She was beautiful.
Luc didn’t know how, but Irindi had changed. Her entire presence had shifted. Her light, something that had always been harsh and blinding, had become a soft, golden embrace. The once-searing heat that accompanied that light, a reminder of the punishing burns Irindi had lashed him with, now felt like a warm bath.
Luc stared, transfixed, at the flickering silver glow of Irindi’s form. She was like the center of a flame, trembling and impossible to touch. He held out his hand to try anyway.
“Luc?” Ingrid’s strangled voice pierced him. He dropped his hand.
Looking around, he saw that he’d taken at least five or more strides away from Marco and Gaston. He didn’t recall moving.
“Luc, what’s happening?” Ingrid asked, her voice cleaving through what remained of his trancelike state.
“Come.” Irindi beckoned.
Luc took a step back. “I can’t.”
He couldn’t leave. Not now. Not when Ingrid needed him most. He couldn’t leave her ever.
“Don’t be a fool,” Marco grunted where he remained prone.
“I’m not,” Luc said, his mind clearing as Irindi’s summoning warmth began to cool.
He couldn’t leave Ingrid. He couldn’t leave the Dispossessed, not when Axia and her demons were sharpening their teeth on the human world. The gargoyles had chosen him to lead. He was elder.
“You wish to remain cursed?” Irindi asked. She hadn’t needed to. She knew every thought streaming through Luc’s mind. Every emotion.
Remain cursed, or finally, after centuries of denial, be allowed entry into God’s kingdom. A place he had once dreamed of constantly, wondering what it looked like and who might be there. His parents? His sister, Suzette? And then he’d met Ingrid and he hadn’t given God’s kingdom another envious thought.
“I do,” Luc answered.
He felt the cold clench of his stomach and the sensation of falling as Irindi’s glow sputtered.
“Very well,” she said, and then her light flickered out completely.
Ingrid watched, unblinking, as Luc spoke to the angel that no one else—at least no one else standing—could see. The air was humid and thick within the library, and a sudden wind outdoors had started gusting against the tall, mullioned windows. Ingrid’s skirts hung like wet canvas around her legs. She’d noticed the fire’s flames shorten to cautious licks as well. Was this what it felt like to be in the presence of something holy?
Ingrid didn’t like it.
Nor did she like it when Marco and Gaston both leaped to their feet, each of them immediately rounding on Luc.
“What were you thinking?” Marco snarled.
Luc remained composed, though he swiftly glanced Ingrid’s way. Marco followed the direction of Luc’s gaze and laughed. The sound was harsh and mocking, and without his having to say a word, Ingrid knew Marco believed Luc had made a horrible mistake.
“I am all curiosity,” Gabby’s Daicrypta friend, Hugh, said from where he stood at the empty birdcage. That he was Robert Dupuis’s son had stunned and frightened Ingrid at first, but now that she’d met him, she understood why her sister had placed her trust in the man.
“Has the angel gone, then?” Mama asked from her spot on the sofa. Poor Mama. Angels and demons and gargoyles, all on the same day.
Gaston crossed a meaningful glance with his human before nodding. Constantine patted Mama’s hand, while his valet and protector returned to glaring at Luc.
“I don’t know what to say, so I’ll say nothing,” Gaston murmured, and promptly left the library.
Ingrid stared at Luc and Marco in turn and thought she might scream. “Will one of you please tell us all what has happened?”
Marco’s false grin fell away. He followed Gaston out of the library without bothering to meet Ingrid’s pointed stare.
“Irindi can’t help us,” Luc finally said, his words clipped by some emotion Ingrid had trouble reading. Anger? Sadness?
There had been more to the angel’s visit. Everyone in the library knew as much.
“Won’t be attending Sunday services after this,” the husky London Alliance leader, Benjamin, said before gesturing to the woman dressed as a man. Nadia was her name, and she and Benjamin slipped off to seclude themselves near a row of encyclopedias.
Only one red-capped Roman and one Parisian member had been ordered to remain at Clos du Vie. They slowly cut their eyes away from Luc and reentered their own conversations.
Gabby and Nolan came forward. “She isn’t going to help at all?” Gabby was fuming. “What use is God if he turns his back on us?”
“He hasn’t turned his back on us,” Vander replied softly.
“Stick up for him all you like, Mr. Burke. I, however, am not convinced.” Ingrid’s sister walked away, toward the sofa where Mama still sat. Nolan clapped Vander on the shoulder in tacit support before trailing Gabby.
A second passed before Ingrid realized she, Luc, and Vander had been left alone.