A Touch Mortal

by Leah Clifford

  “You,” she picked up, “have served your purpose. Spare us your little Emo speech.”

  Libby gripped his collar. He was already off balance when she gave it a yank.

  As Libby’s lips neared his, his eyes met Eden’s. She saw him take the breath in. Saw his brown irises flare, fall gray as he stumbled backward, his arms and legs dimming to spent ash. By the time he should have hit the ground, there was nothing left.

  Jarrod took a step, faltered, his hand held out as if he could strain Adam out of the breeze. The ashes twirled, a blurred whirlwind.

  “I warned you that you’d lose more of your friends, didn’t I?” Luke’s voice was tender. “If you’d only listened, none of this would have had to happen. Such a shame.” He brushed back Libby’s hair to kiss her cheek.

  “You did so well,” he whispered in her ear. Libby blushed.

  “Where’s Gabriel, Eden?” Luke asked, giving a chummy grin that made her skin crawl.

  She kept her eyes down. “I came alone. I did what you said.”

  “I thought you’d at least have some plan.” Luke almost seemed disappointed. “See, Eden, you and my girl have a talent in common. Both so cunning.” His face lit up with pride. “With you being so closely watched, I was concerned about Libby. Honestly, we planned on pulling her out of there much sooner. But she spoke so highly of you. Said you two were friends. You have to admire anyone who can crack that shell of yours, right? I mean, poor Adam there…” He pointed to his left, confusion on his face when the space proved empty. “Well, there…” he said, his finger twirling lazily through the air.

  “Any who…Even Adam never really had a chance.” He strolled slowly toward Az. “Because of this one.” He ruffled Az’s soaked curls. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe it was sweat twisting his hair into tight spirals.

  “Eden, go.” Az racked out a cough, a glob of pink phlegm hitting the ground at his feet.

  “Aw. She would never leave you!” Luke said cheerily, giving Az’s jaw a rough squeeze. He spun to Eden, his features sharpened with the potential of untapped cruelty. “Would you, Eden?”

  She froze.

  Az coughed weakly. They all turned to him, though Eden was the only one who wore a look of concern. Luke waited for him to stop before he went on.

  “I tracked the Siders Libby killed. The fact that I was able to track them should tell you enough, being as I only have access to one set of records.”

  “Mine aren’t going Downstairs,” Eden said. The hard edge in her voice startled her, but she didn’t let it show.

  “I assumed the Siders were going Downstairs because they were damned, pathless. But it’s dangerous, relying on assumptions. Almost a sin.” Luke took a step toward Eden. “Did you ever get around to asking your boy here about how you came to be?” The look on Eden’s face gave him the answer he needed.

  Az shook his head, too tired to lift it or speak.

  At his side, Libby’s hand twitched, ready and eager.

  “Az won’t tell me what happened on the beach.” Luke held out his hands. “Perhaps you can enlighten us?” Luke’s head dipped in a subtle nod. “Libby, convince Eden to tell the truth.”

  Eden went rigid as the blades flashed closer to Az. “You harm a single hair on his head and I swear…”

  Libby ran her free hand through his dark curls, revulsion and terror swarming in Az’s eyes at her touch.

  Libby squeezed the handles together as she yanked up a handful of hair. With a dull snip, the curls fell from Libby’s fingers, scattering. “It wasn’t even painful. You should just tell the truth, Eden. It’s only going to get worse for Az. Don’t make me hurt him.”

  Luke ran a finger over the broken skin of a wing and Az winced. “If you’d feel more comfortable, Eden, you can always convince him to Fall. There’s room for both of you on my team.”

  “No.” Eden kept her eyes on the shears in Libby’s hand, the tips grazing Az’s scalp. “You said it would be a fair trade. Let him go.”

  “You haven’t convinced me of your loyalty yet, Eden,” Luke said sadly. “I just don’t feel like I can trust you.”

  “What do you want from me?” She looked from him to Libby.

  “I want you to answer my question, Eden,” Luke said. “You were with Az in the hotel. I watched you walk in. An hour later I found you on the beach, dead. What happened in between?”

  “I don’t remember,” she insisted. She hesitated, shot a desperate glance at Az, and moved on to Jarrod. He met her gaze, his eyes intense. Lie, Jarrod mouthed. Eden froze.

  “What was that?” Luke strode across the roof. He caught Jarrod by the throat. “What did you tell her?” he asked.

