Keeper of Crows (Keeper of Crows #1)(44)

“What are you doing to me?” he rasped into my ear.

“I could ask you the same thing.”



The following day, with the crows keeping watch overhead, I pushed myself off the boulder I’d been sitting on.

“Let’s go swimming,” I suggested, ticking my head toward the river.

“Can you swim?” he asked.

“I grew up in California,” was my answer. His brows touched. “Of course I can swim, archangel. Probably better than you.”

He stripped to his boxer briefs without another word, and the way his eyes flitted over my body gave me goosebumps. I stripped to my bra and panties and was about to remove them when he stopped me.

“Leave them on.”

Squashing my disappointment, I walked over to the edge of the river, placed my feet on the slick rocks, and let the icy, gray water wash over my feet. “It’s cold!”

“Did you expect bath water?” he teased, waltzing in until the silver water lapped at his waist. I didn’t realize until then that it wasn’t gray water; it was silver like mercury, like the water in the streams that was so still, it didn’t seem to flow at all. But this churned angrily, or maybe it was happy, because it wasn’t still. It was alive.

“Come on,” he said, splashing silver across my thighs, stomach, and chest. I giggled as he sank into the water to his neck, re-emerging and looking like the tin man of angels. He looked down at his skin and chuckled. “I do look like a tin man.”

I stepped into the water, my feet finding rocks beneath the surface. “Do me a favor, Keeper. If you ever make it out of this place, make sure to look up ‘The Wizard of Oz’.”

The creases in his face broke my heart. He didn’t think he would ever leave Purgatory.

“Can you ask for a new assignment?” I asked tentatively.

“I have.”

“Can you clean up the problems here so they’ll let you leave?”

He shook his head. “I’m not allowed to interfere. My only order is to guard the fissures and try to stop merchants.”

“Why? Doesn’t anyone care about what Malchazze is doing? Don’t they care about the demons dumping Lessons here? That my father can control them? The trafficking? The souls kidnapped from this place and then sold? What about those souls? They matter, too.”

“I know they do, and I truly wish I had answers to your questions, because then my own would be answered. I’ve spent years asking the same things, begging for a change in orders, begging to help the situation, and the answer has always been no.”

The silver water lapped at my thighs, drawing his attention. I kept walking toward him.

“There’s a tension between you and Gabriel, even though he and you are friendly to one another. I can tell there’s a long history there and some loyalty, but I feel the air thicken when you and he are in the same room. Why is that?”

Michael blew out a heavy breath. “We haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on things. The archangels were created at the same time. We’ve been together through battles, times of peace, and difficulties you probably couldn’t even fathom. Of all the archangels, Gabriel and I were closest.”

“Were?”

“Sometimes siblings squabble.”

“It seems like more than that, Michael.” Another step toward him. The water swirled around my waist and ribs.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

He smiled. “I thought you’d keep pressing me for an answer until I exploded.”

I smiled, looking down at the water sloshing onto my chest. “This isn’t toxic, right?”

“No, it’s safe, but I’m surprised you’re able to withstand the current. You’ve been so tired lately.”

“It is strong—the water, I mean.”

He nodded. “It is.” He wasn’t looking at the water.





19





The manna fell and I told Michael to sit and relax while I gathered it. Were his eyes on my ass? Yes. Did I like it? Absolutely. I emptied my cupped hands into his and went back for more. He could eat a ton of this stuff, but it filled me up quickly. I never got hungry before it was time for the manna to fall again.

“Tell me a good memory from your childhood,” he asked out of the blue.

I popped a piece of velvety fluff into my mouth, thinking of what to tell him. “Okay. Once when I was in elementary school, maybe first grade, my mom said I didn’t have to go to school that day. She helped me dress and brush my teeth and hair, and then she packed a cooler with food while I gathered toys to take with me. We drove to the zoo and spent most of the morning exploring. It was empty because it was a weekday, and it was like we had all the exhibits, the whole place, to ourselves. We laughed and held hands and she bought me a stuffed penguin from the gift shop because they were my favorite animal. We ate lunch in the trunk of our car, picnic style, and drove to the beach where we just walked along the shore, toes in the sand, saltwater splashing our legs. It was the happiest day of my life.”

“Your mother loved you.”

“She did that day,” I said, looking away from him.

He watched me gather a few more pieces of manna. “She loved you every day. Malchazze is skilled at crushing souls, Carmen, and she was another victim of his, as were you. But she did love you.”