Page 156 of Architecti
It makes bile claw at the back of my throat.I stroke him until he ceases trembling.
“What did you see, buddy?What happened?”
He makes a dry hacking sound.Oh gods, eww, a hairball at this time?
I put him down as he makes strange arching shapes with his body and wretches until a vile, squelching lump plops on the floor.
He looks up at me with sad eyes and toes the lump.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I say.My nose wrinkles as I reach down to prod the gloopy fur.There’s something hard inside it.
“Eww,” I groan as I poke the middle of the furball and pull out the lump.
“What the hell?”I say as I scrape the goop off to reveal a hard metal pin.The logo of the Societas.
“The Societas have her?”I say, my head snapping to look at the miserable not-quite-dead cat.
“Meow,” he nods.
I bolt out the door.I can’t do this on my own.I have no idea where they would have taken her.All I know is that if I don’t get to her fast, they’ll kill her.
I run until my thighs burn and sweat flings off me like rain.I run straight to my death sentence and into Ignatius’s office.
I shove the door open so hard it bounces off the wall.
Ignatius stands, his eyes hot and dark.
“What do you think?—”
“Lucy is missing,” I cut him off.It’s only then that I see the horns protruding from the man sat in front of Ignatius’s desk.
Chancellor Arcadius.Oh shit, oh shit, oh fuck.
“I—I mean Professor Corvine, she’s… gone.I went to take my paper to her apartment as I was late and needed the mark.And her door was open.Her apartment was trashed.Her cat… he said the Societas took her.”
That statement causes the chancellor to round on me.
“This is the truth?”He towers above me; he must be over seven feet tall.
“Every word of it, sir.”
The chancellor glances at Ignatius.“Fix this.And don’t fuck it up.”
“Yes, Chancellor,” Ignatius says.
The chancellor strides out of the office, slamming the door shut.
“Architecti isn’t the angel we need to worry about,” I spit.
“You’re not making any sense.”
I shake my head.“It was never her.She isn’t a fallen angel.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Her sister pushed her.You trapped the wrong angel.”
I have never seen a devil pale the way Ignatius does in this moment.