  “Nothing!” Jarrod forced out.

  “I don’t believe you,” Luke said.

  Eden’s mind flashed back to the park and his pledge of loyalty. But what had he been doing with Adam? Spying? What was she supposed to lie about if she really couldn’t remember?

  “Let them go, Luke!” The voice materialized behind Eden.

  “Gabriel,” he said, adjusting his grip, twisting Jarrod against him as he spun toward the fire escape Gabe had climbed. “Finally!”

  “You okay, sweetheart?” he asked Eden. She nodded, but kept her eyes on Libby.

  “Your timing is perfect. Eden and I were just having a chat while we waited for you,” Luke said.

  Waited? Eden thought.

  Behind her, Eden heard a soft cry from Az. Fire in Gabe’s eyes.

  “Libby, shears,” Luke yelled. She threw them high over Eden’s shoulder, and Luke snagged them from the air. “How did you die, Eden?” Luke asked. He shifted his grip on Jarrod, drawing the blade across his shirt. The fabric split with a gush of red. Jarrod screamed. “Tell us how you died.”

  She saw Gabe flinch, her eyes darting between him and Luke. Eden shook her head. Luke yanked Jarrod’s hand, catching it between the blades, squeezing the handle to keep it there.

  “Don’t! Please! Okay,” she croaked, tears filling her eyes, her hand held out. “Someone killed me.” She blinked, sending the tears coursing down her cheeks.

  “And who do you think did it, Eden?”

  She hesitated, shot a glance at Gabe before going back to Jarrod. Blood streamed from his hand.

  “Answer, or I help myself to his fingers.” Jarrod’s eyes bulged in fear, found Eden.

  Eden swallowed hard. “Az,” she moaned. “Az killed me.”

  Gabe didn’t move. She waited for him to react, but his features stayed hard and drawn tight, only the sudden sadness of his eyes giving away that he’d heard at all.

  “Eden, I’m feeling generous. Would you like to save your friend?” Luke smiled, his eyes cruel. She nodded dumbly. “Even if it means taking his place?”

  “No!” Gabe shouted.

  Eden’s stomach churned. She nodded, walking slowly toward Luke. With so much Touch, Luke could do his worst. It didn’t matter. She’d take the pain. Heal. She could free Jarrod.

  Eden edged closer. Luke spun, tossing Jarrod aside and ripping her into his arms. She screamed at the sudden movement. The shears against her throat cut off the sound, the blades leaving shallow cuts as she trembled. Luke turned his attention to Gabe, tightened his arm around Eden. “She lets her friends suffer before she spills her secrets. How much will you make her suffer before you spill yours?”

  Gabe’s foot crunched against the buckled tar as he took a step forward. “Az killed her, Luke. Is that all you need to hear?”

  The words stung. Hearing Gabe say them was even worse, knowing there was no chance of them being untrue. She shook as the blade moved from her neck, up her cheek. The point stopped beside her eye. Eden froze.

  “Luke, don’t.” Gabe sounded desperate.

  “Gabriel!” Luke chided. “I don’t want to hear Az’s secrets.” He leaned his head against Eden’s. She gasped as the blade sunk into the skin beside her eye socket. “I want to hear yours.”

  Eden tried to keep her head still,
flicked her eyes to Gabe.

  “I don’t have any.”

  Luke tsked. “See, Gabriel, that’s the problem with lying. It’s a skill. Doing it well takes practice.” He twirled the tip of the shears closer to Eden’s eye, digging. She winced as the trickle of blood thickened, coursing over her cheek, dripping from her chin in double time. “Spill it, or I carve out her eyes.” Gabe hesitated, his eyes shifting from maroon to gold and back. “If you’d like,” Luke added, “I’ll save them for you in a jar.”

  “No, you’ve had your fun. Let her go,” Gabe whispered, looking sick. He snapped his hand back, hooking the back of his shirt and yanking it off in a single motion. Eden gasped. A rush of feathers surrounded him as his wings expanded.

  CHAPTER 50

  Gabe staggered, the weight of the ungainly things throwing him off balance. He’d had them almost an hour and still had no idea how Az made them look so graceful. He swallowed, trying to catch his breath. It’d taken him forever to run the last few blocks and climb the damn fire escape. Already he missed the easy instantaneous travel of the Bound. Clearly, there was a lot to learn. Not that he would. The wings wouldn’t be there long.

