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She got up and took the water glass fros were sufficient illuot out her sketchbook and a pencil, and she drew Akiva asleep at the locus of his vast wings, and then from memory, with his eyes open She tried to capture the precise shape of them; she used charcoal for the heavy black kohl that rimmed the his fiery irises colorless She grabbed a watercolor box and painted She drew and painted for a long time, and he didn’t lilow

Karou didn’t plan to sleep, but soht she subsided, still half on the landslide of her sketchbooks, to "rest her eyes" for a moment She fell into drea woke her, a quick, bright sound--the room around her was, for a blink, entirely unfaave her a surge of pleasure, and then it all slid away as dreams do She was in her flat, of course, on her bed, and the sound that had awakened her was Akiva

He was standing over her, and his eyes were ed around in white, and he was holding, one in each hand, her crescent-moon knives

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RIGHT

Karou sat up with a suddenness that sent sketchbooks skidding off the bed Her pencil was still in her hand, and the thought struck her: alith the ridiculous weapon, where this angel was concerned But even as she adjusted her grip on it, ready to stab, Akiva was backing away, lowering the knives

He set them where he had found the tables They would have been practically under his nose when he woke

"I’hten you"

Just then, lit only by the flicker of his wings, the sight of hiht It h Karou, and whatever it was, it was as sweet as a patch of sun on a glossy floor and, like a cat, she just wanted to curl up in it

She tried to pretend she hadn’t been about to stab hi it drop casually out of her hand "I don’t know your custohten so body with knives"

Was that a smile? No A twitch at the corners of his stern ht of the sketchbook open before her, the evidence of her late-night portrait session right there for hih he’d of course have seen it while she was still sleeping

How could she have fallen asleep with this stranger in her flat? How could she have brought this stranger to her flat?

He didn’t feel like a stranger

"They’re unusual," Akiva said, gesturing to the knife case

"I just got thereed, and hestraight at her

She flushed, suddenly conscious of her appearance--ry What did iton here? She shook herself and cli to find a space in the tiny rooht back," she said, and stepped into the hall and then the tiny bathroom Separated from him, she experienced a sharp fear that she would return to find hi if seraphi from the duskiness of his jaw, Akiva was not above the need for a razor--then splashed water on her face and brushed her teeth She ran a brush through her hair, and every rew that when she returned she would find just an e open and the whole universe of sky above, giving no hint which way he’d gone

But he was still there His wings were glaain, his swords strapped in place at his back, innocuous in their decorative leather sheaths

"Um," she said, "bathroom’s in there, if, uh…"

He nodded and went past her, aard as he tried to wedge his invisible wings into the tiny space and get the door closed

Karou hurriedly changed into clean clothes, then went to theIt was still dark out The clock said five She was starving, and knew fro even reed, she asked, "Are you hungry?"

"As if I ht die of it"

"Come on, then" She picked up her coat and keys and started toward the door, then paused and changed direction She went out onto the balcony instead, clilanced back over her shoulder at Akiva, and stepped right off

Six stories to the street, she landed light as hopscotch, unable to suppress a s as ever She couldn’t quite i; he was so so in the way he looked at her? There, in that sidelong glance: a hint of wonder? She recalled the things he’d said in the night, and now, seeing flickers of feeling interrupt the sad gravity of his face, it shot a pang through her heart What had his life been like, given over so young to war? War It was an abstraction to her She couldn’t conceptualize its reality, not even the edges of its reality, but the way Akiva had been--dead-eyed--and the way he looked at her now, itback fro, and an intimate one The next time their eyes met, she had to look away

She took him to her corner bakery It wasn’t open yet, but the baker sold theh the --honey-lavender, fresh fros--and then Karou did what anyone would do if they could fly and found theue at daith loaves of hot bread to eat

She flew, gesturing to Akiva to follow, up into the sky and over the river, to perch on the high, cold cupola of the cathedral bell tower, and watch the sun rise

Akiva kept close behind her, watching the snap of her hair, its long tendrils taking on the da didn’t surprise him It was only that he had learned over , all reaction Or he thought he had In the presence of this girl, it see was certain

There was a neatness in the way she sliced through the air It was s, but simply the will to fly made manifest A wish, he supposed, froht of the sorcerer cahtness of Karou

How could soht coic?

They flew above casual observation, over the river and veering in the direction of the castle, where they circled doard the cathedral at its heart It was a Gothic beast, carved and weathered like sohted upon the cupola of the bell tower It was not a kind perch The wind scoured past, full of ice and ill will, and Karou had to gather her hair in her hands and hold it off her face She produced a pencil--the same one she had brandished at hih it; an all-purpose ie over her eyes and catching on her lips, which were sht "We’re on the cathedral," she said to hiain, and he thought he was e, but then he realized: She was just ah on the hill above Prague with everything below her She hugged her ar out, and on her face was a nad awe , even when flying was new It was likely he had never felt any such thing His own early flights weren’t occasion for awe or joy--only discipline But he wanted to be part of theher face shine like that, so he ht, the sky beginning to flush pale at the roots, all the towers bathed in a soft glow, the streets of the city still shadowed and aglitter with fireflies of lahts