The four of us arrive in the hallway. Ez opens the door before we knock.
‘Dani’s in the bathroom.’ She glances at our swords. ‘No trouble?’
Zak brushes her arm with the back of his knuckles. ‘We’re good.’
Maggie and Jason stand up when we come in.
‘Hello Margaret.’
‘Rafael.’ She beams at him.
‘Good to see you, Rafa,’ Jason says.
‘Bet you never thought you’d say that, Goldilocks. I suppose you’re angling for an apology now?’
‘I don’t want an apology. I want to take Dani and Maria away from here.’
Rafa looks at him. Really looks at him. ‘I still don’t get you—why all the freaking secrets?’
‘All I’ve ever wanted to do is protect the people I care about. Keep them away from Nathaniel.’
‘Even the iron bitches?’
‘I didn’t know what they were planning—’
‘Yeah, I get that. I don’t get why you cared so much about them.’
I can see he’s not the only one who doesn’t get it: Ez and Zak are curious, so is Jude. But when Jason talks about grief and loneliness, it feels familiar. It tugs at me. His choices about the family in Iowa weren’t always smart, but I think I understand them.
Jason glances at the bathroom door. Water still runs in the sink on the other side. ‘Apart from the seers in my family, the women in Iowa have been the only people who know what I am. Who I could talk to without pretending to be something I’m not. You’ve always lived with Rephaim. You have no idea what it’s like to have to lie to everyone you meet.’
‘They lied to you,’ Rafa says. ‘Fed you nothing but horror stories about us.’ He digs his thumb into his shoulder, stretches his neck. He’s stronger again since the shift from the storeroom.
‘I’m not naive, Rafa. I knew they had an agenda, I just didn’t understand what it was. And I knew the Rephaim weren’t all bad: I’d met Gabe and Jude.’
Ez goes to the bed and Maggie slides across so she can sit down. ‘So, everything you learned about us came from Iowa, and they got their information from Brother Stephen…and then Mya,’ Ez says and sits down. ‘But how did Brother Stephen end up here in the first place?’
The bathroom door opens. Dani comes out, her cheeks pink and eyes clear. A waft of fruity soap follows her. She falters when she sees Rafa.
‘Hi,’ she says.
‘Hi yourself.’
She crosses the room. Maria waits in the doorway, drying her hands. Dani stops right in front of him, tilts her face. The top of her curly head reaches his chest.
‘You know, normally I’d be a little unhappy at having someone poking around in my brain.’ He’s curious, soft. ‘I wouldn’t recommend making a habit out of it. My head really isn’t the place for impressionable girls.’ He lowers himself to the floor. I do the same and Dani squeezes in between us.
‘Is your chest okay?’ she asks him.
‘You saw that?’
She nods, solemn.
Rafa looks away, closes his eyes for a moment. ‘What else?’
‘What happened to Taya.’ Her lip trembles. ‘And I heard Bel say what he was going to do to Gaby if she went there. I didn’t understand most of it…’
All the air is dragged out of me. Rafa leans back against the wall. For a second he’s back in that room, or the room is in him. His eyes are distant; he won’t look at me. And in his avoidance, I understand: Bel’s taunting was explicit, horrific. Rafa’s willingness to die in that farmhouse wasn’t only to protect the Rephaim. He was willing to die there to make sure Bel could never get me in that room and do the things he planned.
Dani takes Rafa’s hand—twice the size of hers—grips it tight. Brings him back from Iowa. ‘Does it hurt?’ She’s focused on his t-shirt again, on the spot where Bel left his mark.
‘It’s not that bad. Here.’ He lets go of her and pulls his t-shirt over his head. His chest is still bandaged. I lean around Dani and help Rafa unwind it. I peel away the dressing, aware everyone is watching. I’m trying not to think about touching his bare skin. The sight of his puckered flesh is like a bucket of cold water: the crescent moon, red and angry. The line slashing through it. Cruel punctuation. Maggie makes a strangled sound.
‘Yeah, that’s looking great,’ Zak says.
Dani bites her lip. ‘I’m glad that demon is dead.’
‘Only fifty or so to go.’ Rafa meets my eyes over the top of her head.
