As Micah's first act in the name of personal improvement, he declined his portion of stew, insisting that it be shared out amongst the others. He didn't need it, after all. Nor did the dish look particularly appetising, although he chose not to voice that thought. It probably wasn't polite.

Besides, the sweetened guilt of cake still lingered on his tongue, burning his throat and stirring up nausea in his stomach whenever he dared think about it. Maybe it was for the best that he avoided food for now.

"I'm sorry there can't be better sleeping arrangements," Josephine said from her perch on the end of the bed, once a decent stretch of silence filled only with the sound of clinking spoons had stretched out. She was studying the thin blanket that covered it, a crease smoothing and reforming beneath her sliding thumb. "I don't know which of you wants to take the bed, but--"

"You'll take the bed." Corinne's tone was hard enough to stamp out any argument. "It's yours. We can handle ourselves." She stood abruptly, abandoning her bowl on the table. Even from Micah's spot curled into the corner, his knees pulled to his chest, he could see it wasn't empty. Maybe he wasn't the only one not keen on eating.

There were very few words exchanged after that. The other two soon followed, Lilith crossing the room to offer the remains of Corinne's stew to Davey while Rivo found a spot against the wall beside Corinne. He might have whispered something in her ear, but it was far too quiet to make out, and very brief. His eyes were shut soon after.

Josephine flicked off the indoor lantern, and the room was bathed in a warm kind of muted darkness.

Micah shifted onto his side, expecting sleep to come easy after the exhaustion the day's events had clubbed him with. It didn't. His wings ached and itched beneath his coat, and his heart thudded, persistently loud in his ears. Every beat sounded like a gunshot. He shivered, squirming into a tighter ball. Promising to be better didn't make the memories of his mistakes any easier to bear, it seemed.

The nightly hours trudged by. They were thick and choking as their cold gripped his lungs, clogged with the sticky scent of blood and the malice of glaring red lights, shoved jaggedly alongside the image of Elysia's cathedral, white and blinding gold. His blood seemed to hiss in his veins. He was almost relieved when more natural light split through the house's dirt-speckled window, and Lilith's hand on his shoulder dragged him out of his restless trance.

"Wake up," she whispered, her voice alone enough to crack his eyes open. It leapt high, shook by a withheld eagerness, at odds to the solemn quiet that had masked the previous evening. "I found the Heart."

Micah shot up immediately. He rolled over so quickly that his coat tangled in his legs, cold air ruffling the feathers on his wings as they slipped free of their cage. He hurried to tug the clothing back over them as he scrambled to his feet. "What?"

She pressed a finger to her lips, gesturing to the bed to his right. Josephine and Davey didn't stir. The child huddled into his mother's chest, shifting with its steady rise and fall, a smile sitting softly on his lips. "Stay quiet," Lilith breathed. "Corinne wants to flee the premises before they wake up." She shrugged, half-smirking. "Nice people really make her uncomfortable."

"I just don't want to suffer an unnecessary goodbye," Corinne retorted in a hiss, appearing beside her. "We need to get moving."

Micah gave a rapid nod. Hope bubbled up his throat, starting in the jittery pulse of his heart and reaching up far enough to curl the corners of his mouth with delighted ease. There was no need to protest. He cut in front of them both, his steps bouncing as they carried him out of the door, very nearly crashing him straight into Rivo who waited outside.

The man frowned down at him, his arms folded. Micah just shot him a grin and twirled around, rocking eagerly on his heels as the others ducked around the cloth flap and followed. Corinne's rifle was back in her hands, cradled close to her chest. For once, he succeeded in observing it without a cold trickle damping his spine, filled instead with the shower of warmth that filtered through at the sight of her. The weapon meant very little in truth, he decided. When it sat in the right hands, a rifle or even a pistol could be trusted. Sometimes a dash of evil was necessary to protect them from greater evils.

