The City of Flame and Shadow

by Kim Richardson

  Milo’s words of encouragement did nothing to ease the anxiety that coated her mind. Something wasn’t right about this meeting, but she didn’t want to dampen that proud look on his face. She left it at that and hoped she was wrong.

  Alexa followed Milo as they climbed the staircase to the second floor and passed through tall French doors, which opened to a larger room.

  She found herself in a large, bright, high-ceilinged room. Tall, arched windows let in yellow and orange light from the evening sun. Two long desks partitioned the room. The legs were carved into angels with their wings supporting the table top.

  In the room sat seven archangels and seven Heads of the Sensitive Houses. Everyone was positioned across from each another behind the desks, except for Metatron, who sat on an elegant velvet sofa with an arched, gilded back in a shadowy corner of the room. Leaning close to him were Michelle and Jasmine, who much to Alexa’s annoyance looked even more beautiful in the mortal world, despite their skin-tight black dresses and six-inch heels.

  The archangel Jeremiel, the Minister of Ministration and Peace and head of the High Council, sat in the middle, while the archangel Gabriel, the male archangel in charge of Operations where Alexa had excelled in her training, sat to his right. Next to him were the archangels Ariel and Raphael. On Jeremiel’s left sat the archangel Ramiel, the male archangel who ran the Hall of Souls, and another female archangel Alexa had never seen before.

  She wore a golden crown above a heart-shaped face, and black kohl lined her light, twinkling eyes. Her dark hair was adorned with hanging braids and gold beads. And wrapped around her neck was a coin-covered bib necklace with multitudes of gem-studded asps and ankhs. The archangel looked like she was about to perform on Broadway, draped in costume jewelry, but Alexa had the strange feeling those were real jewels.

  She was strikingly beautiful, much to Alexa’s swelling irritation being surrounded by too-perfect females. Still, there was something cold and icy about her.

  When Alexa turned away, her eyes moved to the other table where the mortals sat. A serious woman with white hair looked her way. Valerie, the Head of House Uriel, did not smile. Her eyes held a cold and unwelcoming look. Clearly she regretted helping Alexa when she’d first arrived at Hallow Hall.

  Next to her sat the most beautiful man she’d ever seen, with a long raven-black braid and blue eyes that sparkled against his almost porcelain skin. Tall, roughly handsome, and dangerous like an exquisite sword, Michael, Head of House Michael, watched her with eyes like a hawk. She looked away, her gut clenching in that familiar guilty feeling remembering when she’d accused him of murdering those mortal girls a few months back.

  Her eyes quickly scanned the length of the table. Alexa didn’t recognize the other mortals, but she knew they represented the last five archangel houses.

  Alexa couldn’t help but notice how the angels and the mortals deliberately sat far away from each other. And while the archangels looked upon the mortals with respect, the mortals were thin lipped with deep frowns, as though this was the last place on Earth they wished to be.

  The others’ hushed voices gave Alexa an odd feeling of foreboding, as though they had just entered the house of a dying person.

  The female archangel dripping in jewelry hurried towards them, her gown of chiffon and silks of vibrant gold and silver hues swishing at her heels. Her golden skin was covered in glitter.

  “I’m sorry, dears,” she said as she ushered them out and closed the doors behind her. “But this meeting is strictly for the archangels and the Sensitives’ Heads of Houses.” Her eyes moved to Alexa and remained fixed on her for a beat too long without saying a word. Alexa’s insides tightened at the woman’s strange, star-like eyes, as though she was measuring Alexa, seeking out something within her. Alexa was tempted to tell this woman to back off and stop staring at her, but she was an archangel—Alexa’s superior in every way—so she did nothing.

  Milo gave the archangel a look made of equal parts confusion and distrust. “But we were asked to attend this meeting by the archangel Ariel.”

  The archangel pulled her eyes away from Alexa and looked at him, again for an uncomfortable amount of time without uttering a single word. Alexa could swear they lingered on Milo’s neck, on his snake-like sigil.

