A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock #1)(68)

“My wife.”

“Ah,” Suriel said, and the one sound held disapproval.

Ravensong heard it, too, because she frowned at her.

I decided to try to lighten the moment. “It took me a while to figure out that the woman who teased me the most at work didn’t even like men.”

Ravensong grinned at me. “A woman can admire the view without wanting to marry it.”

“So your wife explained to me at the Christmas party.”

She smiled and a look came into her eyes that showed just thinking about her wife was a good thing. I hoped to get back to that with Reggie. What Louie, short for Louanne, had told me at the party was that when Ravensong joined the force, being lesbian wasn’t a good thing, so she’d been more flirtatious with the men to cover it and never lost the habit. It had helped that she could talk about Louie instead of Louanne. They’d been together twenty-five years and were still stupid happy together; they were what I hoped to have with someone someday. It startled me that I had thought someone someday, not Reggie and now. We would have lunch tomorrow and then a date after that. We’d kissed today, held each other and it had felt so good, but it had been six months between kisses. It still scared me that I hadn’t put her name in that thought, but it would be okay, we would work things out.

“What’s wrong, Havoc?”

I shook my head. “Nothing, just remembering when you met Reggie at the first holiday party.”

Ravensong grinned at me. “Well, your wife is quite the looker.”

“Zaniel, do you have a wife?” Suriel asked.

“I do,” I said, smiling before I could stop myself.

“How could you do that, Zaniel? You are an Angel Speaker; it is forbidden for us to marry.”

“I stopped being an Angel Speaker when I left the College.”

“You were not cast out, Zaniel. You are an Angel Speaker in the good graces of both the College of Angels and God. You took a vow to serve him above all others. We cannot do that and divide ourselves between him and a spouse.”

“When I left the College, Suriel, I left it in every way.”

“What do you mean by that, Zaniel?”

“I told you I joined the army just after I left the College.”

“The army, as clergy?”

I shook my head. “I joined as a regular soldier.”

“Why would you do that?” She stared at me as if I’d said something obscene.

“Because being raised at the College of Angels didn’t prepare me for any job in the real world. I didn’t know how to fill out a job application, or use a computer, but I was big and strong, and an army recruiter saw me walk past. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You could have come back to us,” she said.

“No, I couldn’t.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Zaniel.”

I glanced at Ravensong.

“How about you send Charleston in here, so he can decide if I need to see a magical healer before I step outside here?”

“You will be fine,” Suriel said.

“That has to be the lieutenant’s call, he’s the boss,” I said.

“Havoc’s right,” Ravensong said.

“Then we will wait until your lieutenant comes, but perhaps we could visit and talk of old times before I have to go back,” Suriel said.

“I’d like that,” I said, and I meant it.





CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE




I got us both hot teas from the break room and then we sat down across a table in one of the empty interrogation rooms. She took a sip out of one of the few plain mugs I was able to find. She held the mug with her hands curled around it, fingers through the handle as if it wasn’t there.

She lowered the mug and smiled. “You remembered how I liked my tea.”

I smiled back. “Of course I did, I could probably order food for you at almost any restaurant, unless your taste buds have changed completely in the last twelve years.”

“You were always good when it came time for kitchen rotation,” she said.

“You weren’t bad at it either.”

“You were the better cook,” she said.

“I was; do you remember the time that Levanael set the kitchen on fire? They wouldn’t let him cook after that.” I laughed, but she didn’t.

“That is not his name,” she said.

I suddenly didn’t feel like laughing either. “I know they stripped him of his angel name when they cast him out. He goes by his birth name of Jamie now.”

“It is forbidden to speak to anyone who was cast out,” she said.

“I am no longer of the College; I don’t have to abide by their rules.”

“So you see the exiles?”

“Exiles, no, not exiles, just Jamie. How many other exiles are there?” I asked.

She looked down into her mug. “Enough.”

I would have pushed about that one-word answer, but there were other things I wanted to know more, and I knew that her time here was limited. She would have to be back inside the walls before dark unless she had special permission.

“Why are you here, Suriel?”

“To help you and your coworkers,” she said, and she raised her bright blue eyes to me; her delicate face was unreadable, and that let me know she was lying or at least not telling the whole truth.