Chapter Thirty-Three

“A minivan, Shane? I thought he said to bring an SUV.” Roman broke the long minutes of silence from the passenger seat.

Still blindsided by Michael’s appearance and miraculous healing, Ky wasn’t up to speaking about anything. He held a still unconscious, but alive, Vivi in his lap.

Ky touched the areas where he’d been injured, everything now healed. That said, he still ached. He felt weak, likely from the blood loss. That took time to replenish.

“It was the only car they had at the airport. This is the edge of the world, and it was this or a Chevy Aveo. I’m not even sure I could drive that little car without sitting in the back seat.” Shane lowered his voice and lost the sarcasm. “I saw the explosion while I was driving in. Freaked out. I knew, somehow, that it was all three of you. That you’d been involved. Can someone explain how three angels showed up?”

“A phone that calls back in time,” Flynn said. “Damned coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I want one of those.”

“That explains nothing.” Shane snorted in frustration, meeting Flynn’s gaze in the rearview mirror.

“You’re not dead.” Flynn leaned forward and smacked Shane in the head. The car swerved.

“Driving here, jerkwad.” Shane righted the car on the road.

“I thought Ky would tell you I helped him.” Shane frowned at Ky.

Ky shrugged. “I told them. They said I hallucinated you because my head’s fucked up.”

“You believed them?” Shane asked.

“I’m a mess, man. I thought it was real, but then I didn’t know…”

“How dare you not be dead?” Flynn said. “I was sad about you gone. Like torn up and shit.”

“Three angels… So you really are chosen by God, Roman?” Shane asked.

Roman opened and closed his hand on the arm that’d been macerated a few times. He adjusted Nova where she slept sprawled across the second row. “We all are, Shane. Even you.”

“All of us?” Shane croaked out. “So that weird angel tattoo that appeared on me a few months ago is a part of all this?”

“Yeah, it’s a lot to handle. Maybe too much for right now. We’re not done discussing why you disappeared but…” Roman touched Ky on the shoulder. “What exactly happened while I was passed out? What did you do that brought Michael to us and helped us pass whatever test they referred to?”

Flynn piped up. “He martyred himself to save us by going up against all thirty or so of those soldiers. He did his prayer with the pendant to Michael before going into battle, and he started glowing while fighting.”

“I did not glow,” he said.

“You were glowing, mate,” Flynn said. “Lit up like the star on top of a Christmas tree. Blue, like the angel was when he did his healing thing on you. You were fully channeling his power, or he channeled through you. Ky did some shooting stuff outside. Didn’t see that, since I was temporarily paralyzed. Next, I see Shane dragging in Ky. Then Michael—as in the legendary archangel who I wasn’t even sure I believed existed—healed Ky.”

“Now what?” Ky asked.

Roman sighed. “We have to corner the monarch to speak in private. Whether he’s in on this with Slate or not, he controls us. Right now. We need to discuss our relationship and establish parameters. If he prefers us dead or that we not do what we’re cursed into doing and wants to stud us out, that’s not in the contract. He’ll need to let us free. Probably won’t happen, but no matter what, he has to replace Gerard.” Roman scrutinized Shane. “I think speaking to the monarch isn’t our out. The angel hinted Shane knows the path we have to take to get free. Do you?”

“I don’t exactly, but I know who might.”

Roman threw his head back against his headrest. “Now that they’re trying to kill us, we need to get on that train.”

“I think it has to do with the witch who cast it to begin with,” Shane said.

“We already asked her. Tried nicely, if you remember, and then we did not-nice. She had no clue, since she used an ancient scroll the monarch gave to her and then burned it after its use.”

“Pretty sure she knows. I think the last time we asked her she wasn’t ready to help us. We have to ask her again,” Shane said. “It’ll have to be me who does it. There’s history between us that you guys don’t know about.”

“What kind of history?” Roman straightened.

“The kind that happened while I was fake dead. And that’s all I’m saying.”

Flynn chuckled. “You sneaky dog. Did you seduce the enemy?”

Shane’s face turned six shades of scarlet. “I didn’t know who she was.”

Ky laughed.

He stared down at Vivi, trying to figure out how he was supposed to resolve the well of feelings he had for her. Did he need to shove them in a box and make them friends only? Or could they be like Roman? He knew how to revive her, if triggered by the humans, but only if he was there. What if he couldn’t be there and it happened again? The safest thing would be to let her go and ask her not to go on any more missions like this.

…

For two weeks, they’d monitored the monarch from afar to learn his routine and analyze how to get him in private without activating alarms.

With a shave and new haircut Ky might look back to himself, but he felt like a shadow moving through the days.

Shane disappeared to somewhere south. He had no luck locating the witch who cast the spell—or at least that’s what he reported. Ky suspected Shane didn’t want to find her.

They were in the beach town of Cagliari, Italy. Their location was unknown to their handler or the monarch. They hadn’t checked in with Gerard, nor did the curse push them to do so, as if it, too, knew Gerard had become the enemy. Vivi was here, but he’d avoided her since their arrival. Hadn’t even run into her.

Avoidance wasn’t helping “resolve” them.

He didn’t know how to even approach her. He’d screwed it up so royally before that whenever he saw Nova, even she glared daggers.

He had just finished putting on his shoes when Roman, who rarely came to this place, since he spent all his time with the sisters miles across town, stopped in front of him. Ky looked up.

“Yes?”

“We need to talk?”

“About?”

“I need you to listen.”

He leaned back in the kitchen chair waiting for Roman to impart some new doozy about the monarch or Gerard.

Roman said, “I’m sorry.”

Okay, wasn’t expecting an apology.

“Sorry for what?” he asked.

“For being wrong about you and Vivi.”

The hairs on the back of his neck spiked, and his gut cramped. “I don’t want to talk about this. I’m finally in a better place.”

“That’s a lie. I heard what Michael said. You have to resolve this one way or another.”

“Do you see me running out to buy a witch’s spell to help me cope?” The instant flush on Roman’s face pleased him. “Do you see me drunk or high? I’m straight. I’m focused.”

“Sure, you’re better at handling this than I was, but you’re not…you. I need you grounded to take the next step in stopping the people running these facilities and tracking down the brainwashed magicals to reset them. And ending our curse.”

“Why? I can still function and do my part fine.”

“Because my mate’s sister is in love with you, and that’s not going to change.”

He blinked, wondering if he’d heard correctly. “She’s, uh…what? She doesn’t remember me.”

“She’s in love with you. A part of her remembers you. But she’s being all stoic and saying she’s moving on.”

He dropped his head. “I don’t know what the right way is.”

“I think you do.”