Hidden Runes

by G. Bailey

  “What is it, girl?” I ask Star, following her gaze to the other side of the room. A wall of fire burns into existence, looking like a door for a second before Azi steps out and the fire portal burns away. Star stops growling, and I wonder for a brief second how it is even possible she knew he was coming. Azi is oddly wearing the same clothes as the last time we saw him ages ago. Where the hell has he been? Azi looks at us all before focusing on Hali.

  “Azi!” Hali shouts, clearly happy as she slides around Star and runs at him. He picks her up in an embrace, holding her close as she bursts into tears.

  “Evie…she is dead,” Hali sobs out, and Azi strokes her hair as he holds her close. He lets her go and goes to his knees, so he is on her level as he is so much taller than her. Azi places his hands on her shoulders, keeping eye contact with her.

  “Death is not the end. Do you remember me telling you that once? My mother and father spoke those words to me before they died, and they are very true,” he says gently and leans closer, whispering something I cannot hear.

  “Death is not the end,” Hali replies as he pulls away, her voice filled with a little hope, and it makes me want to punch Azi. She doesn’t need to be filled with false hope that Evie is somehow going to walk through the door.

  “Now, I need to talk to the Protectors alone,” Azi tells her firmly and she nods, wiping her eyes. He straightens up, looking over at me.

  “I missed you, these guys are boring as hell!” Hali exclaims, getting all our attention.

  “Cheeky shit,” Connor mumbles. “I played Cluedo with you, and that game is not boring.” Hali just rolls her eyes at him as Azi smiles down at her.

  “Star, come on,” Hali says, walking away towards the bedrooms. Star pushes her head against Azi who gives the tiger a slightly confused look as she follows after Hali.

  “How did the tiger get so big? Did you buy a new one?” Azi asks curiously.

  “Fuck knows. She isn’t a normal tiger, that’s for sure,” Connor replies and shrugs his shoulders. I doubt we will ever know the answers to what Star is.

  “Why are you here? We are protecting Hali, and we don’t need you filling her head with ideas that Evie might come back. The kid is heartbroken enough,” I snap at Azi, and he growls low as his red eyes glow.

  “I am not filling her head with false promises. Evie will return. You do not understand,” he growls out, and I cross my arms, raising my eyebrows at him. He can’t honestly expect me to believe that bullshit. People die. They don’t just come back because someone says so.

  “Then tell us. We will do anything to get her back,” Connor says, his voice bordering on a little desperate, and it makes me want to punch Azi even more. Fucking hell, he is getting everyone’s hopes up.

  “I need you to explain exactly what happened in Hell. Do not leave a single thing out,” Azi asks, but it comes out as more of a demand.

  “Erica…she was behind it all,” Connor answers.

  “Who is Erica?” Azi asks, looking confused.

  “One of the princesses we were looking for, and she is Evie’s sister. We didn’t know who Evie was or how messed up Erica is,” Connor says, and I feel guilty that I didn’t know a thing about my ex-fiancé. She was good at hiding who she really is, and that cost Evie her life. I will always regret that, and I will find a way to get my revenge for Evie. She did not deserve to be betrayed like that. I always looked up to the royal family, like everyone did, even far enough to agree to an engagement based on our strong bloodlines. Yet, everything I have learnt is making me think the royals are not people to respect at all. The only one who acted like a royal the whole time I knew her, turned out to be one. Evie carried that commanding and beautiful nature I heard her mother had. I remember the keepers once saying how Erica was nothing like her mother and so much like her father. Erica hated that they said that, and that I had accidently heard. They were right.

  “Evie is a royal Protector?” Azi asks, his voice laced with confusion, and I simply nod. “What she said is true,” he mutters under his breath, sounding shocked.

  “What who said?” I ask.

  “Nothing. You said her sister killed her?” he enquires.

