Chapter 5 #2
Her face crumples again, and big tears leak from the corners of her wide blue eyes. “Di sibme, snisekh. Kong nikhat,” she wails, pointing to her thin chest as she sobs.
My shoulders stiffen. Anika blames her parents’ death on a plague and claims she’s immune, but I’ve never known sickness to spread in the celestial realm. Granted, my common tongue is rusty. I only remember the word plague from history books.
Voices echo in the distance, and I exchange a worried glance with Luca.
We may not know how this young angel ended up here, but we can’t leave her to be discovered by humans.
If we don’t get her out of sight, those wings will raise a whole lot of unwanted questions for the supernatural community living among them.
Holding out my hand, I ask her to come with me. She backs up a step.
The voices get louder.
Anika backs up again, eyeing Luca suspiciously. We could grab her, but then she would scream. Fuck. Fuck. She’s left me with no other choice.
Closing my eyes, I send my magic out, infusing it directly into my words as I promise to keep her safe. It shoots out from my heart, eager to be summoned. I haven’t used it since—No, now isn’t the time to think about that.
Anika gasps as golden runes appear on every inch of my exposed skin, then reaches for me with both hands. Luca . . . Shit, I’m not brave enough to see what he thinks.
The voices are almost on top of us.
We’ve got to go.
Scooping Anika up, I head for the car, half jogging in my hurry to get to safety. Gods. I feel terribly exposed, like the runes burned my skin off instead of labeling me for what I am. Burying my tension, I reach the parking lot and wrench the car door open, sliding Anika into the back seat.
As her head lolls to the side, I realize with shock that she somehow trusted me enough to fall asleep on my shoulder. My stomach churns, nausea building steadily until it competes with the itch. Ignoring both, I buckle her seatbelt and close the door, unexpected tears welling up in my eyes.
Luca grabs my arm, and it’s all I can do not to vomit. “Deep breaths, Celine,” he urges me, walking around to the passenger side and opening my door. “I’ve got you.”
I drop heavily into the seat, my fingers running mechanically over the upholstery. Luca opens a water bottle and presses it into my hand. I take a grateful sip, jolting as a few drops fall on my legs.
“You must have a lot of questions,” I say, glancing at Luca’s tight jaw from the corner of my eye. His hands are working the leather of the steering wheel like he might be able to squeeze out the answers he wants that way.
“That can wait.” He sighs. “We need to decide what to do with her. What did she say?”
“She doesn’t know how she got here.” I look over my shoulder to make sure she’s still asleep. “Her name is Anika, and she’s an orphan. She said her parents died in a plague.” I frown, confused by the story she told me.
“What about that is hitting you weird?” Luca asks, correctly reading my expression.
“The plague part,” I admit. “I’ve never heard of any sicknesses running rampant in the celestial realm. Not in my lifetime at least. People catch things, but it’s usually minor or knocked out by a quick visit to the healers.”
Luca considers that, looking in the rearview at the sleeping kid. “She’s young, though. Chances are she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, especially if she’s been through something traumatic.”
He’s right . . . But her fear. My itch. “What are we going to do with her?” I ask.
“Harry might take her,” Luca says. “Last I talked to her; she was fostering a few orphans already. The language barrier might be an issue, though.”
“Not for long,” I murmur, remembering the shape and size of the wings poking out from Anika’s back. “She’s nish misha.” At Luca’s questioning glance, I squirm in my seat. He deserves some answers.
“Not all angels are the same,” I explain.
“Genetically or magically. Her classification is misha, an echelon known for their intelligence. Most work in science, research, and higher education. They aren’t typically gifted with much magic, but they make up for it by thinking circles around the rest of us. ”
“So what?” Luca cranks the car and heads toward Harry’s home. “You’re saying she’ll pick up English in a few months?”
“Days,” I say.
“Nish,” he murmurs. “If that means tier or class . . . She said that word to you along with something else.”
I grit my teeth. Of course he picked up on that. Luca is smart. If I tell him more, am I putting us both at risk? He’s not giving me much wiggle room either way and combined with my difficulty with lying . . .
“Yes, she recognized my type,” I whisper, dropping my forehead against the cool glass of the car window.
I feel Luca’s eyes on me. He lets the conversation drop when I don’t immediately volunteer more information. “It’s going to be okay,” he says instead, the promise empty given how little we know. I appreciate the gesture anyway.
Luca street parks near Harry’s house, thrumming his fingers anxiously against the steering wheel. “I’ll go explain. Do you want to stay with Anika in case she wakes up?”
I nod, releasing all the air from my mouth and metaphorically sliding into my big girl pants. It helps to remind myself we would have done the same thing if Anika was a demon or a shifter. Harry is the only one around here I know personally who takes in supernatural strays.
Luca gets out, shutting his door firmly behind him. Anika bolts upright, her eyes panicked until they land on me.
“Celine,” she says my name, the word heavily accented. The way she says it . . . Like the voices of my childhood. The visceral reminder of home makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I’m rattled, but I can’t let this shake me. I’ll process, then execute a plan. Hopefully one that involves beating someone’s ass for dumping a helpless kid in the woods of a foreign realm.
I turn in my seat, smiling gently, but authentically at Anika. This kid is smart. Magic or no magic, she’ll recognize bullshit. Without sugar coating it, I walk her through where we are and why we had to leave quickly. She listens without interrupting, her serious blue eyes calculating.
When I finish, Anika blinks a few times. “Shmi?” she asks, then retracts her wings.
“Yes, that will help, especially when you’re not in Harriet’s home.” I say it first in the common tongue, then repeat the same sentence in English. Her eyes light up, and I watch her lips moving silently around the unfamiliar new words.
My heart throbs, pride and regret warring for dominance. She’s far too pragmatic for a child her age.
I explain that Harry is a harpy, a species Anika tells me with excitement she’s read about. My smile widens as she wiggles in the backseat, pressing her nose to the glass. Her mind may belong to a tiny scholar, but her body is that of an impatient child, eager to see something cool in person.
Anika quickly loses interest in looking out the window and starts spitting rapid-fire questions my way.
From the climate to the economy, she grills me without mercy.
I do my best to answer in both languages, but within five minutes, I’m forced to accept that I don’t know jack shit about anything.
She reaches the same conclusion, the curiosity in her eyes turning to pity.
She’s wondering how I managed to survive this long. Same, kid, same.
If only Luca would hurry up and put us both out of our misery.
When he finally comes back, I’m more exhausted than if I ran ten miles after working a double shift at the club. Luca knocks gently on Anika’s window, and she climbs primly out of the back seat. She bows to him, then does the same to Harry.
“Hello, Harry,” she says in English, pointing at herself. “Anika.”
The striking harpy beams at her, waves at me, then takes Anika by the hand and leads her into the house. Anika skips along at her side, only glancing once over her shoulder at me.
Has she already learned not to count on anyone? I scrub my hand over my face, slumping in my seat as Luca climbs in. Once Harry and Anika disappear inside, I thump my head repeatedly against the headrest, groaning until I feel better.
“What?” Luca asks, suppressed laughter in his voice.
“Why haven’t you ever told me I’m an idiot?” I demand.
“Because you aren’t?”
I take in his confused expression and giggle, then shake my head. “It’s worse than I thought. We’re both stupid, that’s why we’ve never noticed.”
“You need a drink. Or a nap.”
“I’d be better off reading a book on electricity,” I say.
“Now you’re making no sense.” Luca shakes his head. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
As he drives back to my place, I tell him about all the questions Anika asked, and we make up outlandish responses to them the entire way. For a few minutes, our laughter distracts me from the itch.