Page 28 of Angel Lost (Fates Academy #3)

Chapter Twenty-eight: Zephyr

I clench my fists so hard it hurts. She thinks I’m just some hippy fuck boi. A joke. Zephyr and his addictive nature. Zephyr and his man-whoring. She said it like it was fact, like it was obvious. Like I’m addicted to sex. Damn the runes, I will prove her wrong.

I shove into my room, the silks draped from the walls billowing against me, suffocating instead of soothing. The dim, cozy lighting doesn’t warm me. The multicolored fabrics don’t calm me. The patchouli and sandalwood incense clings to my throat like a bad decision.

You know how the last one ended.

Of course I do. I should’ve never broken my own rules, never tried the whole one-woman thing with the professor. By the Fates, I knew better.

I drop into my favorite chair, fingers drifting over the tarot cards scattered across the carved wooden table. My record player hums, looping some ethereal angelic techno—harmonic, eerie, too much like a sermon.

I nudge the warm bodies tangled on my futon. They stir, stretching beneath mismatched throws.

“Out.”

Bleary-eyed, the twins scramble for their clothes, tossing kisses from too-red lips as they slip away, eager to please. Twin angels. If Lorelei knew…

I snort.

I’ll show her. I’ll show her there’s more to me.

By the time I reach the professor’s door, my perfect plan feels more like a six-year-old’s tantrum in disguise. I hover, finger inches from the brass bell. Do I really want to disturb Professor Lumis? He may have taken over Divination, but compared to old Pythias, he’s a damn dragon.

Pulling back, I step away—

The door swings open, flooding the hallway with golden light. Lumis stands there, sharp and watchful, his robes settling around him like liquid shadow. Unlike the standard academy garb, his are sleek, black with a gold sheen, mesmerizing in their subtle shimmer. Even now, this late, he’s impossibly refined—white hair pristine, beard smooth as polished ivory.

“Zephyr, I saw you were coming,” Lumis says, smiling wide as he steps back. “Not a surprise, but pleasant nonetheless.”

“I know it’s late, but I was hoping to talk to you.”

He inclines his head. “Of course. Anything for our most valued angelic student.”

I stumble on his stairs. “Um, what?”

Lumis ushers me inside, guiding me into an opulent sitting room. “Oh, come now. You don’t think we overlook your talents, do you? I’m surprised you’re not the most popular student in the school now that Farrell’s father is disgraced.”

I sink into the high-backed leather chair he offers. “I’m not sure everyone sees it that way, sir.”

“Hm, yes. I did mean to discuss your allegiance with you. They’re not very…supportive of your talents, are they? Do we need to do something about it?”

“No, they are.” The words leave my mouth before I can stop them—instinctive, automatic. But as soon as I say it, something twists in my gut.

Are they?

The professor bustles over with a silver tray, setting a decanter and glasses on a small ivory stool. “Of course, of course. Perspective changes everything. I’m sure they encourage you in private.”

I offer him a tight smile. Eternal stars, do I ever wish they did.

He pours a generous measure of whiskey into each glass, then hands me one, pausing just a fraction too long before releasing it. “I have something to discuss with you, Zephyr, but you marched in here with purpose. Tell me, what was it?”

I take a slow sip, feeling the smooth burn all the way down. It doesn’t take me long to outline Lorelei’s concern about the hada. About them being modern-day slaves.

Professor Lumis’s eyebrows meet his hair. “Hardly that, dear boy.” He hums to himself. “I tell you what. Let’s use your powers to see why they are in the position they’re in.”

I cock my head to one side. “I can do that?”

The professor grins, pleased. “Of course, with the right guidance.” He rings a tiny brass bell, summoning an old hada. Smaller than the ones at the academy, she’s nearly bent double with age.

“You will let young master Engill look into your memories, hada,” he commands.

She nods slowly, something flickering across her face—distrust? Resentment? Malice?

The professor talks me through the process. It’s different with people than objects. I managed with Lorelei, slipping into her memories just milliseconds after they formed. But reaching deep into the past, pulling the right moments to the surface—it’s harder. And only possible because the hada allows it.

A shadowed glen shimmers into view, moonlight slanting through gnarled trees. High-pitched laughter rings off the hills as hada hover around me, wings casting flickering shadows. At our center, darkness writhes, straining against unseen bonds.

We chant. The Fates demand it. The air twists, thick with dark energy. A fiery glow pulses, the summoning complete. Growling drowns our voices. Red eyes ignite in the black. The bloody jaws of a hellhound snap as the fabric of reality tears. The circle shatters and we scatter. Forgive me…

The memory warps.

Bright light. A nursery. A clean, cheerful room. Toys scattered across a soft rug. A cot and a bed, covered in delicate, handwoven throws. A baby and a toddler sleep peacefully. The door splinters open. The hellhound moves fast, too fast toward the babe. A flash of fangs; a wet, sickening crunch. Blood blooms across the white blanket. The toddler wakes, screaming. The beast turns, clamps down, shakes. The cries cut off.

Stillness.

I blink back to myself, retching. The rotten scent in my nostrils, the red, red blood staining the back of my eyelids. I heave up the whiskey. Then I heave more, dry retching until salt stings my eyes.