  The archangel raised two appraising eyebrows, her lips parted into a splendid smile. “You’ve been asked to attend should we need information from you,” she said finally. “If your presence is required, someone will come fetch you. Come along. You can wait with the others.” The archangel moved past them, her gown swaying behind her like a waterfall of starlit glimmer, and pushed open the only other door in the hallway. “There we are. You should be comfortable enough in here. Now that you’re settled, I must get back.” Without another word, the archangel left them at the threshold and disappeared back through the French doors.

  Alexa looked at Milo. “What’s with the Miss Cleopatra archangel?”

  Milo cast a glance behind them. “She’s the archangel Sabrielle. She’s supposed to be helping Metatron develop new battle strategies. She’s some sort of war expert.”

  “Really? She looks more like a fairy princess than a military strategist,” said Alexa. Then she realized that perhaps that’s what the archangel intended. She wanted everyone to think she was some fragile beauty queen when in fact, she was a battlefield commander.

  “I thought you said we were the only other angels summoned here?” Alexa said as she peeked over his shoulder to the room that lay beyond the door.

  “That’s what Ariel told me,” answered the angel. “I guess she was wrong.”

  Alexa followed Milo through the door and stepped into a den-like room. A fire blazed in a stone hearth with comfortable chairs nestled around it, a perfect spot to cuddle up with a good book and read for hours. Her eyes traveled to the sofas packed with plush pillows—and froze.

  Rachel and Matt sat across from them on a sofa, their faces mirroring Alexa’s look of surprise.

  And on the opposite side of the room, standing next to the only window, was Erik.

  CHAPTER 6

  FOR A MOMENT, THEIR EYES MET, and Alexa felt a tightness in her throat. Erik’s face had been furrowed in thought, but then he looked past her and his eyes flashed, his face darkening. With his hands jammed into his pockets, he looked at Milo with loathing.

  “I told you she’d be here,” said Rachel, and Alexa pulled her eyes away from Erik. Rachel’s face twisted as though she’d just tasted something sour and was about to spit it out. She was just as beautiful as Alexa remembered, all fair and light, but strong and fierce and deadly.

  Matt shifted uncomfortably next to her, a tight smile on his face when he looked at Alexa. It was as though he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to smile or not, but did just out of politeness.

  Alexa didn’t like to be caught off guard and unprepared. She’d expected to see angels, not mortals, and especially not Erik. With everything that had happened, she hadn’t given herself the time to think about him. And now here he was, face to face, and she had no idea how to act.

  But standing frozen in the middle of the room wasn’t helping her cause. She looked like an idiot, an idiot not in control, and it gave Erik power over her. That was unacceptable.

  Heat rose to Alexa’s face, and she clenched her fingers, her palms sticky. She hated how close her M-9 suit mimicked the real sensations of a human body. She hated that Erik still had that effect on her.

  Alexa wanted to kick herself. She had to be strong. As she felt life coming back to her legs, she followed Milo, who barely glanced at the mortals as he picked a spot next to an empty sofa across from the mortals. Alexa crossed the room—

  “Is that how you treat your friends? By ignoring them?”

  Alexa whirled around. A few weeks back, she would have cringed at his use of the word friends, but now she straightened, feeling more sure of herself than ever before. Too much had changed. She wasn’t sure how she felt about Erik, but sh
e wouldn’t cower at the sight of him. She could sense Milo’s eyes on her, but she kept hers locked on Erik.

  Erik stalked across the room and closed the distance between them, his face shifting into an angry red.

  Alexa couldn’t hide her surprise. “Friends?” Her eyes met Rachel’s for a brief moment. “Funny. Here I thought friends greeted each other with smiles, not with hatred in their eyes. I’m not getting any friendly vibes from this group, or you.”

  Rachel snorted. “The stiff’s right. We’re not friends. Friends don’t try to kill each other.”

  “Some do,” admitted Matt, who seemed to regret the words once he saw the scowl Rachel gave him. His coffee-colored skin darkened and he shrank against the pillows.

  Alexa felt Milo tense behind her. The last thing she needed was for the warrior angel to feel the need to fight her battles.