  “Erica set it all up to get Evie off guard. She knew she couldn’t just kill Evie on her own with no plan,” Connor explains. We all know Erica couldn’t have beat Evie one to one. Evie grew up on the streets, and she was a fantastic fighter, not that I ever told her that. Erica was taught to fight by old Protectors who had never had a real fight in their lives and we were lucky to have a mentor who fought in the angel war. Protectors only ever had to fight demons who could be killed with one rune and no fight needed. Evie fought everything, and that made her strong.

  “My brothers helped her,” Azi muses. “They were the only way Erica could have gotten into that layer.”

  “Yes,” I sharply reply, and he seems lost in thought for a while, looking down at his arms even though you can’t see anything with his suit on.

  “Where is Evie’s body? I need to see her,” Azi eventually says, lifting his gaze to us.

  “She disappeared,” I reply, remembering the moment Evie’s eyes glazed over and her body disappeared into nothing but white dust. That memory haunts me, keeps me up at night. Much like the thoughts of her impossibly deep blue eyes that understood me without a word leaving her lips.

  “What? No…that isn’t possible,” Azi says, shaking his head as he starts to pace. “She can’t have disappeared. Her soul would have left her body and that was it.”

  “Her soul never left. She didn’t die like anything else I’ve ever seen,” I honestly answer. Demons turn into piles of blue or sometimes black dust, but their soul always leaves their body, and you see the light leave them. Evie’s death has haunted me for far too long because I can’t understand where her soul went, and there is no one to ask for answers.

  “Because she didn’t die. Her father must have been an angel…I know where she is!” Azi shockingly exclaims and grins. “I knew death could not take my Evie so easily.”

  “Where is she? I can answer that, she is dead. Angel or not, you cannot survive being stabbed three times!” I shout at him.

  “No, she isn’t dead, and you need to trust me on that. I have lived far too long and seen things you would not believe, Protector. Angels are complicated, and I know Evie is half angel,” Azi says, and hope fills me as I step forward.

  “Find her and bring her back. We need her,” I say, not wanting to admit how much I need to see her just one more time. I need…well, I need to protect her. I owe her a debt, and I miss her. Even the snarky, annoying attitude she has. My eyes lock with Azi’s as he nods, a small smirk on his lips.

  “Oh, I am going to find my Evie and bring her back, so she can get her revenge. Erica will regret killing her sister in such a cowardly way. No coward is going to be queen of the Protectors or anything,” Azi states firmly, and I agree.

  “And we will be at her side. We will be her Protectors,” Connor states, bowing his head a little. “She deserves to be queen. She deserves revenge, which we can help her get.”

  “Find her,” I say simply, as Azi calls a portal. He nods once at me before stepping into it and disappearing. I walk towards the door, pulling it open.

  “Where are you going?” Connor asks.

  “To get a bucket of snow to wake my brother up. We need to be ready. Our princess is coming back, and she is bringing one hell of a fight with her.”

  Thirty-Seven

  Evie

  “Shit-a-doodle,” I mutter, seeing the fifty-some-odd souls banging the door and walls of an old building in the middle of a few small ones. I would guess it is a church, but I’m not too sure. The roof is covered in souls too, making it impossible for the angels trapped inside to even fly out. The walls are cracking under the pressure, and the souls are pulling tiles off the roof to get inside. I can hear a few of the angels screaming in the building, and we have to hope they aren’t being killed already. The logica
l side of me wants to run away, but it isn’t the right thing to do. I won’t ever be the one that runs from something difficult. I look over at my father, not knowing what to make of him. I know that I’m half wanting to pick him up and drop him in the souls for being an asshole. I smile a little at the bruise on his face, at least I have that.

  “They are all inside, and we need to get them out,” Danike points out the obvious as we hide in a large alley between two white houses.

  “We need a distraction,” I muse, searching around for one and seeing nothing. Okay, so we need to be the distraction. Danike and Charmeine look back at me with a questioning look.

  “Any ideas?” Charmeine asks.

