Keeper of Crows (Keeper of Crows #1)(54)

I swallowed. “Is he in trouble?”

“Of course he is! What you and he did… it’s forbidden!”

The souls flew. The crows ate. The rain began to pour. The cleansing.

“He told you about that?”

Gabriel’s laugh was hollow. “I could smell it. He didn’t have to tell me.”

“What did you do to him?” I screamed above the torrent of cleansing rain. “You’re his only friend!”

Steam formed between us, tar bubbling between our feet. “Carmen! Run!”

Why? The question lodged in my throat as one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen emerged from the molten asphalt. The scent of it burned my nose.

Brown hair, neatly cropped. A suit that cost more than my house, by the looks of it. An air of superiority. Roman nose, not crooked in the slightest, and full lips that were sinful as hell. He was gorgeous. He was dangerous. The sword cried out for him, the metal singing against my spine.

He was the devil.





24





Gabriel’s wings snapped out, the softness gone; steel weapons that protruded from his back to shield me from Lucifer. The devil wasn’t what I expected at all. I thought he would be grotesque, a monster.

“I am a monster, Carmen. Never doubt that,” he answered, a flirty smile on his face. His hair was dark as midnight, and truthfully, the devil was hot. He was insanely old, but looked young and vibrant. “Your father made a promise to me. Are you aware of it?”

“No,” I lied. I knew Malchazze had promised him my soul, but what were the terms? I felt the pockets along my sides, coming up empty. My Angel stone was lost.

“Angel stone wouldn’t block me from your thoughts, anyway. It would be no more useful than a pebble,” he answered my unspoken thoughts. Lucifer crouched to pick one up off the ground and levitated it over to Gabriel, pausing in front of my face. When he realized I wasn’t going to touch it, it fell back to the concrete. “The terms were as follows: He was given my sword and the use of it for five days.”

“My father traded my soul so he could use a stupid sword for five days?”

“You can’t bargain for the soul of another. It’s forbidden,” Gabriel spat from between his teeth.

I peered over his outstretched wings. “Is that true?” I asked Lucifer.

Incredulous, Gabriel asked, “You trust the devil to tell you what’s true? I wouldn’t lie to you, Carmen.”

“Wouldn’t you?” I asked. His tattoos roiled angrily over his back.

“Nevertheless,” Lucifer said in a bored tone, “I need my sword.”

“You need to leave,” I answered. I heard Gabriel tighten his hold on the hilt. Metal against angel made a distinctive gritting sound.

“Return what’s mine,” the devil demanded. “Malchazze is dead. Time is up.”

“Get. Out!” I screamed.

The crows ahead began to caw loudly as Lucifer’s feline eyes slithered to mine. “Where is the Keeper of Crows?”

I stood taller, stepping out from behind Gabriel’s wing. “You’re looking at her, prick.” I wanted to raise his own sword at him, but I wasn’t confident enough to keep hold of it. If he could make a pebble float, he could certainly call the sword to him. He probably could have called it anyway, slicing through me if he wanted. Power radiated off him, like the shadows that curled around his form, ebbing and flowing, a suit of tortured souls, writhing, churning.

Delight danced in his eyes. “It’s about time they sent a human female to do a male archangel’s job.”

I flipped him off and he laughed, clutching his stomach.

“I will be back. Keep the sword until then. I’ll enjoy breaking you, but I do want you to have a fighting chance. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do. Wouldn’t you agree, Gabriel? She wouldn’t stand a chance against me in this shape. You should help her, angel.”

Gabriel answered with a growl that shook the windows in the buildings above us.

Lucifer waved as he sank back into the bubbling tar beneath his feet. “Soon,” he promised. I had a distinct feeling that though the devil may lie, he would manage to keep this oath.

Gabriel cursed, the tip of his sword stabbing into the tar and meeting only cement. “You should have given it back to him.”

“He would have killed you with it.”

Gabriel swallowed thickly.

“And it wouldn’t matter anyway. He wants this place. He knows I’m a weakness, and he’ll make plans to take Purgatory as his own.”

The Lessons slowly began to return to the square, lingering for further instruction. The only one I had? Get out of the city. You belong in the outskirts. For now.



Each turned and slowly began filing out of the city, more filtering from the buildings and joining those who were leaving. Shuffling feet. The crows above ate the few souls just dispatched and held them in their mouths.

“Seal the veil,” Gabriel reminded.

“You should leave.”

“I’m not leaving. Seal it.”

“Archangels don’t belong in Purgatory!” I yelled, angry at how long Michael had been left here with no other instruction but to watch his birds and the holes that tore in the veil. Why hadn’t he taken this place from Malchazze? My father deserved to die a long time ago. The souls here? My mother? They certainly didn’t deserve to be trafficked and debased.