“Bad news?” Will repeated.

“All kinds of it,” she said glumly. “He’s older than our earliest records of the Preliator. This book holds the translation of a tablet older than the sarcophagus containing the Enshi. Merodach may have served this Enshi before it was imprisoned. He’s one of the first-generation original demonic reapers, a direct offspring of Lilith and Sammael.”

That woke me up a bit. “Doesn’t that mean he has to be thousands of years old? Are you sure?”

Nathaniel nodded. “That’s what it says.”

Sometimes I forgot that reapers could keep on living if nothing happened to kill them. Cadan had said he was over eight hundred years old and his father was over a thousand. Will was six hundred. Nathaniel was about a century older. It made me wonder about Bastian. How old was he? The way Merodach and Kelaeno seemed completely unaffected by Bastian’s commands made me question if they were even stronger than he was. It seemed like every day the odds against me were more and more staggering.

“I hate this job,” I said exasperatedly. “I’m quitting and going to work at McDonald’s.”

All three angelic reapers stared at me in confusion and surprise. Will even had a little horror in his expression.

I rolled my eyes. “Or maybe I should work somewhere that can sell each of you a sense of humor. I’ll even give you my employee discount. Especially you.” I looked pointedly at Nathaniel.

He blinked back. “I have a great sense of humor!”

“No, you don’t,” I mumbled. “So, Merodach. He’s solitary, despite being somehow connected with the Enshi. I’m confused that he’s allied with Kelaeno and Bastian. But I’m not surprised that Bastian is gathering the strongest he can in order to free the Enshi. He needs a powerful, impenetrable front to his army. If Merodach has joined him, then he must believe Bastian can pull it off. He wouldn’t waste his time or take anyone’s orders otherwise.”

Will furrowed his brow. “I just don’t see a reaper that ancient and powerful taking orders from Bastian.”

“Unless Bastian has grown in strength,” Ava said. “You know what Bastian can do, Will.”

He didn’t look at her, but his body visibly tensed. “Either way, Merodach and this Kelaeno are acting under Bastian’s orders. They aren’t doing it because they enjoy it. You saw the look Merodach gave Bastian.”

I could tell the subject of Bastian’s capabilities was hard for him. “Kelaeno said something very cryptic and strange to me,” I added. “Something about my heart and hand, I don’t know.”

Nathaniel’s gaze turned serious. “What exactly did she say?”

“‘Your strength in heart and hand will fall to a reaper’s bane.’ And then, ‘You will lose everything you love before finally you lose your soul.’ It was awful.”

He paused to think. “She meant Will. Your strength in heart and hand. It’s your Guardian, your right hand.”

I looked at Will, who stared at the ground. Ava wasn’t taking her eyes off him either. “What did she mean when she said he will fall?” I asked. “What is the reaper’s bane?”

“It could mean a lot of things,” Nathaniel said. “Anything that can harm a reaper, I suppose. It’s a pretty serious threat.”

I stared at him firmly. “She means he’s going to die.”

“Nathaniel,” Ava said. “The female vir’s name was Kelaeno. Doesn’t that sound familiar?”

“Yes,” he confirmed. “Aeneas and the Harpies. That’s just Greek myth, though.”

Both Ava’s gaze and her voice became dark. “What if she is real?”

Will remained silent, and his expression hardened.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “What about Greek myth?”

Nathaniel cleared his throat. “Kelaeno was a Harpy who cursed Aeneas, the leader of the Dardanian Trojans who fought in the battle of Troy. She told him that he would go so hungry that he’d eat his tables by the end of his journey, which came true, according to the story.”

“So this threat was more like a prophecy,” I said. The words weighed on my heart. The thought of losing Will and my friends and family was too much. I couldn’t let anyone get hurt. No one should have to die for me.

“This could very well be the same Kelaeno of Greek mythology,” Nathaniel said, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. “People have misidentified reapers since the beginning of time and come up with their own explanations for what they’ve experienced. Lupines were mistaken for were-wolves all the time. People saw vir reapers and believed they were demons and witches, sometimes so fervently that they’d turn on their neighbors in hysteria, burn their friends and families at the stake. It’s very likely that the Greeks invented the Harpy myth to explain some of the more avian vir reapers they may have encountered.”

That made sense. Kelaeno had been so birdlike that it was disturbing. The way her face seemed to have difficulty retaining a form haunted me. “She said something else, too. She called me ‘the gift for the demon queen.’ That sounds familiar—”

I shut up midsentence when I saw Nathaniel’s face. He stared at me in shock and fear, so startling that my pulse began to pound. “What is it?” I asked shakily.

Nathaniel leaned forward and spoke slowly. “Are you positive that is exactly what Kelaeno said?”