Free Archon by Sabrina Benulis

us.”
    “We’ll take one of the back alleyways,” Kim said, and then his mouth settled into a hard line. As if they were about to walk into a war zone of some kind. “Follow me.”
    She trailed behind him, and they both left the church only to emerge in the middle of a depressing drizzle. Water slimed the cobblestones along the street, dripping from the gray moss that crusted parts of the brick-hewn towers to their right. The church courtyard was ringed by taller but much less impressive buildings, and sometimes, through their golden portholes, Angela saw students milling back and forth in narrow hallways or caught the flutter of thick draperies, their velvet half exposed to the wind. The thunder had swerved away somewhere to the west, booming like faraway drums. They passed very few people, most of them other novices, one of those a woman with rain-soaked hair. She questioned Kim with her eyes until he stopped to bow and wave her away.
    Then they slipped into the alleyway. Open sewage must have been flowing through a groove in the roadway. At least, that’s what it smelled like. The second Angela and Kim sidled away from it, he grabbed her hand and pulled her beneath a soggy canopy. They continued walking beneath it together, heading east.
    A large crow screeched overhead, quickly dropping onto the street ahead of them.
    Kim’s mouth set even harder, but he soon found his humor again. “I wouldn’t suggest taking this path on a dark night.”
    Or with a stranger like you?
    Not that Angela had the inhibitions of normal people anymore. If anything, she was begging to be murdered. But Kim was probably too much of a gentleman to either allow that or even do it himself. No sense asking. “Even before I found out that you and Stephanie were an item”—it was difficult to hide the eager curiosity in her tone—“I thought I’d ask you about my brother. Brendan. Do you know where he lives here, at the Academy?”
    The crow screeched, strutting nearer.
    Kim fiddled with something in his pocket, never taking his eyes off the bird. “Of all the things for you to say . . . Why don’t you go to the registrar and make your inquiries? Why would I care about where he lives?”
    Maybe because you’re making him look like a fool, sleeping with his girlfriend.
    Didn’t these priests in training have any kind of loyalty to one another?
    “Because you’re a novice too. Don’t you guys all hang out together? Bond, drink, and share stories?” Maybe even more than that. Luz was full of rumors and most of them revolved around the Vatican, the overall creepiness of the city, or even worse, the backward morality you could find in the most unlikely places. So far, Angela had avoided the parties for incoming students, trying to keep what was left of her innocence intact. “I was hoping to at least give him a message. The registrar turned me away. Since I left the institution—”
    Kim glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.
    “It’s a long story.” She turned away from him to watch the crow. In the short second he’d looked away, it had flown nearer to them, landing on a rickety gutter. “But anyway, I can’t just find out where he lives. My parents made sure to sign restraining papers to prevent that.”
    “So you’re insane,” Kim said, whistling between his teeth. He found the crow again, seeming to lock it in place with his words.
    “You sound impressed.”
    “I am. Your naïveté is off the charts. Most of the female students know better than to walk with me alone in a dark alleyway. Most people in general know not to bother with me at all.” He turned on her, quicker than thought, pinning her back against a brick wall that scratched and tugged at her skirt. Kim’s hands met the wall on either side of her head, and he leaned in close, his honey-colored eyes catlike in the dark. Angela’s heart hammered, a thin trickle of sweat touching her blouse collar. His mouth was so close, its breath warmed her neck.