Like Kasper. His backward step faltered, stumbling out of its dance. He gave his head a firm shake to dislodge the thought. No. Like Khalida. The one who'd leaked the corruption Corinne tried so hard to fight into her blood. Kasper was just another victim.

But his thoughts were jumping again, jittery and roaming about with the abrupt surge of emotion. He reeled them back and spun into place at Lilith's side. The Heart. He needed to focus on the Heart.

"Where is it?" he asked.

"Not far." Lilith edged her glasses further up her nose, peering down at the device that had reappeared in her hands. Her finger shifted to knock a switch, eliciting a muffled beep, and a red line flickered to life on its screen. It was speckled by dirt and dust, but bright enough to make out. She threw a glance at the path ahead. "It was impossible to sleep last night, so I spent my time tinkering instead and managed to encode a mapping function. It's clunky, but it works. We're roughly about..." She tapped the screen with a nail. "Three miles away? Give or take?"

Micah didn't know what miles were, but three sounded like a small number. It couldn't be far at all. A skip entered his step, nudging him ahead of the others before he pulled himself back to walk with them. He couldn't get too excited. They didn't have the Heart yet.

But it was so close. Soon, he'd get to go home. He beamed up at the sky, already imagining Siofra's soft wings curled around him, or Jinx's teasing smile as he told her of all his adventures, or even the glint of pride he'd strive to extract from Nerezza.

"Let's stay alert," Corinne murmured, jolting his attention to her. Corinne. He'd tell all the angels about her. They'd love to hear of his revelations about the demon bloods. And who wouldn't find Corinne fascinating? "We don't know what we'll find. There's every chance that Khalida got there first."

"We can fight her, though, right?" Micah's tongue was running away from him, but he let it. Hope had possessed him in full and he didn't plan on letting it go. "You must have beat her once to escape working for her. Surely you can do it again."

Her eyes widened, then narrowed into a pointed glare. He returned a shrug. She had said Lilith and Rivo already knew.

"It wasn't exactly easy." She brushed a lock of her dark hair over her shoulder, her fingers lingering on it as she turned back to face the path ahead.

"But you did it." He nudged her side, calling a smile. "Besides, you didn't have me last time."

She shot him a doubtful look. "I think you're more hindrance than help."

"Nonsense. I bring you luck."

Not that anything particularly lucky had happened since he'd joined them, but she didn't argue. If anything, that twitch of a smile might have returned, although she hid her face with a jerk of her head before he could make out anything.

He felt like saying more -- anything, really, to channel the squirming eagerness thumping in his heart into a string of words -- but her focus seemed to draw inward, her thumb rubbing up and down the surface of her rifle. He left her to her deep thoughts and occupied himself with a hummed melody instead. Much to his surprise, no-one stopped him. The heavy silence of Anhren was for once lifted by the light notes shaped in his own quiet breath. The grey streets and blackened shadows didn't seem so bad anymore.

Maybe he'd miss this place, just a little. It would be strange to leave after such a short time. He felt as if he'd barely scratched the surface of the city's mysteries.

His song faltered as he bit down on his tongue, stealing another instinctive glance of Corinne. He'd never see her again, either.

"Round this bend," Lilith said, far sooner than he'd expected. She slowed, holding the device so close to her face that he wondered how she could see it at all. Micah staggered to match her pace, then felt Corinne's hand curl over his arm, her knuckles pressing into his side as she shoved him towards the wall. Micah winced as his shoulder hit it, then froze. An odd sense of recognition sharpened his awareness. He glanced around, puzzled by the feeling. This place looked the same as any other street.

His increased focus let a second sensation leak through. The thread of noise, of music, distant enough that he had to prick his ears to catch it, although it was impossible to break from the moment its tune sunk under his skin. It leapt high and low, far livelier than his own soft hum, a better rhythm to match the bounce in his step. His fingers itched. He drummed them over the bricks of the wall, picking out a beat.

