I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I met Sam’s eye. His jaw clenched and released. “Should be, Cat. We’ve moved weapons and other inanimate objects as long as we were touching them, Eli shouldn’t be any different.” Jasmine let out a little whimper, and Sam cringed. “That came out wrong. I meant—”
“No time for niceties, guys.” Frank cut through Sam’s apology with a sharp nod toward the front of the hall. Peter was standing amidst the chaos on the platform watching us with beady eyes. Frank flicked his Spirit Blade between his fingers, and Lydia watched the light move like an infant watching the sunlight through the bars of their crib. He lifted his chin. “We need to move fast. Sam, can you get to Eli and carry him back if I cover you?”
Sam nodded but before he could open his mouth to respond the High Guardian smashed his gavel down on the Council’s table. “Silence!”
The effect was instantaneous, and a hush fell over the mob. Sam and Frank stared at Peter’s face, waiting for their chance to make a run to grab Elijah.
High Guardian Adam raised his hands in the air. “Good Angels of the Council, you must take a vote. Do you wish to accept the wisdom of the Elder Council without question? Or should they be brought before the Council to explain their actions before any more blood is shed?”
A murmur rippled through the crowd and the High Guardian shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I, for one, am aggrieved by what we have discovered today. As the representative for my clan, I raise my hand and ask that the Elders face the Angelic Council and explain their deception. All those in favor, raise your hands.”
For a moment, there wasn’t even a flicker of movement. Then a red-haired man seated at the table of the High-Council raised his hand above his head. I spotted Pierre in the crowd, raising his own hand in the air. One by one, more hands crept upward. Peter’s eyes darkened as he surveyed the room. More than half the Angels had their hands held aloft.
I noticed that most of the Angels who had yet to lift their hands were watching the High Council with anxious faces. Only three of the High Councilors had not raised their hands—a pretty woman with feline shaped eyes and glossy black hair, a man with white hair and dark skin, and Emily. My jaw tightened as I watched the blond High Councilor stare into the crowd, searching us out. It seemed like a lifetime ago since she had set her team of students on us in the Angelic trial in the courtyard. Her eyes locked on mine and I wondered was she still nursing the sting of defeat like a thorn in her heart.
“How do you expect to call the Elders to order, High Guardian Adam? The High Council have been granted but a fraction of the power of the Veil, the rest belongs to the Elder Council.” Emily spoke to Adam, but her gaze never left my face.
Peter’s attention was finally diverted, and he twisted to address High Councilor Emily, his face bright. “Clever lady. I am relieved to see that not all of the Angels are dim of mind.”
Gabriel gestured for Sam to retrieve Elijah while Peter was distracted. He crouched low and began to creep through the rows of benches. Frank shadowed his movements like a phantom ninja.
Peter took a step closer to Emily, and my skin crawled at the sound of his wheedling tone of voice as he continued to flatter Emily. “You are as wise as your are beautiful, Councilor. The High Guardian misunderstands his role.” He cut his eyes toward High Councilor Adam and sneered. “The Elder Council answer to nobody—we offer the Angelic people this world on a platter, but those Angels who are too stupid to seize the gift with both hands can join the Humans in sacrifice to the Veil. A new world shall be reborn from the ashes of this mongrel civilization—pure and unsullied. Will you be a part of it, Councilor? Will you lead your people through the flames into greener pastures? Or will you let them burn?”
A cool breeze whipped through the hall and several arms that had been raised in solidarity with the High Guardian wavered and fell. Peter’s grin widened, and he offered Emily his hand. “Come, Councilor Emily. High Guardian Adam leads his people astray. Set aside his leadership and guide your people into the light. The Angelic people do not need to worry themselves with ancient history. Trust in the Veil—you are about to inherit the earth.”
“I promised your brother I would bring you a message about his daughter.” My head jerked as I turned to stare at Lydia—I had almost forgotten what her voice sounded like. It was the first time I had heard her speak since we rescued her. Lydia’s ebony hair shone like a dark waterfall as she walked out of the safety of Eve’s barrier and toward the front of the hall. Frank froze, torn between duty and love. Lydia spoke again. “He said he wanted you to try and find her if he didn’t escape.”