“I am sorry you had to see that, Zephyr. You’re a gentle soul. But you see, the hada are decidedly not gentle. They are agents of chaos. That fateful day, they released hellhounds.”

Acid burns the back of my throat, and I swill a tiny sip of whiskey around my mouth to dispel the bitter taste. Something about the nursery bothers me. The toys had no charms. There were no protection runes. “Were they…human children?”

“Defenseless humans. A massacre.” The professor touches the center of his forehead in prayer. “By the will of the goddesses, when they tried the same in the angel nurseries they were caught.”

My hand shakes and I place my glass carefully on the tray before I drop the thing. The angel nurseries? They should be the safest place in all Eltanin.

“My sister works in the nurseries.”

Professor Lumis pats my shoulder. “It was a long time ago. The nurseries are safe from hada now. We made them safe by hunting down those responsible, by binding all hada to servitude for their crimes. But many, many young angels died because of what the hada chose to do. Young angels, like your sister, tried to defend the nurseries. They were ripped apart.”

He presses my glass back into my hand, and I take a gulp. My sister is barely more than a kid herself. What if she…I pass a hand over my face and stare hard at the old hada.

Of course she should be punished. Forced into servitude for what she did. I watched as she summoned those hellhounds. She knew what she was doing.

The professor offers me a few dry nuts. Cracking them open, I look the hada in the eyes and flick the shells onto the floor at her feet.

Professor Lumis covers his smile with his hand. “I see we are now of a mind.”

The hada stoops, sweeping the shells up. She glares, but not at me, at the professor.

There’s more here. She felt…remorse. She asked for forgiveness, even as she released the hounds. Visions aren’t always what they seem…I should know. And yet, she clearly was part of the atrocity.

“Why were all hada punished?” I ask the professor, and the old hada’s face twitches almost imperceptibly.

“They are chaos makers,” the professor says with a growl. “Think of the angels’ ages with your sister. Think of your sister. If the hada were free, they could do the same again.”

My sister…My wings threaten to unfurl, and I have to push past the panic that the thought brings. “But still, they didn’t commit a crime.” Lorelei would hate a whole race being punished for what some of their relatives did. I hate it.

The professor leans back in his chair, whiskey in hand. “Well, I tell you what. Since you wish to be their champion, and I want us to build some kind of rapport, I’ll listen.”

He will? To me ?

“I’m a teacher at heart, Zephyr. Education is freedom. Why don’t we start by providing the youngsters tutoring? I’ll leave it to you to persuade the other professors to give up their time.”

“You want to indoctrinate our young.” The old hada’s high-pitched voice is barely audible.

The professor waves a hand at her.

“It wouldn’t be indoctrination, right?” I ask warily.

Professor Lumis shrugs. “You can decide the curriculum. If, that is, you want to take it on?” He frowns. “Understand, Zephyr, I’m allowing this because it seems important to you. And you are important to me, to this academy. Perhaps one day to Eltanin.”

I run my hands through my hair. I am?

The old hada hovers in the doorway, shells gathered in her hands. Her face has an almost hopeful look.

“I’ll do it.” This is what I came here to do. To show Lorelei I can effect real change. That I’m more than just some drug-addled, hyper-sexed Lothario.

“Excellent.” The professor settles deeper into his chair, shutting the door behind the hada with a click of his fingers. “Now, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your future, Zephyr.”

I sit up straighter.

The professor runs a finger around the rim of his glass. “We have great need of an angel with your abilities. The angels, the king, the whole of Eltanin even, needs you.”

He doesn’t look right at me, more somewhere over my left shoulder. The back of my neck prickles.

“My allegiance needs me.”

The professor hums in the back of his throat. “Do they? I don’t see outward signs of your allegiance supporting you, encouraging you even, but, if you say they do—”

“They do!” I blurt.

“Well then, because I want to persuade you…” He stares straight at me now, pinning me to my chair with the intensity of his piercing blue eyes. “…I’m going to bribe you.”

I snort so hard I choke on a mouthful of whiskey.

Professor Lumis smiles. “Don’t take me so seriously, Zephyr. I will, however, stress that my door is open for you if you change your mind. And this is for you—no strings attached.”

He hands me a copper key. Something that’s straight out of a fairy tale. It’s slender, with a faint blue-green sheen darkening its intricate carvings. I turn it over and over in my hand, marveling at the surprising weight to it. An eye gazes outward from the head of the key, surrounded by concentric circles mimicking the orbit of the planets. Along the stem, etched runes spiral down, glowing faintly as if infused with starlight.

“It’s a key for the observatory, Zephyr.”

My fingers curl around it, and I have to force my fist open. I thrust it back at him.

“I’ll run education programs for the hada, but I’m not interested in joining the angel army.”

The professor refuses to take the key back. “I said no strings, young Zephyr, and I meant it. Use of the observatory will undoubtedly help your skills. Should you change your mind later you’ll be even more valuable to us. And if not, what’s the harm? We added some modern technology that the observatories of old didn’t have. Anyway, there are few powerful enough to use the observatory. You won’t be in anyone’s way.”

I stare down at the small key in the palm of my hand. We found the observatory under the academy. I don’t need this. But then again, modern tech combined with old magic would be an amazing thing. And Lorelei still hasn’t taken me back there. He said I’m not obligated to anyone.

My hand closes around the key and I stuff it into my back pocket.