“I’ll get it done,” nodded Colton, taking out a small notebook and a pen.
“Thank you,” nodded Imorean.
The last fingers of dusk were fading from the sky as Imorean and his squad finished fixing down a white tarp over the third snow trench.
“Okay,” said Imorean. “So the way I see it, we can pack three people in one, two in another and two in a third.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Baxter. “Who’s going where?”
“Colton, you, Dustin and Toddy share one. None of you are particularly big.”
“What are you trying to say?” asked Toddy, puffing his chest out.
“Nothing at all,” replied Imorean, poking his friend in the chest. “Roxy, you and Mandy take the second one. Baxter, you, Ryan and I will take the third.”
“All right,” nodded Ryan.
“Colton, is that roster finished?” asked Imorean.
“Yes. Roxy, you’re on first watch,” said Colton. “Wake me up when you’re finished. I’ll work down the list from there.”
“Great,” nodded Imorean. “Okay, everyone, let’s get some rest. I know we’re going to need it.”
It was when Imorean was nestled in his sleeping bag and Baxter and Ryan were snoring next to him that he looked again at the compass Michael had left with him. Just as he had seen last time, there was nothing unusual about it. Nothing at all out of the ordinary. It was broken anyway. The glass was shattered and the needle was missing. Imorean sighed and replaced it back in his belt. It was a mystery, that was for sure. He was just closing his eyes when he caught sight of the new, working compass he had been assigned. His mouth ran dry. The needle of his compass was spinning round and round in never ending circles. Imorean grabbed hold of it and shook it a few times, wondering if perhaps the device was somehow confused. The madcap spinning stopped immediately and Imorean released it. The Archangel hybrid laid his head down and closed his eyes, but felt that he had never been less tired in his life.
Chapter 20
“Come on, Colton! Try to keep up,” snapped Imorean. He was extremely frustrated. Angry may have been a better description. It was their third day of travel. None of them had slept enough, but it was hardly easy sleeping in weather that was far below freezing. They hadn’t eaten enough either. Little food, sleep and warmth was having a bad effect on the entire squad. Everyone was irritable and Imorean was more than willing to push them harder and faster toward their goal. Colton however, was making that very difficult.
“I’m sorry, Imorean,” said Colton, sounding anxious and almost close to tears. Imorean’s irritation was wiped away and replaced by concern.
“What’s wrong?” asked Imorean, sending the signal for his squad to stop and maintain a hover.
“It’s my compass… I… I think it’s broken,” said Colton in a whimper.
“What?” asked Imorean, taking hold of the boy’s compass. His heart sank to his stomach when he saw that the compass needle was spinning around crazily in circles.
“Hey,” called Imorean, passing the compass back to Colton. “Does anyone have a compass Colton can use? I think his is broken.”
There was a heavy pause as the other members of the squad rummaged in their belts.
“Mine’s needle is spinning,” said Roxy. “Is that normal?”
“Mine’s doing the same thing,” cried Toddy.
“Is anyone’s compass steady?” asked Imorean, looking between his squad members in increasing worry. He swallowed hard when all the members shook their heads.
“Okay,” said Imorean, more to himself than anyone else. He bit his lip and looked to the rest of the squad. “We’re going to go down to ground level and see if we can get anything settled.”
“Sounds good,” said Dustin.
For a change, Imorean was relieved when his boots touched down on the snowy ground. He was starting to feel very anxious. They were crossing an archipelago of islands and desperately needed their compasses to keep their bearings.
“If anyone can get a steady bearing on their compass, let me know,” said Imorean.
“Imorean,” said Roxy. She was looking inland and sounded worried.
“What…” began Imorean, coming to stand at her side. He followed her line of sight and saw the dark gray clouds of an oncoming snowstorm.
“Freak blizzard,” Imorean murmured. “Ideas now!”
All the squad members looked up. Similar expressions of fear and horror crossed their faces as they too saw the snow clouds approaching more rapidly than they should have. Ryan had frozen completely.
“What do we do?” cried Mandy.
“Fly above it,” suggested Toddy quickly.
