The Ascended: The Eight Wings Collection

by Akeroyd, Serena

  “Riel, you’re the only one who can conceal the meteor. You must hide it. You must!”

  The appeal hit me hard, hard enough to make me join forces with them even though I didn’t understand what the Sol was going on.

  Forcing myself onto hands and knees once more, instinct driving me forward, I dragged myself over to her, knelt down, and settled her head on my lap. Tipping her chin forward, I reached down so I could pinch that point of her neck where she had a weak spot.

  As I pinched it hard, she squeaked, her limbs flopping around all the more, making overcooked spaghetti look like it had some spine to it, but her eyes flared open. The sight of those chocolate brown orbs had relief swirling inside me, but as her eyelids began to close, I pinched again, harder this time.

  “Cloak the meteor,” I demanded.

  “No energy,” she mumbled, her head flopping sideways, out of my grasp, and off my knee. “Can’t,” she slurred. “No power.”

  I swallowed, sensing just how real her exhaustion was. The shushing sound of the wings seemed to tremor along the Earth’s surface, and even as the thought crossed my mind, I realized that was exactly what was happening.

  The pulse of the Earth that I’d been sensing ever since we’d reconnected with it was being disturbed by the wings.

  An early warning system?

  I wasn’t sure and would have to investigate it later. Now? I had to focus on my woman.

  As thoughts flickered through my mind, I came up with a solution that I knew would disturb the people around us, but it was exactly that—a solution.

  I grabbed the knife I’d pinged into being earlier, which I’d stored in the scabbard on my belt, and sliced into my forearm. “She has to—”

  Linford’s hand grabbed my wrist. “No! She’s not a vampire, for Sol’s sake.”

  “The blood will heal her,” I rasped. “You and I both know it. It’s the only way to wake her up. Just a few drops,” I added, and when Linford didn’t stop me, I knew he must have realized I was right.

  I’d never done this before, but I’d heard tales of it. It was where the stories of the vampires had come from, of course, so I knew it had happened before.

  The results were what I wasn’t sure of.

  As a few drops of blood dripped onto her mouth, I shot my brothers a look. “You two as well.”

  Though their faces were scrunched with disgust, they didn’t argue. Within seconds, blood from all three of us was dripping into her mouth.

  When she moaned, I released a sigh of relief. That had to mean she was awakening, surely?

  When her eyelids fluttered open, I gasped at the sight of her eyes. They gleamed gold before they whispered back to chocolate brown.

  “What’s happening?” she rasped, her voice still slow but less slurred.

  “You have to cloak the meteor.”

  The words, coming from Gabriella, had Riel gasping, “Abuela!”

  “No time, mija,” Gabriella ground out. “Cloak the damn meteor.”

  I wasn’t even sure if Riel knew how to do that, but with a blink, she focused on the large rock. I could sense her confusion, almost as though she didn’t know how it had gotten there, almost as though she’d forgotten the last twenty minutes. But she stared at it, her eyes narrowing, and as the wind picked up around us, I felt the ground beneath us tremble as, whatever she was doing, stirred into life.

  The next time I looked back at where the rock was—a few seconds later—it wasn’t there. I had no idea where it had gone, had no idea if it was cloaked as Gabriella had insisted or if she’d destroyed it somehow, but there was no time to question how or why. My nostrils flared in surprise, but the Earth’s early warning system was no longer necessary. The shushing of the wings was closer than ever. As I peered up, I saw more Fae converging on us than a battalion.

  Hundreds of them.

  All in battle raiment.

  It seemed like a war had come to our door, but for the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure which side I was fighting on because whoever was against Riel, was against me.

  I didn’t give a fuck about caste, race or religion. All that mattered was her.

  Ten

  Seph

  The sight of a couple of my siblings amid the troupes hit me hard. I knew they were top-ranked warriors, and knew they were only sent to the most delicate of situations in war-torn nations.

