'But you didn't. You're still standing in our way.'
'In your way of what?'
'Come on, Nora. If you know who I am, then you know how this works. I want him to get his wings back. He doesn't belong on Earth. He belongs with me. He made a mistake, and I'm going to correct it.' There was absolutely no compromise in her voice. She got off the stool and walked around the island toward me.
I backed along the edge of the outer counter, keeping space between us. Racking my brain, I tried to think of a way to distract her. Or escape. I'd lived in the house sixteen years. I knew the floor plan. I knew every secret crevice and the best hiding places. I commanded my brain to come up with a plan: something spur-of-the-moment and brilliant. My back met with the sideboard.
'As long as you're around, Patch won't return with me,' Dabria said.
'I think you're overestimating his feelings for me.' It seemed like a good idea to downplay our relationship. Dabria's possessiveness appeared to be the main force driving her to act.
An incredulous smile dawned on her face. 'You think he has those feelings for you? All this time you thought-' She broke off, laughing. 'He's not staying because he loves you. He wants to kill you.'
I shook my head. 'He's not going to kill me.'
Dabria's smile hardened at the edges. 'If that's what you believe, you're just another girl he's seduced to get what he wants. He has a talent for it,' she added shrewdly. 'He seduced your name right out of me, after all. One soft touch from Patch was all it took. I fell under his spell and told him death was coming for you.'
I knew what she was talking about. I'd witnessed the exact moment she was referring to inside Patch's memory.
'And now he's doing the same thing to you,' she said. 'Betrayal hurts, doesn't it?'
I shook my head slowly. 'No-'
'He's planning to use you as a sacrifice!' she erupted. 'See that mark?' She thrust her finger at my wrist. 'It means you're a female descendant of a Nephil. And not just any Nephil, but Chauncey Langeais, Patch's vassal.'
I glanced at my scar, and for one heart-stopping moment, I actually believed her. But I knew better than to trust her.
'There's a sacred book, The Book of Enoch' she said. 'In it, a fallen angel kills his Nephil vassal by sacrificing one of the Nephil's female descendants. You don't think Patch wants to kill you? What's the one thing he wants most? Once he sacrifices you, he'll be human. He'll have everything he wants. And he won't come home with me.'
She unsheathed a large knife from the wood block on the counter. 'And that's why I have to get rid of you. It appears that one way or another, my premonitions were right. Death is coming for you.'
'Patch is coming back,' I said, my insides sickening. 'Don't you want to talk this over with him?'
'I'll make it quick,' she continued. 'I'm an angel of death. I carry souls to the afterlife. As soon as I finish, I'll carry your soul through the veil. You have nothing to be afraid of.'
I wanted to scream out, but my voice was trapped at the back of my throat. I edged around the sideboard, putting the kitchen table between us. 'If you're an angel, where are your wings?'
'No more questions.' Her voice had grown impatient, and she began closing the distance between us in earnest.
'How long has it been since you left heaven?' I asked, stalling. 'You've been down here for several months, right? Don't you think the other angels have noticed you're missing?'
'Not another step,' she snapped, raising the knife, scattering light off the blade.
'You're going to a lot of trouble for Patch,' I said, my voice not nearly as devoid of panic as I wanted. 'I'm surprised you don't resent him for using you when it suits his purpose. I'm surprised you want him to get his wings back at all. After what he did to you, aren't you happy he's banished here?'
'He left me for a worthless human girl!' she spat, her eyes a fiery blue.
'He didn't leave you. Not really. He fell-'
'He fell because he wanted to be human, like her! He had me- he had we!' She gave a scoffing laugh, but it didn't mask the anger or sorrow. 'At first I was hurt and angry, and I did everything in my power to forget about him. Then, when the archangels figured out he was seriously attempting to become human, they sent me down here to change his mind. I told myself I wasn't going to fall for him all over again, but what good did it do?'
'Dabria…,' I began softly.
'He didn't even care that the girl was made from the dust of the earth! You-all of you-are selfish and slovenly! Your bodies are wild and undisciplined. One moment you're at the peak of joy, the next you're on the brink of despair. It's deplorable! No angel will aspire to it!' She flung her arm in a wild arc across her face, wiping away tears. 'Look at me! I can barely control myself! I've been down here too long, submerged in human filth!'
I turned and ran from the kitchen, knocking over a chair and leaving it behind me in Dabria's path. I raced down the hall, knowing I was trapping myself. The house had two exits: the front door, which Dabria could reach before me by cutting through the living room, and the back door off the dining room, which she blocked.
I was shoved hard from behind, and I pitched forward. I skidded down the hall, coming to a stop on my stomach. I rolled over. Dabria hovered a few feet above me-in the air-her skin and hair ablaze in blinding white, the knife pointed down at me.
I didn't think. I kicked my leg up with all my strength. I arched into the kick, bracing with my nonkicking leg, and aimed for her lower arm. The knife was knocked out of her hand. As I got my feet under me, Dabria pointed at the lamp on a small entryway table, and with a sharp fling of her finger, sent it flying at me. I rolled away, feeling shards of glass slide under me as the lamp shattered on the floor.
'Move!' Dabria commanded, and the entry bench slid to barricade the front door, blocking my exit.
Scrambling forward, I took the stairs two at a time, using the banister to propel me faster. I heard Dabria laugh behind me, and the next instant the banister broke free, crashing to the hall below. I threw my weight back to keep from falling over the unguarded edge. Catching my balance, I raced up the final stairs. At the top I flung myself into my mom's bedroom and slammed the French doors shut.
Racing to one of the windows flanking the fireplace, I looked down two stories to the ground. There were three bushes in a rock bed directly below, all their foliage gone since autumn. I didn't know if I'd survive a jump.
'Open!' Dabria commanded from the other side of the French doors. A crack split up the wood as the door strained against the lock. I was out of time.
I ran to the fireplace and ducked under the mantel. I had just pulled my feet up, bracing them against the inside of the flue, when the doors swung open, slamming back against the wall. I heard Dabria stride to the window.
'Nora!' she called in her delicate, chilling voice. 'I know you're close! I sense you. You can't run and you can't hide-I'll burn this house down room by room if that's what it takes to find you! And then I'll burn my way through the fields behind. I'm not leaving you alive!'
A glow of bright gold light sizzled to life outside the fireplace, along with the roaring whoosh of fire igniting. The flames sent shadows dancing in the pit below. I heard the snap and crackle of fire eating up fuel-most likely the furniture or wood floors.
I stayed cramped in the flue. My heart throbbed, sweat leaking from my skin. I drew several breaths, exhaling slowly to manage the burn in my tightly contracted leg muscles. Patch had said he was going to the school. How long until he came back?
Not knowing if Dabria was still in the room, but fearing that if I didn't leave now, the fire would trap me in, I lowered one leg into the pit, then the other. I came out from under the mantel. Dabria was nowhere in sight, but the flames were licking up the walls, smoke choking all air from the room.
I hurried down the hall, not daring to go downstairs, thinking Dabria would expect me to try to escape through one of the doors.
In my bedroom I opened the window. The tree outside was close enough and sturdy enough to climb. Maybe I could lose Dabria in the fog behind the house. The nearest neighbors were just under a mile away, and running hard, I could be there in seven minutes. I was about to swing my leg out the window when a creak sounded down the hall.
Quietly closing myself inside the closet, I dialed 911.
