A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock #1)(62)

“Well, the demon exploded out of him and killed him, so he’s harmless now,” Lila said.

“Lieutenant Charleston explained the bits of skin at the scene. I am not sure what to make of that and I will consult with others at the College, but at this moment we need to save Detective Ravensong’s hand.”

“There is no we, Suriel,” I said.

“Would you let the doctors amputate her hand, when you could help me save it?”

I looked at Charleston. “Is that true, are they really talking about amputating her hand?”

He nodded. “It’s true.”

“Zaniel,” she said, “your power is a gift from God. It is your gift to him that you use that power to serve others. Would you deny that aid to your own friend and coworker?”

“I haven’t done anything like what you are asking since I walked out the gates of the College,” I said.

“Thirteen years or thirteen minutes is all the same to the angels,” she said.

“I’m not an angel,” I said.

“Nor am I a demon, we just work with them.”

That made me smile. She took my hand in hers, not as the formal greeting, but the way she used to when we were seven. It felt right to have her hand in mine again, as if I’d been missing her far more than I’d allowed myself to realize. I fell back into that old habit of letting her lead, as if I didn’t outweigh her by over a hundred pounds now. I could have tucked her under one arm, but it isn’t always about size. She’d always been the bravest of the three of us, our leader without any vote taking place, or any questions asked. Once that had been enough, and I prayed that it would be again.

She led me to the door to one of our specially warded interrogation rooms. The entire floor had more wards on it than the rest of the building, but these rooms were self-contained, magically warded, and isolated from the rest of the building. The rooms also had steel-reinforced doors just in case supernatural strength came with supernatural magic.

“Why is Ravensong in here?” I asked.

“The hand was transforming when I found her. It kept changing as I watched, getting more . . . I decided to bring her in here to see if it would slow down what was happening to her,” Charleston said.

“Did it slow it down?” I asked.

“It stopped at her wrist. I’ve been trying to remember if it stopped as soon as we crossed the industrial-strength wards, but honestly I’m not sure if it would have stopped outside the interrogation room just the same.”

“You think that the transformation would have kept going past her hand?”

“I was afraid it would, so I brought her here to try to slow it down.”

“Why aren’t I in one of these?”

“You’re not turning into a demon,” Charleston said.

“We don’t know what happened when the bottle did whatever it did,” I said, pulling free of Suriel’s hand.

“We do not have time for your self-doubt, Zaniel.”

I realized it wasn’t self-doubt, it was fear. I’d reacted to just a picture of Ravensong’s hand; I wasn’t sure I was up to seeing those claws in person again this soon.

I said, “Whoever helped the Archangel Michael get back to his true form is better at this than I am. Send to the school for them.”

“It wasn’t just one person who aided the Archangel, Zaniel, and besides there is no time to send for anyone. The longer your friend looks at the hand, the more her mind accepts that it is real and solid. We must act now.”

“If it’s immortal flesh, then mortal will can change it, there is no time limit on that,” I said.

“It is immortal flesh attached to mortal flesh; the mortal part will solidify things quickly. We must act now or leave it to the human doctors, and they will have only one solution, Zaniel.”

“You know why I stopped doing this kind of angel magic, Suriel.”

“I do, but is your fear and shame worth your friend losing her hand?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then help me save her hand.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It is that simple, but your fear and self-doubt cripple you; will you allow them to cripple your friend, too?”

Charleston said, “I don’t know what you’re planning to do, but if you can help Ravensong keep her hand, then do it.”

Seeing Suriel had brought up great memories and awful ones. I was still afraid to use some of my magic, but if anything I had ever learned could help Ravensong, I would do it. Suriel was here, and together we could do it. I had to believe that. I did believe that. “Yes, sir. Suriel and I can help Ravensong.”

“Then go do it,” he said.





CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO




Ravensong had propped the hand on the table because it was too heavy to hang at her side. I’d thought the hand would be sized to her, but it wasn’t. It was sized for the nearly ten-foot-tall demon from the hospital hallway, which made it almost cartoonishly large for her. Even my wrist wouldn’t have been thick enough for it, but hers . . . She wasn’t a small woman, but she was still a woman, with everything done a little more delicately. It was like her wrist had swollen to match the hand, but even then, the dark, scaled skin had to be pinched down to set on the pale wrist.