Black Halo (Grace Series)

by S. L. Naeole

  It had served its purpose—for a brief moment, I was the proud bride-to-be, basking in the glow of love from the one who wanted to spend forever with me—and now it deserved to die quietly. Robert would know where it was, and he’d understand why I couldn’t take it with me to die. Robert deserved more than just memories of what was. He deserved a chance at what could be, even if it was with someone else. Another stinging slash to my heart and I couldn’t take it anymore; I said one final and silent farewell.

  A faint rustle of wind forced my gaze away from the ring and raised it towards the sky. The pale white slice of wings through the dark drew a gasp from my lips and I took a faltering step back before gathering up my courage and walking forward.

  “No turning back now,” I murmured to myself.

  THE BREAKDOWN OF REASON

  Sam’s voice should have sounded like music to me. Instead, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my fingers curled inwards, my hands turning into fists as he spoke. “Where’s the coward? Is he hiding somewhere, waiting until my back is turned to attack me?”

  “Robert’s gone,” I hissed, wary of him as he walked towards me with slow, calculated steps.

  “Didn’t want to stick around and watch his little human pet die, eh? I’m not surprised. He always was too sensitive.”

  “I asked him to leave,” I corrected, unable to tolerate hearing him badmouth Robert when I knew how hard he had struggled just to do as I asked. “He left because I didn’t want him here to see this, to see you do this. You were once his friend, someone he cared about very much. I didn’t want him to see you as you truly are.”

  His eyes darted about—he doubted me, I could see it in his face—while his wings fluttered behind him, outstretched and ready for whatever it was that he feared. His golden hair was as it had always been, loose and flowing down his back, the color mirroring the gold in his eyes that sparkled with satisfaction.

  He wore no shirt, and I could see that though his youth had been restored to his face, the aging that had occurred to his body had remained, his skin wrinkled and transparent, almost paper thin with unnatural wear. He held his arms out in display, as though to show me the consequences that came as a result of trying to hurt me.

  “Where’s Graham?”

  “Around,” was his dubious reply, confident now that we were alone.

  “I want to see him.”

  The demand caught him off guard and his movements ceased, his feet stilling on the grass beneath his bare feet, the legs of the loose fitting pants growing damp from the dew that had begun to cling to the evergreen blades.

  “You want? This isn’t about what you want anymore, or didn’t you realize that when I killed your aunt? Or took your best friend?”

  He smiled and it was my turn to be caught off guard. How could I forget how beautiful and unnervingly captivating his smile was? It was such a paradox; an almost unbearable beauty, ethereal and pure shined through the glitter in his eyes and the curve of his perfect lips, completely betraying the dark and evil hatred that lay behind them. My mind did battles against itself, wanting to admire him and run away all at the same time, the confusion causing a slight throbbing at my temples.

  “Where’s Graham?” I asked again, pressing against the pulsing beneath my skin.

  “He’ll be here, soon. He’s a little…indisposed at the moment. But I assure you that he’ll be well enough to go back to his wife,” he sneered, looking down at me from amber eyes.

  “What did you do to him? If you’ve hurt him, Sam, if you’ve done anything to him-”

  “You’ll what?” he laughed darkly, a cutting sound that stopped my words cold. “Hurt me? Blind me again? I think we’ve established that no matter what you do, I’m not going away. You might have had the help of a guardian the last time we met, but this time no one is going to come to help you, Grace. You’re fated to die—every angel knows this now and none of them will do a single thing to stop me.”

  My chin lifted defiantly, and I stared down my nose at him, scowling at the truth in his words. “You’ll get what you want, but you won’t receive any satisfaction from it, I guarantee you that.”

  “Oh? And what makes you think you know what I want?”

  He began to circle me, walking around in wide swaths, the tips of his wings dragging on the ground and leaving dark rings in the silvery surface of the wet grass. I raised my gaze from them; they reminded me too much of Robert’s eyes.

  “I know that your obsession has caused you to screw up. You made stupid mistakes that prove just how inferior you are compared to Robert.”

