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The shadow The shadow had wings

Oh god, the angel Karou’s pulse went jagged The distraction of Bain’s warning lifted like s: in her paly Her hamsas were on fire How could she not have realized sooner? She turned a ferocious warning glare on Svetla and mouthed, Quiet Svetla dropped the snarl She looked afraid

The shadow advanced, and behind it, the angel He was peering ahead, intense His wings were glaloom, and Karou had a clear view of his profile His beauty was as shocking as it had been the first ti teacher, if you could see this Though there was a pair of sheathed swords crossed on his back, his arers splayed as if to dehtening her grip on her knife I’athered herself

And leapt

She had to launch herself upward to hook him around the neck--he was tall, six foot four at least--and she sla to hi is, invisible but real She felt too the warmth and breadth of his shoulders and arms, and was keenly aware of their powerful vitality as she brought her blade against his throat

"Looking for ht her or throw her off

"Wait," Karou scoffed, and, on impulse, she took the flat of her other hand and pressed its ink eye to the exposed skin of the angel’s neck

As in Morocco, when she had first directed the unknownhappened That tih the air Now, its awful force didn’t hit and throw him--it went into hi in his skin that forced shudders down into his flesh and reverberated up her own arm, into the core of her, even the roots of her teeth It wasHorrific And that was her

For him, it wasto knock her loose She hung on He choked The ? He lurched, shaking violently, and tried to pry her hand away, but his fingers fumbled Under Karou’s hand, his skin was s The heat of his wings, too, like a bonfire whipped into a frenzy

Fire, invisible fire

Karou couldn’t bear it Her pal with the heat, the angel rallied He grabbed her wrist and pivoted hard, flinging her off

She landed light and spun back to face hi his neck as he stared at her with his tiger’s eyes She felt pinned in place, and for a long beat she could only stare back He looked pained Puzzle a mystery

Like she was his mystery

Then heHis nearness pulsed at Karou Her haertip, hersword, Kishmish on fire, torched portals, Izîl the last ti, "Malak!"

And when she raised her hands, it was not in peace One gripped her knife; the other flashed its eye

The seraph flinched and the hamsa buffeted hiainst it "I won’t hurt you"

A laugh caught in Karou’s throat Just as in danger of being hurt here? She felt powerful Her phanto her, had slipped instead into her skin and possessed her This ho she was: not prey, but power

She launched herself at him, and he fell back She pursued, he retreated In all the sparring she’d done in years of training, she’d always held a little so unleashed, she delivered a whirling kata, landing blows to his chest, his legs, even his upheld, peace hands, and with every contact she was reminded of his solidity--his firel or not--whatever that evenethereal about hirowled in Chihed It really was kind of funny She felt light as air and bright as danger She attacked in a cool fury and still he barely defended hi under the force of her outfaced haht," she hissed at hi but absorb it

He didn’t Instead, the next tiathered the air beneath hi off the cobbles and out of her reach "I just want to talk to you," he said from above her

She threw her head back and looked up to where he hovered in the air The draft of his wingbeats whipped her hair around her face in wild blue tendrils

She se, and sank into a crouch "So talk," she said, and sprang into the air toplace, the vaot how to breathe

Down the alley at the junction with Karlova, a sroup rounded the corner and came to a shocked halt Gu a wooden stake jauntily under one arirlfriend was in midair

Honestly, he wasn’t that surprised There was sos you wouldn’t drea of others seemed, where Karou was concerned, not such a stretch Karou, flying? Well, why not?

What Kaz felt wasn’t surprise It was jealousy Karou was flying, sure, but she was not flying alone She ith a nize the attractiveness of other men--had to admit to himself was beautiful to the point of absurdity Beautiful to the point of co his ar, what the tere doing They were up even with the roofline, but they were barelyat each other with extraordinary intensity The air fairly throbbed between theut

Then Karou attacked the guy, and he felt ht was part of his tour, and he’d rake in record tips He’d refer to Karou as his girlfriend, infuriating Svetla, ould stalk holare at her eyebrows--still caterpillar-fat--in the awked at the two beautiful creatures fighting in the air with the rooftops of Prague behind theed, with great grace and a strange kind of… gentleness?… and he seemed to shy away from her and flinch as if struck even when she hadn’t touched him

It went on like that for a few round, and then it happened that when she cauy seized her hands so she dropped her knife--it fell a long way and landed point down between cobblestones and stuck there--and he held her It was strange: He held her palled, but he was clearly er and held her with ease, his hands pressed over hers, like he was forcing her to pray