Cold swept over me when Nimrod turned and headed straight for Nevada. His heavy boots pounded the marble floor in sync with my heart.
Lukas grabbed Nevada’s arm.
She slapped his hand away, scowling. “What the—?” Her pale eyes widened when she saw Nimrod. Inch by inch, she craned her head, taking in all seven feet of the massive hunter.
He paused less than a foot away from them. Piercing black eyes stared right where they stood. Nevada closed her eyes, her lips moved softly as he leaned in searching.
Nimrod tilted his head as if listening out for something. Slowly, he placed his hand over the hilt of his sword.
It was me Nimrod was looking for. Nevada was a witch. She could take over my place with Cade. If I revealed myself, it would distract them, giving them time to get to the book. Maybe if I managed to get him outside, I could find a way to escape.
The moment I took a step toward the giant demon, Cade clamped his arm around my waist, drawing me to him.
Nevada opened her eyes. Her lips continued to move as she took Lukas’s hand. Carefully, they walked around Nimrod. When they were out of his line of sight, he blinked, shaking his head. He relaxed and exited out of the building.
I let out a breath of relief as we continued. Lukas kept looking back at me with a scowl on his face. Nevada led the way, keeping her hand tight on his. It wasn’t until we were in an empty hall that Lukas spun around and let me have it.
“Are you insane? You could’ve been captured,” he growled.
“He was going to see you,” I said. “Besides, Nevada is a witch. She and Cade could break the spell. You just need a witch. Right, Cade?”
Cade looked down at me, his blue eye intense. “Lukas is right. You shouldn’t have done that. We need you.” He ducked his head, lowering his voice. “I need you.”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s true love.” Nevada yanked me away from Cade and pushed me against the wall. “Look, Senna. As much as I wish it could be me or anyone else to break the curse, and believe me, I wish it could be, Deeth said it has to be you.”
“Why?” I asked. “I mean, I barely know how to use my powers. The entire time we were out there, I was wishing for another rainstorm or gust of wind, anything to distract that hunter.”
“Really?” Nevada looked at Lukas, then back at me. “Really? Is there even a brain in there because I sure don’t see any short-term memory retention going on in there.” She jabbed my forehead with her finger.
“Stop it!” I slapped her hand away. “What’s wrong with using my magic?”
“Well, for one, like you said, you don’t know how. And, hello! We’re trying to be stealthy here. The hunters will know you’ve made it to the tower. And don’t bother trying your magic. I’m much more experienced than you, and you saw what just happened. I could barely get us in here. And the closer we get to Rahab and the book, the less power we have.”
“We didn’t know,” Cade said, placing himself between Nevada and me. “You should’ve told us.”
“What do you think I’m doing right now? I’m telling you.” She rolled her eyes. “Rahab has a powerful witch working for him. She’s able to block others witches’ magic. Once we get up there, we’re on our own. So try not to get us killed.”
Lukas placed a hand on her shoulder. Using the same annoying condescending tone he often used on me when I was upset, he said, “Nevada, she’s doing her best.”
There was a beat of silence.
Poor Lukas. He probably didn’t expect Nevada and I to snap at him at the same time.
“I don’t need defending.”
“Stop defending her.”
Nevada and I looked at each other. Her upper lipped twitched. Despite her frustration with me, I was actually starting to like her. One thing for sure, she could hold her own against Lukas. It was obvious she didn’t take flak from anyone.
“Okay, everyone,” Cade said calmly. “Can we just focus on the task at hand? How do we get to the top?”
Giving him a wide smile, Nevada flipped a finger up and then jabbed a round button on the wall next to her. A steel door slid open. “In the elevator. All the way to the top.”
There was a ding and the doors opened. Nevada poked her head out before she waved us out of the elevator. “Hurry. And don’t touch anything.”
We stepped out in a vast open room filled with wheeled beds.
My hand swung to my mouth, muffling a gasp. Dozens of people laid on the beds. Wires and tubes stretched from their bodies to machines. They were so thin they didn’t even look alive. They were skeletons covered with wrinkled tanned skin.
“What is this?” Cade looked around in horror. “Is this a hospital?”
We had a small clinic in the Sanctuary. It was nothing like this.
“It’s far from it,” Lukas growled as he gazed at the bodies.
“Then what is it?” I asked.
Nevada looked at Lukas as if seeking permission to tell me, which was shocking. I didn’t think she needed permission to do anything.
“It’s a lab,” she finally said. “The hunters bring everyone they capture here to get them tested. It’s the only way to know who is really a witch and who isn’t.”
“What happens to the witches?”
“We have to hurry,” Nevada said, ignoring my question as she walked past me. “There’s a stairwell on the other side that we need to get to.”
“They keep the witches alive and use their DNA,” Lukas explained as we followed Nevada. “Some of them have been lying there like that for years. The demon lord thinks he can create a serum for the fallen to use. They would be more powerful than any other being, with or without the curse.”
“Rahab,” Cade choked.
I turned to Cade, his face was pale and disgusted. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like for him to see his brother capable of evil like this.
There was a loud ping and a set of doors in the wall across from us slid open.