  “So, you can boost powers, right? Like maybe my holy fire rune for example?” I ask, knowing my idea is a little crazy, but usually the crazy ideas are the only ones that work. She nods, looking a little confused.

  “Possibly. I mean you aren’t full angel, so I don’t know how it would work boosting your powers. You cannot fight all these on your own. Nobody could do that,” she says and sighs. “I want to save them, but not lose you for it.”

  “One, I have no plan on dying again any time soon,” I tell her, “and two, I was thinking we get their attention and run them back to this alley. We can make a wall of fire to escape as Danike gets the angels out,” I say.

  “What if a soul catches you?” Danike says.

  “Acting like the caring father now? No thanks,” I snap, and he shakes his head as he looks away. “I’m also a good fighter, so I can kick some of the souls away or hit them with something if they get too close to us,” I do explain to them both, only because Charmeine looks worried. I look around, only seeing a few fallen branches as anything I could use to defend myself. I might be able to find a stone though. At least it is something.

  “That’s crazy. They could catch us, or the boost could fail. I’ve never worked with a half angel before. Most die—” Charmeine goes to say.

  “Enough,” Danike growls, and Charmeine looks away with red cheeks. What was that about? I look back as the souls start climbing the walls of the building, going for the windows by the looks of it.

  “We do this, or they all die. I don’t think we have any other choice,” I state, knowing we don’t have time to argue between ourselves. Danike and Charmeine look between each other, and then back to me.

  “Let’s do this,” Danike says firmly, though he doesn’t look happy about it. His wings spread out behind him before he shoots up into the sky.

  “We need to distract them all and make a lot of noise,” I warn Charmeine of my plan, before running out of the houses and straight towards the building nearest to the souls. They don’t notice us as we get closer, and I grab a shiny, sharp stone off the ground to defend myself with. I put my back against the wall of the house and wait for Charmeine to do the same.

  “On the count of three, we both run out and scream—as loud as you can—and then we run towards the alley. Keep screaming, and I will run behind you, keeping an eye out,” I tell her.

  “Screaming and running, that I can do perfectly,” she jokes nervously, making me smile a little.

  “One...two...three,” I count, and we run out, catching a few souls’ attention by doing that alone. We scream and scream, seeing all the souls slowly turn to us. The ones on the roof jump down, and the ones on the walls slide down them. This close, the souls are disgusting, far worse than the usual ones on the first layer. These are dripping with a black liquid, parts of their faces and skin falling off, and most of them don’t even have eyes. They all suddenly run at us, tripping over each other to get to us first. We run as fast as we can towards the alley between the houses, with Charmeine just in front of me. Charmeine suddenly trips on a broken branch, falling over face first into the grass. Shit. I spin around in front of her, leaning down to pick the branch up and swinging it at the first soul that gets me.

  “Fly!” Charmeine screams behind me, and I call my wings. I’m too late as dozens of souls run at me as my feet leave the ground. One of them grabs my foot, pulling me down into them as I desperately try to fly away.

  “Evie!” I hear my name screamed by a familiar voice as the souls pull me down, and then there is fire everywhere just as everything goes black and my head slams on the ground.

  Thirty-Eight

  Azi

  The portal burns into existence, the pressure of going to the one place I knew was impossible to ever travel to without a great cost burning through my thoughts. The cost doesn’t flash through my mind, not even for a second, as I make the portal larger and feel the massive drain on my power. I growl low as sweat drips down my head, and finally, the portal breaks the barrier to a place I never thought I would go to. I jump through the portal, landing on top of a white brick house as I take in everything. A screaming angel draws my attention behind me where a white-haired angel is running away from an army of souls, screaming her head off. My heart catches in my throat as Evie runs around a wall, a stone in her hand as the army of souls is just behind her. What the hell is she doing? The blonde angel trips, falling flat on her face in the grass. Evie picks up a fallen branch, spinning around and swinging it at a soul as I jump off the house and start running towards her. I run around a house just in time to see small black wings appear on her back, and she flies into the air, only to be caught around the foot by a soul. The souls slowly pull her down as I run, jumping over walls to get to her in time.

