“Oww,” she moaned when she landed on top of a large aboveground root system.
Fluttering next to her indicated that Demyan was somewhere nearby.
Unable to get to her feet fast enough, she held out her hands to delay his next move. “I get that you’re mad at me, Demyan, I understand that. I honestly can’t remember everything that happened, but I’m starting to relive it in my dreams,” she confessed.
He took a step toward her, but immediately stopped. He stared down at her, shocked by the revelation.
“Then you know why you need to die,” he growled, raising his sword again.
“No, but I can tell you what I do know. I know that I unleashed my power on the village and tried to destroy it, which I’m sure you took issue with because it was your job to protect the mortals. I understand why the Celestial Warriors hate me and fear me. Why shouldn’t they fear me? I couldn’t control my reaction to the sins committed by the mortals, not even minor sins. I had no control over the raw power inside of me and I didn’t have a ring at the time to help prevent my power from escaping.
“Here’s the problem, Demyan. What if you were given limitless power, but no one told you what that entailed? What if they warned you that your power was dangerous, but never explained how or when to use this power? How would you feel? What would you do? Everyone feared me because I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t understand what it meant to tempt the mortals or to judge them. I only felt this overwhelming need to punish them and I couldn’t control it. How would you feel if you were sent into battle without any training? How many people would you accidently hurt if you didn’t know how to use your sword? How many mistakes would you have made? I’m a terror because no one explained how to harness this power and use it appropriately. The Council somehow expected me to have the knowledge to carry out my duties. I was set up for failure, but the Council refuses to see it that way. They didn’t want to train me because they didn’t want me to end the world. They kept my Predznak from me to keep me handicapped. I don’t care if you hate my purpose in life. It’s not up to you to question my mission. God wants me to punish the wicked, so you should have faith in his reasons for doing so. You should be trying to help me figure out how best to serve God without trying to take my head at every encounter.
“What happened to Farouk was an accident. I have to believe that. I know that I am capable of doing truly terrible things, but I don’t believe I’m capable of hurting an innocent angel without cause. If my power slipped out and killed Farouk, then yes, I am sorry for that. Without my memories, I can’t tell you what happened, I can only tell you that I have struggled with my destiny and many have suffered because of it, but don’t think that I have taken their deaths lightly,” she said honestly.
She saw the confusion on his face and hoped that she was making him understand her plight.
When she saw his sword lower an inch or two, she almost breathed a sigh of relief until his eyes snapped up to meet hers.
“Even if I am willing to accept that your previous attempts to end the world were mistakes made by a naïve girl, it still doesn’t change the fact that you killed a warrior,” he said, raising his sword again.
She gritted her teeth. “Think about it, Demyan. I was bound, just as I am now. If I haven’t been able to unleash my power to kick your ass, then I’m not sure how I managed to do it centuries ago,” she said in her own defense.
He shook his head and ignored her logic. “I refuse to accept that. I saw the second storm with my own eyes. It was the exact same storm as the one that nearly destroyed the village. The same kind of energy permeated the air. Gabriel tried to convince us that the second storm was not created by you, but I know the truth. You waited until Farouk was alone and you murdered him. You wanted retribution for the burn he inflicted on your leg when he fell,” he snarled, his sword shaking in his hand. “I lost a brother and a comrade that day. He was young and brash; I know that. He was almost as naïve as you were, but he was a good soldier and he died on my watch,” he shouted, close to tears.
Anjali could hear the love he felt for his brother in his trembling voice. She realized that Demyan blamed himself for Farouk’s death more than anything else. They had both been charged with keeping watch over her, but Demyan had listened to Farouk and left them alone. Demyan felt responsible because he wasn’t there to intervene. He had been holding the guilt of that moment for centuries until it ate away at him.
