Page 27

S elene looked at the coins in her hand. Hexagonal. Gold or gold-plated. Each with the crest of the Vatican and the Deathless God worked into them. Like the one she’d taken off Ambrose, each one was fundamental to protecting their city, but these were shiny as a new-minted coin. So how had they come to be rattling around in her pockets instead of where they should be—at significant points around Rome, working together like knots in a net to keep high-level demons out.

It meant parts of Rome were vulnerable.

The thought of the broken wards squirmed up her throat until she wanted to gag.

And … the Duke of Briars was already here.

They walked out onto the street, with Sparrow acting as escort, which was certainly not a courtesy he’d ever extended to Selene alone.

Whenever Jules looked her way, she glanced the other way or angled her wrist to check the time. Dio, how pathetic . In spite of the valuable information she’d gleaned from Kalindra, her mind kept returning to their soft voices. On her return, the tone of their conversation had struck her and she’d paused down the hallway to listen.

There was an intimacy to the way they spoke, confiding in one another with words she couldn’t hear. Jules had immediately relaxed with the demon. Relaxed in that particular way you did when you sank into a hot bath and your muscles uncoiled. A way she wasn’t sure he’d ever relaxed with her.

Of course, she wasn’t surprised Sparrow was interested. Jules was impossibly gorgeous and Sparrow liked beautiful things. Not that it mattered. Jules could like whoever he wanted … Except he was her prisoner and that kind of made it her problem. Other than that, she didn’t care. At all .

She shook herself. She was never this distracted.

Jules was work. Sparrow was a filthy demon. And Rome —Rome was in danger .

She tightened her bandaged hand around the coins and slipped them into her pocket.

Feeling Sparrow’s eyes on her, she said, ‘You have to see us off your street, Sparrow? I promise we’re leaving.’ She flicked her eyes around. ‘I wouldn’t stay here a moment longer than necessary.’

‘Easy, exorcist. I have places to be. The other one’s for you.’ Sparrow nodded over her shoulder and she turned, realizing he’d been looking past her as two cars pulled up. They were sleek black beasts that didn’t particularly suit him, except that they were expensive and Sparrow liked nice things. Biting her lip, she glanced at Jules. Nice and beautiful things.

Jules met her gaze, his eyes crinkled at the corners. She couldn’t help but smile.

‘Shall we?’

She nodded, a wave of relief almost knocking her back on her heels. ‘Yes.’

When the car slowed to pass through the checkpoint into St Peter’s Square, she moved the discs into her inner breast pocket before pulling on her gloves. It would be unusual for them to search an exorcist, but if the wards were breaking, anything was possible.

Jules leaned closer to her, breath stirring her hair. ‘What are those?’

She jumped. ‘What are what?’

She’d been so careful not to let Sparrow see them and refused to believe for one second that Jules had noticed what Sparrow had not. She tucked her hand into her pocket, fingering the hexagonal discs. One was missing.

‘What is this ?’

She turned, finding Jules rolling one between his gloved fingers. She slapped her hands over his, clamping down on it, and gave him a death glare. He’d definitely noticed. While Sparrow had been distracted by Jules’s ass, Jules had been watching her . She suddenly became aware of his warmth and yanked her hand away again quickly.

‘You pickpocketed me.’

She lunged for him.

He laughed as she came away with only his glove, the coin glinting in his other hand.

A rap on the window made her jump as a Vatican guard waved the car through and Jules disappeared the ward coin into an inner pocket, as though it had never existed at all.

The moment the door to her rooms shut behind them, Jules flicked the coin into the air with a taunting grin. It turned, winking in the low light. In her pocket, Selene’s fingers tightened on the supple leather of his glove. As the coin fell between them, he lazily reached for it with his naked hand.

Her body moved on its own. She snatched the ward coin from the air a moment before his fist closed over it and crashed into his chest, her shoulder colliding with his solar plexus. He caught her hips as his back hit the wall so she didn’t slam into it too.

