“No,” she coughed out. “I… I have been bitten. Leave me. It is too late.”
Cal smiled down at her. “No, it’s not, silly. You’re wearing a leather strap, remember?”
“What?” And then it came back to her. She lifted her arms and her fingers clawed at what was left of the strip that had saved her life. Relief flooded through her.
“Can you walk?”
She sat up, fighting back a wave of dizziness. “You have to stop saving Faedin,” she told Cal, wishing no such thing.
“Not going to happen,” he said and kissed the tip of her nose.
“If it is my time, it is my time.” The words sounded hollow and illogical even to her own ears.
He pulled her to her feet and brushed the hair from her face with both hands. “I just found you, so I’m not about to lose you.”
“The Wonder—”
“Can have you when I’m done, and I don’t see that happening for another hundred years.”
“Cal…”
“You act like you don’t have a choice. Life is about choices, Stassi.”
“Yes, but—”
“You picked me,” he said and bent to pull his arrow from the Fallen’s forehead. He had to put his foot on the woman’s face to get it out and it came free with a nauseating plop. “Get used to it.”
She looked down at the two corpses. “They attacked me, Cal. That isn’t supposed to happen.”
“We’d better get back and tell the others.”
Without thought, she threw her arms around his neck, all the emotion she normally held back flooding out of her. “I was so afraid for you. I wasn’t sure if you could do it, Cal.”
He pressed her head into his chest. “Me either. But seeing you in danger made the decision easy.”
She swayed on her feet, but this time from overwhelming joy. She lifted her face to his. “Do you know what this means? We have our two kills! We’re Faedin warriors now, Cal!”
He nodded, but didn’t seem nearly as excited as she was. He simply grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
He pulled her along the trail and she stumbled behind on wobbly legs. Her sense of direction was off. She had no idea where they were or where they were going.
Cal stopped cold.
The night sky, bright with a full moon, illuminated the shadow that stepped into the open in a sinister, bluish cast.
“Dear Maker,” whispered Stassi.
The tall figure with long gray hair and tattered clothes stalked toward them at a frightening pace. She had heard the description many times. It could be no other.
“Who is it?”
“Zakiel.”
CHAPTER 14
Zakiel
A hush descended over the night, broken only by Cal’s harsh breathing. The rumor had been true after all. The Faedin legend was indeed a giant. A tall, skinny giant, but a giant nonetheless. Which made Cal wonder. Did he also thirst for blood? The hungry white gaze and predatory walk appeared to suggest so.
There were no tears with Zakiel in the way of the other Fallen. In fact, his lips were upturned into a grim caricature of a smile. “What do we have here,” he asked in a deep, cavernous voice that made Cal want to cover his ears in horror.
“Cal,” Stassi whispered. “I left my bow behind.”
“Go get it.”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” she insisted, squeezing his hand tightly in hers.
He glanced at her sideways. “But the Wonder—”
“Can have you when I’m done.”
He couldn’t help himself. He laughed.
Zakiel stopped, the smile resolving into a frown. “What nonsense do you speak?”
Cal didn’t answer, but he did pull an arrow free.
The Fallen watched him without the slightest concern. He lifted his nose into the air and sniffed. “What is that scent? What are you, boy?”
Cal glanced at Stassi. “Er… have you noticed that he appears to have a brain?”
“Leave or be prepared to enter the underworld!” Stassi shouted at the Fallen, ignoring his question.
Cal nocked the arrow and brought his bow up.
Zakiel tapped a long finger to his lips as he circled them. “And who would be capable of that? The pair of you? An unarmed girl with fledgling wings and a boy with…” Zakiel glanced behind Cal. “No wings at all. Interesting.” A black tongue poked its way out through his lips as though testing the air the way a snake would. “A human. How is that possible?”
Stassi stood in front of Cal. “He is not human. He is Faedin.”
“To think,” Zakiel cackled. “All of the difficulty we have been through and a human stands right here in our very midst!”
Without a word, Cal shot.
The arrow slammed into the Fallen’s chest, directly over his heart. Zakiel stumbled back and looked down with a scowl. To Cal’s utter surprise, the Fallen grasped a hold of the shaft, jerked the arrow out of his body, and tossed it contemptuously to the ground. “Wonderful shot, my boy, but that old thing hasn’t beat in a very long time.”
Cal looked down at the arrow. There wasn’t a speck of blood on it. “What do we do?” he whispered to Stassi.
“Run!”
“Right.”
He turned on his heel and ran, as fast as he could. Stassi stayed behind him, even though she could have easily passed him by now. He dared not look back. He knew that Zakiel would be there, reaching for him. He could hear the pounding footsteps, could smell the foul breath. It always ended the same. No matter how fast he ran, no matter how well he hid, the shadow always caught him. It was only a matter of time.
“Hurry!”
Stassi’s scream physically jerked him out of his fatalistic thoughts and back into reality. This wasn’t the dream. It couldn’t be. In the dream he had always been alone.
His feet were suddenly swept out from under him as Stassi grabbed him and lifted him into the air. Legs dangling helplessly, he gritted his teeth as she wrenched him through the air. Down below, Zakiel gave chase faster than should have been possible for a being of his age.
