Free The Devil's Secret by Joshua Ingle

assignment for you.”
    The plants growing out of His robes rustled against the marble floor as His bare feet carried Him toward her. No matter how accustomed Thilial became to His presence, the sight of Him approaching still filled her with awe. She felt now, as she always did around Him, like she was about to be punished.
    I told You Thorn couldn’t be trusted , she wanted to say. Why did You have to bring Amy into it? she wanted to say. But Almighty God was her king, and she would not raise her voice against Him no matter how breathless and hurt she felt at the girl’s demise. Lord, I am Yours. Keep me safe and give me Your strength.
    “Yes, Lord?” she said.
    “If Thorn somehow gets out of that Sanctuary alive, I think we know exactly where he’ll go next.”
    “Atlanta.”
    “Yes. I need you to go back there with a contingent of angels. Post guards by as many transit doors as you can.”
    “Lord, with respect, I was planning to join the others and pursue him to the new Sanctuary.”
    “We need as many angels as possible in Atlanta in case a manhunt is needed. Pleurian and the other leaders there have already been alerted, but you have command experience, and you know the city well. I need you to make preparations.”
    “But I know Thorn. I know how he thinks. I can hunt him better than anyone.”
    “Thilial, he destroyed our way into the Sanctuary. It might take all day before we can navigate a new path. I’m aware that you know Thorn well, but unless you know exactly which doors currently lead to his present location, the task for which you’re most qualified lies in Atlanta. Go there now.”
    God’s orders severely disappointed Thilial, but she knew better than to argue. “Yes, Lord.”
    •
    Thirty minutes later, Thilial was flying through a warehouse in the Atlanta quarantine zone, shouting orders, ensuring that the bustle indoors was hidden from the demons who were always loitering outside, and making all sorts of preparations in case Thorn should reach Atlanta. She sent scouts into the Corridors—the network of dark hallways and transit doors between Heaven and Earth—and she made sure all the angels finished any pressing business with their charges throughout the city. She even snuck underground and across the street to overhear the day’s demon gossip.
    Thorn was dead, they all said. He’d “perished in the Sanctuary.” Several of the city’s top demons were fighting each other for the right to succeed him. And apparently the Atlanta Judge had gotten into some kind of fight. But no demons were actively trying to aid Thorn, and that was all Thilial cared to know. She dropped underground and flew back to the warehouses.
    As an Angel of Truth, Thilial had journeyed all over the world, helping to devise and implement God’s strategy on the ground. Along with the Angels of Love and the Angels of Reason (and formerly the Angels of Judgment), Thilial’s order was considered one of the three dominant orders of cherubim, thus allowing her the privilege of travel. She’d been in Novosibirsk last year, and in Xi’an the year before that. As an administrator, she rarely stayed in one location more than two years: she came, ensured all was running smoothly, and then went.
    She’d never expected to run into Thorn again—and so close to Tugaloo! Seeing him in the church last December had shaken her. Her thoughts had dwelled on Thorn for days afterward, then weeks. She hated him: his arrogance, his cruelty, his callousness. She wanted him dead more than God wanted him dead. More even than Marcus wanted him dead.
    These venomous thoughts roiling through her mind, Thilial found herself in a corner of a warehouse she hadn’t visited in months: a corner containing a special crate, near the back of one of the smaller stockrooms. The place was lit by a single dim fluorescent light that barely even illuminated the dust wafting through the air.
    No, I shouldn’t look at the crate. I shouldn’t be in this