‘What’s your problem?’ he demanded, confused and a little angry.

She tightened her hand around the disc, unsure why she’d reacted the way she did. Ward coins were harmful to demons, not to orphan soldiers.

Jules scowled, kneading his chest. ‘What are they?’

‘I don’t know.’

Lie . She knew what they were, but she didn’t want him to know. ‘Selene—’

‘They’re not toys .’

He grabbed her wrist, holding up the hand with the coin in it. ‘So, if it’s not a toy, what is it?’ Hadn’t he seen another one like it around here somewhere? Releasing her, he crossed the room and reached into his coat pocket, shaking out the coins he’d liberated from the fountain.

‘What are you doing?’

He ignored her, searching until he found the hexagonal coin. It was different to the others. The symbol on the back was a face, the mouth slightly agape. ‘What are these?’

Her eyes were wide as she watched him, chest rising and falling with quick breaths.

Fear? Surely not.

He frowned, spinning the coin between his fingers to look at the other side. ‘What does this writing say?’

‘What writing?’

Frustration bit at him and he dropped his hand. She was still watching him with that strange look on her face. ‘Do you have to look at me like that? Like a fucking idiot?’

Her expression clouded over. ‘Do you mean you’re the idiot or am I?’

A fair question. He scrubbed his fingers through his hair, dropping his gaze as his ears grew hot. ‘Me.’

‘Liar.’

Jules looked away, shifting back to lean against the bureau. Its marble top felt cold under his naked fingers.

Selene held out her hand, trembling slightly. ‘Give me the coin.’

He scoffed quietly, but her eyes had an intensity he couldn’t ignore.

When Jules held out the coin, she snatched it and wrapped her fingers around it tightly. ‘Not that you deserve an explanation, but there is nothing there. Nothing I can see anyway.’ She stalked away from him and put the coins into her desk, closing and locking the lid.

He turned away, eyes settling on the bar cart. Shedding his remaining glove as he went, Jules crossed the room and plucked out the stopper of a crystal decanter. He dropped it with a dull thunk to the bar top and poured himself two generous dashes.

‘Selene?’

‘Hm?’ Her eyes were distant, a pinch of concern between her brows.

He wanted to ask her more questions, but he remembered how she’d tucked the gold coin into her fist and away from his eyes. Remembered her shaking hands, and the words she said she couldn’t see. She sequestered information away like a squirrel before winter, but at least that part had not seemed like a lie.

‘Why didn’t you want me to touch them?’

Silence.

Unbuttoning his shirt, Jules leaned back in the armchair, pressing the crystal tumbler to his temple. The fingers of his other hand traced the lines of his scar, the raised thorns and leaves. No , he thought bitterly. Briars .

Who would do such a thing to a newborn babe?

‘What are you thinking?’ she asked, searching his face.

If you knew what I’m thinking , Bouchère de Rome, you’d kill me. Just like that. He shook his head wordlessly, a bitter smile on his mouth as she came closer. And Dieu , if she wasn’t the most beautiful killer he’d ever seen. Turning the crystal glass in his hand like a kaleidoscope, he watched her through it.

She pushed aside the tumbler so she could see his face. ‘The wards are old,’ she began, taking his silence for anger. Her words were a gesture of good faith. ‘We are only taught a little about them at the Academy. I always understood that they were older than our records.’

‘How can that be?’

‘It was chaotic in the days after the Deathless God saved Rome. Until then, humanity had only faith to comfort them. God was a concept . Then He stepped into our world with fire in His eyes as a warrior god. It overturned everything we knew to be true.’

Her lilting voice was soothing, so Jules listened.

‘Every understanding had to be rewritten to account for a corporeal God who was very much present in our world. And for those of us in Rome, present in our lives. Right here.’

‘You’re teaching me things I already know, exorcist.’

