by Lola StVil
Aaden remains silent, and a vine wraps itself around his shoulder and squeezes so hard we hear a “snap.” Aaden’s arm is broken. He cries out in agony. Things go from bad to worse when Swoop calls our attention to the flock of bat-like creatures headed our way.
“Bitters!” East yells.
“Damn it, we gotta move, now!” Bex says.
He’s right. For Bitters, having a team of powerful angels in their midst is simply too good to pass up. They are headed for us at impressive speed. There is nothing we can do but start running. However, we can’t leave Aaden to die here.
“Damn it, I swear to Omnis you better open your mouth and tell the tree what it wants to know or I’ll kill you myself!” I warn Aaden.
“I had no choice,” he says, looking down at me, sadness in his eyes.
“Bitters are coming, now!” Key says.
“It doesn’t matter what shameful thing you did. C’mon, Aaden, say it! Give the tree what it wants,” I plead.
The flock of Bitters descends upon us as Aaden finally shouts out into the air.
“I needed Diana to help us open the portal, so I gave her what she asked for—I agreed to be with her—I agreed to give her my Rah.”
For a moment everything stands still, or at least it did for me. A Rah is a crystal casing that symbolizes an angel’s heart. Agreeing to give it to someone is agreeing to marry them. Aaden has contractually given his heart away to Ruin.
That also means that Aaden will not be able to so much as kiss another girl. I mean, if he tries to kiss any girl but the one who holds his Rah, that girl will literally go flying into the air and be hurled across the room.
“Pry, we have to go, now!” Swoop says, grabbing my arm as the Bitters launch their first attack.
In all the madness and blur, I get a quick look at Aaden. He looks at me with a mix of regret and desperation. I quickly look away and avoid his eyes from then on. His confession worked; he is free from the tree. Now we race ahead to get away from the Bitters and save Uncle Rage.
“I agreed to give Diana my Rah…”
Aaden’s words ring out to me even as we run madly though the forest. I scold myself for not being able to block out Aaden’s confession.
“I agreed to give Diana my Rah…”
The only thing that can pull me out of my haze is the sight that I see ahead of us—Uncle Rage in the holder, his black wings flapping furiously behind him as he calls out for us to turn back the way we came.
He shouts and curses that it’s too dangerous. We ignore his warnings and head straight for him. We race to get to him, but alas we are out of time. The holder unlocks, leaving the Akon exposed to the forest and at the mercy of the Byelle.
*********
We don’t even have time to process the fact that the holder is gone when Uncle Rage starts to fight furiously against the air. It looks like he is swatting and throwing fireballs at nothing. But then Key explains that it’s the Byelle attacking him.
“They move with speed too quick for us to comprehend with our eyes,” Bex says.
Suddenly unable to fend them off any more, Uncle Rage collapses onto the ground, Aaden rushes to him without the slightest hesitation.
“Throw the mixture!” I shout to Key.
Thankfully, Key is quick. She pours it onto the ground and in a matter of seconds, the air is filled with a purple smoke. The mixture works, so by the time Aaden gets to his father, the Byelle have been slowed down enough that we can see them. For the first time in the history of angels, we know what the Byelle look like, and I wish to Omnis we didn’t.
The Byelle’s lower body is like that of a serpent. It coils itself around the thick tree trunks several times. Its upper body is made up of a layer of skin so thin it reveals the bones underneath. Its back has a long, curvy spinal cord with bones protruding to the surface.
The Byelle has an elongated neck that leads to its most hideous feature: it’s face.
There are tentacles sticking out of its enormous, fleshy bald head. They flare out wildly in search of their new prey, a sea of red swirls in the dark void where its eye should have been. The Byelle unhinges its jaw and lets out an earth-shaking growl that reveals multiple rows of jagged, tusk-like fangs.
The Byelle hiss and swirl around us in a frenzy. Their tentacles extend and try to ensnare us. I don’t know what the tentacles can do, but I order the team to steer clear of them. With his broken arm, Aaden isn’t able to both protect his dad and fend off the Byelle. So Bex comes to his aid by hurling a slew of Powerballs at the creatures.
East uses his power and sends a lasso-like beam to “hug” one of the Byelle. Once the beam makes contact, it begins to weaken. Swoop then flips herself over to the weakened creature and kills it. Key holds out her hand and shatters the Byelle one by one so that they are rendered to spots on the ground. Bex is able to hold off the beasts so that they don’t descend upon Aaden and Uncle Rage.
We have the fight under control until the Byelle howl in the air and call for reinforcements. The sheer number of creatures is far too overwhelming to even take in. We are surrounded by hundreds of them and the number keeps growing. I Pull their life force, but there are so many it doesn’t really make a difference.
“I got this,” Swoop says as she matches their speed and manages to grab hold of one of the Byelle. But before she can get a good handle on the creature, it coils itself around her and tries to squeeze her to death.
