A Shimmer of Angels

by Lisa M Basso

  “No more games, Az,” I yelled.

  “But Russian roulette is one of my favorites,” he said with a pout.

  Cam reached for Luke. Luke cocked the gun, holding it steady at Cam. “Stay back, angel. You are an angel, aren’t you?”

  Az had figured it out.

  Cam. Not Cam too.

  Az wanted me in exchange for Cam, Luke, Cassie, and everyone downstairs.

  I leaned on Cassie for support. I was going to die tonight.

  “That’s enough!” I took a rickety breath. “Fine. Yes, okay. I agree. Just let them go.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Az sank back into the wall with a smile, his shadow hugging the corner. In front of him, Luke jumped at Cam, knocking them both to the floor. The gun flew from Luke’s hand, skittering to the other side of the room.

  Cassie scooped up the gun. “Follow me, Rayna.” Her voice mimicked Az’s like a weird echo, and she ran out the door. Az’s shadow slid along the back wall, then disappeared after her.

  Luke punched Cam, knocking his head to the side. “I saw you kiss her. She could’ve been mine. My easy way out of this mess with Gina. If I had cheated on her, with Rayna of all girls, she never would have spoken to me again. Baby or not.” Ouch. I knew Az was intensifying his emotions, making him say those things, but I still couldn’t help but wonder if he’d really intended to use me like that.

  I watched them fight, frozen between helping Cam and going after Cassie and Az. Az was baiting me away from the fight, trying to separate me from another angel. I hated that he was manipulating me, but I had to go.

  “I still have a way out.” Luke stood and kicked Cam in the side before he ran for the window. His eyes were consumed in black, still under Az’s influence. Cam clawed up to his feet, dodging the desks and lunging for Luke.

  They tumbled to the floor together, a tangle of desks and bodies. Cam pulled back, securing Luke’s arms and legs with his own.

  “Rayna,” Cassie’s voice carried in from the hallway. “Come fiiiiind me.”

  Luke would be safe with Cam. I had to believe that. “Don’t let him out of your sight,” I told Cam and bolted out the door.

  “Rayna, no!” I heard Cam shout before Az’s shadow swung the classroom door closed.

  As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t go back to him, and I didn’t have the time to tell him anything else.

  I scrambled after Az and Cassie, my bare feet slapping down on the wet tile floor. Cassie stopped at the end of the hall, in front of the stairs. She turned toward me and smiled that same ghostly dead smile Lee and Luke had given me. Cassie wasn’t home.

  Above us, the fluorescent bulbs snapped out, one by one. I took a step toward her, wading blindly through the darkness. Cassie could be anywhere. Waiting around a corner, or standing in front of me, with that gun pointed at my head. My heart drummed in my ears, the thought of all my former classmates downstairs pressing me forward. I stumbled down the hall, following the click of Cassie’s heels up the stairs.

  I swallowed down the lump of fear in my throat. It didn’t go anywhere, but I had to. Forcing my steps one at a time, I finally reached the top landing that led toward the roof. I fought the shaking in my chest, squared my shoulders, and pushed the door open.

  An icy wind bore through me. The rain outside had subsided, but the air was still heavy with its threat. The sky was almost as black as the stairwell had been. “Cassie?” My voice traveled weakly into the open air. I stepped forward. The wet rocks sliced into my bare feet.

  A soft whimper—a sob?—carried over on the wind.

  There wasn’t enough light to cast Az’s shadow, but he had to be up here. “Az, let her go! I’m here now. Let them all go.” Fear made me choke on my words. “But whatever you think I am, I’m not.”

  “You are gifted with the sight.” My heart stopped. In the next breath, it raced faster than it had with any of Dr. G’s pills. “You are the weapon I have been searching for.”

  “Weapon? I thought the souls you were taking were going to create a weapon.”

  “There is no better weapon than the one who can see our enemies. Identify them when we cannot.”

  A sour taste rose in my mouth. I swayed, digging my nails into my palms to ground myself. “Why kill anyone then? Why not just come for me?”