“I’m sorry you feel responsible for leaving Farouk alone with me, but I can’t imagine why I would want to kill him. Look at me, Demyan, really look at me. Have you ever seen me so frazzled and disheveled?” she asked getting to her feet so that he could take in her haggard appearance. “Haydn kidnapped me and shackled me in order to punish me for leaving him alone to deal with his madness for centuries and yet I haven’t tried to kill him. I certainly considered it, but I only defended myself against him. You tried to kill Haydn in front of me. Despite my problems with him, I have every right to demand your head since he rightfully belongs to me and he did nothing to warrant an attack of that magnitude, yet here I am crying in a tree. I’m not trying to kill you. I’m not angry with you. I’m too tired to fight. If I can talk through my problems with you right here and now even though you want to kill me, what could Farouk have possibly done to make me want to kill him? What could he have done to make me break the rules of God by negating the dampening power of the Celestial Bonds, the very bonds I’m wearing now? Trust me, if I could have used my power in the last few days, I would have used it to reach out to my Nachtghuls to rescue me. So I ask you, why am I still on this fucking island if I were able to do the impossible and create a storm to kill Farouk while bound?” she said in a huff.
Demyan seemed to consider her explanation, though his sword didn’t falter this time. She waited for him to process all that she had said as he frowned at her bizarre outfit and crusty hair. Her shoulders began to relax as the truth of her words filtered through his vengeance-filled mind. She stepped forward, ready to ask him to release her from the Celestial Bonds, until she heard the roar that erupted from his mouth. Blue light streaked through the air followed by the ominous crackle of the flame sword. She immediately let her body go limp and dropped to the ground. The second she felt the roots under her, she rolled into a thick grouping of shrubs. She was running before she had a second to catch her breath.
Remembering her trick from earlier, she grabbed a palm frond and wrapped it around her blue beacon. She tried to get her bearings and figure out where Haydn and Viktor were, not that they could stop Demyan, but at least she could get to some kind of weapon bigger than a pocketknife.
Tripping through the jungle yet again, she quickly thought of all the ways she could distract him. She could throw some rocks at him. She could find the nearest cliff and jump into the ocean. She could click her heels three times to see if that helped her in anyway. In the end, she decided that she was screwed. She had no idea where she was and had no reason to believe that anyone was coming to help her.
∞
Viktor felt the inside of his head rattle around his skull. He didn’t know what had happened until he saw Haydn sitting against a tree with a giant hole in his chest, still breathing. He tentatively moved his shoulders around to see if anything was broken. Thankfully, it seemed that he was still in one piece, but he would be bruised for a few days. He slowly stood but stopped when he felt a lightning bolt of pain flash through the back of his neck. Working through the pain, he got to his feet and stretched his shoulders. He took a deep breath and looked around for his backpack. He was surprised to see how far he had been knocked through the air. This latest enemy was a real piece of work. He couldn’t recall being physical hit by the hulking giant, yet his aching bones were proof of the fight.
Walking over to Haydn, he tilted his head and assessed the hole in his chest. “That looks like it smarts,” he chuckled.
Haydn glared at him and looked like he wanted to flip him off, but
was too tired to attempt it. “What do you want with her?”
Viktor smiled. “I thought you already knew. You seemed to have it all figured out. Then again, maybe you were wrong,” Viktor shrugged as he picked up his pack.
“I won’t let you hurt her,” Haydn sneered.
“I have no plans to hurt her. I merely want to forget her,” Viktor shrugged.
Haydn sighed. “I promise you that it’s harder than you think. I’ve been trying to forget her for centuries, even though I never met her until a few days ago.”
Viktor crossed his arms and smirked at the Angel of Distrust. “I’m well aware of how hard it is to move on without her. In your case, I would give up the foolish pursuit. She obviously cares about you since she did everything she could to help you with your guilt. She has a tremendous capacity to love and forgive, but she has a dark side that you do not want to cross. If you are meant to work for her, I would warn you not to push her too far. You won’t like the consequences.”
“How do you know what she’s capable of?” Haydn asked. He tried to shift to his side, but grimaced and stopped moving.
