The house burst into activity after Az, Lizzie, and I delivered the good news to Ramiel. He agreed that it seemed like the best (and only) lead we had, and Berith’s old castle home was a likely location for the amulet. It was finally time to make a move.

I took the stairs two at a time and grabbed a bag of clothes from my room. We hadn’t lived here long, but I’d gathered enough shirts and jeans to fill a small backpack. Most of the clothes had belonged to Lilith. We’d been about the same size, though she’d been taller. At the thought of my demon friend, I slowed as I shoved another t-shirt into my pack. If only she were here now. She’d be jumping at the bit to track down Berith’s old castle.

A pair of whiskers twitched across my cheek just as a tear slid from my eye. “I hate that we’re leaving without burying her, Mr. Whiskerson.”

Berith had made certain that we couldn’t. When he’d done his little teleporting trick to steal the amulet away, he’d also taken Lilith’s body along with him. He’d left nothing behind but a pool of blood on the sandy beach, the only remnant we had of her. It was the worst thing he could have done to her, even after her death. Both demons and angels had to be buried with the proper ceremony. Otherwise, their souls would never get to rest.

I had vowed to find where he’d taken her. Her soul deserved peace.

Of course, there was no telling how long that might take. If Berith had taken the amulet to his old castle, he probably hadn’t taken Lilith there, too. That would be making things far too easy for us.

“Let’s do something,” I said to Mr. Whiskerson, tossing my bag onto the bed. We might not have Lilith’s body, but we knew where she’d been slain. We could say a few words, send up a belated goodbye to whoever might be listening, if anyone was. It was the next best thing to a proper funeral.

I hurried back down the staircase with my little rat friend perched on my shoulder, passing Uriel and Az on my way out to the beach. They each shot me a questioning glance, but they didn’t stop to join me. There was far too much for us to do before we could leave.

When I pushed open the back door that led to the wooden walkway, the cool winter air settled over my skin like a cocoon. Ever since realizing my new demon powers, my body heat had definitely gone up several degrees. Now, the cold felt comforting. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I didn’t want to be part fire demon, and I definitely didn’t want to be more demon than angel. With a deep breath, I strode down the walkway, the wood creaking underneath my feet. I came to a stop at the edge, at the very spot where Berith had blinked out of the shadows to take Lilith’s life.

I hadn’t seen what had happened, but Ramiel had. He just hadn’t been quick enough to stop it.

The wind had blown the stained sand away in the days that had passed, but there were still flecks of red amongst the pale brown. I sunk onto my knees and placed my hand on the spot where she had fallen. Closing my eyes, I sucked in a deep breath, whispering my sorrow onto the light wind. Mr. Whiskerson sat still, as though he realized the weight of my words.

I was sorry. My heart hurt from the guilt of what had happened to Lilith. It was definitely my fault in a sense. Ramiel blamed himself, too. Lizzie told us both that we needed to focus all the blame outward, but neither of us were able to bear it. Ramiel had tasked himself with spotting Lilith while she scouted the beach. He’d been distracted from that. Because of me.

I’d made him turn his eyes away from the lookout.

“I’m so sorry, Lilith,” I whispered.

Quietly, I pushed up from the ground and gathered a cluster of rocks that Sam and I had been using for target practice these past few days. He’d been trying to teach me how to control my fire power, but I had barely improved. In fact, I could have sworn I was getting worse instead of better.

With the rocks in my arms, I strode back over to Lilith’s spot and placed one stone on top of each other. It made a lopsided mound, but it would do. I pulled my dagger from the sheath strapped to my thigh and pricked the tip of my thumb. I winced at the contact, but only long enough for the blood to pool.

“I hope you rest in peace, Lilith,” I sighed and pressed my thumb on the rock before drawing a jagged L.

Mr. Whiskerson twitched his nose and then scurried down into my shirt, burying himself beneath the fabric, right on top of my heavily beating heart.

“This was a nice idea.”

I jumped, my heart jolting as I whirled toward the unexpected noise. Sam stood just behind me, his brilliant hair backlit by the setting sun. “Sam. Don’t sneak up on people like that. You scared me half to death.”

“I’m sorry.” He smiled crookedly, and heat filled my cheeks. “I’m so used to my silence that sometimes I forget to make noise.”

I pressed my hand to my heart, taking comfort in the warm little bundle beneath my shirt, and pushed up from the ground. “I just thought I would make a little memorial for Lilith. I know it won’t help her soul find peace, but I feel like I can’t leave here for good without doing something.”

