“No, that’s not why,” he said quietly. “If I don’t kill, agony pierces my body, and I will become fallen—warped into a demonic form and cast into an eternal hell on Earth.”
Oh. Shit. “Well, I’m not gonna lie. That doesn’t sound wonderful.”
If that was the outcome, perhaps tempting him to fall would be a no-go, even if I could bring myself to do it. But I had to wonder—was it possible that, if he’d gotten laid once in his long life, this particular angel would be out of the game? I couldn’t let myself think about that right now, or I’d end up trying to push him down the endless staircase.
By the time we finally reached the top of the stairs, my thighs were burning. Given how long we’d been walking, I thought we must be halfway to the heavens already.
Kratos pushed through a doorway, and I followed him outside onto the tower wall. Here, a cold wind whipped over the parapet, blowing strands of red hair into my face. To my right, the forest spread out before us, a vast expanse of trees. On the other side of the tower walls, I had a view of the courtyard—a cheery sward of grass with a bloodied wooden block that I was pretty sure had been used for executions. One stark, dark-stone tower stood in the center of it all.
The soaring walls connected six towers, with the seventh in the middle. At the top of the central tower sat an enormous hall of domed glass. In the darkness, I couldn’t quite see inside of it. I pointed at it. “What’s that Tower called?”
“The Tower of Silence. And that domed room is the Celestial Room, the crown jewel of my castle. I often spend time in there, staring at the stars and thinking of conquest.”
Ahhh, Kratos… definitely fun at parties.
Halfway across the tower’s high wall, Kratos stopped walking and turned to me.
“I promised you a guided tour. I thought I’d begin with a view of the grounds and the castle from above.”
A shadow passed above us, and I glanced up at a sentinel swooping through the skies.
“Will they be watching us?” I asked.
“No, not when I’m here.” Without warning, Kratos crossed toward me and scooped me up in his arms.
Cautiously, I wrapped my arms around his neck. He held me close to his enormous chest, his body warming mine.
His eyes glowed golden in the night. “Are you cold?”
“You’re warming me up.” I hated the guy, but it was the truth.
Within moments, he’d lifted me into the air. The frigid winter winds rushed over my skin as we swooped over the parapet. Instinctively, I curled in closer to Kratos.
For a moment, I closed my eyes, feeling nothing but the wind and Kratos’s heartbeat and his muscled arms enveloping me. Since the dragons had come—since I’d watched them drag humans into the skies, then drop them to the earth—I hadn’t been great with heights. As much as I loathed everything about the angels, his warm, woodsy scent was oddly soothing.
Clearly, death came in some beautiful disguises.
“You’re missing it all with your eyes closed,” he pointed out.
After a few seconds, I felt brave enough to open my eyes.
I peered over the side of Kratos’s arm. Stretching below us, loomed the seven towers, each reaching hundreds of feet into the air. Outside the ring of towers stood timber-frame stables. “How many horses do you keep in there?”
“One for each of the angels,” said Kratos. “And a three more. You wouldn’t like riding them. They’re difficult.”
We swooped lower over the battlements, heading for the forest. As my keen fae eyes adjusted in the silvery moonlight, I could make out a riot of vibrant colors in the oak and ash trees, their leaves tinged shades of dark umber and rich gold.
“Seven towers seem a bit much for three angels, don’t you think?” I asked.
“We like our space,” he said simply.
There was a time when you would’ve been able to see London’s lights glittering in the near distance. Now only a canopy of stars burned brightly around us.
“This is how it once was.” His deep voice rumbled through his chest into mine. “Don’t you remember? For hundreds of years of my memories, only starlight lit the skies. The only noise at night was the rustling of leaves, the scattering of animals through the woods. We lived in peace.”
So Kratos was one of those beings who liked to be alone with his thoughts. I counted myself among the opposite. Before the Great Nightmare, I’d liked to have music blaring, the TV on, small talk with a neighbor.
