Page 100 of Lourdes & the Mafia
I keep my surprise at bay as he steps out and into the light. His own body glows, a soft emanating aura that tells me he’s freshly fallen. His face is as beautiful as always, though contoured in rage and pain. Where once great wings would have sat behind his shoulder blades, there’s stumps of bloody bone and torn feathers.
He’s a freshly fallen angel, with all the agony that comes with it.
My own spine tingles as I stare at those wings, at the blood and flesh. I remember when I fell, so long ago. When I was cast out to become the King of the Underworld.
It hurt. It was like dying a thousand times and then dying a thousand times more.
My wings did not crack on the way down like his appear to have done, though.
As the Angel of Death, mine are still very much intact.
“You’ve found me,” Thuriel rasps, a cruel smile on his mouth. His wings twitch and I know he does the move on purpose, to draw my eye to them. To alarm me, upset me, to shock me.
I frown. “I thought I caught your scent in the parking lot. Now I know it’s true. What do you want with la vidente?”
There’s no need to sugarcoat anything. I get right to the fucking chase. Thuriel should not be here. A warrior. An angel of harmony and light. His presence is surprising, but even more so is the fact that he attacked Lourdes. That he put the call out for her to be brought in alive.
That he wants her.
And I want to know why.
“I want what any fallen angel wants.”
I don’t anticipate his next move. And by the time I realize what he’s doing, it’s too late.
He attacks.
A spear of light lances straight through my chest. Blood splays and the pain is immediate. It freezes me where I stand and I gasp for a single breath.
I have been the strongest being on earth for a millennium. I’ve killed and kept the balance. I’ve bartered and traded and submerged myself in the deep underground of criminals, and nothing has been able to touch me.
But two fallen angels against one another?
I stand no chance.
Thuriel stalks forward and says one word that scrapes through my body.
“Retribution.”
Lourdes
Ijoltoutofthe vision within seconds, just as the scream rips from my throat. Not a scream.
A name.
“Ramiel!”
My chest heaves up and down as I struggle to take in air. Immediately, Kane and Lorenzo are in front of me, Lorenzo forcing my gaze up to his by grasping my chin tightly.
“What did you see, Amore?” he demands.
“I—I—”
I saw Ramiel facing what looked to be a fallen angel.
Was that what he was?
The broken wings on his back say yes.