  “I’d heard tales about a girl who saw wings, and her history in the loony bin. But no one could verify if she really saw them or if she was crazy. So I came here to find out for myself, to watch you. Imagine my surprise when you followed my clues and found the girl in the basement. Forcing the children’s hands, then pulling back just in time does make their death a sin, and brings a new friend to my Lord. Collecting souls and keeping an eye on you. Two birds. One stone.”

  My body shook with anger. Allison, Tony, Caroline, they’d all died because of me. “Az, if anything happens to Luke, or Lee, or any of the people down there, the deal’s off.” I pointed to the roof, where the music pumped below us.

  “Understood.” From the sound of Az’s voice, he could have been anywhere. Everywhere.

  A breeze cut through the soaked layers of my costume and shifted the clouds from the moon. Under the new light, I spotted Cassie only a few feet from me. The gun glinted at her side.

  “Let Cassie go, too.”

  I took one step toward her. A thick blackness clouded the outsides of her vacant eyes. She blinked as the dark fog expanded, swallowing the whites of her eyes. A soft smile touched her lips. She raised the gun, pressing it against her temple. A single tear leaked from her eye. “I wasn’t part of the deal,” she said absently, that empty smile still on her lips.

  Darkness swallowed the moon.

  I ran for her. A loud explosion echoed, deafening me. Something wet and warm splashed across my face, chest, and shoulders. I caught Cassie as she fell. Cradled her lifeless body in my arms. The weight dropped me to my knees. Rocks dug mercilessly into my skin, but it hardly mattered. Nothing did, except that I could have saved her, and I hadn’t.

  “No, Cassie, no.” My hand shook as it stroked what was left of her hair, avoiding the bullet hole. My tears mingled with the thick, sticky wetness leaking from her. Blood. So much blood. She was gone.

  I was suddenly grateful for the darkness; I didn’t know if I could survive seeing what was left of her.

  I held tighter to the dead girl in my lap. The girl I’d failed to save. My fault. All my fault. It should have been me, lying there in someone’s arms. She was sweet. Smart. Funny. Dead. And what was I? Too dumb to include her life in my bargain. A disappointment to everyone I knew. And alive. I was alive, and she wasn’t.

  Someone said my name. I ignored them. Clutched her head to my chest, rocking her back and forth, back and forth. I’m sorry, Cassie. So, so sorry.

  Laughter saturated the darkness.

  I wiped the wetness from my face with the back of my bandages, then gently set Cassie down and stroked my hand down the curve of her cheek. I’ll see you soon, Cassie.

  My grief turned to fire the second I let her go. “How could you?” I tried to hold it back, knowing it would change nothing, knowing his evil soul would thrive on it, knowing I would never understand his reasons for stealing so many innocent lives.

  “You cost me the football player. I had to find another tribute. As it is, our time has come.” His arms encircled me, and he swept me off my feet, leaving Cassie there on roof, alone. His hold was iron-tight. This was more than just his shadow. Az was finally here.

  I screamed, but the noise disappeared in a crack of thunder. Cold rain poured down on the city, blurring its lights. I shivered violently. Az’s wings drove us up until the air thinned and my breath came too fast. My head grew light, and my eyes rolled back, taking my consciousness with them.

  Chapter Forty

  “You won’t need sleep where we’re going, dear seer.” The snap of Azriel’s voice filtered through my unconscious haze a split second before he slapped me across the face.

&nbs
p; My eyes shot open. I looked down. And down, and down. My heart slammed into my throat. The orange structure—a bridge—loomed high in the air. White and red lights sped below us along its length. The Golden Gate Bridge. Below the bridge was complete blackness. Bright lights from the city twinkled to my right.

  Horrified, I glanced at Azriel and scrambled back, my feet struggling for purchase against the cold, wet metal. The lights around us were bright; bright enough that I could finally make him out.

  “Forgive the location, but this is the closest place to open the gate.” He stood, no longer an empty shadow, but a sunken-faced man. His wings extended, the black feathers tipped with red where they shriveled and contorted in odd, broken-looking angles. “There will be no more flying from now on. We will only be falling.” He reached for me, but I scurried away, crawling backward. “Don’t go too far. I’d hate for you to leave without me.”

