Before These Wings (Wings Book 1)

by Wendy Knight

  Due in part to the bombs and warfare that had never worked and in part to the Garce, there were a lot of empty houses. They could pretty much take their pick. It was a free for all housing opportunity. All the square footage with none of the price.

  “We could just stay here. Keep an eye on things.” Keven motioned to the house they’d been hiding in before.

  It was as good as any, so they pushed through the broken door, arms filled with fresh fruits and vegetables from the magical garden, and pulled furniture over the doors and windows.

  “I totally thought they were fairies,” Enika said from the kitchen. There was no electricity, so they couldn’t keep their treasures in a cold fridge, but it worked for storage. Everything edible had long since been scavenged from every house in the city, which left cupboards bare and ready for the food they brought in.

  It would be sunrise soon. The Garce didn’t care what time of day it was, and sleeping was never safe, but at least in the light you could see them coming.

  Usually.

  They did really well jumping from shadow to shadow.

  “I’ll take first watch—” Keven started, but the banging from the front of the house cut him off. He, Phoenyx, and Cole instantly raised their guns toward the sound.

  “Phoenyx! Phoenyx, come out of there right now!”

  Phoenyx groaned, running a hand through her long, black waves. “Seriously, Mom?”

  They pushed the furniture away from the door and Melina stormed through, Cherish on her heels. “Hey, thanks for looking out for me earlier,” Phoenyx snarled. “That really saved my life.”

  “I told you to hurry,” Cherish snapped back, but her eyes had found Cole and stayed there. “It’s not my fault you wouldn’t get up,” she said distractedly. She’d wanted Cole forever. She was in Cole’s grade in school and had been stalking him long before he met Phoenyx. She’d thrown herself at him the few times he’d come to their house, while Phoenyx’s back was turned.

  The morality of her family knew no bounds.

  “Come home. You’re not staying here with these boys.” Melina glared at Cole and Keven. Cole casually picked up his gun again and unlocked the safety. It wasn’t loaded.

  She didn’t know that.

  Her eyes — dark, dark brown like Phoenyx’s — widened, but she held her ground. “Now, Phoenyx.”

  “No.” Phoenyx crossed her arms over her chest and rose to her full height. She was taller than both her sister and her mom by at least two inches.

  Cherish gasped, blond ringlets shaking around her face. Cole didn’t know why she was surprised. They had this conversation every time they had the bad luck to run into Melina.

  Melina’s own hair had been bleached blond before, but it was now a weird combination of fried ends and black roots. She smoothed her tangled mass away from her face and raised her chin. “Are you whoring yourself out now? Your body for their protection?”

  Phoenyx’s hand shot out so fast, Melina didn’t even see it coming. The crack as palm connected to face seemed to shatter the air around them. “That’s your job,” Phoenyx hissed.

  The room fell deathly still. No one even dared breathe, except Phoenyx, whose chest rose and fell in jagged breaths.

  “Fine. Go ahead. Die with them. I don’t care.”

  “I know,” Phoenyx said. “You never have.”

  Melina whirled and stormed out, Cherish on her heels. It was true, Phoenyx had never been close to her mother or Cherish, but she’d been very tight with her father and little sister.

  Without a word, Phoenyx shoved the furniture back in place, all by herself where before it had taken all four of them. The power of anger, apparently. She rested her head against the armoire and closed her eyes.

  “Hey.” Cole pulled away and wrapped his arms around her. He could feel her heart raging in her chest as she swallowed compulsively, trying to fight tears. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re here. We’re your family.”

  She hugged him back tightly, as if he were her anchor to whatever strength she was trying to find.

  “Want me to shoot her?” Keven asked brightly. “I can shoot her.”

  Phoenyx laugh-hiccuped through the tears she’d failed to stop and sucked in a deep, steadying breath. “No. She’s not worth the ammo.”

  “Maybe an ax…” Enika wandered away, apparently in search of an ax. Keven automatically followed her because no one went anywhere alone in this world. If one did, one didn’t return. It was ingrained in all of them now.

  Cole tipped his head so he could see Phoenyx’s face. She was taller than Enika and even her mom and sister, but nowhere near his six feet. “You okay?”

