If I screamed, would anyone hear me? The door he had come through appeared to be thick wood.
“Are you on something?” His eyes narrowed again as he took a step toward me.
I was going to have to stab this guy. “Get out, or I’ll scream.”
He laughed but backed up a step. “How about this… tell me your name and why you’re registering as an angel.”
He looked me up and down, and his eyes stopped on my breasts.
“Seriously?” I pulled my jacket closed.
He nodded at my breasts. “What are you carrying?”
Apparently, he hadn’t been looking at my breasts. “My bag.”
“What’s in it?” He stepped forward, and before I could scream or stab him, he had my wrists pinned to the wall and a hand over my mouth. “Now why would a sweet woman like you be carrying angel feathers around?”
My eyes widened, and I screamed, but it came out muffled. I tried to bite him, but I could barely graze my teeth on his palm.
He pressed me to the wall so I couldn’t move, and the knife dropped to the floor. My attempts at kneeing him were futile. Whoever he was, he was well trained in the art of stopping a kick to the balls.
“I’m going to take my hand off your mouth, and you’re going to tell me why you have Oliver’s feathers in your possession. Do you understand?” His friendly voice was gone and had been replaced by something low and dangerous.
Who the fuck was Oliver, and how did this guy know I had angel feathers? I nodded, and he removed his hand.
“You fucker!” I spat on him because it was currently my only line of defense.
He lifted a shoulder to wipe his cheek, never losing his grip on me. “Answer the question.” His face was red, and a vein appeared on his forehead.
“I found them.”
“Where?” A muscle beneath his eye jumped.
“On the ground?” If he was expecting me to tell him on the floor of a cell in the castle’s dungeon in Inferna, well, he wasn’t getting that.
“Fuck this.” He kicked the knife across the bathroom and let me go.
He backed up, his eyes never leaving me as he pulled something rectangular out of his pocket, pressed something, and then held it to his ear. There was a faint sound coming from it before he spoke.
“It’s Raphael. Where did Oliver lose his feathers?… I have some chick here who has a bag full of them.”
I stayed pressed against the wall. I wouldn’t be quick enough to get into my jacket pocket for the one I’d stashed there.
“Inferna? And none of you idiots thought to mention that he left them behind?... There’s blood on the feathers!… No, I will not calm the fuck down… Reve, do you have any fucking clue?—”
“Reve? Reve’s my brother!” My heart was nearly in my throat. Was my brother inside the rectangle? Did this man, Raphael, shrink my brother and lock him in the tiny box?
Raphael held the rectangle away from his ear, and muffled words came from it. When the words stopped, he put it to his ear again.
“Would you like to talk to her now that you have that out of your system?… I’ll put her on speakerphone. I don’t trust that you aren’t planning on taking over Earth.” He held the rectangle. “Talk.”
“Sammy?”
I had to press myself against the wall to keep from collapsing at the sound of Reve’s voice. “Reve?” I looked at the rectangle and then at Raphael. He was watching me closely. “What is this? Who is this guy? Did he trap you in there?”
Raphael laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “His ego is so big I’d need something bigger, sweetheart.”
“Fuck you, Raph. Sammy, we’re on a communication device called a cell phone. It’s not an actual cell… although many people use them so much they might as well be.”
