It takes six of them to hold me still long enough for Zavier to stick his syringe in my neck. ‘Damn you, Zavier!’ I scream at him as the cold liquid enters my bloodstream.
‘Sarakiel,’ the lieutenant calls. ‘Quickly, the humans are arriving. Help me collect the girl so we can finish this.’
My hair is all over my face, practically blinding me as Lieutenant Saul and Sarakiel come to collect me. I manage to make a few more kicks and punches connect before two arms swing round my waist. The swish-swishing of strong, fast-beating wings fills my ears as I rise up into the sunlight, my limbs becoming wearier by the second.
‘Stop squirming, my lady, we are already high enough off the ground that should you fall you would seriously injure yourself.’ I recognise the voice, the familiar accent and smooth deep tones.
I shove the hair from my face and look at the angel holding me. ‘You! What happened to the other two?’
‘I overruled them,’ Zavier says.
‘But I thought Lieutenant Saul was in charge.’
‘Where you are concerned, my lady, the only one to carry you will be me.’
33
Nathaneal
A sudden cloudburst of acid rain cascades down the main vent from the crater opening high above us. Our stinging eyes send us scurrying back to an abandoned cave we recently passed.
Solomon remains by the opening to check in with his informant inside Prince Luca’s city palace. When his mind-link concludes, he enters the cave but waits at the entrance, standing still and quiet, as if gathering his breath.
He walks past Jez, Tash and Uriel. They glance at him, eager for news, but he ignores them, making us all uneasy. Especially when he continues past Isaac, sitting on a boulder attempting to replait his knotted hair, and then Michael, whose golden gaze, once upon you, is difficult to ignore.
But Solomon doesn’t utter a word until he is standing directly in front of me.
By now my heart is pounding like a wild beast running for its life. ‘What is it, Sol?’
‘My prince, no one has seen him.’
‘Can you be more specific?’
He twists his fingers, a strange activity for such a robust angel. ‘No one has sighted the Dark Prince since your battle with him on Earth.’
For a beat there is nothing but silence, punctured with the sounds of our breathing and hearts beating fast.
‘Of course there’s been no sight of him,’ Isaac says, finishing his braid though he’s only halfway through it. ‘He can’t have recovered so quickly from those injuries. He would still be in hiding, and probably for months to come.’
Jez comes and stands between Michael and me. ‘No one’s seen him because he’s recuperating outside the capital with only his close medics on hand. He won’t go public with this battle because his losses would demean him in the eyes of his people. And we all know what appearances mean to him.’
Michael seems to agree. ‘He has a secret fortress in the Hyactyn Mountains. His minders could have diverted him through underground tunnels.’
Isaac’s eyes suddenly widen. ‘Hold on, everyone.’ He glances at each of us with a look that asks why we haven’t thought of this already. ‘It’s a long journey to Alaska from Mount Bungarra. That would have been a tough flight in Prince Luca’s condition. For his team too. How far did the Brothers track their movements after the battle?’
I explain what I know. ‘The Watchtower was damaged during the attack. It wasn’t operable until the following morning. By then, the Brothers couldn’t pick up a trace of Prince Luca, or any of his team. Somewhere in that forest they disappeared. We considered that since they knew the tower was out, and surrounded by flocks of Aracals to provide them cover, Luca and his team used the nearest portal to return to Skade.’
‘Our Crossing?’ Jez squeals, shaking her head in disgust and nearly suffocating us with the scent her long black hair always throws out.
‘That makes sense,’ Michael says, coughing and spluttering. Collecting himself, he gives her a scathing look.
‘What?’ she yells.
‘Do you have any idea how lethal your scent is? We should register it as a weapon of mass destruction.’ At her outraged gasp, he clears his throat. ‘Never mind.’ He quickly shifts his gaze back to me. ‘The Alaskan portal would have been too far away for them to reach in their condition, right on the cusp of dawn. But they could have crawled to Mount Bungarra’s portal from where we left them.’