Emily gaped at Lydia as she made her way through the Angelic Council. The crowd parted to let her pass, as mesmerized as I was by her ethereal appearance. “He carried your photograph in his wallet. Said you were the best big sister anyone could have.”
“You knew Michael?” Emily’s voice was paper thin. Peter tugged at Emily’s hand like a demanding toddler, but she shrugged him off and leaned forward to look down from the platform at Lydia. “You knew my brother?”
I felt the sadness in Lydia’s smile, even though I could no longer see her face. “He was our Guardian in the Silent Home after we were captured in Moscow. He didn’t have to come with us when they moved us to the other home, but there was a little girl being moved too, and his superior wouldn’t tell him why she was being taken. He was frightened for her—she reminded him of his daughter.”
“No, you lie. My brother had no children.” Emily wrapped her arms tightly around her body.
Lydia tilted her head to one side. “As soon as we got to the new Silent Home, he knew. I thought they were bringing us to the garden for some fresh air after the journey, but he knew. The little girl started to cry. She said there was something rotten in the garden. She could smell it.”
I pressed my hand against my mouth, remembering the taste of badness in the air at the Silent Home. Lydia was within touching distance of Emily now. She took another step forward. “Michael picked her up and held her against his chest. He had always been kinder than the other guards. When Deirdre came to help us escape, I begged her to save Michael and the little girl as well. It was too late. The Elders had come for the child, and your brother wouldn’t let them take her. He never let her out of his arms, even in death.” Tears coursed down Emily’s face as she listened to Lydia. “He asked me to tell you two things if I ever made it to the Shadow City—firstly, that his daughter’s name is Martha, she has your mother’s name and her eyes, and she is in the Silent Home closest to where he was first stationed.”
Emily’s body trembled, but she held her chin high. “What was the second thing he wanted you to tell me?”
Lydia reached her hand up onto the platform and grazed Emily’s sleeve with her fingertips. “That he was sorry he hadn’t been brave enough to fight for his little girl.”
Peter watched Emily with a calculating stare as she held Lydia’s gaze. For a moment, she was still. Then she thrust her hand into the air, and her voice bellowed across the hall. “I stand for my clan and demand the Elders be brought before the Angelic Council to answer for their crimes.”
A roar of support came from the crowd in response, and another wave of hands shot up. Peter hissed in a fury and reached for Lydia, but Emily blocked his path with a wall of static energy. “You can draw on the power of the Veil until every last drop of unholy magic is spent, Elder, but I will not let you harm this child. No more will the Angels be your unwitting blades of death.”
With a sneer, Peter twisted his body to address the sea of faces watching him. He spread his arms wide. “Choose your path wisely, Angels. I shall not ask for your allegiance today, but soon there will come a moment when you must face a fork in the road.” He cut his eyes from Emily to High Guardian Adam before finally resting his glare on my face. “And beware, my people, all those who do not stand with us, are against us.”
With that, Peter ripped his hands through the air
, tearing a gash in the fabric of time and space. It hung open like an old cemetery gate, unhinged in a storm. From the other side of the slip, cold seeped into the hall and ignited a frenzy. Angels backed away from Peter and fled in terror as the Spirit Demons slithered through the gaping hole, but my eyes were fixed on the black-clad figures that came creeping after them. I whipped around to face Sam who had almost reached Elijah, and he returned my stare with a tight-lipped whisper. “The Hounds.”
My heart pounded as I watched the figures encroaching on Lydia’s unarmed form. “The Hounds. Oh God, he brought the Hounds.”
The world started to move at twenty times its normal speed as a wave of Hounds poured from the open slip. A torrent of Angels surged past us and scrabbled at the doors in their haste to escape. The remaining Angels sprang into action, tugging Spirit Blades from their pockets and eyeing the Hounds with sharp eyes. My stomach lurched as I saw several of the Angels scurry to stand behind Peter. The High Guardian’s Spirit Blade roared into life as he eyed two members of his High Council taking their places at Peter’s side.
