Major Arcana by RoAnna Sylver

Author:RoAnna Sylver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RoAnna Sylver
Published: 2017-05-21T12:57:26+00:00

The soprano’s voice was sublime.

Holy Inspector Fiore Giovanni was no patron of the arts, and rarely had time for frivolous distractions, but even he recognized the characteristic staccato of Mozart’s Queen of the Night. Most would, even if they didn’t know the name. The Magic Flute’s showstopper movement was popular but demanding, and could so easily be butchered by screeching and overzealous divas—but not here. The notes were effortlessly smooth, flutey and pure, but with a steely undercurrent of raw power the role of scorned Queen demanded. Anyone could see why MonaLisa’s name had blazed in lights for so long, a rising star who showed no signs of fading.

Giovanni cared nothing for her physical charms, her soft, generous curves or painted face, and even less for the music itself. But presence, charisma, mastery over an audience’s hearts and minds; these caught his notice. In perhaps a different way than anyone else in the packed house, she had his attention.

Reaching the piece’s climax, she raised her arms above her head, letting her mane of curls cascade down her back, catching the lights and seeming to turn to a flame of gold. A moment later, the rest of her began to rise as well. As the captive audience watched, her toes left the ground, and she continued to ascend. No matter how hard Giovanni’s sharp eyes searched for the gleaming of strings under the house lights, he found none. When she hung around twenty feet suspended in the air, something began to unfurl behind her. They were wings, he realized with bemused awe, huge and dark, like the kind that had blocked out the moon outside and threatened carnage, but in the theatre’s golden light, hers gleamed like polished obsidian.

“Ahhhh,” the witch—the other witch, the one who’d worn the plague doctor mask—sighed, sounding absolutely besotted. Zadkiel had been waiting for them, thankfully in two-legged form, when Giovanni had followed Letizia into this private balcony. Now they sat on Letizia’s other side, and he shot them both a sidelong glance. Face equal parts incredulous and probing, he watched as Letizia handed her friend the goggles she’d worn outside; Zadkiel raised the lenses to their eyes like they were opera glasses, looking enraptured with what they saw. “She’s an angel. It’s been too long...”

“You know I can get you in here any time you want,” Letizia murmured, leaning back in her seat and stretching her legs out as much as the spacious booth would allow. “Best seats in the house.”

“Mmm, I wouldn’t want to draw any prying eyes,” they said, but still sounded wistful.

“Well, maybe next time, you wear… a different coat,” Letizia leaned over to knock their shoulders together. “Nobody’d recognize you.”

“That is an idea,” Zadkiel returned her grin, and theirs turned a bit mischievous. “But are you sure paws are allowed on the furniture?”

“Incredible,” Giovanni muttered as the two of them giggled like schoolchildren, but his eyes were on the stage, and its star’s sweeping wings. “Absolutely incredible.”

“She really is, isn’t she?” Letizia turned to face him, smile not fading a bit.

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