Page 24 of Wolf of Ashes
I stare back at her in alarm as she stiffens.
“Uh, keeper…?” I reach for him without taking my eyes off the angel. “I think she’s waking up.”
He’s immediately on alert, glaring at the woman. “That’s inconvenient. The compulsion must be wearing off.”
I’m already sliding off my chair and preparing to either fight or get the hell out of here. Both will be easier now that I feel strong again. “Well, do something about it, yes? Unless spilling angelic blood is suddenly appealing to you.”
The keeper extends his hand and dark light flicks from his fingers, speeding across the air and hitting the angel in the face like a splat of food.
“There’s no need to be afraid.” He speaks quickly. “We aren’t even here.”
The dark light sits on the surface of her skin and, for a second, I don’t think it’s going to work a second time, but in the next moment, the woman’s eyes go blank and she resumes her task.
The keeper makes an unhappy sound in the back of his throat. “It seems my power of compulsion has a time limit.”
I reach forward and shove the bowl of stew away across the table. “That’s okay. Vegetables weren’t doing it for me, anyway.”
I grab the second jug of water and gulp it all down, checking the panthers’ progress eating their food. I’m happy to see that they’ve gnawed the raw meat all the way down to the bones.
They lick their lips and grin up at me.
“Burgers,” the keeper suddenly says. “We need burgers.”
“Huh?” My forehead creases until I remember that a burger is a combination of meat and bread. “Oh, yes, I know burgers.”
The keeper mimics the shadow panthers when he licks his lips as he backs away from the table. “Apparently, they’re delicious.”
The angels continue to go about their chores and I give them a quick backward glance before I follow the keeper from the kitchen into the corridor beyond it.
The maze of hallways leads us back to the atrium with the broken glass ceiling. From here, I can sense the way the air moves through the hallways beyond this room.
Now that I’m not starving, my senses are back to full speed and so are my thought processes.
I can discern multiple possible exits, but before I can point out the nearest one, the keeper surges ahead of me in that same direction.
His ears have shifted again into the shape of a wolf’s, so I assume he’s channeling his strongest aural abilities to determine the quickest way out.
Before we can take more than a few steps in that direction, the air fills with a dangerous scent.
It’s like inhaling cold, winter air, but not the icy air in the keeper’s realm. This scent is crisp and pure.
An angel appears in the doorway ahead of us, blocking the way.
She’s quite possibly the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, but then, as of now, I can count the number of females I’ve laid eyes on at exactly four. That’s if I don’t count the female panther.
The only imperfection on her perfectly smooth, porcelain skin is a faint smudge on her left cheek. It could be from soot or dirt. I have no way of knowing which.
Her gaze rakes over my underwear-clad form and across the keeper. She draws a sharp breath and her hand flies to her hair, withdrawing a golden pin in the blink of an eye.
I’m not sure what she thinks she’s going to do with a hairpin.
Poke me in the eye, maybe?
In the next moment, it transforms into a golden sword with a gleaming, sharp blade.
Okay, well, she could definitely poke me in the eye with that.
“Who are you?” she demands to know, her voice strong with not even a hint of fear in it as she holds the sword in front of herself.