  "Evie!" I shout as more souls get hold of her, and I call my fire into my hands. I run and jump right into the middle of the souls where Evie disappeared, praying that she will survive this. I can’t exist without her. I send out streams of fire as I kneel over Evie as she lies on the floor. The souls scream as I increase the fire until every single one of them is gone and there is complete, deadly silence. I step off her, pushing her shiny blue hair out of her face and feeling for a pulse on her neck. I glance at her body, seeing three bites on her lower legs and one on her shoulder.

  "Evie! No!" the white-haired angel screams, running over to us, and kneeling on her other side.

  "Heal her! Now!" I growl at the angel, who jumps back when she sees my face.

  "I-I can't alone. It isn’t my gift, but it is my sister’s," she rushes out.

  "Get her then. If Evie dies, I will kill everyone here!" I shout, and she quickly runs off when she sees how serious I am. Two souls run out from behind a house at the angel, and I know they will kill her before she can get help if I don’t help her. I jump up, shooting fire balls at them as the angel takes off into the sky, and they burn away.

  "Azi?” Evie gasps out, and I fall back down to my knees, picking her up and holding her to my chest. Her blue eyes gaze up at me, her soft black wings move slightly under my hands. I just stare at her beautiful features, her high cheekbones, her soft pink lips. Everything about her is perfect to me.

  “I thought I lost you,” I whisper, and she chuckles, her face contorting in pain with the movements. I glance at the bite on her shoulder, seeing the poison from the bite crawling up her arm. They need to heal her before the poison hits her heart.

  “Don’t go being sloppy on me now. Where has the big, bad demon gone?” she replies.

  “He fell for a girl who regularly likes to give him a heart attack, that’s where,” I say with a low chuckle, making her smile even though she hides the pain she is in. I can see it in her eyes, in her shallow breaths.

  “You should have picked better then,” she replies.

  “I picked the best, and I wouldn’t change you for the world. When you are better, I’m going to show you how much you mean to me and never let you out my sight, Vi,” I tell her firmly. Her eyes flutter a little before they close, and her skin feels freezing cold under my hands. I look around, knowing we don’t have time and I can’t portal her out of here while she is like this. It could kill her.

  “Lay her down,” the angel shouts, landing in front of us with another angel. This one is clearly younger, and
very clearly her sister with their similar features. This girl has her long, white hair up in a ponytail, a ripped dress covered in black dust and blood on her. As I lay Evie down carefully, I spot another angel crouched on a wall near us, watching our every move. His eyes are mainly locked on Evie, and he looks familiar which is impossible. His eyes meet mine, and he suddenly looks away.

  “Ignore Danike,” the blonde angel suggests, catching my attention. “Heal her, Scarlett!”

  “I’m not good with my powers. They won’t work, Charmeine,” Scarlett nervously says, looking between Evie and me.

  “You can do this. I believe in you,” Charmeine tells her, grabbing her hands and placing them on Evie’s stomach. Evie’s head rolls to the side as she goes completely unconscious, and I frantically look at Charmeine.

  “Heal her or she will die!” I shout at them both desperately. Charmeine places her hands on her sister’s head, a white glow coming from them. Scarlett’s hands start glowing a little on Evie’s stomach, but I know it’s not enough.

  “More! Push everything you can into healing her! She is our family, heal her!” Charmeine shouts, and Scarlett screams as a white light blasts out of her hands, sending me flying backwards into the side of building. I smack against the wall, cracking it in places, and brick falls down onto me. I have to hold my hands in front of my face from the light as I try to stand up. The light suddenly disappears, and I run over, dropping to my knees next to Evie and Scarlett as they lie next to each other passed out. I pull Evie to me, seeing the bites are gone and a little colour in her pale cheeks.

  “You’re going to be okay,” I whisper to her, and kiss her forehead. I’m not letting anything happen to my Evie again.

  Thirty-Nine