Soothing warmth, healing the raw-rotten flesh inside of me, leaves me trembling and weak. Russell’s hand slips from me as it loses its light. I flail, trying to grip Russell’s chest and pull him to me.
When he coughs and sputters for air, I begin to cry, crawling next to him on my hands and knees.
Hovering above his chest, I peer down on his face, seeing him look up at me in a daze. “Russell,” I gasp, “are you okay?”
“Naw,” he says, shaking his head slowly. “I feel burned from the inside out.”
“Can you move?” I demand, trying to get him to sit up.
“You’re alive,” he says, looking stunned. Then his head moves to the side and he notices Faolan’s all-dead body lying next to him. “It worked,” he mutters.
“What worked?” I croak, searching the garden and then the sky for Reed and Brennus.
“I was gonna take it—your sickness, but when Faolan groaned beside me, I thought, ‘You take it, you cold dead freak,’ so I let your sickness travel through me to him,” Russell explains with a gravelly voice, rubbing his hands together like they ache. “It must have fried him—they’re so cold.”
“So, it passed through you to him, like an electrical current?” I ask.
“Yeah, I guess,” he replies absently.
Bright, white light flickers in the air near me as Declan’s hands smooth over his broken leg. Immediately, his leg aligns, losing the compound fracture that Reed had just inflicted on him. Twisting his hand up, Declan applies it to his hanging jaw, pushing it back into place with a loud crack and welding it there with his magical light.
Then, Declan’s menacing gaze turns to Russell and me, lying on the ground. A sinister growl comes from me while my eyes narrow, like a lioness protecting her young, when Declan’s steely eyes stare past me to Russell.
“Ye killed Faolan!” Declan growls at Russell as he steps forward in furious anger.
Waving his hand toward the slate-gray stones of the wall, Declan makes them disassemble and fly toward us in a tidal wave of rock and mortar.
With Finn’s magic gone, I’m able to pull energy to me, and then hurl it at the impending stones. The first slabs are pulverized into great puffs of dust, but a few break through, spinning just wide of us.
“Russell, we have to move!” I order him, not looking back but keeping my focus on the raging, hulking Gancanagh ahead of me.
“Why, I’m bigger than him?” Russell asks weakly, standing limply by my side. He leans slightly forward, favoring his left side.
“I’ll hold him off. Go get help,” I whisper to Russell.
“You go get help, I’ll hold him off,” Russell replies, wincing in pain.
“Don’t be stubborn,” I say between my teeth.
“You’re stubborn,” he shoots back.
Brennus and Reed materialize just beyond Declan. Twisting and turning, they fight fiercely with knives at supernatural speed. I can hardly mark their progression as my erratic pulse quickens seeing Reed avoid Brennus’ brutal swings using the weapon I recognize well…it’s a letter-opener…my weapon. Finn is also with him, using his own knife to try to kill Reed, but Reed’s sole focus seems to be just on Brennus.
Brennus cricket-leaps around the garden, defying gravity with inertia and bursts of magic. Reed is Brennus’ shadow, only a millisecond behind him, until he anticipates Brennus’ next move. With a brutal slash, Reed manages to tear a jagged, bloody line of flesh out of Brennus’ back. Another slice soon follows as Brennus begins to lose more blood.
I’m so consumed by their fight that I forget about Declan in front of me, but he hasn’t forgotten me. Russell is laboring hard beside me to fend off the magic whirling out of Declan. In a powerful burst of glittering air, Declan hurls wind at us. The twirling streams enter our noses, collecting the oxygen within our lungs and snatching it out of us through our mouths. In tandem, Russell and I both drop to our knees, fighting for breath.
Declan reaches me, his hand encircling my neck as he lifts me off my feet. Wild-eyed from lack of oxygen, I stare into his scowling face.
“Faolan loved ye! Why could ye na jus obey us?” he asks me in a shaming tone, even though he probably knows I can’t answer him. “Ye will be one o’ us and ye’ll spend da rest o’ yer life making it up ta him…and ye can na…ye fool, ye can na make it up ta him!”
