Rebellion

and even past the Fallen and Florence. His gaze passed over them all, eventually fixing on Pollux, and finally on Castor. It was Castor he watched as they reached the edge of the causeway. And it was Castor’s pain that Alice felt surge beneath her ribs. Surprised, she turned to look at him, but he wouldn’t meet her eye. He looked straight at Zadkiel. And Pollux, bringing up the rear of their odd little troupe, was looking at him.

“D’you maybe want to fill me in on this?” she whispered to Mallory, jerking her head back towards the others. He glanced over his shoulder then shook his head.

“Right now, it’s probably better you don’t know. Later.”

“Later. Like you were going to explain the hair thing, right?”

“Exactly. And I did. So later.”

He snapped his attention away from Alice and back to Zadkiel. They had stopped at the edge of the causeway, where the clear tarmac of the road gave way to dusty-looking concrete scattered with pockets of sand left by the high tides. Zadkiel’s face was stern and unmoving.

“If I’d known, I would have got you something, too.” He gestured to Xaphan.

“He’s for Michael,” said Mallory, drawing himself up to his full height.

“Of course he is,” Zadkiel said, and snapped his fingers.

They were suddenly surrounded by angels. Angels in full armour, their breastplates shining so brightly that Alice screwed up her eyes against the light, peering at them as they formed a loose guard around the four at the back, leaving only Alice, Vin and Mallory outside. They didn’t look especially friendly: the one nearest to Alice scowled at her as she peered at his arm, looking for a sigil. She just caught sight of the angular lines of Michael’s sigil when Zadkiel barked an order and, as one, the angels stood to attention.

And then, with a ‘whoomp,’ they burst into flames.

The heat that suddenly rolled off them forced both Mallory and Vin back. Even Zadkiel took a step away, but not Alice. Only Alice stood her ground and stared at the angels; stared at the flames boiling across their armour, at the tiny pockets of sand on the causeway which began to bubble and melt. She couldn’t imagine quite how hot it must be in the middle of it all, and for a moment she worried about Castor and Pollux; at least, she did until she heard a whistle somewhere above her head and looked up. There they were, Pollux wheeling overhead and Castor beating his wings lazily, keeping a close eye on everything below. So it was just Xaphan and Florence in there, was it? Alice sniffed. She didn’t feel an overabundance of sympathy for them. After all, she’d made it through hell, and she wasn’t likely to forget the cold there in a hurry. It might do them good to feel a little heat.

The angel at the front of the guard was still scowling at her, but now it looked more like a challenge than anything else. She hadn’t jumped back like the others, and he didn’t know why. Apparently, half of Michael’s choir had toasted their brains and were a tad on the slow side.

Never one to be outdone, Alice closed her eyes, and reached for the dull ache inside her, the one that came from Castor. Flames skipped around her wrists, easily, lightly, and she held them out for the new arrival to see, trying not to look too smug about it. He just carried on scowling, so she shrugged and turned her back on him. “No sense of humour,” she said as she wandered across to Mallory. He raised an eyebrow at her.

“What have I told you about playing nice with the other children, Alice?”

“Sorry...”

“What is it with you two? You and Vin. You make me feel like I’m stuck with two bickering kids all the time. If it’s not one of you, it’s the other.”

“Are we done here?” Zadkiel was clearly anxious to move. Not surprising, given there was a phalanx of angels on fire standing in the middle of the road.

“You’re the boss,” Mallory muttered, scuffing his boots in the sand while Vin stared out to sea saying nothing, his eyes hidden, as always, behind his sunglasses. Zadkiel looked them up and down with something approaching bemusement.

“Alright, then.”

And with that, the burning angels simply vanished, as did Castor and Pollux and the prisoners. Suddenly, there were only the four of them, alone on the causeway and with the salt wind ruffling their hair.

“Nice trick,” said Alice. Zadkiel stepped around Mallory and folded his arms, looking her up and down.

“A trick, is it? How can you be sure?”

“Because I can still feel them.”

And she could. She could still feel the heat of the flames on her skin. Besides, Zadkiel had pulled this one on her before, and she wasn’t falling for it again. He tipped his head on one side and gave her an oddly approving look. “I can see I’m going to have to keep an eye on you.” And then he smiled and turned towards the island at the far end of the causeway. “Shall we?”

Obediently, they fell into step behind him, and even though she couldn’t see them or hear them, Alice felt the heat of Michael’s choir, her choir, following her every step of the way.

Whatever Mallory and Zadkiel were discussing, ahead of her on the causeway, it was serious. Neither of them looked happy. Mallory, in fact, looked deeply uncomfortable. It wasn’t surprising. After all, he and Michael didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye, and there was still the matter of Gabriel.

From what Alice could gather, Mallory and Gabriel had history: something that went much further back than her arrival on the scene, or even Mallory’s doomed attempts to help her mother. There was more to it than Mallory had let on, even before Gabriel blamed the three of them for having lost his favourite, Gwyn, to the Fallen, and his own Archangel status. Gabriel had gone from Archangel to Earthbound in one fell swoop, and whether that was their fault or not, Alice couldn’t imagine a version of events where he’d be happy to see them. The comfort she took in knowing that Michael was there too was... limited. She shot another glance at Zadkiel. So far, he seemed slightly less unbalanced than most of the other angels; perhaps there was hope yet.

The moment she thought of his name, Zadkiel paused, the rhythm of his stride breaking as he cocked his head to one side, almost as though he was listening.

Which he was.

Alice mentally kicked herself.

Zadkiel was the Archangel with power over the mind, wasn’t he? Of course he could hear what was going on inside her head. Just like Michael could, if he wanted to.

Still kicking herself, Alice decided that from now on, she was going to think about kittens and flowers and very little else while they were on Michael’s turf.

Pretty. Fluffy. Sparkly. Yes.

There was a snort from up ahead, and Zadkiel shook his head, turning his attention back to Mallory.

“Alright?” Vin fell into step alongside her, his hands in his pockets. He was kicking a stone ahead of him as he walked, watching it bounce along the road.

“Ask me later.”

“I know the feeling.”

“What about you?” It felt like ever since Vin had turned up at Adriel’s desk, he had been holding back, not quite himself. Alice had largely put this down to their uncomfortable proximity to Florence. But there was something more.

Vin sighed. “You want the honest answer or the cheery one?”

“Depends which is the real one, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, don’t start with your... words and that.” He laughed, but it wasn’t a particularly happy laugh. He kicked the stone again. “Thing is, I’m tired. And I don’t just mean... tired. I mean tired. Like deep-down, no amount of sleep’s going to fix it, bone-cold, dirt-tired.”

“‘Dirt tired’? That’s a thing?”

“Yes, it’s a thing. Shut up. I’m talking here.” Another kick. “Things are harder now. Not that they’ve ever exactly been what you’d call easy, but lately” – he tipped his head back and stared at the sky – “lately, I’ve been wondering what it’s all for, you know? I mean, we kick the shit out of each other, and half the time I don’t even know why. Does it achieve anything? All this time, I feel like we’ve been running just to stand still. Keeping the balance... what good has that done? We’re still fucking losing, however you look at it.” He booted the stone so hard that it smacked into the back of Mallory’s leg, just below his knee. Mallory immediately spread his wings and leapt into the air, twisting as he jumped and pulling out both of his guns. Zadkiel stopped walking and stared at him as, realising it was nothing to worry about, he sank back to the ground.