“First it was fountains.”He paused, grumbling, his eyes darkening.“Then it was male’s beds.”
I tossed my head back, bursting out laughing. Quazar didn’t think it was funny. Which only made me laugh even more. We flew across a glass bridge, curving along with the flow of angelic traffic.
There were many gods here. I frowned when I saw none of them were free. The gods wore shackles, as they were dragged around by the angels in front of them, their arms full of items that must have belonged to their angelic masters.
One goddess caught my eyes. Stars she looked so familiar. Her beautiful eyes were the lightest hazel. Her warm tawny skin nearly matched her brown robes made of chain links. The chains had gaps in them, enough to show her curvaceous figure beneath them.
Parts of her body was exposed in a way I was sure she didn’t like. She looked at me with profound pain in her eyes. I tilted my head trying to remember why she seemed so familiar. Then the goddess gave me a small, broken, but defiant smile. And it all clicked.
“Serafina?” I gasped.
Quazar stilled beside me. I wanted to fly to Serafina. I had so many questions. I hadn’t seen her since the dawn she dropped me off for inauguration. Now she was here. Since I’d last seen her she seemed…broken somehow. And it made me want to rage.
I nudged forward, but Quazar gripped my hand and squeezed it tight.
“Trust me. You don’t want to do that. Not here.”
“Ashiris, you’re a Disciple. You’re still alive! Thank the Infinite,” she whispered, as she floated by—though she had no wings of her own—following after the Seraphim she wasshackled to. “I beg of you. You must Ascend,” she said so low, I thought I was hearing things.
Several of the gods beside her whipped their heads around when they heard what she’d said. They looked at me. When they saw my eyes, one of them said, “It is her. It is the Ashiris!”
Then they were pulled away by their angelic overseers and were gone.
Chapter 47
Ifumed, blinking at the backs of the gods as they were pulled away like shackled dogs. They continued sneaking glances back at me, until they curved around a tower and were gone from sight.
Serafina never looked back. Not once. But I saw her shoulders strengthen. Her chin lift. As she was pulled away a fresh spark crept into her eyes. A spark of hope. A spark of faith. A creeping chill skittered up my spine making me shiver.
How many of the gods were enslaved? Why was their slavery okay? Surely the empyrean could thrive without their forced labor. Who instituted?—
Quazar squeezed my hand, trying to get my attention. I turned my head to him, trying to focus on what he was saying to me.
“One dawn,”Quazar said.“One dawn is all I ask. Look away from the truth. The darkness. This mirage of piety. Just for this one dawn.”
I sighed, nodding. I pushed the thought of the gods to the back of my mind. But I wouldn’t forget them. I wouldn’t forget what the angels were doing to them in the holy city.
I would never forget the goddess with the hazel eyes.
I would never forget Serafina.
Ashiris,she had said. The only thing Papi let slip once upon a time was that it was an ancient star that had shot across the realms, collided into a planet, and burned nearly everything else around it to its twinkling death. Which to me was entirely preposterous. There was no data or evidence such an event had ever taken place historically.
Quazar flew me through the bustling crowd of angels until we pulled short in front of an ivory chariot stand with gilded wheels. There were platters of food already made, and even more being fried in the compartment behind the angels taking orders. Quazar and I waited in the long line. I was salivating by the time we could fly up to order next.
“Two bowls of akra, patties, and the caramel-filled, powder-dusted donuts please.”
I licked my lips as Quazar also ordered us drinks and dropped the pieces ofgoud—Ouanaviel coins worth more than silver or gold—into the angels hand. The greedy fiend grinned wide at the jeweled coins.
“A generous payment,” he said to Quazar.
“I’m in a good mood.”
The merchant tilted his head at me. He leered, his eyes going from my neck and down the curves of my body. His eyes danced darkly. I squeezed Quazar’s hands, scooting closer to him as my feet floated in the clouds beneath them.
“I can see why,” the male said.
I gasped in the same breath Quazar whipped out two wing pairs, slamming the male against the length of his chariot. Golden blood trickled from his temple, as Quazar pointed one of his sharp talons at the male’s throat.
