Keeper of Crows (Keeper of Crows #1)(49)
He thought Mom was in Hell, but he was fucking wrong. However, I had to make him think I was on his side. That way I could tear his kingdom completely apart.
A mass shriek from below drew our attention. “They’re breaching the gates!” someone yelled. “Run!”
Father smirked. “It’s time to end the segregation of this place. The Lessons deserve to live in the luxury that only the city can provide.”
“The Lessons are in the city?” I suppressed a shudder, remembering the soulless eyes of the ones who still had them, the dripping tar and translucent, pale flesh, the veins rolling blue and purple beneath the surface. The stench of their gray flesh, the tip of each finger dark and decayed. The strength in their hands. They were people who should have no rest. Father was right about that. They should have gone straight to Hell where they belonged, but then he would have no army, no one to fight for him.
“I called them,” he sneered. “The Keeper can’t fight them all at once, and if he’s distracted by you, I can finally get rid of him.”
Father flicked his hand toward me, and in an instant I was transformed. A black, strapless silk ball gown hugged my body, the layers spilling away from my hips. Heavy diamonds hung from my ears and neck. My hair.... I had hair. Reaching a hand up, I expected to feel soft spikes of hair. Instead, I found that it was long and pinned to the crown of my head.
“How did you...?” I couldn’t see it all, but before the accident that wasn’t an accident, my hair was bleached blonde. Now the tendrils that hung in curls were dark as death, matching the strands my mother wore before age threaded her head with silver. “Thank you.” I beamed at him, hoping he bought my bullshit.
He smiled in response.
I need the Lessons to leave the city, I thought, pinching my lip as the screams below continued.
Father was entranced with the firework show. The Lessons were killing souls everywhere, the wisps of what remained flying into the air, one after another.
A heavy thump came from behind. “Stop the Lessons. Call them back. Now,” Michael commanded my father as his crows stood along the parapet wall, waiting for further instruction.
Father turned around, filling the air with a slow clap. “If I’d known you’d show up here with just a little nudge of the Lessons, I’d have done it years ago. Or is that why you’re here? If you hadn’t grown so attached to Carmen, I think you’d still be slinking along the outskirts, petting your birds.”
A single crow cawed at him angrily, and soon they all joined the chorus.
22
The two stared each other down for several long moments, and Michael again ordered Father to stop the Lessons. “Last chance,” he warned. Shrieking and screams from the city below made my hair stand on end. The souls were under attack, and by the sounds of it, they weren’t winning the battle.
“Did Michael tell you why he’s here, Carmen? Your archangel is being taught a lesson of his own.”
My mouth opened as I looked to the archangel. “What? What for?”
“For losing sight of what’s important. For allowing a human to distract him, a woman, to be exact. He didn’t lose his wings when he came to this place. They were stripped from him and turned into a curse that he will bear until he learns his lesson. The fact that he’s fallen for you is proof that he’s learned nothing at all. At this rate, he’ll never leave.” Father smiled, zeroing in on Michael. “I’ve been waiting to finish you for what feels like an eternity.” In his hand, a black, glistening blade appeared. “Now, not only can I kill you, I can send you straight to Hell.”
“The sword of Lucifer,” Michael whispered, but nothing on the warrior’s face indicated that he was frightened. “What did you offer him to get that? Your soul is already forfeit.”
“Lucifer has helped me in ways you couldn’t begin to understand, angel. And, for the record, it wasn’t my soul I promised him,” Father enunciated, glancing toward me.
Michael growled as he grabbed the hilt of the broadsword from his back, his tattoos churning tumultuously. The archangel was about to unleash Hell on my father. That part I didn’t mind, but if Michael was struck with the sword of Lucifer… Michael was an angel, but with that sword, he would die. Could he truly be sent to Hell? Was Father telling the truth? I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t live with that. I had to do something.
I rushed in between them, hands outstretched. Michael’s eyes collided with mine, the dark irises fading to cornflower blue. With my mind, I called the fissure to appear. The Earth shook and the veil appeared, a fissure slicing through it, brightly lit from behind.
“I love you, Michael, but you can’t stay here. Not anymore. You’ve given enough to this place.” He tilted his head to the side, his eyes telling me he knew I was betraying him. “I’m sorry,” I told him, my throat clogged with tears, and then I shoved him hard through the opening. He lost his balance and tumbled backward into the earthen realm, an angel without wings. I screamed into the sliver of light, “No matter what!”
He probably thought I’d been lying to him all along, that Malchazze controlled me only to get close to him and learn his secrets. Fighting back the tears that were forming, I focused on the real problem at hand. Maybe somehow, someday, Michael would understand and forgive me.