‘Was Bel the worst?’ she asks.
‘No, kid. Zarael is. He makes Bel look house-trained.’ Rafa puts his shirt back on.
I lean forward to pick up the bandage and my ponytail falls to one side. I feel something touch the scar on my neck—my old scar, from the accident. I flinch from habit.
‘What happened to your Rephaim mark?’ Dani’s fingers are still in the air.
I roll up the bandage, wishing I hadn’t recoiled at her touch. ‘Bel put his blade through my neck last year. Apparently.’
‘Oh.’ She starts to sink into that guilty place she keeps for thoughts about Jude and me and last year, but then rebounds almost immediately. ‘Jude, did your mark get scarred too?’
His fingers instinctively find the crescent moon on the nape on his neck. He kneels down and lifts his hair. Dani runs her fingertip over his mark, also scarred, but less hideous than mine.
‘Huh.’
Jude lets his hair fall back into place. ‘What are you thinking?’
‘When you didn’t come back last year and I couldn’t feel you, I thought you were both dead. But you were alive, I just couldn’t see you. So then I thought that whoever changed our memories must have hidden you from me. But now…’ She chews on her thumbnail, looks older than her twelve years.
I glance at Ez. She didn’t miss the significance of any of that. Whoever changed our memories.
‘You think it might have something to do with our marks being defaced?’ Jude asks. ‘But what about Mya? You’ve never been able to see her.’
‘She has a tattoo over hers. I saw it when she was fighting.’
‘A tattoo would pierce the skin, so I guess that changes it.’ Jude turns to Jason. ‘Did the family encourage you to do anything to your mark?’
‘No,’ Jason says. ‘But I saw that Celtic cross on Mya in Pan Beach and it’s old. Dani’s only twelve. There was nobody to hide from before she came along. It could just be a coincidence.’
I hate to say it, but someone has to. ‘Unless the family received a revelation telling them to do it.’
Nobody answers. My bad knee is starting to ache. I get up and go over to the window. It’s dark outside now. The cloister is bathed in faint pools of light. Two monks hurry along, heads turned towards each other in conversation.
‘Out of curiosity,’ Jude says to Dani, ‘have you ever found a feather after one of your sessions? Or heard horns?’
Dani winds a curl around a finger while she thinks. ‘Sometimes I smell incense.’
‘It’s time Dani and I left,’ Maria says. She reaches for Dani, lifts her from the floor.
Jason is already nodding. ‘Yes, she’s done more than enough.’
‘No, Jason, I want to stay with you.’ Dani pulls away from her mother.
‘You can, blossom, just not here. Maggie and I will take you and your mum wherever you want to go.’
‘I want to stay with all of you.’ She casts a meaningful glance at Rafa, Jude and me. At Ez and Zak.
‘Why?’
‘I need to be where you all are. I feel it, here.’ She puts her hand over her heart, looks at her mum. ‘You know what I’m talking about.’
‘Baby, you need to be sure you feel it and not just want to feel it,’ Maria says. She and Dani exchange a long look.
‘Mom, I promise this is where we’re meant to be.’
Maria sighs, sits at the desk.
‘Right then,’ Jude says. ‘We need to find out more about Michael.’
I grab the books from the desk and hand them around. ‘This will be quicker if we all take one.’ Maria is surprised when I offer her Angels Through the Ages. ‘It’ll give you something to do other than be annoyed at me.’ I get a tight smile in return.
‘Gaby,’ Maggie says. ‘Got a sec?’
I glance at Jude, but he’s already lost in his book, and Rafa is listening to Dani explain about the time she saw him stalking me in the Pan Beach rainforest. ‘Next door?’
We go into my room. Lamplight spills over the unmade bed: the doona scrunched up, mattress not quite straight, pillows scattered.
‘Well, that answers one question,’ Maggie says and I hear the smile in her voice as she closes the door behind us.
I start to straighten the bedding, feel heat in my cheeks. ‘Which question would that be?’
‘Whether or not you’re any tidier away from home.’
I laugh and throw a pillow at her. She helps me make the bed and then we sit on it, face each other.
