He puts a pillow under my head. As he’s doing this, he brushes hair out of my face and sweeps it behind my ear. His touch is warm and smooth. I should be scared, but I’m not. “You’ll be all right,” he says. “The men will have strict orders to be gentlemanly toward you.”

I guess it doesn’t take a mind reader to know that I might be worried about that. “Thank you,” I say.

Obi and his man collect the bowls of stew and leave. The lock clicks behind them.

“Thank you?” asks Raffe.

“Shut up. I’m exhausted. I really need to get some sleep.”

“What you need is to decide who’s on your side and who’s not.”

“Will you tell them?” I don’t want to get specific in case someone’s listening. I hope he understands what I mean. If Raffe and I make it to the aerie, he’ll have intel on the infant resistance movement. If he tells the other angels and they kill off the movement, I’ll be the Judas of my kind.

There’s a long pause.

If he doesn’t tell, will he be the Judas of his kind?

“Why did you come here?” he asks, blatantly changing the subject. “Why didn’t you run away like we both know you should have?”

“Stupid, huh?”

“Very.”

“I just…couldn’t.”

I want to ask him why he risked his life to save mine when his people kill us every day. But I can’t. Not here, not now. Not while someone may be listening.

We lie in silence, listening to the crickets.

After a long time, as I drift away to a numb place, he whispers in the dark. “They’re all asleep except for the guards.”

I’m instantly alert. “You have a plan?”

“Sure. Don’t you? You’re the rescuer.” The moon has moved, and the light coming through the window is dimmer now. But it’s still enough for me to see the darker shadow of his form getting up from his cot. He comes over to me and starts untying me.

“How the hell did you do that?”

“When you’re storming the aerie, remember that ropes won’t hold angels.” He whispers the last word.

I’d forgotten how much stronger he is than a man.

“You mean you could have gotten out all that time? You don’t even need me. Why didn’t you do it already?”

“What, and miss the fun of rattling their tiny little brains wondering what happened?” He swiftly unties me and pulls me to my feet.

His evasive maneuver doesn’t escape me. “Ah, I get it. You can escape at night, but not during the day. You can’t outrun bullets, can you?”

Like most people, my first introduction to angels was through the looping footage of the Archangel Gabriel being shot. I can’t help but wonder if the angels would have been less hostile if we hadn’t immediately killed their leader. At least, they think he was killed. No one knows for sure because the body wasn’t recovered, or so they said. The legion of winged men floating behind him dispersed with the panicked crowd, quickly disappearing into the smoky sky. I wonder if Raffe was part of that legion.