Page 120 of The Silent
Arindam the Fallen was thick in thebattle.
She didn’t care what Prija said, those wings were real. She’d seen angels grow into monsters. She’d seen them appear and disappear at will. She’d never seen one fly. But when she finally saw the Fallen in the red glow of the fire, she knew what Prija meant. Whatever his original form, he had taken on the body of the idol she’d seen at some of the temples. He had the head of a man with a curved beak like a vulture. His muscled arms stretched out, and wings sprouted from the bottom of them. His body was that of a man, but instead of feet, he had massive claws that clutched a flamingbranch.
He perched on the top of the temple and roared over the clearing as the scribes and free Grigori shot at him. One of Niran’s men was using arrows, which seemed to be the only thing not bouncing off the monster’s skin. When he roared, Kyra felt it like a pressure in her mind. She nearly went to her knees, but she remembered Prija waiting for her and moved on. As she ran, she didn’t try to block the monster’s song out. It was the same static, pulsing with an unearthly low rhythm. She focused on it and tried to think of it like the wind through trees—low and repetitive—and not a monster’ssirencall.
She entered the building where the women had been kept and was immediately hit in the face by the sour smell of urine again. Arindam truly was a monster if he could keep his own women in this filth. Kyra had seen a lot, but she’d never been subjected to conditionslikethis.
She ran to the back room and grabbed the long neck of the instrument she’d seen Prija playing, returning at the last minute to grab the thin bow that went with it. She rushed out and ran straightintoLeo.
“What are you doing?” heshouted.
“Getting her instrument!” She looked over his shoulder. “What are youdoing?”
“Getting nowhere in this fight. This angel is impenetrable to bullets, and we only have onearcher.”
“Not something you foresee taking into battleanymore.”
“Niran anticipated.” Leo grimaced. “We’ve killed all the Grigori or they’ve run. It’s just the angel, but nothing we do is working. We can’t even reach him. I think he’s laughingatus.”
On cue, a booming laugh echoed over thehilltop.
“I think you’re right,” Kyra said. “Let me take this back to Prija and see if we can get anywherewithit.”
“Have you figured outhowto—”
“No. Don’t ask. I’m workingonit.”
Kyra ran back to Prija, and Leo turned towardthefire.
ChapterTwenty-Six
“Are they getting anywhere?”Niran asked him. The two men were crouched behind a low wall that had been shattered by the angel’s fist. He was playing with them andenjoyingit.
“Of course they are,” Leo said. “They justneedtime.”
“You’relying.”
“You know as well asIdo.”
“Prijaisfine?”
“She’s healthy and angryashell.”
Niran smiled. “A promisingcombination.”
“She’s talkingtoKyra.”
His eyebrows went up. “I haven’t heard her speak inyears.”
“Well, now she’s talkingtoKyra.”
The news seemed to invigorate Niran. He rose and hurled a chunk of stone at the angel’s perch on the temple. It fell short, but Leo had to admire the effort. He ducked down when a fireball hit the back ofthewall.
Rith jumped over it a few seconds later. “We need to find a way to get him down or getusup.”
Leo popped his head up and looked at the sharply sloped roof. “Getting us up would only result in usfallingdown.”
“So we need to take him out of the air,” Rith said. “Unless I can get close enough to him, I can’t use this blade. I’m not going to risk throwing it at him. If he takes if from us, we havenothing.”