  What exactly was war-torn and politically ‘delicate’ about Hawaii?

  As far as I was aware, there were no airstrikes or bomb blasts downtown. All that shit was in the Middle East, exactly where I’d thought my kin was stationed.

  Of course, they saw me, and of course, they ignored me. Fraternal loyalty didn’t exactly exist among us, and for whatever reason, more warriors were amassing around us overhead than I’d ever seen before outside of a parade so it wasn’t in their best interest to acknowledge me. Not when their troupe came first.

  Speaking of which, there had to be over thirty troupes here, and that was unheard of for a state in the US, never mind Honolulu.

  When a male flowed forward, his descent sharp, I took note of his white wings which were tipped with gold and clambered to my feet. I didn’t have to know him to recognize what that meant—a general was in our presence. Only generals had their feathers gilded, which meant the big boys were here. Curioser and curioser.

  When Matthew and Daniel responded as I did, scrambling upward despite our fatigue, Linford too, the four of us saluted while Riel and her grandmother stayed exactly where they were.

  Most of the troupes remained in the sky, shadowing the moon, as the general approached us. He had ascetic features, all sharp lines and jagged cheekbones. His nose had been broken once upon a time, and his dark blue eyes were narrowed beneath thick brows that were a red gold, which matched the leonine hair on his head. With a bronze breastplate that covered his chest from clavicle to hip, that was the only formal item of clothing on him. Beneath that, he wore a white tee and a pair of jeans and a set of boots.

  His clothes alone told me that he was in battle-mode, here for a war of might and not of words. His outfit was in no way ceremonial, and that? Well, Sol, it didn’t exactly bode well for us. They were here to fight, not to spread peace.

  The second he landed, he strode toward us.

  “Where is it?” His demand had me tilting my head to the side as I considered him. There was no doubt in his mind that we had ‘it,’ there was no prevarication or diplomacy, just a surety that we’d answer or regret holding our tongue which, in itself, was telling.

  They wanted the meteorite.

  But why? That was the real question.

  The troupes, this massive number of warriors, were here for the meteorite as though it were a priceless jewel, like the Cullinan Diamond had come whirling toward us and not a chunk of rock.

  “Where’s what, sir?” I rasped, unafraid to take the heat. I didn’t know this general, but whoever he was, he’d know I was Noa vil der Luir’s son. Even though my brothers were up in the sky, uncaring of our link, in our society, my family couldn’t be ignored.

  “The asteroid. Where. Is. It?” he snarled, his gaze sweeping the yard, like we could have hidden the rock that was the size of a tennis court from him.

  Well, we had, but for whatever reason, only Riel had been able to do so. At least, according to Gabriella, because if she’d been able to do it alone, without stirring her granddaughter from the stupor into which she’d fallen after we’d landed, I figured she would have.

  “The asteroid? Is that what lit up the sky?” Daniel queried, tacking on the word, “Sir?” at the last second.

  “Yes,” the general hissed, then he cast a look at Linford. “Linford, if you’re involved—”

  “With what? Hiding an asteroid?” the old man scoffed. “What kind of magic do you think I have at my fingertips?”

  “Everyone knows you’re pretty much a sorcerer.” The general swept his gaze over Riel, and I was hard-pressed not to take my knife to
his throat as I saw his eyes darken at the sight of her on the ground, while he processed what she might mean for his investigation.

  Our blood might have powered her enough to hide the damn meteorite—Sol, where was Wikipedia when you needed to know the difference between an asteroid and a meteor?—but our catching the rock had knocked her out. She was slumped on the ground, limp and barely awake. Her vulnerability and the threat to her had the beast inside me howling at being confined to this form.

  Though, cerebrally, I knew why, my body—and the beast within—was in charge. Both were fully aware that she was going into Rut as well as dealing with the aftermath of absorbing whatever it was the meteorite had slung at her.

  Around a battalion of fucking soldiers who wanted said meteorite for themselves.

