A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock #1)(61)

“How long ago did Mark Cookson come to you?” I asked.

She thought about it. “A year, or a little more.”

“And you remembered his name all this time after reading it once?” Lila said, laying the cynicism and sarcasm on equally thick.

I almost came to Suriel’s defense, but I should have remembered that glimpse of steel; she didn’t need me to ride to her rescue, she never had. “I read his name over a dozen times, because that is how many pieces he wished to read in our library.”

“You make them sign out a request per book?” Goliath asked.

“They do the same at reference libraries,” I said.

“Sorry, I was never much of a bookworm,” he said.

“Me either,” Lila said, “but I’m glad to know that people have to sign their names if they’re trying to borrow something as dangerous as that damn bottle.”

“We would never have let that out of our vaults,” she said.

“What about the books?” Charleston asked.

“He could have read them in the library under supervision, but he would never have been allowed to remove them from our holy wards.”

“And you’re saying the entire list of books was all things he shouldn’t have known were in the library?” I asked.

“Known that they once existed, perhaps, but that they all are still intact and in our library, no. No mortal human would know that.”

“Was it just books that he wanted to see or were there objects on the list?” I asked.

“He knew we had things, Zaniel, things that no mortal human could have known about.”

“You keep saying mortal human like there’s another option,” Lila said.

“There are always other options, but a boy so young had not the decades of life to research and find out half of what he seemed to know,” Suriel said.

“Did anyone from the College follow up with the Cookson kid and try to find out how he knew all this?” Charleston asked.

“We took steps to find out more about him.”

“What kind of steps?” I asked.

“Steps that should have worked, unless he was being championed by someone or something that was far more powerful than we anticipated.” She looked at me as she said it, as if trying to tell me more than her words meant.

“If you want to tell Havoc something in private, say so and we’ll give you some space,” Lila said.

“Thank you, that would be most appreciated,” Suriel said.

“She was being sarcastic,” I said.

“Was she?”

“I was,” Lila said.

“What did the College do to find Mark Cookson?” Charleston asked.

“We petitioned the angels to aid us in the search,” she said, as if it was an everyday occurrence to ask angels to help you find someone.

“And they couldn’t find Cookson?” I asked.

She shook her head. “They could not.”

“That’s not possible; if the angels are given someone to find they do not miss their prey,” I said.

“Prey, what do you mean, prey?” Lila asked.

I glanced at her and then looked at Suriel. We met each other’s eyes and then she made a small up gesture with her hands, as if it was more my choice what to share.

“If God tells his angels to find you, they will find you; you cannot hide from them,” I said.

Suriel gave me a look as if waiting for me to add more; when I didn’t, she just looked away, but Lila and Charleston had both caught it. I saw them look at me and then at each other, but I was done on the topic of angels and their prey. There were truths that I had learned at too high a cost to ever share unless forced.

“So how did they miss the Cookson kid?” Charleston asked.

“Because something was protecting him,” I said.

“That was our thinking,” Suriel said.

“So, you had a college student running around our city asking about dark tomes of power and you didn’t think to give us a heads-up?” Lila asked.

“He had not broken any of your laws. What were we supposed to tell you, that we didn’t like his reading habits? That we thought he might be under the protection of a major demon, or worse? We cannot approach the human authorities every time we think someone is tainted; if we did, you would be chasing down our fears constantly.”

“There can’t be that many,” Goliath said.

She gave him a look that was more like Reggie, full of scorn, as if he was being na?ve beyond words. He frowned at her, as if he wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of that look very often.

“People travel to the College of Angels from all over the world,” I said.

“We do not bother the human police unless we feel the person is a danger to themselves or others. We knew he could not find what he sought anywhere else, and we would not agree to him reading any of the things he listed, so without the knowledge he was harmless. We treated him as such.”

I knew she was leaving out things. I knew that if they suspected there was a human in the city, or the world, who was that well protected by the Infernal forces, they would make it their job to find out the how, why, and who involved. That over a year had passed without any resolution meant that something had gone wrong. I would ask Suriel in private and hope she told me. I knew better than to ask in front of others outside the College. I’d be lucky if she confided in me.