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“Okay.” She stayed on the floor, working on her illustrations.
I moved to one of the seats, where Laura spoke to Nadine. They were the only ones in the church, but other angels would come since this was the only place where we could socialize together, at least in private. We had the right to travel the grounds and go where we wished, but was it worth it when those weirdos stared at us the entire time? “Hey.”
Laura grabbed my wrist and raised my hand toward her face. “What happened to your palm?”
There was a distinct scar across the skin, a wound that hadn’t quite healed properly, a gash that would probably always be visible. “I had to cut it for some strange fucking ceremony with my demon…” My life felt like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, except I wasn’t some kick-ass heroine and there were no hot vampires. “So, we could come together…some shit like that.”
“That was fast.” Laura returned my hand to my thigh. “He’s already bound himself to you for eternity.”
“He’s going to hell, and I’m going to heaven. So…not eternity.”
“You know what I mean,” she said. “He’s convinced that you’re the real deal, that you can make him ascend.”
Ascend…attain humanity…it was all a bunch of weird-ass shit that I didn’t understand.
“Guess you’re a damn good actress.” Nadine watched me with her dark eyes, her dark skin beautiful and contrasting against the white gown she wore. The rest of us just looked washed-out. “What are you saying to him?”
I shrugged. “I honestly make it up as I go along, so I’m not sure. I guess it’s easy to speak freak.”
Nadine nodded to Claire on the other side of the church. “Where’s Beatrice?”
“Indisposed…so I’m looking after her daughter for a while.”
“Shit, what happened?” Laura asked.
“She met her demon for the first time the other night. Tripped her out on LSD and wasn’t convinced she was a real angel, so he carved into her back looking for her wings.”
Without saying a word, they showed how appalled they both were. Sometimes an expression could say it all.
“Yeah, we gotta get the hell out of here.”
“How is she now?” Laura asked.
“In a lot of pain…depressed.” She lay in bed, always on her side because it hurt too much to lie directly on her wounds. “She’s in no state of mind to take care of Claire, so I’m trying to keep her busy.” I glanced at Claire across the room, who was both oblivious to us and the shadows in the room. “When they took Beatrice…” I lowered my voice. “The Malevolent came inside and tried to feed Claire LSD.”
Laura released a gasp. “Jesus Fucking Christ…”
“What happened?” Nadine blurted. “Did she take it?”
I shook my head. “No. I killed him.”
“Sorry, come again?” Laura asked. “You killed him?”
“Yeah.” I pulled out the dagger, which I had on me at all times now. “Stabbed him in the stomach and chest.”
Laura was in disbelief.
Nadine was too, but she recovered quicker. “They didn’t punish you?”
I shook my head. “The Malevolent were there while it happened, and they didn’t stop it. Forneus knows I have the dagger but doesn’t seem to care.”
“What in the actual fuck?” Laura said. “So…can we kill the Malevolent? Let’s just do that.”
“I would be the first one to say hell yes, but…there’s so many of them.” I tucked the dagger away into my dress. “If we launch a full assault against them, I suspect there would be some kind of retaliation. They’re probably given rules they have to obey, but if it’s total anarchy, there will probably be repercussions.”
“What about the boat idea?” Laura said. “Are we still doing that?”
“I used to go fishing on my dad’s boat,” Nadine said. “I might be able to help…somewhat.”
“I’m not sure. I’m still thinking. It’s been getting really cold, and the air is getting thick…”
“As in, it’s too cold to run for it?” Laura asked. “We wait until spring?”
“No,” I said quickly. “We can’t wait around. Beatrice probably won’t live that long, so we can’t wait. You know those mornings when it’s so foggy that you can’t see more than a couple feet in front of you? I’m thinking we wait for that…and just walk out of here. They might not see us, and by the time they realize it and the fog fades, they won’t know where to look.”
“That’s not bad,” Nadine said.
“But if we can’t see where we’re going, we could fall into a lake or walk off a cliff,” Laura said.
I shrugged. “There’s no escape that’s not risky. We fight them—that’s risky. We run for it—that’s risky. We take boats down the river—it’s all risky. Honestly, some of us won’t get away. Some of us will probably die in the attempt. But staying here isn’t an option, so we have to take that risk. I’m not going to sit around any longer than I have to. I have to get Claire the hell out of here.”