Scratching uselessly at Declan’s hand, I choke and redden, doing a painful dance as my legs swing around. Declan’s sneer deepens as he applies more pressure to my neck. Rage and anger darken Declan’s eyes before mine shift away from his to the beautiful green ones just behind him.
The dull glint of a knife’s blade penetrates through the back of Declan’s neck to emerge in front of my eyes. With a vicious tug, Reed cuts through the tendons and sinew there. Declan’s grip immediately slackens and I drop to the ground while his head ratchets forward, only halfway attached, making Declan all-the-way dead.
“Evie,” Reed says, his eyes wide with concern. He reaches out to take me in his arms.
“Reed,” I gasp with relief, but before he can touch me, Brennus appears behind him.
My eyes flare wide, panic causing my swollen throat to constrict in agony, while a soft sound of anguish tumbles from my lips. Reed must know by my expression, because he turns away from me to plunge his knife into Brennus’ looming shoulder. Brennus winces, but he’s still able to reach out and touch his cold, toxic fingertips to Reed’s hand as it grips the knife handle embedded in him.
Horror twists my heart as the muscles in Reed’s back relax. His wings slowly lower in complacency. Reed stands docilely in front of Brennus, staring at him as if he is his love, not me.
Placing his hand on Reed’s strong chest, Brennus gives him a gentle push, easily turning Reed’s passive body as he nudges past him to me. Pulling the knife from his shoulder with only a small wince, Brennus says to Reed, “Stay dere,” and my angel obeys.
I hear something grating, something like screams, except they have little sound, no real pitch. It takes me a few moments to realize that I am making those noises. My damaged larynx won’t allow my crushed spirit to vent its desolation and despair. Just soft whimpers emerge from my trembling body, while all of the ramifications of what just occurred tear my heart in two.
The sorrow in Brennus’ eyes matches my own, when he reaches out and cups my damp cheek. A shudder of hatred, so deep and brutal, racks my body as I gaze at Brennus. He just delivered to Reed what is tantamount to a death sentence. Reed will die by Brennus’ hand or by another angel’s, because the poison administered by Brennus’ touch is lethal, almost as bad as tasting his blood...
Brennus’ finger traces the path of my tears. “Would ye cry like dat for me, mo chroí, if he’d killed me instead?” he asks in agony.
Tears continue to fall from my eyes, but my mind screams, WAS LETHAL…WAS…UNTIL RUSSELL SAVED ME…
I hood my gaze. “I’ll do anything you want—everything,” I beg in a raspy voice that oscillates and breaks. My eyes drift to Reed who has the satisfied smile of one under the hazy thrall of the Gancanagh.
I will fight for you, my eyes promise Reed’s before they shift back to Brennus’.
I turn my lips to kiss the palm of Brennus’ hand in submission. His eyes soften and he seems somewhat comforted by what I just did. He traces my lips with his thumb. “I’ve never known anyone ta survive me blood,” he utters meditatively, while gently stroking my cheek. “Ye’re a marvel, Genevieve.”
“I’ll be your marvel, Brennus. Let Reed go with Russell. Then, I’m all yours,” I say with what I hope is a seductive smile.
Brennus stiffens. “More conditions?” he asks with a calculated rise of his dark eyebrow.
“You love to bargain, Brennus. You live for it,” I reply, trying to slow the beat of my heart that I’m sure he can hear. “Take me with you—leave him.” I cast my gaze on Reed. “I see now that he’s weak. You beat him—let the angels kill him.”
“Naw, you ain’t
goin’ nowhere with him,” Russell growls, grasping my upper arm and yanking me out of Brennus’ hands.
Brennus’ demeanor turns deadly. He begins pulling energy to him immediately; I feel it traveling through me. “Ye killed Faolan,” Brennus snarls at Russell. “Do na tink for one moment dat I’ll let ye live.”
“Naw, you killed him. It was your blood that I pushed into him, not mine,” Russell spits back, while the energy in the air shifts to Russell, too. A clone shoots forth from Russell, fleeing in the direction of the castle. Brennus watches it streak away, and he knows what it means. Other angels will come now.
“He’s na very bright, is he, mo chroí? Is dat why ye threw him aside for da aingeal?” he asks as his brows draw together. “Ye do realize, da other, dat I’m now in control of a lethal Power angel? He’ll kill for me at my slightest whim.”
