Angelfire (Dark Angel)

by Hanna Peach

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No.” Alyx shakes her head. “I didn’t tell you so you could be sorry. I told you because... well, I think it makes it easier when you know that you’re not the only one who has been betrayed.” Alyx remembers being in his mind, remembers the feeling of his loneliness overlapping her own loneliness. “That you’re not the only one who feels... hollow.”

  His gaze is warm on her face. A touch of a smile brushes the corner of his lips. “Thank you. For telling me.” He steps a little closer and her heart starts to pound.

  A small wave of panic flows through her. She jerks her gaze away from him. “I have to go. They don’t know that I’ve left.”

  “Of course. Thank you for coming. For taking that risk. I know I can’t come with you but would you meet me again and train me? So I stand a better chance against them.”

  “I―” she wants to see him again but, “I can’t.”

  “You can’t or you won’t?”

  “I can’t,” Alyx says with a sad smile. “You have to stop hunting demons.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can’t or you won’t?”

  Softly, “I can’t.”

  “Be careful then.” A wry smile. “I can’t save your life every time you get in trouble.”

  He laughs. “Did I thank you for that? I can’t remember. Anyway, thank you, for saving my life the other night.”

  “I’m glad I got there in time.”

  “Me too. What were you doing in that alley anyway?”

  “Patrole,” she lies. “Patrolling for the Darkened.”

  “A lucky coincidence then.”

  “If you’re going to kill them, you can’t leave their bodies out. It’s attracting too much attention. Burn them after you kill them.”

  He shakes his head. “I want them to be found.”

  Alyx realizes, “Adere is a message for someone isn’t it? A warning?”

  “Something like that.”

  “If you keep leaving their bodies out my people will come after you. They’re already after you.”

  “Why haven’t you turned me in then?”

  How could she explain it? She didn’t even know herself, why. “I don’t know.”

  “Thank you, for not turning me in.” He takes her blade from his belt and holds it out in his palm. She has to step closer to him to reach it. As she takes the kris her fingers brush his palm. A thrum of electricity courses through Alyx, and a second of blinding light.

  With a touch the bond is sealed.

  Mine to protect, a voice whispers in her head.

  Alyx gasps and jerks her hand away. The kris drops and the point sticks into the wooden floor. He has snatched his hand back too.

  For a moment they just stare at each other.

  “What the hell was that?” he asks.

  Alyx shakes her head. “Probably a buildup of static or something.”

  He doesn’t look convinced. She isn’t either.

  “I have to go,” she says, pulling the kris from the floor and sheathing it. She has to leave, now, before... what? She isn’t sure what.

  He steps aside but there isn’t enough room to move past him without touching him. She brushes past. So close. Too close. A warm flush travels down her spine and her head rushes. As if she is falling. She only lets out her breath when she is at the door.

  “Wait,” he says causing Alyx to turn her head back. “Even if you can’t train me. I want... can I see you again?”

  “Maybe,” Alyx hears herself saying. She should have said no.

  “Maybe.” He smiles. “I can live with maybe.”

  “I still don’t know your name.”

  “Israel,” he says. “My name is Israel.”

  “Israel. Maybe when it’s safe, I’ll come find you.”

  “Wait. Don’t you want to know where I live? How else will you find me?”

  “Magic,” Alyx says, a small smile on her lips.

  He is still laughing when she steps out into the night air.

  Chapter 27

  “Israel.” As Alyx cuts through the forests around Michaelea she tests his name quietly on her tongue several times. “Israel.” She likes the way it sounds.

  Alyx slows her movements down as she approaches the wards.

  She thinks about Israel’s request to see her again. She blinks furiously when she realizes that she is seriously considering it. What is she thinking? Impossible. She can’t be friends with a mortal, let alone the Darkened-killer. The whole of the Michaelea guard is looking for him. If they find out that she, a Michaelea lightwarrior, is seeing a mortal...

