Page 46 of Angel Lost

The child’s crumpled body.

The boys standing in front of the king. His demand.

The boys kneeling. Helplessness.

My choice. Kai.

Me, killing them all.

The bed dips beside me, and I blink the film of tears away.

“Lorelei?

“You can not tell them. They’d try to protect me.”

Val clears her throat. “And so they should,” she says, sounding genuinely confused.

“Not against the Angel King. I need to be stronger, ascended. The boys would go off half-cocked and put themselves in his sights. I’ll find a way around it.”

Val grips my arm and gives me a shake. “What? What will you find a way around?”

“Arranged marriage,” I whisper. The words taste like dust.

“He wants to marry you off? By what right?” Val slaps my shoulder. “And you don’t think your allegiance should know? Your Aeternum?”

Rubbing my shoulder, I scowl. After all the Angel King’s stupid trial put me through, every part of me is bruised. “They’ll know. Just not yet.”

Unascended supes against the king’s finest? They’d have no chance.

“Promise me, Val.” I pick at the blanket under us. “Promise me you won’t say a word. Not until I’m ready. Not until I can protect them too.”

The boys on their knees.

My choice. Kai.

Them all dead in the dirt.

Val slaps my hands away from the strand of wool I’ve started to unravel.

“Naeve would never forgive you for fucking up her blanket,” she says. “Look, Lorelei, I’m pretty far from a counselor, but even I think they deserve to know.”

“They do. Just notnow. They’d go and get themselves hurt, or killed. And it would be my fault. No, I’m going to the Gifted Academy. I’ll do the fast-track, graduate at the end of the year. I can ascend.”

Val stands up, snatching her guitar back up and strutting away. “Then what? Leave them behind. Leave me behind? Go marry a colonel or a diplomat?”

“No! I’ll find a way out of the stupid marriage, Val. If I’m ascended I’ll have the power to kill whichever asshole I’m meant to marry if I need to.Shit, I’ll run if I have to. But I can’t even move around Eltanin without permission until I ascend. And there’s no point in any of it if the boys are dead because they attacked our stupid sovereign.”

“Fine.” Val plugs her guitar into the amp and strikes a deafening riff.

I yank the lead from the wall, silencing the damn thing. “Fine?”

“You convinced me.”

Relief floods me. I didn’t mean to tell her. Didn’t mean to tell anyone.

“Thanks.” I toss the plug back to her. “Anyway, you’ll have the room to yourself and your boo half the time. I’ll only be back three days out of the week.”

She flashes me a wicked smile.

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