Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Illium groaned as thick gray clouds began to move in from the ocean on a biting breeze. I thought I was doing a good job of hiding the ten thousand shrieking voices in my head.
I know you, Blue. Aodhan angled his wings to the left to lean into a current. And I appreciate that you’re trying.
Illium flew around in a wider arc, so that they were side by side. Look at both of us, being so adult. At this rate, we’ll be wise old angels in no time.
Aodhan’s smile was slow, the shake of his head exasperated.
Their lighter mood, however, stood no chance against the despair of the burned-down shop, which had been left as it was, caution tape fluttering all around it. While the shop’d had hard drinkers for clientele, the area wasn’t a dead end or murky zone that came awake only at dusk—the places around it were doing a brisk business.
A kebab shop sent enticing aromas into the air, two people queued outside what looked to be a clothing alterations place, while next door to the scene was a neat and tidy electrical shop that boasted they could repair any small household electrical item in One hour or your money back. Gino never lies!
“I’d have thought someone would’ve tried to clean up the scene,” Illium said. “Seems like that kind of neighborhood.”
“Navarro’s staff likely put out the word that no one was to touch it until he recovered—and since he sent the file to the Tower, I’d say he took Giulia Corvino’s concerns seriously.”
Illium went to reply when someone bustled out of the electrical shop. A short, rotund man with a black mustache that had been oiled or conditioned within an inch of its life, and hair as thick and abundant. He wore crisp black pants paired with an equally crisp shirt in a pale pink.
“Angels!” He beamed at them as he hurried over. “Giulia, she said the Tower was going to send people to look at this terrible situation. God rest their souls, that wonderful boy of hers and his sweet girl.”
Bowing his head, he muttered a prayer under his breath before he looked up again. “But I thought she’s grieving, it’s not a real thing. Hard to have this kind of a ruin in the neighborhood especially as we’ve fixed up most other things, but we all knew Marco, know Giulia. We can wait, we decided together, until she’s ready.”
That entire spiel had been directed at Illium, which wasn’t exactly a surprise. Aodhan’s Blue was well known around the city, not just for the flamboyant color of his wings, but because he could as often be seen on the ground as he could in the sky. Illium patronized mortal businesses, had mortal friends.
Aodhan, by contrast, most often flew high in the sky—where his looks wouldn’t attract attention. He did have mortal friends these days, one of his closest being the hunter, Demarco, but he’d grown up being an anomaly even among angelkind, his skin drawing light as if it were a faceted diamond. His hair was the same, as were the filaments of his wings. Every part of him shone, until it hurt the eye for others to look at him in bright sunlight.
At least the clouds that had moved in over the past twenty minutes meant he wasn’t a star standing on the street. He remained, however, a stranger to this mortal—while Illium, though he might’ve never before spoken to him, wasn’t.
“Gino?” Illium said when the man paused to take a breath.
His eyes went huge. “How do you know of Gino, angel?”
When Illium pointed at the sign outside the electrical shop, the man slapped his thighs and laughed uproariously. “For a minute, I thought you were in my head.” He used a neatly folded handkerchief to mop at his perfectly dry forehead. “So you’ve come to see about Marco and his girl? I don’t know her name, poor soul.”
“Tanika,” Illium told him. “Gino, since you seem to know the situation here, what’s your take on the fire?”
The other man pressed his lips together, his forehead furrowed. “We had to evacuate, you know, because of the war. I knew Marco would have to stay—he was under Contract, but he had no reason to be here.” Gino waved at the shop.
“His angel only bought it maybe ten months before the war, I think. Marco told me the plan was to gut it, make it real nice, you know? Fit the rest of the neighborhood. So the angel wasn’t going to waste someone to safeguard it during the war; if it fell, what does he care? He can build new from the ground up exactly how he likes.”
That was a piece of information they hadn’t previously had, but it was also unlikely to be useful in unearthing the murderer.