Page 10 (2/2)
She ran, leaving the square by one of the many alleys that fed into it like tributaries The crowds in the souks had thinned and hts had been snuffed, and she raced in and out of pools of darkness, her stride long and ht, her footfall nearly silent She took turns wide to avoid collisions, glanced behind again and again and saw no one
Angel The word kept sounding in herthe portal--just one th of another blind alley, and she would be there, if shefrobeats
Overhead, darknesswas hurtling down at Karou on huge, ibeats and the skirr of air parted by a blade A blade She leapt aside, felt steel bite her shoulder as she sla slats She seized one, a jagged spear of wood, and spun to face her attacker
He stood aon the ground
Oh, thought Karou, staring at hiel indeed
He stood revealed The blade of his long sword glea wings, their reach so great they swept the walls on either side of the alley, each feather like the wind-tugged lick of a candle fla the air between the Karou had ever seen Her first thought, incongruous but overpowering, was to ht was that there wasn’t going to be a later, because he was going to kill her
He caht on the air, and even as Karou leapt aside again she was seeing his fiery iain, her ar thrust She was quick She kept space around her; he tried to close it, and she danced clear, lissoain, and Karou saw past his shocking beauty to the inhuain As quick as Karou was, she couldn’t get clear of the reach of his sword A strike ailanced off her scapula instead There was no pain--that would co heat that she kneas blood Another strike, and she parried it with her slat of wood, which split like kindling, half of it falling away so she held a th of old wood, a ridiculous excuse for a weapon Yet when the angel caed in close to him and thrust, felt the wood catch flesh and sink in
Karou had stabbedof penetrating living flesh She pulled back, leaving her istered neither pain nor surprise It was, Karou thought as he closed in, a dead face Or rather, the living face of a dead soul
It was utterly terrifying
He had her cornered now, and they both knew she wouldn’t get away She was vaguely aware of shouts of amazement and fear up the alley and froel What did it even el? What had Izîl said? The seraphim are here
She’d heard the word before; seraphi to the Christian mythos, for which Briion "Hus over tih to make the rest up It’s all a quilt of fairy tales with a patch here and there of truth"
"So what’s real?" she’d wanted to know
"If you can kill it, or it can kill you, it’s real"
By that definition, this angel was real enough
He raised his sword, and she just watched hi for a ers--they were fleetingly faistered--and she just stared up at her killer and wondered numbly why It seemed impossible that this was the final moment of her life She cocked her head to the side, desperately searching his features for some hint of… soul… and then, she saw it
He hesitated Only for a split second did his ent pathos surface, a wave of feeling that softened his rigid and ridiculously perfect features His jaw unclenched, his lips parted, his brow furrowed in an instant of confusion
At the same moment, she became aware of the pulse in her palms that had ht of hiy, and she was jolted by the certainty that it emanated from her tattoos An impulse overca surrender, but with palms powerfully outthrust, inked with the eyes she’d worn all her life without ever knohy
And so happened
It was like a detonation--a sharp intake, all air sucked into a tight core and then expelled It was silent, lightless--to the gape-jaitnesses it was nothing at all, just a girl throwing up her hands--but Karou felt it, and the angel did, too His eyes ith recognition in the instant before he was flung back with devastating force to hit a wall sos askeord skittering away Karou scra
She spun and sprinted away Whatever had happened, a silence had risen from it, and it followed her She could hear only her own breathing, weirdly amplified like she was in a tunnel She rounded the bend in the alley at speed, skidding on her heel to avoid a donkey standing stubborn in the ht, a plain door in a row of plain doors, but soe black handprint was burned into the wood
Karou flung herself at it, ha with her fists in a frenzy such as she had never unleashed on a portal before "Issa!" she screa back over her shoulder, and then the door finally swung open
She started to dart forward, then let out a choked cry It was not Issa or the vestibule, but a Moroccan woman with a broom Oh no The woman’s eyes narrowed and she opened her mouth to scold, but Karou didn’t wait She pushed her back inside and shoved the door closed, staying outside Frantically she knocked again "Issa!"
She could hear the wo to push the door open Karou swore and held it shut If it was open, the ic of the portal couldn’t connect In Arabic she hollered, "Get away from the door!"
She looked over her shoulder There was a co The donkey stood uniel Had she killed him? No Whatever had happened, she kneasn’t dead He would coain "Issa, Bri but irate Arabic Karou held the door closed with her foot and kept pounding "Issa! He’s going to killlike scuppies on a string, vanishing one after another The door was ju to force it open--could it be Issa?--and then she felt a draft of heat at her back She didn’t hesitate this tiainst the door to hold it closed, and raised her hands as if to let her tattoos see There was no detonation this tiy that raised her hair like Medusa’s serpents
The angel was stalking toward her, head lowered so he was looking at her fro eyes He didn’t ainst a wind Whatever power in Karou’s tattoos had hurled hiainst that wall, it hindered him now but didn’t stop him His hands were fists at his sides, and his face was ferocious, set to endure pain
He stopped a few paces away and looked at her, really looked at her, his eyes no longer dead but roving over her face and neck, drawn back to her ha didn’t add up