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"I kind of hope I do, actually," said Karou, who no longerout unarht, and cringed to think of the way she’d run away If she were to see the angel again, she would stand her ground
Where school was concerned, however, there was no ground to stand She had no semester project to speak of and she couldn’t squeak by on her sketchbook and feverish last-minute catch-ups anyer things to worry about
After the fires, her first trip had been to Marrakesh She kept reet to Briotten back in YouIt was the whole point of his bruxis: knowledge And while Karou had alondered what he had learned, now she needed urgently to know So she’d gone to find hireat sadness, that he had thrown hiht she’d left hi the angel’s soul-dead countenance, the bite of his blade, and the scars he’d left her to remember him by
Zuzana had actually screen-printed her a T-shirt on the press at school that read: I MET AN ANGEL IN MOROCCO AND ALL I GOT WERE THESE LOUSY SCARS She’d made another one, too: I SAW AN ANGEL AND YOU DIDN’T SUCK IT, RAPTURE-MONKEYS!
The sentiment was a response to the ide fervor in the wake of the angel sightings Though accounts of the encounters were initially brushed off as the ravings of drunks and children, the evidence had becoraphs had gone viral on the Web and even crossed over to the mainstream media, with headlines like ANGELS OF DEATH: HARBINGERS OR HOAX? announced in drippy prie came from a carpet h she was, round, blurred out by the heat shis
A far as she could tell, that was the only tiels--and there had been s, but a number of witnesses claied shadows A nun in India had a burn in the shape of a feather on her palri to be blessed by her Rapture cults had packed their suitcases and werefor the end Online s, none of which rang true to Karou
"All bogus," she’d told Zuzana "Just crackpots waiting for the Apocalypse"
"Because how fun, right?" Zuzana had rubbed her hands together in ht? I kno much does your life have to suck to want the Apocalypse?"
And with that, they had spent an entire evening at Poison--with Mik, incidentally, Zuzana’s "violin boy" and now official boyfriend--drinking apple tea and playing the game How much would your life have to suck to want the Apocalypse?
"It would have to suck so much that your bunny slippers are your only friends"
"It would have to suck so s its tail when you leave"
"That you know all Celine Dion’s lyrics"
"That you wish the entire world would end so you don’t have to wake up one more day in your crappy house--which, by the way, has no art in it whatsoever--feed your surly kids, and go to a hnuts to make your ass even fatter That is how much your life has to suck to want the Apocalypse"
That, for the as Zuzana
Ah, Zuzana
Out in the wilderness of Idaho now, as Karou spent her first-ever gavriel in the fulfillavriel vanished, and she rose sot to see this
She was floating She gave a delighted hoot and put her ar at the air as if she were floating in the sea, but… it wasn’t the sea It was the air She was flying Well,at the threshold of the whole freaking sky Which happened to wrap around the whole freaking world Above her, night was huge and everywhere, full of stars and wild things--an infinitely deep, infinitely penetrable sphere, and she rose up higher and higher, clai it
She could see the roof of Bain’s cabin from over the treetops now Breezes whispered in her ears, cold but playful, seehing Once she started, she couldn’t stop It was a helpless, incredulous streales that sounded a little nuts, but ouldn’t sound a little nuts at a
God, she wished there was so it with someone, but it was not, to say the least, the… er, individual… she would choose to share anything with, if all else were equal But all else was not equal There was only one individual in the entire world who could help her do what she needed to do, and that, unfortunately, was Razgut
The thought of Izîl’s creature made Karou shudder, but her fate was now tied up with his
In Marrakesh, after learning of Izîl’s death, she had wandered the lanes around the mosque in a desolation of disappointment She’d been so sure Izîl would be able to tell her as going on She’d been counting on it with such intensity She cruave in to tears that were a rief over the death of the poor, torturedover the ground, ca shifted, and Razgut dragged hiht "Hello, lovely," he purred, and it was a testalad to see him
"You survived the fall," she said
But not unscathed Bereft of his huround One ared his limp behind him And his head, his awful purple head, was flattened at the temple, crusted with dried blood, and still eave an impatient flick of the hand "I’ve fallen farther"
Karou was skeptical The minaret towered overhead, the tallest structure in the city
Seeing her glance up at it, Razgut chuckled again It was a curdled sound: , blue lovely A thousand years ago, I fell from heaven"
"Heaven There is no heaven"
"Quibble, quibble The sky, then, if you know so much And I didn’t exactly fall That h I tripped and fell into your world No I was thrown Cast out Exiled"
And that was how Karou had learned of Razgut’s origin It was hard to believe, looking at hi--that they were kin, but when she forced herself to really look at Razgut, she began to see it And the splintered joints of his lost wings could not be denied He was not a creature of this world
She had also understood, finally, the twisted fulfille of the other world, he had gotten hi that Brimstone would not
"What happened to Izîl?" she asked "He didn’t really kill hiel--"