His arms were still firmly around her. She realized that her vertigo had faded. In the darkness of the clock tower, she could see the moon floating above the city, half in shadow, half in light.
“Why are you helping me, Levi?” she asked.
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” he said quietly. “I can tell you’re scared of something. You put on a brave face, but you wouldn’t be at the Lenormand School if you weren’t running from something. If I had the power, I’d deal with whoever it was myself. But for now, I can make sure you keep a step ahead.”
She absorbed this in silence for a minute. “That’s it? You’re not going to ask me who it is?”
“No. If you wanted to tell me, you would.”
His shoulders tensed as three seraphim flew past the clock tower, their great wings beating hard. In the distance, Kal saw more angels speeding above the city. They were a common enough sight, but usually they were headed to and from the Angel Tower. These . . . well, the way they were quartering the streets below, they seemed to be hunting for something.
It can’t be me, she thought with a shiver. Can it?
“You’re getting cold,” Levi said. “We should go down.” He stepped back and held out a hand. Kal took it. They descended the long, twisting staircase, not speaking until they reached the street.
“Give me one week,” Levi said. “I’ll have your transit papers by then. Do you want to use the name Kyra Navarra?”
She shook her head. “Just make up a name. I don’t care what it is.” She bit her lip. “Can you buy me a cheap ticket on one of the ferries to Bactra? I promise I’ll pay you back.”
Once she crossed the wall for the last time, she didn’t want to waste a minute getting out of the city.
“Of course. Let’s meet at the docks. Say, nine o’clock.” He tugged his cap on. “Can I walk you to the school? Make sure you get back safe?”
She smiled. “I’ll be fine. Thank you, Levi. For everything.”
In the moonlight, his face seemed both young and impossibly old at the same time. “It’s my pleasure. Goodnight, Kyra.” He flipped his collar up and walked away. Even his stride was athletic and graceful.
“You think he’s too good to be true,” Durian remarked.
Kal turned. He was leaning against a lamppost, the ember of a cigarette glowing in the dark. He wore the too-small brown suit from his wake.
“You don’t even smoke,” she muttered.
Durian flicked the butt into the gutter. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
Kal sighed. Levi had vanished into the night.
“Not too good to be true,” she said with a sad smile. “Just too good for me.”
Chapter 27
Cathrynne
She woke to the smell of beeswax. For a bad moment, she thought she was back in Markus’s house. She jerked to sitting, heart racing with the urge to run or fight, but the view out the window was of a garden, wild and overgrown yet familiar.
Beneath it was a toy chest with a snake made of green felt curled up on top, next to a tatty stuffed cat with stripes that were bleached nearly white on one side by the sunlight spilling into the room, as if it had not been moved in years.
Their names came to her instantly: Fang and Henry.
Cathrynne’s pulse slowed as she realized that she’d escaped the monstrous Viktorovich family and was in her childhood bedroom.
It was too surreal.
She’d never expected to return. And once she’d gotten over the rage and betrayal and homesickness of a child who’d been given to strangers across the sea, Cathrynne had never wanted to. The girl who’d been driven away in the backseat of a Jentzen Mirage was a stranger. Nothing to do with her anymore. She was a cypher of Kirith now, and the chapter house was her family.
But chance had brought her back—and there was no escaping that.
She felt terribly thirsty and downed a glass of water that was sitting on the bedside table. Her feet were bandaged with fresh gauze. The rest of her felt like one big bruise. On the plus side, she still had all her teeth, and nothing seemed actually broken.
