Page 112 of Angel Lost

“What did you want, aether?” he asks coldly.

Asshole. As I go to answer, his eyes flick to the little blinking light above the door. Fuck. Cameras everywhere. Does this one have audio?

“I…wanted to ask questions about my aether and the rip at Fates,” I fumble. “I was looking for a professor, but I guess you might know.”

Kai gives me an imperceptible nod of approval.

“We can walk and talk. I’m on a tight schedule.” Kai tows me behind him into the treatment facility. We trail down a few corridors in silence before he yanks a door open seemingly at random and shoves me inside. He steps in quickly behind me. My back hits a wall.

“What the hell? A broom closet?” I hiss.

“No cameras, plus…you seemed to like getting close.” He grins, flashing his incisors. “Now what is it, little aether?”

I shove his chest. “I need help finding my friend.”

“Lost her? Careless.”

This time I smack him hard. “She’s being punished for helping me.”

Kai cocks his head. “Actions have consequences.”

I ignore him. “The angels in lab coats said she’s been sent back to the second stage.”

Kai stills. “What? That’s not right. Okay, we’ll find her. But we go in disguise. Too many cameras.”

“You’ll tattoo me, like Farrell? Can you make me a man? I always wanted to know what it’d feel like to have a—”

“No! No, Lorelei. No dicks. There’s no time for a tattoo…I can do some illusion work, it’ll last an hour or so, and cameras can’t even see through this one.” He offers me a wicked smile. “It’s a fae trick.”

“A dark trick?”

“Maybe. You want to go or not?” He holds out a hand and I interlace my fingers with his.

His other hand starts to weave intricate patterns around us. A low hum reverberates through the closet, the bucket next to my feet clattering over, drawn to his magnetism. A dark kind of energy pools around him, an inky mist that curls around the pair of us. The outline of his body shimmers, rearranging, reshaping. Mine has too. I feel no different, but my trunk is broader, my legs thick and hairy under the robe. Hedidmake me a guy. I wiggle surreptitiously, disappointed not to feel a dick knock against my legs. Apparently, he didn’t do acompleteillusion.

Kai orients the map Reye made with ease when I show him. Her funny scribbles were stairs. Of course they were. My calves ache from all the flights we descend. You’d never know we were so deep underground—the harsh strip lights make it brighter than a summer’s day. But far less friendly.

We reach a large set of steel doors with a keypad and card swipe to the side. Shit. The dean took back the access card I had. Kai, looking for all the world like the angel professor for meditation, steps up to the doors. He glances back over his shoulder.

“Sure about this? You’re sure they said back to second stage?”

“Yes.”

Kai sends a pulse of energy into the reader and quickly plugs in a code. The doors swing open, revealing a long white corridor that smells of cleaning chemicals. He yanks my arms, propelling me inside.

“Move it, idiot,” he hisses. “Even the professors we’re disguised as shouldn’t be down here at this time of day. But second stage is this way.”

My feet lead me toward a large glass wall.

No. No, no, no. This is too much.

The room behind the glass has no obvious door. No way in or out. The supe inside—not Reye—lies strapped down, wrists and ankles bound to a metal bed frame, her movements retrained by bands of iron. A tangleof wires coils around her chest, sensors attached like a crazed spiderweb, pulsing faintly. Sinister obsidian electrodes sit on her temples, wires leading away from them like tendrils of evil. The hum of the machines reaches me through the glass. At a loud, warning beep, the supe’s eyes dart around frantically. A jolt of electricity travels through her, the machines all working at once. Her jaw clenches, then her entire body spasms and her eyes roll back.

Kai tugs my arm, but I can’t look away. Her screams echo in my ears long after she’s unconscious.

“What new hell is this?”

Kai grips my chin, turning my head away from the room behind the glass. “This is second stage, Lorelei.”

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