by D. S. Murphy
D.S. MURPHY
Copyright © 2017 by Derek Murphy
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Urban Epics
Portland, OR
www.UrbanEpics.com
THANK YOU
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Sincerely,
Derek Murphy
1
Dark branches scratched my cheek as Puriel dragged me through the woods. I fought him at first, flailing at him with my arms, but it was like hitting a brick wall. Even though he was a fallen angel and no longer reflected Zeus’s power, he was still too strong for me to resist. I remembered Sitri saying that torches were as strong as ten or twenty human warriors. And now I was at the mercy of one of them. The one who’d been sent to kill me. The one who I’d released from chains.
But worrying about it now barely registered. I didn’t care what happened to me anymore. Matt was dead, and I’d killed him. First my little brother, and now Matt. But this time, it was so much worse. I’d been trying to save my brother. I always thought I’d failed because I couldn’t get anyone to believe me. So when I arrived at Nevah, and Able and his family embraced my abilities, I was hoping it was my chance to redeem myself. Maybe my curse was actually a gift, and I could use it to save people.
And at first, I thought I did. I thought I had saved Matt. Challenged destiny and won. How could I have been so stupid. Matt died anyway. Exactly as I’d pictured it. Killed by one of Zeus’s winged hunters—by the sword I’d placed in Puriel’s hand as I let him out of his cage.
Puriel was slowing down. I twisted around his shoulder to see an empty parking lot with lights on. There was a basketball court, too. It looked like a high school. An indistinct glow gathered around the lights. The urban scene was so foreign to me after living at Nevah, I felt like we’d arrived in another world.
“Where are we?” I choked out.
“No idea,” Puriel said. “Can you walk?”
He let me down gently until my feet hit the ground. My legs were shaky, but functional. He strode through the lawn to the building and found a drinks machine. He dragged it out into the open, then tore off the back half and tossed it away. I noticed his biceps rippling with power. He reached in and grabbed two bottles of water.
He handed one to me but I didn’t reach for it.
“You could have just asked for some change,” I said, nodding at the metal carnage behind him. Humor had always been my defense mechanism.
“Drink,” Puriel said. “You’re probably dehydrated, after, you know...”
I noticed that his shoulder was damp. I’d probably been crying all over him for the last hour. I shrugged and took the bottle.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” Puriel said, brushing his golden hair away from his eyes with one hand. “I didn’t mean to kill him. He jumped out at me. I acted on instinct and reflex.”
I wanted to be mad at him. I wanted to scream and rage. But I knew Matt’s death wasn’t his fault. It was mine. The responsibility churned my stomach, and I thought I was going to throw up. But I couldn’t let myself drown in the guilt right now. Sarah and Jessie were still in danger. Right now, that was all my brain had room for. I’d think about the rest of it later, if we survived the night.
I chugged the water down, hoping it would settle my stomach and clear my head. The anxiety lessened slightly, but I couldn’t shake the growing sense of fear that was felt like it was creeping up my body, sinking into me with dark claws of terror.
I’d cut myself off from others my whole life, ever since my parents abandoned me. Everyone except Sarah and Jessie. They’d been my home, my only family, for years. Now they were in danger, because of me. For all we knew, Zeus’s hunters had already taken them. I’d already gotten one friend killed tonight. If anything happened to Jessie or Sarah…I don’t think I could come back from that. I’d lose the will to live. For some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about Mr. Whiskers, the rat Sarah adopted her second year at JDRI. Jessie and I got in the habit of setting off all the mousetraps with pencils, to make sure Mr. Whiskers didn’t meet an untimely death. But without the mousetraps the vermin population grew extreme, and they had to call in an exterminator, who sprayed rat poison everywhere. We had to sleep outside for three days until the building was clear again. It was what I imagined camping would be like. Afterwards, we told Sarah that we’d helped Mr. Whiskers escape before the exterminators got there, and he’d led his rat family out into the woods, where they could live in freedom and peace.
I blinked, remembering that Puriel had said something. What was it? I’m sorry. Now he was looking at me with concern, waiting for a response. His pale skin was speckled with soot and ash, and I realized he hadn’t even been allowed to bathe since he’d fallen. He was wearing some simple white garments, but half of his shirt had burned away when he ignited like a firework for refusing Zeus’s orders. The singed edged revealed his sculpted torso, and the scorched burnmarks where his angelic markings had been. He was still beautiful, in a tragic way. His eyes seemed to glow in the dark, burning like lit coals. They would have been terrifying, if they weren’t so mournful and lost. That’s when I realized, Puriel still didn’t know anything about me, or my powers. He couldn’t possibly understand why Matt’s death had sent me into hysterics. He thought I was just another fragile teenage girl.
“I’m not mad at you for that,” I said quietly. He seemed to relax, and leaned his back against the wall of the building. I couldn’t believe we were standing here together, in the real world. The back of some school. The angel Zeus had sent to kill me, who’d fallen because he couldn’t carry out his orders, was now my escort. If I was smart, I’d run back to Nevah, where I was safe. But I couldn’t trust Able either. At least Puriel had told me my friends were in danger. And right now he was my only chance at getting them out alive.