  His thin hand stretched toward me in offering. I didn’t take it. He didn’t seem to mind as he took two steps back, extended his arms wide, closed his eyes, and tilted his head back. He chanted, repeating the same five or six syllables over and over again.

  The wind kicked up and the clouds parted. I looked below and saw the white caps of the abysmal waves, churning and funneling into the obsidian depths.

  Water. Since Mom’s drowning, I hadn’t been able to take a bath. Since we’d moved to San Francisco, I did everything I could to avoid even looking at the ocean.

  I peered back at Azriel. He laughed and ripped open the front of his shirt. “First I need a marking, but you’re lucky. You already have one.” He pointed to my arm, where the demonic scratches hid beneath Kade’s bloody sleeve. Then he drew a long nail across his chest. Something sizzled. The smell of burning flesh bit at my nostrils. There, in the center of his chest, a brand appeared. An inverted pentagram inside a circle.

  “It’s time.”

  His voice echoed off the nothingness in the night. He reached behind him and took hold of his crumpled wings. “Lucifer, my Lord, give me the strength to sacrifice the best part of myself, so that I may reenter your world and pay you tribute.” His face twisted. The sound of snapping and popping overtook the rush of the ocean below, and then he screamed. Blood dripped from behind him and he dropped his wings beside me.

  I scrambled away from the shredded wings, as close to the edge as I could get. I couldn’t blink, could only watch his broken wings flop around like fish pulled from the sea. He picked them up, blood pouring from his back, and dropped them over the edge, into the ocean.

  Seconds later, a green light bubbled beneath the surface. The water swirled until it opened up into a whirlpool. The green light burbled and black smoke wafted over the surface. He offered his hand again.

  No. No. I couldn’t do this. I grabbed the railing beside me, then took one last look at the water below. Oh, I wished I hadn’t.

  But I couldn’t let any more people be hurt because of me. I couldn’t let what happened to Allison, Tony, Caroline, and Cassie happen to anyone else. I could stop the killings right here, right now. I had to.

  So I pulled myself up and locked my knees. Az wound his arm around my waist and pushed me to the edge. There was no railing, no hope, only the eternity of green lights and black smoke and swirling waters. An eternity of hell.

  My heart slammed into my ribs, trying to claw free from its cage. I dug my heels into the iron tower, leaning away from everything unholy, only to have more unholy at my back. But Azriel’s grip secured me.

  I didn’t think I could be afraid of anything more than angels or water. But something so much worse loomed below.

  “You must make the decision and take the leap for us both. I will remain with you so I can act as your guide. It can be difficult finding your way if you’re unfamiliar with the nine circles. You will remain as alive as you are now, but the sacrifice to enter must be yours, and not against your will; otherwise the fall will kill you. And we need you alive, dear girl.” His grip locked around me, secure in the most insecure situation.

  I swallowed, refusing to look down again. I said a silent goodbye to Dad, Laylah, and Lee, and stepped off the bridge.

  Chapter Forty-One

  The wind came up fast. My stomach dropped as we fell, fear erupting in my every nerve. Azriel’s laugh broke through the rushing air, and my scream piggybacked behind it.

  A blur passed beside us. I tried to follow it as it circled, but we were falling too fast. Too far. Cam’s face appeared in front of me, the wind disheveling his hair. I wanted to tell him to get out of my head, that he shouldn’t be my last thought before I disappeared into Hell, but fear kept my mouth clamped shut.

  He grabbed my hands and slowed our descent. His fingers were soft, warm. Everything about them felt real.

  Strain twisted Cam’s face above me. I held his hands as desperately as he held mine. Save me, Cam, please. I don’t want to go to Hell. But I knew he was a hallucination, something I’d created to help me deal with my death. I also knew this was what I had to do to keep my family safe. His white wings flapped. I closed my eyes, hoping that image would help carry me through.

  Az’s arms cinched tighter around my waist. “Give it up, angel,” he called out. “She’s a willing sacrifice. It’s already done!”

  Az’s voice startled me. I opened my eyes. “Cam?” Was he real?

  Cam gritted his teeth.

  “Cam!”

  He was here. How? How did he find me? It didn’t matter.

  I held tight to him, trying to shake the shock. But what was he doing? “Cam, no. It has to be this way!”

