but something else was?
Broken.
They’d called me broken.
There was still stuff they weren’t telling me. Yeah, we’d be having a little Dominus meeting about that soon enough. Once my stint at Deadside was done for the week and before my first patrol. It would be cards on the table, no more secrets, guys. I was done with that shit.
But first. I flicked my wrist, and my scythe appeared. “I have a delivery.”
A pillar slid up out of the ground, white and cylindrical, and rose up to about six feet in height then stopped. The surface was white and opaque, like the counter that Celestia was standing behind.
“Please, make your deposit,” Celestia said.
She sounded like a machine. She didn’t move, didn’t look at either of us, and her voice was neither male nor female.
“Um, Mal … Can she see us?”
Mal walked over to Celestia and waved his hand in front of her face. She didn’t flinch but annoyance bit at the inside of my throat.
“Don’t do that. It’s fucking rude.”
He arched a brow. “She’s not alive, Fee. Not in an organic way anyway. Celestia is …” He frowned. “Let me see … How to explain …” His brows shot up. “Ah, right. Celestia is kind of like the uber-powerful version of Siri or Alexa. She’s the receptionist, the gatekeeper. And this …” He indicated the forest. “Is our waiting room. A beautiful simulation that doesn’t go anywhere. Trust me, I’ve tried. You walk in any direction, and you end up right back here.”
“Please make your deposit, Seraphina Dawn,” Celestia said. “And thank you for clarifying my existence, Malachi, although it is lacking.”
Was that humor in her tone? “How does this place work?”
Celestia was silent.
“She won’t answer you,” Mal said. “There are certain questions she doesn’t respond to.”
Hmmm. “What powers the Underealm?”
“The Underealm is powered by choal, an incredibly powerful fossil fuel found only in the Underealm.”
“But what powers the Beyond?” Mal asked.
Silence.
My scalp prickled as an idea formed in my mind. “Am I broken?”
“Fee, what the fuck?” Mal intervened.
But I forged on, heart pounding, because maybe I could get my answers now. Right this minute. “Celestia, is there something wrong with me I don’t know about?”
There was a long beat of silence, and then heat rushed from the top of my head right down to my toes then back again. Celestia’s silver eyes flashed several times.
“Psychic scan commencing.”
“Stop,” Mal snapped.
The heat climbing up my body rushed back down and was gone.
Mal looked pissed off. “We didn’t come here to play with Celestia, we came to make a deposit.” He indicated the pillar. “Do it, and let’s go. I have other shit to be getting on with. I have guests this evening.”
More women, no doubt, and why the fuck did that make me ragey? “Why’d you stop her?” I narrowed my eyes. “What the heck aren’t you telling me?”
Movement at the periphery of my vision demanded my attention. I tore my gaze from Mal’s guilty face. A door had opened in the forest scene, and a tall, broad-shouldered figure stepped through. I recognized that buzz cut and the harshly chiseled features. Straight dark brows flicked up slightly at the sight of us, and his amber gaze swept over us. Mine dropped to the thick leather-bound book he was clutching in his left hand. Could that be what I thought it was …
“Uriel. Grigori. Lower-circle celestial.” Celestia announced his presence.
The corners of Uriel’s mouth dimpled as if he was holding back a curse. But celestials didn’t curse … did they?
“Uri,” Mal said.
“Malachi,” Uri replied in an even tone.
“Is that the ledger?” Mal asked.
“It is,” Uri said.
My hunch had been right. This was the ledger, which held the list of items stored in the vault at the Academy. “Are you going there now?”
Uri’s impassive gaze flicked to me. “Yes.”
“I want to come with you and help.”
I sensed Malachi relax beside me. He probably thought he was off the hook about the secrets. Like fuck. I’d get him later. Right now, I wanted to help identify our missing item—the thing the Dread had attacked the Academy to steal. I needed to do something useful, dammit, but Uri hadn’t replied to me yet. He was too busy looking at Malachi. Wait, was he waiting for Mal to say it was okay?
He so fucking was.
My temper snapped. “Don’t look at him. I’m asking you a question. Me. Not him. He does not speak for me. Do you understand?”
Heat was rising up my throat and burning the backs of