Page 79 of Seraph's Tears
My skin prickled and I shuddered, turning away. I couldn’t look at it. I didn’t want to remember.
“I’ve seen this before,” Lilith breathed.
I held onto her voice, her presence, as my last grip on my sanity, putting my hands on my hips. “Hmm?”
Her brow furrowed, and again I saw the intelligence that she’d tried to hide yesterday while in the village. “In…in the reverend’s study, I think. In an old manuscript several years ago.”
My heart stopped, and I turned to face her profile. “Think,” I ground out. “Think hard. Was it a seraph you saw in the illustration?”
“Yes,” she said after a moment.
The hair on my body and my tertial feathers stood on end as I realized how portentous this information could be. “Black wings?” I clarified.
Her eyes sparked as she turned to face me. We stood closer together than either of us had first realized. Her cross arms were a hair’s breadth away from my chest. She was a petite woman, even for humans, the crown of her head right at my collar bone. If she tilted her head her breath would brush against my lips.
My body registered her sweet scent, the softness of those curves just out of eyesight, the curve of her full lips. Stars and skies, she was beautiful. I’d never seen such a lovely human.
“Yes.” She jutted her chin, which only emphasized her mouth further.
It took me a heartbeat to remember what I’d even asked. Black wings.
Not a single one of us had black wings. Gabriel’s were snow white, because he was from aristocracy. Azrael’s were a charcoal gray, suggesting someone in his ancestry was from the Royal House. Mine were a shade of brown, like the majority of seraphim. The cousins in our sedge had vibrant wing colors, an unusual trait that rarely showed up. Not one of us had pure, unadulterated black.
Black was the sign of the Royal Family.
I grabbed Lilith’s arm and turned her, heading toward the stairs. “Come.”
“Where are we going?” She balked, skidding her feet on the uneven stone floor.
“To tell the captain.”
Lilith
I huffed, indignant that this strange creature—I could not believe he was another Herald of Death, not after the way he teased and mocked and confused me—dragged me up the stairs and down a long corridor. It was so narrow we had to press together, for he made me walk by his side rather than trail behind.
Likely because he knew I would bolt given the first chance. I didn’t belong here, with these angels. I needed to find Absalom and get home. Convince Reverend Grimshaw and Elder Tomes I hadn’t had anything to do with this mess, and beg to get back into the elders’ good graces.
This angel, with the laughing, brown eyes and the mocking mouth and the wings of bronze and filaments of gold, he had brought me here and I was so surprised and overwhelmed—awed, but I’d never tell him that—I let him. Castiel, he said his name was.
We paused before an old wooden door. Castiel knocked on it, three sharp raps. His hand did not let go of my arm.
I cleared my throat primly. If he had been a man from home, or any human for that matter, I would have lowered my lashes and babbled something about modesty and humility and moved away from him. But I had already slipped this morning, and he had already seen some of my anger. He also seemed to instinctively know I had a mind of my own.
When I returned to Absalom and he took over as the man of our family, I would have to fade into the background.
Castiel glanced at me, then down at his grip on my arm and smirked at me. By all the saints he was annoying. He slowly released my arm, watching me all the while like I was a wild animal who might flee.
Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door, then quiet murmurs and a louder grumble. The door cracked open, and at first all I could see was broad, pale, male chest. I blinked and forced my eyes up to see the angel Reverend Grimshaw wanted, the captain. He glared at me and Castiel, and I fought the urge to cringe and hide behind Castiel’s wing.
“What?”
Castiel grinned and gave a mocking salute. “Enjoying your morning?”
The other angel—seraph—glared more. “Why are you disturbing me and my mate?”
“Apologies, but this one said something that’s important for you to hear.”
Gabriel looked over his shoulder.