Tash moves to the cave’s entrance, concerned that our heightened emotions could cause her harm. ‘Solomon has more news.’
Everyone looks at him and he nods, his face remaining grim. ‘The Gatekeepers have reported that the Dark Prince has not returned to Skade yet.’
‘At all?’
‘Correct, my prince.’
‘In all this time?’
‘That’s right. His Prodigies haven’t been seen either.’
‘But there is only one way into Skade.’
Everyone is suddenly keeping their thoughts to themselves, but I know what they’re thinking, and it makes their silence all the more alarming.
Michael lays his hand on my shoulder. ‘Don’t jump to conclusions until we learn more.’
I point out three facts that terrify me. ‘Prince Luca is still on Earth. Ebony is on Earth. And I am halfway down a volcano inside Skade!’
I glance at the worried faces of my team. They watch me, alert for signs. They’re concerned I will lose control. They have every right to be. The powers surging inside my body continue to intensify as my struggle to regulate the volatile mix of emotions begins to unravel. Love, anger, frustration and fear that Ebony and Prince Luca’s paths will cross, that he will make them cross, is tearing up every last vestige of my control.
I grab Michael’s arm. ‘She pleaded with me to return safely.’
‘I know. She threatened me. She’s stronger than you think, cousin.’
The image of my sweet Ebony standing up to the commander of all Avena’s armies sends my emotions on a spiral of pride and panic. ‘I cannot be this far away from her,’ I call out. ‘She does not know our world, or the deviousness of his.’
Michael places one hand on my shoulder and another across my chest in an attempt to keep me immobile. ‘Stay calm, cousin.’
‘How am I supposed to do that, Michael? How do I stay calm? I’m burning up inside!’
A sudden jolt of energy explodes from within, and my powers plunder right through me, pushing and straining against bone and muscle and skin, yearning to escape a body that has suddenly transformed into a prison. ‘Leave, all of you! Go now!’
‘Save your breath, my young prince,’ Isaac says. ‘I’ve been beside you since you were seven years old. I’m not going anywhere now.’
Blood rushes into my veins. My lungs fill with air. My wings shoot out, sending Michael flying. Around us the cave shudders.
Tash screams as she feels my pain. Jez, Uriel and Solomon throw themselves over me, wrapping me in their arms as they try to hold me still, even while my powerful wings thrash at them.
Tash looks at me from the entrance, trembling with tears in her eyes. ‘Go, Tash! Get out of here!’
Uriel encourages her with a sharp nod. She steps outside the cave where she slides to the ground and hugs her knees.
‘Keep still, cousin,’ Michael murmurs. ‘We will figure this out together.’
I have felt each of my powers before, just not all at once. Every cell in my body feels as if it is in danger of exploding.
The cave walls shudder and fill the air with dust and rock particles. Images of Ebony, her gentle touch, her feisty spirit, her true, tender heart, and eyes that see the good in people first, look up at me pleadingly. Another surge plunges through me, flooding my senses. ‘I’m supposed to protect her, not put her in harm’s way!’
‘I know,’ Michael murmurs.
He will crush her!
We will not let that happen.
‘Think calm!’ Isaac
orders in the voice he used when I was seven. ‘Tranquil thoughts can help you reverse this.’
How do I think calm when pure evil walks where my beloved walks? Someone tell me how!
My heart is beating too fast, pumping massive volumes of blood through lungs and organs struggling to handle such intense pressure. ‘I have to warn her. I have to –’
‘You can’t go back now, Thane,’ Jez says. ‘You persuaded the court to give you this task. What do you think will happen if you don’t complete it?’
‘But –’
‘She’s right,’ Michael says. ‘Besides, you didn’t leave Ebony and Jordan alone.’
What are you talking about, Michael?
Through a mind-link he sends me an image of my brother Gabriel arguing with me after I asked him to watch over Ebony and Jordan in my absence. It took some convincing, but ultimately he agreed.
