Read Online Angelica by Sharon Shinn - Free Book Online Page A

was, for one of the rare occasions in his life, deliberately using his size to his advantage, and he made no effort not to look imposing.
    â€œWhat’s going on here?” he said in a slow, ominous voice.
    â€œNothing,” Zack said sulkily.
    â€œI said,” Gaaron repeated even more slowly, “what’s going on?”
    â€œThey took something of ours,” Jude said.
    â€œDid not!” one of the young boys burst out. “It wasn’t yours! You stole it!”
    â€œYes, yesterday they were down—” Esther’s voice started in, but Gaaron flung up a hand to stop her. She fell silent.
    â€œZack?” Gaaron asked, keeping the weight of his gaze on the black-haired boy, the biggest of the group, and the most consistent bully of the hold. “What happened?”
    Zack hunched his shoulders. “We was down in the—”
    â€œWe were,” Gaaron interrupted.
    â€œWe were down in the storerooms yesterday, and we found some stuff, and it didn’t look like nobody was using it—”
    â€œIt didn’t look like anybody was using it,” Gaaron corrected. His voice was unshakably patient; he knew he sounded as if he was willing to stand there all day, hearing the stupid story, enforcing rules of grammar and manners as well as addressing larger ethical issues. In fact, he would have preferred to spend his time almost any other way—but this, too, was one of his duties, and he would perform it as painstakingly as the task required.
    â€œSo we took it,” Zack finished up.
    â€œAnd what did you take?” Gaaron asked. “Show me.”
    â€œDon’t have it anymore,” Zack said. “Silas took it.”
    â€œTell me, then.”
    Zack looked down, looked up, looked down again. “Flute,” he said.
    Gaaron hid his surprise. He had been expecting something much more reprehensible. “Why?” he said.
    â€œÂ â€™Cause he’s stupid, and he takes things just because he can ,” Silas burst out.
    Gaaron transferred his gaze to the mortal. He knew he shouldn’t despise the small pale boy for his size and fairness, but he’d never liked Silas. Too whiny, too fragile. “I believe I asked Zack why he took it,” Gaaron said, and Silas fell to studying the scuff marks on the toes of his shoes.
    â€œÂ â€™Cause I wanted it,” Zack said. He tossed his dark head. He was half brother to Nicholas, though neither acknowledged the connection. His mother had been an angel-seeker, one of the women who frequented the hold hoping to catch the attention of an angel and, with any stroke of luck, bearan angel child. Nicholas’ mother, by contrast, had been a Manadavvi heiress who didn’t believe in consorting with such inferior persons, and wouldn’t allow her son to do so, either. Gaaron sometimes wasn’t sure which of the three parents most disgusted him by their behavior.
    â€œWanted it to—?”
    Zack shrugged. “To play it, maybe. Some people do.”
    Gaaron nodded and turned back to Silas and his compatriot. “And why did the two of you want the flute?” he asked.
    â€œWe didn’t want it! We were bringing it back!” Silas protested.
    Gaaron tilted his head to one side. “And can you think of other ways you might have resolved this problem?”
    â€œHuh?” Silas said.
    Zack loosed a crack of laughter. “He means why didn’t you snitch on me, you big baby, instead of stealing it yourself like the little thief you are.”
    The pair of insults forced Silas to launch himself across the other three angels and go for Zack’s throat. He was too quick for Gaaron; he connected and wrestled the bigger boy down with a pretty creditable show of fury and skill. He didn’t have the upper hand for long, for Zack flipped him to his back and started pummeling him in the chest.
    Gaaron glanced at Nicholas, who watched with a certain enjoyment,