Keeper of Crows (Keeper of Crows #1)(50)

I had to free him. I had to protect him. I had to give him a life worth living, because it wasn’t here. Michael was prepared to die for me, but I couldn’t let that happen. He might think me worthy, but I knew I wasn’t. Michael deserved to live. He couldn’t defeat Malchazze without orders, but I could. And I had every intention of doing so.

Somehow, in a short span of time, my heart claimed the archangel who defended her, and she wouldn’t survive if he didn’t.

“It’s true,” Father marveled. “You are part of the veil…” His eyes sparkled with the possibilities my curse presented him. I watched as the birds swirled again, and with my mind, I called them, praying they would listen, hear, and obey.

Whether it was me or the fact that their master loved me, they came to my defense. The crows descended upon my father. I stuck my hands into the fabric of the veil and closed my eyes.

“Solidify. Become stone. I need you to close, to mend, and to stop letting evil pricks through this fabric. No more fissures. No more crossers. Michael should be freed. This has to stop.” And just like that, everything went silent. The fabric no longer circulated around my hands. It became solid. It had become like stone, just as I’d asked. I had to break a few pieces off just to free my fingers. The crows stilled.

Father’s mouth shook as it hung open in surprise. “What have you done?”

“I fixed the veil. Now, you’re stuck here. You’re trapped. Just like me.”

He scrambled to his feet. “But how? Unseal it!”

I laughed, shaking my head. He wouldn’t manipulate me any further. “I’m stronger than you ever could have made me. I am part of the veil now. It obeys me. And only me.” I felt the cold seeping into my veins, feeding into my heart where it recirculated. Soon, frost was all I could feel. Frost and gray and emptiness.

The crows should dispatch you, send your soul where it belongs, I silently vowed. I want to see the light fade from your eyes, the awareness as you are sent straight to Hell. And I want you to know that it’s me sending you there.

The birds angrily snapped at his face as by the thousands they swooped at him, sending sharp needles straight into his traitorous heart, a circle of dark feathers protruding from his chest. A wisp of smoke filtered from among the ebony vanes. It floated lazily until a crow, one of my crows, gulped it down and flew away with it. I left my father’s prone body lying propped against the parapet stones, but I slid the sword of Lucifer out of his hand and walked away with it.





23





MICHAEL



The ground shook so violently, I thought the balcony would break off the face of the castle and take us with it as it fell. I saw the fissure appear just behind me and knew it wasn’t a coincidence. I thought it was Malchazze who made it. I was wrong.

I trusted her.

When I fell into Earth and slammed onto the ground in the middle of a lush, green park, no one paid attention. No one offered me a hand. Their eyes were glued to their phones, and even if they weren’t, it was obvious that people didn’t get involved with the affairs of others. Humans hadn’t changed much at all in the last thousand years, despite their advances in technology. Over the years, Gabriel brought magazines and newspapers so I could keep up to date with the times, but seeing it with my own eyes was different. Purgatory’s reflection had changed over the span of many years, the buildings growing so tall they nearly brushed the sky, but seeing this skyline in the distance was overwhelming.

I called the crows by instinct, but none had fallen through with me. I hoped Gabriel would hear my cry and come find me. It was the only way to right this. Until he arrived, I would walk, searching for a fissure to descend. Except…the world was calm. It was steady. There was no buzzing current looming overhead. And it was bright; the sun blindingly so. Trees were green, their leaves swaying happily. The sky was a heartbreaking color of blue.

The sword of Lucifer.

Not only was Carmen in danger, every angel in existence was. We had to stop Malchazze from using it on her and against us.

Gabriel suddenly appeared, walking through the park wearing jeans and a button-down, holding a newspaper and walking a five-pound poodle. “You rang?” he deadpanned.

“Why aren’t you surprised?” I said, grabbing his striped shirt by the collar.

“Carmen might have mentioned closing the veil for good, and I may have told her she had to make sure her father was inside Purgatory...”

“And that I was out?”

“She figured that part out on her own.”

I let him go, sorry that I’d frightened the dog. Its tail was tucked beneath him as he cowered at Gabriel’s feet. Crouching down, I held my hand out for him to sniff. “Sorry, fella.”

His small nose flared rapidly as he took in my scent, which probably matched Gabriel’s with the addition of cigarette. Speaking of...

He pulled a pack out of the pocket of his shirt. “They might be smashed now,” he smarted. I watched as a girl jogged by, her ponytail swishing from side to side. A man was yelling into his cell phone from a nearby bench. An old woman sat across from him on the other side of the path, spreading birdseed at her feet.

“Why didn’t the crows come with me?” I thought aloud.

Gabriel shook his head. “I’m not sure, but I’m worried about Carmen. She’s still there with her father.”