Recalling that Gabe is with them right now gives me an instant sense of calm. I take a deep breath and exhale gently, feeling the urgency inside me ebb away. As I explain to the team, my body and mind slow to a comfortable level. ‘How could I have forgotten the arrangement I made with my own brother?’ I chastise myself.
Smiles break out as tensions ease. Even Tash grins, though wisely still keeps her distance. ‘Prince Gabriel can call in his whole unit if he needs reinforcements,’ she says.
I will owe my brother for this, and, knowing Gabe, he’ll make the payback gruelling and distasteful, but he will have my unending gratitude.
Now I can return my energies into completing restitution for my crimes. ‘Has it stopped raining yet?’
Tash replies, ‘Affirmative, my prince.’
‘Then what are we waiting for? We have a very important mission to complete.’
34
Jordan
The two Prodigies lift me so high above the ridge the properties in the valley take on the appearance of a chessboard in shades of green. Wind blows around me from their two sets of wings beating hard while expertly keeping apart. I don’t dare move in case they drop me.
Eventually they bring me down in a thick part of the forest, but nowhere near the portal like I was expecting. They lower my feet to the ground first. I glimpse a dry creek bed, dense shrubs and a rocky hill before they shove a hessian bag over my head and push me into a cave.
We walk at a steep downwards angle for a kilometre or more. It’s so dark the only light comes from the Prodigies’ own glow.
A second tunnel with a left turn keeps us descending. By the time they stop and make me sit, we’re deep underground. It’s cold, moist and smells like wet dog fur. I hug my knees to my chest and wonder what happened to the girls.
Pulling the bag off my head, the angels leave me here while they walk into a tunnel opposite where I’m sitting. When their light fades from view, it becomes so dark I can’t see the tunnel entrance or even my fingers held in front of my eyes.
This has to be an old mine. The valley is littered with them from the gold rush days. I bet Thane doesn’t know it’s here, and yet it’s on the ridge and can’t be too far from both his property and the monastery.
Sitting alone in the cold and dark, I get time to think.
I got it wrong. I got it so wrong. I should bury myself in a deep hole and never come up for air. I grit my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut while I swallow down my anguish.
I aligned myself with the enemy. I trusted the enemy.
But I did it for Mum.
What an idiot!
Mum was my weak point and the prince knew it. He was in my dreams enough times to see how I longed to have her back in my life. ‘I’m sorry, Mum, I can’t help you now.’
I hear footsteps. Enemy angels pour in, their faces glowing around their sunglasses. They walk straight past me into the tunnel like I don’t exist. If they forget about me, maybe I can sneak out when they go to sleep. I count twelve, including the first two and not counting Mr Zee. That’s how many Prodigies Prince Luca brought with him when he almost abducted Ebony the last time.
That battle practically annihilated them. According to Thane and Gabe, they shouldn’t be capable of doing something like this yet. They thought Luca would lie low and build his strength to make a final attempt just before Ebony’s eighteenth. But that’s still more than a year away.
So why did it take two of them to carry me when one should have been plenty?
The amber glow of a lantern appears inside the tunnel and grows brighter quickly. I jump to my feet with the sense that whoever’s carrying that lantern is coming for me.
I’m not wrong. I stare at Mr Zee’s face with words leaping from my mouth: ‘We thought Prince Luca had returned to Skade. Everyone did.’
‘Really?’ His voice drips sarcasm. ‘In the condition your prince left him?’ He rubs the back of his neck. ‘He couldn’t walk. He could hardly breathe. How was he supposed to fly to Alaska? There was no one to help him since his entire team were left equally as damaged.’
‘So . . . what . . . you just happened to come along?’
‘I was keeping an eye on things.’
‘You brought the angels here and looked after them with tender loving care?’
‘Someone had to get them off the street and out of the gutter! It wasn’t long before their self-healing began, but they needed to be out of public sight. Your prince unleashed his powers without any thought of the consequences!’