  Her heart bursts with defiance. They lied to her. Damn the Elders. Damn the Code. Damn them all.

  A crackle of branches breaks through her thoughts. Alyx darts behind a trunk and slowly peers around the rough bark. A patrole guard?

  The foliage parts to reveal a floating figure hooded by more than the shadows. Alyx watches around the trunk as the figure passes by. Who is wandering the woods this late at night wrapped up in a cloak?

  Alyx bites her lip. Decision made, she turns from Michaelea and follows the stranger.

  As the figure weaves its way through the trees, Alyx moves silently from trunk to trunk, making sure to stay out of sight.

  A voice calls out, male and dusted with sarcasm. “My dear, how fetching you look.”

  Alyx freezes. She recognizes that voice. Daniel.

  “I don’t know why we couldn’t just meet at your dome as usual,” the hooded figure says. A female’s voice, one that Alyx has heard before but whose?

  “You really don’t think much with that pretty little head of yours. I am a promised seraph now. I can’t have mysterious little seraphelle seen coming in and out of my quarters late at night.”

  The hooded figure sniffs. “I don’t like it out here, it’s so woody and... primitive.”

  “Shut up and kiss me.”

  As the figures clasp each other her hood falls revealing a mane of thick flaming hair. Alyx draws in a breath.

  “That was an awful trick you played on her yesterday,” Daniel’s voice is muffled through Constantine’s hair.

  A tinkle of laughter. “What makes you think it was me?”

  Daniel laughs, but it isn’t from amusement. “You forget my dear that I know you.” She squeals as Daniel grabs her roughly around the waist and places his other hand between her legs. His voice becomes low and liquid, “I know you.” She groans as he moves his palm against her. “You shan’t do it again, will you my little vixen?”

  “So what if I play around with her,” Constantine says between moans. “She needs to be reminded of where her place is.”

  “No. You won’t do it again.” Daniel pushes open Constantine’s cloak and trails kisses down the front of her neck. “That’s an order. She is part of our group now. I’m promised to her. You’ll just have to get used to it.”

  Constantine cries out and pushes herself from him. “She’s a foot soldier. An unsanctioned nobody. I will do as I please.”

  “Then I will have father remove you from our city. You will not cause us problems when it comes to Alyxandria, do you hear me?”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “May I remind you,” Daniel’s voice is now empty of any warmth, “that you are replaceable.”

  Constantine kicks at the air her cloak swishing terribly around her. “But she is a low-cast. Why her?”

  “Father has his reasons. He... who’s there?” Alyx withdraws her head behind the tree trunk but it is too late. “Alyxandria?”

  For a moment Alyx considers fleeing. Wait, why would she flee? They’re the ones who have just been caught by her.

  Alyx moves out from behind the tree to where they can see her. Daniel’s face displays a flash of shock before he composes it. Constantine’s face twists into a smug smile.

  “Leave us alone will you,” Daniel says to Constantine.

  Constantine brushes her cloak down, fixes the top of her
silky red dress. She says to Daniel, loud enough for Alyx to hear, “I’ll be waiting for you at my quarters to finish off what we started.”

  Constantine shoots Alyx one last look and floats towards the city with her chin thrust in the air.

  You can have the slimy dirt crawler. Alyx crosses her arms.

  Daniel comes towards her with his arms out. “Alyx, my promised.” Alyx glares at him and moves backwards in the air. Daniel drops his arms and clears his throat. “It isn’t a secret that Constantine and I thought we were to be entwined, both of us being who we are.” His voice is calm and steady. “We had already established a... connection prior to you and I being announced. But she knows that after we are entwined there will only be you.”

  “So you think that it’s okay for you to see her before we get entwined?”

  “She is upset, understandably, that things haven’t worked out for us. I was just... comforting her.”

  “By feeling her up?”

  “Don’t try and make me the bad guy here.”

  “I’m making you the bad guy?”