  She hesitated, tracing the faded pattern of his t-shirt. “Yeah. Enika kinda chases away the darkness, doesn’t she?”

  Cole snorted. “Maybe now. She sure let the darkness chase her when we were little. I can’t even tell you how many times she woke me up at night because she was having a nightmare. She had to walk right past Mom and Dad’s room to get to mine, but did she ever wake them up? No. Always me.” He ignored the pain the memory brought. It was about making Phoenyx smile now.

  But his parents…

  Phoenyx grinned. “You do, too.”

  “I do what? Run from nightmares? Because I don’t. I’m like Chuck Norris. Nightmares run from me.”

  She almost, almost outright laughed, covering her mouth with her hand like the sound surprised her. Through her fingers, she said, “You chase the nightmares away.”

  He kissed her forehead and she tucked herself back under his chin. Her heart didn’t race anymore. She didn’t fight tears, but all he could think was that he hadn’t chased the nightmares away. When that Garce had attacked, he hadn’t been able to stop it. He hadn’t been able to save her. He didn’t know if the Empyreans were truly there to help or if they were just another nightmare in beautiful clothing, but he owed them. They had done what he couldn’t — saved Phoenyx.

  “No axes,” Enika announced. “But I found a fireplace poker. I’ll try sleeping with that tonight.”

  Phoenyx snorted and backed away from Cole, still holding his hand. “Let’s find a place to sleep, huh?”

  They explored the house from top to bottom, once again checking for any hidden monsters. It was clean, thankfully, because Cole was too tired to sleep on the roof where the Garce couldn’t get. There were four bedrooms, but they chose the biggest and dragged mattresses from the other two into the same room. Keven took first watch, standing at the window with his gun propped next to him. Enika took a mattress on the floor, and Phoenyx crawled into the big bed with Cole. When it was his turn to stand watch, she would move to sleep with Enika.

  It was the only way she didn’t sob in her sleep.

  She curled around him, head on his chest so she could hear his heartbeat. He dozed off and on, but she stayed awake for hours — not moving, not making a sound — but not sleeping. Probably watching out the window, waiting for the next Garce attack.

  In the minutes before the sun came up, the screaming started. Instantly, they were all on their feet, Enika with her fireplace poker, Keven and Cole and Phoenyx all with guns. “What—what is that?” Enika asked, leveraging her fireplace poker at imaginary threats.

  “Not human.” Phoenyx leaned out the window, eyes straining against the purple-black sky. She nearly toppled right out of it — the girl had no fear of heights. “Do you see the blue sparks?”

  Cole squinted. There, on the other side of town he could see them, like someone had bought a bunch of fireworks and set them off. Metallic fire.

  Like the balls the Empyreans had thrown at the Garce earlier.

  “It’s the Garce,” Cole said slowly. “The Pys are killing them

  Chapter 3

  NONE OF THEM WENT BACK TO sleep after that. Running on exhaustion was never a smart thing to do, but their world was truly changing, and Phoenyx didn’t want to sleep through it. Like half the city, they left the safety of the house and went to find out what was go
ing on. It was rare to see so many people out before the sun came up, but the Empyreans’ promise seemed to give them courage.

  That, or curiosity made them all reckless.

  Some had weapons, but not all. Ammo was scarce. Keven knew where to find it, but not everyone had a Keven to help them survive. Others made due with what they could find, like Enika. Except Enika had discarded her fireplace poker because “it just doesn’t work for me.”

  She’d been trying to find a suitable weapon for months.

  The sun hadn’t yet risen as they followed the crowd to the lights — which had long since faded but the smoke remained.

  The smell hit first — burned, rotting flesh. When they came around the corner, the Empyreans had risen above the bodies of the Garce, but were still covered in blood.

  Ten. Ten Garce bodies lay torn to pieces, inky black blood splattered everywhere on the ground below them. Ten Garce that would have been hunting through the city had the Empyreans not killed them. Phoenyx couldn’t keep her mouth from falling open as she stared around them.

