The frost continued to spread across the apartment's surfaces as Vex solidified further. What had begun as a shifting shadow now took on more defined features—tall and gaunt, with skin that seemed to be carved from black marble. But it was the wings that made Azrael's breath catch in his throat.

They were magnificent and terrible, spanning nearly the width of the small room. But where a seraph's wings should have been pure light or flame, these were something else entirely. The left wing ...