Archon(63)

“Why did you bring her here?” she said to Kim, her teeth bared.

“We need your help.” He actually sounded nervous, and his voice took on that shaky quality it had possessed in the cathedral. Troy must have been spying on them that day. How horrible. “Angela’s friend is possessed, Troy.”

The Jinn snorted, looking amused. She was reclining like a cat, her wings folded crisply against her back, bones crunching beneath her feet as she shifted position. “Bring her to me. I’ll put an end to that quickly enough.”

“It’s not that simple. She wants us to speak with Tileaf.”

Troy’s ears flipped back against her skull. An irritated growl rumbled in her throat.

Oh, God. She’s not happy. Why did we come here? Why?

The Jinn rocked onto her feet and stood with surprising grace, revealing the flash of a metal chain beneath her rags. There was a glint of an unbelievable green, but it vanished just as quickly. Kim was keeping the light purposefully poor, perhaps to hide much of the carnage around them, and perhaps for Troy’s sensitive eyes. But even this wasn’t enough, and whenever the candle flickered, she hissed as if it were a flame pressed to her skin. “The Fae will murder you the second you step within her reach,” she snapped at Angela, “and then Sariel can mop up your blood with his priestly coat. Perhaps he hasn’t told you, but for years he’s used her leaves to make exorcism wards.”

“What a bitch you are tonight.” Kim’s eyes brightened with spite.

Now the cut on his cheek explained itself. Judging by the little snarl in his voice, Angela suspected these arguments were day-to-day affairs. Kim wasn’t a full-blooded Jinn, and he could hide whatever nastiness he’d inherited from them, but Angela was smart enough to know he’d certainly slipped every now and then. Hopefully she wouldn’t be there the next time his confident and calm demeanor collapsed.

“Oh, the truth hurts, doesn’t it?” Troy spat, laughing. “But the fact remains, if you weren’t such an abusive bastard, things wouldn’t be so hard now, would they? Remind you of anyone, Sariel? Those old tales of your father come to mind.”

Angela stepped forward, eager to make her presence better known.

She thought otherwise almost instantly.

Troy leaped for him, her wings beating so powerfully that bats spiraled out of the tower, shrieking in alarm. Fury burst through their black cloud, landing beside Angela to cheer on her master to victory, croaking with dark excitement.

She’s going to tear his throat open.

Her nails were inches from his neck.

Kim thrust out his hand, muttering a Latin phrase that sounded more like a wish than a prayer.

Troy swerved, landing so that her left pinions rubbed like sandpaper against Angela’s tights. Despite the feathers, her wing felt hard and overly muscular, probably painful if it hit you the wrong way.

Troy laughed again, her teeth catching the candlelight. Kim must have worked some kind of magic, because miraculously, the wick had stayed lit.

“You’re such a weak coward,” the Jinn hissed, regaining her old anger. “Why not fight me like the man you claim to be for a change? Give me something to do other than eat your girlfriends.”

Troy rounded on Angela, sniffing, her teeth wet with saliva. Her eyes narrowed, maybe fatally. “You smell wrong,” she said, ears cocking forward.

Kim’s face said it all. Don’t move.

Angela’s knees shook, and she locked them together, conscious of her beating heart, her breath, the all-too-sudden silence. Fury strutted away into the dark corners of the Bell Attic, tugging at something hidden behind the actual bell. They were so high up above Luz that when the wind whistled again, gusting through the openings and back out into the night, it came with a blast of unbelievable coldness. How tired she was. Aching for sleep, selfishly disappointed that Nina was possessed by the Devil’s spawn rather than the beautiful angel she loved.

“What are you?” Troy said softly. She seemed amazed by something.

“I’m a human.”

“I mean you,” the Jinn shot back, instantly annoyed. She circled Angela like a prowling lion. “You. Your inner self.”

“The Archon?” Kim said.

Troy glared at him, her hair standing on end. “She smells wrong, Sariel. She’s wrong inside.”

Tell me something I don’t know already.

“And how is that?” Angela dared to say. Her exhaustion was overriding her common sense.

Troy hissed, ignoring her. “Angels don’t smell like this.”

“Well, then your nose is wrong for once,” Kim said, his tone cool. “You saved her from the water—and yet you wait until now—”