“Over here.” Nevada pushed me behind one of the pillars just as a woman stepped out. She had pale blue eyes and a round face just like Nevada’s. It was the woman in the picture—Niamh.
I shot a glance at Nevada. Why were we hiding? They had to have known her if Deeth had her phone. This woman was my mother’s best friend.
Nevada gazed sadly, her pale eyes following Niamh’s every more. Lukas’s arm was around her shoulder, his hand firmly gripping her as if he was afraid she would run to the woman.
“Is there anything wrong, Niamh?” A young girl stepped up from behind her.
“No,” Niamh said, staring in the direction where we were hidden. “Nothing at all. Do you have the vials?”
“Right here.” The girl held them up.
“Good, we can proceed. The patient is right over here.” Niamh wove her way through the tables and leaned over a tiny body. Chestnut hair laid strewn against the pillow.
Annalise! It was girl from the meadow. She was still alive. Her tiny chest lifted up and down as if she were in a deep sleep.
The woman paused. Light sparkled off a gold locket hanging from her neck. She tilted her head as if she heard me. Images flickered through my mind. This time, it was different. It was as if it were being intentionally placed into my head. The same two images rotated around. They were of two little boys and a girl playing in the sand. The other was of a little boy, about three years old, running through a grove of poplar trees.
The images stopped, and Niamh’s lips curled into a soft smile before she turned her attention back to Annalise. I frowned, puzzled by what I’d just seen. It was as if she were showing me memories of Nevada and her brothers when they were little. But why?
She stuck a needle in Annalise’s arm, withdrawing some blood into a vial. Taking another vial with clear liquid in it, she poured a couple of drops in, whirled the vial, and waited.
“Is she one of us?” the girl asked.
Niamh frowned. “No, she’s not.”
The girl scribbled som
ething on her notepad. “All right then. Preparing for termination.”
I clenched my fingernails into my palms, trying not to scream. They were going to kill her. I looked to Cade. He shook his head, holding me to him in a death grip. Nevada’s eyes were closed, hiding from the inevitable.
Niamh placed her hand on Annalise’s forehead and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
She then leaned over and inhaled. The heart monitor sputtered. Niamh took another breath, deeper this time, and I realized what she was doing. She was sucking away Annalise’s life source.
The beeping of the machine slowed down. An intense sadness flashed crossed Niamh’s face, surprising me. Why was she doing this? She paused between every inhale as if this was painful for her to do. Her pale eyes were wet, yet still she continued.
The monitor sputtered one last time. Finally, there was a long tone.
Flat line.
29
The wind roared in my ears as I slowly moved to the edge of the bridge, holding on to the blue metal bar. We were so high up the hunters and fallen milling around the tower below were red and blue dots.
“People used to jump off this? For fun?” A sudden gust blew, making me stumble forward. I gripped the bar so tight that the whites of my knuckles popped from beneath my skin.
We were halfway up the tower’s eye. Directly below was a large blue square with a bull’s-eye in the center. Nevada had explained that before the war, people did what was called bungee jumping off the bridge. I guessed they aimed for the bull’s-eyes to land—preferably in one piece.
Nevada leaned casually against the bridge’s flimsy railing. Lukas stood beside her, one hand gripping the railing and the other hovering near her, ready to catch her if something happened. He looked just as freaked out as I felt. As for Nevada, she wasn’t fazed by the height one bit.
“Yeah, some of the newly fallen used it for a while. They probably missed flying. This is the closest they could get to it without wings. I wish I could try it, but Deeth wouldn’t let me and the hunters took down the ropes a few months ago.”
She leaned over, smiling as the wind tumbled her hair wildly. Nevada confused me. How could she look so at peace after what we just saw happen inside? It was taking everything I had to not think about Annalise being killed and all those bodies in line for termination, or worse, being used for experiments.
“I don’t know about this,” Cade said as he looked up at the curved dark glass. “Are you sure the book is at the top?”
“Of course I’m sure,” she snapped. “I have as much invested in getting this stupid curse lifted as you have.”
“I’m not arguing with you about that. It would just be safer for me to fly Senna up there.”
“We can’t risk anyone seeing you. Here, Senna, take this,” Lukas said, handing me a dagger. “The moment you pop out those wings, the hunters will see. It’s like they have angel wing radar or something.”
“No, it’s Niamh,” Nevada grumbled. “She cast a spell. Rahab knew someone would be sent to attempt to break the curse soon. So are we doing this?”
Tucking the dagger beneath my belt, I looked at the dark glass that made up the tower’s eye and everything started spinning. Nauseous, I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t tell if it was the height or what would happen afterward if Cade and I didn’t manage to get to the book.
I can do this. I can do this. Don’t look down.
“Are you okay?” Cade placed his hand over mine. Calm immediately washed over me. He was going to be with me every step of the way. We were doing this together. I wasn’t alone in this. I squeezed his hand back.
We can do this.
“Yeah, just a little dizzy. So once we’re up there, then what? Where’s the book?”
“There is a glass box near the seats. It used to be a thrill ride that people took that shot them up,” Nevada explained.
“Really? Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess people thought it was fun to bounce up and down from a thousand feet in the sky. People were strange back then.”
