Angela looked down at the water, shocked to see a reflection that wasn’t her own. Instead they stood above lights and a city that could have been rocking on stilts above an eerily calm sea. Darkness cloaked its towers and buildings like a thick blanket, though on its horizon, something brilliant gleamed like an iridescent moon.
Then it struck her. This was Luz.
Now the voices escalated from whispers to roars. The water around the Kirin churned and frothed like a whirlpool. An incredible force grabbed Angela’s soul and twisted, forcing her to descend.
A fiery pain cut through Angela’s hands, and she cried out. It was Troy, reaching out a bony hand for Angela, but her nails had only succeeded in slicing Angela’s palm, and the cuts hurt like living flames. Troy switched tactics and grabbed for the Kirin’s mane.
Her efforts were useless.
Angela, and Sophia, and the Kirin were sinking into the Mirror Pool. It was acting as a portal, taking them away, and either the Kirin could no longer fly or it couldn’t escape whatever enchantment it was under. Images flashed before Angela’s eyes. She saw herself on the Throne of Hell. She saw the Father murdering the angel Raziel all over again. She saw Israfel’s sea-blue eyes and heard Lucifel’s laughter. Last of all, she saw Kim’s face, and her stomach twisted into a painful knot as she realized she’d failed him. There was no rescuing him now. Angela heard herself scream Troy’s name.
Then the water closed over Sophia’s head, and over Angela’s head, and took them to darkness.
Twelve
Kim worked at the lock that sealed his prison cell, using the metal crow’s foot talisman to pick it as noiselessly as possible. He was getting nowhere, really. Python would certainly know the moment Kim broke free, and yet the demon hadn’t bothered to put any kind of magical seal on the door. It was as if he wanted Kim to work desperately for his freedom.
Kim slumped back on the stone floor, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. His bangs hung heavily in his eyes, and he pushed them aside.
He took a deep breath, trying to ignore his overwhelming hunger and thirst.
Where were Angela and Sophia? That was what he wanted to know most of all. Perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised him that Python had decided to toss Kim into a cell. This was only the beginning of Kim’s slavery, after all.
He licked his dry lips and clutched the hourglass pendant at his chest. It was oddly warm.
He hated it already. It hung from his neck as if the chain were made of iron. Yet he’d wear it forever if that was what Angela needed. Kim held the hourglass to the light of the embers set in the walls of his dank prison. The sand continued to drain slowly but surely. His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he worked quickly on the lock, jiggling it every now and then. Shadows filled the cavern and the acidic air tormented his lungs. Sometimes, Kim was certain he heard animal noises echoing down the pitch-black tunnels outside.
His finger slipped this time, and the metal crow’s foot accidentally pierced his palm.
Kim cursed out loud, clutching at his hand. He sucked the blood away, rocking a little. He was working too fast, but damn it, it wasn’t like he had a choice.
A hiss echoed back to him.
At least, that’s what Kim thought he heard. He froze, barely able to breathe.
Water dripped slowly from small stalactites to the ground. Kim looked back at the glittering mosaic set in the wall behind him. It displayed an image of an angel being devoured by some hellish monster. Was it really so surprising Python found that a suitable image for a prison? A small cot took up the other side of the cell where the round bed hung from rusted chains. Even more chains had been set in the walls. Kim listened a little while longer and then turned from his gloomy surroundings back to the lock. He fumbled with the iron crow’s foot again until it slipped from his bloody fingers to the ground.
Kim sighed, stooping down to find where it had fallen in the pebbles.
When he straightened again, Troy stood in front of him on the other side of the bars.
Kim stopped breathing.
Fear arrested his heartbeat, stole through every corner of his brain. He heard a strange clicking sound and realized his teeth chattered.
Troy looked absolutely ravaged. Scars marbled her skin and she’d lost a wing. The one that remained had grown back its feathers but still appeared ragged and unkempt. Some of her long nails had snapped and her fingertips were bloody. Blood ringed her mouth and stained her lips. She must have either eaten or been fighting with another creature recently. But her great yellow eyes remained exactly as he’d always remembered them, and they sliced down to his soul, peeling back layers only she could see. Kim could only stare back at her, stunned like a mouse before a cat.
