Rogue Fae

by C. N. Crawford

  An angelic soldier burst from around the corner, slamming into me. I fell backward, and my head knocked against the hard marble floor.

  The angel leapt on top of me, bloodlust glinting in his pale eyes. He sniffed the air, eyes shining.

  Chapter 11

  I reached for the knife at my belt, but there was no need.

  Above us, Adonis flicked his wrist. The motion severed the angel at the waist, and the remains of the angel’s body slumped onto mine.

  The angel’s blood drenched my glamoured white dress, and my nostrils flared, stones heating in my forehead. My feral side liked the smell of angel blood a little too much, and I had to fight the disturbing urge to taste it. My canines lengthened, and I flicked my tongue over them.

  Adonis pulled the angel’s torso off of me, and I snarled, fighting to keep control of myself. “Do you have any tidier ways of slaughtering?”

  “You’re one to talk. I’ve seen how you kill.” Blood had spattered him, too. “Anyway, he was trying to kill you, and I didn’t have time to make it pretty.”

  I stood up and narrowed my eyes at him. His body was shaking, tense. Shadows darkened the air around him, and darkness clouded his eyes. I’d never seen him so rattled before. He’d always managed to convey a cool exterior.

  Even through the glamour, I recognized something in him that I knew well—but it was an emotion I’d never seen on Adonis before. Bloodlust. I’d been in that state enough times to know what he was thinking now. Something along the lines of more death.

  “Adonis.” I gripped him by the shoulders. “Focus.”

  The shadows cleared from his eyes, and his eyebrows drew together. He stared at the blood staining my body. For just a moment, he looked strangely vulnerable. Then his jaw clenched, as if he were gaining mastery of himself. “Right.”

  We started moving again, heading for the main entrance. Adonis slammed through the doors into the piazza. Around the pyramid, anarchy had erupted. Angelic soldiers were moving among the illusions of Adonis and me, trying to fight phantoms. Swarms of angels and cherubs darkened the skies above us, searching for the real Ruby and Adonis among all the fakes.

  We moved among them unnoticed, racing now for our meeting spot in the Jardin des Tuileries, where Uthyr awaited us. My feet pounded hard against the stones, and my breath grew ragged.

  Almost there. Almost free. Adrenaline sparked through my veins as I spotted the shimmering contours of the dragon, shielded by my glamour.

  I’d done it. I’d gotten Adonis out of his prison, and we were escaping Aereus’s clutches.

  “There!” I shouted to Adonis.

  Before we took off, I just needed to make sure we were all here, all accounted for.

  I pulled the glamour off the dragon, my gaze roaming over Yasmin, Muriel, Kratos…. My heart hammered hard in my chest.

  Where the fuck was Hazel?

  “Hazel!” Kratos shouted.

  I spun, following his gaze, and fear hit me like a freight train.

  There—before the pyramid—the Horseman of Famine had captured my sister. Johnny’s Angelic words boomed in the air around us, echoing off the stone. I stared in horror as his incantation created an iron mask for her mouth, a collar for her neck.

  Johnny held an iron knife aloft, ready to plunge it into her heart. “A fae for a fae!” he boomed. He pressed the knife into her collar bone, drawing blood. Crimson streaked down the front of her body. “Give yourself up, Ruby,” he screeched, “and your sister lives.”

  My mind flashed with the horror of what awaited me if I gave myself up to these two horsemen. But if not me, then it was Hazel. Shit. I was out of options here. But there was no way in hell I was letting Johnny take my little sister.

  My body shook with a mixture of fear and rage, and I let my glamour drop. All at once, the army of Adonises and Rubys vanished. The wind toyed with my red hair, and I stood across from Johnny in my wine-stained, tattered dress.

  Aereus and his angelic horde swarmed above, but as soon as my glamour dropped, angels began swooping lower, circling around me.

  I thought I could hear Adonis saying something to me—shouting—but I tuned him out. I took a step forward, ready to announce myself.

  Suddenly, the air around us erupted with angelic magic. I fell to my knees at the sound, clamping my hands over my ears. Adonis’s voice rang out with Angelic spells, clashing with Johnny’s. From behind me, Kratos joined in, and I felt as if my own mind were at war with itself.