  “What do you know about your Robert? Did he finally tell you the truth? Did he tell you how it’s his responsibility to kill you? How every day he refuses to do so, he gets closer and closer to dying himself?”

  I nodded stiffly and grit my teeth as he grinned at me, amused that was willing to admit to it. “He’s told me everything. It’s one of the main reasons why I’m here. I won’t let him die because of me. I love him too much to do that to him.”

  I expected some snide reply to come flying back in stinging retort, but instead Sam’s face grew distorted—for one microscopic blip in time, I saw something that looked almost like regret, even guilt. And then a snarl forced itself from his lips, pulling them up in angry curls over his teeth that gnashed at the emotions that were running through him, turning the glow that surrounded him from an almost honey-like color to a deep burgundy.

  “You stupid humans and your idyllic notions of love and devotion—you do this thing for him because you think he deserves it, because you think he loves you enough to do the same thing. You believe he’d sacrifice himself for you, yet where is he?”

  “What does it matter?” I demanded to know, slowly growing wary of the blackening mood that was overcoming him, turning his golden eyes darker. “Just get it over with already. I’m tired of having to deal with your screw-ups-”

  There wasn’t enough time for me to finish that last word before a cold hand wrapped long, agile fingers around my throat, squeezing it. And yet I could feel the resistance, the slight trembling that existed beneath his skin. My eyes—wide with shock at the sudden attack—grew wider upon this realization.

  Why do you hesitate? The question that I allowed him to hear, the words that flowed into his mind caused his grip to loosen, his hand to drop at his side as he stared at me mutely.

  “Why did you stop?” I asked him again as I rubbed my throat, my voice raspy. “I’m here. Let Graham go, let him go back to Lark and Robert and just kill me already so that we can end this.”

  He looked at me and I nearly screamed when I saw that his eyes were now completely blackened, much as they had been all those months ago. “Sam? What’s wrong with you, what’s going on?”

  I couldn’t explain where the concern for him came from—it disgusted me as much as it surprised me—but I raised a hand to his face, the look of fear that began to form there unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

  “Sam…?”

  “I can’t. I can’t do it.”

  My shoulders fell in defeat, my jaw dropping in anger. “What the hell do you mean you can’t do it? After all this time, after everything that you’ve put me through, everything that you’ve done—killing Katie, kidnapping Graham, erasing Stacy’s memory—you’re going to tell me that now that you’ve got what you want, you can’t do it? Is this some kind of angelic performance anxiety or something? Is there a pill you can take for that?”

  His head cocked to the side and he looked at me quizzically. “What do you mean, erase Stacy’s memory?”

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Sam,” I muttered. “You caused Stacy’s cancer to come back and you put her into a coma by messing with her mind somehow.”

  The beautifully evil smile returned as his finger tapped a corner of his mouth thoughtfully. “As much as I’d like to take credit for that, I’m afraid that I can’t. You see, as gifted as I like to think I am, I c
an only affect someone’s dreams, and even then only as an illusion, a figment of one’s imagination. I can’t affect their waking conscience so I couldn’t have done anything to hurt her—mores the pity.”

  “You’re lying!” I accused.

  “Oh, no, this time I’m telling you the truth. I had nothing to do with your little friend’s…problem, although I do have to say that it was very well played.”

  I didn’t want to believe him. He gave me such a smug grin; it was hard to believe him, nearly impossible. I’d seen the horrible thoughts that had taken over Stacy’s mind. Only Sam despised Robert that much. Only Sam could have felt the raw hatred that it took to create such a horrible vision. “If it wasn’t you, then who was it? Who did that to Stacy?”

  “Oh, you’d like me to tell you that, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, your poor human mind wouldn’t be able to understand it. It’s inconsequential now, anyway. You’re part of a plan, Grace—a very intricate plan that has had to adapt to the changes your free will has caused—and now I have you. Everything has been set in place, you’re the final piece.”

