Two felt small. So very small. Everyone in the room could kill her without effort. Even butch doing his best imitation of a lamb. As he slowly shimmied into a corner.

Pressure mounted in silence. Mal-intent bled from the present vessels. Until it was all she could taste.

Another sigh, a haze settled between them the roiling emotions like a shrouding mist. She could breathe again. “Does no one have anything to say?”

The voice drew her attention to the angels. Both were a head taller than the stag that already loomed above Two. They towered. The speaker’s eyes swept the group. Locking gazes but receiving no response.

The stories hadn’t lied. There was something inexplicably right about him. Like someone had taken perfection and molded from it.

Her dissecting gaze could make sense of him in parts. His skin was like molten chocolate. His wings hung about him like a great shroud. Its Feathers pressed from pale gold and bronze. Left her eyes uncertain where to settle. It was too good to be true. Each part was a masterpiece together he became, too good to be true.

The white wings angel was similar. A masterpiece wearing a benevolent smile on his similar features. But his dark steely eyes only filled with dread.

Horrifyingly beautiful and beautifully horrifying.

Their gaze lingered on her. Their eyes were a soft gray, like the world before it rained. Yet curious despite their tranquillity. Like she was a wonder to be uncovered. No one had ever looked at her like that.

“I made a deal,” her thoughts ran into themselves. Until there was only one thing left to do. A bet to make.

All eyes turned on her. Pressure mounted. To be blown away. “Please continue.” The angel smiled.

Half-formed sentences and plots fell. Slain by that simple expression. She cursed her suddenly empty thoughts. Was she bewitched? This didn’t feel like Deadra’s effect it felt like a cr-. She killed the thought.

She resorted to the truth. “I helped abduct Deadra. For an item to hide my taint.” Their gaze didn’t change. “When I found out she was a noble. I offered to help her get help,” she gestured at the angry raven perched over Deadra, ”In exchange for amnesty. For myself Daisy,” she pointed at the serpent, “and Terry ” She rolled up her sleeve. Ignoring Daisy’s sharp breath. “Then,” she turned to the other angel. Their feathers were so bright they glowed in the dark room. She suppressed a shudder. “He arrived,”

The angels paused. Then nodded to themselves. They smiled “Thank you”.Two reminded her errant heart she could still die, horribly. “Are you Deadra?”

The woman shuddered and lurched to her feet. “Y- Yes.”

“Is this true,” Two’s stomach clenched.

She locked eyes with Two. “Yes,”

“Under duress!” Leandra’s glare felt sharp on her skin. Two stood very still. Lest the thought become literal.

An immaterial mist blew over her skin. The feeling subsided. “A moment, please, Leandra”

The raven closed her eyes for a moment. When they opened anger had once more hardened. “Fine.”

“Thank you,”

“We could just kill them,” the other angels said with their ever-present smile.

“No Lu,” the calm one counted before, her fear could build.

“They deserve to die,”

“We don’t know that yet.” They rolled their eyes. Two didn’t want to admit how much that comforted her. “Deadra, will you stand by that agreement.”

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“I will,” she said without pause,

“Deadra!”

The pair descended into bickering.

The angel turned to Peter. “How do you relate to this.”

“That I believe is a matter of internal affairs.” One of the new arrivals spoke, A stag. An Eberwith. She never imagined she’d meet so many nobles. It was a dubious honor. At least the attention had shifted from her.

She felt Daisy’s glare. Most of it.

Her angel hummed then turned to the white-winged. Who turned to a woman with blue scales. He nodded. Is everything settled then? I wasn’t taught how to close a kidnapping.” His gaze bounced around the group. “I’m not sure where to go from here.”

The woman with blue scales strode into the room’s centre. Was she a snake? A second glance destroyed that illusion. Short black horns pushed through her hair. “I can manage from here Envoy Igni. I’ll see that these people,” her glanced at butch in the corner. She turned to the serpents. Her gaze roamed their scales like a collector finding a prize. A smile touched her lips. Two decided she didn’t like her. “Are taken care of.”

She turned to the nobles. “And mediate any disputes that may arise.”