“I’ve seen every side there is to her. I know how her mind works and I know how special she is. She is truly a gift to any who know her,” he smiled sadly. He ran his hand over his aching neck and assessed the injured angel. “She mentioned that you have lost your mind to this power you carry inside of you. I truly believe that she can help you, if you will allow it. I understand what it means to be burdened by darkness. It will consume you until you no longer care about love and only care about forgetting that you ever loved anything,” Viktor said darkly. With that, he turned and looked around, trying to figure out which way Anjali had been taken.
Haydn stared at him for a moment. “Who are you?”
“I am a man who no longer fears the future because I will finally break the chain and be free,” Viktor said confidently.
Haydn tried to get to his feet, but fell on his backside. He gripped his chest and groaned. “You don’t plan to hurt her, yet you plan to free yourself of her. How can you do both?”
Turning his face up to the night sky, Viktor took a deep breath. “Sometimes we have to do terrible things to get what we want. Today is no exception,” he stated.
“If you harm her, I’ll kill you,” Haydn said without any fervor. His eyes fluttered and he had a hard time keeping his head upright. The pain must have worn down his strength.
“You, mate, are in no position to do so,” Viktor said. He walked over, grabbed two of Haydn’s knives, and stuffed them into his pockets.
He left the Angel of Distrust to sleep off his injuries. In his estimation, it would be a few hours before he woke up based on how long Anjali slept off her exhaustion.
He closed his eyes and focused on the part of him that always knew where Anjali was, the piece of his heart where she lived. No matter how hard he tried to block his feelings for her or ignore the imprint she had left on him, it never went away. He knew that she was near the mountain they had been walking toward during their journey. Without her slowing him down, he could make short work of the distance as long as the pain in his head kept to a dull ache.
He tightened his pack around his shoulders and headed off to kill an angel.
∞
“Why do you have to be so difficult?” Demyan shouted to the heavens as he searched for her.
Anjali was curled up behind a fallen tree, trying to control her breathing. She had managed to shake the warrior, unless he was toying with her, which was a horrifying thought. She had used the hilly terrain to her advantage and hid at the bottom of a small valley covered in long-stemmed red flowers. She knew she couldn’t outrun him, so she had to figure out how to convince him not to kill her. He was obviously conflicted about murdering her, which she might be able to exploit. Otherwise, she would have to find a way to knock him out in order to open her bonds, which sounded much simpler than it was.
“Why does everyone believe I am so willing to allow myself to be killed? Why should I make this easy for you? I’m sorry that my execution is so hard for you to complete, but killing an innocent person is never easy,” she shouted.
He laughed cruelly. “You would know, though you didn’t seem to have any difficulty in killing the innocent mortals. Besides, you are not innocent, Destroyer. You have the blood of many on your hands, including Farouk!” he cried.
She shook her head. “I don’t know exactly how Farouk died, but I assure you that he wasn’t innocent,” she sneered.
“You lie!” he roared.
She heard him stomping around, swinging a stick or branch through the dark foliage to find her. He was a few feet to her left, but headed in the wrong direction. Above her was a rocky ledge that signaled the beginning of the mountain terrain leading toward the mountain. Demyan had inadvertently brought her closer to her goal. She had no idea how much further Viktor’s boat was from the waterfall, but he had been adamant that they stay on this path to reach it.
If Demyan walked far enough away, she might be able to scramble up the incline and make it to an area where the trees were tightly clumped together. From there, she hoped that there was a way to climb the mountain to reach the waterfall. She should be able to spot the ship from there if it was close enough.
“Why did you leave me alone with Farouk?” she shouted, while cupping her hands over her mouth, trying to throw her voice in a different direction.