  Az had talked about how it felt, the pull of both worlds while he was between them, the constant pressure of making a choice. Gabe felt none of it, the skin of his back yanking tight as his left wing dipped. Instead there was only the ease of words, the intrinsic knowledge of how simple it would be to speak them aloud, to come clean. To be free of it. He straightened the wing, this time using the correct muscles without a second thought.

  “Like the new look?” Gabe stepped back, taking a deep breath. “I told the Bound. Now let her go or we can add wrath to my list.” The violence seemed to fill him, strengthen him. He felt strange, free. Threats bubbled into his head, the horrible things he could do if he chose. Everything about Upstairs, it all felt far away. Foreign. On the rooftop, everything felt…consequenceless. “I said let her go, Luke.”

  He glanced to Eden again. Her mouth hung open, Luke’s arm around her, the shears near her cheek now. Gabe cast up a useless prayer that she would be strong enough to seize the moment, use the distraction to make a move. Az was still tied to the chair. Eden hadn’t moved. Everything rested on her. He could only buy so much time.

  “Is that all, Gabe?” Luke smiled. Gabe hesitated, unsure for the first time. Luke’s eyes were locked on him, prey caught but not yet devoured. “Libby’s Siders are Downstairs when she finishes them. She’s tied to me, Gabriel. But if Eden’s tied to Az, why couldn’t I find hers?”

  Luke stepped closer.

  “You know,” Gabe whispered.

  Az yanked up on the bindings, his face pale but for the crimson leaking from his eyebrow, sliding down across the gouge marks on his cheek. “Gabe, no! Don’t say anything!”

  Gabe silenced himself. Why was it so easy to say these things?

  But it would be so easy. It made sense. The power was there for the taking; all he had to do was come clean. Such a little detail. A shiver thrilled its way down his spine, the wings quivering as if they were a separate entity, a parasite feeding off the dark admissions under the surface, begging to be spoken. The wings were a flaw, a sign that things were incomplete. That there was more to be done. He wanted them off. Gone.

  “What did you do, Gabe?” he heard Eden gasp.

  “She’s tied to me, Luke,” he said, his voice drowsy, his head full of cotton. He could feel Eden’s eyes on him, heavy with uncertainty. He met them.

  “Gabriel,” Az yelled, sudden strength in his voice, drawn out by sheer desperation. “Please, listen to me! Fight it! Don’t say it!”

  But the desire burned too strong. Confess, it whispered. Fall. Be glorious. His voice came out strong, the truth behind it undeniable. “I murdered Eden.”

  The confession sent a rush of hot shame across his tongue. He stopped, swallowing hard.

  “It’s not true! Gabe’s just trying to protect me!” Az yanked up on his bound arms. “He’s lying!”

  “I did it for Az,” Gabe said, lifting a shaking hand. “I couldn’t let him lose the wings. If you’d gotten a hold of Eden, he would have.”

  Luke’s head tilted, a smile playing at his lips. “I thought so. As soon as Eden said she was sending them Upstairs. After that, it was only a matter of getting you to admit it aloud.” He loosened his arm, setting Eden down gently before turning his attention back to Gabe. She curled, rolling onto her knees, crawling away. Luke made no move to follow.

  Gabe’s mouth felt like it was on fire. He’d failed. It’d all gone wrong. “I meant no harm,” he whispered, turning to Eden. She’d made it a few yards across the roof to Jarrod, sat looking back at Gabe in shock.

  His lungs burned. He choked out a breath, sure he heard the crackle of fire in his chest.

  Great plumes of rippled steam rushed from him and the taste of disappointment slid out across the enamel of his teeth. His met Az’s eyes, terror widening them until they were almost comical. They both knew what was happening. It had taken centuries for Az’s fire to burn out, for him to go cold, but for Gabe it was happening all at once. So, this is what it feels like when Heaven leaves you.

  Fallen. Now, he thought frantically, eyes darting to Eden. Do something.

  Forgive me. It was his last thought before the shudder ripped through him, a slosh of frozen spray sliding across his insides, filling him.

  It doesn’t even hurt, he marveled just before the first spasm of pain ripped through his shoulders, dropping him to his knees. The root of each feather, like a barbed hook, shredded his flesh as it pulled free. They scattered across the rippled tar and plummeted over the edge. His skin burned as the puckered leftovers of the wings collapsed. The bones disintegrated, digging their way into his back, the flesh ripping and stitching itself back together. His scream broke the air.

