Instead she listened to Simon’s wild heartbeat, imagined Remy’s voice reading her a story before sleep, and breathed.
51
Rielle
“Wind and water
Fire and shadow
Metal and earth and light above—
Hear our prayer on this day of death
Take in hand our fallen friend
To be born anew, through you
And begin again
In the eyes of the Seven, we pray”
—Traditional Celdarian funeral rite
Hours after the Archon’s blessing, near the midnight hour, Rielle brought Audric to Ludivine’s rooms.
Ludivine rose from a hearthside chair with a cautious smile. “Good, you’ve come.”
Audric pulled the door shut behind them with a snap. “Rielle told me what you are.”
Ludivine’s face fell. She glanced at Rielle. “What else did she tell you?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Please don’t be afraid of me. I want only to help you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Audric softened. “All right. Help me, then. Help us understand.”
Ludivine’s gaze settled on Rielle, infinitely tender. “I came to protect Rielle. The moment she was born, I felt her. We all did.”
“All?”
“The other angels?” Rielle said, her chest clenching.
Ludivine nodded miserably. “Yes, the other angels. I’ve been trying to protect you as best I can for years now.”
Audric dragged both hands through his hair. “I don’t understand. You’re Ludivine. You’re my cousin. We’ve known you since you were small. I was there the day you were born, for God’s sake. You’ve always been…you.”
“Yes.” Ludivine’s smile was sad. “And no. Do you remember when I…when Ludivine had that terrible fever a few years ago?”
“You were sixteen years old,” Rielle remembered. She sank onto a bench by the fire. “We waited outside your door all night with Queen Genoveve and your father, hoping you’d get through it.”
“Yes. Well.” Ludivine drew a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. “I didn’t. That is, she didn’t. Ludivine Sauvillier died that night. And I took her place.”
Audric turned away and moved swiftly across the room. “This is some kind of trick.”
It’s not a trick, Ludivine’s voice cried out in Rielle’s mind. Tell him!
“It’s not a trick,” Rielle whispered, and she believed it, though the horrible truth of it sat like a weight on her lungs. “How could you keep the truth from us for so long? If you love us as you claim to—”
“I wanted to!” Ludivine’s eyes were bright with tears. “Every day, I wanted to. But I thought it would be best not to. I thought it would protect you. I thought…” Ludivine shook her head, gestured helplessly. “I wanted you both to be spared from all of this for as long as possible.”
“Protect us from what?” Audric asked, his voice fraying. “You’re dancing around the point. Speak clearly—and quickly.”
Ludivine breathed in and out, clenching her fists. When she spoke once more, it was with a sense of tired finality. “The Gate is falling.”
The room fell into silence.
“The further it weakens,” Ludivine said after a moment, “the more we will see the shocks. Tidal waves, terrible quakes, other disasters I cannot predict. And when the Gate falls at last, the angels will return, just as Aryava said. Imagine a door being battered constantly from one side by hands that will never tire. That is the Gate, and the hands are those of my kindred, locked beyond it.”
“Trapped in the Deep.” Audric sat unsteadily on a chair by the wall, far from them both.
“Yes. In the Deep.” A small, strange shadow moved across Ludivine’s face; an echo of it rippled inside Rielle’s mind, like a shift during sleep.
“How many of you are there?” he asked.
“Millions.”
“I meant here. In this world. If you came here, then others must have as well.”
Rielle stiffened. Without thinking, her mind reached out to him:
Corien? Are you there?
He did not answer. He had been silent since the day she burned him.
Ludivine looked quickly to Rielle. “Yes. I was not the first. And I was not the last. With every passing day, cracks widen in the Gate’s structure. Not all angels are strong enough to escape. The Gate is strong and well-made. Escaping its gravity is difficult; one crack opens, and another one repairs itself. But enough angels are managing to break through that it will soon be a problem for you. Dozens right now. Soon? Hundreds.”