She heard him stop, but she didn’t hear a reply. Unsure where he was, she took a chance and sprinted toward the sandy hill covered in clumps of tall grass. She cut her knees trying to get up the incline, but she made it. Afraid that she was making too much noise, she slowed down and almost fell. She held onto a patch of deeply rooted grass to keep from tumbling to the bottom until she was able to regain her footing. Once stable, she started back up the hill. Finally reaching the top, she looked down to see if Demyan was below her. Seeing that the area was clear, she made it across a rocky path and worked on getting up the next incline, which was larger than the first. Her climbing ability was hindered, but she thought she was making good time.
Reaching the top of the small cliff, she stood up and almost cried when she saw a series of hills that led to the mountain where the waterfall resided. She wanted to give up when she saw how far she still had to travel.
Resigning herself to the challenge, she stepped forward, but her foot never touched the ground; instead, she was hoisted into the dark night by her armpits.
She had no idea where Demyan was taking her or what his plan was, so she decided to make her own plan. Demyan had stupidly held her back low against his chest to keep her from squirming, but it meant that his face was within striking distance. Interlacing her fingers, she tensed up her arms and slammed her hands into his nose. He yowled and instinctively let her go. Unfortunately, the landscape below was too dark to see without the rising moon. Praying that she didn’t break something major when she hit the ground, she braced for a rough landing.
Crumpling to the ground, she landed on her butt and fell onto her back.
“Damn it,” she growled as she rolled around, attempting to ease the pain in her hip and back. She swore that she would never leave home without someone capable of killing a Celestial Warrior.
A soft thud to her left told her that Demyan had regained his senses and found her.
“Tell me why you left me with Farouk!” she screamed at him. The answer seemed to be the root of his moral dilemma. She remembered seeing Demyan hesitate when Farouk tried to send him to the village, but she had assumed at the time that his concern had been for Farouk’s safety, not her own, but now she wasn’t sure. Maybe something else had made him hesitate.
Towering over her, Demyan stepped closer in an attempt to intimidate her. She was in no condition to run or fight with her newly acquired injuries, so she assumed that he wanted to scare her.
“I get it, Demyan. Your friend is dead. If you want an apology, then I apologize, though deep in
my heart I know that if I killed him, I must’ve had a good reason. I’m sorry if it was an accident. No one should have to die like that. Please, you can’t do this. It goes against everything you were taught, everything you were trained to believe in. You volunteered to protect those created by God. I am not a Rogue, nor am I a Forgotten. I still serve Heaven. You are honor-bound to protect me, even if you disagree with what I did,” she said passionately.
She removed the leaf covering her bonds so that the light would reveal his face. The second the light touched his face, she regretted her decision to see him. The rage on his face told her that he was willing to break his oath as a warrior and become a Rogue so that he could fulfill his need for vengeance.
He pulled his sword from his holster so fast that she didn’t see the blue flame spring to life until it was coming toward her neck. He had made his decision and she had no way of stopping him.
She dropped to the ground and felt the intense heat of the flame slide over her neck and cheeks as she arched her back, trying to avoid the sword. The air snapped and crackled around her face, but she dodged the flame.
Quickly twisting her body, she got to her knees and ran from Demyan. He swung wildly at her, but he misjudged the distance when she jumped to the side. The sword skimmed past her skin, but blessedly didn’t burn her.
He sneered at her and slashed the air in front of him as a warning. “This is not the first time you have faced a Celestial Warrior, Destroyer. You were lucky to escape our wrath before, but you will not escape my blade this time,” he snarled.
She shrugged. “If I’ve managed to keep my head all these years, then I think the odds are in my favor,” she quipped. Her hip was aching, but she had to keep moving.
Trapped on top of the grassy mountain, she could hear the raging river a few feet to her right and knew the drop off was close by. She could risk jumping into the falls and try for a water landing, or she could find a way to divert his attention as she made her way back down the hills to safety. Neither option was feasible with Demyan so angry. Even if she didn’t crash onto the rocks below, Demyan wouldn’t stop until he found her again. She had to think of a way to force him to unlock her bonds since she was no match for him. All she could do was race around the immediate area until she could push him off the cliff and make a run for it.
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