I try not to show my repulsion, but shock is something I can’t disguise. There’s a roaring in my ears, the thunder of a waterfall, drowning my ability to make sense of this.
I hear Shae’s voice, gentle as a meek lamb’s. ‘Will it hurt the human?’
How can she think so clinically? How can either of them contemplate such disturbing details?
The High King pauses so long it forces me from the temporary refuge of my dazed disbelief back into reality. There’s a burning sensation in my throat now, along with the sound of rushing waters between my ears.
Will it hurt the human? Will it hurt the human?
I don’t want to hear the answer.
Michael looks worried and gazes at me with concern. He wants me to connect with him, let him know I’m OK. I can’t yet because I’m far from OK. This is not what I came here to do.
Will it hurt the human? Will it hurt the human?
I came for a tool to help me open a gate of Skade, not to take the life of a human, and not just any human, but one whose heart flows with love, a heart that is beating while the body is being consumed!
But now even the High King is waiting for me to open my eyes. I have to get this over with so I can leave. Taking a deep breath, I open my eyes and wait.
Will it hurt the human?
Mercifully he doesn’t make me wait long.
‘Yes,’ he says. ‘The pain will be excruciating. The gate will not only consume everything, it will take the human’s soul.’
15
Ebony
I can’t go back to sleep. The dream was so vivid it felt real. I pull myself into a sitting position, swinging my feet to the floor. I’m afraid that if I slip back into the dream Luca will pick up where he left off. I can still feel the heat from his lips on mine, the flames that erupted as if my mouth were on fire. I wipe it with the back of my hand, but it doesn’t help.
I turn my bedside lamp on and walk into my wardrobe, scratching my head at the sight of so many outfits. Wow, it’s like a department store. I pick out a pair of blue skinny jeans with a label I’ve heard celebrities wear. They fit like a second skin. I pull on a white top and turn round in front of the mirror, peering at my shoulders. Angels make clothing from a special fibre. When wings push on it, cells inside the fibre reorganise, separating and returning to form naturally when wings retract. I assume it’s the same here.
I brush my hair into a high ponytail and head down the small hallway to the living room, grateful Mela keeps the fires lit well into the night. The remaining embers are still keeping the room nice and toasty. I check the curtains are closed, go to the middle of the room and practise pulling up my power.
Nothing happens at first, but I keep trying, working simultaneously on slowing my breathing. I know my power comes from the centre of my core, that part of my mind that no one can reach. Nathaneal told me once to imagine a small room with a door only I can open. I do it now and a glimmering golden bud sprouts and draws me inside.
Containing my excitement at seeing my essence in its purest form, I focus on nurturing the tiny shoot, feeding it with love from my heart, coaxing it to open like a flower in bloom. Surprising me, it bursts into a bright flame and a rush of heat spreads throughout my body.
I smile as it sinks in: this is my power. It’s thrumming through my veins, in every cell of my body. It’s strong too, though just how strong, or how it compares to others’, I can’t say. Is it too strong? I don’t know. But it’s invigorating, as if it wants to burst through my skin.
From what I’ve learned so far, my power has the potential to be highly destructive. I’ve smashed vases, shifted furniture and thrown angels twice my size away from me.
Could I destroy this palace and still have enough strength left to walk out of the rubble? It’s a heady thought.
I will practise every night, every day, every chance I get.
About an hour into the session a noise from Mela’s room catches me off guard. I listen and hear her footsteps approaching. I’m starting to make progress and don’t want to stop yet, but, while my instinct says I can trust Mela, I don’t know how much Luca forces her to report, or simply reads through her mind.
She walks in and stops when she sees me standing in the middle of the living room with a weird expression on my face.
‘What are you doing up so early?’ she asks.
I sit down on the sofa. ‘Do you always sneak around in the early hours checking up on me?’
‘That’s not what I was doing, Ebony. Couldn’t you sleep?’