  “You took off before we had a chance to talk,” said Erik. He tried to hide the concern in his voice, but Alexa could hear it. “I still think we need to talk.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” said Alexa. She stared at the ground, at the spaces between the floor boards and everywhere except at Erik’s face.

  Erik was silent for a moment. “What about your memories? Did you get those back like you thought?”

  Alexa’s throat burned. A coldness grew in the pit of her stomach, the familiar ache that never healed. Her tongue felt thick and useless in her mouth, like an overgrown sausage that took up too much space and kept her from speaking.

  “She lost her memories?” laughed Rachel without humor. “She has amnesia? How can angels have amnesia? Aren’t you supposed to be super-beings? How can you have a brain disease when you’re not even a real person? Can’t you see that…that thing is lying? It just wants attention and came up with some pitiful story about having amnesia so you’d feel sorry for it.”

  Anger returned in Alexa, shredding away the moments of awkwardness. When she looked up, she saw Erik’s face change. The look made a shiver run over her skin.

  “No,” answered Alexa, her voice dangerously calm. “I still can’t remember my past.”

  Rachel snorted, but Erik ignored her. “What’s the Legion doing about it?”

  “I don’t think the Legion can do anything—”

  “The Legion has more pressing matters,” said Milo, cutting in as he stepped around Alexa to stand facing Erik. A look of cold menace spread across his face.

  The two were complete opposites. Where Erik was tall, dark, and handsome in that rugged quarterback type of way, Milo was ethereal, golden, deadly, and commanding. Erik was tall, but Milo was six inches taller, thicker, and with more muscles.

  She caught Milo watching her, but she didn’t understand what flashed in his eyes or the strange tightness she felt inside her chest.

  “And I wasn’t speaking to you, angel,” said Erik, surprising Alexa that he didn’t use his favorite word—stiff. Erik’s eyes moved to the snake mark on Milo’s neck, and he frowned.

  Before he had the chance to ask about it, Alexa blurted, “Milo’s right. The Legion has more important matters to deal with than me right now. There are lives at stake here. I care more about doing the right thing than fixing what’s wrong with me at the moment.”

  “You can’t fix what’s already dead,” muttered Rachel, and Alexa shot her a glare. She kept her fingers in a tight grip, if only to steady her quivering hands.

  She hated that Erik brought up her memory loss in front of Matt and Rachel. Especially Rachel, who had already started to use it to taunt her. She wished she’d never told him.

  “What’s taking so long,” whined Rachel as she leaned back into the sofa, her long blonde hair falling past her chest. “We’ve been here for two hours. If they don’t need our help, why did they make us come here in the first place?”

  “Beats me,” said Matt. He began tapping his fingers on the screen of his phone.

  Alexa pushed the tightness from her chest and looked straight at Erik. “Why were you asked to come here? Have they shared anything about what’s going on in this meeting?”

  Erik cocked his head and jammed his hands back in his front pockets, his lips a thin line.

  “You just said we were friends,” said Alexa, carefully emphasizing on the word friends. “Friends share information. Friends help each other out.”

  Erik looked at her for a long time. “Valerie and Michael haven’t shared much,” he said finally. “All I know is that the Legion called for an emergency meeting and we were asked to come—”

  “Forced, you mean,” grumbled Rachel, her face spotted in red blotches. “It’s not like they gave us a choice to come or not. They never asked. Because if they had, I would have refused.”

  “The Legion requested a meeting,” repeated Erik, ignoring Rachel. “Michael and Valerie asked us to come along in case we were needed.”

  Alexa tried not to look too disappointed. She shared a look with Milo before saying, “Basically, none of us really knows why we’re here—”

  The door flew open and a white German Shepard bounded into the room.

  “Thought I’d find you here,” said Lance as he trotted across the den with his head held high, his tail wagging behind him.

  Matt pointed to the door. “How did you open that door?” He was looking at Lance’s feet like he was expecting them to turn into human hands.