A smile touched her lips. ‘I know. But can you picture it? The Vatican had to scramble to catch up with the new world order and at some point the wards were erected to protect God, so demons might not finish what they started. No one alive now knows how they were made or how they’re being destroyed. The knowledge is lost. If Baliel is behind it, I can only imagine that his goal is …’

‘ Dieu Immortel ,’ Jules murmured, still tracing his scars.

‘And so I must kill him.’

Such a cruel imperial agent when she had to be.

Selene shifted closer to sit on his knee as she pushed his shirt aside, shadowing his earlier movements as she trailed fingertips along the lines of the kill marks on his arms, tracing each one in turn until he lost count and his muscles unwound.

‘I would not choose anyone else to stand beside me when I face down a demon duke.’ Her voice was so soft, he barely heard her.

The cloth bandage around her fist was beginning to soak through with splotches of crimson. He set down his glass and reached for her hand. Turning it over in his palm, he frowned. ‘This won’t do. You’ll get gangrene.’

She rolled her eyes at him, unwilling to accept the same comfort she had given.

He levelled her with a look, jaw ticking. ‘You should bind this properly.’

‘It’s fine. I’ll heal.’

He lifted her out of his lap, growling with irritation as he left the room. In the bathroom cabinet, Jules found an untouched first-aid kit. With care, he selected a brown bottle of liquid. Sniffing it, he confirmed it was iodine. Oh, this would sting.

Carrying a bundle of supplies to the bed, he patted the covers. ‘Sit.’

She moved closer, perching on the edge as though she might take flight.

With careful fingers he unbound the makeshift bandage, grimacing as the wound was revealed. ‘ Dieu Immortel , is that bone?’ he murmured.

She was determinedly looking anywhere else. ‘Probably.’

He soaked a cotton pad with iodine, being generous because he still felt cross. She was being stubbornly stoic. His eyes returned to the cut bisecting her knuckles. ‘On three.’

‘Honestly, just do it.’

‘One …’

‘I’m quite capable of—’

On two, he pressed the iodine against her knuckles, pinching the cotton to soak the wound. She hissed, spitting at him like a feral cat as she tried to pull away. He dodged her hand as she slapped for his head, fingernails nearly gouging out an eye. He didn’t relinquish her wrist.

‘You son of a— shit ! Shit!’

Jules wrestled her back onto the bed, holding her down. ‘ Just do it , she says. Quite capable , she says.’

Selene snarled at him, lips curled over her teeth. ‘You did this on purpose.’

‘I sure did. I purposefully saved you from losing those lovely fingers. You’re welcome.’ He pinned her down, holding her eyes as she stopped writhing. ‘ You … you have no idea how much you test me, do you? When you yell, when you get hurt … everything you bloody do.’

She arched her spine, shoving against his weight. ‘ Good .’

He shook his head, his fingers releasing slowly as he began to laugh, and he shifted to the side, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes. ‘You really mean that, don’t you?’

She rolled away from him, curling on her side. ‘Yes.’

‘You live to torment me.’

‘You, personally,’ she said waspishly.

He laughed more, tears springing to his eyes. ‘Well, fuck my life, I guess.’

The sun was barely above the horizon when something woke Selene. Morning light streamed in, painting the gauzy curtains a delicate gold. Jules was asleep beside her on top of the covers with one arm thrown over his eyes. Her knuckles throbbed, but not enough to have woken her.

Then came another knock.

Damn . She pulled on her jacket and boots and strode to the outer suite, softly closing the door behind her so she wouldn’t wake Jules. When she answered the outer door it was to find one of her uncle’s aides.

She’d been summoned.

When she arrived in Cesare’s office, it was clear he had just returned from training. His discipline was one of iron. His wet hair was slicked back, highlighting the silver at his temples, and his face was solemn. He was the Imperium today, through and through.

‘Good morning, Selene. I missed you at training.’ He snapped out a starched white shirt, his corded forearms dark with tattoos. Where Florentina had twenty, he had at least fifty. Selene’s eyes trailed over the symbols. Each a word of power. There were many that she also had. He had been her teacher, after all. Though hers were carved into her bones.

