by Laney McMann
“Okay.” Hands on hips, Cole stood in front of Kade in the grass, sunlight beaming overhead. “There aren’t a lot of trees, which is both good and bad. Good because we have open space for target practice,” he grinned, “and bad because we really need to get you better at swerving through obstacles and coming to a quick stop.”
“I’ve been getting better at that,” Kade said. What she wanted to do was wander around, check out the scenery, and simply spend time with Cole. But he was so anxious about making sure she was safe, she couldn’t bring herself to say it, and under the circumstances, she couldn’t blame him. She tried to be patient and pay attention.
“You have gotten much better. Definitely. I brought some other stuff.” He removed the sack on his back, and opened the drawstring top. “I think we’re far enough out here that these will work.” He glanced around and laid at least a dozen white discs on the grass between them.
Kade frowned. “Skeet?”
“Yup.”
“Okay.” She shrugged.
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just, it’s nothing. Doesn’t Danny always tease you about not having a good arm?”
His brows notched, and Kade tried not to laugh. “I can throw these just fine.”
She straightened her expression, squaring her shoulders. “Sorry.”
Cole snatched up one of the targets off the ground. “We’ll start with one. Just blast it out of the air. Easy. Don’t get crazy—we don’t want to attract attention.”
Kade glanced around at no one in the immediate area. “Okay.”
Cole cocked his arm back and let the white disc fly. Kade wondered what in the hell Danny was always teasing him for because she could barely even see the disc it went so high. Backing up a step, she tried to keep her focus on the white dot, aimed, let a blast of red light shoot from her hand, and missed completely. She laughed.
“Maybe if you threw it so I could actually see it next time?” she teased, glancing at the hills in the distance. They were dotted with what she thought were vineyards and farther on, maybe some sheep on a farm?
“Okay, a little lower.” Cole reached for another disc, his biceps tensing underneath his white T-shirt sleeves, and let it loose into the sky.
Kade turned her attention away from his muscular arms and following the disc’s wake, let her energy go, and missed again. “Sorry.” She cracked her knuckles. “I’ll try harder.”
“You can do this. You hit the target on the cave wall before, remember?” He sounded concerned.
“That was right in front of me, though. This is … a moving target.” Truly, she’d never needed a lot of aim, her energy just swelled out and overtook everything around her whenever she lost control—or got mad—which she was never allowed to do, per her dad. Stay calm. Don’t lose your temper. She used her crystal as a weapon usually.
“The fact that it’s moving is the point,” Cole said. “If someone is coming after you, they won’t be standing still.” He gave her a strange look.
“Fine.” She’d never said anything to Cole because he was always so adamant, but she hated the training part of learning to be a Primordial. It seemed useless since she wasn’t one.
“Ready?” He cocked his arm back, and Kade stared at his defined bicep again, distracted.
“Yeah.”
Another target zoomed into the blue sky, and Kade missed it.
“Concentrate, Sparrow. You’re naturally good at this—born to do this. Just focus and take the shot.” His forehead creased, anger tainting his words slightly.
“I’m trying,” she said with no enthusiasm, knowing that was a lie.
Cole stared at her. “Sparrow, if …” he bowed his head, “ … if you somehow get into a position where you’re on your own, I need to know you’re taken care of—that you can take care of yourself. Okay? I need to know you’re safe, with or without me.”
She frowned. Without him? “Are you planning to ditch me at some point? Didn’t we just agree there would be no separating?” Her anger spiked, and she snatched up a target from the ground.
“You know that’s not what I meant.” He was still staring at her. “But … look, it’s great that you’ve been taking care of yourself all these years. I’m damn thankful for it. But there’s a difference between letting fear protect you when your energy floods out without any real control, and when someone is actually trying to capture you—or control you.” He took a breath. “You have to know how to focus your energy on a target and take it out in one shot. I’m not talking crystals, I’m taking pure, raw concentrated energy.”
