Page 111 of Angel Lost

Shit. Now I have to play hunt the Zephyr, again. “Do you know what time?”

“No.” Her expression softens as my shoulders droop. “It must have been yesterday though. Night shift.”

I nod my thanks and trudge out of the building. Last night? So, while we were relaxing, drinking, assuming he was being looked after. While I was putting off a difficult conversation, he’d already left the hospital. Please don’t let him have realized we werepartying.

Please.

He’s vanished. I even checked the observatory, sneaking in behind a professor, but nope. I gnaw on my lip. Where else could he be? Not in his room, not the observatory, and not with us. Surely, he’s not holed up with some bitch somewhere. Actually, if he’s pissed at all of us, that’s probably exactly what he’s done. Gone to find solace in sex.

He’s impossible.

Chapter Thirty-nine: Lorelei

As soon as my feet hit aether academy soil I start my search again. Except this time, I’m looking for Reye. She’s in trouble with Davina, and it’s my fault. Despite her stupid affected mannerisms, Reye isn’t all that bad.

Her room, however, is resolutely empty. What is this? Hide from Lorelei day? When she’s not meditating, not in the canteen, and not in classes, I give up and ask. None of the students know, except Nyx. That girl sees everything.

“In the treatment facility, and it’s not even her day” is all she’ll give me. But the little furrow between her eyebrows has my lunch settling in my stomach like lead.

It is Kai’s day, though. He mentioned it before I left. A quick tug on the ley lines and a message pings his way, telling him to meet me after his session.

Afternoon classes drag, each minute stretching unbearably. Reye’s absence gnaws at the edges of my thoughts, something about it wrong. The second the bell stops ringing, my feet are already moving—out the door, across the grounds.

A weeping willow outside the treatment facility offers cover. I lean against its trunk, arms folded tight, waiting.

Kai better meet me.

Every time the door opens, I straighten, the hanging branches brushing the top of my head. A few students exit, walking cautiously down the path back to the dorms, legs wobbly, features pinched. A couple of angelsin white lab coats step out next and stand in the weak evening sunshine, clearly having a break.

“It seems a little harsh to send her back to second stage,” the older of the two says, drawing on a tiny black cigarette.

“It will teach her to stay in line,” the other replies. “Plus, it’ll only make her more pliable. The king will be thankful.”

Reye. They’re talking about Reye.

The older angel stubs his cigarette out on the ground, nudging the butt under the outermost branches of my tree. I freeze. “If she makes it that far. We’ve never forced someone to redo,” he adds. “King won’t thank us if she doesn’t make it.”

“She’ll make it.” The angel’s sinister smile makes my blood run cold. “She just might not be quite the same afterward.”

They vanish back inside. Reye’s being punished for helping me. She didn’t evendomuch. I didn’t get far with her map before I found Kai. So really, she did nothing. And I’ve been, what? Partying it up with some demons from another dimension while she’s going through goddesses know what.

“Boo.”

I shriek, swinging round and lashing out in the same breath. My fist connects with a crunch, and Kai doubles over.

“Are you shitting me, L?” he gasps.

“I’m sorry!”

“You can punch harder than that, and what in all the hells was that scream?”

I stare at him, then burst out laughing. I offer him my hand, and he takes it, pulling me down to the dirt with him. I land with a surprisedoomphon top of him.

Kai grins up at me, our noses less than an inch apart. “If you wanted to get up close, you only had to say…”

Sneaky…I scowl, ignoring the way my breath catches and my pulse kicks up.

With a smoothness I can only marvel at, he flips us. His weight presses into me and my mind blanks. Kai abruptly jumps to his feet, yanking me up behind him, and strides out from under the cover of the tree.

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