“Are you sure you’re not going to kill me?” I asked, taking a sip of water. He looked surprised, then thoughtful, as if he was actually considering it. Finally he shook his head.
“Hunters are bred without treachery. Built to be loyal. I’ve never really had to think about anything before. Making my own decisions, to do or not to do... I’m not sure I’m capable of that. I agreed to your terms. You set me free, in order to help you save your friends. I don’t believe that’s likely to end well, but I will honor the deal. I don’t see how anything has changed.”
Everything had changed.
“Zeus never told you what I was capable of, what I could do?” I asked.
Puriel raised an eyebrow and gazed at me with skepticism.
“You don’t have any obvious power,” he said. “I’ll admit, I didn’t understand why Zeus thought you were dangerous.”
“I can see the threads of fate,” I said. “When I touch people, I see how they are going to die. Able and Zeus think I might be able to do more than that... to cut the strings of fate.”
“Deicidium. Godkiller,” Puriel murmured, his eyes widening. He tensed and leaned away from me slightly, his eyes fixed on the dark gloves that covered my hands and reached up to my elbows.
“I saw Matt’s death,” I said. “I warned everyone. Everyone except him. When I stopped you from stabbing him the first time, when you fell, I thought I’d changed my vision. I thought I’d stopped it from coming true.”
&nb
sp; “But then you freed me—” Puriel said.
“And it came true anyway. So you see, I killed Matt. I blame myself.”
“What the Fates have ordained, not even the gods can alter,” Puriel nodded.
“When I freed you, I thought I could change things. Save my friends. But everything I touch is ruined. Maybe I’m cursed. What if, in trying to save them, I condemn them? How can I trust myself?”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. But you did free me. This is the path we are on. How would you feel if you stayed here and did nothing? Is it worse to try and fail, or to not try at all? I can’t speak for your situation, but in battle, he who hesitates is lost.”
I nodded, then pushed myself up. He was right. I was going to save Jessie and Sarah. No matter what it took. They were in danger because of me, and it was up to me to save them. We walked until we hit a main street and I recognized where we were. JDRI was miles away. I would have tried hitching, but Puriel’s appearance stood out in the real world. He could pass for human, if he kept his eyes down and didn’t make direct eye contact, but he still looked like a junkie. Strong and attractive, maybe, but not quite ordinary. It didn’t help that he looked like he’d just stepped out of a fireplace.
My own appearance was probably not much better. I had Matt’s blood on my jeans, and even though you couldn’t really see it against my dark jeans, it felt bright red to me—a scarlet stain of guilt. Red scratches covered my pale skin after our escape through the woods, and my hair was wild and tangled. I was frustrated that it even mattered, but in the real world, people who didn’t fit in had a hard time getting where they needed to go.
In the front of the school, a lone bicycle was chained to a rack. Puriel ripped apart the lock and climbed on. It was too small for him, but it was all we had. I sat on the handlebars as he pushed off. I clenched my jaw as he wobbled at first, but soon he got the balance right and started pedalling faster. Soon we were speeding down the side of the road through the darkness, the wind drying my tears into itchy salt fields against my red cheeks.
I tried not to think about how slow we were going, or what could be happening to Sarah and Jessie in the meantime. I couldn’t help thinking that I’d made a mistake asking Puriel. Sitri’s sports car could have made the trip so much faster. But finally, we passed the cemetary and I knew we were almost there. We left the bike at the main road and walked up the gravel driveway to the main building.
JDRI looked just as I remembered it. The dreary, square building rose up from a patch of trees, looking more like a prison than ever. It seemed like ages ago I’d first seen Puriel, surrounded by tombs and candles at the Halloween party. Now I knew he’d been stalking me, but this time he was my protector, at least for now. However austere and unwelcoming its exterior, JDRI had been my home ever since my parents abandoned me, after being unable to forgive me for my brother’s death. Seeing it again brought out a touch of nostalgia. But I didn’t have time to reminisce. I pushed my feelings down and headed around to the back.
“Shit,” I said, looking up at the shiny new sections of the fence. The hole we usually snuck out from had been repaired in my absence.
Puriel gave me a grim smile and tore the fence open, ripping the metal links apart with his fingers.
“Are all torches that strong?” I asked.
“No. I think it’s because I’m newly fallen, and still have some Zeus energy in me. It’ll fade.”
“Let’s use it while we can,” I said. We crossed through the back yard of the institution. It was late but the back door was still open, probably so the guards could get in and out on their smoke breaks.
“I’ll go in and get the girls,” I said. “You watch my back.”
“If they haven’t been taken already,” Puriel said, pulling out his sword, “then this is a trap. If it were me, I’d have hunters posted outside and inside. We go in together.”
I shrugged, and followed him across the courtyard and into the back entrace. Then we crept upstairs to the dormitories. My heart pounded with every step, imagining hunters around every corner. I pulled out the short, lightweight sword Sitri had given me at Nevah. Heph told me it was made for a young prince. Even though I barely knew how to use it, it gave me a tiny bit of confidence. I let out a breath of relief when I saw Jessie, sleeping in her bed by the window.
