“Yes. Angels.”
That was tempting. “Alright.” I set the book aside and moved to the door.
She didn’t move. “Your wings.”
I stilled and stared her down.
“You can’t enter the church without your wings.”
I was eager to see the others, so I didn’t make a fuss. I put them on and followed her at a distance. It was daylight now, but that didn’t make the place any less menacing. Now I could see the thick trees all around us, hear the silence of isolation. There were statues everywhere, torches that burned even in the daylight. I looked through the trees to see the distant landscape, the flatness that continued on forever, the far-off view of the mountains hundreds of miles away. The Malevolent were there, posted in the same places as that night. They watched me, slowly turning their heads the farther I went, so fucking ghoulish I couldn’t even describe it.
We moved down the cobblestone path and between the different cabins that showed no occupants inside. There were sculptures and statues along the way, crosses made of wood and leaves posted outside the buildings. Now that it was midday, I could make out the area better. It was expansive, and the farther we moved into the tree line, the more it rose slightly, leading us to a higher elevation. I could see the church where Forneus met me nights ago, a building with no windows.
Rebecca turned down a different path and took me closer to the graveyard.
There was a white building there, this one with windows, a cross mounted at the top.
As we came closer, I looked at the headstones that had nothing etched into the surface, but the rise in the earth told me there were bodies buried there. “Who’s…in the graves?”
Rebecca stopped several feet away from the main entrance and turned to face me. “Angels are the only ones permitted inside this church. It’s the place of worship and prayer. It’s the place where angels can ask the Lord for forgiveness for your demon.”
Forgiveness…ha. I’d get right on that. “Forneus can’t come in here?”
“No.”
“You can’t come in here?”
Subtle irritation moved into her gaze. “No.”
The first sign of good news. “Not the Malevolent?”
This time, she ignored the question and walked away, moving past me and back down the cobblestone pathway to the main part of the camp.
After I watched her go, I turned back to the door.
Then I jumped several feet into the air because the Malevolent appeared. They hadn’t been there a moment ago, but now they stood a few feet away from the building, wearing their cattle skulls. My eyes shifted as I looked at each one of them, and they looked back at me, watching me from a distance of twenty feet, reminding me that they were always there…even if I couldn’t see them. One of them could have been responsible for taking me from Paris…or maybe all of them. “Fucking freaks.” I flipped them the bird before I opened the door and stepped inside, feeling brave since they couldn’t follow me in there.
I stepped inside the church, which reminded me of my bedroom because the rows of seats were white and made of birchwood. The chandeliers were elegant and ornate, lit by electricity rather than candles. The windows allowed the natural light to come inside and brighten the room, making it feel like a haven compared to the rest of the place.
Except for the faces in the windows.
The Malevolent stood there and stared inside, still, just watching me.
You couldn’t make this shit up.
I stared back at them for a while, hoping my hostility would break their eye contact.
It didn’t.
I looked forward again and started to move down the aisle toward the front.
There were two women there dressed like me, on their knees before the large cross at the front of the room. With their palms together, they looked like they were truly praying.
One woman sat alone in the row, facing straight ahead, her wings flattened against the chair behind her because she didn’t bend them first so she could sit. She clearly didn’t give a damn.
My kind of girl.
I moved down the aisle and took a seat beside her. “Can you believe this shit?”
She turned her head toward me, long brown hair like mine, her eyes slightly lifeless like Beatrice’s. “No.” Her eyes shifted past me and looked out the windows.
I followed her stare and looked at the skull heads pressed to the glass to watch us. I turned back to her with my eyes wide with incredulity.
“You get used to it.” She extended her hand to me. “Laura.”
I shook her hand. “Constance.”
She turned her head to look at the front.
I watched her, watched her watch the women at the front. “So, what the fuck is going on?”
“They’re praying for forgiveness for their demons.”
“What?” I hissed. “They buy into this?”
“Some. Others put on a show.”
“Why would anyone put on a show for these sickos?”
She turned back to me, her lips painted cherry red with smoky makeup around her eyes. “To stay alive.”
Fear flooded my veins when I heard her words, heard the crestfallen tone to her voice. “Forneus said it’s a sin to hurt an angel…”
“It is. But what happens when they find out you aren’t one?”
Now my heart pounded harder than it ever had. I was terrified just the way I’d been at the theatre, in my apartment, on the street. My life was in danger, and those fight-or-flight instincts kicked in. “The graveyard is…”
She nodded. “The Graveyard of Fallen Angels is what they call it.”
“Oh Jesus…”
“So, I suggest you put on an act and make them believe—because your life depends on it.”
The sun moved in the sky to mark the time. There were no clocks here, so that was the only way to distinguish anything in this place. I had no idea what day of the week it was, and without a phone to display the date, it was hard to keep track of the amount of time I’d been there.
I had no idea how many nights I’d slept there.
Maybe a week?
Maybe two?
The shadows changed, but the Malevolent remained at the windows, remained watchful as if their lives depended on it. Some would leave, only to be replaced by others. We were animals in a cage, and they were visiting a zoo. It was just a stare, but it was still a huge invasion into my personal space, and the longer their stares continued, the more uncomfortable I became. “There’s got to be a way out of here.”
Laura ignored them much better than I did. Her hands rested in her lap, and she continued to stare at the cross at the front, watching the other girls light candles and say their prayers. “There’s one—death.”
“I don’t accept that.”
“I’ve been here for two years, and I’ve never figured it out.”
“Have you tried to run?”
“Run?” She turned back to me, her light-colored eyes small in accusation. “Run where, exactly? Have you looked around? We’re near the Alps, which means we’re in the middle of nowhere in France. The closest village has to be a hundred miles. You expect me to run a hundred miles in the heat? The snow?”
“We’re in a first world country. There has to be a town nearby.”