“We can’t,” said Colton. “We’ll lose what little heading we have and we can only hover for so long.”
“Go through it?” tried Baxter, biting his fingernails.
“We’d still lose our heading,” said Imorean. “We’ll be blown clear off course. It could take hours for us to get a good bearing again. We also run the risk of getting separated.”
“Stay put,” said Roxy. “I think that’s our only option.”
“We can’t dig in!” shouted Ryan. “We have no time to build a shelter.”
Dustin was still facing the storm. “Guys.”
“You have an idea?” asked Imorean, raking his hands through his white hair, desperate for ideas.
“No,” said Dustin. “But… is it me, or does that blizzard cloud look different?”
Imorean stood shoulder to shoulder with Dustin and narrowed his eyes for a moment. It took a few seconds for him to focus, but when he did… oh. Oh, no. The clouds of the storm were lined with black. Non-corporeal form.
“Move,” said Imorean in a voice little above a whisper. “Move. Move! Everyone move! There’s demons in that storm!”
Imorean launched himself down off the mountaintop they had been standing on, hoping to get down to a level where they would be less conspicuous. Please, please, please let it work. His wings stayed only half flared. There wasn’t time to open them all the way. If he did it would slow him down.
Imorean half crashed down on the ice of a glacier that ran between two mountain peaks. A shockwave ran up his legs and Imorean resisted the urge to crumple to his knees. Quickly, he looked to the right. He could see the end of the glacier extending out over the sea. All his instincts screamed at him to run to the end, away from the oncoming storm and the demons that were bearing down on them, but he forced himself to wait until the rest of his squad landed next to him. The seconds passed like hours.
“There!” shouted Mandy, pointing to a small niche in the rock face of the mountain.
“Go!” cried Imorean, ushering the squad members toward it. Colton scrambled inside and pressed himself against one of the far walls. Mandy followed him, then Dustin, Roxy and Toddy. Baxter and Ryan hesitated.
“Go now!” snapped Imorean, shoving Baxter in the shoulder.
“We’re not all going to fit,” said Baxter, only just able to squeeze inside the cramped space. Imorean shoved Ryan in the opening behind Baxter. There was no more room. They were packed in like sardines. Ryan was only just inside the niche.
“What do we do?” asked Ryan, his eyes were wide with fear.
“Imorean,” said Roxy, locking eyes with him. She was barely visible behind Ryan and Baxter.
Imorean gave her a quick smile and looked left. The demons were bearing down on them now. Snow was starting to whip at his face, stinging as it struck his skin. Imorean swallowed hard. There was no room for him. At least his squad was safe. That was his main priority as a squad leader. Imorean blinked. The demons were nearly there.
“Make sure you keep them safe, guys. You know what to do,” said Imorean, looking at Baxter and Ryan and unbuckling his sword. “And make sure the demons don’t get their hands on any of our swords. Michael will kill us if they do.”
“Imorean!” cried Roxy, barely making herself heard over the sound of the raging winds. “
Don’t you do what I think you’re going to do! Don’t you dare!”
“I’m sorry, Roxy,” said Imorean, swallowing hard and shoving his sword into a dumbstruck Ryan’s hands. “I’ll see you guys soon.”
“Imorean, don’t!” called Roxy, as he turned away from the niche in the rock.
Imorean forced himself to ignore her horrified call. Instead, he flared his wings and took to the skies just as raging blizzard winds threatened to engulf him.
Chapter 21
Imorean beat his wings hard, gaining altitude and flying up above the storm. Smatterings of gray sky were barely visible above him. Just as he had predicted, the clouds seemed to stall and follow him. Good. That was what he wanted. All he needed to do was to lure the demons away from his squad, away from his friends. Quickly, Imorean tucked his wings to his sides and skimmed along the top of the storm. He swallowed hard. From within the churning clouds, he could hear screams, screeches and wails. Imorean’s mouth ran dry. The noise was horrifying. Again, he heard the noises from inside his home the night Vortigern had attacked his family. Shivers broke over his skin. Then, from all over the cloud, bat like wings, clawed hands and swords began emerging and jabbing at him. Adrenaline was pumping through Imorean’s veins and he urged himself to fly higher, desperate to escape.