  Maybe the Empyreans weren’t so evil after all. Maybe she had misjudged them. Aylin met her eyes. Through all the throngs of people, with Phoenyx clear in the back and surrounded by men taller than her, Aylin met her eyes.

  And smiled.

  “I told you we were here to save you,” she purred, but loud enough that it carried through the street. It was as if she was talking to Phoenyx alone. “Now sleep, beautiful ones. It is a new day.”

  The sun’s rays peeked over the mountains, and the taller one, the one without a name, pulled on Aylin’s arm. “We must go, sister. Now.”

  Aylin followed her gaze to the sun and a look of pure panic drained the light blue color from her face. She looked almost human.

  They don’t like the sun.

  Without a backward glance, they both shot into the air and away. Phoenyx couldn’t see to where; they moved too quickly.

  “So… now what?” Enika asked slowly. Everyone else dispersed, but Phoenyx crept closer. She wanted to see the Garce. She’d only ever been nearly devoured by them. She’d never had a chance to examine one before. Enika followed. “I mean, we don’t have to garden. We don’t have to look for food. We don’t have to find weapons or run from monsters. What am I supposed to do with myself now?” she finished with a wail.

  Phoenyx snickered, pushing her way through people determined to go the opposite direction. Away from the monsters. So why did she want to go toward them?

  Because she was weird, that was why.

  “We… heal, I guess,” Cole said.

  They followed her, despite the oddity of it all. By now, they were alone in the empty streets except for the dead bodies.

  The Garce were… nothing. Like they had been sucked dry, all the blood drained from their bodies, and suddenly Phoenyx was thinking the Pys were vampires, not fairies.

  The Garce skin shimmered and faded with the rising sun, like they really were made of darkness, and there seemed to be no bones. She picked up a stick and poked at one, trying to see what the monster was made of, but it was indescribable. Not solid. More… more liquid, as the skin flowed around the stick and settled back into place.

  Cole knelt next to her. Enika picked her own Garce to explore while Keven kept his gun ready, in case the dead, quickly dissolving aliens came back to life, apparently.

  “This is crazy,” Cole breathed. “I wonder if the blood will hurt us.”

  “Don’t touch it!” Enika yelped. “What if it’s acid to human skin?”

  And then she poked it with her finger.

  Phoenyx bellowed unintelligibly as they all scrambled to Enika’s side in horror. Cole cussed a stream that would put a sailor to shame.

  The blood coated Enika’s finger and seemed to climb up her hand, creating a new skin around her own. But it could only stretch so far before it ran out of whatever it was made of and quit.

  “Does it hurt?” Cole took her hand and turned it over, examining it like some kind of insect. Phoenyx wrinkled her nose and leaned closer to get a better look.

  “No,” Enika said. “Not at all. Maybe. It might burn a little. I can’t—I can’t really tell.”

  “Get it off.” Phoenyx grabbed her hand and wiped it on the grass. “Don’t do that again.”

  Enika examined her hand, now clean of Garce blood. “It stained.”

  Awesome.

  Her hand was a pale gray now, blacker in the lines and wrinkles. Like any blood stain would leave behind, really, except for black and not red rust.

  Like Phoenyx’s kitchen floor at home. Blood everywhere, but no bodies.

  “What’s this?” Cole asked, interrupting Phoenyx’s interior spiral to horrific flashbacks. She squinted, shook her head, and rubbed her eyes. Cole had her stick and was poking at something hidden inside the Garce’s shadow-like body.

  Blue and sparkling.

  “It’s what the Empyreans threw at the Garce,” Enika said.

  Phoenyx pulled herself together, curiosity saving her, and crawled closer, leaning dangerously over the Garce body. Given what one fingertip had done to Enika, who knew what falling in one would do.

  Between Enika and Cole and their sticks, they dug the ball out of the skin. Enika gagged a few times; Phoenyx gagged a lot.

  The ball was seeping, but everything it touched on the Garce, it burned away like acid. It had literally burned itself into the body and then eroded it away from the inside out.

  “Is it weird that I think this is still really pretty?” Enika asked.

  “Me too.” She smiled over at her friend. “This is why we’ll be sharing a cell at the insane asylum.”