“No one is going to control me,” Kade snapped and marched over, handing him the target she was holding. He took it with a confused glance. A few more were at his feet on the ground. She picked them up—three of them—and handed them over. “Throw these one second apart when I say go, okay?”
“Kade—don’t get mad, let’s just—“
“Throw them.”
“Fine.” He arched his arm, and too fast for Kade to see, with quick succession, he let them fly, one after the other into the sky. He turned his gaze toward her with obvious annoyance.
Kade took less than a second glance before she swiped her arm out and up. Red light, sharp as a laser, blasted from her hand, and each of the flying disks exploded in midair a second apart, obliterating all four. She let her arms fall to her sides and glared at Cole. His mouth hung open.
“The thing is … all I want to do is spend time with you. We’re in Italy.” She stopped, realizing she probably shouldn’t have said Italy out loud in case anyone was listening in on her thoughts or whatever, but it was too late to take it back, and she was too mad to stop talking. “I am sick of everyone expecting me to just be a … fierce girl because I’m this,” she pointed at her body and morphed into the Devil God in a blink. Feathered wings, talons for hands, spiked face. She gestured at the shreds of fallen targets on the ground, “and because I used to be like you, a Primori, and that’s your job—to be fearless—but I’m afraid.” Her eyes found his. “That’s what no one, but maybe Plumb, seems to understand. I’ve always been alone. No one has been helping me fight off the Shadows that have followed me all of my life. No one has helped me to come to grips with the fact that since I was five years old, I’ve witnessed my dad transform into a demon again and again.” She stared at him, and his eyes washed a lighter gray.
“I’m surprised I’m even sane at this point. So … please, just stop. I’ll do what needs to be done. I always have. I’ll fight when it comes time, but stop telling me how strong I am, or how tough I am, or that I shouldn’t be clumsy because I’m some Devil God with the power to destroy everything I see. I’m not a ‘chosen one.’ That idea would imply that I’m the good guy enlisted to take out the bad, but I’m not that, Cole. I’m the bad guy, remember? Look at me. The real me. I was created to take you out.” She eyed him, and he stared back fiercely. “To take all of you out. The last thing I need is to be trained to be more of a killer.”
Cole’s mouth opened like he wanted to say something, but Kade kept going.
“I don’t like that part of me. I don’t like being this. Look what I just did!” She pointed at the bits of destroyed targets. “That’s good, right? That’s what you wanted? You know how I did it without understanding how? Because I’m part devil, that’s how.”
“Sparrow—“
“This evil is just a part of me. It just oozes out if I don’t keep it in check, and my dad always knew that. It was the reason I had to hide myself. To stay calm. I don’t want to be good at this stuff! I’ve been going along with the training because it’s important to you, but I don’t need it.”
“Kade, listen for a minute—“
“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she talked over him, “or be half demon. I am, insanely enough, still a girl. A normal girl who has normal issues, and I like that about me! It’s the one thing I have that makes me feel like less of a freak. Like I actually belong. I don’t want
to be the pissed off strong one all the damn time. Okay? I’ve been fighting all my life.” She let out a staggered breath and stared at the sky.
“It’s nice to feel taken care of sometimes. It’s nice to not be mad, to actually smile.” She glanced at him. “To look at the vineyard in the distance and want to spend the day with my boyfriend who loves me. Me. The monster girl. It’s nice to know that, now and then, someone will step in to catch me if I don’t catch myself. Why is that bad?”
Cole shook his head. “It’s not. Not at all. Baby …” He rubbed his forehead and stepped forward.
“It’s feels good to let my guard down once in a while,” she went on, “and to be … imperfect, and to know you like that part of me, too. That I can just be me with you. Yes, I’m this. And that.” She pointed at her demon’s face and down at the crushed targets. “The strong girl who will stand up for herself and can hold her own, but I’m also Kade. The girl who sometimes doesn’t know what to say and gets her feet tripped up. Just … why can’t I be both? I need you to let me be both.”