‘Since Luca abducted me I don’t sleep like I used to, so I have to do something to stop from lying in bed thinking too much.’ I try to make this sound light because I like Mela and have a really good feeling when I’m near her, but my heart is too broken and I can’t raise a smile to soften the hard edge to my voice.
‘I’m sorry, Ebony. I didn’t mean to startle you.’
‘I’m sorry too, Mela. I shouldn’t have had a go at you just for getting up.’
She sits beside me. ‘I heard a noise and thought I’d check it out.’
‘Ah, looking out for me. Now I should really be mad at you.’
She smiles. ‘I have sleeping tablets, remember? Anytime, just ask.’
‘Thanks, but it was just a bad dream so I thought I’d get up and exercise. Who knows when Luca will let me go outside?’ I drop the hint.
She sighs. ‘You’re right. It could be a while.’
Not what I was hoping to hear. ‘Do you know how long he plans to keep me locked up in this apartment?’
‘Until he can trust you won’t try to run, or …’ She presses her lips together as if she were thinking about something.
‘What is it, Mela?’
She gets up and heads to the front doors, calling out in a weird loud voice, ‘Would you like a cup of hot chocolate, my lady, to help you sleep?’
Not exactly what I was thinking, but I can’t help a grin at her subtle-as-cement clue that the guards could be listening, so I continue the charade. ‘There’s hot chocolate in the palace?’
‘He brought it over for you himself.’
‘He? You don’t mean … ?’
‘The king? Yes, on one of his trips before he sealed the gates.’
Mela opens the front doors. Over her head I see two Throne soldiers I haven’t seen before soundlessly turn on their heels. She asks them if they would like a hot chocolate drink and they politely decline.
Closing the doors, she turns to face me and runs a finger across her throat with a negative shake of her head. I get that she means the talk she wants to have with me will have to wait for a change of guards.
While Mela is in the kitchen, I open the drapes on all the windows. Streaks of crimson, blue and purple light hint of dawn over the distant snow-covered mountains, while nearer the city there’s a thick overcast sky. There’s mist in the air, dew on the ground. No doubt it’s going to be another cold day in Odisha.
Down in the streets, blinking lights draw my eye to a team of souls collecting garbage from in front of houses, dumping it into a truck with an open tray. Two female angels, both in fur-lined black cloaks, supervise with whips they crack across the legs of any worker they deem to be slow – as if whipping someone’s legs will make them move faster. Someone should whip their legs, see how much faster they move with whip-burned calves.
Mela returns with mugs of steaming hot chocolate that makes my nose twitch and fills my head with memories of Mum bringing me a mug during a stormy night. ‘You weren’t kidding about the chocolate.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’
‘How did he even know I liked the stuff?’ I whisper, quickly adding, ‘Forget it. I know he has spies.’
‘You’ve met his Aracals,’ she says softly.
‘Those birds told him I like hot chocolate?’ Her nod gets me wondering what else the shape-shifting creatures have told him.
After a while of standing at the window together, sipping hot chocol
ate and watching the sanitation teams at work, I realise Mela is not looking at the garbage collectors any more, but at me. ‘What is it, Mela?’
‘Ebony, if you’re contemplating running, then I need to warn you: there are far more dangerous places outside this palace than in.’
Escape is my hope. I can’t have that taken away, no matter how good her intentions. So I clear my throat and change the subject. ‘Is Luca coming to see me today?’
‘Sorry, Ebony, he hasn’t told me what he plans for you today.’
‘I thought he told you everything.’
She laughs and takes my empty mug. ‘I’d better fix you some breakfast.’
As she turns to leave, I grab her arm. ‘Do you tell him everything?’
‘I’m not sure I follow.’
‘Mela, you know I can tell when someone is lying, right?’
‘So I’ve been informed.’
‘OK, so can you answer me this?’ She waits and I ask, ‘Do you report to Prince Luca?’
She tilts her head and narrows her eyes.
