Nightingale Girl by M. R. Pritchard Read Free Book Online Page A

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    Nightingale can influence people’s dreams? Wonder if she had anything to do with that filthy dream I had about him taking off his trench coat when I was in the Safe House in Hell?
    The Safe Houses are where the newly dead can go to repent, their last chance to ascend to Heaven.
    I run my tongue across my teeth one more time. They’re all there. I may not have had much growing up, but I had my teeth. I prefer to keep them intact.
    Sparrow rolls, wrapping the blanket around him like a burrito. I get up and shower.
    Sparrow’s eating a Twinkie when I walk out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. I grab the second one from the package on the table and take a bite out of it.
    “What do you want to do today?” I ask as I chew.
    Sparrow hands me a can of orange soda. “Not sure.”
    “There’s a pool downstairs. Want to swim?”
    Something flickers across his face.
    The last time we were near a pool together, I was washing off the splatter of the dead after nearly killing him. My trigger finger twitches, and I close my eyes. I almost shot Sparrow dead that day. He was teetering on that rocky cliff after I blew out the brains of one of the walking dead. The creature was trying to eat his face, and I panicked—remembered things I tried to bury. I hope Sparrow forgives me for that.
    He must’ve, since he’s still standing here.
    “I don’t have a swimsuit,” Sparrow replies.
    “You shower. I’ll run down to the hotel gift shop and get us some swimsuits.”
    I pull on jeans and a T-shirt over my damp skin before grabbing my bank card and room key. The shower starts in the bathroom, and the sounds of Sparrow moving around in there echo. I head for the elevator, worried that he might not be there when I get back. I don’t want to leave him, not for a second.
    The gift shop only has a one-piece tropical-print suit and a pair of swim trunks with palm trees all over them. I pay for both and then dash back up to the room.
    Just as I’m walking through the door, Sparrow’s stepping out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.
    “How was it?” I open the bag from the shop and hand him the swim trunks.
    “Lonely.”
    I smile. “Next time.”
    His left shoulder “tics” hard, nearly throwing him off-balance. I start to go to him, but Sparrow holds his hand out, stopping me from coming closer.
    “It’s fine,” he says, looking away.
    Something breaks inside of me, watching this torture overtake him. I want to hide him away and protect him, or hurry up and get his time as a Hellion over with so he can go back to normal. Whatever his normal is.
    A tiny emotion flashes through my heart: what if I hate Sparrow’s normal?
    I shake my head and reach for the bag with my bathing suit. We change, grab towels from the closet near the bathroom, then head to the pool. The uneasy feelings of sudden loneliness and loss begin to creep up on me.
    The smell of chlorine lingers in the hall. Sparrow reaches around me and pulls the door to the pool area open. He waits for me to walk through. I toss my towel on a chair and head for the water, trying to figure out the right thing to say to him at this moment. This threat of him becoming a Hellion is creating a ridge between us, and I don’t like it at all. I’ve never had anyone in my life quite like Sparrow.
    As I’m dipping my toe in the pool, trying to figure what to say, Sparrow touches my arm, and I hear his sharp intake of breath. I look up and find Gabriel standing on the other side of the pool.
    Oh shit.
    “Brats.” Gabriel’s voice echoes throughout the pool room. “Just like your mother, running away” comes next. “Goddamned kids.” He’s staring me down with his electric-blue gaze. Before I can say one word, he’s standing next to me in a flash. “You swore on his life not to leave the Seven Kingdoms of Heaven.” Gabriel points at Sparrow. “On. His. Life.”
    I step back.
    “My father didn’t tell you?” Sparrow steps forward. “The other