The why or the how of her presence wasn’t important.
He was about to die.
Long ago, Kim had killed his Jinn father. The reason had been to protect himself and his mother from abuse and pain. But Troy didn’t understand that. Even though Kim was only half-Jinn, he’d broken a sacred law of the Clans and murdered a relative. Troy’s sister, the reigning Jinn Queen, had ordered his execution and had chosen Troy to carry out justice. The only thing that had saved Kim from her clutches was that he’d known Angela was most likely the Archon. And after the revelation was certain, he’d escaped into Hell before Troy could devour his soul.
“Do you feel like gloating?” Troy said to him now.
Kim’s voice emerged from him as if out of a thick darkness, and it was rickety with fear. “No . . .”
“You might as well,” Troy said with lethal softness. “As you can see, you’ve had your revenge to some degree. Even though it’s you who deserves justice. It must please you so much to see me flightless. It must thrill you to the core to know that to our Clan, I may as well be dead.”
Kim didn’t say anything. He stared at her and felt like a man peering into the Abyss.
When he finally spoke again, his voice escaped as an even more cracked, weary thing. “Were those your hisses I heard in Python’s great hall?” Kim said. “Do you know what happened to Angela?” He touched his hourglass pendant, suddenly feeling as if he were in some strange dream that might never end. “There’s only one fate left for me, Troy, and it’s worse than anything you can do. If you want to kill me, feel free. I won’t stop you. Only, promise me this—get Angela and Sophia out of here. I know Python’s hidden them in his mansion somewhere.”
But Troy tipped back her head and laughed. “Oh yes,” she scoffed. “As if you haven’t already discovered a way to worm out of Hell again. As if you’d really put their well-being before your own.”
Kim trembled like a leaf, unable to rip his eyes away from her awful gaze.
Troy flicked her ears. Perhaps she sensed his sincerity and it had made her pause.
Her bony hand reached through the bars like a blur, grabbed Kim by the collar, and smacked him against the metal.
He groaned as the pain ricocheted through his bones. Troy’s breath blasted hot and evil on his face. Then she sniffed his pendant, and despite his best efforts Kim moaned in fear. He knew in Troy’s eyes, he deserved to die. Yet would Python really allow her to kill him? That didn’t make sense. But why else would she have been allowed to get this close?
Troy licked her teeth, examining him carefully. The moments passed with an eternal sluggishness until she sat back on her haunches.
With a nasty grunt, she let him go.
Kim flew back to the ground, all the wind knocked out of him. He leaned up on his elbows and gasped as Troy set her good nails to the padlock on the cell bars and twisted her wrist sharply.
The padlock snapped. Troy flung it aside and threw open the gate.
This was it. Kim squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for her teeth to sink into his neck. Instead, Troy grabbed him tightly by the wrist and dragged him out of the cell.
“You’re—you’re not going to kill me?” Kim muttered, in a daze.
“I can’t kill you,” Troy wh
ispered. She looked around at the rock walls, appearing keenly suspicious.
“But why!”
“Quiet,” Troy snarled at him. She flung him aside by the hand, but not before seeing the crow’s foot talisman he still clutched in his fingers. Troy’s face blanched even whiter. She opened her mouth as if to speak again, but instead ripped the talisman from Kim and cradled it in the center of her palm. “Where did you get this?” she demanded, apparently forgetting that she’d wanted silence.
“I found it,” Kim whispered.
“Liar! Someone gave it to you!”
“Perhaps they did, but I can’t imagine who. I found it outside of my chamber in Lilith’s mansion. It’s the symbol of your—our—Clan, I know. But I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. I know I’d never be pardoned for my offense. I do remember the old stories, though. Even for a Jinn, apparently forgiveness isn’t unheard of.”