But he had unique words too. Wisdom . Stratagem . Fortitude .

The words were as old as the walls they’d built around the Deathless God in the two centuries since he was almost slain. Where they had come from, she wasn’t sure anyone living knew.

He pulled on the shirt, concealing them. ‘I heard what you did to Ambrose.’

She grimaced. That snitch.

Cesare went on, ignoring the face she pulled. ‘Maiming him like that is beneath you, Selene. But I can’t have you losing privileges now, not when you’re my spear.’ He frowned. Disappointed . This was even worse than she’d thought it would be. Cesare sighed, running fingers through his hair. ‘So, I’m promoting you to Exorcist First Class, effective immediately.’

Her stomach clenched. He tossed her a velvet box. Opening the lid, she found her new insignia gleaming within. Not like this .

‘Say thank you,’ Cesare growled, his patience running out.

She could barely get the words out, her jaw was so tight. ‘Uncle, I’ve worked so long for this. Don’t give it to me now. Not like this. I want to earn it, not—’

‘You are earning it. You’re earning it through your foolishness. I’m promoting you to get you out of trouble, and to show everyone watching on that I still have faith in you.’ After a beat of quiet, he added in a consoling tone, ‘Besides, your work in Nice was admirable.’

This was salt to her wound. Cesare hadn’t thought her work in Nice good enough for promotion on her return.

‘I understand,’ Selene said dully.

‘Congratulations.’

‘Yes, uncle.’

She paused at the door, looking back. ‘You’ve diverted more exorcists out of the city—can I ask why?’

He didn’t look up, his eyes already flicking over a report. He turned the page, reading another paragraph before he replied. ‘I diverted them to search for Baliel.’

‘Sir—’

‘I know.’ He looked up.

His soothing tone only made her more irritated. ‘Then, why? If you heard me when I said he was coming here .’

Cesare sighed, finally setting aside the blasted report. ‘Selene, you told me about your gut instinct. You can hardly expect me to allocate personnel based on that alone? Of course I sent teams to see if they can find a trace of him.’

The words devastated her, and for a second she thought she couldn’t quite breathe. Her hand curled around the ward coin she’d slipped into her pocket before leaving the rooms. Palming it, she slammed it onto her uncle’s desk between them. ‘And what of this? Wards are breaking. Is it a coincidence?’

He stilled. ‘A single ward coin—’

‘Not a single ward coin. There are more.’

He took it, turning it over in his fingers. ‘I do not see Baliel’s name written on this coin, Selene. Why do you think the Duke of Briars is involved? Do you have other evidence to suggest he’s in Rome?’

Cesare wouldn’t be impressed by her answer. ‘Kalindra.’

‘The information broker?’ he said softly, the cutting edge to his words making it clear he meant, The demon?

‘Her information’s good—’

‘Enough. When the Primus dies, the first thing I do will be to reconsider the value of the compact.’ She drew a sharp breath. His words were tantamount to treason. Cesare opened a wooden box on his desk and tossed the coin in before snapping closed the lid. ‘Instinct is one thing, Selene. I always encouraged you to follow your intuition. But conjecture based on loosely connected events is not enough for me to act. I hold lives in my hands. I have a war to manage. You need to do better. Do I make myself clear?’

‘ Yes .’

He raised a hand. ‘But you will not. Because I have handed this task along. You are here in Rome. Baliel is not.’ His dark eyes were steady, warning her against arguing. ‘And if you don’t want Eliot sent back to Nice on the next train, you will not pursue this. Do you understand?’

All this time, she’d believed he trusted her. ‘I understand.’

He nodded, turning back to the paperwork on his desk. The phone rang and with a sigh he scooped it up, glancing at Selene as he listened. ‘Oh, Selene.’ His soft voice stopped her in her tracks. ‘You’re representing the Alleva family tonight. Remember that.’