A God to Fear (Thorn Saga Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

colonnade, Gleannor spoke. “We should take him out, Lord.”
    Thilial stiffened; she had not noticed that Gleannor was here. She paced toward them with a coterie of God’s other advisors. Of all angels, it has to be she who sees me like this…
    “We should kill Thorn,” Gleannor repeated. “Once he surfaces. One of us could appear, snap his neck, and then vanish before any other demons realize what they’ve seen. Then we can pick Brandon and Heather up and return them to the Sanctuary system.”
    “No, no,” God mumbled. “We’re past that. Thorn’s loose now, out in the open. He’ll tell people the truth. They may not believe him, but it doesn’t matter. They’ll have been told. We need to…” His voice trailed off, and His head bobbed slowly up and down. “We need to talk about containment.”
    “War?” Thilial asked. An all-out attack on Atlanta? He can’t be serious. “Lord, our scouts may yet apprehend Thorn in the Corrid—”
    “I can alert the Angels of War if You wish.” Gleannor spoke right over Thilial. “Their legions can be ready in hours.”
    “No!” Thilial said, turning to Gleannor. Her guards dropped their hands to the hilts of their swords. “An attack on Atlanta would alert the world’s demons that we are still a force of great power. It will ignite another full-scale conflict between us and them.”
    And you’d love that, wouldn’t you, Gleannor? Thilial’s rival had always loathed demonkind, had always been eager to exterminate them. But don’t I feel the same way? Why am I fighting this?
    “So be it,” Gleannor said. “Thorn has proven, as have many others, that demons are beyond salvation. Perhaps it’s time we think about shutting down the Sanctuary system once and for all.” Thilial almost agreed with her on that point, but then Gleannor went on to say, “Perhaps it’s time we wipe out all the demons, all the rebel angels, and focus our efforts on saving the humans.”
    “But God loves the demons. He wants to reconcile with them, form a relationship with them.”
    “Seems like a pretty one-sided relationship,” God muttered. Thilial and Gleannor glanced down at their forlorn Creator, huddled against a pillar.
    “Lord, please don’t let her talk You into this,” Thilial said. Your original plan is still valid and good. We should maintain the status quo, not rush to war.”
    “Says she who consorts with demons,” Gleannor said, practically spitting the words.
    “Be kind to each other,” God said, but without much conviction.
    “We’ve had more than enough bloodshed in our history,” Thilial said to Gleannor. “The purpose of creation is to form beings who are both rational and empathetic, not to assert our power over weaker foes.”
    “And let them trample over us and our values?” Gleannor retorted. “You sulking craven.”
    “You arrogant hawk!”
    “BE KIND!” God bellowed, bursting up from His resting place. He hovered in midair, wind whipping at His white robes, blue lightning arcing from His scalp onto the columns around them.
    The guards all raised their hands, shielding their faces. Gleannor readjusted her stance to gain better footing. Thilial was gripped by fear, her brief reprieve from worrying about imprisonment ended in an instant.
    But after just a few moments, the wind subsided, and God’s outburst quieted. “It’s important to be kind to others,” He murmured as if by rote. “That’s why I gave everyone free will. So they could all be kind and do what I say. It’s how I know they’re being selfish when they don’t agree with Me.”
    Thilial tried to understand God’s nonsensical words, but their meaning eluded her. It was almost as if God’s sanity had become suspect. She took pity on Him. She’d never seen Him like this.
    “War is okay,” God said. “I’m good at war. I’ve done it for a long, long time. Longer than any of you. But I just don’t know.” God’s feet alighted back onto the floor. He clutched