  Lance perked up like Matt had just given him a compliment. “I have many talents, my dear fellow. Opening doors is just one of them. If you must know, I can—”

  “Lance,” said Alexa, stepping next to the dog. “What are you doing here?”

  “Ah-ha.” Lance sat on the floor. “Spying of course,” confessed the dog. His tongue lolled out from his jaw.

  Alexa leaned closer. “Spying, spying?” She couldn’t help the grin that spread across her lips.

  Lance beamed, as much as a dog could smile, and cocked his head towards the door. “Thought you might want to know what they’re saying in there.”

  “Tell us what you heard,” said Milo before Alexa could respond. She felt him brush up against her as he moved closer to the dog.

  “Mostly,” began Lance, who didn’t seem bothered by Milo’s commanding tone, his yellow eyes falling on Alexa, “they’re talking about Alexa.”

  Alexa swallowed hard. His words hit her like a blow to the gut. “Me? Why?”

  Nausea and dread surfaced and receded in ever-tightening whirlpools. She was barely aware of Matt and Rachel suddenly standing next to Erik.

  “Not sure,” said the dog. “But they’re throwing around ideas about how to use your gift, your power, to fight Hades and the belphegor demons.”

  Alexa fell silent, trying to master the anger, disappointment, and shock. She didn’t like being cornered like this. She hated it. She barely understood her own powers. How could the Legion expect her to agree to this when she barely understood how it worked? How could they even ask this of her?

  “I knew something like this might happen.” Milo seemed pale, his eyes raging. “I knew there was a chance they might use you as a weapon.” He opened his mouth to say more but then decided to remain silent.

  “Use you as a weapon?” asked Erik, his face puzzled. “Alexa, what power? What’s he talking about?”

  But Alexa barely heard him as a cold, wild panic began to form inside of her, making her stiff and cold and a little angry.

  Erik looked down at the Scout. “You heard all that from behind closed doors? Are you sure that’s what you heard? Maybe you heard wrong?”

  “I didn’t get to be the best Scout in the Legion for my astounding ability to catch Frisbees or for my silky coat and pearly whites. I know what I heard. They want to use Alexa’s power.”

  Erik leaned closer to Alexa. She could smell the scent of soap on him. When he spoke his voice was soft and full of concern. “Alexa. What power is he talking about? What happened to you? First your memories and now this. What’s going on?”

  Alexa loo
ked up into Erik’s dark eyes. She didn’t know how to explain to him that Hades had changed her when she’d sacrificed herself to save him. It felt too personal. Too intimate. And the room was suddenly too crowded, too small. She did not want to share this with Rachel or even Matt.

  But then she realized that perhaps Erik had already told them?

  “I don’t like this,” said the angel warrior. His eyes met Alexa’s, and tension moved along his jawline up to his cheeks. “You were right, Alexa. I was an idiot, but you were right. This meeting is about using you—”

  “That’s not entirely accurate,” said a voice.

  Alexa whirled around. The archangel Sabrielle stood in the threshold. She looked amused and mildly annoyed to have been eavesdropped upon.

  The archangel flashed them a smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “Come along now, everyone. We’re ready for you.”

  CHAPTER 7

  THE GROUP FOLLOWED THE ARCHANGEL Sabrielle through the French doors, and Alexa felt the weight of everyone’s eyes on them as they filed in. Metatron still lounged on the sofa next to his guards, a cigar hanging in his mouth.

  Sabrielle motioned for them to stay standing while she sat back down in her seat next to the archangel Ramiel. Alexa felt as though she and the others were on trial.

  Alexa clasped her hands behind her back, mostly to keep them from shaking. Milo stood to her right, a mixture of apprehension and resentment on his face. His uneasiness only added another layer of dread to her already panicked mind.

  Erik, Rachel, and Matt stood on her left. From the corner of her eye, she saw Erik looking at her, but she focused all her attention on the two groups, hoping for a clue as to why and how they were planning to use her as a weapon.

  The hostility between the two sides was so thick she could almost see it, like a thin mist. From the anxious and angry expressions on Valerie’s and Michael’s faces, Alexa knew something had happened after they had stepped out.