The Fallen’s sinister laugh cut through the night like a jagged knife, sawing away at Cal’s sanity.
“There is nowhere to run!” the ancient screamed. “We will find you! We are hunting you! We will not stop until we win.”
“Go back to the lake!” Cal yelled to Stassi.
“I don’t think I can make it!” she admitted, her breathing hard from carrying his much larger frame.
Cal growled and pulled up his bow. “Swing me around then!”
“You can’t kill him! He is… I don’t know what he is!”
She was right, damn it! Then, he saw something down below that might work.
“Stassi! Put me down!”
“No!” He couldn’t see her face, but her grip on him tightened.
“I have an idea!”
She snarled something unintelligible, but he didn’t think it complimentary to him or his ideas.
Ultimately, she had no choice. Her movements were becoming sluggish and they were dipping lower to the ground.
Finally, they landed back on the trail and Stassi turned to face her enemy who had come to a stop several feet away. “Why are you hunting us, Fallen?”
Zakiel grinned, an evil, malicious thing. “The time of the Faedin is over.”
She crouched, a coiled viper ready to strike. “Why do you say this? Tell me the truth and I will let you live.”
“The truth? The truth is, the world is about to change and the Faedin will have no part in it.”
“Not if I have something to say about it.” She sprang, launching herself at the Fallen with talons outstretched, ready to claw him to pieces.
“Stassi! No!” Cal reached out to stop her, but she was too fast.
Zakiel hissed, his white eyes hot with hatred, and knocked her aside in a vicious hit, sending her sailing into the trees.
Cal’s blood boiled in his veins. He stalked forwa
rd, ready to end this despicable monster’s existence. He would not be denied. “Abram! Now!”
The sword flew through the air, end over end. Cal snatched it by the hilt just as he reached Zakiel and snarled as he took a powerful, two-handed swing. The blade sliced straight through the Fallen’s neck, taking his head from his shoulders.
The horrid stench of rotten eggs, the same that Cal had smelled when Rebeka had been near, filled the air.
Cal let the point of the sword fall into the dirt and slumped against it.
Stassi was back at his side before the body hit the ground. “You did it! You killed Zakiel!”
The head rolled a few feet away and came to a stop, white eyes open in glaring accusation. Cal looked down at the convulsing corpse. “He might have been able to live without a heart, but the head? Not so much.”
Abram came out of the woods. “I’ll have my sword back, brother.”
“It’s all yours,” Cal said and handed it to him. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure.”
“Where is Leeah?” Stassi asked.
“I have not seen her, but I already have my kill, so I will go see if she needs help.”
Cal put a hand on his arm. “I thought the Faedin fight alone?”
Abram arched a red eyebrow. “They did. Before you came.” With that, he ran off to find his sister.
Stassi smiled. “He’s right. Everything has changed since you came here.”
He turned to her and tucked a silver tress behind one ear. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. We should get back. The others need to be aware of what we learned.”
Hand in hand, they made their way back to the arena with a wary eye out for more attacks. The warriors were all gathered, awaiting the return of the novices, and Cal was glad to see that Julius and Caliphy had arrived.
Gilad was the first to stalk toward them, his face full of hope that they had failed. “Well?”
“We got three,” Cal told him wearily. “Including Zakiel.”
The warriors erupted in cheers and rushed in to lift Cal and Stassi up onto their shoulders.
“Zakiel is dead!”
“Zakiel is dead!”
As Cal was bounced along, he glanced over at Stassi. All the tiredness had disappeared from her face and she was flushed with happiness. He knew how much this meant to her, and she had never looked more beautiful to him.
Through the noise, Cal could hear Gilad shouting below him. “Impossible! You must have it wrong! I want proof!”
Cal jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “He’s back there if you want to take a look!”
The contentious Faedin stomped off to see for himself.
Julius allowed the brief celebration and then ordered that the two novices be put down.
“You have done well,” he said to Cal and Stassi when they finally made their way over to him. “I now formally bestow the title of Faedin warrior on you both.”
“Thank you, Sire,” Stassi said and bent into a low bow.
Cal merely nodded his head. “Thank you, Julius.”
“Is it true?” the chieftain asked. “Is Zakiel dead?”
“Yes, Sire,” Stassi answered.
“How?”
“Cal killed him.”
Cal shook his head. “I couldn’t have done it without Stassi and Abram. We’re much stronger when we work together. I know that it’s not the Faedin way, but the time for change is now.”
“Perhaps,” Julius replied stoically. “I will think on it.”
Cal refused to let it go. “Don’t think long because the Fallen are already are doing it.”
Caliphy hissed through her teeth. “What do you mean?”
“Zakiel said that the Fallen were hunting us now and wouldn’t stop until we were destroyed.”
“But how could a group of Fallen work together?” Julius asked, aghast. “They don’t have the mental capacity.”
“Oh, Zakiel had intelligence,” Cal told him, “and I think it was he who banded the Fallen together.”