And yet I couldn’t deny the allure of the quiet midnight beauty out here, over the darkened forest.
With my arms clamped around his neck, we soared lower over a grove of ash trees. From here, I could hear the wind whispering through their boughs like an ancient song.
Was it possible that Kratos had a point? Humans craved knowledge, but as soon as Adam and Eve ate from that tree, they learned a terrible truth about themselves. As soon as they had language, they learned that all things died, and that they would too. After that, they could never feel peaceful in the silence again.
Kratos soared in a large arc over the forest, and as he did, his body glowed with a deeper, richer light. His fingers tightened around my thighs, around my ribcage, and I knew that, right now, a war was raging in his mind. He so badly wanted to give in to those “earthly temptations,” to carry me down to land and let his hands explore the rest of my body.
But that whole eternal hell thing obviously put him off.
When he met my gaze again, his eyes burned brightly. He was born to conquer—and he wanted to conquer me, was desperate to loose the leash he kept on himself.
An unwelcome flush spreading over my skin, for reasons I didn’t even want to think about.
I had to lure him to fall, to abandon his mission. What would he do if I strode into his room in the Tower of Silence and just took off my clothes?
Morality—like he’d been going on about before—sometimes meant making sacrifices for the greater good. I’d seduce him away from his stupid sacred duty while looking for the key to the angels’ deaths in the forest. Then I’d kill them all.
As I pondered this, his gaze shuttered, muscles tensing again. I was quickly getting the impression that if he let himself fantasize too much—dwell on earthly pleasures—he’d mentally punish himself immediately afterwards.
Kratos swooped around in a wide arc, heading back for the castle, as the wind whipped my hair around my face. This had been useful, but not enough. I wanted more. I wanted to learn everything I could about these angels—everything they were willing to tell me.
I studied his face again—the dark eyebrows and eyelashes framing amber eyes, the hint of golden stubble, the moonlight silvering his features. Women must have thrown themselves at him over the years, and he’d somehow resisted it all.
“How long have you been on Earth, Kratos?” How long have you been keeping this tight leash on yourself? “I never knew we had angels among us.”
“I didn’t have wings until recently, but I’ve been alive over a thousand years.”
“So… how did it work? You came to Earth from the heavens a thousand years ago?”
He swooped lower over the tower’s edge, landing gracefully on the stone wall. Gently, he put me down on the walkway. As soon as I pulled away from him, I regretted the lack of warmth. I hugged myself, pulling my coat tighter.
Kratos looked down at me, and an unearthly, celestial light dazzled in his eyes. “I was born in Denmark, the son of a Viking king. My father taught me how to navigate by the stars. He taught me how to live off the land. I’ll never forget the smell of the brine in the air, the feel of the wind in my hair. I was free then.”
Surprise washed over me. “You were born to human parents?”
He nodded. “Human parents, yes, but they knew what I was.” The frigid winds whipped at his pale golden strands of hair. “My father even tested it and had my brother split my skull open with an axe to determine my immortality. I recovered, obviously.”
&
nbsp; I grimaced. “So the halcyon days weren’t all open seas and briny air.”
“No, but I learned about duty. I learned I was meant for something more than the human world around me. My father taught me about conquest—until other humans slaughtered him in battle. I was there. I watched them smash his head to pieces.”
And thus began his hatred of humans. “I’m sorry.”
“When I found the humans who did it, I ripped their lungs and spines from their bodies.”
My stomach dropped. “Any reasonable person would do the same.” Worried he could hear the sarcasm in my tone, I followed up with, “Nothing is more important than family.”
Something sparked in his eyes, and he took another step closer. He spread out his gleaming copper wings, forming a protective shield around me, blocking the wind. “And what about your family? You said you miss your sister.”
Through all of my lies, he’d managed to home in on one simple truth.
“Yes,” I said softly. “I miss her.”
“Nothing is more important than family,” he repeated.
I smiled up at him innocently. That’s right. And I’m here to destroy you, so my sister can return to a safer world.