Bex hurls a Powerball at the beast, giving Swoop a chance to escape from its deadly grip, but the moment she does, she finds herself facing yet another one. It’s about to attack and Swoop won’t be able to stop it in time. Thankfully East tackles her to the ground. Furious that its dinner was taken from it, the Byelle swoops down on both of them with eager fangs.
“Look out!” I yell as I attack the Byelle looming over them.
I drain the life from it, but just as soon as I do, another six appear in its place. I look around to find where they are coming from.
“There, just beyond that tree, it’s signaling to the others,” I shout as I point to a Byelle standing on the outskirts of the battle.
“I got it!” Bex yells as he throws a Powerball at the creature.
Bex is able to capture it and kill it but not before it signals one final time. Suddenly the Byelle all stop moving. Confused, we look to see what has caused them to become so still. That’s when we see it: the Byelle leader, heading our way. The leader is three times the size of the others. It breaks trees and shakes the earth as it makes its way towards us.
“Aaden, get your father out of here,” I order.
“No, I can’t leave you guys,” he protests.
“He’s hurt, he needs a Healer. If you don’t take him out of here, this would have all been for nothing,” Bex explains.
I can see in his eyes, he’s torn. I signal to him that it’s okay and that he should take off. The twins help him gather his father and take off into the air. But the two of them don’t get far. The leader swoops down and knocks them both to the ground.
The leader then makes its way down to the ground to finish off Uncle Rage. Aaden can barely fend him off with his one good arm. Bex tries to get a shot at the leader, but he can’t do it without hurting Aaden. The closet team members to them are East and Swoop. But they are busy trying to hold off the latest army of Byelle.
I signal to Key so she can cover me as I make my way towards the leader. Sure enough, a dozen Byelle try and stop me, only to be reduced to spots. But then, just as I get near the leader, Key gets blindsided by one of the creatures.
“Key, look out!” I warn.
It’s too late. He knocks her out of the sky and she goes plummeting to the earth below. The Byelle swoops down to her and sinks its teeth into her flesh mercilessly. Key’s cries fill the forest.
The creature drags her between its teeth like a cat would a mouse it had just killed. Blood flows freely from Key’s neck and oozes down to the ground below. The Byelle sinks its
teeth into her yet again. It lets out a cry that invites others to come for a taste.
Soon two dozen Byelle descend upon my friend. I make my way over to her but am yanked out of the sky by a Byelle that has coiled itself onto my wings. It sends me plummeting to the ground, leaving Key unprotected.
Aaden barely manages to get himself and his dad away from the leader, but he tells Bex he can handle it. I know it’s a lie because Aaden’s other arm is useless. But he knows Bex would go crazy if something happened to Key.
Once on the ground, the Byelle that coiled itself to me goes in for the kill. Swoop gets there in time to whisk me out of the way. She and East had managed to kill the Byelle they were fighting. Bex was able to get Key out of harm’s way, but now he has caught the attention of the Byelle leader. The leader sees Key bleeding badly on the floor, about to die, and he longs to finish her off. He growls at Bex and goes in to inflict the final blow to kill Key.
“I’ve got the leader, you help Silver and Rage,” Bex instructs.
“What, we can’t leave you to fight the leader alone,” East reasons.
Bex and the leader exchange deadly looks. I order Bex to let us help, but he refuses. And while I want to help desperately, there are Byelle attacking Aaden with full force. We have no choice but to make our way over to them. The good news is Aaden manages to hide his father while the battle goes on, but the bad news is Uncle Rage is not moving—at all.
It takes everything we have as a group to kill the Byelle that surround us. Swoop gets knocked out mid flip, and East is thrown from his Port. I come in just in time to save both of them but I can’t stop one of the Byelle from attacking Uncle Rage. Even with only one good arm, Aaden defends his father ferociously. He manages to set fire to the Byelle’s tentacles, causing them to ignite. The Byelle has been set on fire by its own head.
Meanwhile, the leader, angry that we have killed many of his friends, rages at Bex, determined to kill Key. It grabs Bex by his wings and flings him to the other side of the forest. Bex is hurt but determined; he flies back and sends Powerballs into the center of the leader’s chest. The Powerballs weaken him, but not enough.
We secure Uncle Rage and Aaden, then rush over to help Bex when suddenly the sky darkens even more. We look up and find that we had yet to see the full strength of the Byelle. They don’t number in the hundreds, but rather in the thousands. They circle the sky and surround us like locusts.
“Damn it, we won’t be able to fly past them,” I inform the team.
“Hey, over here!” someone shouts.
We look over in the midst of the chaos and blood; there stands Ruin in the middle of a portal, beckoning to us.
“I can’t keep it open for long, move it!” she calls out.