I shook her awake.
“What the—” she broke into a grin when she saw me and squeezed me hard.
“Where the hell have you been?” she asked.
“I can’t explain right now,” I said. “But you and Sarah are in danger. We have to leave, tonight.”
Jessie’s eyes grew wide, she nodded solemnly, then grabbed a bag from under her bed and started filling it with clothes. She’d tried to get me to run away from JDRI for years. We probably would have, except for Sarah. If we left, she’d be all alone, and she was too young to travel without adults asking us where her parents were.
“I knew you’d come back,” Sarah said, appearing in the doorway, her golden blonde hair visible even in the darkness. She must have heard us from the other room.
She wrapped her arms around me. I picked her up and held her to me tightly. “Grab your things,” I said. “We’re not safe here.”
For a moment I was afraid Sarah was going to have one of her infamous meltdowns, but instead she darted back towards her bed in the section for younger girls. A minute later she returned with a pink unicorn backpack she must have picked out of the donations basket.
“We’ve got to go,” Puriel called from the shadows. I could see the gleam of his sword as he leaned out to check the hallway. Jessie raised one eyebrow.
“And of course you returned with a tall, dark stranger,” she said, pulling her short hair behind her ears and giving him a teasing glance. “Introductions?”
“We’ll have time for that later,” I whispered, gesturing behind me and raising my sword. Sarah and Jessie ogled it but didn’t comment, realizing the severity of my mood.
“Stay close, be quiet.”
I followed Puriel downstairs, with Sarah and Jessie close behind me. There was a flurry of movement when we reached the ground floor. Two hunters appeared on my right. One of them grabbed my arm and leered. His silver wings were like liquid mirrors behind him, and the symbols on his arms cast a blue glow in the dim light.
“We’ve been waiting for you—” he cut off suddenly, a look of surprise on his face as Puriel’s sword jabbed through his chest. Silver blood gurgled from his mouth, sparkling in the darkness like glitter. Jessie’s jaw dropped but I grabbed her arm and pulled her forward.
The hunters came at us like a pack, moving so quickly they were almost invisible. Their swords lit up with blue fire, and sparks flew as Puriel blocked each attack with nearly surgical precision. His sword sliced through the air with elegance, and hunters fell around him, painting the floor with silver blood. I noticed he was trying not to kill them. He cut off an arm or a leg, to take them out of the fight, but I knew they’d heal and come after us again.
We’d almost reached the front doors when Puriel slowed down and held his hand up for us to stop. A pair of hunters blocked the only path to freedom.
“Haven’t you disgraced yourself enough already?” One of them taunted, swinging his sword lazily.
“Falling for a human was bad enough, now you’re what, her personal escort? Or maybe you’re just looking for a quick death. If so, you’ve found it.”
They grinned just before they charged. Puriel deflected the first, and slammed the second against the main doors, splintering the wood. Girls screamed as the hunters wrestled Puriel through the hallway.
They smashed through the wall into the guest room where I’d met Sitri for the first time, showering the tacky furniture with drywall and fragments of the wallpaper I’d always hated. I kicked through what remained of the front door and hurried down the steps, dragging Sarah and Jessie behind me. We’d made it to the fence when I turned around, breathless.
Moments later, Puriel exited the building alone. I breathed a sigh of relief, before I noticed the two hunters waiting for him outside.
“Run!” he shouted. Jessie grabbed my arm and tugged me towards the woods, but I pulled away. Puriel may have made it this far, but now he was limping and holding his side.
“I can’t just leave him,” I said. The two hunters cornered Puriel against the outside wall, and I saw the flash as one of him raised his sword. They were going to kill him.
My heart pounded in my ears, and the space around me seemed to quiver and warp as the hunters’ threads snapped into focus. In one sharp instant, it was like I pierced the veil of the ordinary world and could suddenly see everything. I knew exactly what to do. I reached up and tugged on the two glowing threads, and the hunters froze mid-strike. Their knees buckled and they dropped like statues. Two more hunters appeared to my left, racing towards us with their swords raised. I flung my left hand out and plucked both threads with a swipe of my gloved fingers. They crumbled into a pile at my feet.
Puriel hobbled over to us, shooting me a look of astonishment. Jessie’s jaw was open and Sarah gazed at me in awe. But I didn’t have time to explain, not here.
“We’ve got to move,” I said. And then we disappeared into the trees, leaving the wreckage of JDRI behind us.
2
We raced through the tall pines trees, avoiding any lights or clearings. I scanned the patches of sky that weren’t blocked out by branches and pine needles, imagining hunters swooping down like oversized bats, their dark wings blocking out the stars. Puriel cut through the brush like he belonged there, hurdling over logs and boulders. He’d spent thousands of years as a hunter, and now for the first time ever, he’d switched roles and become the prey—on the run from his former comrades. I tried to keep up, but my lungs were bursting when I heard Jessie shout at us to slow down.