Igni, she could finally name the face spoke. “That’s very neat, does this happen often.”

The speaker sighed. “Enough that we have protocols in place. Though I apologise that your introduction has been so turbulent.”

Lux beamed, Two tensed as the room brightened. “No worries. We’re here to strengthen ties. Adversity is another way of doing so.”

“We thank you for your undergirding. We can continue our tour after the guards arrive.”

“Guards?” Lux’s puffed in, excrement? Something was wrong with anyone excited to see guards.

“Well, you did stir quite the ruckus.”

Lux smiled and scratched their head. his wings shied behind him. Their compatriot shook their head. “ I apologise for the disturbance.”

“No,no,”

Two recognized the dissent into pleasant speech. She relaxed a fraction. She glanced about. Leandra glared between hushed words given to her nice. The stags silently observed the proceedings.

Daisy’s feelings had warped into something incomprehensible. She tasted anger, dread and hints of pride Butch was doing his best to be small.

And she wasn’t dead. She hoped that would last.

“He isn’t Terry,” Deadra said. She was pointing at Butch. A hard glare in her eyes.“He threw me in a bag and dragged me through a sewer. While laughing.”

“What does that mean?” Igni asked softly.

“Death brother,”

“Envoy Lux is correct. That is the penalty for assaulting a noble. Barring… exceptions” she glanced at the serpents. Two went still.

“Wai” Butch never finished because Leandra acted. Black feathers pushed into the world. They swirled about and through him. Like a storm of paper scraps. Then vanished leaving thin red lines strewn about his body. For a moment he was whole.

Then from cloth to skin to muscle. He came apart. Red flesh and pink bone. They plashed to the ground. The spray Stained Two’s shoes. A droplet warmed her cheek.

It coated Daisy. She hissed but didn’t move.

Nausea flickered across the unnamed Eberwiths and Deadra’s features. The former schooled his expression. Deadra hardened hers.

Lancet glanced at the blood staining her shoes. “That could have been done later, Leandra.”

Lux’s smile was untouched “I don’t mind, there’s nothing wrong with removing problems.”

Leandra shared his grin.

“I suppose there’s no harm done.”

“Why only him,” Igni was staring at the puddle.

“Do you want more people dead,” Lux asked. His curiosity genuine, innocent. Terrifying. He’d kill her with that smile. Was his brother the same?

“No, I want to understand.”

“Nobles follow different laws,” Lancet spoke.

“That, doest seem very-“

“Fair,” Two said a faint smile on her lips. Butch was dead. She killed him, All it took was a few words unsaid. If Deadra had said no. She’d be a puddle. A single word, to overturn her lifetime of struggles. His eyes met hers.”It isn’t”

She couldn’t taste what lay beyond his calm eyes. “What’s your name?”

“Two.’

He smiled faintly,” Thank you for your lesson Two. It seems there’s a lot I have to learn.” He sighed. His scent, cool mist strengthened. Gray fog shrouded Butch’s remains, A mote of mist touched her cheek. Then it was gone. She touched her spotless cheek.

Her gaze followed the angel out of the warehouse. The room felt harsher. In his absence.

Daisy sighed. “Ambitious, child. Ambitious.”

***

Igni idled through the slums. A soft hum at the back og his throat. He passed piles of trash. Empty building after empty building.

But there was life here.

Mice scurried through abandoned homes. Spiders pun their webs in gaping windows.

Spirits of ancient architecture slumbered. While younger buildings fought in their shadows. In a quiet relentless battle against the elements. Some had fallen away to wind and mould. Becoming shelter to islands of hardy green.

Each life, the quiet, the bold. Pushed.

Their heart on the cusp of his awayness. All he’d have to do is look.

He sighed and gazed at the sky. The sun slowly marched towards the horizon.

He sat on an fallen wooden beam. Perched between two collapsed buildings. His wings brushed the stone.

There was so much didn’t understand. Questions danced about this place. Sticking to his thoughts like a pleasant dream. Or aching wound.

Some answers hurt. He pulled a small black book from his robe and got to scribbling. But that didn’t mean he could stop,