I make myself clearer, ‘Do you tell him everything I do, every move I make, every word I say?’
Her eyes flick away, but I need to know whether my gut instinct is right or not. ‘Look at me, Mela. Do you tell Luca everything?’
She exhales a long breath. ‘Yes. And no.’
Could she be more ambiguous? ‘Tell me the “Yes” part.’
‘I can’t risk the king suspecting me of keeping secrets from him,’ she whispers, flicking a glance at the doors. Lifting a finger to her lips, she motions for me to follow her into her bedroom. Closing the door behind us, she turns to face me. ‘This room is safe to talk in, but we still need to keep our voices low. It’s swept for listening devices several times a day.’
‘Really? By whom?’
‘Certain trustworthy guards when they’re on duty.’
‘Oh.’
‘Ebony, remember down in the foyer when I told you the province of Zurat has a rebel problem?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘There are rebels in Odisha too.’
‘Here in the city?’
‘In almost every province and major city in Skade.’
‘Wow! How many? How strong are they? What are their plans? Can you put me in touch with them?’
She holds her hands up between us, and smiles. ‘You’re talking to their general.’
I swallow down a gasp as my mind buzzes with possibilities. Mela begins explaining and I try to contain my thoughts of runaway schemes in order to listen. ‘The rebel army is growing in numbers every day,’ she says. ‘Except for me, they are all angels. I’m grooming my highest-ranking lieutenants to take over when, well, my mortality expires. Those who live and work in this palace are most vulnerable. They depend on me to be strong and not make mistakes, so I must be very careful, especially in the king’s presence. And now that I’ve told you –’
‘Of course I’ll be careful too, Mela. But how do you keep Luca out of your head?’
‘An angel of light taught me how years ago, but I think he did something to me at the same time, because ever since that first meeting we’ve been able to communicate through the realms.’
This makes me raise my eyebrows.
She nods. ‘But it’s too risky to do so from the palace.’
‘Yeah, of course.’
‘Luca has the strongest mind of any angel I know. I haven’t risked linking with anyone since Luca appointed me your handmaiden.’
‘Thank you for telling me. You give me hope that I’m going to get out of here.’
‘Ebony …’ Mela’s voice trails off into silence, but her eyes are telling me what I don’t want to hear.
‘He’s not lying about the gates, is he?’
‘No.’ Her sad smile is back.
‘So this is why you have to tell him everything, so he doesn’t suspect who you really are and put the entire rebel army in jeopardy.’
‘I knew you would understand.’
‘So what you’re saying is that I can’t escape for a minimum of a hundred years, and your rebel army can’t help me in case Luca discovers their identities. I’m on my own.’
‘As long as I’m here, dear girl, you’re not on your own.’
‘No offence, Mela, but it doesn’t sound like you have my back, not with an entire army to protect.’
‘Ebony, for now I can guide you, give you purpose for being in Skade and make your life as queen as fulfilling as it can be.’
‘Fulfilling? Mela, I don’t want fulfilling, I want escape. Freedom. Home. I want my prince back in my arms. Nothing else matters.’
As tears threaten, I bite down on my fist, and suddenly I just want to crawl back into bed with my knees curled up to my chest and my pillow muffling my sobs. I move to the door, square my shoulders and turn halfway round. ‘Thank you for your guidance offer. I’ll let you know if I need it.’
‘Ebony, please –’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret, but, Mela, tell me, if I plan an escape and you find out about it, will you tell Luca? Will you warn him? I really need to know whether or not I can trust you.’
She comes over and stands in front of me with her eyes open and clear. ‘Ebony, I would never reveal your secrets.’
I nod, taking a deep breath of relief as I stare down into her soul and see she’s telling the truth.
16
Nathaneal
I walk straight out the atrium door without stopping. Michael hurries to keep pace.
‘Thane!’ Shae goes to run after me but Michael stops her.
What do you want me to tell her? he links.
