Hæra’s face suddenly felt warmer than the rest of her. Her head and shoulders seemed heavier, as if they wanted to slump down and make her appear smaller. Perhaps she shouldn’t mock this man after all—he’d probably never done anything as embarrassing as getting caught in a dock.

She lifted her chin and stood up straighter. “Yes, she did. So you see, there’s a bond between us. I mean her no harm.”

It would be a great honor for Sister Madeleine to be devoured, to become part of a Stormhorse that would unleash the lightning and the wind. The first female Stormhorse, no less. Sister Madeleine would become legendary, spoken of with reverence. She’d become part of the herd’s lore for thousands of turns. Hæra would ensure it.

That wasn’t harming anybody. The opposite, in fact.

“Why are you so certain she’ll come back?” Jonathan asked. “She lives far off. She was just here on a tour. She’s got no friends or family here.”

Hæra looked him dead in the eye so he would feel the force of her sincerity. He had to. If she said it with enough faith, it’d come true.

“She has me,” she said.

After a moment, Jonathan said softly, “Ah.”

“Yes. And she will return to me. What lies between us is unfinished. Now…” Hæra held out her human hand and opened her palm to reveal the gold coin. “This is for you.”

Jonathan took the coin and squinted at it with a frown. Then he lifted his chin with a sharp gasp.

That seemed promising. “I believe this is precious to your kind. Would you have a use for it?”

“Yeah, it is.” Jonathan’s eyes were extremely wide. “And yeah, I would.”

“I have many more. They come from a shipwreck. I can bring them to you, if…”

Jonathan turned his wide-eyed gaze from the coin to Hæra. “If what?”

If you teach me to read. If you give me more clothes. If you show me your ways.

If you make me ready for her.

She pulled herself up to her full height and, for the first time, stretched her human mouth into a smile.

“I’m glad to have met you, Jonathan,” she said. “Let’s make a bargain. But first, you never answered my question: what is a nun?”

CHAPTER FIVE

THE CONVENT OF THE SACRED HEART, ONE YEAR LATER.

What a difference a year makes.

Sister Madeleine dismissed the thought as she looked down at the page before her. She hadn’t really been reading. Not that it mattered; she’d read this book so many times that she could recite it in her sleep.

Especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s section on angels.