The team is just as shocked as I am, but we quickly aim for the portal. I order Aaden to get in with his father. He’s about to argue, but I don’t give him the chance. I tell Swoop and East to go with Ruin, but they refuse to do so.
“We’re not leaving without everyone.” They insist.
Bex pleads with us to take Key and swears he will be right behind us.
“No, we can’t leave you here,” I reply.
“Damn it, Pry, I got it! Go!” Bex insists.
We take Key’s limp body and head for the portal that is now starting to close. I don’t care what he says; I can’t leave Bex in the forest. I hand Key over to the others and run back to help him.
The leader has thrown him to the ground yet again; Bex is losing the battle. As I get closer, I can see the leader preparing for yet another attack. I call out to Bex and tell him to move out of the way. Bex does not move; he lies still before the beast.
The Byelle leader roars victoriously and goes in for a final devastating blow. I can’t get to Bex in time to stop it from happening. In the background I hear Ruin and the others shouting that the portal is closing. Bex and I may die here.
When the leader swoops down to finish Bex off, Bex pops his eyes open at the last moment and jams his hand into the leader’s side. The leader groans like a wounded animal. At first I can’t make out what is causing it so much pain, but then I see it: Bex has snapped off a piece of the leader’s rib.
Before the leader can recover, Bex jabs the rib into its side again, opening the wound even further. The leader squirms and grabs hold of Bex, but he’s too weak to really latch on. Bex takes advantage of the moment and looks around for something to finish the leader off.
He finds the corpse of a Byelle a few feet away. While the Byelle itself is dead, the tentacles continue to whirl around in a frenzy. Bex steps on the neck of the deceased Byelle and pulls off its head, careful not to come in contact with the tentacles. He then stuffs the decapitated head inside the wound of the leader.
The leader’s eyes widen in horror as flashes begin to emanate from inside of it. It looks as if lightning is striking the creature from within his own body.
“Crap, I think I know what the tentacles do—they send out voltage. We will be eviscerated. We gotta go, now!” I yell as I grab Bex and head for the portal or what’s left of it. It’s closing quickly. I can hear the others calling for us to hurry.
Meanwhile, the leader wails in agony as the “lightning” shreds his insides. The other Byelle come after us with unmitigated fury. Bex and I will not be able to make it into the portal on time. It’s closing too fast and we can’t fly any faster than we already are.
Behind us, the leader cries out one final time, then it emanates a white ball of fire from within that starts to expand. Suddenly, a ball forms and creates a deadly explosion. It brings down all the Byelle in the sky and sends us careening into the portal faster than we could have on our own. We go crashing through the portal and catapult out the other side—in the school science lab.
Bex and I are on the floor, badly bruised and bleeding from the blast, but all that matters are the two bodies that lie next to us—Key and Rage. We don’t say anything to the team. I think both of us are afraid to ask the question. Thankfully, East speaks.
“Rage and Key are hurt badly. But both are alive.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: DARK PLACES
Once again we all end up back at the clinic. The Healers think we’re taking advantage of the free health care policy in the Angel world. But when they see Uncle Rage and Key, they take a more serious tone and quickly begin working on them.
They also take Bex away to be treated because he has a serious gash on the side of his head. The rest of the team gets healed quickly, including Aaden, who now has full use of both arms. Once they heal our minor wounds, they send us out into the waiting room. Even though everyone is alive, none of us feel as if we can rejoice until everyone is not only alive but awake.
When we landed in the science lab, Randy and Ruin were both there waiting. So when it was time to head to the clinic they both came along. Normally I’m happy Randy is with us, but since our fight, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Then there is the matter of Ruin. What the hell was she doing in the forest? Why did she save us? What is she planning?
As if reading my mind, Aaden asks Ruin to go outside with him so that they can talk. I can’t lie; I would love to know what they are saying to each other. She has his Rah, so I’m guessing they are saying sweet nothings.
Yes, it’s true he said he doesn’t love her, but that was before she saved him and his father. I’m sure now the two are the new hot item. He’s taking her outside to show his appreciation.
Ruin agrees to take a walk with Aaden. The two of them head out the front door. They don’t go far; in fact they are only a few yards away. And while the door to the center is closed, there are more than enough windows to bring their conversation right into the waiting room.
“How’s your arm?” she asks him.
“Better, thanks.”
“Good, I hear it helps to have two of those,” she jokes.
“Diana, what are you doing?” he asks.
“What do you mean?”
“Why were you in
the forest? What’s with saving a bunch of angels? Why are you doing all this?” he pushes.
“That’s all you have to say to me?” she asks, bewildered.
“Diana, what do you want me to say?”
“Let’s start with ‘thank you for saving my ass, Diana. I really appreciate it.’”
“I do, Diana. Look, I’m not trying to be a jerk. I just don’t get why you saved us,” he says.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not good enough. Why did you risk your life to help?”
“Why are you treating me this way?” she demands.
“What are you talking about?”