Julius let out a relieved breath. “Thank the Maker he is dead then. Still, I will heed your words, warrior.” He waved a hand in the air. “Bannon!”
Bannon ran over. “Yes, Julius.”
“Training in groups is to commence immediately and be in place by the next raid.”
Bannon lowered his head. “As you command.”
A commotion broke out at the edge of the forest.
“Look!” Stassi pointed and all turned. Abram was sprinting out of the forest with Leeah draped in his arms.
“What happened?” Cal demanded, hurrying over to him.
Abram gently put Leeah on the ground. “Several Fallen attacked us at once.”
“How is she?”
“Dead.”
“Cursed?”
“No, shot with an arrow. The Fallen are armed. With our weapons.”
Cal walked beside Stassi with a pit in his stomach. Leeah is dead. It was hard to believe that the likeable redhead was gone. So flush with life one moment and pale with death the next. The Faedin had cheered upon hearing the news and started making arrangements for a gathering in the female warrior’s honor, but all Cal felt was sadness.
Stassi must have recognized his melancholy. She stopped and squeezed his hand. “Do not worry for Leeah.”
He shook his head. “I’m not. I’m just feeling overwhelmed. Your father didn’t seem overly worried that the Fallen are armed.”
“Why should he? Zakiel is dead thanks to you. Without a leader, it will be a simple task to disarm the Fallen.”
Will it be simple? The question niggled at Cal like a sore tooth.
Stassi reached out to pick something off his shoulder. “What’s this?” A clump of his hair dangled from her fingertips.
Cal brushed at his shoulder and wiped out all thoughts of the crying Rebeka from his mind. Stassi would not be pleased that he had let the girl go. “Nothing.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine, but I have to go home.”
“Go home? Now?”
“Just for one night. It’s Christmas Eve.”
“Christmas Eve?”
He nodded. “It’s a pretty big deal to humans.”
“What do you do?”
He shrugged. “Most people go all out. With us, we just exchange a few presents and decorate a Christmas tree. Sometimes we go to church.”
“How do you decorate?”
He shrugged. “With ornaments and bulbs and ribbons. Anything colorful that we can find around the house. And, of course, the star. My brother always has to be the one to place the star on top.”
“I wish I could see your home, Cal.”
“Me, too. I’ll be back tomorrow. I promise.”
She nodded.
He gave her a quick kiss goodbye and then ran the entire way home without a clue as to what awaited him there.
CHAPTER 15
Enough
Cal crept along the side of his house, surprised to find it dark. He peeked around the corner to the front and noticed that his stepfather’s truck and his mother’s car were both gone.
Then he remembered that they would be at his grandmother’s house tonight celebrating the holiday. Or at least going through the motions. All those smiles that never quite reached the eyes. The lips that kissed more air than cheek. The hugs that never squeezed very tightly.
Still, he felt disappointment. He had wanted to see Landon. Wanted to be grounded for just one night in a place where mythical creatures and warriors and battles did not exist.
He walked up onto the porch and pushed his way inside the silent house. In the corner stood the Christmas tree that they had put up just days ago. He went over and fingered one of the ornaments. It was one he had made in first grade with his school picture stuck in the center with glue.
Who is that wide-eyed little kid with the front teeth missing? He looks so happy.
It may as well have been a st
ranger looking back at him, because Cal didn’t know that kid. That kid had never had to run from shadows.
Cal turned from the tree and went into his stepfather’s bedroom, hoping to find some clothes that would fit. He stripped off his filthy, torn jacket and rifled through the closet. He chose a pair of jeans and flannel shirt and hurriedly dressed, making sure to shove the Faedin feather into his back pocket.
On his way out, he walked by a full-length mirror that stood next to the door. It was one thing to sense he had been growing, but another to see it firsthand. The long legs, the broad chest and muscled arms.
He shrugged.
Just another stranger.
He went into his bedroom and found the few dollars that he had stashed in his sock drawer. Just as he was stuffing the money into his front pocket, the front door banged open.
Cal froze in place, listening intently for voices.
He heard nothing.
Finally, he braced himself and went out into the living room, prepared to run if it was Ross.
It wasn’t. It was his mother.
She squatted by the door, pawing frantically through her purse until her hand found the pill bottle she so desperately sought. Shaking fingers flipped off the cap and dumped a pill into her open palm. She tossed it into her mouth and dry-swallowed her fix with her eyes closed.
“Hi, Mom.”
Evie Taylor let out an ear-splitting scream and dropped the bottle from her hand. Tiny, white pills scattered across the floor in every direction. Apparently forgetting her fright for the bigger problem of her lost pills, a string of curses flew from her mouth as she scrambled across the floor to sweep them up with frenzied hands.
Cal calmly walked over, bent by her side and helped her.
“Cal!” she admonished breathlessly. “You scared me! What are you doing here?”
“I thought I lived here.” He held a pill out to her and she snatched it from his fingers and dropped it into the bottle.
“I just wasn’t expecting anyone to be home.”
“Sorry.”
When she finally had all her pills back in place, she sat back on her heels. “Why’d you run off like that?”
“I got kicked out of the house, Mom. Didn’t Ross tell you?”
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