Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Nine
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE
Sure enough, Coello invites some other celestial beings over. He places me and Sterling on either side of his throne, standing with our hands behind our backs. We must look like statues, some kind of grotesque decoration.
“Don’t look anyone in the eyes,” I whisper to Sterling.
“Has he done this to you before?” Sterling murmurs back. “Put you on display like this?”
I nod. “It’s part of belonging to him.”
Sterling is about to say something back when Coello notices us talking.
“Be silent!” Coello’s voice booms across the room, piercing my eardrums with a shrieking pain. I see Sterling, too, raise his hands to cover his ears.
No one else in the room is affected. They’re all celestial beings, after all.
So although we’re mere feet from each other, Sterling and I can’t speak, can’t touch, can’t do anything but stand perfectly still, our eyes cast respectfully down, and listen to the strange gathering going on around us.