Hehadnoticed me. He noticed me enough to notice how wrong my hair was. He noticed me enough toaskabout it. But why?
“—Have you allowed her to break a rule, Thomas? Shall I remind you that not even the children of the Leaders are allowed to break the rules.”
“It’s a genetic condition,” he said through his teeth. “And it’s on file.”
“Oh?”
And the way he said that single word caused my heart to flutter.
My hair was why I was so coveted. Why all the Leaders wanted to watch me while they orgasmed. Because I was chosen in the eyes of the Lord to be theirs. The Blessed One. I was theirgiftfor being so obedient. One of a kind, rare, an enigma.
“Why are you so angry, Thomas? Is it because you don’t like me? Is it because I’m taking the job you so desperately want?”
He what?
He wanted Azrael’s job? Why would he want to be a shuttle for the children?
I heard a shuffle and then Thomas’s voice again. It was low and threatening, as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear. “If you want to fuck children, then go ahead and fuck them. All I care about is being the first to fuck her.”
There it was again, the ticking of the sea, only this time, it didn’t come from the clock in his pocket, it came from his very own tongue. “Such fowl language in a place ofgodliness. If I were you,” he hummed, his tone becoming a deep, terrifying sort of purr, “I’d watch my tongue. One would hate to have it ripped straight from the hyoid bone.”
My skin ran cold, that thing between my thighs pulsing again, like a little heartbeat. That threat was different than Thomas’. Something about it just felt so much more real.
“Substance,”that voice in my head hummed,“that’s what makes a good threat. No substance, no fear.”
No substance, no fear.
“Are you threatening me?” Thomas asked, a slight waver in his voice.
And that waver only filled me with that strange weightlessness. Fear, it sounded like. I had forgotten what it felt like, but I know what it sounded like. I heard it in the voices of the children at the auction. Thomas was afraid of him, and it made that numb part of my brain spark for just a second. Just long enough to get a taste of something delicious.
I wanted Thomas to always sound like that. I wanted him toalwaysbe afraid.
“No,” Azrael answered. “Not at all. My condolences for the church that burned down. Such a tragedy for the Russians. Give my best to your father, but I must get going. Places to be, roses to sharpen.”
“Don’t go, it’s not enough time.”
But a second later, Thomas’s hand was wrapping around my arm, and he was jerking me up painfully. “Go to the hall,” he ordered me, shoving me towards the Back Hall. “Be on your best behavior, they need this now more than ever.”
I stumbled for the back doors, my mind whirling. Everything he spoke was a riddle. Everything.
Everything I knew about that branch of the church told me that it hadn’t been filled with just Russians, it was only that one family. The Delepski’s. So why only mention them? Had they had a part in the burning?
Had they caused it?
Was it a coop of some sort from the Russian Church of Daylight rather than just the Delepski family?
My hands tightened slightly where they were folded at my hips. If they had caused it, then maybe Azrael himself felt a sort of need for his own vengeance. If his Wild Rose had died because of them—
No.
No, he had said he had a rose to sharpen. That was present tense.
My heart skipped as Thomas jerked open that door. She was still alive.
She wasalive.
And if she was alive, maybe the tsunami that had been building all these years was finally going to come crashing down.