‘Don’t get me started on consequences,’ I snarl back. ‘Thane did what he had to that night. And he’d do it again to protect Ebony. Just wait until he hears about this. So what have you done with the girls?’
He takes too long answering. Sweat beads across my forehead even though it’s freezing down here. Finally, he says, ‘Amber escaped.’
‘Yes! Yes!’ I punch the air. My shoulder kills but I hardly feel it because Amber got away! ‘And Ebony?’ I swallow to bring moisture back into my mouth.
‘She is here.’
‘Shit! Is she all right? Can I see her?’
‘She’s sleeping.’
‘What? Now? Why would she be sleeping in the middle of the afternoon just after being kidnapped?’
The ensuing silence makes me suspicious.
‘What did you do to her?’
‘Ebony is fine. Leave it, Jordan. We have other things to discuss.’
If I could throw something at him I would. ‘How did you know about this place?’ I ask. The more I learn the better chance I’ll have of helping Thane when I get out of here. ‘Well?’
‘Drained of practically every drop of fluid from his body, Prince Luca told me about a cave he’d used when he created his first demons thousands of years ago. The cave was nearby, and though mortals built a mine around it to find gold the cave remained undiscovered. So I brought them here to regain their strength.’
I look up into his face, so close I can smell mint-flavoured mouthwash on his breath. He’s so human-like, and yet he’s so far from being human it’s not funny. ‘You should have let them die in the gutter. That’s what I would have done.’
‘You’re forgetting their immortality. Unable to control their dark powers in their weakened state, it would have leached out of them and caused unimaginable damage to the Earth. Loose and free and without form, it would drain into the soil, poison the fresh waters, passing disease into crops and livestock.’ He lifts his shoulders and lets them fall. ‘Who knows, perhaps even the air would fill with bacteria or worse.’
Mr Zee’s words are like puzzle pieces plopping into place. ‘Some of their evil leached out before you found them.’
His surprised look is genuine. ‘Explain.’
‘On our way home from your place something dark and powerful chased us. It tore up the road like a tornado and killed two cops. It was all over the news.’
He listens. If he’s breathing, I can’t tell.
‘This dark force started evolving. First it split into two parts and took the form of a man and a woman, then it looked more like a pair
of armoured angels and became four. In the beginning it hid in outback caves by day and fed from the valley at night, but now the two pairs stay close to Ebony day and night. Prince Gabriel says they’re drawn to her.’
His eyes impale me. ‘This is equivalent to opening the gates to Skade’s deepest prisons where the worst human souls transmogrify into beasts.’ He flicks a glance at the tunnel, then leans right in and whispers, ‘They must be stopped. Tell your angels to destroy them even if they have to bring a legion of Throne Warriors to accomplish the task.’
‘They can’t do that.’
‘Mixing with angels has given you leeway to order them around now, has it?’ His eyes burn with indignation. ‘You don’t understand what Prince Luca could do with them if he learns of their existence.’
‘But if angels bring an army that big to Earth, there’ll be mass hysteria and the world will never be the same again.’
‘Perhaps the time has come for change, Mr Blake, before there’s nothing left to save.’
‘Why did you bring Ebony here?’ I ask.
‘I had no choice. Just as I have no choice now.’
‘Everyone has a choice, even if it’s one they don’t wanna make.’
‘For your own sake, you must forget Ebony. Her fate is sealed. You cannot help her now.’
‘Screw you! I don’t care what excuses you make up – you have to release her!’
Mr Zee grabs my arm. ‘Stop yelling, or they will hear you. I’ve talked Prince Luca into letting you go.’ He points with his right arm. ‘That way will lead you to a small cave with a heavy door. It’s unlocked. Leave, Jordan, while you still can.’
‘I’m not going without Ebony.’
He glares at me. ‘I know about the deal you struck with Prince Luca.’
‘He tricked me.’
‘I thought as much,’ he mutters. ‘I wondered why you allowed him so much control.’
‘What control?’
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