Fallen - Lauren Kate [129]
Arriane’s wings were smoother, sleeker and with more pronounced edges, almost like a giant butterfly’s. Partially translucent, they glowed and cast shifting opalescent prisms of light on the stone floor beneath them. Like Arriane herself, they were strange and alluring, and totally badass.
“I should have known,” Luce said, a smile sweeping across her face.
Gabbe smiled back, and Arriane gave Luce a little curtsy.
“What’s going on out there?” Daniel asked, registering the worried expression on Gabbe’s face.
“We need to get Luce out of here.”
The battle. Was it not over yet? If Daniel and Gabbe and Arriane were all here, they must have won—right? Luce’s eyes flashed over to Daniel’s. His expression gave nothing away.
“And someone needs to go after Sophia,” Arriane said. “She could not have been working alone.”
Luce swallowed. “Is she on Cam’s side? Is she some kind of … devil? A fallen angel?” It was one of the few terms that had stuck with her from Miss Sophia’s lecture.
Daniel’s teeth were clenched. Even his wings looked stiff with fury. “No devil,” he muttered, “but hardly an angel, either. We thought she was with us. We should never have let her get this close.”
“She was one of the twenty-four elders,” Gabbe added. She lowered her feet to the ground and tucked her pale pink wings behind her back so she could sit down on the altar. “A very respectable position. She kept this part of her well hidden.”
“As soon as we got up here, it was like she just went crazy,” Luce said. She rubbed her neck where the dagger had nicked her.
“They are crazy,” Gabbe said. “But very ambitious. She’s part of a secret sect. I should have realized it sooner, but the signs are very clear now. They call themselves the Zhsmaelim. They dress alike, and all have a certain … elegance. I always thought they were more show than anything else. No one took them too seriously in Heaven,” she informed Luce, “but they will now. What she did tonight was grounds for exile. She might be seeing more of Cam and Molly than she bargained for.”
“So Molly’s a fallen angel, too,” Luce said slowly. Out of everything she’d learned today, this made the most sense.
“Luce, we’re all fallen angels,” Daniel said. “It’s just that some of us are on one side … and some of us are on the other.”
“Is anyone else here on”—she swallowed—“the other side?”
“Roland,” Gabbe said.
“Roland?” Luce was stunned. “But you were friends with him. He was always so charismatic and great.”
Daniel only shrugged. It was Arriane who looked concerned. Her wings beat in a sad, agitated way and sent forth a brush of dusty wind. “We’ll get him back someday,” she said quietly.
“What about Penn?” Luce asked, feeling a knot of tears in the back of her throat.
But Daniel shook his head, squeezing her hand. “Penn was mortal. An innocent victim in a long, pointless war. I’m so sorry, Luce.”
“So that whole fight out there …?” Luce asked. Her voice choked. She couldn’t bring herself to really talk about Penn yet.
“Just one of many battles we wage against the demons,” Gabbe said.
“Well, who won?”
“Nobody,” Daniel said bitterly. He picked up a large shard from the stained-glass ceiling and flung it across the chapel. It shattered into a hundred tiny fragments, but it didn’t seem to have released any of his anger. “Nobody ever wins. It’s close to impossible for one angel to extinguish another. It’s just a lot of beating until everyone gets tired and calls it a night.”
Luce jolted when a strange image flashed into her mind. It was Daniel being struck directly on the shoulder by one of the long black bolts that had hit Penn. She opened her eyes and looked at his right shoulder. There was blood on his chest.
“You’re hurt,” she whispered.
“No,” Daniel said.
“He can’t get hurt, he’s—”
“What is that on your