  His hand lashed out and struck my face hard. It sent me stumbling off to the side, landing roughly on my chest, my shoulder digging into the soft earth, the soil cradling me and cushioning the fall. This was a familiar scene, but I hadn’t been prepared for it the last time. Fear had taken over then.

  This time, there was a need for me to remain calm.

  “What, no screaming? No crying out in poor, pathetic human agony?” He stood over me, as though I had never moved at all, and his sneer was as lovely as it was foul.

  I pushed myself up onto my knees before returning to a standing position, dusting the dirt off of my shirt and shaking my head. “I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of hearing me scream.”

  “Too bad. It’ll just make things worse for you, then.”

  Again, he raised his hand and I was able to catch a brief glimpse of the wrinkled, crepe-like skin before it landed solidly against my cheek, the stinging force of it causing a grunt of pain to slip by me as I tumbled to the ground once more. I had clenched my teeth before the impact, and had spared my inner cheeks from the painful bite wounds that had occurred the last time we’d met this way.

  “Is that the best you can do?” I spat, turning my head to glare at him. “You’d think that with all the times you’ve screwed this up, you’d want to get it over with as quickly as possible.”

  “Stupid girl!” he snarled as his hands dug into my hair and pulled, lifting me up by the base of my ponytail. “You don’t know the hell I’ve been through because of you!”

  My feet dangled beneath me as he raised me above the ground, the pain from every single strand of my hair supporting my weight forcing my eyes to shut, to block out the searing that stretched from my scalp to my neck. “Your inability to die has caused me nothing but suffering. I should just kill you now.”

  “Then do it!” I challenged through clenched teeth. “Do it, already!”

  When I fell to the ground, it was a surprised “Oomph” that escaped me. Sam had let me go. Again.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I shouted, kicking at him when he simply stood there, mute and unmoving. “Why can’t you do this?”

  His blackened eyes looked down at me and I paled. The skin surrounding the dark orbs had begun to darken themselves, the color pulsing as it stretched and the pulled back, black blood pumping through translucent skin. “Sam…what’s going on with your eyes?”

  He didn’t answer me. He simply knelt down and reached for my face with a frighteningly gentle hand. He stroked the side of my face almost lovingly, clicking his tongue at the red welt that lay there, beneath his silken fingers.

  “Sam-”

  He pushed two fingers against my lips to quiet me, and I shuddered at the touch. He moved in closer and I bit back a scream when I saw that the tiny capillaries beneath his skin had turned black, creating a web of hexagonal shapes across his face. With the large, onyx-colored globes that peered out at me, it felt like I was being smothered by some large, golden-haired insect when, to my horror, he replaced his fingers with lips that were uncommonly cold, hard, and rough, unlike the smooth velvet that were Robert’s.

  I clamped my lips shut, and struggled to push him away as he leaned in even closer. I could feel the weight of him forcing me back, and I scrambled to get away from him, but he was too quick and too strong. My head landed on the wet grass with enough force to cause the dew that clung to the blades to splash upwards and land on me like rain. I tried to turn my face away, but strong hands forced my head to remain still.

  My feet kicked beneath Sam’s body, my hands—balled up into angry fists—pounded into his arms, his back, and causing more harm to me than to him. The throbbing in my hands began almost immediately, and I tried to ignore it, push past the pain and the fear that was multiplying rapidly—especially when I spied that my right hand now resembled the inside of a purple beehive. The on-again, off-again pain that came every time I struck an angel had turned on, and it had brought some friends with it.

  What was Sam doing? Why was he on top of me, kissing me when just moments earlier he was preparing to kill me? The questions bounced around my head like fleas, each one hungry for a bite at an answer and I didn’t have anything to give them. I only knew that Sam’s mouth was growing more and more insistent.

  I felt a hand release my face and travel down the length of my side, mercilessly taking a hold of my hip and lifting it upwards. I heard the groan deep within him, the sound sending tremors of pure, unadulterated fear to bubble just beneath my skin, forcing the hairs on my arms and neck to stand upright in abject terror.

