Page 17

She scoffed. “I was asleep. I didn’t even realize one had entered my room until those cold, lifeless hands clawed at me!”

“They’re all over Midgrave.” I swallowed, pushing myself back up to my feet. “I’ve killed at least seven, but there are more.”

“Go,” she said with a nod, immediately understanding what I had to do. “I’ll be fine here.”

My forehead creased with worry. “Are you sure?”

“Go,” she insisted, loosening Venom from the creature’s chest and handing it to me. “They need you more than I do. I’ll stay out of trouble, I promise.”

“Close the door behind me,” I ordered. “Barricade it if you have to.”

She reached forward and pulled me into her arms—quickly but harshly—before shoving me toward the door. I took one more breath, letting the cool night air fuel me, and ran back into the streets of death.

My feet were silent on the crumbling dirt. My fae ears begged for a sign, a signal. I stepped over the two kills from earlier.

Where are you, you bloodsuckers?

The hair on my arms rose, and it wasn’t from my wet clothing and the cool breeze of night.

Someone was near.

“You must have a death wish.” The male voice behind me made me jump. I spun around, dagger raised, ready to stab him directly in the chest.

But what stood behind me wasn’t a vampyre. Not in the slightest. A tall, hooded man was before me, one so tall that I had to bend my neck to look up at him, but that wasn’t the surprising part. Massive black wings spanned the sides of him and cast a shadow on my face.

Not fae wings, either. They were not leathery and sharp but fell softly with hundreds of black feathers.

Angel wings.

Blackangel wings.

He was not just an angel, which was already nearly impossible because they were supposed to beextinct.

He was afallenangel.

Igripped Venom even tighter. “Who are you?” I asked in a hushed tone.

He smiled, and I noticed the way his icy blue eyes glowed against the shadows of his hood. “I could ask you the same thing,” he replied.

What was he…? Why did…? My mind ran through a dozen different questions but landed on one in particular. “You’re an angel,” I breathed.

His smile only grew, though it was simply a sign of his apparent arrogance. “Fallen angel, actually. You’re quite observant.”

“What are you doing here?” I pressed. I had to admit, I was tempted to throw Venom at him and run as quickly as I could back in the direction I came.

I had seen many vampyres and killed even more. But an angel?

My heart continued to pound in my chest. Angels were powerful—more powerful than any fae that lived. They were descendants from the archangels, and they possessed magic and very rare abilities that I was certain I did not want to find out about here.

Plus, his wings were black. He didsomethingto piss off the archangels, and I had no interest in discovering what that was. This creature was dangerous. A threat.

The angel's eyes raked down my still-wet body, lingering for a moment on the dagger in my hand before he dragged them back up to my face. Every one of my instincts lit up, much too aware that I hadn’t been trained to fight an angel.

They were stronger than fae and could wield magic freely. They had gifts I had never seen before, had never trained on before. Mostly because—for a reason I was now questioning—angels did not exist in Vaehatis anymore.

Angels had been dwindling in numbers for decades, but lately it was rare to see one in the flesh at all. The angels thatdidexist were meant to be living with the archangels in The Golden City.

I slowly backed away, instinct all but forcing my footsteps backward, until the angel bolted forward, grabbing me and spinning me around while he wrapped a hand around my mouth and dragged me off my feet.