Lilith wandered absentmindedly into place behind him, her eyes glued to her device's screen. He spied the satisfied curl of her mouth and felt bubbles pop in his stomach, his fingers stuttering out of rhythm with the music. It was an effort to keep still. Fidgeting, he dragged his gaze over Corinne's shoulder, watching Rivo dart around the corner.

He reappeared a moment later, his lips set in a line. "We're at the Serpent."

Corinne growled something under her breath. Micah perked up, scrambling for the memory that tumbled through. "The Serpent? Like... the, um.."

"The Starving Serpent," she finished, saving him from trailing into awkward silence. The words ground into one another, their fire matching the glare she pinned the wall with.

He nodded, a laugh building in his throat as he guessed her thoughts. "The place where you found me." It broke free, abrupt enough that he had to catch the wall to steady himself. "It was right where we started all along. Wow. That's great."

"Not necessarily," Lilith chipped in from the back, looking up from her device. "Kasper misled us a little yesterday, but we were heading in roughly the right direction. Which certainly wasn't anywhere here."

"So it's moved since yesterday?" Micah whirled to face her, his smile folding into a frown. Could Asariel's Heart move of its own accord? Was this the dead angel's way of taunting him?

A smirk pulled at one corner of his mouth. Maybe he'd been right after all. Asariel was dead and spiteful and playing a game with him.

Corinne's fist smacked into the wall. Shock jolted Micah around, his nails digging into a crack in the brickwork. "I was right," she muttered. "She's already found it."

A pit opened in his stomach, wide enough to swallow the bubbles. "How do you know?"

She glanced up, the darkness in her eyes clearing somewhat, and sighed. "The Serpent is Khalida's second home. That's why her snake-biters pounced on you the moment they saw you." She shot the wall another hardened stare as if it was at fault for the whole concept. "I thought we were getting near her tower yesterday. It's more secure to keep it there, so the only reason she'd move it here..."

"This is a trap," Rivo said grimly.

She nodded, her eyes closing for a moment. "She's playing a game with me."

The similarity to his own thoughts stunned Micah for a moment. He dropped his head, taking the reminder to ground himself. He was still in Duine. The games down here had different rules, and greater consequences.

A particularly brash note of the song snagged his attention. As he allowed the distant music to flow back into his awareness, it brought with it a twist on the statement, the echo of an idea. He slid past Corinne, ignoring her pointed look. Rivo stepped aside to let him grip the corner and take a cautious peek. Familiarity bled all the more into the crimson lights that flooded the wider street beyond, glinting like specks of blood on the Serpent's grimy windows and giving the silver of the pole that stuck out beside the roof a pale red sheen. The only difference daylight brought was the muted effect of the colour. And, of course, the music drifting from just beyond those windows, and the silhouettes of a crowd of people shifting to its beat.

He ducked back quickly, the recollection of a harsh pair of eyes staring out injecting a spike of fear, but still a faint smile sat on his lips. He spun to face the others.

"If she's playing a game," he said, "then the way to beat her is to start one of our own."

When he received only confused frowns, he hurried to elaborate. "Khalida's game has rules, right? There's moves she expects you to make. But if we play our own game, we can make our own rules." He reached up to twist a silver strand of hair around his finger. "This probably doesn't make any sense."

"No," Lilith said, moving closer, a glint in her eyes. "I think I get it. You're saying we should do what she least expects."

He nodded, excitement skittering across his skin. "And what does she least expect?"

"For us to walk right in," Corinne murmured, studying her rifle. She let out a vaguely amused snort. "For our game to be dull and simple."

"There's nothing dull about simplicity, Cori." Micah was riding a wave now, its current roaring in his chest. He clutched that thread of song, twined it around his heart, drew from the spiced heat that flowed along it. "We're going to dance."

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Micah is really making up for being sad last chapter. I like him better this way.

Although he did rudely decide to be dramatic and end the chapter early, so I've had to push my favourite scene on another chapter. But it's coming :D

- Pup