You Are So Not a Fallen Angel

Chapter 26

Aubin and Flora were sitting outside the café as I hurried across the main square. I waved, but neither seemed to see me. They were leaning towards each other, their heads close together, but it didn’t look as if they were whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears. More like insults.

I carried on. Ivan’s strange remarks were still prying on my mind, especially the one about stolen property. Was he referring to the piece of paper? Did he know I had taken it? And was it the cause of his erratic behaviour? Maybe it was some sort of enchantment, and my impulsive action had broken it, or disturbed it, and this was the result. Paranoia, severe irritability, violent tendencies...

I broke into a run and sprinted all the way home, vaulting over the back gate because I didn’t want to waste any time opening it. I took the stairs two at a time and slammed open the door to my room, already scanning the place for the bag. It was under my bed, and I upended it over the floor, scrabbling through the contents for that folded sheet of paper. I found it wrapped inside Flora’s cover-up and unfolded it with trembling fingers.

If I’d expected the letters to glow with inner fire or suddenly rearrange themselves into a pattern that made sense, I was disappointed. It looked the same. I tried turning it upside down, holding it up to the light and putting in the dark. I even tried sniffing it, to see if that might reveal a vital clue. Nothing. It remained just a piece of paper.

I wasn’t quite ready to give up on the idea. Of course, on par with previous performances, Feather Boy wasn’t there when I needed him, and I still didn’t have any way of contacting him, but Feather Boy’s little friend was around, hopefully still swapping spit with my cousin on a café terrace.

I shoved the piece of paper into my pocket and dashed downstairs again, eliciting a lot of swearing from my brother as I dodged past him on the second floor landing.

I raced back to the main square, worried Aubin might’ve left, but Flora and he were still sitting at the same table. They didn’t appear to be saying anything, in fact, each was carefully not looking at the other.

“Hey,” I wheezed as I skidded to a halt next to their table. Flora’s brows snapped together as she took me.

“Where’s the fire?” she asked. I sat down, trying not to seem like a crazy person.

“Nowhere. I wanted to ask Aubin something. Hi, Aubin.”

Flora’s frown deepened, but she didn’t protest. “Yeah, whatever.” She turned away and pretended to look at the church.

“Do you know what this is?” I asked Aubin, handing him the page. He unfolded it and stared at it in incomprehension at first, then in astonishment.

“Where did you get this?” he hissed at me, leaning across the table. Flora’s head turned a fraction of an inch towards us, and I could tell she was straining to hear every word.

“What is it? Is it important?”

“Where does this come from?” he snapped. His eyes were boring into mine, like he was trying to read my mind. I jerked back as this thought crossed my mind. Could these bloody angel read minds?

“Tell me what it is,” I said, my gaze dropping to the tabletop. He put his hand over mine and pressed hard, turning a gesture of comfort into one of menaced.

“Where did you get this, Eliza?”

It looked like nothing good would happen to the person to whom the note belonged to, which begged the question of whether I should dob Ivan in and leave him to deal with the consequences, or whether I should lie. Despite this being yet more proof that Ivan was mixed up in some shady business, I couldn’t bring myself to throw him to the wolves.