  The Angelic language in its true form, spoken by native speakers, was something humans and fae were never meant to hear. In the magical battle, angels’ bodies began to drop from the skies, blood streaming from their ears.

  Even with my hands clamped over my ears, the spells boomed through my fingers, driving me mad.

  Angels were never meant to walk the earth.

  The song of the Old Gods was swelling within me, reacting to the curse of the Angelic language. I needed to kill the angels, to slaughter all of them. The gemstones in my forehead began to heat, urging me on to massacre the angels around me.

  I felt like a battle was raging between the Angelic language and the Old Gods, and I could hardly hear my own thoughts between them. All I knew right now was that I wanted blood—angel blood.

  Stay in control, Ruby. Kratos used emotional pain to master his impulses. Maybe physical would work just as well.

  I gritted my teeth, pulling the knife from my belt. I sliced through my palm, drawing blood. The sharp sting cleared the cacophony from my mind, and my senses sharpened. I stared at Johnny, seeing him clearly again. He’d dropped his grip on Hazel, but she still lay at his feet, bound in iron.

  Now, blood poured from Johnny’s eyes, his nose, his ears, as Kratos and Adonis attacked him with magic. He was screaming in Angelic, and by the look of it, trying to fight back with defensive spells.

  With the iron clamped around her skinny body, she’d be in agony. Not to mention the knife wound at her collarbone.

  The sight of her streaked with blood sent fiery wrath burning through my veins. I didn’t just want to hurt Johnny now. I didn’t just want to put him in the ground. I wanted him dead. The Old Gods wanted him dead, and they were going to help me.

  My body ached to use the full force of their magic, to let the light explode from my body. But I had to hold back. If I gave in to their desires completely, I’d die.

  My gaze flicked to the skies, where Aereus circled among the other angels like a bird of prey. His Angelic words echoed off the stone walls.

  Johnny was still on the ground, screaming out spells. I pulled the bow off my back and nocked an arrow, narrowing my eyes at him. I loosed two arrows in close succession, hitting him in his eye socket, then his throat. He fell to the ground, already succumbing to the effects of the Devil’s Bane.

  There’s more where that came from, you skinny fuck.

  I crossed to him, dropping the bow. I didn’t need weapons now. In fact, I was a weapon—honed perfectly to destroy angels.

  I licked my lips, already tasting blood. When I reached Johnny, he was grunting, struggling to stand. “I’m going to peel off your skin, fae whore!” he screeched.

  I stepped over Hazel’s prone body when I reached him, and I yanked him up by the throat. Strength infused my body, and I lifted him into the air, squeezing his neck until his remaining eye bulged.

  “The Old Gods have a message,” I said in a voice that wasn’t quite my own. “You don’t belong here. You never did. Humans, demons, fae … we might be brutal and savage, but you created hell on earth.”

  He was screaming now, his shrieks music to my savage ears. I lifted my free hand to his face, and a dark smile curled my lips. Devil’s Bane began to spool out of my fingernails, climbing into his mouth, his ears, his eye sockets. I sent the plants surging into his brain, suffocating it.

  “You should have never come here with your Angelic language,” I hissed. “None of you should have come.”

  I flicked m
y wrist, and Johnny’s head exploded in a mist of flesh and bone.

  One down, three to go.

  I arched my back, feeling my canines lengthen. The Old Gods had awoken Feral Ruby, and she wanted more angel blood. I could end this all right here, get rid of them all.

  I whirled, my gaze landing on the beautiful one with eyes the color of stormy skies. Already, Devil’s Bane was spooling from my fingertips.

  You’re next.

  I crossed to him, my body warming with light. I felt as if cracks were opening, ready to break me apart, ready to tear me to pieces.

  You never should have come here.

  But something in his eyes stopped me. I flicked my tongue over my teeth, transfixed by that flash of vulnerability in his eyes.

  “Ruby.”

  As soon as he said my name, my mind began to clear again, the song of the Old Gods dimming to a hum.

  Hazel. I needed to get her.

