I tied it around my neck. “I know you wouldn’t, Finn. I’ve known you since we were ten.”
Ludd puffed out his chest.
Finn glanced at his bird. “If I hear anything—if I hear that the angels are going to do something terrible, that you need to make your escape or be especially careful, I’ll have Ludd bring you a message. He’s trained to do that, you know. I can teach you to call for him. And he’ll swoop down with a note.”
“Your crow might be trained to deliver messages, but I’m not trained to read them, unfortunately.”
He shrugged. “I’ll draw the message.”
Finn was a brilliant artist, and just about the only person I’d trust with being able to draw a complex message.
I nodded at the winding cobblestone street. “Should we get walking?”
He pulled the suitcase from my hand.
I took about three steps before I was tempted to kick off my heels. Around us, closed pubs crowded the streets. People whisked past on the way to the docks. A few men turned their heads to whistle at me.
The scent of hot bread and coffee wafted through the air. Hunger rumbled in my stomach.
As we walked, Finn taught me how to call for Ludd—a series of little clicks and coos. Ludd flapped his wings, squawking back, looking proud of himself. Finn’s mood, on the other hand, was somber. Like he was leading me to my execution.
The farther south we walked, the more people streamed into the streets, heading for the river. The atmosphere changed. Maybe it was the clouds sliding overhead, but everyone seemed more somber. No one smiled, or whistled, or seemed happy to be alive at all. It was like a parade of grim faces.
“Everyone looks miserable.”
He glanced at me, frowning. “I certainly feel terrible. It feels like maybe I’ll never see you again.”
“You know I’ve got out of tough spots before. Remember when the Halston Boys locked me up for a ransom? I made it out fine.”
“I know.” He gripped the suitcase tight. “But the angels can beguile you. They have aphrodisiac powers. They can make a woman think she loves them, that she desires them. They can make her forget that they are monsters. And I saw something this morning. Something that made me sick to my stomach. It will alarm you, but you need to know what it was.”
A shiver rippled over me. “Okay.”
“It was on Galston Street. I saw a crowd of coppers standing around an alley. So I had a little peek.” He held his hand to his mouth, like he was about to vomit. “First thing I saw was the words Time’s Up. Written in blood. And he signed it. A dash, then Samael, like a signature. It’s an angel name. I don’t know who he is, exactly. But I’ve heard he’s the worst of them.”
My blood ran cold. “What does Time’s Up mean?”
“It was a warning to us mortals, I think. The storm of death. The apocalypse. The angels are going to start killing us all. Because what I saw after … I’ll never forget it, as long as I live, Lila—Zahra. It was a woman’s corpse. An Albian woman. I could see that tattoo on her arm. Under the blood. We’re just like animals to them.”
Murders weren’t unusual in East Dovren these days, and Finn had seen dead bodies before. Rattled as he was, I knew it must have been gruesome. “What happened to her?”
“She’d been nailed to the wall, and sort of carved up. Her lungs were taken out the back, folded outward like wings. I’ve heard the angels are going to start coming for us.”
And there went my appetite completely. “Finn, I’ll see what I can learn while I’m in there.”
9
Count Saklas
The early morning light slanted in through the colored glass in my windows, but I wasn’t ready to rise from the bed yet.
And as soon as my eyes were closed again, a vision of the future rose up before me, one where smoke clouded the night sky, and rays of moonlight beamed through it.
I strode through the streets, death rippling off me in waves.
Soldiers marched, dressed in dark clothes. Mortals fled from me, screaming. Blood coated their swords, their clothes. My soldiers were hunting down Albian enemies, killing them one by one.
In my dream, I turned a corner in the winding streets, stalking over the cobblestones. Two men pressed a woman against a wall and slit her throat. Crimson streamed down her pale skin, and her eyes bulged as she slid down the wall.
Everywhere the streets ran with blood, and bodies were starting to pile up around me. The chaos of man ruled these streets.
When I looked back at Castle Hades, I saw the smoke curling into the dark air. The smell of charred flesh descended over Dovren.
Tonight, conquest and destruction reigned. Lightning cracked the skies.
I turned back to the castle, prowling past the scaffold. Bodies swung on ropes, the wood groaning with their weight. I felt a powerful female presence here tonight, making my heart race. I drew my sword, ready to cut through anyone who threatened me.
And as I got closer to the river, I saw that it was her. Dark eyes gleaming, her brown curls around her shoulders, golden skin, full lips. She wore dark clothes. To others, she’d blend into the night around her, but to me she shone like a star. She was dangerous.
Zahra, she’d told me her name was. I wasn’t sure that was the truth. I only knew I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
A pearly crown rested on her head, and the pale veil of a bride draped behind her hair. She was the one I was supposed to choose, though I didn’t know why. She was only a mortal. How could a mortal be so powerful?
She loathed me because we’d invaded her land, taken over. But what could she know of real loss? She’d never felt what it was like to plummet from Heaven, your soul ripped from your body.
She wouldn’t know how it felt to slaughter all those you ever loved.
It didn’t matter what she thought of me. She was a means to an end, and that was it. Whether she knew it or not, she would help me rid Albia of the mortal scourge. As I moved closer to her, I felt an inexorable magnetic pull between us.
I was running out of time.
My eyes snapped open, and I flung off my blankets. Every muscle in my body had gone tense.
Outside, the sky was clouding over a little. I rose from the bed. I stretched my arms over my head and crossed to the window.
From here, I had a view of the churning Dark River.
I had much work to do now. So many lives to end.
And my journey began with that dark-eyed woman.
10
Lila
Unable to walk in high heels over the cobbles, I’d been forced to carry them. I walked barefoot along the wide, crooked road that led to the castle.
Nausea had climbed up my gut after what Finn told me. I wouldn’t have been able to eat breakfast even if I’d wanted it. On the brick buildings around us, the wooden shutters remained closed. The bakeries, the coffee houses, the apothecary—all of them locked up. Normally, at this time of day, Underskirt Lane was crowded with stalls, bustling with shoppers. Near the tower, this was where people went to buy petticoats, dresses, anything you’d want really.
Today, an eerie calm reigned over the market.
The only sign of life was outside the bird seller’s, where cages of songbirds and pigeons cooed quietly, fluttering their wings.