A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock #1)(50)

“According to the techies his browser history was a lot of incel sites, angry-at-women-for-not-fucking-you kind of shit,” Lila said.

“That explains the rape and violence,” Ravensong said, “but it doesn’t explain this.”

“It doesn’t feel evil, and it seems to dampen magic better than Lila does. What made you look behind the books in the first place?” I asked.

“The choice of books,” Lila said.

Goliath nodded. “They were occult, but nothing too unusual except that they were right next to a set of Hardy Boys mysteries.”

“Hardy Boys, really?” Ravensong said. “I used to read those when I was in junior high, along with Nancy Drew.”

“The whole room was a mix of younger-than-high-school-boy stuff and then the occult,” Goliath said.

“Did you say that the bottle was behind the occult books?” Adam asked. It was almost startling that he was still in the room. I’d noticed he could be so quiet that you forgot about him, until he decided to go back to being his usual persistent self.

“Yes,” Goliath said.

“So, the occult books marked the spot like an X on a map in a Hardy Boys mystery?” Adam asked.

“I guess,” Goliath said.

“It’s like it wanted to be found,” Adam said.

“You mean Cookson wanted the bottle to be found?” Lila said.

Adam shook his head. “No, the bottle wanted to be found.”

“The bottle can’t want anything, Thornton, it’s an inanimate object,” Goliath said.

Adam was shaking his head slowly back and forth, staring at the bottle. “The bottle can’t, but what’s inside it can.”

“How do you know what’s inside it?” Goliath said.

“Who told you?” Lila asked.

Adam just kept shaking his head. “I can see it.”

“He saw my wounds through my bandages in the locker room,” I said.

Adam nodded. “I see what is hidden,” he said, his voice distant like he was listening to something we couldn’t hear.

“What do you see, Thornton?” Charleston asked.

“Blood,” he said.

“He’s right about it being blood,” Goliath said.

“Human blood?” I asked.

“There was human blood on the outside of the bottle when the techs swiped it,” he said.

“Not just human blood,” Adam said, still staring at the bottle as if there was a label to read.

“He’s right again,” Goliath said.

“What’s in it, besides human blood?” I asked.

“Demon,” Adam said, almost dreamily.

“Now you’ve spoiled the surprise,” Lila said to him.

He did a long, slow blink like he was having to drag himself back from whatever metaphysical music he was listening to in his head.

“You got all that from swabbing the bottle?” I asked.

Ravensong nodded.

“What kind of freak wastes one of the rarest magical ingredients on the planet by spilling it down the bottle?” Goliath asked.

“Mark Cookson,” Charleston said.

“What can you sense from it, Havoc?” Ravensong asked.

“Gently,” Charleston warned.

I nodded; I could do gentle magically, it’s what I’d been doing most of my life once I left the College. I concentrated and just like that I could see the glow at my back that was my Guardian Angel. It wasn’t like the cold fire of the angel that had put Gimble in the hospital, but soft, pure white light, steady like a night light to guide you through the darkness. It could grow into something large and powerful to protect us like dawn spreading across the sky until the world was covered in sunlight.

I looked at the bottle again, but this time I asked the angels to help me see more. Angels will do what you ask, because your free will is what makes the choices; you can listen to your better angels when they warn you that something is a bad idea, but if you give them an order, a request, tell them I need your help, they will do what you ask, because that’s the way free will works—your free will, not theirs, because if everything goes according to God’s plan they don’t have any.

The spells on the crystal showed like golden lines forming script. It was a mix of Celestial and Infernal as if the bottle had been designed to hold more than just human and demon blood. The metal lacework around it glowed red and orange as if it were being shoved into the forge again.

Adam said, “Don’t do it.”

“Havoc is just looking at the spell on it,” Ravensong said. “I think there’s Celestial magic in its creation, not just Infernal.”

I nodded, and said softly, “Yes.” What I was doing shouldn’t have damaged any of the spells. I wasn’t putting energy into anything, just reading what was already there, but not everything likes to be read.

The metal glowed orange and yellow now, the red lost as the heat grew. “The metal’s glowing.”

“The bottle looks the same,” Goliath said.

Ravensong moved closer to it. “It’s wavering like heat.”

“Stop, Havoc, stop what you’re doing,” Charleston said.

I stopped, pulling back so that I couldn’t see the lettering traced on the bottle. The glow at my back had hands now, resting lightly on my shoulders. Guardian Angels don’t manifest physically without a reason.