  Just as I turned back to grab my sister, Aereus swooped down, his sword drawn.

  My heart skipped a beat as he swung for Adonis.

  Adonis raised his arm defensively, but it was too late. Blood arced through the air.

  The Old Gods’ gemstones sparked, urging me to use their power. Devil’s Bane curled from my fingertips, reaching for Aereus. Even so, I knew it was too late.

  Aereus had completely severed one of Adonis’s arms, and he was lifting his sword again. Just as the tendrils of vines reached the Horseman of War, he brought his sword down again with a roar.

  My mind went blank for a moment as horror slammed into me.

  The horsemen couldn’t kill each other, right? And yet—the sight of Adonis, felled by Aereus’s sword, robbed me of breath. His blood spilled over the stones.

  I had a vague sense that Kratos was shouting something at me, but panic had begun to climb up my throat, and it was hard to think clearly.

  Aereus turned to me, his angelic voice booming cursed spells. As he did, pain ripped my body apart, searing me from the inside out. Something was hitting me, again and again.

  Clutching my ribs, I fell hard to my knees. I was dimly aware of blood spilling from my mouth, then of someone tugging me by the hair, lifting me from the ground like a trophy.

  As my vision began to darken, only one thought rang in my mind, carving through the chaos of the angelic warfare. In fact, it rang out with a stark, crystal clarity. Hazel and I are going to die here.

  Chapter 12

  I opened my eyes a crack, and the light burned them. Stone arched above me. Pain splintered my body, so sharp I couldn’t think through the haze of agony. Something felt very wrong inside of me, as if my insides had been punctured over and over. It took me a moment to realize they probably had been.

  Was I alive or dead? Which was the better option?

  The paradise of the Old Gods called to me—the untamed garden where no questions would plague my mind.

  The air smelled of cedar.

  Before I could focus on anything clearly, the world around me began to dim, replaced with a vision—my phantom life. The one with the cottage, and Adonis sitting naked before the fireplace. It seemed so vivid I could almost reach out and touch him….

  The next time I opened my eyes, the pain had left me completely, replaced by a dull calm. Rosy sunlight streamed in through the windows—and with it, the wisteria from outside the castle climbed in through the opening. Once again, the plants had snaked over the floor, reaching for me.

  I nearly missed the beautiful, dark-haired angel slumped in a chair in the shadows, his eyes closed. Adonis.

  No wonder I felt better.

  Drakon, his dragonile, sat on the floor next to him, thumping his reptilian tail against the floor. He blinked his yellow eyes at me, looking awfully proud at having contributed to his master’s rescue.

  Adonis’s eyes opened, looking more haunted than ever. Something was very wrong.

  My chest clenched. “Where’s Hazel?”

  “She’s fine. She’s here, at Hotemet.” His voice sounded toneless.

  I licked my dry lips. “What happened?”

  “Aereus’s sword carved me in half.”

  “I saw that.”

  “I got better, and I smelled your blood all around me. Aereus nearly killed you. He used his magic to destroy your body.”

  “So that’s what that pain was.” I swallowed hard. “How did I get out of there?”

  “Kratos.” He opened his mouth and closed it again, and his gaze shuttered. “It’s over now.”

  There was something he wasn’t telling me.

  He leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. “The important thing is that Metatron is on his way.”

  Is that what was bothering him? “Okay. I’ll kill him, just like I killed Johnny. Vines. Exploding head.”

  Adonis shook his head. “He’s not like Johnny. He’s much more powerful, and he will toy with your mind.”

  I tried to sit up, but pain speared my ribs. Even with Adonis’s healing magic suffusing my body, I still felt like I’d been sliced open through my middle. Like my organs had been taken out, beaten up a bit, and stuffed back in.

  A cough wracked my chest, and for a split second, I had the disturbing feeling that my intestines were about to fall out of place. I grimaced, clutching my gut. Gods save me.

  Adonis rushed for the edge of my bed, his magic thickening in the air. “Lay down.” A sharp command.

  “I don’t understand,” I managed. “Last time I got hurt, I healed fast. And your magic has always healed me in instantly in the past. Why is it not working now?”

