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And then, there on the Charles Bridge in full view of gawkers, their upheld phones and ca it for the world, and with the police approaching, wary and grim-faced, all hell broke loose

"No!" cried Akiva, but it was too late

Liraz moved first, like the slash of a knife, and she was fast, but Karou matched her with a knifelike speed of her own She threw up her hands and the air rippled with the expulsion ofthere for a second like a warp, and then it hit Its fringes shivered wide to catch Hazael and Akiva, and they both staggered Liraz, though, was hurled back like a flicked bug She twisted, acrobatic, and landed on her feet with a concussive force that shook the bridge In the afterht Her hair had been caught as in a backdraft, sucked forward and then turned loose, and it floated on the churning air

She was still s hair, and her pal ink eyes, she looked oddess in the unconvincing guise of a girl Zuzana, Mik, and the other onlookers faltered back Liraz dropped her glah the veil that had cloaked thelamour, too, and moved to his sister’s side, and a battle line was drawn, the two angels facing Karou, their heads lowered against theat them

Akiva stood between them, stricken He had to move to one side or the other A step or two in either direction, just that, and it was a choice that would define him forever He looked rapidly back and forth between his comrades and Karou

"Akiva," hissed Liraz She expected him to coainst the eneh tally marks on one another’s hands with knife tips and ca to happen, a line to be carved

And then there was Karou, so ready to raise her hands and unleash Briic

"It doesn’t have to be like this," Akiva said, but his voice was thin, as if he didn’t believe it himself

"It is like this," said Liraz "Don’t be a child, Akiva"

He was still between the two possible futures

Liraz said, "If you can’t kill her yourself, then go You don’t have to see it We’ll never speak of it again It’s over Do you hear ency and resolution She really believed she was taking care of hi with Karou, so beyond her ken--was so ho hoht for? It’s a new age, brother Peace--"

"It’s not peace Peace is more than the absence of war Peace is accord Harmony"

"Harmony with beasts, you ust, and still, still, the hope that it was all a

When Akiva answered, he kneas crossing a final border, beyond all possibility of misinterpretation or return It was a border he should have crossed a long tiotten so twisted "Yes That’s what I lance at him The hard smile had left her face already, and now, as she sensed his turhts of herself, her answers, her euish, which she felt like it was her own

The police arrived They hesitated in the face of this otherworldly tableau Karou saw their baffled faces, their nervous guns, and she saw the way they looked at her There were angels on the Charles Bridge, and she was their foe She: eneels, in her black coat and evil tattoos, with her lashing blue hair and black eyes They: so golden, the very ie of church frescoes come to life She was the de at her shadow sharp before her, to see that it had horns It did not Her shadoas a girl’s shadow, and see at all to do with her

Akiva, who a s and wept, stood stock-still, and Karou felt fear for the first tiels had come upon them If he should take their side…

"Akiva," she whispered

"I’m here," he said, and when he moved, it was to her There had never been any doubt, only a hope that somehow the choice wouldn’t be forced, that the moment could be backed away from, but it was too late for that So he stepped into his future, co between Karou and his brother and sister, and he said to them in a low but steady voice, "I won’t let you harm her There are other ways to live We have it in us to do else than kill"

Hazael and Liraz stared at hiirl Liraz’s shock quickly turned to bitterness "Do we?" she flung back at him "That’s a convenient position to take now, isn’t it?"

Karou had lowered her hands when Akiva caertips to his back, because she couldn’t help it

He told her, "Karou, you have to go"

"Go? But--"

"Get away froriave her a quick look over his shoulder; his face was strained but set "I’ll meet you in the place we first saw each other Promise me you’ll wait for me there"

The place they first saw each other The Jeht his burning gaze through the chaos of a crowd and been pierced through the soul by it Akiva said, in a voice hoarse with urgency, "Prout until I find you Until I explain"

Karou wanted to proiance to her, even against his own kind He had surely saved her life--could she have survived an attack by two armed seraphim?--in addition to which, he had chosen her Wasn’t that what she had alanted, to be chosen? Cherished? He had given up his place in his oorld for her, and he was asking that she wait for hi in her shrank froht have chosen her, but that didn’t mean that she would do the saainst Bria She had told Brimstone, "I want you to knoould never just leave you," and she wouldn’t She would choose her fah even now the idea of turning and leaving Akiva behind brought on physical pain

She said, "I’ll wait for you as long as I can That’s the best I can do"