  It wasn’t like we were out here because it was mid-evening and had been partaking in a dinner party. It was the early hours of the morning. Two elder citizens, one of whom was known to the general as a ‘sorcerer,’ a troupe of warriors with a downed female were clustered in the back yard at the witching hour like we were Pooh Bear and friends settling down with a pot of hunny for brunch.

  The need to slay these dangerous warriors for seeing her like this was a temptation I could barely fight, as they beheld her in all her vulnerability, a vulnerability I needed to shield her from.

  After the general processed everything that was odd about Riel’s state, seeing something he had no right to see, he eventually snarled, “What’s wrong with her?”

  Because I had no real justification for why we were all out here at this time of the night, I choked out, “She’s in Rut.”

  It seemed like the only answer that would get them to back off, but admitting it about killed me. The beast in my bones roared at me in outrage, but I contained the sound even as the general gaped at me.

  “You’re Virgo?” he replied, his shock evident.

  Matt growled. “Yes.”

  A peculiar light flared in the general’s eyes, one I didn’t trust, one that the Earth didn’t, either. Beneath my feet, and the others’ too, it began to throb. Thick and fast, a heavy warning that I couldn’t ignore.

  “I don’t believe you,” the general rasped, but his tone was thicker now, and the way he looked at Riel was enough to make that urge I’d had earlier, the one where I’d wanted to slice his throat, deepen into the desire to lop off his damn head.

  He cast us all a look with an eagerness in the back of his eyes that told me he saw how on edge we were at his proximity to her. When he bent over, I stared at him, nonplussed, then when he began to gather my woman in his arms, a white noise slammed into my head.

  Take her?

  Take. Mine?

  The white noise, the beast, had a voice, and I couldn’t answer it. Was left watching as the bastard, shielded by a battalion of soldiers, thought he could take my woman, thought he could—

  Uncaring of what it might mean for me, I reached out with my knife, just as Matt and Dan did. But it did none of us any good. From out of nowhere, Gabriella’s foot appeared, and it connected with the general’s butt. As he was shoved forward, I felt the soldiers hovering above flock down toward us like angry, pecking birds.

  “Linford! Now!”

  My mate’s grandfather grumbled, “Bossy female,” but the scent of his blood sparkled through the air, slicing into the atmosphere.

  Within seconds, the soldiers disappeared, the general was no more, and me, my woman, her other Virgo, and her grandparents, were hurtled through time and space to a destination known only to Riel’s abuelos.

  Just another day at the office?

  Hardly.

  TO BE CONTINUED IN

  FINALLY FAELING

  Finally Faeling

  One

  Riel

  “Hola, mija.”

  My head was banging, my eyes ached, and my body felt like it had been in a tornado.

  Maybe it had.

  For all I could remember, maybe I’d been in another storm, maybe something had hit me, and this was it.

  The end.

  A tsking sound appeared in my head. “No, mija, no estás muerta.”

  “How would you know I’m not dead?” I rasped, refusing to open my eyes. The bitter sting hurt me badly enough when they were shut, never mind the pain it would cause if I tore them apart to actually use them.

  Think needles down fingernails kind of pain.

  Yeah, that was how bad they were fucking hurting.

  “Because I am dead, mija,” came the amused retort. “I think I’d know.”

  That had me tensing. “Who are you?” I’d already been through way too much this year. After having been visited by my dead abuela in the bathtub, literally twisted away from my Virgo, and plunged through a portal so I could be reunited with my long-lost grandfather, I really didn’t feel like dealing with anything more weird again.

  Seriously, how much was I expected to frickin’ take?

  Maybe death would be Sol-damn easier.

  “Everything you’ve endured was for a reason, and your abuela isn’t dead, child. She never was.”

  No.

  I remembered now.