  CHAPTER 51

  It wasn’t Az.

  Gabe. The whole time it had been Gabe.

  Her eyes went first to Az, still in the chair, crossed over Libby and Jarrod, and finally settled on Gabe. His shoulders twitched, the skin there still rippling beneath the surface. But the sudden terror she felt had nothing to do with Gabe. Luke was looking at him. His eyes blazed.

  He moved, cast a hand down toward Gabe’s shoulder. Gabe hadn’t noticed. His fingers dug into the black goo on the roof. She wanted to scream, to warn him, but nothing came. A frantic search of the roof and she saw no one had moved. Jarrod was the first to attack.

  He wasn’t going for Luke.

  Jarrod’s dive caught Libby around the shoulders, the momentum dragging her down practically onto Eden’s lap. Libby grunted in surprise as she crashed hard against the tar paper. A snap cut through the air, the arm she’d raised too late to catch herself bent unnaturally between wrist and elbow. Her scream was piercing, but not loud enough to blot out Jarrod’s shout.

  “Do it, Eden!” he roared as he landed on top of Libby, rolling until he was behind her and yanking her arms back. He cringed as the slice on his chest pulled open, but he jutted his knee into her spine, thrusting her face out toward Eden. Libby’s eyes went wild as she tried to twist free. She knew exactly what Jarrod wanted done.

  “Eden! Now!” Jarrod screamed.

  Eden’s hand drew back, then rushed forward with more strength than she should have had. Her palm crushed into the base of Libby’s nose. A wet, disintegrating crunch let it carry further.

  A shocked spurt of red choked out of Libby. Now she had no choice but to breathe through her mouth. Eden pounded another punch into Libby’s face for the hell of it. Her fingers dug into Libby’s flushed cheeks, sliding and tangling into her hair.

  Catching hold, Eden squeezed her hands into fists, ignored the pop of detaching follicles as she dragged Libby’s face to hers. Jarrod glanced over her shoulder. He jerked in surprise.

  “Eden, quick-like?” he pressed. A growl of rage that could only belong to Luke lanced through the air. He’d spotted them.

 
; Concentrating, Eden held down Libby’s hands as Libby struggled against Jarrod’s grip. A breath out. Libby’s chin lifted with the next respiration. A cloud of condensation burst from Eden’s lips in the cold, swirling between them before the vapors were dragged down Libby’s throat.

  Gray fringes veined across Libby’s forehead, wound up her neck to cloak her chin.

  “Get away from her!” Luke screamed, his weight slamming Eden to the ground, crushing her shoulder into her collarbone. He scrambled off, her vision swimming before the world snapped back into focus.

  From where she lay she could see Gabe, bloodied but rallying. All that was left of Libby was a greasy smear of gray. Luke tumbled into it, rolling onto Jarrod, clamoring over him in a scuttling half run across the roof. Eden’s brain spit out the first answer—They’d won! He was running away!—before her eyes jumped the ten feet ahead to where he was running.

  Still in the chair, Az yanked against the ropes that tied his wrists, his palms pulling up. They made a rather pathetic shield as Luke hammered into him.

  The chair had been rickety and half rotted, a last minute addition dragged up from one of the abandoned buildings nearby. It splintered under the weight of them when it hit the ground. Az’s arms flailed, the broken stakes that used to be the chair’s arms bound to his wrists.

  Eden took off at a dead run, but Luke had Az in a choke hold. By the time she got close, he’d backed them near enough to the edge that Eden faltered and slowed. Loose gravel skittered as Gabe and Jarrod flanked her from behind.

  Her breath caught, choking off, every muscle in her body cramping at once. Libby’s Touch was working its way into her.

  Luke’s eyes burned crimson, intense enough to cauterize, darting between the three of them. Yanking Az with him, Luke slid back six inches until his boot heel ground against the concrete lip running around the roof. Only a foot high, it would be easy to stumble over. Or throw someone over.

  “No,” Eden whispered. The memory of the fight on the balcony, of all the seconds she’d wasted as he’d gone over. The taste of bile slicked the inside of her cheeks. He was injured already. He wasn’t healing. She stared at Az, willing him to open his eyes as pain tore up her arms, across her chest. It was nothing compared to what Az must have felt. He made no effort to break free, didn’t claw at the crooked elbow at his neck. His eyes stayed closed. Eden wondered if he’d given up. Don’t Fall, she thought, desperately.