“And all we have to do is open the glass box to get to the book?” Cade asked.
“Senna should be able to open it.”
“I can? How can you be so sure? And what if the book isn’t up there? And I never asked how you know about all this.” There were so many questions I’d wanted to ask ever since she caught Cade and me together in the chapel. And if things didn’t work out as planned, I might never get the chance.
“Well, aren’t you a barrel full of questions, Ms. Nosy. I just know.” She couldn’t look me in the eye.
“Senna, Nevada has helped me, us, every step of the way, and at great risk to her life,” Lukas said.
For some reason, that made Nevada scowl even harder. She glared at him. “That’s enough, Lukas,” she warned.
“I know you took a great risk to get us here, and I thank you for that. But we need to be sure,” Cade said.
“I don’t need this.” Nevada pushed herself off the railing and headed back inside. “We can wait another decade or so for an archangel who can actually trust us.”
“Nevada…” Lukas’s voice was soft as he placed a hand on her back and whispered into her ear.
Her hardened face immediately softened. I wasn’t sure what he said, but it was like night from day. She looked like she wanted to cry.
“It’s okay. You can tell them,” Lukas urged.
She bowed her head, her bangs hiding her eyes. She licked one of her lip rings nervously as she flicked the black paint from her nails. “The reason I know about the lab, the spell on the hunters, the book, all of it is because…because…” She took a deep breath and looked up at me. In the beat of silence, it suddenly hit me. I knew what she was going to say before the words tumbled out, slamming hard against my chest.
“Niamh is my mother. She’s the one who took the book from Diana. Your mother created the glass box to protect it. And when Rahab turned against her, so did…” She gulped. “So did my mother.”
It all made sense now. The same pale blue eyes. The flickering images of Nevada and her brothers. But it wasn’t power Niamh wanted, it was her children. Then why was she with Rahab? That part didn’t make sense at all.
“Nevada, I’m—”
She held up her hand, silencing me. “I don’t want to hear it. Just do what you need to do. You have some of Diana’s magic within you. That’s why you’re the only witch who has a chance of even getting to the book. It has to be you.”
I opened and closed my mouth, wanting to tell her what I’d seen. I didn’t know the entire story, but it was obvious Nevada felt betrayed and embarrassed by her mother.
Her pale eyes gazed at mine, pleading with me to go. Lukas stood behind her, shaking his head. He knew me too well. Trying to make Nevada feel better was just going to make her feel worse.
“Okay, then. Let’s do this,” I said.
“I’ll go first,” Cade said as he moved to the edge of the bridge. He placed a foot on top of the bar. “I’ll find the spots where we can get a good grip. You follow my lead, and if you feel like you’re slipping, grab hold of my foot. I’ll get you.”
Cade moved up the glass effortlessly. The moment I stepped up after him, a wind blasted, taking my breath away. I plastered myself against the hot glass. The tips of my fingers clutched what little edge it could.
This was insane. One more strong wind like that and I was going to fall.
“Are you okay?” Cade called down.
“Yeah, keep going.” I grunted as I pulled myself up.
Inch by inch, we moved up the side of the black dome. The heat from the relentless sun was at my back and the heat from the black glass made me feel like I was being baked on the side of the tower.
Drenched in sweat, my hands slid across the glass, squeaking as I reached for the next edge. I placed my leg up. I couldn’t find the hold. Where was it?
“Cade!” I yelled frantically. My arms trembled as I tried to pull myself
up.
“Reach for my hand, Senna.”
“I can’t. I’m slipping. I’m—”
Cade’s blue eyes suddenly turned into blue sky as I fell back into empty space.
“Senna!”
My hand reached out to him hopelessly even as the distance between us grew. I was falling too fast. All I could think about was how I let the people in the Sanctuary down and if I would land in the bull’s-eye.
There was a loud swoosh, and the shadow of wings blocked the sun. The ground grew closer, and I squeezed my eyes shut. In a few seconds, I was going to hit the ground.
My back and legs hit against something soft, warm, and familiar. My eyes flashed up just as Cade, in all his winged glory, landed us gently on the ground—direct center of the bull’s-eye.
There was an eerie silence followed by a loud roar as the hunters charged to us.
“It’s them!”
“Get Nimrod.”
“Inform the demon lord. We’ve found them.”
Before I could get my head to stop spinning, Cade snapped his wings and zoomed us back into the sky.
Arrows nipped at our feet. Cade rocketed through the air so fast my ears popped. Higher we flew, where not even the hundreds of arrows that were aimed at us could reach. We passed the empty bridge flying straight to the roof.
“Hurry,” Cade gasped when we finally reached the top. “They’re coming after us. Get the box.”
The area was just as Nevada had described to us. White rail lined the roof, circling a smaller red and white tower. There were red seats with harnesses on the bottom. Hovering in front of the seats was a glass box.
It was empty.
30
I’d never heard an archangel cuss so much as Cade did when he saw the empty box. I stood there in shock, watching him pace around it. He ran his fingers through his hair, his face a vivid red.
The book had to be there. There was no way Nevada would lie about it. She was devastated when she told me that Niamh betrayed not only my own mother, but also the entire witch community.
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