Chapter 10
TEN
CHANEL
Saturday was a problem.
For more than one reason. First, I had neglected to tell my cousin where this intel came from, and keeping a secret from her was poison in my veins.
She was going to be furious if she found out Kaso was my source.
Two, the whole plan revolved around catching our most notorious target in a long, long time while he was at one of the single most populated tourist attractions in the world.
Third, all I could think about was seeing Kaso again.
I found myself reliving that moment in the Bahamas over and over in my mind, both awake and asleep.
The fact that I wanted him to prove me wrong was a giant red flag.
For me.
The worst part was I knew I wasn’t playing it cool. Regan was suspicious. The fact that she was going along with my plan despite that concern and suspicion spoke volumes about her trust in me. I just prayed I wasn’t about to break it.
“I don’t like this,” Regan grumbled for the hundredth time as we approached the First Realm portal inside The Emerald. She tossed both of her daggers up and caught them over and over, perfectly in sync with her steps. “The Eiffel Tower on a Saturday night? Bad idea.”
My stomach tightened into knots. She wasn’t wrong.
It was making me sick. I’d been telling myself since Kaso told me about it that my plan was solid.
Christopher would think he was cloaked from sight and therefore he wouldn’t be trying to hide.
Bada-bing, bada-boom. No big deal. Rey and I had a plan for how to handle it.
This was far from our first rodeo. We’d done this so many times it was muscle memory, or it usually was.
The knots in my stomach had me second-guessing myself .
. . a feeling I hadn’t felt in centuries.
But I couldn’t voice any of that to Regan.
I wanted to, yet somehow I doubted she’d react well.
Cheese and Crackers were our adversaries.
They were the only force standing between us and Christopher—a naughty, naughty manchild who deserved to be exiled back to Fourth Realm.
Empress Clementine would just adore him.
Yet there I was falling for Kaso’s game hook, line, and sinker.
“Hello?”
I flinched and looked up as she smacked my arm. “What?”
“What?” Her blond eyebrows shot up to her hairline. She stopped in the middle of the hallway and crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re going to the Eiffel Tower where there’s sure to be crowds of humans, and you wanna know what?”
I rolled my eyes. “I was just thinking about something else—”
“Well, I need your head in this game right now, so snap out of it.”
“Sorry.” I sighed, then flicked my long, golden-blonde hair over my shoulder as I marched away from her. “Stop treating me like I'm a rookie. We’re not in Paris right now, so I can let my thoughts wander. Chillax, dude.”
She narrowed her blue eyes at me. “I don’t like this. I don’t like anything about this.”
“This is entirely new news to me.”
There was a lot of grumbling after that, but I didn’t bother to try and listen.
I didn’t blame her for her attitude. It was well placed.
I would’ve been a menace if the roles were reversed.
That should’ve given me motivation to be honest with her, but I couldn’t get the words out.
I was trying not to look too closely at that, too, even though I knew the reasoning.
It was Kaso. Whatever this thing was between us, it was affecting me in ways no one ever had before.
I needed to sort my head out. Immediately.
That was why tonight was so crucial. Once we caught Christopher, I wouldn’t have Kaso as a target, or a hindrance, and if he kept his word and helped us capture his client, then I’d have even less reason to push him away.
Kaso and Andreas couldn’t have been that bad. Otherwise Zuriel would’ve handed us folders with their pictures in them.
Rey stopped in front of the portal with her hands on her leather-clad hips and sighed. “Well, let’s hope tonight breaks our bad luck streak with Paris.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it. Shit. I’d forgotten about that.
Hell, I hadn’t even thought of our past experiences in the city of love.
We hadn’t had a good one since we created the band Chanegan.
Every time we wound up in Paris, shit never went as planned.
As both pop stars and Virtues. Bodhi had rescued us far too many times.
So had Zuriel. My pulse sped up as my confidence faltered.
“Guess we can hope your father can bail us out again like he did last time.”
I slid in front of her, blocking the portal. “You’re the one who called my father. I suggested my brother for backup—”
“I didn’t want an infant helping us.” Rey shook her head. “At least Mendrion cleaned it up fast.”
My father, Mendrion, was one of the Watchers, the group of ten angels sent to guard Earth by God himself.
Araqiel and Zuriel were the top dogs of The Watchers but the other eight were nearly as powerful and scary.
