“Everyone on the holo-rankers can be reformed. They wouldn’t be on there if that weren’t the case.” Celeste took both my hands in hers. “Leigh, you’re the most determined and patient angel in the humanworld.”
I rolled myeyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me. I’m being totes serious right now. You’re the best of ourkind.”
“I’m reallynot.”
“You’re the only Fletching in the history of Fletchings who acquired over nine hundred feathers without ever losing one. And you probably wouldn’t have lost any feathers if you hadn’t decided to take on aTriple.”
“I bet there areothers.”
“No. There aren’t. I actually looked it up because I was curious. Now, go to sleep, and tomorrow, we’ll pay your sinner a littlevisit.”
“Celeste, I don’t think . . . I don’t want you to come withme.”
“Whynot?”
“Because it’s the Mafia,honey.”
“Aw.Are you worried aboutme?”
I flicked her wrist. “Yes, I’m worried aboutyou.”
She shot me a smile that touched her eyes. “Nothing to worry about. I’m the most resilient—and according to your bestie—the most loathsome Fletching flittingaround.”
Annoyance hardened my bones. “Eve called youloathsome?”
Celeste’s smile grew, dimpling her cheeks. “I called herwayworse. Cost me a feather. Well worth it,though.”
I shook my head. “Celeste, Celeste, Celeste. What am I going to do withyou?”
“You’re going to get your butt to Elysium, marry Asher, and then start changing those stupid laws ofours.”
For the first time that night, I smiled and swore I’d try mybest.
She stuck out her pinky and wiggled it. “Pinkypromise.”
“Because my word isn’t good enough foryou?”
“Your word’s okay. Your pinky’sbetter.”
I didn’t see how my pinky could best my word, but I indulged her and hooked it around hers. And then I gathered her against me and gave her a longhug.
Into her snarled hair, I said, “I don’t think I can ever forgive Eve for what she did to me.” I breathed in the clean, warm smell of Celeste’s skin, like freshly laundered sheets that had just come out of the dryer. “It’s just you now. Justyou.”
Her wiry arms squeezed me surprisingly hard. “You and me against the humanworld.”
I sighed into her hair. “And the angelicone.”
Chapter 19
Isleptas though someone had clocked me upside the head, a deep, dreamless sleep that eased the throbbing in my temples but did little to soothe the throbbing in mychest.
Sleep had offered me reprieve, but the instant my lids had opened, Eve’s betrayal had washed through me like an arctic waterfall, leaving me chilled to my wing bone marrow. I curled my fingers around my warm pillow, pondering whether to contact her through the guild’s holo-comsystem.
Confronting her while emotional was probably not a good idea. Besides, I didn’t feel like seeing her face on our holographic phone.Ifshe even picked up my call. She was probably too busy collecting one of her fourteen remainingfeathers.
I suddenly remembered her reluctance to take on a sinner in Paris. She must’ve known I would figure out what she’ddone.