  “Aereus used powerful spells on you. It’s a miracle you’re alive at all.” He frowned, tracing his fingertips over the stones in my forehead. “If it weren’t for these, I think you’d be vaporized right now.”

  I winced at the image. “Let’s not dwell on that image too long, shall we?”

  Adonis whispered under his breath in Angelic. His healing magic skimmed over my skin, taking the pain away and making my eyelids droop. As the agony left my body, a hint of euphoria washed over me. I could already smell the garden of Paradise. I reached for Adonis, but he pulled away from me.

  “There’s something you’re not telling me,” I managed.

  That cold, haunted look in his eyes shut me up. “Get some sleep.”

  A command I couldn’t refuse. When I closed my eyes, I was in the garden again.

  As I slept, I was dully aware of Hazel’s voice telling me long, rambling stories of her time in the dragon’s lair.

  I woke fully again at night, with moonlight streaming into the room onto Adonis. It silvered his skin and sparked in his pale eyes. “Ruby,” he said quietly.

  “How long has it been since we returned from Sadeckrav?” I asked.

  “Three days. How are you feeling?”

  Slowly, I pushed myself up onto my elbows. Now, only a dull pain throbbed in my ribs. “Fine. But let’s cut to the chase. What’s going on with Metatron? I need more details.”

  “I spotted him at the Tower of London with one or two members of the Heavenly Host. When I haven’t been here, watching over you, Kratos and I have been spying on him. We’ve seen him moving around the city, trying to meet secretly with other angels.”

  My throat tightened. “The Tower of London? That’s where the Order are located.”

  “Not anymore.”

  My breath sped up. “What about Yasmin’s daughter?”

  He nodded. “As soon as we returned here, she was reunited with the surviving members of the Order. I helped her find her daughter, who was hiding out in the rookeries with her uncle.”

  “She’s okay? Thank the gods.”

  “Yasmin was out of her mind when she heard what had happened. Metatron wanted to make a point about revolutions and submission to authority. The Tower walls are now decorated with the severed heads of members of the Order. Only because of luck did Yasmin’s daughter make it out of there alive.”

  I rubbed my eyes. �
�Okay, so you know where the Heavenly Host are hidden now? If we find them, you can just kill them all. Then we’re done.”

  “I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”

  Something in his tone sent a lick of dread up my spine. “What do you mean?”

  “Metatron isn’t an ordinary angel. He’s the one who cursed Azazeyl when he fell. He’s the one who split the fallen angel into seven earthly gods, damned to their own hells. He’s the one who tasks the horsemen with destroying humanity. Frankly, he’s a bit unpleasant.”

  “So what’s he doing?”

  “He’s making his soldiers immortal. One by one. I can’t kill them.”

  Panic began climbing up my throat. With an army of immortals, we didn’t stand a chance. I needed to try my light magic again. “Let’s go to the Tower.”

  “Can you even sit up?”

  A sharp pain hit my side. Okay, so I couldn’t just sit upright like that, using my abdominal muscles. Grunting, I rolled to the left. From there, I could push myself up with my arm until I was nearly sitting, as long as I didn’t shift too much to the side—

  “Balls!”

  “You’re not ready for this.”

  Almost up. “We need to end this now. If Metatron wins, I’ll be dead. So I think a bit of abdominal discomfort is manageable.”

  Adonis quirked an eyebrow. “Have you mastered your light magic?”

  Not even close. Still pretty sure the Old Gods wanted to kill me. “No, but I have to try before this immortal army gets any bigger.” Wincing at the pain in my gut, I pushed myself off the bed to a standing position using my arms. And I nearly toppled over. “By the time we reach London, I’ll be feeling much better. Just hit me with some of your opiate magic on the way.” I gripped my stomach. “Any chance you can just defeat his immortality spell with a mortality spell?”

  Adonis shook his head. “Metatron’s Angelic spells are too powerful. He’s the voice of the gods.” Then, he fixed his gaze on me. “The magic of the Old Gods is the only thing that can combat him.” A muscle tightened in his jaw. “If we let him continue, we won’t stand a chance. There will be no way to defeat his army.”