FALLEN (Angels and Gargoyles Book 3) by Brenda L. Harper Read Free Book Online Page A

was currently happening to her friends downstairs. She tried not to think of anything at all.
    Thoughts were no longer her own. She had to be careful who might be listening in.
    The pain in her head actually helped at this point. The pain was becoming more intense the longer she stood upright. It made it nearly impossible for her to think about anything except how much she wished Wyatt was there to run his hands over her skull. Only his hands seemed capable of healing this kind of pain.
    Ruby helped her into a bright red dress that clung to her chest, her abdomen, but then fell into a soft, easy skirt that seemed to swish around her legs each time she took a step. Her hair was twisted into a braid and the touch of a brush wiped color into her cheeks, removing the paleness that seemed to be more prevalent today than during her past visit.
    “Do you know what they want?” Dylan finally asked.
    Ruby shook her head. “I am not told things like that. I simply do as I am asked.”
    Dylan picked up the hairbrush Ruby had used on her hair and thought about the other servant who had taken on some of these chores during her last visit. “Where is Becky?” she asked.
    Ruby’s eyes fell to the floor, but not before Dylan saw the hint of a tear in the mirror in front of her. “She was punished.”
    “For what?”
    Ruby’s eyes came up, a new defiance in them that Dylan had never seen before. “For your escape,” she said.
    “But Becky had nothing to do with it,” Dylan said. “She wasn’t even here when I left.”
    “She was punished because the Redcoats cannot be,” Ruby said.
    Dylan turned and took her hand. “Where is she? Is she all right?”
    “No.” Ruby pulled away. “We should go.”
    Instead of moving toward the door, however, Ruby slipped something from her pocket and pressed it into Dylan’s hand. It was a relic Davida had called a compass. Dylan had carried it in her pocket since she left Genero, but she had no idea what it was or what it could do. But with just a touch, Ruby showed her with the thoughts swirling through her mind. Not only that, but she showed Dylan how to use the compass to find Becky.
    Dylan met her gaze, trying to wrap all the information Ruby had just given her into a nice little compartment and store it away for future use. She slipped the compass into a pocket of her dress and stood, running her hands over the material that covered her hips, her thighs, straightening it so that she would look her best as they walked down the long corridors to the chamber where Luc and Lily waited. Ruby dipped her chin slightly.
    It was time.

Chapter 8
     
    Ruby stepped up to the double doors and laid her hands on the handles that would allow them to open. She hesitated a moment, but she did not turn to look at Dylan. It was as though she was waiting for some other signal. Dylan took a deep breath to settle her pounding heartbeat, the pain in her head overwhelming for just a moment. But then it began to recede as she stepped forward, a hand on Ruby’s shoulder enough to tell her it was okay, that she could open the doors now.
    It was surreal, how much like the last time this moment was. They were sitting in their chairs as they had been before, Luc on the left, Lily on the right. But there was no joy on Luc’s handsome face, only pain. His skin was paler than before, making his black beard and hair seem darker than before. And his eyes. Like pools of darkness, they stared at Dylan with accusation written on every microcosm of space.
    Lily was slouched, her broken human form no longer capable of the basic energy required to keep her head balanced between her shoulders. Her fingers were curled into claws, lesions weeping all along the bare skin of her arms, her neck. Her skin was like paper, the veins and muscles underneath ropy and visible, reddened in places where lesions were trying to pop out but had yet to make an appearance.
    She was unrecognizable.
    Dylan walked slowly down the narrow room,