Sophia stared at her, her gray eyes saying everything without her mouth speaking a word. Then she gently took the headband from her hair, setting it on the end table to their right, fluffing out her river of curls. Her lips were set in that line she’d adopted almost constantly since Stephanie’s insanity, like any moment she might have to think of an excuse to defend her actions that night.
Clack. Clack, clack.
Sophia didn’t even jump as the crow tapped its beak against the window, begging to be let in. “Shall I?” she said to Angela, voice strangely sweet.
Should she?
If Angela said no, Troy would find another way in and be even angrier.
But she ended up saying nothing, watching the bird pace anxiously outside the sill, its croaks rasping between whispers of thunder. Of course, she’d been naive, believing this moment would never arrive. Angela had tried to stay optimistic, hoping Troy would just go home and forget her humiliation in the Bell Tower. How could she have been that stupid? Now that all was finished, Israfel gone and Kim probably dead, Troy was starving for her next taste of revenge.
The confrontation’s inevitable. She’ll find me, just like she found Kim. I’ll tell her not to kill me, hurt me, and just like when she shoved the Grail in my face, she’ll find someone or something else to do it for her.
Best to end the problem right now.
Angela stood, sliding off the glove covering her right hand.
She readied to part her lips and say the words Sophia was waiting to hear.
Too late.
The crow flapped out into the gray rain, swallowed quickly by the water. Angela walked up to the window and touched the pane, letting winter leech into her fingertips. Luz was both too warm for snow, white or black, and too cold for anything but a bone-chilling, dreary soaking. She examined the porch roof, vaguely discerning a shape scamper across the shingles. It was the same size as Troy, but a little more wiry, its hair longer and wild.
Thump.
She shouted, stumbling away from the bay seats, grabbing for anything steady.
“You saw him then,” Sophia said gently. “He’s bold, isn’t he? But he’s also intimidated by my presence. As long as we’re together . . .”
What had she seen? A face like Troy’s, but with wider eyes and a mane of wild hair, those terrible Jinn features even more sharp and defined. His teeth were a little longer, and the brief glimpse of his wings had startled her more than his curiosity, their typical soot glossy with the sheen of blue and purple, like a blackbird’s feathers.
That’s right. There’s an entrance to Hell now in Memorial Park.
No—Memorial Cemetery.
Angela shuddered, slipping Kim’s note out of her breast pocket. She’d recognized his handwriting from the brief class or two they’d spent together, his letters cruder than she’d expected from a centuries-old priest. She hated looking at the thing. Its words reminded her of too many evils, like her selfishness, her iron grip on Sophia, her childish sense of clamping on to the universe—and the unnerving idea that she’d throw everything away for Israfel’s touch. The irrational fear took hold of her once in a while, that she would make everything and everyone eventually suffer.
And that was something only Kim understood. Too often, she found herself longing for his warm hands and his cool voice, missing him more than she’d expected.
Whenever she squashed the temptation, it only returned worse than before.
Today, it had been the Jinn’s turn to bring it back.
“Let me see.” Sophia touched Angela’s trembling arm, slipping the note from her fingers.
She perused it with a wry smile, and then returned it, sighing. “Don’t read into it too much. Demons have a way with words, but they don’t understand them at all.” Her whisper was like a lover’s kiss. “I’ll always be right by your side to explain.”
Angela smiled, crumpling the note and pitching it into a trash bin. “You’re right. Let them come.”
Sophia grabbed her bag, obviously eager to head out for dinner.
“I’ll be ready,” Angela said, trying to convince herself. To erase the words. But they stayed in her head, and as she turned for a quick glimpse in the mirror, she saw something even more terrifying than any Jinn, blinking back at her, its eyes blue and its hair blood red, its lips gently whispering the new song.
Blackbird escapes hungry