Read Online A Matter of Time (The Angel Sight Series) by Lisa M. Basso - Free Book Online

me. The whitish mask elongated his face. The black accents around his eyes that were meant to look like his eyebrows were permanently quirked. The creased lines beside the mask’s exaggerated mouth seemed to be mocking me, waiting for me, telling me I’d been captured.
    I clenched my fists, but nodded once at the Fallen, hoping he’d take the hint of my acknowledgment and move on.
    He didn’t.
    “Ray?” His voice was below a whisper, so low I swore I’d imagined it.
    But the sound, the deep, familiar tone … no. I’d imagined it.
    I angled my shoulder toward the wall and squeezed between him and the rock, always moving, but could feel his body behind me.
    “Ray,” he said again. This time it stopped me dead. My stomach clenched. My knees turned to rubber, and my eyes watered. I turned to meet him straight on.
    “Kade?” I kept my voice low with so many of the Fallen nearly on top of us. But I could already hear the tears in my voice.
    He nodded once. His mask tipped only slightly. Keeping my arm low to ensure my wing stayed tucked away, I leaned against the rock wall for support. Little good it did with my world crumbling around me. My resolve faded much like the lives of Lucifer’s souls, gray and bone thin.
    “Keep walking,” he grunted.
    I used the wall again to help me turn, then to help me walk, still keeping the upper part of my arm clamped down on my wings.
    A shout loud and deep enough to rattle the walls exploded behind us. I picked up my pace, Kade still at my heels while surveying the Fallen around us. They had become quieter, curious, some craning their heads up above the sea of ink-black wings.
    Several sloppy thuds boomed on the drums before the rhythm died. Quiet stillness blanketed the cave. Kade tugged my sleeve once in warning. I looked back to find he had turned. The Fallen drummer collected what was left of his drums, hollow shells with holes along the top, and dragged them offstage.
    Lucifer clutched a microphone in the center of the stage, the skin from the drums still in his fist. “The girl has escaped!” His voice bellowed up the cavernous walls toward the ceiling, carrying back to the last row of Fallen. “I summoned you all here to experience the scope of our new weapon.” He gestured behind him where six gray-skinned souls carried a car-sized block of ice on their backs. “To witness our future victory in action.”
    “We should go,” I whispered to Kade.
    He tightened his grip on my sleeve.
    My pulse raced, throwing my head into a spiral. What if Kade’s act on Earth—the feeding, killing, and obeying that Lucien and Az had forced me to watch—hadn’t been an act at all? If Lucifer had put him through the same kind of torture he’d used on me, there was a good possibility Kade had broken. It was hard to believe after he willingly entered Hell to be with me.
    I glanced at him, his mask concealing everything I needed to see.
    Anything was possible.
    The block of ice landed on the stage with a crack, freeing tiny rocks from the ceiling. The ice slid almost to the edge of the stage while the souls returned to their river.
    I prayed the woman would make good on her promise to hide Lucien’s head so it could never be reattached.
    “To show how powerful she is, I arranged for a demonstration.” Lucifer climbed atop the block and held out his hand. Two Fallen marched an angel onto the stage. A real angel. Kade must have heard my sharp intake of breath, because his head turned slightly and his shoulders went rigid. The angel’s white wings hung low, mangled, his body covered in whip marks and dried blood. “This, children, is Lofiel, an angel.”
    The crowd collectively chanted their approval.
    I struggled not let the hate brewing inside me overcome my common sense. Charging the stage to find out if I could kill Lucifer, too, was a bad idea. But it was there, brewing.
    “I had planned for our guest of honor to regale us with a show. Her escape is a hitch in those plans.