Cole’s head bowed slightly as he looked at her and took her hand. “God … I’m sorry. If that’s what you got from anything I’ve been saying, I’m really sorry. You are both, Sparrow, and thank the gods for that because you might not have been. You could’ve become like steel after everything you’ve been through, like a killer, but you’re not. You are a girl who, yes, is just a girl sometimes—most of the time, thank all that is Celestial.” He shook his head, staring at her.
“You’re the girl who gets shy, and nervous, and yeah, sometimes a little bit clumsy.” He grinned. “And I love that about you. If you weren’t like that—if you were just strong and fierce all the time,” he shrugged, “you wouldn’t be you. You’d be like a robot. A machine someone created.” He threaded their fingers together. “I wouldn’t want you any other way than the way you are. To me, you’re the best of both worlds. I thought you knew. I thought I made that clear.” He tugged her toward him, a hand on her hip. “You’re a girl who can be vulnerable, and loving, and caring while likely kicking more ass than anyone.” He kissed her on the forehead. “Maybe even me. Maybe.”
She wrapped her arm around his waist. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Not to mention, you’re the hottest thing I have ever seen.” He took in her wings, wrapping them both in a protective cage. “Add that to the rest, and no one can ever compare to you. Not that I’m comparing. I’m sorry if you thought I wanted you to be impervious. I don’t. I just want you safe.”
She shrugged a little. “Just so we’re on the same page.”
“We are definitely on the same page.” He glanced at the vineyard in the distance. “You wanna see it?”
“Could we?” She smiled.
“Like I said before, I want to show you everything you’ve never seen. Come on.” He put the sack on his back and reached for her hand again. Kade shifted into her human form, and both of them trudged across the Italian countryside.
“I think there are sheep over there,” Cole said. “Is that as good as cows?”
She didn’t answer, just wrapped her arms around him and kissed his neck.
Chapter 16
“Have they amassed?” The man paced impatiently across the aged stone floor of the highest turret in the Gesuati church, checking the view from the windows as he passed. There was only a sliver of moon this night—the darkness so absolute he doubted if even a person’s shadow would be present on the Venice streets below.
“They have, sir. On the roof as you requested.” The hunched servant bowed, clawed feet scratching the floor. “They await your order.”
“And the Keeper?”
“He is where you left him, sir, of course. In the tunnels.” The gargoyle’s voice was nothing more than a croak.
“And the Leygate?” The man turned again, still pacing in front of the two small windows lining the turret.
“Blacked and rerouted, sir. All has been cleaned as you ordered, as well.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, the ring on his left hand snagged the lining of his long double-breasted coat. He yanked back, inspecting the facets of the moonstone gem.
“Is it all right, sir?” The gargoyle edged up a step and stopped at the abrupt stare he was given for moving without a command to do so.
The man’s focus went to the silver band wrapping his finger. All in order, no damage. He checked again. The onyx was flawless, spectacular in the way it wound the moonstone. Such a beautiful and ancient relic. Its power had been nothing less than miraculous. Simply ask it a question, and it answered. Kevin Sparrow might have been weak fifty percent of the time, but he had proven his worth over the past few years, there was no doubt. The Anamolia was close.
With a relieved sigh, he lowered his hand and began to pace in front of the turret window again. “Tell the horde to keep their position on the roof. Out of sight,” he eyed the gargoyle. “Release the drone. I want the girl’s exact location in Verona.”
The little cafe overlooked the River Adige, like so many of the cafes did, and had a patio with small round tables for two draped in white tablecloths. Kade watched all the boats docked up alongside the banks as they were led to one of the tables. Cole pulled out a chair for her, scooting it in as she sat down with a stupid smile on her face.
“Hungry?” he asked, sitting across from her.
“Starving.” She picked up her menu, but she didn’t speak Italian, much less read it. Some of the words on the menu seemed to have similar root meanings as Latin words, but she wasn’t really up to trying to figure them all out. She glanced at Cole across the table.