“Is this how you wish to end this sorry era, Elder Peter? Last time you sacrificed the Halfling race, this time the Humans and every Angel who stands in your way? And what will you have left—a handful of traitors and cowards like those cowering behind your back?” High Guardian Adam jabbed his blade in the direction of the two High Councilors, and the male Councilor scurried backward. “What a glorious race to inherit the earth. I hope the weight of the swollen Veil suffocates every last one of you.”
The Hounds began to creep silently along the edges of the hall. They didn’t approach any of the Angels as they passed but I sensed their menace as they moved closer to us. Eve squeezed her fingers around my arm. “Get to Sam and get us all out of here. The Angels too—everyone!”
I nodded and pulled the handle of my Spirit Whip from my belt. On Cat’s command, the rest of the team began to circle me as I moved toward the center of the room. Gabriel tossed Jasmine a blade, and she caught it one-handed. It blazed the moment her fingertips touched it, and her shoulders straightened with a crack. My heart pounded as I waited for the Hounds to strike, but they stood against the walls, unmoving. Peter’s wet lips curved upwards as we reached the spot where Sam was holding Elijah’s limp body.
“Quickly, Grace.” I could see Cat’s veins standing out against her neck as she hissed at me. I reached for Sam’s hand, feeling his magic calling for mine, but a strange sensation kept tugging at my brain. A single note, sung out of key. Peter’s eyes narrowed on my face, and I felt a rush of clarity. My breath froze in my lungs as my feet crunched on the broken glass from the Halfborn Elder’s grotesque display case.
I dropped Sam’s hand and stared into the casket. “They’re not here for us, Sam. They want him.”
Chapter Eighteen
Grace
Sam’s face paled as we stared at each other and the memory of Anna’s voice whispered in my ear. I once held the fate of the world in my hands, but I was too weak. My eyes closed against the image of her desperate plea as she watched us leaving the Elder’s Sanctuary, begging me to release her son from his misery.
Eve’s hiss scorched through my reverie. “The Halfling, he’s tied to the Veil. If we kill him, we weaken the Elder Circle.”
I glanced past the Angels, frozen in anticipation, and met Peter’s stare. In an instant, he recognized the realization in my eyes, but it was too late to undo my mistake. He cried out in an unfamiliar tongue, and the Hounds descended. Cat was the first to respond, diving in front of Dawn and Ozzie to shield them from a blow. Her whip sliced through the creature’s flesh and tore its right arm from its body.
I tried to remember Lizzie’s training as I blocked out my fear for the others and focused on the job at hand, but the thought of Lizzie twisted in my guts like a red-hot poker. My fingers fumbled for the sharpest sliver of glass as I drew level with the Halfborn Elder’s neck. I whispered into his ear. “I’m sorry.”
The shard pierced his throat with ease, and a stream of crimson blood trickled down his collar. I flinched, feeling the pain in my own flesh. Emily howled as one of the Hounds pierced her arm with its blade and Lydia exploded into action, catching the Angel’s knife as it fell and burying it in the Hound’s eye. I dug the glass deeper into the Halfling’s throat and ripped it toward me. My fingers shook with the effort as I imagined his pain. I felt as though I was choking on his blood.
“Grace!” Sam almost dropped Elijah as he flung himself toward me.
Peter’s roar carried over the grunts and groans of the fighting. “Stop her! Stupid child.”
I turned my head to look at the Elder but my legs wobbled, and I slumped against the casket. Sam’s ashen face swam in front of my eyes. Peter’s voice was closer now. “You fools. Did you think we wouldn’t have our weakest link protected? What you do to him, so you do to yourself. As he bleeds, so shall you.”
He yelled for the Hounds to seize us and I could feel the panic rising in his chest. Confusion clouded my thoughts. I opened my mouth to ask Sam why Peter was worried, but all that came from my lips was a gush of warm blood.
“Eve.” Sam’s raw whisper was swallowed by the crowd. He screamed. “Eve. Help me. Help me!”
Eve and Dawn’s faces came into sight. I tried to lift my hand to wave them away, but it didn’t respond to my command. Eve heaved me into the air and laid me in the casket beside the Halfling Elder. Her lips were moving with such speed that my head began to spin. She pressed her fingers against my throat and chanted with a ferocity born of desperation.
