

  “Get off him!”

  “Hands where we can see them!”

  Soldiers formed a perimeter around the knoll. I’d hoped we could be faster to not involve them, but things rarely work out clean. Ace wouldn’t let a soul live.

  “I am so tired of children interfering!” Shar spoke all around us, her voice both ethereal and matronly. I could tell it wasn’t only in my head by the way Ace looked around in bewilderment.

  A gust of air blew back the soldiers. Wind whirled around our position like a wall, obstructing their ability to come closer. Unlike Calamity’s tornado, her chaos was controlled.

  “That your angel?” Ace asked.

  I nodded. He released my cheek so I could talk.

  “Well, welcome to the party, then.”

  “You have done well, Hand of God, in apprehending this traitor,” Shar spoke, her words meant for Ace. “And you, James Crowley—”

  “Nice to see you again too, Shar,” I interrupted. She hated that.

  “Spare me! You can no longer flee your fate. You have failed yourself. You have failed humanity. And you have failed her. She is dead, and all the hope one from her line may bring the White Throne is gone with her.”

  I chuckled. Ace definitely didn’t like that. “I don’t think I have, Shar. In fact, I think you care about her helping the White Throne about as much as Ace cared about catching her.”

  “How dare you question me!”

  Light pierced the veil of the shroud surrounding us just like my old lasso when I strung up a being from Hell. The very judgment of God and the White Throne weighed me down, like silver being injected into my every pore.

  Agony couldn’t begin to describe it. But I fought through the pain and met Ace’s baffled gaze, forcing words out even though the muscles all over my face spasmed.

  “Whoever’s in there. Whatever angel is watching over Ace Ryker,” I said, “I hope you hear me now. If you truly believe this man to be a Hand of God, then I regret ever being the same. He spits on your orders. You brought back a devil in a man’s skin, and now, you can make it right. It isn’t too late.”

  “I’ve heard enough of your yapping!” Ace snapped. He raised the hatchet to cleave my face in two, but he was no match for Shar’s unrighteous judgment.

  “You will be silent!”

  Shar’s retribution crushed me. Ace had to pull away or he’d be caught in it as well. The ground started to split, tearing grass and soil and stone.

  “But he isn’t the worst traitor here…” I squeezed out. “She is… Shargrafein was cozying up with Chekoketh to deliver Rosa to them. I think she fancied herself the next queen of Hell.”

  “How dare you make such an accusation!”

  More ground caved in beneath me. Soil and dirt crumbled all around.

  “Don’t believe me? Ask her…” were the last words I could get out before my mouth was full of soil and worms. Light filtered away, replaced by darkness. I couldn’t fight it.

  And then…

  The burn of silver went like a candle to a breeze. Earth stopped sliding over me and my arms pushed through. I came crawling to the surface, coughing up mud and blinking grime out of my eyes.

  No rest for me, though. Ace snagged the back of my head by the hair and slammed me onto my rear. He crouched over me, stretching my collar to lift me close.

  “What the hell did you do, Crowley?” he snarled.

  Finally, the joke was on him. I started to laugh. Heck, I was cackling like an old hermit out west at his wit’s end. The shaft of light summoned by Shar was gone. In fact, a strange feeling in my chest replaced the numbness I thought I’d always known. It wasn’t an itch or a burn. Shit, I don’t even know how to explain it. Just different.

  “Stop laughing and answer me!”

  I spat out a glob of mud.

  Ace went to punch me in the face, but his fist froze in midair. He gawked at it, incredulous. Even more so when it started disintegrating into ash. He fell over, terror overwhelming him as skin and bone sheared off farther and farther up the limb.

  “W-what did you do?” he whined. “What is this?”

  “That’s the hangman’s noose coming for you again,” I said.

  Light flourished just above Ace’s head, wisps of a figure coruscating within. It reminded me of when I used to converse with Shar in a body-length mirror, only this was blinding. I was forced to squint, which took some of the enjoyment out of watching Ace fall apart in front of my very eyes, wearing an expression of dread I never thought him capable of.

  “We can talk about this, Kjeldgaard!” Ace pled, his arm little more than a stump.

  “No. The White Throne tires of your lack of impulse, Chauncey Ryker,” the disembodied voice of another angel spoke, the light swelling with each word. His voice was deep and baritone, yet soft like velvet.

