Hush, Hush (Bonus)

Chapter 2 Patch

I’d promised Nora I’d pick her up for the party at eight. I was on my bike, speeding along a winding back road, and it was starting to get dark. I’d taken this route a hundred times before and never passed another driver. The trees formed a canopy over the road, making it seem later than it was. I couldn’t hear anything over the whine of my engine; and when I came around a bend, she was standing in the middle of the road, asking to be hit.

I braked, swerving to miss her. I leaned sharply to my right, then straightened. Another few inches and I would've plowed into her. Parking the bike, I strode back to her, tugging off my helmet.

“What was that?” I asked Dabria angrily.

“I wanted to get your attention.”

“Well, congratulations. You got it.”

“How’s Nora?”

I didn’t answer right away. My breath came out harshly between my teeth. It felt like a trick question. Dabria had an angle, always. She twirled her hair around her finger, her eyes glinting with mischief. “If I thought you cared, I might tell you,” I said at last.

“I didn’t realize silly little schoolgirls were your type.”

“It’s taken you this long to realize there’s very little you know about me.” A statement, not a question.

Dabria rolled her eyes so far back in her head they almost disappeared. “Don’t be so grumpy. It doesn’t suit you.”

I shook my head. “Not grumpy. Straightforward. So believe me when I tell you, whatever game you’re playing? It’s going to backfire. Leave Nora alone. And while you’re at it, pay me the same courtesy.”

Before I could bat her hand away, she reached up and straightened my collar. Just like old times, the gesture said, and it aggravated me even more. “This is a game you just might want to play,” she said. “It’s called ’I know Something You Don’t.’ ”

“Wrong. Not interested.”

“What if I said it’s about... the archangels?”

“What about them?” I said calmly and with cold indifference. My history with the archangels, the most powerful and authoritative branch of angels in heaven, wasn’t secret. Weeks ago, they’d elevated me from fallen to guardian angel. A lifetime ago, before I fell, I'd been one of them. My involvement with them was cut-and-dried, and I’d put it behind me. Dabria knew this.

“They might have made you Nora’s guardian angel because they were bound by their own laws, but don’t be naive. You tricked them. They don’t forgive and they don’t forget—not our kind. I have a source who tells me they’re going to do away with you. Quietly, of course. They’re laying a trap for you, and you won’t see it coming.”

“What kind of trap?” I asked in a low, menacing voice.

Her mouth twisted into a taunting smile. “If I thought you cared, I might tell you,” she mimicked.

I shook my head again, but this time there was nothing casual in the gesture. It was deliberate and threatening. “Tell me what you know,” I told Dabria in a voice that lacked tolerance. “You found me tonight because that’s what you want. So get it out.” “After what you did to me? You tore out my wings,” she shot back, her eyes giving away the only flash of anger or betrayal. The rest of her—her whimsical smile, her lazy posture, her bored voice—spoke of aloof immunity to what I’d done.

“I don’t regret it. You would have done the same.”

“I loved you. I loved you more than you deserved,” she stated simply.

I looked her in the eye, but I didn’t answer. I couldn’t return the sentiment. It would be a lie, for one. And I wasn’t in the mood to placate, for two. “The archangels,” I reminded her.

“Nora isn’t the only girl out there who needs a guardian angel.”

“Explain.”

“That’s all I know. You can thank me for the heads-up later,” she singsonged.

I watched her walk away, a bad feeling stirring inside me. I read between her words, and instantly a few guesses jumped to mind, none of them good. I’d known all along the archangels weren’t going to let what I’d done slide. I’d conspired to get a human body. I’d plotted a girl’s death. I’d fallen in love with her before I carried it out, but that's not how the archangels saw things. I’d broken their laws, and they’d make me pay.

They were going to send me to hell, and I had a few guesses how.