  “Come on. You can’t get too mad at me. It’s not like you haven’t been fostering intimacies of your own.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Let me guess... Passar. You and he are close.” Daniel laughs and it is cruel and sharp. “No, not Passar. You’re not his type.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Xavier, of course Xavier. Everyone can see the way he looks at you.”

  “Xavier?” Alyx blinks in shock. “We have never― he’s like a brother to me.”

  “Alyx, it’s okay. Everyone does it. As long as you are careful there will be no unsanctioned pregnancies.” He laughs but it hints at cruelty. “You wouldn’t want history repeating itself.”

  Her mouth gapes. “I do not have those kinds of relationships.” She narrows her eyes. “What were you saying about your father having his reasons for having us entwined?’

  Daniel’s face remains calm. “You must have misheard me my love. I didn’t say anything about father.”

  He is lying. At least Alyx now knows that she can’t trust him.

  Daniel’s face softens as he clasps Alyx’s shoulders. “My promised, I’m sorry that I have upset you. I did not intend to cause you grief. We are to be entwined in less than a month so you’ll forgive me, won’t you?” His voice has returned to the soft tone that he usually speaks to her in. He pulls Alyx into his chest. “I’m ending things with Constantine, I promise. It will be just you and me after we are entwined.”

  No. Alyx feels like she can’t breathe. She can’t breathe. He’s not the one.

  She doesn’t know why but Israel’s face flashes across her mind.

  “What are you doing out so late anyway?” Daniel says as he rubs her head with his hand. “You’re not supposed to be on patrole.”

  “I― I couldn’t sleep.”

  Daniel pulls back from her and looks at her with the face of a fellow conspiratorial. “Sure you couldn’t.”

  Daniel still suspected her of a late night rendezvous.

  “Believe what you will to make yourself feel better. I couldn’t sleep.” Alyx pulls herself from his grip, spins in the air and flies back towards Michaelea.

  “Alyx, come back,” he calls after her. “You’re being silly. Come back.”

  But he doesn’t bother following her.

  Chapter 28

  Symon holds the side of the blade against Alyx’s neck, his beautiful face twists in disgust, her blade clattering across the floor. “You’re going to have to better then that Alyx.” His voice is rough. Piercing blue eyes don’t blink, a hawk watching his prey squirming against his claws.

  “Damn it,” Alyx growls as she moves herself off his steel. “It’s this stupid soris, the weight’s all wrong and the grip sucks.”

  It isn’t. She is off her game today and she knows it. Even worse, Symon knows it. His breath has only quickened slightly whilst Alyx can feel slick beads of sweat clinging to her whole body.

  During training Symon usually chose to wander around the platform correcting technique, dishing out the occasion lecture and the even less occasional compliment. Today Symon announced that they were using real weapons and then deliberately selected Alyx as his sparring partner.

  Alyx isn’t surprised. She knows that Symon feels if she can fight it out with him physically it will help her get over her anger towards him. This conversation is the first they have had since she fled from his pod the other night.

  Her warrior flock knows something is up. Most of them are engaged in a fake sort of practice whilst watching Symon and Alyx out of the corner of their eyes. A few members of her flock have stopped sparring completely to watch them. Only Elysia pointedly ignores Alyx and keeps trying to spar with her partner, clipping Lutando about the ear every time he turns to look at Alyx. She still hasn’t spoken to Alyx since dinner the other night.

  “Five minutes. Do what you have to do to pull yourself together.” Symon hasn’t even finished speaking before he has his back to her.

  Alyx glares at Symon’s retreating figure. Yes, turn your back on me. You’re good at that. She picks up her discarded weapon and pushes it into her back sheath. Her soris seems to sigh at her as it slides into place.

  She kicks up her legs and pushes herself off from the platform floor. She flies over the low bench and between the other platforms until she is at the Great Lake’s edge. The afternoon sun leaves orange movement along the surface of the water looking like a school of hungry fish.

  Alyx scans the mountains beyond, green walls rising to the sky. She sets her jaw. This place will not be her prison.

