Page 93 of A Serpent in the Garden

“Finn, you may be able to work from a distance but not all of us have that luxury.”

“Shut up,” Valic yelled back over a gust of screaming wind. “The two of you give me fucking heartburn.” He pointed to the far edge of the city and what looked like a sea of rippling grass, rendered supernaturally green beneath the nearly-risen sun, which was bordered by a line of trees. “We can try to get him there. It’s not set up for anything. If begging more blessings is what they’re after they’ll be doing it at the church, right? They’ve got a load of pews outside of it and a little stage. If he shows, he’ll be over there, wouldn’t he? How else would he hear their thanks? How long until they start their services, do you think?”

I thought seraphim were fat little winged babies, I said, Finn’s answer fading into the background. That all they did was fly around God’s throne and sing about his holiness.

You’re thinking of cherubim, and human artists took a lot of liberties with them, too. Seraphim are hideous. Six flaming wings, forked tongues. Their bodies are scaled like snakes. They’re bald and nasty and their entire point as lesser celestials is to guard and protect divinity.

Swarms of seraphim seemed a good deal more than a sixteen-year-old demon could contend with. You weren’t afraid of them when you were out here trying to lure Luceric to you?

I didn’t care if I died, so long as I took Luceric with me.

I could think of little with which to respond to that, and when I stopped staring off into space and looked back over at Remy’s brothers, it was to find them both watching me expectantly.

“We’re heading down now,” Finn said, with the air of having repeated it many times. “I don’t know whether it’s better to keep you with me or with Valic. You and he blend in better than I do, but he fights best in close quarters. Though you’d need close quarters too if you’re going to do any lulling.”

“I might not be able to,” Remy said, frustrated. “I’m not that great at it even when I’m in my own goddamned body.”

Finn jerked a thumb between himself and Valic. “You’re better than the two of us.”

“I’ve never tried channeling it through her before. It might not work.”

“Lulling humans is a great deal easier than lulling demons or celestials.” Finn’s voice was eloquent with condescension, lashes a gold-and-black flicker as he blinked. “It would simplify things if you could ask the priests or people in the street to confirm he’ll show or whether they’ve seen him without having to observe the niceties. I thought this is what you wanted. Now you’re too hesitant to even try?”

Remy opened my mouth to argue but Valic cut him off. “She’s with me.” Catching me by my long white sleeve, he towed me down the gentle grassy slope which fed into a white staircase set into the side of the hill.

“Find out what you can. Meet me by the field in two hours,” Finn called, but when I turned to look back at him, he’d disappeared. The earth where he’d stood was smoking.

Valic, it soon transpired, moved like a stalking feline.

I felt this might be a problem long before the wary looks started coming our way, before he’d even blinked us surreptitiously past the guards at the golden gates. The city was waking all around us as we walked down the cobblestones. Doors thrown open, drapes pushed aside, the screech of carts dragged into the street, and each time an early-morning villager looked at Valic, tall and shrouded like a reaper, with his stealthy, athletic gait, their eyes turned round and startled.

He shot me an odd look when I took his hand in mine, his rainy-day eyes like churning thunderclouds.

“You walk like an overgrown cat,” I said, by way of explanation. “It’s noticeable. People are staring at you.”

“This is creepy,” he said after suffering a few seconds of my touch, grimacing down at our intertwined fingers. His close-cropped hair shone like dark velvet in the shafts of sunlight. “Prancing around holding my brother’s hand.”

“It’s my hand, not his.” And it altered his strides enough that he seemed vaguely human now. “You look as if you’re hunting someone. Everybody else is just excited for the festival.”

Still he looked down at his hand like he were a wolf stuck in a trap, as if he were considering gnawing his paw off to escape me.

He’s not used to humans, Remy said, swallowing back a laugh. I wasn’t either, before we met.

Gulls cried from the harbor, swooping like ghosts amongst the ships in the sparkling distance. “How did you sound that alarm without anybody knowing?” I finally asked, once the silence between us had grown too thick and awkward.

“Fury children are little hellions.” Valic matched me stride for stride over the cobblestones as if it took a lot of effort. “But they’re easily bribed, and it doesn’t take much convincing to get them to cause a ruckus. They distracted the guards by the tower.”

“How?”

“I don’t know specifics but I’m pretty sure it involved a couple hellcats and some rats. I slipped into the watchtower when the guard was chasing them off the roof. I didn’t have much time to think what to do after Finn told me a fire had been lit. Had to be quick. Those little bastards are always up for causing trouble.”

“Will the children be punished?”

“They’re punished by the circle they belong to when they misbehave. If they rat me out and tell my uncle I asked them to do it I doubt he’d come down on them too hard. I’ll have some explaining to do once we get back and probably some menial labor.” He jerked his head, shrugging one shoulder. “But Radax will understand. Our father was his brother. He doesn’t like that his death’s gone unavenged any better than we do. He just can’t do much about it when he’s a regent on the council. He has to at least pretend to be upstanding.”

On we walked, and the more I saw of the city, the more I felt an impassable distance to it, as if I wasn’t really there—how could I be? People like me didn’t set foot in places like this. I didn’t belong anywhere but Monde’s End.

You’re in good company, sweetheart. It’s not like my brothers and I belong here, either.