over his heart.
“Tell me more about this crone?”
He tossed his memories back to that moment in the hut when everything had hurt and he’d had to suffer the wretched company of a demon. “She had a pet rayvern. Damn thing was the size of a dog. Jasper, she called it. Treated it like kin. I’m sure she was quite insane.”
“How did you come to be captured by her?”
He told her how the crone had taken advantage of his weakness and trapped him right after he’d broken out of the train carriage, then proceeded to lecture him on some demon fairytale and paint his wings black with her hideous concoction. “Did she do this to me? Make my wings so different?”
“It’s possible. Your wings are changing, and not just their color. Clearly, Tower Bridge was not an isolated incident.”
“Tower Bridge was…” He sighed and let his head fall back against the headboard. “It’s the allyanse. We were supposed to be fated, and he… He’s a demon lord, Saphia.” He hated how his voice trembled, how a chill raised the fine hairs on his arms, betraying all the hurt. He couldn’t look at her. Her face would be full of pity and sadness and shame, for him. As a guardian, he’d vowed to be good, to do what was right, to lead the angels to victory, and instead, he’d fallen in love with the enemy. “I’ve tried to fight it… It shouldn’t have worked, knowing what he is. Why did it work? Why do I feel these things?”
She patted his hand. “I really don’t know, Mikhail. I wish I did. And I wish you would go to Haven where they can treat this.”
He groaned and rolled his eyes. “No. And don’t suggest it again. If I go there, it’ll be over, and I’m not ready to surrender to Konstantin. He did this to me. I have to destroy him.”
“Yes, well…” she sighed. “You always succeed in whatever you put your mind to, that much is true. But sometimes, when the problems are within ourselves, we need some help to see them.”
“Severn is my problem. When he is dead, everything will return to normal, perhaps including my wings.”
She nodded in that way that suggested she was just agreeing with him to prevent an argument. “It would help if you could find this crone again, so I can talk with her.”
“I wouldn’t know where to begin. Her hut was destroyed when Aerie’s disk fell. She’s cambion, she told me that much, and she has a foul sense of humor.” He shuddered at the thought of her touching his wings. But if she truly had made him change, what was her reasoning? “She said she didn’t want to hurt me.”
“Well, that seems true.”
“She also said she wasn’t finished.”
“Hm. She sounds intriguing, for a demon,” Saphia mused.
“Intriguing is not a word that crossed my mind at the time.”
Saphia chuckled, “No, I imagine not. You mentioned she told you some demon tales?”
He waved the question away. “Nonsense, it’s not relevant.” Stories of how Seraphim and Aerius had been lovers, like Mikhail and Konstantin—He had no intention of repeating her disgusting stories to anyone. Not even Saphia. Just the thought of such a union was blasphemy. The crone’s very existence—cambion, half demon and half human—was blasphemy too. It was more likely her salve did nothing, and he’d healed his own wings.
“I don’t think her paste did this,” Mikhail said, with sudden confidence. “I am a guardian. Perhaps this is some natural evolution.”
“If it is, it hasn’t been documented in living memory.”
“It’s more likely to be natural than by the hand of some cambion crone living in the cauldron with her pet rayvern.” He threw back the sheets and tested his balance. His shoulders burned a little, but otherwise, he was fine. Everything was fine. The wings were troublesome, but he could manage it. Just so long as he didn’t lose control again. They might even help him stamp out some of the rumors of his madness circulating. “Clearly, my issues of late are to do with this evolution and nothing to do with the allyanse.”
Saphia glowered. “Your spin doesn’t work with me, Mikhail.”
“I know that, but that is the official explanation should anyone ask you. Do you understand?”
“If you have an episode in public, like the one you had last night, your lies won’t save you.”
Anger ignited like it always did of late. “I do not lie.”
“Only to yourself.”
Mikhail straightened and regarded the healer he’d known all his