He grinned. “Need help?”
“You speak Italian, too, I assume?” Kade raised a brow. Cole had bought the train tickets and spoken a few words to the attendant, said hello to passersby on the street, and to the waiter, but a lot of foreign travelers spoke a few words just to get by.
“People don’t speak Latin here anymore, so yeah, I know Italian.”
“Right.” Of course he did. Smart much?
He gave her a wider grin. “What?”
“Any other languages I should know about?”
“French.”
“Geesh. Seriously?”
“My mom was French.” He looked down at his menu.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have … I was just curious.” Kade gave him a sad smile, not wanting to hit any nerves about his mom, who’d disappeared during the attack on the Araneum three years before.
“It’s fine. I want you to know everything about me.”
“Three languages is a lot.”
“Four, actually. With English.” He shrugged. “The more languages you know, the easier new ones are to learn. You trust me to order for both of us?” He scanned his menu. “Anything you hate? Can’t eat?”
“No. I trust you.” She set her own menu down, staring at him as he read.
“They serve wine here, you know, in Italy.” He stared over the top of his menu at her, a darkness she knew well overtaking his eyes. “We’re legal at sixteen here.”
Her cheeks heated from the look he was giving her. There were way too many things that pertained to being legal in her mind. “You said Italy.” She raised a brow.”
“You beat me to it earlier.” He smiled. “Gotta watch that temper.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. Italy is a big place.”
She tilted her head in agreement. “I guess you’re used to drinking since you grew up in Rome?”
“It’s not forbidden here like it is in the States, so you could say that. Beer and wine, anyway. Liquor is eighteen and older.” His stare remained steady on hers.
As honest as Cole always was with her, there was a darkness within him, and Kade couldn’t help but sense so much more in him, so much mystery she had to learn.
“Wine.” She knew less about drinking than she knew about boys, which up until a few weeks ago, since she started dating Cole, was basically nothing.
“Wine it is.” He closed the menu. “Tired? You look tired. Your eyes are glazed.”
She crossed them, heightening the effect. “Very tired.”
“Maybe wine is a bad idea then. It can make you sleepy.”
Kade shrugged, wanting to live a little—live a lot truly—after being under lock and key for the last seventeen years. “I think I’m good. Maybe I’ll actually sleep well for once.”
The waiter strolled up to their table. “Buona sera.”
Cole directed his attention to their server. “Buona sera.”
Kade had heard Cole speak in Latin a few times, but since she spoke it, too, it never sounded all that interesting, but hearing him speak Italian, truly speak it, a language she didn’t know, had her almost drooling. Once again, she found herself wondering what he saw in her.
Cole checked his menu and rattled off the order to the waiter, “Vorremmo iniziare con il Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, cozze bianco, Carciofi alla romana, e Trennette al pesto.”
“Molto bene.” The waiter took their menus.
“What did you order?” Kade leaned forward.
“Wine, mussels, Roman artichokes, and pesto pasta. Yum.” He reached a hand out, holding hers.
“You miss it here. Living here.” It wasn’t a question. She could hear it in his voice, see it in his eyes. The last few hours were maybe the most calm she’d ever seen Cole.
“Sometimes. It’s as close as home is for me here.”
“It fits you,” she said, sweeping her thumb over his hand, “It should, I guess.”
“I guess.” He leaned closer. “Except for the fact that this isn’t really where I’m from, you know? I grew up in Italy, yeah, but,” he winked and glanced into the sky, “we’re from up there.”
“True,” she conceded, still finding it hard to absorb. “You have a better handle on that idea than I do.”
“Agreed. I see that. Once all of this is over and you’re cleared by the Eldership to not be a massive threat to, well, life as the Primordial know it,” he gave a cocky smirk, “I’ll take you to the Celestial Plane, to Stella Urbem. You need to know where you come from in the grand sense. You need to see it.”
