Page 56 of Sorrow & Strangers

I take another deep breath and gasp, finally recognizing that smell—burning flesh, hair, and bone. It’s a scent that all sentient beings recognize on some primal level, and it sets off deep, visceral alarms.

“Is that . . . ?” Alice asks, understanding beginning to creep in.

I scramble into the crater, slipping on the mud. The melted stones are jagged now that they are cooling, and they slice at my feet and hands. The wounds sting as I stumble toward the mass of charred flesh in the center, but I push on, uncaring of the discomfort because the blackened skin, hemorrhaging blood, and the remains of his feathers floating around him are the result of more than plummeting from one realm into another without using the proper safeguards.

“Rafe,” I whisper, fear and despair nearly choking me.

“Summer . . .” Alice says, climbing down next to me, watching the feathers fall from the sky, some of them still smoldering. “He’s Fallen.”

I look down at him and crouch, gently brushing some of the soot from his face, searching for the recognizable features of the Morningstar boys, the blue eyes they share with Uriel, the tawny skin they inherited from their mother. He whimpers in pain, and a similar noise of relief slips past my lips. He’s still alive.

“He’s alive,” I say to Alice, and she makes her way closer to me. Rafe coughs weakly, and I try to take an inventory of his injuries. His skin is severely burned, and his back is a mess, blood still bubbling from the two stumps that used to be his wings. That is just what I can see. The Almighty knows what internal damage was done. Thank the gods he’s unconscious.

I slide my finger through his blood, drawing a healing rune on his chest. My skills won’t be sufficient to fully heal him, but I might be able to take some of his pain away. The rune flickers, but melts and slides off his ruined skin. I frown and try again as Alice rifles through her bag. She hadn’t even had a chance to take it off before we ran out here. I draw frantically, altering the healing runes to any iteration that I think might help, but they continue not to work. No matter what language I try, they slide off his burned skin.

Alice pulls a small bottle from her bag and drips three drops onto his chest. The moment the liquid hits his skin, his torso lifts from the ground. I pause and frown up at her. “It’s a weightless potion so we can carry him. We need to get him inside,” Alice explains.

I nod, and we both carefully place our hands on his back, supporting his weight. He groans in pain, and both of us freeze, our eyes locked on him until he settles again. Being as gentle and careful as we can, we climb out of the crater, stopping each time he moans or whimpers, trying to spare him any pain we possibly can. Inside the house, we navigate the stairs with the same care, and I nod toward the room that used to belong to Zach.

We lay him down, and my eyes fill with tears as I finally let myself truly look at his face. He looks so broken that my heart aches for him, for us both.

“Rafey?” I whisper, brushing my fingertips along his cheek. He grumbles something, his lips cracked and bloody, but he doesn’t wake.

Alice dives back in her bag, pulling out a mortar and pestle to start making some kind of paste. “Do you have a Demonology textbook, Sum? I need to check something.”

I frown and climb out of bed, going through to my room. Looking through the bookcase, I know I have nothing specifically about demons, because they’re not a species on any of my syllabi this year. But I remember there is a chapter about them in my realms textbook, so I pull it out and hurry back to Rafe, grabbing my phone on the way.

Alice is standing in front of the dresser, grinding herbs, and Rafe hasn’t moved.

“What do you need?” I ask, checking the index and flicking through to the sections on demons.

Alice waves for me to bring the book over. “I just want to know if any of these roots will be effective for his kind, so I’m hoping there is a toxicology section.”

I nod, prop the book in front of her, and open my phone to email the headmaster.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Headmaster Emrys,

There has been an issue at Morningstar House.

Summer

The reply comes immediately.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Miss Tuatha De Daanan,

An issue?

Headmaster Emrys

I reply quickly, wanting to get back to Rafe.