  She was alive. She’d come out of nowhere to help me with the—

  “The meteor!” The memory of what had happened hit me, and as I remembered the force with which the piece of space rock had collided with my Virgos and me, I surged upright, tore my eyes open, and forced myself into a sitting position. But when I did, I couldn’t see my Virgo, didn’t see the meteor, instead, I stared into a Stygian darkness the likes of which I’d never experienced before.

  Where before there’d been pain, discomfort, and realization, suddenly there was fear.

  The light—there was none.

  None at all.

  I was in a vacuum.

  Breathing quickly became hard. Almost like the lack of air corresponded with the total and utter absence of light. How could there be oxygen in this empty vastness?

  My heart started to pound in great drumbeats that rocked my body and made my chest feel tight, like the dull throbs were too much for my ribcage to contain, and just when panic began to overtake me entirely, a humming sound whispered along the sound waves. It infiltrated me, slipped into my ears, sang through the nerve endings and receptors filtering my brain, and slowly, the tension and fear that had appeared began to disperse.

  The hum morphed into a low pulse that twisted into a song I remembered. It wasn’t at the forefront of my mind, wasn’t even at the back, but buried deep in my memory, yet I recalled it.

  Aruru mi niño, arrurú mi amor.

  Aruru pedazo de mi corazón.

  I blinked. Was this a lullaby?

  The humming of a tune I didn’t know but somehow remembered came to a halt. “Sí, it is,” came the raspy voice again.

  “I-I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t need to, mija. You don’t need to. You just have to listen.”

  My throat felt thick. “First, tell me who you are.”

  A laugh came next. “Can’t you feel it?”

  “Feel what?” I whispered. All I could feel was the oppressive darkness overwhelming me, spilling into everything, seeping into my very bones.

  “Your blood and my blood—our blood.”

  “We’re family?” I sagged with relief.

  “Si, I’m your tatarabuela.”

  My great-great-grandmother.

  Licking my lips, I murmured, “Mi abuela… she lied to me.”

  “She had her reasons. Fate has a way of taking one’s decisions and making them its own.”

  I frowned, hurt and wasted grief twisting inside me. “What do you mean?”

  “My nieta didn’t have it easy, Gabriella. She was dealt many blows, and all to bring you to this moment.”

  My mouth trembled. “Me? What did I do?”

  “Nothing, mija. You did nothing, but it was what you will do that will change everything.”

  “I don’t understand.”


  “You already said that. You’re not supposed to understand. There is nothing to understand. You just have to do,” she intoned, her voice so calm and knowing that I gritted my teeth.

  Were her words supposed to be reassuring? If it was, it didn’t hit the mark. Hesitantly, I asked, “Do what?” Wasn’t catching a meteor and saving lots of people in Honolulu enough?

  Sheesh, I seriously just wanted to sleep.

  Then sleep some more.

  And after, fuck. Fuck my Virgos, have them fuck me, and, shit, just be. I didn’t even mind if it wasn’t a happily ever after. Who wanted that, anyway? Talk about boring. I just wanted the ups and downs. The normalcy of it all. Was that so much to ask?

  “I was plagued with the Sight. It was my gift and my curse. When I was your age, I saw my death, and considering my talent, I was surprised I lived until I was old and gray.

  “My passing started and ended in a vision. A dream. I saw a child of our line with wings, I saw her on an island in the middle of the ocean, and I saw her saving millions of lives with no thanks.” A shaky breath rattled from between lips I couldn’t see. “It was a terrifying dream. It followed me throughout the most miserable phases of my life and the happiest, and it never, ever, not in decades of living, changed.”

  “You Saw me stopping the meteor?”

  “Sí, I did. I saw it thousands of times. More times than you could imagine.”

  “W-Why?” I whispered shakily, my body growing still as I tried to understand why that was fated.

  Fated so far in the distant past that my great-great-grandmother had Seen me in her visions.

  “Because you’re one of the few who can bring change.”

  My throat tightened, fear clutching at my windpipe as I processed what she was saying and just how impossible it was. “I can’t be. I’m nobody. Nothing. I’m not even—”