Imorean could hear the creatures in the cloud hissing and screeching his name, as though summoning him. A talon grazed the toe of his boot and Imorean wished suddenly that he had held onto his sword. He reached down and whipped out the knife he had been issued. It was tiny by comparison to his sword, but he knew that he could still do some damage with it if he was pushed.
Below him there was a roar as bodies began to rise up out of the clouds. Imorean looked down. Demons were ascending, breaking free of the cloud cover, shedding their non-corporeal form. Quickly, he changed his heading and ascended straight up, ignoring all the tugs of air currents. He had to get out of their way, to outdistance them. Imorean faltered when he saw demons passing him, then turning and approaching from above. Demons above, demons below, demons closing in on both sides. He was struck by how human some of them looked. Imorean turned, tucking his wings against his sides and slipping past a demon that was moving toward him, hands outstretched. Imorean hissed as he felt something like talons claw through his wings, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t afford to. Imorean raised his gaze to look ahead. He seemed to have evaded the fastest demons for now, but he knew that the others were right on his heels. There would be no opportunity for him to get into a dive here, so perhaps he would be able to simply outfly them. He glanced at his wing. There was a horrible, new burn mark through the white feathers, matching the one on his other wing made by Vortigern’s sword.
Imorean cried out as another demon flashed up next to him, grinning sickeningly. There was murder in those gray eyes. The eyes! A planned attack from the left. Imorean shifted to the right. He moved more quickly than his attacker and lashed out with his small knife, feeling disgusted with himself when he felt skin and muscle tear under its blade. For the moment though, it stopped the demon. Imorean knew that stopping one demon out of all the ones he had on his trail was of little consequence. The white-haired teenager looked up and quickly tucked his wings to his sides as he zipped between two boulders near a mountaintop. There was a chorus of hisses and shrieks behind him as several demons were not able to maneuver as quickly. Imorean swallowed. It seemed that he would be able to throw a vast majority of them off his trail, but what he was going to attempt was risky and if he took a single misstep he knew he could be killed.
The white-haired teenager clamped his wings to his sides and tore down toward the glacier below. He was so close to the ice that he barely had room to flap his wings and if he had wanted to, he could have reached down and touched the ice. Imorean resisted the urge to flinch as he heard a wail. Some of the demons had overestimated the distance and had crashed into the ice. Imorean suddenly caught sight of a small gap between two ice sheets. He tucked his wings tight against his back and dove into it. For a moment, there were hisses and shouts as the demons above hesitated, confused as to where he had gone. Imorean grinned and chuckled to himself, then turned and looked around the crevasse he was in. When he looked down, he saw that far below him there was a river running through a large tunnel under the ice. He flew down to it and glared. The air was warmer down here and the ice was melting. He was in a dangerous place. Should he follow the river or just wait until the demons lost interest?
A chunk of ice fell from above and Imorean looked up. His decision was made for him as one demon squeezed down the hole in the ice after him. They weren’t going to lose interest. Imorean knew that more would follow. He twisted in the air and began flying upriver, hoping desperately that the tunnel wouldn’t suddenly end.
Imorean was freezing cold and his wings were damp with water droplets. He had lost track of how long he had been flying, following the underground river, when a ray of sunlight from above flashed over him. Imorean knew that the demons were several meters behind him and backpedaled. Above, there was another crevasse in the ice. A way out!
He flew upward as fast as he could and crashed through the thin sheet of ice at the top, back out into the open air. Imorean looked around. There was not a demon in sight. Nor were there storm clouds in sight. How far had he flown?
Shouts from beneath the ice prompted Imorean to move again. He ascended higher into the air and flew. He didn’t know where he was going, but all he knew was that he had to get away. He had to lead the demons away from his friends and keep them away. He glanced over his shoulder. They hadn’t followed him.
