Page 194 of Psycho Gods

We all got the same result.

There was a .07 percent chance of finding a cure, assuming the High Court was already working on one, and a 342 percent chance the ungodly would murder millions if they expanded into other realms and infected people.

Jinx smirked condescendingly and turned around, brandishing her chalk to the room. “This is why your position is idiotic,” she spat at the angels.

No one responded.

I rubbed grit out of my tired eyes.

Everyone was asleep.

Jinx hobbled over and smacked her crutch against Rina and Knox until they woke up. “See why your idea was asinine.” She pointed at the board.

The angels squinted sleepily at the board with confusion. “What are we looking at?” Knox asked as Rina said, “I just see letters and symbols. What is this?”

Jinx let out a small scream of frustration and hobbled back to the board while Malum shook his head like he too was disgusted with their mathematical incompetence.

The angels went back to sleep.

I grimaced at Jinx. Poor girl had forgotten for a second that other people were genuinely simpleminded and useless. She’d learn with age.

Either I was hallucinating, or she didn’t look like a child anymore. She looked like a teenager.

Her limbs were long and lanky like she was going through puberty, and her face had lost baby fat.

“How old are you again?” I asked.

Jinx ignored me as she stared at our equation. “I don’t have time for this. We need a plan if the angels refuse to fight because they’re cowards.”

I winced.

We sounded like monsters.

They weren’t wrong for not wanting to kill the innocent infected; sun god, neither did I. However, this was war.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel so good about our position. Maybe we should do something to try to save—

“No.” Jinx cut me off like could read my mind, which she very well might be able to. “No. We know the facts and the numbers. If we’re going to win this war, we can’t worry about the fate of the few in the face of real, assured destruction.”

I tried to nod in agreement, but my neck muscles cramped.

My chest knotted with regret.

“She’s right,” Malum said as he tapped the tablet and flipped through the different projections. “We’ve thought through every angle and calculated the odds. We need to stay level-headed and not be swayed with emotion. The three of us are effective strategists because we make decisions based on hard facts.”

Silver eyes looked melancholic.

The chalk in my fingers froze solid and dropped. It shattered across the floor in thousands of little pieces. For the first time, I noticed the similarities between Malum and me.

The heartlessness.

The learned cruelty.

We adapted and survived.

He looked at me and whispered, “We’re different because of our analytical abilities. We recognize that this is war. We understand the stakes.”

I exhaled.