  “Chauncey?” I sat up and chuckled. “Learning that was worth it all.”

  “I’ll fucking destroy you!” Ace lunged at me, only for his knee to turn to dust, and he collapsed onto his face.

  “You are released of your servitude and our protection,” Kjeldgaard spoke. “For your sins in this life and after, damnation is your fate.”

  He kept screaming and cursing like a toddler having a hissy fit. Second to Rosa, it was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen.

  I rested my arms on my knees as he kept crawling at me. He grabbed at my ankle with his remaining hand, which became more dust. More and more, he faded, until the last thing left were those piercing blue eyes that’d helped convince so many poor souls to trust him. And then, he was gone.

  From dust we are born, and to dust we shall return.

  I lifted my hand to brush him away. The wind surrounding us, summoned by Shar, dissipated. All the soldiers watched from afar with their hands over their eyes, blinded by Kjeldgaard’s light. I wonder what stories they’d invent to explain it away.

  “Thank you, James Crowley,” Kjeldgaard spoke.

  A phrase I never thought I’d hear from the mouth of an angel. “I guess that means Shar’s guilty?” I replied. “A shame. In a way, I’ll miss her.”

  “She could not gainsay your accusation. Angels cannot deceive one another. Light cannot dwell amongst darkness.”

  “Well, thank God for that. She lied plenty to me.”

  “To betray the White Throne is to forsake all light. Shargrafein’s punishment shall endure longer than the fragile mind of a mortal can fathom.”

  “Good thing I ain’t mortal, then.”

  “You are and always will be. But you have aided the White Throne in revealing a betrayer’s plot, and so, I will offer you a chance to continue redeeming yourself as a Hand of God, until we deem fit.”

  I sighed. Of course, right back to where I was—a servant with no present or known future, doing their bidding just to avoid damnation.

  “Exposing a backstabbing bitch like Shar wasn’t ‘redeeming’ enough?”

  The earth rumbled. “Do not question the generosity of the White Throne.”

  “I would never dare!” I joked. “Y’all are gluttons for punishment. I’m tough to deal with. Just ask Sh—oh, shit.”

  “You will watch your language before me,” the angel called Kjeldgaard said. “However, our offer stands. You will tell us where the descendant is, and then, you will be invited back into the ranks of our protection. There is no greater honor for a Child.”

  I cracked a smirk. Ace got a big old laugh, but this new angel earned just a titter.

  “You find amusement at such benevolence?” Kjeldgaard asked. “You who turned your back on your service. Who concealed yourself from an angel?”

  “Now that counts against me?”

  “Right or wrong, it is no mortal’s place!” The earth quaked once more. “Now, will you accept our generosity, or shall you join your compatriot in eternal damnation?”

  I plucked a blade of grass and held it to my face. Such a small, wondrous thing. We didn’t get green, perfect, symmetrical grass like this out west. And even if we had, I’m not sure I ever would have had the time to really take it in.

  “ANSWER ME!”

  I let it go, watching it float away on the wind. “I have no idea where she is.”

  “YOU LIE.”

  “I’m being as true as death. I don’t know, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

  Kjeldgaard’s searing light went so bright, I couldn’t see a damn thing. “You would reject us?”

  “Yeah, you know what? I’m thinking I will. I’m pretty damn tired, you know? An eternity’s worth of rest might be just what I need.”

  “You will not rest, James Crowley.”

  “Oh, trust me. I will.”

  “You have been told wrongly, James Enoch Crowley. For though you believe your end shall lead you into nothingness, there is a far worse punishment awaiting those who follow the path of the Betrayer.”

  “I’ve got a path for you,” I said. “You angels and the White Throne itself can get fucked.”

  “For your sins in this life and after, damnation is your fate.”

  Kjeldgaard’s light faded to a flicker, and then, it was gone. I sat alone in the shadow of the monument, beneath the stars and a big bright moon. The soldiers started calling out to me, advancing, now that they were no longer blinded. All they’d find when they reached me was a pile of ash.

  I watched as my hands crumpled to dust first, just like Ace’s had. I reckon I smiled too. My long life didn’t flash before my eyes as I broke apart, because I’d already done this dying part. No. My mind was empty, content.

  I guess I could thank Rosa for the inspiration. No shackles on me anymore. Not to Heaven, or Hell, or my own human desire to preserve this existence of mine.

  I was finally free.