She watched me in that silent way of hers again. “It’s late. You should sleep heretonight.”
I could just imagine Jarod’s expression if he returned and found me in his home. He’d probably say,See, you’re incapable of leaving. It probably shouldn’t have made me smirk, but for some reason, that reason surely being extreme exhaustion and moderate immaturity, itdid.
“Celeste will worry if I don’t come home,” I ended upsaying.
Since I was twenty, the Ophanim no longer cared about mywhereabouts.
I’d never realized how alone I was, and that realization erased my smirk. I’d always believed belonging to a community was enough, but a community wasn’t the same as afamily.
Muriel, whom I hadn’t even noticed getting up, wrapped me in a hug. “You’re a sweetgirl.”
Sighing, I nestled my chin in the crook of her shoulder and let the sweet-butter scent clinging to her cashmere robe ease the residual tightness in my chest. What would it have been like to sneak into someone’s bed after a nightmare instead of having to self-soothe by counting the stars in the elysianfirmament?
“Come by tomorrow afternoon. I’ll teach you how to makesablés.”
“I’d really love to, but I can’t,” I said, extricating myself from herarms.
“Then, the dayafter.”
“Muriel, I . . . I can’t come back. Jarod wouldn’t want meto.”
Shefrowned.
Before she could ask me for an explanation or challenge my assertion, I strode out of the little pantry through the cool marble foyer and burst into the courtyard with its ruined angel. I finally understood why the little boy had maimed her. How I wished I could show him we weren’t all like Mikaela, but he would never bereceptive.
Besides, I needed to move on before I ran out of time to complete my wings. I had no desire to become aNephilim.
I bit my lip and was still denting the fleshy tissue when I exited onto the street and someone called out, “Mademoiselle!”
Chapter 28
Jarod’swhite-haired driver held the door of the sedan open for me. “Monsieur Adler asked me to see youhome.”
My heart, which had become lodged in my throat when Francis had called out to me, began its slow pilgrimage back into my ribcage.
Was Jarod afraid I wouldn’t leave if someone didn’t physically extract me from his territory? That was probably it. What else could it be? Concern for my safety? I snorted. Jarod Adler was most certainly no longer concerned for mysafety.
Even though owing Jarod any more than I already did was unappealing, walking home in the dead of the night in a pair of stilettos was even moreso.
“Merci,” I said, sliding into the backseat.
The door made a quiet suctioning noise as it sealed me into a space that smelled of crisp leather but also of Jarod. I rested my cheek against the headrest and watched the moonlit street, wondering where he’d gone off to in the middle of the night. Was it to visit a woman and lose himself in the pleasures of the flesh? I suddenly damned my passion for romance novels for instilling images I would never have thought of had I read celestial texts instead. I shut my eyes, but that spurred my imaginings, so I pried my lids up and focused on the city that glistened likelabradorite.
As we neared the guild, I caught a poster advertising bank loans with two-hundred-euro bills printed all over it, and my mind zipped right back to the sinner I was trying to forget. We weren’t allowed to take anything from humans they didn’t willingly give us, and even though he’d insisted I keep his money, he’d said it after the deed, failing to unbind me from my celestial obligation. I couldn’t afford to lose anotherfeather.
Could I give the cash to his driver? Would he pay Jarodback?
I felt a niggle in my shoulder blade as though a shaft were loosening already. Sighing, I decided to visit him tomorrow. I needed sleep to recover from all that had happened and a shower to wash off the grime andblood.
After thanking Francis for the lift, I walked to the guild, arms wrapped around myself forwarmth.
The guild was calm at this hour. Only the sparrows roosting in pairs on the Atrium fountains disrupted the silence with their honeyed cooing. One of them launched into song upon spotting me, and then the others followed suit. The melody grew, dispelling some of the chilliness in mybones.
Had these celestial creatures not been so skittish, I would’ve held out a finger for them to perch on, but they weren’t fond of humancontact.
A little likeJarod.
I sighed, listening to them a while longer before making my way toward the fire-lit quartz hallway, wishing the stone had the power to melt the lingering ice in my veins. As I passed by the last fountain, I thought of the one inLa Cour des Démons, and instead of making me sad, it incensedme.