Without looking, I could feel the Hounds closing in on us. A dark hand shot toward Dawn, and she twisted a fraction of a second too late. Sam spun through the air, and the casket shook as his body collided with the Hound’s. I grasped Eve’s arms with limp fingers and struggled to pull myself up, but I couldn’t move. Blood spurted from my mouth, and an icy chill crept over me.
I could hear the sound of shouting around me, but it seemed too far away for me to make out the words. Or maybe I was too far away? I felt as though I was floating—drifting further from shore. Sadness and regret swept over me and dragged me beneath the surface, where only darkness remained. My fingertips brushed against something cool, and I realized I wasn’t alone under the water.
The Halfling Elder’s eyes were filled with the sorrow of a man who had spent countless lifetimes drowning in his own regrets. His stare begged me for release from his agony, but I had none to offer him. I squeezed my eyes shut and thought of Sam, and Eve, and my self-made family. If there was any goodness in the world, I begged the gods to send it to protect them. I let go of the Elder’s hand and let the tide take me.
The brightness arrived like a spark in the darkness. A tiny fleck of light in the Halfling Elder’s chest that grew from a speck into a flame and exploded into the brightest burst of light I had ever seen, shattering his physical being and freeing his soul. I felt his beautiful release, and in the same instant, the fire was thrust into my heart, and I burst from that strange netherworld and smashed back into the land of the living.
I heaved the air into my lungs with a gasp, suddenly aware that the battle was still raging all around me. Eve stood by the side of the casket, her mouth wide and her hands raised. The light of magical fire still burned in her eyes. The light of life. The Spark.
“Go!” High Guardian Adam appeared suddenly at the side of the box before I could question Eve about her newly revealed gift. His eyes traveled from the dead Elders face to mine. “Quickly, you need to go now. Peter was weakened by Abel’s death, but he’ll be back for his Hounds.”
“And for us?” I heaved myself out of the casket and landed beside Eve.
The High Guardian nodded. “Yes, if what Niamh told the Council when you were last here is true—yes. Peter will be coming for you.”
The sound of cracking bones punctured the air and Sam skidded to a halt in front of us. He tossed the body of a Hound to one side and grabbed me
with both hands. His stare scorched my skin. “Never do that again, do you hear me? Never.”
I bit down on the overwhelming desire to kiss Sam’s lips as Pierre and his father appeared beside us, with Emily, Frank, and Lydia at their heels. Gabriel and Cat closed in from the other side, ushering Dawn and Ozzie ahead of them. Emily gave us an awkward nod. “That seems to be the last of the Hounds, but it’s not safe for us to stay here. We need to leave before the Elders return.”
“Sam and I can bring everyone. We have somewhere safe.” I pressed my palm against Sam’s chest, grateful for its solid warmth.
The High Guardian shook his head. “No. We need to gather our people. There’s so much we need to try and understand if we’re going to have a chance at defeating the Elders.”
“Why do you care?” Sam’s voice was unyielding. “They’re offering the Angels everything—the whole world. Why fight them?”
“You think that we’re monsters. You believe I would happily let my people slaughter innocent Humans for my own gain.” The High Elder searched Sam’s face with sad eyes. He dipped his head. “I hope we live long enough for the Angels to make amends for the wrong we have done you, young man.”
Sam turned his face away without answering, but I felt the jump of his heart under my palm. I drew my brows together. “You’re not coming with us?”
“No. My people need guidance and truth,” the High Guardian said.
Pierre nodded. “We’ll keep in touch. Niamh knows how to reach us.”
Gabriel snapped his fingers and reached down to help Jasmine lift Elijah’s limp body from the floor. “Okay, get moving then, Angels.” He stared at Sam and me. “Come on.”
Emily’s fingers danced through the air, and she opened a slip with a flick of her wrist. Lydia looked at us over her shoulder, and I saw a glimmer of the friend I remembered. “Frank and I are going with the Angels. They’re going to need our help.”
The Demon-Born Trilogy: (Complete Paranormal Fantasy Series) Page 58