Last of the Mighty by Phineas Foxx Read Free Book Online Page A

or…Shemjaza.” She lifted her eyebrows at me, all dramatic and know-it-allish.
    I’d already done the research on Shemja-za. Of course I had. He was Chool’s father, and I’d been poking around for anything that might give me an edge in my impending war against the Nephilim. But Merryn the reporter was so dang cute when she got all jacked up on her own smarts, I wasn’t about to stop her.
    â€œA fallen angel,” she read, “and according to Jewish and Christian tradition, one of the three leaders of the Watchers. The other two were…” she scanned the notes she’d written on a yellow pad. “Uzza and Azazel.”
    She looked funny when she spoke because she’d been ordered not to open her recently popped-back-into-place jaw too wide. I don’t know why keeping a slit-mouth mattered more now than it had a few days ago—when shoving down In-N-Out’s Two-by-Four as fast as she could with her yapper cranked open to the size of a pizza box.
    â€œAnd listen to this,” she said, like a ventriloquist. “‘The Lord said to Michael.” She was reading the Wikipedia page. “’Find Shemja-za and the others who have defiled themselves by laying with women. And when their children have slain each other and they have seen their loved ones die, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth.” She quoted the source, “Enoch, chapter ten.”
    I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm.
    â€œCould be worse.” Merryn pulled up another Wiki page. “If Chool was Azazel’s kid instead of Shemja-za’s… Check it out. ‘And the Lord said the whole earth has been corrupted by the teachings of Azazel: attribute all sin to him.’” Merryn closed the laptop. “If Azaz-hole really is to blame for all sin, then he is one major jerkenstein. Kinda like,” she folded her arms, “you.” She shot me with the stink-eye.
    â€œWhattaya talkin—”
    â€œYou suck. That’s what.” She glanced away briefly then knifed me again with her eyes. “You thought I wasn’t gonna find out? Staying here every night for three weeks?” Shook her head, hurt. “Why’d you lie to me?”
    Great. First the warm reception when I revealed my secret roots, now this.
    â€œUmm…” What was I supposed to say? Didn’t seem the ideal time to tell her I’d been in love with her since I was nine. “I was, uhh…” I made a vow, there and then, to tell Merryn the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Everything. For the rest of my life. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen a—”
    A rap of knuckles on the open door saved me. Uncle Will.
    He smiled from the doorway. “Hey, Og.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “What a surprise to see you here.” His sarcastic grin winked at me. He smirked his way to the bed, hugged Merryn, and kissed her on the forehead.
    Merryn got straight to the task of gathering intel. “So, Dad, Ugh and I were talking.” Merryn bounced her eyes off mine, a look that said she’d forgiven me for the rude gesture of remaining at her bedside for eighteen days and nights. “About the flood.”
    Right. The flood. As long as I was forgiven, I’d play along.
    â€œThe Flood of Noah.” Uncle Will slipped into his silky, professorial voice.
    â€œWhen did it happen again?” Merryn wrapped a strand of hair around her index finger. “Wasn’t it like three thousand B.C.?”
    â€œLesser scholars routinely place the flood between twenty-three and twenty-five hundred B.C. They, however, are imbecilic underwits.”
    Merryn’s eyes did the why-can’t-I-ever-just-get-the-short-answer roll.
    â€œThe exceptionally pinheaded push the date out to the thirty-fifth century B.C., which is preposterous, because if one—”
    â€œDaaad.” Merryn had been