  “With sparkling pink straight jackets.”

  Cole ignored them, too engrossed in what he was doing. “It’s the same color as their skin and tattoos and the lines running through their wings. Did you notice that? I think—I think it’s their blood.”

  “They’re—ew—they’re throwing blood balls at the Garce?” Suddenly, not so pretty.

  “But they were on fire. I saw the flames when they shot past my face and singed my eyebrows.” Enika passed a hand across her forehead like the fire was still there.

  “So… they light their blood on fire and then throw it at the Garce. That’s not weird at all.” Phoenyx gagged again.

  “Maybe that was our problem. We didn’t light our own blood on fire and attack the Garce with it. Totally trying that next time.” Enika snapped her fingers. “That’s the reason I couldn’t find a weapon I liked! It was my own blood all along. Who woulda thought?”

  Phoenyx’s lips twitched as she shook her head, poking at the seeping ball. “Do you think it hurts us?” Before Enika could move, Phoenyx shot her hand out. “Don’t try it.”

  Enika grinned.

  “It’s not burning our stick,” Cole pointed out.

  “Let’s just assume the sparking, smoldering ball of metallic blue blood isn’t safe to play with,” Phoenyx said drily. “Should we go find food?”

  For the first time in as long as she could remember, that didn’t sound like a hopeless endeavor that would end with her going to bed as hungry as she woke up. It hadn’t just been her neighborhood the Empyreans had fertilized and watered or whatever it was they’d done. It was the whole city. Vines crept up over the houses — vines that hadn’t been there the day before. Fruit tree branches were weighed down by the overabundance of apples, pears, peaches. It was like every Garden of Eden story Melina had ever told her, but Cole and Phoenyx both ate apples and nothing bad had happened. They ate now as they walked, and although they kept their guns loaded and ready, there wasn’t the fear that there had been before.

  Enika was right. Phoenyx didn’t know what to do with herself. If they weren’t fighting to survive, what were they supposed to do? Before the invasion, she would have been just going to school. She would have been worried about tests and homework and grades and probably a track meet. Now?

  Now she just wandered.


  “I want paper. And colored pencils. Do you think we could find some?” Enika asked. Before the invasion, she’d been a dreamer, a creator. She’d even won awards for the most up and coming young designer in the regional and national levels. She had been an amazing artist with huge dreams and plans to take over the world.

  She would have done it, too, if the Garce hadn’t shown up. Of that, Phoenyx had no doubt. She’d never met anyone as strong and determined as Enika.

  Stupid Garce.

  And the Pys had stopped them. In one night. Sure, they probably didn’t get them all, but they’d cleared their city.

  “Maybe they’re not so bad,” she said suddenly.

  Cole raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Paper and colored pencils?”

  Oh. Apparently they’d been having a whole conversation without her.

  “The Pys.”

  “Pies?” Enika asked. “No pie is bad, Phoenyx.”

  “Empyreans. It’s a mouthful.” Phoenyx bit her apple and closed her eyes, relishing the goodness as it coated her throat. “I mean, look at this. Look at everything they’ve done in such a short time. Maybe—maybe I was wrong.”

  She usually hated to admit when she was wrong. This time, she’d expected to be overjoyed, but she wasn’t. The words felt icky against her throat. Hopefully, it was just past prejudices.

  Hopefully.

  “Yeah. We’ll reserve judgement for now.” Cole winked at her. “And we could raid the mall downtown and see if there’s anything left at the art supply store. Since we’re here already.”

  “We could explore 25th Street, too,” Keven interrupted. “See if those tunnels really exist.”

  It had been a fascination of theirs, before the invasion. Phoenyx couldn’t even count the times they’d begged and pleaded with business owners to try to convince them to let a bunch of high school kids into their basements to see if there really were tunnels left from the bootlegging days of Ogden’s rowdy past. For some inexplicable reason, no one had ever agreed. Most denied they existed at all, but Phoenyx knew that was a lie because she’d seen the bricked off curve of a doorway when one kind cupcake shop owner had let her down to check it out. It had been like a city-wide conspiracy.