Chapter 17
The first hazy rays of morning sun bled into my room, waking me from my deep sleep. I’d been dreaming of the four black suns again, looming over the Earth.
But I had to clear the cobwebs from my mind quickly. Today, I had to make sure I was in the right place when Yasmin called. I lit a candle at the side of the bed, then snatched it up to investigate our communication portal. Yasmin could appear anywhere in this place—and with any luck, it wouldn’t happen when the sentinels were watching.
I snatched an almond croissant from a tray on the bedside table, chomping into it with enthusiasm.
As I crossed the chilly flagstone floor in my bare feet, I wished desperately for a warm bathrobe and slippers. How quickly we got used to luxury. I’d only just arrived here, and already I’d moved on from appreciating the bed and food to desiring specific clothing items.
With one eye on the window for sentinels, I scurried around the room, searching for signs of movement in the reflective surfaces while stuffing my face with the pastry. According to my calculations, I only had about one minute left before another sentinel appeared.
So when Yasmin’s dark eyes and hair shimmered into view in a mirror hanging on one of the walls—directly across from the windows—my heart leapt into my throat. As quickly as I could, I used the candle to signal no, to tell Yasmin to bugger off for a few minutes.
Could I get her into the bathroom—the spot with the mirror the sentinels couldn’t see? Maybe the scryers could actually find my exact location.
After a few more false starts in candlestick holders and the side of the coffeepot, I finally met Yasmin’s reflection in the bathroom mirror, tucked safely into the alcove.
I signaled with the candle five times and watched her shimmering face smile with relief.
She held up a handwritten sign: Thank you for your work. Then she leaned down, scribbling again. She held up a second sign that said, Alert us at the first sign of danger to London.
She waited a moment to see if I would signal that I needed to meet right away. When I didn’t, her image shimmered away, leaving me faced with the charming sight of my flaky, crumb-spattered nightgown.
It all seemed a bit pointless, but at least I knew I had a slight lifeline here.
Just as I was crossing back into the bedroom, a knock interrupted the silence. So I had a morning visitor.
“I’m not dressed yet!” I called out.
Of course, no one here actually cared if I was dressed or not, and the door edged open.
Relief loosened my chest as the dark-haired servant poked her head in the room. “Sorry to interrupt you, miss. Madam. Your… highness…”
Your highness? “I’m a succubus, not a royal. Just go with Ruby. And what is your name?”
“Susie. Just Susie.” She scurried into the room. “I’m here to deliver a message. The Dark Lord desires to meet you tonight.” She pointed to the oak wardrobe by the bed. “You can find a suitable dress in there, and I assume you’ve discovered the bath—”
I held up my hands. “Back up a second. The Dark Lord?”
She nodded, fear etched on her pale features.
“Adonis?” Just a guess.
“Yes.” She wrung her hands, looking out the window. A sentinel drifted past, watching us. When the creature disappeared from view again, Susie met my gaze steadily. “You’ll also find your… other things in there.” She cleared her throat. “You’ll want to look sharp tonight.”
Sharp… sharp like a knife? The emphasis on the word hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Understanding began to dawn. She’d hidden my weapons—maybe the arrows, maybe the knife. And what’s more, she seemed to think I needed to come armed to my little meeting with the Dark Lord tonight.
I spent the day reading books and searching the room from top to bottom. The door to my room remained locked, and I was picking up absolutely no intel in here. On the plus side, I’d quickly discovered my Nyxobian knife hidden in the wardrobe. I couldn’t spend much time examining it, since the sentinels were always just a few minutes away from swooping by, but I’d found it hidden under a panel, and its presence made me feel a lot better.
I was under no illusions. I was here as a prisoner of sorts. Granted, my prison had silky bedsheets and the most amazing food I’d ever tasted, but it was a prison nonetheless.
I crossed to the window, pressing my palms against the cold panes. Outside lay a dark forest of oak, hazel, elder, and ash trees—the boughs strangely verdant for January. Overhead, a flock of crows swarmed from the trees, cawing wildly.