Nearly. Papabear was the keeper of the water element, and therefore so was I.
Like me, Dad was cold and calm on the exterior.
It took a lot to ruffle his feathers, but when it happened . . . catastrophic, like a tsunami.
Regan and her mother, Eloa, held the fire element.
Eloa was the menace of the Watchers, and were just as rebellious as both of her daughters.
Granted, Sandra was a Nephilim, so they weren’t full-blooded sisters and only Regan was a full angel, but still.
The vibes matched with those two. Sandra and her soulmate had broken the biggest of Araqiel’s rules and somehow thought none of us had noticed.
“What is your problem with my brother all of a sudden?” I threw my hands up. “He’s on our side of shit. He’s Nephilim, just like Sandra—”
“Just like Sandra?” Rey arched one eyebrow. “Tell that to Riven.”
I opened my mouth and frowned. “Look, shit happens that’s outside of our control. This is one of those things—”
“Noted.” She shook her head. “Let’s get this disaster over with.”
Before I could speak another word, she pushed me straight back into the portal.
Cold air and bright light washed over me.
It only took a few seconds before the chilly night Parisian air swept through my hair.
I stepped back just as Rey came through.
We were behind the big trees across the street from the Eiffel Tower, perfectly out of sight.
“Look, I get it. I hear you. This city is cursed for us, and you don’t love the plan. You’ve made all of this perfectly clear.” I gestured around us. “But you agreed to it. You’re here. Can you just stop snapping at me like I’ve wronged you in some way?”
She let out a deep breath as she shook her arms out. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I don’t know what crawled up my ass and died tonight. The vibes are in shambles, and I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Worst case scenario, we don’t catch Christopher here.” I turned to stand beside her, both of us looking out at the tower. “At least this little chase game of ours has forced him to behave himself.”
“You’re so good at finding the positive.” She chuckled and waved me on to walk with her.
I nodded as I followed. “Waldo is my bitch. He can’t hide from me.”
“Waldo?”
“Yeah, like that book Where’s Waldo. Finding Waldo in those books is like finding the silver lining in a shit situation.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. “Where was I when you made this revelation?”
I stopped, half-turned, and pointed to where we’d just been standing. “Right there.”
She snort-laughed. “You’re a dork.”
“There it is. The vibes are coming back.”
“As is my appetite.” She stepped into the shadow of a massive tree, pushed her wings out, and led the way up. “Let’s find this jerkwad.”
My wings were out and carrying me up into the sky in the blink of an eye.
Fortunately there was a ton of cloud coverage tonight, but it was extra fortunate that I could just wiggle my fingers and cause little water vapor droplets to form in the air.
As I lifted both hands up to my waist, a nice blanket of fog seeped between the trees and buildings.
Regan nodded in approval. “I’m still jealous about that trick.”
“And I’m still jealous you can be your own heater.”
She snort-laughed. “I love that that is what you’re jealous of, not that I can set things on fire.”
I shrugged. “Meh, I can drown things. Burning and drowning are equally torturous in my opinion.”
“We’re so fucked in the head,” she said between chuckles.
“Yeah, Zaddy better get the others back before we’re too far gone to be saved.”
“We should probably let Bodhi work her healing magic on us from time to time.”
I grinned. “Would make a great Christmas present for her.”
Rey threw her head back and laughed and some of the tightness in my chest lightened. I hated when she was angry or upset with me. I hated when we weren’t good. It made my skin crawl and like I needed to evacuate all of my previous meals from my body at once.
I started to make another joke when my gaze landed on our target.
Christopher.
“THERE.” I pointed to where he stood on the lower level of the Eiffel Tower. “He just got off the lift.”
Regan let out a deep breath. “Well, I’ll be damned, he isn’t cloaked.”
I had to bite my lip to stop myself from grinning.
Kaso hadn’t lied. He’d given Christopher a fake potion.
The relief that rushed through me was alarming because I wasn’t sure what that said about my feelings toward Mr. Cheese.
Kaso lying to me would’ve made it much easier to hate him instead of giving me all the warm and fuzzies inside.
“So . . .” I cleared my throat. “There he is. We grab him as we planned—”
“Not quite. There’s a lot more people here than we expected.” She gestured to the first floor of the tower. “We’re gonna need to tweak the plan a little.”