Imorean laughed as he descended back down so he was flying close to the ground. He had shaken them off! They were nowhere in sight and it sounded as though they hadn’t been able to break out from below the ice yet. He was in the clear. He had done it!
As he flew, Imorean took stock of his surroundings. For the most part, things were relatively flat. The mountains lay behind him and mountain peaks were in the distance, but Imorean assumed he had managed to end up on one of the ice sheets. The Greenland interior. How lucky for him. Imorean finally allowed himself to slow down. His body was hurting now and his chest felt tight. He hadn’t noticed any of these things before, but now… now, he was in pain. He would probably need several days of rest when he got back to Felsenmeer. His muscles ached and throbbed and one of his wings was bleeding heavily. Feathers were torn and missing. Red blood stained the white feathers. Black and red marks charred his feathers. His wings were a mess. They would need a lot of oil and TLC when he got home. Pieces of his uniform were torn as well. Imorean looked over his shoulder. There was still no sign of the demons. Perhaps they had given up. With a sigh, Imorean landed. He stumbled and tumbled over in the snow for a few feet but soon came to a halt. He wanted to stay where he was and lie still until he felt better, but he forced himself to climb to his feet. If he didn’t keep moving he would cramp up or he would freeze. He was trembling with exhaustion. Imorean turned around. He didn’t know which way he should go and night would be closing in soon. He took his compass out of his belt and swallowed hard when he noticed that the needle was still spinning.
“Something’s wrong,” muttered Imorean to himself. Just as the words left his mouth, a black arrow came hurtling down from the sky and struck him at the wing joint in his back, terrifyingly close to his spine. Imorean cried out and stumbled backward. His breath was catching in his chest. He flared his wings on instinct and took to the sky, but when he took off, he crashed back down to the ground. One wing was useless: the nerves at the joint had locked up.
“It was a good try,” said someone, landing nearby.
Imorean looked up and his blood chilled in his veins. He recognized the short, blonde hair, the athletic build and the arrogant smirk beneath a pair of icy, blue eyes.
“Bethany,” he hissed. Slowly, Imorean stood up. He tried to pull himself to his full height but found he couldn’t stand up straight.
&
nbsp; “Hello, Imorean,” she said, grinning.
“What are you doing here?” said Imorean, holding one hand over his chest and shoulder in an attempt to comfort the pain stemming from his back.
“Looking for you, of course,” she said, pulling a second arrow from the quiver on her back. “And I found you.”
“I hope you feel proud,” growled Imorean.
“Believe me,” said Bethany. “I haven’t felt prouder in my whole life. I’ve cornered the newest Archangel and I’m about to kill him.”
“No, you aren’t. That wasn’t our plan,” said another voice from behind Imorean. The white-haired teenager jumped forward and turned. His brown eyes locked with a pair of gray ones. No. Imorean could have sworn his heart stopped. Vortigern. The murderer of his family. The demon who wanted nothing more than to have him under his command was standing not ten feet away. He felt sick and his legs were weak.
“What are you doing out here, Imorean?” said Vortigern, taking one step closer. “All on your own… Michael couldn’t have gift wrapped you more beautifully.”
Imorean didn’t reply. Instead, he grabbed the shaft of the arrow stuck in his wing and ripped it out. Blood dribbled from the fresh wound, but Imorean found himself able to stand upright again. He would need both wings if he was to get away.
Vortigern grinned, a hunger lurking in those terrible gray eyes. “Now, Imorean, you know that you are cornered. I have demons beneath your feet and there are others nearby waiting on my beck and call. Are you going to come with us without a fuss or are you going to make a scene? Tracking you and your little friends for the last three days hasn’t been easy. So, I’d really rather you came with me quietly.”
“You’re not that lucky,” said Imorean, taking one step backward. He could feel how close Bethany was behind him and quickly turned around, kicking her hard in the chest. Seconds later, Imorean’s knife was back in his hand and he had turned again. He stabbed the knife down into Vortigern’s chest. The demon general looked between the knife in his chest and Imorean’s hand with an expression of utmost boredom.
Angels Defying (Angels Rising Book 3) Page 16