“Please, sir.” I looked up through my lashes. My hair whipped around us, partially ruining the effect, I was sure, but I couldn’t do much about it. “My brother’s looking for me.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, his wings slowing as we descended. “Your brother?”
I nodded, eyes wide. Thankfully, the wind caused my eyes to water. If they glistened just right, he might not be able to resist. “He’s an elder. Absalom Meadows. He’ll return to the tavern and become worried if he cannot find me.”
That was probably a lie. Absalom didn’t care about anyone but himself—not Mother, not me, not his new wife, Silence. But the Herald—seraph—didn’t need to know that. Yet it didn’t get much of a response from him.
“The elders will miss me—I clean and organize their work for them. But I can do the same for you while we’re waiting for them.”
He frowned down at me. “What are you doing?”
I gave a long, slow blink and hoped the wind against my cheeks had pinkened them nicely. “Explaining why I cannot stay long, Herald. If it pleases you.”
“Is something in your eye?”
I kept my innocent, sweet smile on my face purely by grit and years of practice. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
“You seem to understand nothing,” he grumbled. His brown wings spread behind him, arching over us, and the grace of the movement took my breath away.
Then he flexed, and we landed on the ground.
I looked around, taking in the barren, purplish brown long grass and dark skies in a heartbeat. Jerking away from him, I shoved hard at the seraph—Castiel, I supposed.
He let me go, and I fell on my rump.
“Umph!” I glared up at him.
His lips twitched as he looked down at me, wings folding behind him, then he reached a hand out.
I swatted his hand away before I could think better of it and got to my feet myself. What was wrong with me? I should’ve let him pull me up. I should’ve smiled and thanked him. Taking a breath, I tucked my hair behind my ear and tried again, smiling softly though inside I was seething.
His eyes narrowed. “How do you know Eve?”
“I, uh, we grew up together, in the Church of the Love of His Divine Saints,” I answered, eager to be helpful. Helpful girls lived longer.
I glanced around and realized we’d landed in high grass a few yards away from an old house, gray stone darkened by weather and age. Mirkwold—a place I’d heard about endlessly but never seen with my own eyes. Until now.
“What do you want with her?”
I didn’t want anything to do with her. We didn’t like one another. “You’d have to ask the reverend,” I answered diplomatically.
“Hmmm.” He grabbed my elbow.
I winced, expecting sharp pain, but his touch was unusually gentle as it curled around me. The heat of his hand bled through my wool dress, and I leaned toward him.
“Let’s go. We’ll wait inside until the captain returns. Then we’ll decide what to do with you.” He cast me a look, as if I was the villain in this conversation. “We won’t let any harm come to Eve.”
My stomach roiled with anxiety and my throat burned with anger, but I smiled prettily. “Oh, of course. I’ll answer any of your questions.”
Two
Lilith
The Next Afternoon
A storm was rolling in. I could tell by the smell in the air and the way the wind whipped through the long grass and beat against the windows and doors. Let me in, let me in, it seemed to cry.
Let me out, let me out, I wished to answer. But I was stuck in a moldering manor on a barren moor with near-strangers. Earlier that morning I’d spied a grand display of stained glass windows in one corner of the Great Hall. Shock stuck my feet to the ground when I recognized the scene.
