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Yes She did want him to kiss her Yes

His hand slipped down her throat to find her hand, which was still cupping the wishbone on its cord

Its flanges protruded through the webbing of her fingers, and when Akiva felt theaze froze He looked down His breath caught; with a hitch he inhaled and opened Karou’s hand with no caution for her hamsas

The wishbone was there, a save a cry that was a deep and painful wrenched out of hi wood as they pulled free

Karou juone pale

"It’s… it’s Brimstone’s He sent it to me as the portals burned"

"Briht, and then understanding "Briain

"What? Akiva--"

What he did then made Karou falter into silence He sank to his knees The cord around her neck gave way and the wishbone came away in his hand, and for an instant she felt bereft without it But then he leaned into her He pressed his face against her legs, and she felt the heat of it through her jeans She stood astonished, looking down at his powerful shoulders as he curled into her, letting go of his gla visible

Froasps and cries People stopped in their tracks, gaping Zuzana and Mik broke from their embrace and spun to stare Karou was only distantly aware of the down at Akiva, she saw that his shoulders were shaking Was he crying? Her hands fluttered, wanting to touch hi her hamsas, she bent over hiers, his hot, hot broith the backs of her hands

"What is it?" she asked "What’s wrong?"

He straightened, still on his knees, and looked up at her She was curved over his, and she could feel trerip where he clasped the back of her knee His wings unfolded; they careat fans so the two of them were in a room of fire, more than ever in a world all their own

He searched her face, looking stunned and, Karou thought, terribly sad

And he told her, "Karou, I knoho you are"

35

THE TONGUE OF ANGELS

I knoho you are

Akiva, gazing up into Karou’s face, sahat his words did to her The hope at odds with the fear of hoping, her black eyes tear-glossed and shining with fire Only then, seeing the reflection in her eyes, did he realize he’d dropped his glaotten him killed Now, he just didn’t care

What? Karou’s lips moved but no sound came out She cleared her throat "What did you say?"

How could he just tell her? He was reeling Here was the impossible, and it was beautiful, and it was terrible, and it flayed open his chest to show that his heart, nu… just so it could be ripped out again, after all these years?

Was there any fatefor most, when it’s too late?

"Akiva," iht, she sank to her knees in front of him "Tell me"

"Karou," he whispered, and her name taunted him--hope--so full of promise and recrimination that he alathered her to hiathered, supple as love Her wind-mussed hair was like tousled silk, and he buried his face in it and tried to think what to tell her

All around, a weave of istered alht its way forward A throat was cleared, caustic and theatrically loud A prickling of unease, and before any words were spoken, he’d already begun to turn

"Akiva, really Pull yourself together"

So out of place here--that voice, that language His language

There, with swords sheathed at their sides and wearing twin expressions of disister surprise The appearance of the seraphi one after another all e reaction to his tattoos, the dreahter, and now the undeniable: the wishbone

"What are you doing here?" he asked them His arms were still around Karou, who had lifted her head fro here?" repeated Liraz "I think, all things considered, that question belongs to us What in the na here?" She looked du hiirl

And it struck him how iirl However strange it e The truth would be htened, still on his knees, and turned, ushering Karou behind him Quietly, so his brother and sister wouldn’t hear hie of the enemy, he murmured, "Don’t let them see your hands They won’t understand"

"Understand what?" sheher eyes from them, as they didn’t take theirs from her

"Us," he said "They won’t understand us"

"I don’t understand us, either"

But thanks to the wishbone, fragile in his fist, Akiva finally did

Karou lapsed into tense silence, keeping her eyes on the two seraphilae see--Liraz especially Though Hazael was , she always had been; perhaps she’d had to be, being female Her pale hair was scraped back in severe plaits, and there was so coolly sharklike about her beauty: a flat, killer apathy Hazael had more life in his eyes, but just noas arded Akiva before him, still on his knees