Troy folded her hand over the talisman, hiding it from Kim’s view. “I’m keeping this,” she growled shortly. She appeared concerned about something—or maybe someone—but it would be foolish for Kim to press for more information. The most he could gather was that the iron crow’s foot probably belonged to a Jinn Troy knew. If Kim was lucky, it would also be a Jinn Troy cared about. The fine workmanship of the talisman suggested someone with high rank and youth.
“Sariel,” Troy said, turning to Kim. She was using his given Jinn name. Kim hadn’t heard it in so long that a shiver ran through him at the sound. “Angela and Sophia are gone.”
Kim didn’t know what to say at first. They couldn’t just be gone, yet his cousin had no reason to use tricks. “But how do you know—”
“Do I need to explain myself?” she snarled. “If I haven’t torn your head off yet, isn’t that enough reason to trust me?”
“Where did they go?” Kim whispered, seeing Troy’s bloody nails and mouth in a whole new light now.
“Back to Luz,” Troy said. Her lips quivered as she spoke. “Python has been keeping me as his pet in Babylon for months. I’ve been biding my time, of course. Much like I bided it with you. Day by day, hour by hour, I’ve watched him and studied all his habits and learned his routine. But even I was surprised when that snake told me you were here in this mansion, and I was free to make you suffer. He found the idea entertaining. Your agony was to be his delight.”
Kim swallowed painfully. Of course he knew Python would be so cruel. Even so, he’d been hoping otherwise. That explained—at least in part—why Troy couldn’t kill Kim. She wasn’t allowed to overstep Python’s bounds. For now.
“But he never knew,” Troy continued, “that the Archon and I are Bound. I heard Her calling me from Python’s Arena. And I helped Her escape. Then I returned for you.”
“Why would you return?” Kim said heatedly. “Why not follow Her?”
Troy was instantly in his face again, seething like a rabid dog. “Because maybe I wanted to take that serpent up on his offer,” she shouted at him. “Then I find that you have this”—she grabbed his hourglass pendant—“around your neck. And the very second we’re safe again, you’ll explain to me why it smells like Angela, you fool. What trouble have you gotten her into now? Because as it is she’s far beyond your help. I would love to know what idiotic deal you made that left you in that demon’s debt, forcing you to beg for death at my hands.”
Kim lowered his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, reliving those terrible moments when he essentially traded his life for Angela’s. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Kim said, and sighed. He was so tired of listening to how Troy had him all figured out. “So why bother? Besides, we have to be quiet, remember? You’re right—Python must be watching us. He’ll know if we leave. So why do you want to tempt fate by freeing me anyway?”
“Because I hate that snake and everything he stands for,” Troy said. “So, yes, I’ll go against my better instincts and set you free. Because in exchange you’re going to help me destroy this regime, for my late sister’s sake.”
Kim laughed softly. “Of course. Yet there’s nothing stopping you from killing me the moment we’re out of Python’s reach, right?”
Troy paused and examined him. An unreadable look crossed her face. “You really are an idiot,” she finally said.
Turning, Troy began to melt into the shadows she’d emerged from, certain that Kim would follow. He wasn’t stupid. His odds of survival beneath Python’s mansion were much better with Troy by his side. And besides, perhaps it wasn’t actually a good idea to ask Troy to kill him, after all. He was connected to Angela, and there was a chance that Kim’s death could hurt her somehow.
A bitter taste filled his mouth. How stupid he’d been not to consider that earlier.
The darkness outside his cell pressed on him like a vise. Kim listened for Troy’s familiar sounds as she scuffled ahead of him in the dark. A powerful sense of urgency pressed on him and he knew Troy could feel it too. Python would be after them soon, especially now that Angela was gone.
Kim’s mind turned and worked on those awful moments with Python yet again. Then it hit him. He stopped abruptly. “Troy—wait.”
Troy’s yellow eyes flashed in his direction. “What?” she hissed with palpable annoyance.