It’s not Shae’s fault rescuing her sister means the death of a human. I stop and wait for them. ‘Ebony would not want this. She would choose to stay in Skade for the entire hundred years if she knew a human death was the price to release her.’
‘She will never know from me,’ Shae says.
I turn to face her. ‘Really, Shae? You could be around her every day and keep such a secret? And when she asks how we got the gates to open and close, where will you be looking? Will it be into your sister’s eyes? And if she asks you to look at her, what will you do? Avoid her for the rest of your life?’
Tears begin to flow down Shae’s cheeks; I pull her into my arms and soothe her with my power to bring comfort. She doesn’t resist.
‘Secrets kill trust in relationships,’ I explain once she is feeling stronger. ‘And when Ebony finds out, because for sure she will, your sister would never forgive me. I would not be able to forgive myself. It would finish us.’
‘I’ll talk to her,’ she says. ‘I will make sure my sister understands it was the only way to free her.’
‘Angels swear to protect humans.’
‘I know that!’
A crowd of curious Archangels begins to gather around us. Michael gets us moving. ‘Of course Prince Luca has everything to do with this,’ he snarls. ‘The gates to his world were created by the High King, but to Luca’s specifications. He knew precisely how to make those cells regenerate only with human blood and tissue. So to break into Skade one would have to commit an act so heinous as to turn one’s soul black.’
‘I can’t ask a human to do this,’ I tell them.
‘What if we found a human who is, say, terminally ill?’ Shae suggests.
‘Then we would try to heal them, or at least extend their time with their family.’
‘What about a convict facing a death sentence?’
‘Who also manages to have a heart full of love?’
‘It’s possible!’ Shae is desperate. Rescuing her sister is slipping from her fingers. And mine.
As we stride through paved streets, glass-encased tunnels, gilded bridges, I barely notice my surroundings. All I want is to get out of here and talk to the best engineers Avena has.
The Archangel Teeliah meets us at the gate, where Michael thanks her and Shae runs off down the stairs.
‘I�
��m not giving up, you know,’ I tell Michael.
‘I didn’t think you were, cousin.’
‘Ebony must be freed, for her sake and for all of humanity. There has to be another way, and I’ll find it. I will.’
His hand comes down on my shoulder. ‘And I will help you.’
Shae stops and blocks my passage with her hands splayed on my chest. ‘Thane, I get how this is a harsh, unforgiving option, just don’t discount it completely. Please.’
I breathe in. I breathe out.
‘She’s my sister, damn it! Tell me you will at least think about using the hanival.’
‘I was so hopeful coming here.’
‘As was I,’ she whispers, fear etched in her eyes as they shift to the case Michael has tucked into his belt. ‘He gave us permission to use the tool. He trusts we will do the right thing. If we puncture a hole in the gate, we must seal it or chaos and evil will run wild and free on the Earth.’
‘We have to be careful when it comes to human life.’
‘If we don’t save Ebony, Luca will create an army that will destroy the world.’
‘I’m not dismissing this outright, Shae, and that’s why it’s killing me inside.’
Michael raises the hanival case in his hands. ‘What should we do with this?’
My eyes drift over Shae’s face. Her tortured doe eyes, her long slender fingers across her mouth, are so like her sister’s they turn my heart. How did it come to this? A choice I must make but cannot bear. ‘We keep it. A last resort. Now I need to think.’ I leap into the air, unfurling my wings over their heads, and I don’t look back.
17
Nathaneal
The house is quiet when we touch down. I check the garage and find it vacant. This is a good indication that Jordan is still at school. Michael secures the hanival in the safe inside my study’s secret storeroom while I check the rest of the house. It’s impossible for angels to lie, and yet some have learned to mask the truth in such a way that a lie is the result. Occasionally the truth does more harm than good, but how does one differentiate between an act of kindness and one of deceit? I’m not sure yet what I will tell Jordan when I see him. Finding he’s not home is a relief.
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