The angel at the front of the guard was still scowling at her, but now it looked more like a challenge than anything else. She hadn’t jumped back like the others, and he didn’t know why. Apparently, half of Michael’s choir had toasted their brains and were a tad on the slow side.
Never one to be outdone, Alice closed her eyes, and reached for the dull ache inside her, the one that came from Castor. Flames skipped around her wrists, easily, lightly, and she held them out for the new arrival to see, trying not to look too smug about it. He just carried on scowling, so she shrugged and turned her back on him. “No sense of humour,” she said as she wandered across to Mallory. He raised an eyebrow at her.
“What have I told you about playing nice with the other children, Alice?”
“Sorry...”
“What is it with you two? You and Vin. You make me feel like I’m stuck with two bickering kids all the time. If it’s not one of you, it’s the other.”
“Are we done here?” Zadkiel was clearly anxious to move. Not surprising, given there was a phalanx of angels on fire standing in the middle of the road.
“You’re the boss,” Mallory muttered, scuffing his boots in the sand while Vin stared out to sea saying nothing, his eyes hidden, as always, behind his sunglasses. Zadkiel looked them up and down with something approaching bemusement.
“Alright, then.”
And with that, the burning angels simply vanished, as did Castor and Pollux and the prisoners. Suddenly, there were only the four of them, alone on the causeway and with the salt wind ruffling their hair.
“Nice trick,” said Alice. Zadkiel stepped around Mallory and folded his arms, looking her up and down.
“A trick, is it? How can you be sure?”
“Because I can still feel them.”
And she could. She could still feel the heat of the flames on her skin. Besides, Zadkiel had pulled this one on her before, and she wasn’t falling for it again. He tipped his head on one side and gave her an oddly approving look. “I can see I’m going to have to keep an eye on you.” And then he smiled and turned towards the island at the far end of the causeway. “Shall we?”
Obediently, they fell into step behind him, and even though she couldn’t see them or hear them, Alice felt the heat of Michael’s choir, her choir, following her every step of the way.
Whatever Mallory and Zadkiel were discussing, ahead of her on the causeway, it was serious. Neither of them looked happy. Mallory, in fact, looked deeply uncomfortable. It wasn’t surprising. After all, he and Michael didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye, and there was still the matter of Gabriel.
From what Alice could gather, Mallory and Gabriel had history: something that went much further back than her arrival on the scene, or even Mallory’s doomed attempts to help her mother. There was more to it than Mallory had let on, even before Gabriel blamed the three of them for having lost his favourite, Gwyn, to the Fallen, and his own Archangel status. Gabriel had gone from Archangel to Earthbound in one fell swoop, and whether that was their fault or not, Alice couldn’t imagine a version of events where he’d be happy to see them. The comfort she took in knowing that Michael was there too was... limited. She shot another glance at Zadkiel. So far, he seemed slightly less unbalanced than most of the other angels; perhaps there was hope yet.
The moment she thought of his name, Zadkiel paused, the rhythm of his stride breaking as he cocked his head to one side, almost as though he was listening.
Which he was.
Alice mentally kicked herself.
Zadkiel was the Archangel with power over the mind, wasn’t he? Of course he could hear what was going on inside her head. Just like Michael could, if he wanted to.
Still kicking herself, Alice decided that from now on, she was going to think about kittens and flowers and very little else while they were on Michael’s turf.
Pretty. Fluffy. Sparkly. Yes.
There was a snort from up ahead, and Zadkiel shook his head, turning his attention back to Mallory.
“Alright?” Vin fell into step alongside her, his hands in his pockets. He was kicking a stone ahead of him as he walked, watching it bounce along the road.
“Ask me later.”
“I know the feeling.”
“What about you?” It felt like ever since Vin had turned up at Adriel’s desk, he had been holding back, not quite himself. Alice had largely put this down to their uncomfortable proximity to Florence. But there was something more.
Vin sighed. “You want the honest answer or the cheery one?”
“Depends which is the real one, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, don’t start with your... words and that.” He laughed, but it wasn’t a particularly happy laugh. He kicked the stone again. “Thing is, I’m tired. And I don’t just mean... tired. I mean tired. Like deep-down, no amount of sleep’s going to fix it, bone-cold, dirt-tired.”
“‘Dirt tired’? That’s a thing?”
“Yes, it’s a thing. Shut up. I’m talking here.” Another kick. “Things are harder now. Not that they’ve ever exactly been what you’d call easy, but lately” – he tipped his head back and stared at the sky – “lately, I’ve been wondering what it’s all for, you know? I mean, we kick the shit out of each other, and half the time I don’t even know why. Does it achieve anything? All this time, I feel like we’ve been running just to stand still. Keeping the balance... what good has that done? We’re still fucking losing, however you look at it.” He booted the stone so hard that it smacked into the back of Mallory’s leg, just below his knee. Mallory immediately spread his wings and leapt into the air, twisting as he jumped and pulling out both of his guns. Zadkiel stopped walking and stared at him as, realising it was nothing to worry about, he sank back to the ground.
“Not that that was an overreaction...” the Archangel muttered. Alice and Vin both simply shrugged. “You get used to it,” she said, while Vin looked for another stone to kick.
The Archangel was now staring at all three of them. “You’re all completely insane.”
“You should know,” Mallory said as he tucked his guns away. “Are we waiting for something?” He gestured along the causeway and started walking again.
Alice looked past him, and past Zadkiel (who was trying not to look flustered, and not entirely pulling it off) to the buildings ahead. Even from the causeway, the sheer scale of them seemed impossible.
“It’s something, isn’t it?” said Vin, following her gaze.
“Have you ever been here before?”
“Me? Are you kidding? Michael’s been known to rip the heads off unexpected visitors.”
“Doesn’t surprise me.”
“What d’you think he would have done to us?”
“I’m not even going to consider it.” She thought for a moment. “Besides, I’m not sure whether I’d have got off easier or not. Which is twice the reason not to ever think about it. Anyway. You were saying.”
“I was?”
“You were apparently in the midst of some kind of existential crisis.”
“What? You don’t believe angels can have those?”
“Not at all. I don’t believe you know what ‘existential’ means.”
Vin turned towards her, and Alice found herself staring at her distorted reflection in his sunglasses. She could see the glare of the sea, and small white clouds scudding behind her head, but however hard she looked for them, she couldn’t see his eyes behind the dark lenses. “Are you going to take those off at any point, Vin?”