Page 94 of Angel Lost

My mind reels. He’s never wanted me involved before…

The Virrey. Has the Virrey broken?

Zephyr glances back, shakes his head, then vanishes around the corner, a sneer on his beautiful face.

“Leave him be,” Farrell says calmly. “He’s in a weird mood. He’s always in a weird mood these days. And…I need you. The rebellion needs you.”

He catches my hand, pulling me behind him up the steps. My feet follow of their own accord. But it’s our hands I can’t stop staring at.

He needs me?

Our feet squelch up the drive toward the Cuelebre mansion, the elegant paving covered in a layer of trampled mud. Kai and Chano trail behind, bickering like school kids, while Farrell leads the way, his jaw set. I don’t think he’d planned to bring everyone, but we’re all here. Everyone except Zephyr.

A battalion of soldiers is running drills on the once-pristine lawns, and the tennis court appears to have become some kind of assault course. Soldiers swarm between the barracks-like buildings, but it’s the tent village I can’t look away from. The kids playing in the mud with sticks, stones. The occasional pair of dirty, child-sized feet sticking out from the branches of the trees lining the drive.

The place is crowded. Overcrowded.

I twitch Farrell’s sleeve. “Why are there so many people?”

Farrell rubs his forehead, squinting around. “The king’s men are hunting us, Lorelei. After my Hand’s illusion failed the scouting increased. The rebels either had to disperse or come here. And it’s safer here. Of course they brought their families. I couldn’t very well ask them to leave them behind.”

I stop in my tracks. “The Angel King has worked out the rebellion is in Venez?”

Farrell tows me the last few yards up the steps into the mansion. “He’s sending more troops. My guess? He’s casting his net wide. Our scouts say the other kingdoms have seen increased volumes of angel soldiers too. So…”

He ushers me in front of him into the once-grand drawing room. Dirty boot marks scuff the wooden floors, and a bunch of generals huddle at one end of the table, maps spread out, heads down.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was still angry with you,” he says, avoiding my gaze. “I had ithandled.”

Kai wanders into the room at our backs, pausing as he peers into the mirror hanging above the hearth. “Course he did. He’s a big boy. He had it handled. No doubt trying to work out which other kingdom he could impersonate…”

Farrell grimaces, pulls out a chair for me, then sinks into one of his own. He throws his head back, staring sightlessly at the ornate ceiling carvings. “Kai’s right. But…I couldn’t do it. Not after I realized the damage I did to the fae. But we still can’t afford for the king to catch on to the fact we’re amassing. There are so many, many angel scouts.”

Kai hums, tapping the glass. For a moment it ripples. “Kill every one of them.”

My pulse skips.

He coughs. “I mean…my uncle would. He would kill everyone. He doesn’t have the time to do here what he did in the fae lands. He destroyed our education system, indoctrinated the kids, coerced their parents. Here, he’d just wipe you out. He has the numbers.”

Farrell pales.

Chano slaps Kai over the back of the head. “Very helpful,idiota.”

Kai bares his teeth but sinks into a seat on my other side. “So, you want Lorelei’s help now…although you swore blind over the summer she wasn’t needed? She’d be well within her rights to tell you to sit and spin.”

I suck my cheeks in to avoid laughing at Farrell’s expression. He opens his mouth, then shuts it, redness creeping up his face. Eventually he turns his palms over on the table, studying them intently.

“Yes,” he finally says. “I was wrong.”

Holy hags. Farrell the unflappable is full-on blushing.

I place my hand in his. “We’ve both fucked up, Farrell. We have to move past it. Or everyone is screwed.”

He stares at our hands. “Your aether…the trick you did with hiding the hada. Can you manage that with our rebels? With their camps?”

Slowly, I nod. I can. I can definitely do that.

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