My insides flutter with unease at the thought of him lying helpless on a table surrounded by hostile angels. Not to mention the possibility of a resistance attack during the surgery.
Should I warn him?
And run the risk that he’ll tell his people? His old friends and loyal soldiers?
What would he do if he knew anyway? Cancel the operation and give up his only hope for getting his wings back? Not a chance.
Raffe steps out the door without a word of warning from me.
CHAPTER 34
I’m not sure what to do except pace.
I’m too worked up to think straight. My mind tumbles with what might be happening with Paige, my mother, Raffe and the freedom fighters.
How long can I eat and sleep and lounge around in luxury while Paige is somewhere nearby? At this rate, it could be weeks before we get a lead on her. I just wish there was something I could do instead of waiting here helpless until Raffe gets out of surgery.
From what I’ve seen, humans aren’t allowed anywhere in the aerie without an angel escort. Unless they’re servants….
I discard half a dozen crazy ideas that involve things like jumping a servant my size and stealing her clothes. That may work in the movies, but I would probably be condemning someone to starvation if she gets kicked out of the aerie. I may not approve of humans working for angels, but who am I to judge anyone’s way of surviving this crisis and feeding their family?
I pick up the phone and order a bottle of champagne off their room service menu. I consider asking for Dee-Dum but decide to leave it to chance for now.
In the World Before, I wouldn’t even legally be able to drink, much less order a bottle of champagne to be delivered to a thousand-dollar-a-night suite. I pace, thinking through all the possible scenarios. Just when I’m convinced I’m going to wear a circular track in the plush carpet, someone knocks on the door.
Please, please let it be Dee-Dum.
I open the door to a mousy looking woman. Her dark eyes gaze out from beneath a mop of frizzy brown hair. I’m so disappointed I can taste the metallic tang of it in my mouth. I’m so frustrated it’s not Dee-Dum that I seriously consider jumping her for her black and white uniform. She wears a long black skirt with a crisp white blouse under a black waist jacket that resembles a female version of a tuxedo. She’s a little bigger than me but not by much.
I open the door and indicate that she should come in. She walks to the coffee table to put down her tray.
“Do you have family?” I ask.
She turns and looks at me like a startled rabbit. She nods, causing her frizzy hair to flop over her eyes.
“Does this job keep them fed?”
She nods again, her eyes turning wary. She may have been an innocent a couple of months before, but that might as well have been a lifetime ago. The innocence in her eyes flees much too fast. This girl had to fight to get her job, and by the look of her grim expression, she’s had to fight to keep it, too.
“How many of you make deliveries for room service?”
“Why?”
“Just curious. ” I consider telling her that I’m looking for Dee-Dum, but I don’t want to jeopardize him. There’s too much I don’t understand about angel society and servant politics for me to start throwing around names.
“There are about half a dozen of us. ” She shrugs with one shoulder, keeping her wary eyes on me as she heads back for the door.
“Do you take turns delivering things?”
She nods. Her eyes dart to the bedroom door, probably wondering where my angel is.
“Am I creeping you out?” I say it with a deliberately creepy tone. Her eyes dart back to me. I saunter toward her like a vampire with a hungry expression on my face. I’m making things up as I go, but I can tell that I’m freaking her out. I guess that’s better than being laughed at for acting strange.
Her eyes widen as I approach her. She claws at the doorknob and practically runs out.
Hopefully, that takes her out of the running for making deliveries to this room. At most, I just need to order five more things.
It turns out I only have to order two more things before Dee-Dum comes to my door with a large slice of cheesecake. I close the door quickly behind him and lean against it as though this will force him to help me.
The first thing I want to ask is when the attack will happen. But he has seen me in the company of angels, and I’m afraid he’ll think of me as a threat if I start asking questions about their attack plans. So I stick to the basics.
“Do you know where they’re keeping the children?” I don’t think my voice is very loud, but he whips his hand down in a shushing motion anyway. His eyes dart to the bedroom.
“They’re gone,” I whisper. “Please help me. I need to find my little sister. ”
He stares at me for a long moment. He pulls out a pen and a pad of paper, the kind a waiter might use to take your order. He scribbles something on it and hands it to me. The note reads, “Leave now while you can. ”
I put my hand out for his pen and write on the same piece of paper. A few months ago, it would have been natural to use a new piece of paper for a new note, but now, the paper we have may be the last we ever have. “Can’t. Must rescue sister. ”
He writes, “Then you’ll die. ”
“I can tell you stuff about them you probably don’t know. ”