‘So?’ she asks gently. ‘Did you two…?’
I let my breath out, nod.
‘And?’
‘It was…intense.’
‘In a good way?’
‘Mind-blowing.’ Just thinking about it makes me ache for him.
‘Did he tell you what happened between you two…you know, before?’
I can’t meet her eyes. ‘I know I should’ve found all that out before jumping into bed with him but, Mags, I nearly lost him tonight.’
‘Babe, I’m not judging you.’ She touches my arm. ‘It’s between the two of you, nobody else.’
I nod, but like everything else in my life, it’s not that simple.
‘And have you seen the way he’s looking at you now? It’s exactly how you want a guy to be after you’ve had sex: besotted.’
I choke-laugh. ‘I think you’re confusing Rafa with Jason.’
‘Don’t underestimate the effect you have on Rafa. We’re talking about the guy who was willing to die tonight to keep you safe.’
I push away the memory of him bloodied and crumpled. The thought of it wrings me out. ‘Have you spoken to your mum?’
‘Yeah, I told her Jason and I were staying in the city for an extra night. She wasn’t ecstatic about having to find someone for tomorrow’s shift but she was okay. She likes Jason, so that helps.’
‘How’s he doing?’
‘He keeps forgetting to breathe.’ She reaches up and slides out the tie holding her ponytail in place. Blonde hair fans out around her shoulders. ‘I’ve never seen him so uptight.’
‘He’s worried about Dani.’
‘I know, but I keep telling him that Dani’s got you guys looking out for her.’
‘You honestly think that makes Jason feel she’s safe?’
‘It works for me.’
I stare at her. ‘Mags, if it wasn’t for us you’d be safe in Pan Beach, oblivious to the existence of demons and hellions and half-angel bastards. You wouldn’t be hiding out in a mediaeval monastery in freezing mountains, worrying where the next threat’s coming from.’
‘True, but then I wouldn’t have Jason in my life. Or you. And I wouldn’t be in Italy.’ She gives me a brave smile and that’s when it hits me: she’s the most courageous person here. Well, after Dani.
‘Mags…’
‘Shush.’ She leans in and hugs me. I try to resist—I need to talk sense into her—but there’s something so comforting about a Maggie hug. My throat closes over. And then, without warning, the last twelve hours catch up with me. Finding Jude. The attack. Rescuing Rafa. I honestly thought I was cried out…It takes a good thirty seconds to pull myself together, and even then I feel raw, wind-blasted.
‘You know, before I met you I didn’t hug and I didn’t cry, and I didn’t have deep and meaningful conversations about my feelings.’
She smiles, and this one is all warmth. ‘Now you do all three—and kill creatures from hell with a shiny sword. You’re like the poster child for paranormal self-development.’
My face is hot and my eyes sting but I laugh anyway.
‘When was the last time you read the Book of Enoch?’ Jude asks Ez as Maggie and I walk back in.
‘Not for a couple of decades,’ she says.
‘It says it was the Archangel Michael who bound Semyaza and the Two Hundred.’
Rafa watches me sit down next to him, studies my face. He glances at Maggie and she gives him a reassuring smile.
‘So,’ Jude goes on, ‘it must have been Michael’s blood that confined them.’
‘And if anyone was going to give humans instructions about blood wards…’
‘It’s just a theory.’
‘What else did you find?’ Ez asks.
Jude scans the page. ‘The Archangel Gabriel was the one ordered to kill the bastards left behind—the Nephilim—and the women who gave birth to them.’
I clear my throat, check I’m together again. ‘I thought he was the merciful one?’
‘Not that day. This also says Semyaza taught the women charms and enchantments.’
‘For what?’
‘Doesn’t say.’
Rafa shuts his book and tosses it aside. ‘None of this is news. You knew that book inside out and it didn’t answer any of your questions then.’
‘We talked about this stuff?’ Jude asks.
‘Yeah, right. You had your existential debates with Mya, not me.’
A phone buzzes with a message. Ez checks her screen, smiles. ‘Rafa, the crew is in the commissary waiting for you.’
‘Excellent,’ he says and stands up, holds a hand out for me. ‘I could definitely go a beer.’