“He’d expect me to kill him,” Russell retorts, pushing me away from him.
I collapse on the ground and when I try to get up, I bump into an invisible wall that Russell creates to keep me from going with Brennus. I beat on the transparent barrier, my heart pounding in my chest because I have to go; it’s the only way to save Reed.
“Here is yer chance ta kill him den,” Brennus says with a scowl, before he turns to Reed and says softly, “Aingeal, kill da other…”
Reed’s wings pin back as he runs full-out at Russell, but the wall of energy surrounding both Russell and me knocks him back. Growling low, Reed prowls forward and cases the energy, testing it for weakness by brutally throwing his shoulder against it. The fierce and cunning scowl on his face is scarier than his snarl because Reed has never looked at us like that before—like he’ll eviscerate us if he can just reach us.
Shouts and commotion come from just beyond the path, up near the door to my garden room. The beautiful voices of angels calling into the night elicit desperation in me. I begin to struggle against Russell’s magic, throwing myself against it to find a weakness, too.
“Russell, they’re coming! You have to let me go! I have to go with Brennus,” I plead, feeling Russell pushing more energy into his spell to keep me back.
“I can’t let you do it,” Russell says grimly.
Brennus winds his arm back and throws fire at Russell’s wall, only to have it deflect in a shower of sparks.
Russell sneers, “I told you a long time ago that you should’ve been worried ‘bout what I was becomin’, but now it’s too late. Your men are dead and you’re next.”
“Dat is na quite right, is it?” Brennus asks. “Yer weakness jus led yer friend ta a slaughter. She jus might kill ye before I do,” he says, nodding his head at me. “Her aingeal is as good as dead, all because of ye.”
“Russell! PLEASE! LET ME GO!” I beg hysterically, with my eyes on Reed who watches Russell like he’s prey.
“I CAN’T!” Russell shouts back at me in a tone somewhere between rage and despair.
Brennus, seeing the need for retreat when the angel voices grow closer, pulls a compact from inside his disheveled suit coat. Flipping the portal open, he turns to Reed and orders, “Enter da portal and wait for me.”
Reed immediately shape-shifts by exploding into a swarm of honeybees. He disappears into the portal in a moment.
“NO!” I scream as my mind pulses with the most horrendous torture scenarios that await Reed at the other end of that portal. Brennus hesitates when I beat against the invisible cage surrounding me. “WAIT! BRENNUS, WAIT!” I scream desperately. “I will come to you. I promise, I will.”
A slow smile forms on Brennus’ lips. “Ye will?” he asks.
“I will! Don’t turn Reed—promise me!” I beg him.
Brennus’ eyebrow arches in question, “Why na?” he asks.
My fingertips slide down the barrier between us as I croak, “Because…because I want him for my sclábhaí,” I lie. “He’ll make a good slave.”
Brennus’ smile deepens. “He would, indeed,” Brennus grins indulgently.
“Brenn, we must go now,” Finn says, indicating the commotion building behind us. When he sees Brennus nod, he disappears inside the portal.
“Ye know where I’ll be,” Brennus says with a small smile.
“I do,” I agree, knowing just where to go—the Knight’s Bar.
“Hurry…I do na plan ta keep him for ye long,” he advises.
“I’ll come, I promise…” I say, splaying my hands against the barrier between us.
“Until den,” he nods, before jumping into the portal and disappearing from the night.
CHAPTER 22
Spies And Allies
The portal that Brennus uses to make his escape falls to the frozen ground and lays there as an enticing invitation for me to follow them. Russell frees himself from the energy shielding him and walks to it. As he picks it up, I plead, “Don’t—” but he smashes it tight in his fist, before waving his hand at me to release me from my invisible prison.
I’m driven to my knees under a weight of sorrow so heavy that I can’t remain standing. Tears come in racking gasps while I cover my face with my hands to try to contain them. I have to—to plan…I have to…I have to…Reed! My heart gives a painful lurch. He took Reed from me! I silently scream as my mind struggles to surmount the torturous emotions overtaking me.
