Down to the Bone: Quantum Gravity Book Five by Justina Robson Read Free Book Online

right.’ She wrenched her hand back with just as much violence as it took and looked him in the eye. She was surprised
     at how much of a shock it was to her human expectations to feel that she saw right through into his soul every time she did
     this. Humans said poetically that the eyes were the windows to the soul, but with demons it was absolutely true and also that
     their soul was capable of staring right back into yours with a deadly accuracy no human vision really ever managed. It was
     why they had never had any time for lies. Once, looking at Teazle had been like looking at a snowfield or an arctic whiteout.
     The colour was supersaturated. Over the last year however, he had started to shine and take on a quality she could only describe
     to herself as translucent. She felt his apprehension and his hatred of how much this was weakening his basic ability to dominate
     everyone in his path. She saw his self-loathing and he saw hers. With difficulty she assembled her results into words, ignoring
     it, knowing it wouldn’t go away.
    ‘Your basic vibration sequence, the way that your fundamental particles resonate in the material planes, are mutating from
     demonic normal activity to . . . something else.’
    He stared at her. ‘What?’
    ‘Yeah, exactly. What?’ she shrugged. ‘I have no idea what.’ She paused and he sat back, deep in thought, frown lines cutting
     across his high forehead and down between his heavy brows. She said with more venom than she planned, ‘What did that shaman
     say as he was begging you for mercy?’
    Teazle shot her a dark look. ‘I did not touch him in any way.’ His scowl deepened and even she could feel his mood drop the
     overallroom ambience into a brooding, gloomy pall. ‘He said I was turning into an angel. Not metaphorically. Literally.’
    ‘Death’s angel,’ Lila said, looking at the swords, the faintest veils of light trailing off them, forming spectral wings that
     vanished into the sunlight. ‘Because those are her swords.’ The idea emptied her mind of anything else. She remembered seeing
     Teazle as a descending angel when he came with her to the Fleet where they had finally cornered Xaviendra, the elf who would
     be a god. Angels had flown with Xavi at the time and they had been almost unwatchably alien. They had left before the end
     and not explained themselves and Xavi’s own explanation – that they were there to ensure her safe rise to power – didn’t stand
     up as far as Lila was concerned. Even so, the notion was ludicrous. It was there and it was impossible. ‘Literally.’
    Teazle growled, ‘So he said.’
    On Teazle’s lap Zal made a short sigh although he didn’t speak or open his eyes.
    ‘I don’t know what an angel is,’ Lila said after a second. ‘I mean, outside of books and stories. When Xavi said she had angels
     escorting her I thought that she was delusional.’
    ‘She is, and they’re The Others,’ Zal said then, coughing to clear his throat. He still kept his eyes shut and feigned a sleeping
     pose. ‘Angels are what the rest of us whisper about around the campfire when it’s time for the scary stories. Humans wonder
     about ghosts and demons. We wonder about angels. And, to a lesser extent, dragons. And spirits. And shadow. We just say Others,
     because that means all of them and we really don’t know if they’re all different or all the same. They certainly come and
     go from the same place.’
    ‘They
can’t
all be the same surely?’ Lila let her AI page through the vast texts on these matters in an offline mode while she stroked
     Zal’s hair. Later, once she’d slept, she’d wake up and know the contents as if she’d read it properly. Better, in fact, because
     she’d never been that diligent a student. She let her head come into contact with Teazle’s and then both of them turned to
     kiss one another for a moment. He was so on edge that he didn’t notice how tense she was in return, or didn’t