“You must not have heard, but Python spoke to Sophia and I about something called the Angelus. Sophia explained that it’s a song of great power, but its last two stanzas are missing. Apparently, the Angelus’s notes and words constitute the power in the Book of Raziel that Lucifel seeks. Do you know anything about this song? Did Raziel say anything to the Jinn about such a thing before he died?”
The silence between them tightened.
“Well?” Kim asked.
“I’m trying to think,” Troy snapped. “Be patient.”
More silence passed, and he heard her sigh heavily.
“No . . . he didn’t,” Troy whispered. “At least as far as I’ve been told.” He heard a noise suggesting she paced in the darkness of the tunnel. Her nails slid against the rock, and Kim shivered thinking of how they’d feel piercing his skin. “Is that really all you know?” she said.
Kim thought hard. “Sophia said the Angelus is the song of creation. A song of Binding, its notes hold the universe together. Python then mentioned that the song has faltered, and that’s why the dimensions are crumbling. He went so far as to say God himself is now absent or dead, absurd as it sounds. Sophia said Raziel sealed the last stanzas away so that only the Archon can discover and wield them. I find it astonishing Lucifel doesn’t remember the final stanzas herself. This all has to do with Angela . . . I can’t understand her sometimes. I don’t know who she really is, Troy, even after all this time and how close we are. She isn’t Raziel, but her soul is special enough to have been chosen and protected by him. Clearly, she needs to open the Book—only she can do it. But . . .”
“But?” Troy said quietly.
“The Lock is Sophia’s body. The Key that opens her is the Glaive. Angela refuses to kill her friend. We’re at an impasse now. And with Angela out of our reach . . .”
Kim gasped. Troy’s great eyes shone right next to him now. He could faintly see her sharp little teeth. Her face was tight with anger. “And that’s why I always hated human sentimentality,” she said. “I knew Angela would grow too attached to the Book.”
“Sophia’s a person, Troy, not a thing. Angela’s feelings are natural.”
“Sophia is our last chance to survive,” Troy spat at him. “And now we have to die because Angela feels guilty? What kind of weakness is that? And here I’d grown to respect her.”
“Exactly,” Kim shot back. “Because you’ve grown attached to Angela, even though you don’t want to admit it. You’re friends, whether you realize it or not. She’s a person to you now, she’s not just the Archon. Have you even realized how you call her by her name now?”
Troy’s eyes went wide. With a snarl she shoved Kim aside and started stalking down the ice-cold tunnel again.
“Running awa
y won’t change how you feel, Troy,” Kim said after her.
“But it will keep me alive,” she snapped back. “Now you’d better follow me in silence. I’m not averse to sewing your mouth shut if I have to. We’ve talked enough already.”
“There’s one way to help Angela,” he whispered. Troy was right; it might be foolish to continue talking, but if Kim didn’t speak now he knew it would be too late.
“I’m listening, then,” Troy said, though her tone now said she wouldn’t be for long.
“We need to talk to Raziel ourselves.”
Another pressing silence. “Impossible,” Troy said at last. Yet once again her breath stirred unsettlingly close to Kim’s neck. “You would at least need to scry a Mirror Pool for that. You don’t have the skill. You’d go insane just peering into the water.”
“You’re forgetting,” Kim said. “I have this.” He jangled the chain of his hourglass pendant. It still felt oddly warm. He wondered how much sand had drained away by now. Kim had been too afraid to look. “It connects me to Angela. It’s a part of both of us now. I’m certain we could contact Raziel’s spirit that way, though we can’t do it alone. We need someone skilled in scrying like you said.”
“There is someone . . .” Troy said. Did Kim hear fear in her voice? “But if I take you to her, here’s the deal: in exchange for my help, you will help me.”
“How?”
“I already told you,” Troy said. Her voice boiled with revenge. “The demon and his mother will suffer for what they’ve put us through. My people haven’t forgotten how my namesake city was destroyed thanks to Python. I wonder how he would feel if the same happened to his little nest? You’re going to help me topple him and his mother from their already decaying pedestals.”
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