Keeper of Crows (Keeper of Crows #1)(38)

He changed the subject to a much graver one. “Your mother is here.”

I choked on the air in this place. “Where?”

“In the city. I went to find her. That’s where I was.”

“She isn’t with him. Please tell me she isn’t with my father.”

He shook his head. “She isn’t.”

“Good.”

“But she isn’t in a good place, either.”

“Can I see her?” I asked, hoping for a small sliver of brightness.

“Not yet.”

Not yet. Of course, not yet. What did it all mean? The angrier I became, the more the veil just beyond my fingertips began to shimmer. Its oily texture thickened until I reached out for it, sticking my finger inside again. Then, an epiphany.

“Can I make it stronger? What if I could seal it for good?” I mumbled.

“We’ve tried.”

“As amazing as you are, you don’t have a piece of it inside you, archangel.”

He smirked. “I’ve gone from Keeper, to Michael, and now you refer to me as archangel, as if it’s an insult to be such a thing.”

I stared at the veil. “Maybe it is. Are archangels the highest-ranking angels?” He was quiet, his fists clenching. That was what I thought. “Look, maybe the veil just needs to be solidified. Before it tore, it was strong. Nothing could cross the barrier then, right?”

“Right,” he conceded for a moment before opening his fat mouth. “But, Carmen, it’s been stretched too thin for too long. There is no repairing it beyond what has already been done.”

“Says you.”

He began pacing, hands on his hips where I knew the delicious V of his abdomen was hiding, lying in wait. The man was sin incarnate, a forbidden fruit dangling in front of womankind. He was the ultimate temptation.

“Stop thinking such things about me!” he shouted, raking his hands through his hair. “You are the most frustrating creature I’ve ever encountered. You think about my body incessantly!”

“Thank you,” I answered smugly. “But in my defense, it’s a magnificent body.”

“It wasn’t meant as a compliment.”

“I took it as one just the same.”

Michael growled, lyrically instructing one of his fowl friends and sending it from his finger into the air. It returned a moment later with his message. That was fast.

“We can’t ever be anything to one another. Don’t you get it?”

“I do,” I said calmly, counteracting his anger. I completely got it. I finally felt something positive, and it was forbidden. Story of my life.

Another earthquake, the hair on my arms standing on end until the ground underfoot stopped shaking. I clung to a rock, waiting for an aftershock.

“What are you doing?” Michael asked, his head tilted to the side.

“Making sure I hold onto something. I’m not used to this.”

“That was a shudder. It’s not a real quake.”

I scoffed. “It feels real enough to me.” My God, I sounded like Pamela. I wondered if she had woken up at the hospital, had a miraculous recovery, and was now spending as much time with her two kids and husband as was humanly possible. I wondered if she remembered this. Me. Any of it.

“She probably will. She may even remember you.”

I raked my hands down the legs of my jeans. “You had her feeling all happy. She probably thinks the medicine made her have strange dreams of hot guys and crows and some hella-crazy bitch who laughed through it all.”

He smiled. “Maybe.”

Something occurred to me in that moment. “My father can use the Lessons. Can he use me?”

Michael stilled. “We aren’t sure.”

“You aren’t sure. When will we know?”

“If you come into contact with him, but we don’t want that to happen.”

“How big is Purgatory?”

His brows kissed one another. “Why?”

“We’ve been running around the homes in the outskirts, through this gnarled forest, and along cliffs that are taller than sky scrapers. We’ve seen rivers that run silver and carve through valleys, and canyons that are bigger than the Rio Grande. I can’t help but wonder what else is out there, or if anything is. Does Purgatory just end? Will we eventually wind up in the city no matter which direction we go? How much longer can we run? He’s coming, and eventually he’ll find me, Michael. We can’t keep this up. I can’t keep up.”

“We run until there is no other choice, Carmen, and then we keep running. But yes, eventually everything leads back into the city of Purgatory. We must stay one step ahead.”

I didn’t want to tell him that I was no runner. My body was torn. My soul was tired. I needed to rest for the fight that was coming swiftly.

“I know,” he replied to my thoughts. “You can rest now. I will watch over you.”

“I’m glad someone is,” I said on a yawn, my body shutting down even though I didn’t want it to tap out just yet.

A deep, dark abyss awaited behind the lids of my eyes. I sank into its warmth and slept, dreaming that Michael folded me into his arms, holding me against him until I woke.





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