  “Rayna, I won’t let you go. Az can’t hurt anyone else in Hell.”

  No. There were too many lives at stake. I choked back a sob. “No. Let me go.”

  Az crushed my waist.

  Cam looked down at me. “I won’t let anything happen to them. Or you. Please, Rayna, trust me.”

  Trust Cam. With not only my life, but so many others. I’d never been able to trust any of them before. But Cam was different. He had … oh what the hell, if I couldn’t admit my feelings when I was falling toward Hell, then when could I? He had my heart. There, I’d said it.

  Tears spilled over my cheeks, and I shook my head. My sacrifice was the only way to end this.

  Cam lifted us high enough to see the span of the bridge, the cars’ headlights beside us. He continued to flap, but the horizon sank quickly. The car lights on the bridge disappeared as we dipped lower.

  If I didn’t do something, all three of us would end up in the green pit. “Let me go, Cam. It’s all right.” The churning oblivion closed in, so close I swore I could see a mound of bodies and outstretched hands waiting to catch us. In a last ditch effort, I pulled one hand free from Cam’s grip. Azriel slid down a few inches, but held strong.

  “This isn’t the way!” Az called up to Cam from around my hips. “Accept her fate, angel. She has cemented her alliance with us.”

  Sweat formed between my and Cam’s hands. With Az weighing me down, my grip started to slip. I tried to relax my fingers, to let them slide out of his, but Cam dug into the cut on my hand. I kicked my feet, struggling to get free from Cam. “This is the only way,” I called up to him.

  Az slid down my tiny skirt, until his grip locked around my knees. The three of us continued losing ground, sinking farther in the air. Az tried to climb up my legs, grabbing the waistband of my skirt.

  My arm shook. My fingers slid farther from Cam’s, and I watched my life slip away. Cam grunted and readjusted his grip on me. He wouldn’t let go. Even when the three of us were mere feet from the water.

  Azriel jerked one last time. My hand fell away from Cam’s.

  “Hold on,” another voice called.

  “Kade?” Kade was here. Really here. He’d come too.

  His black wings swooped under us, stopping our descent. Az’s weight lightened, but he was still attached to me. Cam struggled to grab me again, but I fought him off, wriggling and keeping my arms tigh
t to my body. The four of us rose higher into the air.

  “Don’t you dare drop her,” Kade warned Cam as he tugged Az.

  “Kasade, you’re a traitor to your own kind,” Az growled and dug painfully into my thighs.

  “Kade, no. Let. Us. Go.”

  Cam snatched one of my wrists while Kade jerked Az again. Az’s nails tore into my flesh as Kade pulled him off me. I screamed as pain flared around the new gashes.

  With Az’s weight gone, Cam used the distraction to hook my other hand again, and he pulled me up. I squirmed against him. Az and Kade zigzagged uncontrollably.

  “No. Cam, don’t do this.”

  Az had a handful of Kade’s wing, and Kade had a handful of Az’s face. Az kneed Kade in the gut, and the two of them plummeted again.

  “Help him,” I pleaded to Cam. “And let me fall!”

  “There’s no way I’m letting you go down there.” Cam flew us above the span and toward the top of the bridge. He peered over his shoulder. Kade and Az rose again, higher, faster. Too fast. And too close. Before we reached the top of the bridge, they slammed into us in a tangle of arms and legs.

  Beside us, Az bent one of Kade’s wings. The snap carried over the wind. Kade howled and fought to keep himself in the air.

  “Kade!” I screamed.

  Az kicked off Kade’s back and latched onto Cam’s. His eyes were black, teeth bared. Like a rabid animal. Cam, Az, and I plummeted.

  “You two are coming with me,” Az hissed while one of his arms snaked around Cam’s neck.

  Cam’s face turned red. So very, very red. Let go, just let go, Cam. Save yourself. The wind whipped up between us. Another set of arms wrapped around my waist.

  I screamed, but Cam nodded as best he could and released me. Kade’s arms felt familiar around me. Familiar and so comfortable I almost forgot I wanted to be in that green hole. We hovered unstably in the air as we watched Cam and Az fall.