As a sentinel floated past, awkwardly close to the window, I jumped back, before pressing my nose against the glass again.
Yasmin had told me that the Old Gods would provide. She seemed to believe that the key to our salvation lay in the woods around the castle. I couldn’t really tell if she knew what she was talking about, or if she was just a mom desperate for a solution to safeguard her child’s life. But in any case, I had to get out into those woods when I could.
In the distance, between two ash trees, a creature slipped between the trunks. I squinted, using my fae senses to pick it out. Was that a… a boar? Since when had wild boars returned to the English forests?
Of course, someone like Kratos was a born hunter. I could imagine him galloping on horseback through the forest in search of his prey.
I traced my finger over an aged window pane. Where would I find that Devil’s Bane Yasmin had promised me? According to her, that was the key to human survival.
If I was going to find it, I needed Kratos to trust me so that I could snatch a moment of freedom.
I mean, assuming I made it out of my evening with the Dark Lord alive. Best not to dwell on that particular terror right now. Might as well lose myself in books until I had to face him.
After grabbing another pastry, I climbed a ladder to the balcony, where Kratos’s old books lined the walls.
I spent the next few hours on the balcony, poring over a book about the history of Tudor prostitutes, looking up only when Susie brought my lunch into the room. I spent the day reading in the firelit room, while working my way through roast chicken and bread pudding.
When the sun began to dip behind the trees, casting long shadows like bony fingers over the grassy earth, a cold chill rippled over my body. Almost time to meet with the Dark Lord.
I blew out a long breath. Best get on with it. I slammed my book shut. My march down the stairs toward the wardrobe felt only a little like a final death march.
Sucking in a deep breath, I flung open the wardrobe I’d searched earlier. Here, a row of stunning dresses in jewel-like colors greeted me—a few more in black, midnight blue, and ivory. Just as I’d done before, I ran my fingertips over the fabric—the most delicate silk I’d ever to
uched.
I scanned the lower shelf of the wardrobe, where I’d found my quiver earlier, next to a pile of neatly folded underwear.
I cast a quick glance behind me and waited for a sentinel to float by.
I didn’t suppose Kratos would ever trust me enough to afford me the luxury of curtains? No, that was probably ridiculous.
After another minute, the wide-eyed sentinel drifted past. Four to six minutes. I began counting.
Once he was out of view, I dropped down, the flagstones biting into my knees. Carefully, I ran my fingers around the lower shelf until I felt a break in the smooth wood. Here we go. Slowly, I slid my fingernails into the gap, pulling up a small panel of wood, exposing the small hollow in the bottom of the wardrobe.
I slid my hand inside, feeling around the gap until my fingertips brushed metal. Bingo. I reached for the hilt, then pulled out the knife Yasmin had given me. For just a moment, the Nyxobian silver glinted in the light. And next to it—helpfully—Susie had left my thigh holster.
Kratos had seen the bow and arrow and had probably ordered them taken from me. But the only person who knew about the knife was the woman who’d undressed me. If she worked for the Order, I was pretty sure Yasmin would have mentioned it, but maybe she just hated the angels as much as I did.
I tucked the knife and holster into a corner of the shelf and cast another quick look back at the window.
I’d let the sentinel catch me dressing like a normal succubus—a harmless, non-assassin sort of demon.
Let’s see… what dress should I choose to meet the Dark Lord, the terrifying predator who hated my entire race? Perhaps a nice midnight blue. Maybe if my dress matched his wings and his eyes, he’d be less inclined to rip me in half with a flick of his wrist.
I pulled the dress off the hanger, my breath catching at its beauty. Once, I’d lived among shining, beautiful things, danced in the most stunning gowns and beaded costumes. I stroked my fingertips over the sheer, sleeveless dress, and the silky fabric shimmered. Would it be opaque enough to hide the knife? I’d find out.
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