He wondered why Volund had sent so many. After all, he’d killed the scribe the first time in Istanbul with half the men he had here. It was only a matter of herding the woman and her Irin mate to the right location. He knew they were in the city somewhere.

“Brother?” A young scribe shivered at the door to the stairwell.

“Yes?”

“There is someone here to see you.”

Brage frowned. “Who?”

The young soldier blinked in confusion. “I… I don’t know.”

“What?” Brage stood, walking toward him, but stopped when he saw the unassuming man coming up the stairs. The middle-aged man in glasses put a hand on the Grigori’s shoulder and the young man turned, leaving Brage alone on the roof with his visitor.

He sat, recognizing the angel’s disguise from Istanbul. If Jaron wanted to harm him, he would already be dead.

“I know who you are,” Brage said.

“It’s good that Volund has some intelligent offspring,” Jaron said as he tossed back the cover on one of the patio chairs. A flurry of ice fell to the ground.

“What do you want?”

“Why are you still hunting her?”

Brage frowned. “Why do I do anything?”

His father asked it of him. It was not within his power to refuse.

“Fine.” Jaron sat back, still wearing his human facade. He walked in the guise of a fatherly middle-aged man in spectacles. Not too old. Not too young. A confessor. Trustworthy. Despite knowing it was false, the facade still put Brage at ease.

“Tell me why Volund hunts her,” the angel said.

“I do not know.”

“Don’t you?”

Brage shrugged. “He says she belongs to him. Other than that, it is none of my concern.”

Jaron smiled. “In a way, he is not wrong.”

“Then why do you protect her?”

“Why does your father only tell you half-truths?” Jaron countered. “For though the woman is his, she is also mine.”

He closed his eyes and forced himself not to sigh. It would be taken as a sign of disrespect toward the angel. Talking in circles. Why did the damn ancients have to talk in circles so much? Was it too much to ask that one of them give him any kind of answer?

“Half-truths?” Brage said. “I am sure Volund tells me as much as you tell your sons.”

“I tell my children only what they must know.”

“Then we understand each other.”

Jaron laughed. “No. You do not understand me at all. But then, you cannot. Is it true that he gave you Grimold’s blade? A heavenly weapon to kill an Irin scribe? It seems excessive. But of course, you failed last time, did you not?”

The spike of anger was quick and hot. And Brage knew that Jaron had caught it, for the human facade wavered in that moment, and the glowing gold eyes of the angel flashed.

“Why are you here, Jaron?”

“I want you to leave the woman alone.”

“You know I cannot.”

“She is something you would not wish to harm.”

Brage narrowed his eyes. He had his own suspicions about what the woman was, but they were based on whispers and rumors, like so much in his world. And if both Volund and Jaron claimed her…

“What is she?” he asked.

There was silence. Brage wondered if Jaron would respond at all.

“She is under my protection,” the angel said. “You will not harm her.”

“I don’t intend to. Volund wants her alive. Though I will kill her mate. Again.”

“Her mate interests me only so far as he benefits her.”

“Then you will not interfere?”

“No.”

“Do you vow it?”

Jaron leaned back in his chair, smiling. “Does your father appreciate your audacity?”

“I doubt it.”

“Then he is a fool.”

Brage said nothing.

“Fine,” Jaron said. “I will not interfere with your mission, as long as you do not harm the woman.”

It was the best that Brage would do under the circumstances. Jaron did not rise, so he dared another question.

“Is she what I think?” he asked. “What the heretics claim?”

“Yes.”

His cold heart quickened. “Truly?”

“And no.”

Fucking angels.

Brage curled his lip and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Jaron was gone.

Chapter Twenty-three

She was still cautious around him. Still hesitant as he held her hand and walked into the scribe house.

Was the caution a result of his reappearance or because of the encounter with the frightening creature who had given her a vision? He couldn’t read her well enough to know yet. Some things were achingly familiar, but others still confounded him.

Wary smiles and respectful nods greeted Malachi as they walked past the dark entryway and back toward the kitchen. It might have been the middle of the night, but the house was clearly on alert. Malachi spotted Damien, Rhys, and Lang strategizing over a map of the city, which had been spread out over the kitchen table. Sari and an Irina elder he didn’t know were with them.

Rhys and one of Lang’s scribes were putting red and yellow dots all over the paper. The rest of the gathered company nodded at them but did not interrupt the conversation.

“Ava,” the old woman said softly, walking over to greet his mate. “I heard. I am… astonished.”