The year is 1879. When thirteen-year-old Ruth Merritt Holbrook emerges from her family's burning estate, bloody and charred, but entirely numb--She makes headlines. Reporters believe she is deranged. They accuse her of having set the fire. All the h...
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"Why would you not tell me that Lucius had been plaguing you?" These were the first words from his lips upon seeing me sitting in his parlor. I almost stood up and left right then.
"Because," I said, anger boiling up in me, hot and roiling. "You never came home. I had a letter stating all that Lucius wished to do—a letter that I brought here just as soon as I myself received it. But you never came home and I never met with you. You cannot blame me for your own capriciousness."
"Capricious?" He echoed, his eyebrows raising in challenge. "I was away on business."
I stood up. "And what business was that, pray tell?"
"Daughter of Gressil." The look he shot me was stern and the sound of my nephilim title coming from his lips made the hairs on my arms stand up. I had over stepped. It was easy to forget who Leviathan was, given all of his kindness towards me, but a demon lurked beneath that easy smile.
I forced myself to stay standing. I swallowed and whispered, "I protected her, hid her in my bedroom when the very act could have gotten me executed."
He closed his eyes, just for an instant and exhaled, long and deep. "I did not ask you to do it."
"Perhaps," I scoffed, "but you are thankful that I did, are you not?"
His eyes met mine and he hesitated. "What is it you want?"
"Answers. I want to know what you are doing. Where do you go for days at a time? Why are you helping a—an angel, or whatever she is."
He walked to the entrance to the parlor and glanced down the hallway. When he was certain that no one was with us, he shut the French doors and took a seat on the sofa. I forced myself to sit as well. "Rosalie, everything I am about to say to you must remain in this room. If Lucius finds out—"
"I shall keep your secrets, but I can only do so if I first know what they are."
"Very well." He nodded. "Merritt Holbrook is an angel who has been reborn as a human. From what I can tell, and this is all my own speculation, she has retained some of her angelic qualities. As you observed in Hyde Park, Merritt can transfer the pain of others to herself. She is also capable of seeing the furies and even perhaps manipulating them."
"Manipulating them?"
"They are meant to cause harm and block out Adon—the adversary's presence." His face flushed and he added, "I believe that when she takes away someone's pain she also drives out furies, or at least she sees them and works around them. Like I said, this is all a large guessing game. I am not certain of any of this. I am merely piecing together the things I have witnessed and trying to make sense of them."
"She has angels with her. One of them goes by the name Uriel."
The corners of his mouth twitched up in the smallest of smiles. "Yes, I had thought as much."
