He casts a long look at her boot-covered feet, as if he expects the ice to crack beneath her at any moment, before his gaze flashes back up her armor-clad body to her disheveled hair and her defiant—but weary and tear-stained—face.
His gaze softens, but only briefly, before his jaw tightens. “It is light enough.”
Behind him, the female clears her throat and raises her voice. “I am Haldi,” she says before gesturing to the other man. “And this is Galvin.” Her unsettling mauve eyes brighten as she continues. “You have entered Stella-Astrum without permission. State your business. And we will decide your fate.”
Her focus flickers to Malia last, since my sister has proven that her fate isnotin the angels’ hands—and it’s clearly making them uneasy. Around the lake, the other angels are shuffling and whispering among themselves—but too quietly for my wolf to pick up what they’re saying.
I ignore them, since the angels I need to convince are right in front of me. “We’re here to retrieve my father’s body,” I say. “He is Jareth LaGarde, King of Pyra-Mortem. We have information that he is to be found here.”
“We know who you are, Nova Madden,” the fair-skinned male, Galvin, says, his voice even more melodic than the woman’s. “We were informed that you assisted our angel brethren on Terra-Centrum. For that, you have our thanks.”
“Then you know we don’t mean you, or your world, any harm,” I say. “We need my father so we can reunite his body with his soul and prevent the fracturing of the essence between the three worlds.”
“This is not a world for demons,” Adriel snaps at me, overtaking the conversation, although his focus remains on Malia. “You cannot show up here and demand anything from us. You must return to your world and deal with your problems there.”
Malia snarls and the wolfish growl in her voice tells me that her teeth have sharpened. “What sort of coward ignores a threat to the Balance between the three worlds?”
My jaw drops. Malia rarely steps in as the aggressor. That role is usually reserved for Taniya, although I’ve certainly lost my temper my fair share of the time. I catch Taniya’s wide eyes, reading her thoughts: Without a doubt, something about this angel has rubbed Malia the wrong way.
Adriel closes the gap between himself and Malia—the entire single step of it—but she doesn’t budge.
“Coward?” he murmurs quietly. Softly and dangerously. “You would do well to take your friends and leave this place while you still can, wolf-witch-with-the-light-feet.”
“No,” Malia says, just as softly. Her power glimmers around her silhouette, lighting up Adriel’s features, casting energy across his dark eyes. “We fought too hard to get here. If we leave without Jareth, everything we love will be destroyed. We have no other choice.”
“Then, neither do I,” he says.
He reaches up into the air above both his shoulders, closing his fists and drawing identical swords out of nothing. The blades blaze with sapphire flames that burn with freezing cold I can feel even from here.
“Leave, light-footed witch,” he says, swinging the sword’s tip toward the surface of the lake beside her feet but not quite touching it. “Or I will cast your friends into the waters to drown.”
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
The air around Malia and Adriel shimmers with power.
Haldi steps hurriedly forward, although she keeps clear of the growing swirls of energy.
“Adriel, calm yourself,” she says. Her voice is soft and it certainly doesn’t sound like she’s chastising him—the dynamic between them indicates that the other two are deferential to Adriel—but she seems determined to persuade him.
“It’s clear they mean us no harm,” she says. “And unlike Pyra-Mortem, Stella-Astrum is capable of handling the influx of their energy without causing imbalance. Our world is built to withstand such threats.”
When we first arrived in Mortem, Crone had forced my sisters into the prison to mask their energy, so their presence didn’t upset the Balance. When we broke them out of the prison, Roman placed a rune on them to stop their presence from having an impact. That rune might still work here, but it sounds as if the angels’ realm is somehow more able to handle our presence than Mortem was.
“We aren’t here to fight you,” Roman says, speaking for the first time.
He doesn’t draw Adriel’s attention—that remains on Malia—but his statement does seem to prompt Malia to take a step back, which diffuses the tension between her and the angel a little.
Malia’s face, now visible, is just as defiant as Adriel’s, her hands still cupped, as if she’s on the verge of releasing a wash of magic. Prepared to defend us.
My heart suddenly burns. We’ve been through too much in the last day. We desperately need to rest, eat. Breathe. Find Jareth. Get the hell out of here.
“My father must be here,” I say, even though the angels haven’t confirmed it. “If you don’t allow us to retrieve him, all three worlds will fracture, and you will all die.”
It’s a blunt warning, and it finally draws Adriel’s attention away from my sister. His gaze meets mine, blue flames burning within his eyes that match the blaze around his swords.
He stares me down across the distance before he says, “Very well. I can see you won’t be dissuaded.”
He steps away from Malia and settles his swords against his back, where they disappear again. It makes me think of the disappearing act Roman does with the angels’ weapon and I wonder what other tricks Adriel might have up his sleeve.
