Keeper of Crows (Keeper of Crows #1)(56)

It answers to me.

Gabriel inclined his head. “See what you’re capable of, Carmen.”

I knew I needed to keep my wits about me unless I wanted to be Lucifer’s puppet; the controller of the veil, a gatekeeper for evil.

I took a deep breath and stepped away from Gabriel, holding the archangel’s sword in my hands. Closing my eyes, I imagined fabric, glittering like the night sky, wrapping around and around the glowing silver metal until every speck of it was concealed in darkness. When I opened them again, Gabriel’s lips were parted. I was holding dark fabric, and when I willed it to, it became invisible.

“You can do it,” he breathed in awe.

“O, ye of little faith, Gabriel,” I teased.





25





The next morning, I relaxed the veil so the manna could fall. The souls would go hungry otherwise. “We have to be on guard,” Gabriel explained. “Lucifer will wait for an opening and take the first one he gets.”

“I’ll seal it as soon as the manna stops.”

We watched the cloudlike puffs fall from the sky, and as soon as they stopped raining down on the city, I sealed the veil, making it harder than steel. I wasn’t ready to face him again, but I knew he was lurking just beyond this realm. I could feel him there, just out of reach, taunting me. Gabriel was strung tight. He’d been training night and day. Archangels, it turned out, didn’t need to sleep at all. He finally stopped the clanging and crashing last night after I screamed at him for keeping me awake.

“You’re grouchy,” he snipped. “I’m only trying to help you.”

“Help me in the morning,” I groaned, my muscles and body strained past the point of exhaustion. The longer the veil was solid, the more tired I became. I didn’t know if Gabriel had put two and two together yet, but he soon would.

“Can you strengthen me, Gabriel?”

He wasn’t happy about it, but he stepped forward and infused me with some of his power and energy. I felt better immediately, but was still wiped out. Leaving him, I traced the path to my room.

This morning, he watched as I descended the steps, clad in black, wearing the feathers of the crows perched on every windowsill in the castle. “It suits you,” he finally rasped.

“What? Darkness?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Don’t get soft on me, Gabriel. You’re the one who said angels can’t feel.”

Taking in a deep breath, he muttered to himself, “Perhaps I was wrong about him.”

“You were,” I answered callously. “You were incredibly wrong about Michael. Where is he?” I’d asked him a dozen times already, and each time he hedged. My father would have been impressed with his ability to deflect questions with more questions, like arrows fired against an impenetrable shield, bouncing lazily off the surface.





26





MICHAEL



I made it to the wood line, but I could smell Kushiel closing in and heard the mighty beating of his wings. The trees sheltered me from the wind, and the farther I ran into the forest, the more cover I had. I stopped, willing the fire to burst from my fingertips, easing my hands up against the bark of an enormous pine.

I had to relight it seven times, but it finally worked. My bonds sizzled as they unraveled, falling to my feet. The sound of a whip cracking came surging from behind. He’d caught up with me.

Keeping my back to him, the forest behind me, I dared him to come closer. He wouldn’t win this battle. There was too much at stake. I had to get back to her.

“You and a human?” he asked.

“I love her. I won’t apologize for it.”

His head tipped to the side. “It must be worth it.”

“It’s worth everything. She is worth everything.”

Kushiel was unusual. Maybe it was from the position he held, to be a punisher of angels, of his own kind. Maybe it was how he was created to be. His eyes were bigger than they should be, sharper somehow, like those of a bird of prey. They crackled with the fire that lived within him.

“I’ll make you a deal, Keeper.” My shoulders pushed back, hope once again filling me with strength I didn’t think would renew in this forsaken place. “We’ll race through the forest. If you win, I won’t kill you. I’ll fly you to Earth myself.”

“Then you would be punished.”

He grinned. “Let them try.”

“On foot,” I said. “I’ll agree if you race on foot.”

The grin fell from his face as he attached the whip to his belt. “Very well. I do love a challenge. So let it be.” With those words, he sprinted into the trees beyond me. I pushed against the ground, taking off after him. I had to be faster… stronger. I had to get to her.

Gabriel would let her die. He would let her drown in the power of Malchazze. I still couldn’t believe he’d turned his back on me or her. Pumping my arms, I was a blur through the forest. Kushiel had a head start, but I was fit and nimble compared to his hulking size.

The tree trunks were a maze, one I had to navigate faster than the speed of sound or light. When they thinned again, I didn’t let up. I pushed forward until I felt him behind me. Kushiel panted, laughing with his head tilted toward the roiling clouds above. “I concede!”