“You never know. It could help her.” He nodded at the mound. “But just as importantly, it will help you. I can tell you’re still hurting over her death.”

Hurting was an understatement.

“I’ve never met anyone like her. And I probably never will again. She was one of a kind, Sam, and there’s no reason in hell she should have died.”

Sam gave me a sad smile. “Why don’t we take a short walk down the beach? Take a moment to say goodbye to her before we start loading up the boat?”

“You know what? That’s actually a great idea,” I said gratefully. Sam understood my need to say goodbye. We would be leaving the last place she’d been alive. Her body and our mourning ritual had been stolen from us, and it almost felt as though I’d never gotten closure on her death. Sure, we’d left this house a few times over the past days and weeks, but it had still remained our base. We’d always returned. Now, with our eyes aimed on the distant horizon overseas, it was likely that we wouldn’t return for a very long while. If ever.

The two of us made our way closer to the waves, the ocean spray dusting our skin. We fell into an easy silence as we picked our way down the beach. An orange glow lit up the sky and fingers of pink stretched out behind the hulking shadows of the house. It was a beautiful sight, one I’d come to appreciate during our time spent in Rhode Island.

“I guess this is the last time we’ll see this view,” I said with a sigh. “The sunsets are beautiful here.”

“It will be even better on the boat,” Sam said, slinging an arm around my neck and pulling me in close. The pace of our footsteps fell into a steady rhythm, our souls responding to each other’s, just as they had from the moment we’d first met. Something inside of me had recognized Sam for what he was. I’d seen myself in him, though I hadn’t understood that at the time. And it wasn’t just my soul that responded to Sam. My body practically yearned to be closer to him, to feel his skin against mine.

I cleared my throat. “I bet Lilith loved the sunsets here. She liked pretty things.”

“Arkas liked them, too.”

I almost stumbled, my feet catching on the sand as the surprise flittered through me. Sam—and the others—had rarely spoken Arkas’s name aloud, let alone actually say something meaningful about him. I knew that he’d died, of course, and I knew that it had happened because of a Hydra. Maybe. That part was still fuzzy. And I knew that it had been Sam’s fault. Or Uriel’s. They all seemed to take a part of the blame, the ghost of Arkas haunting each and every one of them.

“What else did Arkas like?” I couldn’t help but ask. I’d tried to give my fallen angels space on the issue. Curiosity had tempted me to ask sooner, but I knew it was a touchy subject for them. I figured they’d tell me about Arkas when they were ready. Still, Sam had been the one to bring him up, so maybe now was that time.

“He liked danger,” Sam said with a heavy sigh. “He liked animals and creatures, kind of like you, Erela. Except he liked even demonic ones.”

“The Hydra,” I said, stopping short so that I could look Sam in the eye. “Don’t tell me he actually liked those things.”

He gave a nod. “He was convinced that there was more to the Hydra than met the eye. He wanted to…communicate with one. Try to understand how they think. So, he tried to catch one.”

My eyes practically bugged out of my head. “Catch one? But they’re…they’re massive?”

I distinctly remembered the Hydra that had trapped me in the Harlem River. The water had been murky, so it had been difficult to get a clear view of it. But it had definitely been about twice the size of a whale. I mean, probably that size. I’d never seen a whale myself. Still. The point is, the thing was huge. Not the kind of creature that anyone in their right mind could catch.

“Let me guess. His plan didn’t go so well.”

Sam surprised me by chuckling. “Actually, Erela, he managed to catch the damn thing. It was when Uriel ordered him to return it to the ocean that things got dicey.”

“Uriel?” I arched a brow. “Our Uriel? The pacifist who hates giving orders?”

“That’s the one.” The smile slipped from Sam’s face. “I feel like the rest of this is his story to tell.”

“Oh.” With a nod, I glanced toward the house. Sam might have been willing to talk to me about Arkas, but the others were nowhere near it. But of course, all of this still didn’t explain…

“You’re probably wondering why I took a vow of silence,” Sam finished the thought for me. “I helped him, Erela. I helped Arkas capture the Hydra, and then I helped him try to communicate with the creature. For a little while there, I thought we’d made progress, and I told Arkas what I thought the Hydra was trying to say.” He clenched his jaw tight. “But it was all wrong. I opened my mouth and said the words that doomed Arkas. Because of that, I vowed never to speak unless absolutely necessary, and still only when I could be certain that my words rang true.”