Maddie plunged free and was surrounded by a dark fury of wings.
"There! Faster, Aeryx." Lyon clung to Aeryx with one hand, hacking at anything in their way. As his great sword flashed, another scream signaled his blow and another pursuer fell.
The fallen wore their true form now, with no hint of human face or limbs. Their speed could not be matched.
A claw raked Lyon’s chest and passed lower. Aeryx rumbled in pain. In a swift jab Lyon’s sword slashed out and severed the leathery body, which fell to join dozens more that steamed on the ground below.
They were almost close enough for Maddie to see them now. In a few more seconds….
Then Lyon’s heart squeezed to see her plunge wildly from the sky, while dozens of the horde followed, hungry and hissing in their eagerness.
Lyon called out her name and leaped from Aeryx’s back, using his sword to cut his way through the bodies that followed her as she fell.
She acted by the force of raw fury, kicking her booted feet and flinging her silver rosemarks out in dancing circles.
The circling bodies drew back in confusion and fear.
With each brush of her light another of their throng lost control and pitched blindly down to earth.
But there were too many to count now. Maddie's breath was labored and her strength was nearly gone.
So many of the hungry things....
Then she heard Lyon’s shout and looked up to see him falling down toward her, hacking a way with his sword. As two creatures hooked him with their claws, Maddie felt the shape of the fabric at her waist. She tore it free and cast it up toward Lyon,
The horde fell back. Maddie gave a mad laugh and called his name.
A wiry arm hooked her shoulder, nearly wrenching it from its socket, and she was dragged back into her captor’s wings. And all her weapons were gone now. Only her courage remained.
And her rosemarks.
Maddie waited as the steaming mouth opened. Foul air and the stench of blood brushed her face. When the teeth gaped widest, she threw out her spinning marks and ran them down, into the yawning throat.
The gagging creature screamed in pain and cast her out.
But the ground was hurtling up toward her.
It was Aeryx who raced below her, the true form and true friend, gathering her onto his wings and then swooping up to cut through the horde around Lyon. The Crusader grabbed for the passing wing and met Maddie’s outstretched hand instead.
His fingers slipped on the blood from her wound and Maddie scrambled forward to catch him. Her eyes were glazed with pain and exhaustion but she did not flinch as he gripped her hand. Inch by inch he dragged his body onto the soaring wings.
Aeryx raced high, toward the sun as it flashed across the horizon.
Maddie’s whirling silver marks raced after them.
Aeryx sank down in weary grandeur on the slope above the moat.
In the morning sunlight the abbey ghost stood triumphant above a pile of steaming bodies, calling out a welcome. Around them the abbey’s roof and lands looked like a battleground, with the dead creatures in the scores. Smoke curled from their bodies. Yet as Maddie watched, the skeletal limbs shimmered and vanished, carried back to the place where they came from.
Was this what the Crusader had seen in his long, weary battles? Had Acre and Culloden looked like this?
She shuddered and felt Lyon’s tired arm slide around her. Together they stumbled over the ground, past the dead, hearing Aeryx keen in pain as he hovered above one of his own dead.
Up the hill Maddie saw Izzy walk toward them, his face a tight mask of disbelief. She did not try to explain. There was no need. The truth lay everywhere around them.
She looked up with loving eyes at Lyon. “They told me you were dead,” she whispered. “They said you needed me. The form was so like Aeryx that I never guessed—“
“It is done. We fought them back. You were magnificent, my Rose.” Lyon stared at her arm, where blood still oozed. “We must clean this well. Their poison is fierce. It may kill even now.”
But Maddie settled against him with a sigh of exhaustion and relief. As she did the silver swan fell, silk rippling as it covered their bodies.
Maddie had to ask the question. “They will come back?”
“I have little doubt of it,” Lyon said grimly. “But you learn fast. We will start your training tomorrow. The sword will be first, I think. But not tonight….” His fingers brushed her hair and he caught her up in a fierce kiss. “Tonight is for us. Only us.”
Izzy ran toward them, his eyes hard. “You are both bleeding. Let me have a look. Damn it, Lyon, why didn’t you warn me?” He grabbed Maddie’s bloody arm and scowled.
Talk about bad timing, Maddie thought.
And then she began to laugh.
And so the journey begins…..
Thank you for joining Maddie and Lyon on their racing path to danger and adventure. You probably noticed that I love this story! There are many secrets yet to come and dark betrayal yet waiting. Even Izzy will soon be tested when the fallen ones return.
But I am getting ahead of my story....
Ever since Adrian and his ghost cat Gideon swept into my life almost 15 years ago, nothing has been the same. Draycott Abbey seems to grow more beautiful with each passing year. I am thrilled that so many of you have asked for more of these unforgettable tales blending history and modern suspense. This one has haunted me for almost a decade.
More of Maddie’s journey will be coming this fall.
Longtime readers will know that this story is not part of my regular Draycott series, but I hope you will enjoy those too!
The complete Draycott Abbey collection as written (so far!) is:
CHRISTMAS AT DRAYCOTT ABBEY
“Enchantment,” a novella now reprinted in DRAYCOTT LEGACY
“What Dreams May come,” a novella now only available in DRAYCOTT ETERNAL
“Moonrise,” a novella only available in DRAYCOTT EVERLASTING
HOUR OF THE ROSE
BRIDGE OF DREAMS
BRIDE OF THE MIST
KEY TO FOREVER
SEASON OF WISHES
CHRISTMAS KNIGHT
THE PERFECT GIFT
And I especially hope you will look for my most recent ghostly abbey romance – CHRISTMAS AT DRAYCOTT ABBEY.
Each of these stories can be read alone, but they all work together, blending into an ongoing saga that stretches back for centuries. I hope you will enjoy all of them, savoring old characters and discovering new ones in turn.
If you want to learn more about the Draycott legacy, check out my website ---- www.christinaskye.com --for contests, details about upcoming books and research notes. Pinterest boards for Draycott Abbey are coming soon too!
Meanwhile, happy reading.
Maddie and Lyon will be waiting for you … at the abbey.
Fallen
Copyright © 2012 by Christina Skye
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Table of Contents
COVER
PRAISE
TITLE PAGE
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
A NOTE FROM CHRISTINA
COPYRIGHT
Fallen Page 15