  Alyx has already started to formulate a plan in her head. She’s the new Oracle, dammit. Her gift is rare. The Elders need her. She just has to name her terms and do it in a way that it makes it easy for the Elders to accept. She will orchestrate a way to keep her lightwarrior status but still mix with the Castus. Once she is on the inside, she will find out what else the Elders are hiding.

  Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  Alyx watches a speckled leaf fall in a scattered flight until it lands on the water skin causing a ripple to extend out in rings. She gasps. There is a second face in the water. Alyx snaps her head to her right.

  There is no one there. When she turns back the face in the water has gone too.

  You better pull it together Alyx or you’re going to lose it. She shakes her head. Bending down, she thrusts her hands into the lake, disturbing her reflection. She splashes water onto her face, cool, refreshing.

  Her anger begins to fall from her like drops of water. She will make this situation work. She will.

  Alyx floats back to the platform.

  Symon is waiting for her. “Got your head in the game yet?”

  Without waiting for an answer he attacks her. Alyx drops to a crouch, avoiding a kick to the face. She rolls away from him and springs up onto her toes. Anger flares in her again causing her to lash out, her movements uncontrolled. He avoids her attacks easily.

  His fists land on her body again and again, her ribs, her cheeks, her arms. The hits aren’t hard, they are annoying little jabs. It is deliberate. He is just trying to show her how easy it is to get past her defenses at the moment.

  “Centre yourself,” Symon yells, after another failed attack sends Alyx reeling across the wooden floor. “Take emotion out of the equation.”

  Just let go.

  Alyx steadies her breath, feels the balance returning to her feet. The tension and betrayal and anger built up over the last few days drop from her shoulders like a cape. Now it is just him and her that exist. No thoughts, no emotion, just... being.

  Alyx watches Symon’s whole body now using her periphery. He moves. But she is ready. She twists her torso round and drops down so that his fist shoots past her shoulder. She grabs his outstretched arm, crunches down. Using his momentum she flips him over her. He catches himself in the air
before he hits the ground.

  “Finally.”

  Symon draws closer to her, his arms held in guard in front of him.

  Alyx lifts herself up to join him several feet off the ground. Her eyes take in the slight shift of his hips in the air. High roundhouse setup. Her mind calculates her counter in an instant. Duck, twist and spin, sweep leg out to hook behind his knee, pull then flick body up and over. Pin him to ground. Fight over.

  He kicks out his leg in a roundhouse as she predicted. Alyx waits until the last possible moment before she...

  “Alyx?”

  That familiar voice. A voice Alyx heard just this morning in her dreams. Her gaze flicks to where the voice has come from. Israel is standing there to her left. In a shaft of afternoon sun slipping under the platform roof, Israel seems to shimmer.

  Her mouth drops open. “Israel?”

  Symon’s foot collides with the side of her head and Alyx feels her world tip. She hits the ground severely on her side. She lies there dazed.

  “Jesus,” she hears Symon’s voice. His figure appears in front of her blocking Israel from her sight. “What the hell happened there? You looked set to evade me but then you just froze.”

  Alyx groans as she tries to sit up. She strains to look past Symon to where Israel had been standing.

  “What is it Alyx?”

  He is gone. If he was ever there in the first place. Alyx groans again. She is thinking about Israel so much that she is starting to believe that she is seeing him materializing out of air... she’s going crazy.

  Chapter 29

  Alyx lies restlessly in her bed. Earlier that night she had to watch her warrior flock fly away to patrole without her. Without her. Alyx feels the hollow in her stomach moan as if a wild wind is rushing through it. I guess they don’t really need me.

  Alyx kicks off the sheets. Turns to her side. Turns to the other. She is about to give up on sleep when,

  “Alyx?”

  She bolts up, heart in her throat. There. Israel’s luminescent figure is lying next to her.

  “What are you doing here?” Alyx cries, scooting to the far edge of her bed. “By the angel’s breath, I am going crazy.”