“Red,” Russell’s soft voice penetrates my frantic brain while angels with fierce weapons and even fiercer expressions assemble in a circle around us, scanning the terrain for threats.
I hold up a trembling hand to him to stop him from reaching out and taking me in his arms. I don’t want Russell to comfort me. There is no comfort. I need Zee—he’s brilliant, resourceful—he’ll help me save Reed, I plot frantically, while rising to my feet.
I grab onto the first Power angel I encounter, clutching the front of his armor, I ask him in a frayed voice, “Zephyr King? I need to find him!”
His hands go to my upper arms to steady me because I sway when my world begins to spin. Without thought, a glowing clone emerges from me, causing the Power’s eyes to widen in amazement. The image of me shoots through the crowd of angels, eliciting murmurs and musical commentary. Disorientated and confused, I back away from the watchful Powers and turn to stumble along on the garden path. Russell is at my side, attempting to help me by putting his arm around me.
“No!” I say bitterly, as I try to shrug his arm off, but he holds on to me.
“I had to stop you,” Russell’s voice pleads, struggling with me to make me look at him. “‘Cuz I know what it feels like after they take you and I couldn’t live through that again.”
I turn on him, shoving my finger in his face. “NOT YOUR DECISION!” I growl in a croaking voice because Declan has left deep bruises on my throat. Declan! Declan’s dead, my mind is screaming.
Russell, looking beaten up too, straightens, pointing his finger back at me. “I’m makin’ it my decision! Reed would’ve wanted me to stop you. You’re in no condition to take Brennus on now!” Russell counters in an angry voice. “And don’t tell me you could’ve healed Reed before Brennus tried to eat you again, ‘cuz I’m not buyin’ it.”
“Don’t talk about Reed in the past tense!” I snarl before the painful twist of my heart reminds me that I’m wasting precious time. Time is finite now; there’s almost no time left for Reed. Brushing Russell aside, I run towards the estate to search for Zee.
“EVIE!” Russell shouts, following me.
Xavier descends from the sky with a flourish of his powerful wings and lands directly in front of me with a scowl to match my own. I try to maneuver around him, but he’s equally fast, catching me up in his arms. “We need to talk,” he begins, before he really looks at me. When he does, his eyes grow darker. He grips my chin, turning it so he can examine my blackening neck.
“Put me down,” I order in a raspy whisper. “I can’t talk now!”
“I’m surprised you can speak at all,” comes Xavier’s retort. “Who did this to you?”
“Gancanagh,” I say
, pointing to Declan’s still body for expediency. “You should go have a look—”
“You were attacked?” he asks for confirmation.
“Yes,” I say, wiggling to get out of his grasp.
Zephyr’s voice reaches me then. “Evie,” he murmurs in a desolate tone.
“ZEE!” I breathe as my face distorts in anguish when my eyes meet his ice-blue ones. I reach out to him, putting my arms around his neck. I try to pull myself out of Xavier’s grasp while giant, racking sobs shake my body.
As I cling tight to Zephyr, Xavier finally relents by handing me into the Power’s arms. I try hard to speak, to tell him exactly what happened and what he needs to know to help Reed, but all that is coming out of me are indiscernible words interrupted by heaving sobs.
“Shh...” Zephyr says gently, stroking my hair. “I received your messenger, Evie. I know Brennus attacked you...I know Reed…was lost—”
“No,” I shake my head, “not lost—”
Xavier turns on Zephyr with menace. “Brennus attacked Evie?” he snarls.
“Yeah, try to keep up,” Russell retorts, fielding the question for Zee.
Xavier’s expression turns dark as he leans aggressively towards Russell. “Tell me what happened before I shred you!”
“XAVIER,” Tau barks a warning as he joins us with Cole at his side. Tau’s eyes meet mine while his expression goes completely blank. I turn away from him, burying my face in Zephyr’s neck. “Evie,” Tau says my name with merciful softness, “you’re hurt. Zephyr, bring her inside.”
“I’m not hurt,” I manage to say, “it’s Reed—” I have to pause to hold back the urge to violently retch as my stomach twists like I had been bayoneted in the abdomen. I squeeze my eyes shut.
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