The Silent: Irin Chronicles Book Five(75)

“Jaron was giving it to him, but Jaron is gone.”

Vasu pursed his full lips. “Interesting.”

“Will you do it?”

“I will… think about it.” Vasu grinned.

It was likely the best answer he’d get out of the troublemaker.

“I’ll let Kyra know you’re thinking about helping her brother,” Leo said. “I’m sure she’ll be grateful.”

Vasu disappeared and reappeared as a cat that jumped in Leo’s lap.

“You try to create obligation in me. It’s an interesting theory. I told them you were smarter than you appeared,” the cat said, curling up on Leo’s lap. “Now pet me.”

“Are you serious?”

Narrow claws dug into Leo’s leg.

“Ow! Fine.” He put his hand on the back of the cat’s neck and stroked down over and over again. Eventually the cat started to purr. Then it seemed to fall asleep. Leo sat that way for hours, watching Kyra sleep and petting a black cat who wasn’t a cat as it slept and purred. A server came in and set up a small table for tea, but Leo didn’t move. The sun hung heavy in the afternoon sky, creeping across the floor and warming the cat, who only purred louder.

Someone tapped on the door.

“Come in,” Leo said quietly.

Sura walked in with Alyah at his side. “We were curious how…” His eyes drifted down to the black, furry lump on Leo’s lap. “That is not a cat.”

Alyah said, “What do you mean it’s not a… Oh.” She frowned. “Why are you petting it?”

Leo rested his chin in his hand and leaned on the side of the chair. “Because he asked me to.”

Sura sat at the low table. “I suppose that’s as good a reason as any.”

Alyah glared at the cat as if willing it to wake. Leo kept petting it. Any time he slowed, the claws dug in. He didn’t know what would happen if you angered a Fallen angel who was sleeping in the form of a cat, but he decided he really didn’t want to find out.

Minutes later, the cat must have felt Alyah’s glare, because it rose, arched its back and yawned, then deftly jumped out the window and into the waning afternoon.

Kyra sat up in bed, her hair tangled around her face and her cheeks flushed. “Leo?”

“Are you feeling better?”

“There was a black cat in my dream,” she said, rubbing her eyes. “He told me Prija was in a place called Bagan. Does that make sense to anyone, or am I finally going crazy?”

Leo grinned and turned to Alyah and Sura. “And that is why when the cat asks you to pet him, you do.”





Prija V





It was hot and dry in the place they called Bagan. At night it cooled off, but only a little bit. The cell—because it couldn’t be called a room—had a single window that only let in a faint puff of air. But Prija had privacy.

Except for the Fallen.

He whispered to her mind—seductive, powerful whispers that made her head buzz. His voice was everywhere on the mountain. She dreamed of gold and silk. She dreamed of cool water and fresh fruit. When she woke, she was in her cell and the black shadow had become a dense fog that surrounded her.

Her captors finally presented her to the angel. They dragged her to the temple where the creature was lying on a low bed, surrounded by his sycophants and lovers. Prija had never seen anything like it.

He didn’t look like her own father, who had appeared as a beautiful and powerful king. This creature was a monster. His skin was red and his eyes were bulging. Two horns adorned his head, and his muscled arms had wings growing from them. Snakes wrapped around his wrists, and human women curled over and around his naked body, massaging and pleasuring him as he spoke to Prija’s captors. He was like one of the deities the humans worshipped, but all the goodness had been stripped away and perverted. There was only power and greed in Arindam’s bearing.

“We have a gift for you, our father.”

The Fallen looked her up and down. “What is it?”

“A powerful daughter of Tenasserim. She is a weapon for you, my lord.”

“How?”

Her other captor, who was usually the quiet one, spoke. “She killed her own father.”

A Grigori on Arindam’s right side said, “What kind of female can kill one of the Fallen?”

“She killed one of our brothers in Mandalay.”

A troubled murmur around her.

Prija forced herself to look at the horrible eyes of the Fallen.

He was measuring her with calculation. “Why does she live?”

“We told you, she is a weapon.”

“A weapon turned against me.”

Her captor didn’t like that, but Prija forced herself to keep looking at Arindam. She had the creeping suspicion that the minute she looked away, she’d be lost forever.

Little one, you are more powerful than they.

His whisper was seductive.

Show me your power, and I shall make you my queen.

It was a lie. She could hear it in his voice. But she showed him anyway.

The black fog helped her. It was malleable in her mind, and she narrowed her power to a pointed stick. She jabbed at the talkative Grigori, imagining his temple pierced by a black spear. She heard him cry out and crumple beside her. She jabbed at him over and over. By the time her first captor was silent, the whole temple had grown still.