Nobody said goodbye twice.
It had all been said at the table the night before, and his mother put a mug in front of him at ten past eight and did not ask him anything, and Nyra sat across from him with her wings out and her chin on her fist and watched him check his kit for the second time.
Durendal. The coat. The belt with the split in it.
The scythe, dark and sealed, across his back.
"Right," said James.
"Message," said Nyra.
"The second we're out."
Alice put everything away in the hall — wings, halo, tail — because they were going out the front and there would be cameras at the end of the road, and there was no sense being photographed in a garden in Ballymun with a four-metre wingspan.
`[TEAM ZERO — PARTY FORMATION]`
`[JAMES GANNER — CONFIRMED]`
`[FINN HALE — CONFIRMED]`
`[MAEVE CALLAHAN — CONFIRMED]`
`[RONAN CLEARY — CONFIRMED]`
`[CILLIAN WARD — CONFIRMED]`
`[CHALLENGER PARTY: 5 / 5]`
`[REANIMATED — ACTIVE]`
`[ANATHEMA — BOUND — MANIFEST]`
