Chapter 19
Nineteen
The library doors slam open.
I'm on my feet before I register moving, grandmother's journal tumbling from my lap. My hand goes to the knife strapped to my thigh, and power crackles along the seven threads in my chest, ready to pull from any of them.
But it's not an enemy.
It's Croesus.
He stands in the doorway like a storm given form, all coiled tension and barely leashed fury.
His gold eyes blaze in the silver light of Seraph's library, seeing nothing and everything at once.
Those pure molten irises that hold no pupil, no white, sweep the room in patterns I've learned to recognize.
He's tracking shapes. Movement. The heat of my body against the cooler air.
"You're alive," he says. The words come out flat, but I feel the relief crash through the bond like a wave breaking against stone. Even through my shield, even with walls between us, the force of his emotion nearly staggers me.
"Of course I'm alive. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because I've been trying to reach you for three days." He steps into the library, and the doors swing shut behind him with a sound like judgment. "Three days, Raven. There was a rip through the binding. I felt you screaming. And then nothing. Complete silence."
The vision. Kael's attack. The way all seven bonds had ignited at once, tearing through my carefully constructed shield like paper.
He felt that. Of course he felt that.
"It was a vision," I start. "Kael was attacked, and the binding connected me to him during the fight. I'm fine. I recovered."
"You recovered." He laughs, but there's no humor in it. "You recovered, and you didn't think to let me know? To lower the shield for one moment and tell me you weren't dying?"
"I didn't think—"
"No. You didn't."
The words land like a slap. I watch him move deeper into the library, his fingers trailing along the spines of books he can't see.
He navigates by touch, by memory, by the supernatural senses that compensate for his blindness.
Every step is precise. Controlled. At odds with the chaos I can feel bleeding through our connection.
"Croesus." I keep my voice steady. "I'm sorry I worried you. But I'm fine. Seraph has been training me, and I'm learning to control—"
"I'm not here about the vision."
That stops me cold.
He turns to face me, and even without true sight, his attention pins me in place. The gold of his eyes seems brighter than usual, lit from within by something that looks dangerously close to fear.
"Then why are you here?"
"Luna."
The name hits me like a punch to the chest. "What about Luna?"
"She's being watched."
The world tilts. I grab the edge of the reading table to steady myself, knuckles going white against the polished wood.
"Watched by who?"
"Something I don't recognize." Croesus moves closer, and I can see the strain in his shoulders now. The tension he's carrying in every line of his body. "I've had eyes on her since you came to Seraph's house. Discreet surveillance. Making sure she was safe while you were here."
"You've been watching my sister?"
"Protecting her." His jaw tightens. "Would you rather I left her unguarded? With Heaven hunting you and Hell taking notice and whatever killed your grandmother still out there?"
I want to be angry. I should be angry. But the truth is, a knot I didn't know I was carrying loosens slightly. He was looking out for Luna. Even when I shut him out, even when I chose Seraph's philosophy over his, he was still protecting what matters most to me.
"What did you see?" I ask.
"Three days ago. The same night I felt the vision tear through you.
" He's close enough now that I can smell him.
Old incense and older power. Gold and want.
"Someone appeared outside her apartment building.
Stood there for hours, just watching her window.
My people couldn't get a clear look at them.
Couldn't even approach. Something was blocking them. Warding them off."
"Human?"
"No."
"Angel?"
"No." His voice drops. "Something else. Something that felt wrong in a way my people couldn't articulate. They said the air around it was heavy. Suffocating. Like standing too close to a corpse that hadn't started rotting yet."
I think of the shadow things that attacked Kael. The army of darkness that swarmed the House of Fury.
"Demons?"
"I don't know." Croesus's hands clench at his sides.
"I've been trying to tell you for three days.
I've been reaching through the bond, trying to warn you, and you've had me blocked out completely.
I couldn't even send you a dream. Couldn't slip a thought through the cracks. You've shut me out entirely."
The accusation hangs between us, heavy with hurt.
"Seraph taught me how to shield," I say. "You knew he would. You didn't object to me learning."
