“Easily.”
“Leo and me?” Max asked.
“I want you around the city. Keep your eyes out and tell me what you see. I want to know who has people here. Which elders have more than the average number of staff. Who’s traveling lately and where.”
“What do you suspect?” Leo asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Damien said with a frown. “For now, we should simply be cautious.”
Sari said, “Mala and Renata, you can help with that, along with gathering information on the Irina who have showed up in the city. I want to know who is here and what their connections are. Are they mated? Do they have families? Where do their loyalties lie?”
“Of course,” Renata said. “Consider it done.”
THE second time Death visited her, Ava wasn’t as surprised. She sat up in bed when she heard him, rustling in the shadows of the room. The angel leaned forward, his black cloak falling from his head and his silver eyes piercing the darkness.
“You were talking about my grandmother before, weren’t you? When you said you couldn’t go to her.”
He nodded.
“Why not?”
No answer, but the silver grey of the angel’s eyes grew darker, like storm clouds gathering.
“It’s not up to you, is it?”
Come with me.
“More secrets?”
Humor lit his face. She glanced down at Malachi, then slid out of bed.
Death embraced her again and she allowed it, sinking into his arms as he covered her with his star-filled cloak. In a heartbeat, they were sitting in a brightly lit hall. Ava couldn’t decide if it was a church or a library. The walls were covered in tall bookcases, but the windows were filled with brilliantly colored stained glass. The whole room had a weight of holiness she couldn’t dismiss. Church or library?
Both.
Death kept her shrouded as the room coalesced around them. Once again, there were muffled voices that came from a distance, as if she were eavesdropping in a hallway. Shadows became visible and formed in the room. It was Volund again, Ava now had the taste of his power from her grandmother’s memories, and she struggled to control her immediate nausea.
“…tell your children to eliminate the threat.”
“I am not one to waste my sons on foolish gambles. Didn’t Oslo teach you anything?”
“It taught me that any with human blood are expendable.”
A long pause.
“Are you sure of that, brother?”
A hissing sound, then a grunt in reply.
“Do not make the mistake of thinking we are equals, Svarog.”
“You may be assured I do not.”
Ava could tell by the tone of his voice that whoever Svarog was, he didn’t think Volund was superior.
“The heretic has spies everywhere,” a third voice hissed. “Even among our own people. More and more are listening to him. We must send a message. Once the city falls into our hands, any thought of rebellion will be quashed.”
“And Vienna will be yours,” Volund said.
“Yes,” the one called Svarog replied. “That is our arrangement.”
Ava could tell the angel wasn’t one hundred percent certain of it, though.
“Grimold, are your children ready?”
“Yes. All of them.”
“All?” She thought it was Svarog who spoke.
“All. If there are singers with them, they will not be a problem.”
She tried to repeat the details to herself, knowing her memory of dreams could be sketchy. Volund and his allies seemed to be in some kind of strategy meeting, and Ava knew the information would be valuable to Malachi and Damien.
But the scene was too hazy. The figures never truly took shape. Ava only had a vague impression of them and their relative power. Two greater powers with a third attached to Volund. The voices faded in and out.
“Will I remember this?” she asked Death.
When you need to.
She sighed. “I love answers like that.”
“Eliminate them and make it clear who killed them,” Volund said. “It is past time that your allegiance became known. Unless you have something to hide, Svarog.”
“Becoming your ally doesn’t mean you are privy to my secrets. I do not trust you.”
“Nor I you.”
A slight pause before Svarog said, “Then we are agreed. I will take care of the heretic. Have you found her yet?”
“It is more than Jaron guarding her. There can be no other explanation.”
“Another, then. She is more of a problem than we anticipated.”
Ava turned to her angelic shadow and asked, “Are they talking about me or—?”
Before she could finish her sentence, Death enfolded her in his cloak and she was back in her bedroom, sitting next to Malachi who murmured once, then rolled toward her in sleep, pressing his face to her belly and wrapping his arms around her waist.
Death turned his back to Ava and walked back toward the shadows.
“Azril?”
He stopped.
“That’s your name, isn’t it?”
He slowly turned. Nodded.
“Why?”
His shining eyes moved from Ava to Malachi, then back again.
You are beautiful together. She would want to see such beauty.
When Ava blinked, he was gone.
Chapter Fifteen
THE NEXT MORNING, MALACHI dragged himself out of bed when he heard the sound of carriages clopping down the street nearby.