  Immediately I plotted my next course of action—hitting him wasn’t going to work, and talking would only open my mouth to him—setting in motion something that I knew I’d have no way of stopping, but anything was better than where I knew doing nothing would lead me.

  Is this how you prove yourself to Miki?

  The kissing ceased immediately, the weight of his body instantly gone as he leapt back, landing in an animal-like crouch, staring at me with those black, glassy eyes, his darkening face growing more and more terrifying as the minutes passed.

  “How dare you speak her name!” he hissed.

  “How dare you touch me like that!” I shouted back as I wiped my mouth with a muddy sleeve. I winced at the contact, my arms now purple pulps that were nothing but pain and sensitivity in fleshy packaging.

  “Don’t pretend you didn’t like it.”

  I jumped to my feet and spat on the ground. “I didn’t like it. It was like kissing a corpse, and you suck at it. What the hell possessed you to do something like that anyway? This isn’t why I’m here.”

  “You’re wrong. That’s precisely why you’re here!”

  My gaze narrowed as he began to laugh, the sound almost maniacal if it weren’t so damned beautiful. “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t kill you—not yet, anyway. Oh, you didn’t expect that, did you?” he asked when he saw my shocked expression. “Up until a few weeks ago, I would have been more than satisfied to simply destroy you as quickly as possible and be done with you and this whole affair. But the plans that you’re a part of—they’ve changed, the strategy has shifted. You’re no longer good to us dead.”

  “Us? What do you mean us?” I asked as I backed away from him.

  “That’s none of your concern right now; you’ll learn soon enough. What’s important is that I keep you alive as long as it takes.” A sinister smile stretched across his face, a gleaming white line of teeth marking the pitch of his skin as he held out his hand to me, palm up, his fingers curling inward, motioning me to come to him.

  “No. As long as what takes? Tell me what you’re planning,” I demanded as I backed away even further.

  “And why would I do that?” he asked while gesturing with a flippant hand.

  “Because you want to—you want to tell me because you know that telling me
will hurt me, and hurting me is something you enjoy.”

  “So true. How strange that you’d figure me out so quickly. So, should I tell you then? And let the truth fester within you like an infected wound? Or do I keep it to myself and let you squirm with the unknowingness of it all? Decisions, decisions.”

  He stood and only then did I realize that the creeping darkness that had taken over his face had begun to stain the rest of him, his shirtless chest now a muted gray that was being pulled down his body like ink dropped into a glass of water.

  “I think I’ll tell you. It’ll only make the eventual suffering that much more enjoyable, I think.”

  He walked towards me with slow, measured steps. For a fleeting second, I considered running, retreating into the woods behind me, but I knew that he’d catch me before I’d taken a single step. Instead I squared my shoulders and raised my chin. “I’m not afraid of you.”

  He laughed at that, his head thrown back and his mouth open wide as the throaty sound flowed through him and into the quiet around us. It was like a symphony of mocking. And I felt nothing.

  “You see, as important as you may think you are, you’re nothing. While I might have erred in missing you when I killed your mother, it turns out that it was all for the best. Without you escaping me, N’Uriel would have never heard his call, and would have never chosen to become an Innominate.

  “It seems failing was the best thing that could have happened to me. Killing you would have released him from his call and he’d never have been so easily removed.”

  He moved away from me and I saw that the inky stain of his skin had begun to creep up his wings. Instead of turning the pale feathers black, however, it seemed to be causing them to fall out. On the ground beneath them, the tips of his wings dragged in piles of discarded plumes.

  I heard my voice ask, “You seem too happy for someone who tried so hard to kill me just a few months ago—why?”

  His head turned to face me, the golden halo of hair that surrounded it reminding me that no matter what he looked like he was still an angel, still powerful. “Oh, believe me. I wasn’t pleased that every attempt I made to kill you failed. Whether by human hand or not, nothing seemed to work. I even tried to get you to break the rules with him. You know that now, don’t you?”