"I didn't object to you learning control." His voice cracks on the word. "I didn't expect you to use it to cut me out completely. There's a difference between muting the bond and severing it."
"I haven't severed anything."
"Haven't you?" He steps closer still, and now there's barely a foot between us. I can see the fine lines of tension around his mouth, the way his gold eyes seem to search for something they'll never find. "When was the last time you let me in? Even for a moment?"
I open my mouth to answer and realize I can't remember.
Since the shield went up, I've kept it up. Consistently. Completely. The blessed relief of not feeling his emotions every second of every day, of not having my own feelings broadcast to him constantly. I told myself it was healthy. Necessary.
I didn't think about what it was costing him.
"I needed space," I say finally. "Everything here has been so intense. With Seraph, with the training, with the research into grandmother's death. I needed room to think without feeling everything you feel."
"I understand that." He reaches out, and his fingers brush my cheek with devastating gentleness. Tracing the shape of my face, the way he does when he's trying to see me the only way he can. "But I was trying to warn you about your sister, and you'd built a wall so high I couldn't even knock."
Guilt twists in my stomach. He's right. If Luna is in danger, if something has been watching her, I should have known three days ago. I could have done something. Instead, I was so focused on protecting myself from the intensity of our connection that I left him screaming into a void.
"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I didn't realize—"
"You didn't want to realize." There's no cruelty in the words. Just truth. "You wanted silence, so you made silence. And you didn't think about what you were silencing."
"I need to go to her." I pull back from his touch, my mind already racing. "If something's watching Luna, if she's in danger—"
"No."
The word stops me in my tracks.
"What do you mean, no?"
"You can't go." Croesus's expression hardens into something I recognize.
His stubborn face. His I've-made-a-decision-and-it's-final face.
"If something is watching her because of her connection to you, showing up would only confirm that connection.
You'd be leading them straight to the thing they're trying to find. "
"She's my sister!"
"And you're bound to seven angels who are very possibly the most hunted beings in creation right now.
" His voice rises to match mine. "You think Heaven doesn't know what happened with Raphael?
You think they're not looking for the human who killed an archangel?
If you go to Luna now, you paint a target on her back. "
"There's already a target on her back! You just said something's been watching her for days!"
"Watching. Not acting. There's a difference.
" He catches my wrist when I try to push past him.
His grip is firm but not painful. "Think, Raven.
Use that clever mind of yours instead of your panic.
If they wanted to hurt her, they would have done it already.
They're waiting. Watching. Probably trying to figure out if she's useful or if she's just an ordinary human who happens to share blood with you. "
"And what if they decide she's useful?"
"Then we'll deal with it. But not by having you charge in without a plan and reveal exactly how much she means to you."
I want to scream at him. Want to rip free and run straight to Luna's apartment, consequences be damned. But underneath the panic, underneath the fear, I know he's right. Charging in would be stupid. Would put her in more danger, not less.
I hate that he's right.
"Fine." I force the word out through gritted teeth. "Then what's the plan?"
Before he can answer, the library doors open again.
Seraph stands in the entrance, silver eyes taking in the scene with one sweeping glance. Me with my wrist in Croesus's grip. Croesus standing too close, gold eyes blazing. The tension crackling between us like lightning before a storm.
"Breaking and entering? Again." Seraph's voice is cool. Measured. "How very undignified."
"My apologies for disrupting your pristine domain." Croesus doesn't release my wrist. Doesn't step back. "I needed to speak with Raven."
"So I gathered. I felt your presence the moment you stepped through my mirrors." Seraph moves into the room, his footsteps silent on the marble floor. "Without permission, I might add. We have protocols, Croesus. Just because you have access to the mirror network doesn't mean—"
"Her sister is being watched."
Seraph stops. Something flickers across his perfect features too quickly for me to name.
"Explain."
Croesus releases my wrist and turns to face the other angel. They're standing barely five feet apart now, and the air between them feels charged. Heavy. So many years of history compressing into a single moment.