Hmm , at least we agree on one thing. Raven snapped his wings open and jumped in front of the train.
Off to the right, where Nikki stood on a hillside, he could hear screaming.
Nikki clamped her hands over her face as both Mace and Raven jumped onto the train track. From her vantage point, she could see the scene clearly, though her eyes begged to look away.
Her hands flew forward as if she could reach out and snatch them from harm, even though she knew it was impossible. The two Halflings she loved were flying straight toward certain death.
Sparks flew from the track, and she squinted through tears to see what caused them. More wings came into view, and she realized Winter and Glimmer had grabbed the side of the train, their hands digging into the metal and their wings fighting to slow the forward momentum. Both girls were being dragged along but continued to hold. Soon the others arrived as well. Sky and Dash dropped to the far side of the train as if they planned to copy Glimmer and Winter’s tactic. Vine dropped to the front of the train, and though there was nothing for him to stand on, he faced off with the metal monster and pumped his wings feverishly in a deadly game of chicken.
Nikki clamped her hands onto Will’s shirt, crumpling the material against his chest. Beneath his clothing, she felt the mass of muscles, angel muscles. Her fingers gripped tighter. “Help them, Will!” she pleaded. “Go help them.”
His eyes were hollow, dulled by some internal force. He looked down at her but spoke no words.
Her plea became an order. “Help them!” But somehow she knew he meant to stay right there no matter what happened. Fury clawed its way into her throat and out through her hands. She lashed out and hit Will’s chest with a fist. “What’s wrong with you?” she screamed. “Go help!”
But he was a statue—a giant, cold marble statue refusing to engage and ready to watch his Halflings die. The only thing moving was his face. Will’s chin quivered and something glistened in his eyes. “I cannot help them,” he said.
Nikki shoved off of him and returned her attention to the train. The brakes were screaming now, and it had slowed some, but not enough. Impact was imminent. Wings that had been strong and steady now flapped at uneven speeds. The Halflings were wearing out and the broken track was coming closer.
Why did I have to sketch that train?
As the back of the third car came into view, Nikki noticed faces pressed to the windows. They must have felt the change in the train’s speed and were now gazing out, and the faces she could see were a scattered blend of confusion and concern. All those people.
The front of the train was engulfed in feathers, all working to slow its speed. It looked as though they could lift the first car right off the ground with all that angel power, but behind it was another car and another and another. Clouds of dust rose around Winter and Glimmer. Their feet were probably raw from the onslaught of gravel and dirt, and Nikki wondered why they didn’t stay airborne.
She sucked a breath when she realized. The girls were trying to dig their feet into the ground to slow the forward push. It had to feel like being stuck in a meat grinder.
Despite all the effort, nothing was working. The train’s momentum continued barreling it toward the broken track.
Sky suddenly appeared atop one of the cars, his wings spreading and catching the wind. From the hillside she could see his expression, one of pain and fierce determination. Where his wings met his back, a tight cord of muscle strained under the pressure. It looked as though his wings could be ripped from his body.
But it was working. The train slowed marginally.
Nikki beat her fisted hands against Will’s chest, this time out of excitement. “It’s working! The train, it’s slowing down.” She screamed it, first at Will, then at the Halflings. “Get on the roof,” she yelled with her hands cupped around her mouth.
Sky looked up at her as if he heard, then hollered something. One by one, the Halflings on the sides began making their way to the top. They spread out until they stretched over the first two cars, their glow making them look like lightning bolts wrapped in flesh. The wind pressed against them with such force, it flattened Glimmer’s curls to her head, but the feathered parachutes of their wings were counteracting the train’s momentum.
But where were Mace, Raven, and Vine? Her breath was short spurts now, as fear and apprehension stole her momentary joy. The Lost Boys were still at the front of the train. And the broken track was nearly upon them.
“No,” she whispered. But as the train and the car-sized mass of twisted metal became one, the whisper grew to a scream. “No!” Soon she was sobbing and hiding her face as metal scraped and crashed against metal. It went on forever, the sound of the crash and the human screams, the shuddering and screeching as steel compressed and was refashioned. The very track groaned in protest as car after car reverberated with the impact.
Nikki buried her face in Will’s shirt. But there was no strength in her body. Her head spun, and had it not been for the frozen grip of her fingers, she’d have dropped to the ground.
The solid wall she leaned on wavered. She forced her eyes up to Will’s face. A vein in his throat throbbed. Worse, his eyes were empty. Lifeless, staring not at the train, not at her, but straight ahead as if trapped in time.
Then a tremor from his chest, a stifled quake as his unblinking eyes filled with tears. Nikki’s fingers unwound from his shirt and she stepped back. She heard a scream from below and recognized it as Vegan’s voice. She started running.
“Mace!” she screamed, closing the distance to the wreckage as she raced down the hillside. Her heart pounded, but her feet skidded to a stop when she saw him. Nikki fell to the ground, legs unable to obey her desire to get there, to get to him. Mace was motionless and flat on his back beside the train.
Vegan screamed again, but the tone wasn’t one of anguish; it was a cry for help.
Nikki struggled to her feet and forced her legs to begin moving, this time with more power.
“I’m coming, Vegan,” Mace yelled, but he was only able to push himself up a few inches before falling back to the ground.
She ran to where Mace lay and threw herself over his chest, wrapping him in a fierce hug. She jerked back up to her knees and ran her hands over him while she sobbed. “I—I saw you. You—were between the train and—and—”
“Shhh,” he said, trying to wrap his arms around her. “It’s okay. I got out of the way. We all jumped right before impact.”
Nikki’s gaze traveled from side to side. Her hair clung to her wet cheeks and she pushed it away. We all, he’d said. There on the ground, Vine and Raven were stretched out, breathing hard but moving. She offered a relieved smile to Raven, but he looked away. Though he’d tried to hide it, she’d seen the sorrow in his eyes. She’d gone to Mace. Not him.
Nikki swallowed hard. She wouldn’t apologize for fearing Mace had died. She clamped her hands on his face. “But you’re okay?”
He grinned beneath her touch. “I’m okay, Nikki.”
The tears were starting again, but she tried to force them back. She began to tremble, and the shaking only worsened as Mace placed his hands over hers. “Hey,” he said in a whispered tone. “It’s okay. Nikki, I’m all right.”
But the tremors grew. “I thought— I thought I’d watched you die.” The floodgate opened and became two steady streams beneath her eyes.
He took her face in his hands. “I’m fine.” Mace sighed and cast a glance around them. “Nikki, I need you to get back to the hillside. We have to start helping the wounded.”
Her hands dropped to his shirt and tightened in a death grip. He couldn’t expect her to just jump up and leave after … after … But of course he did. This was Mace, after all. “I could help. I could stay down here. You need my help.” Panic drove her words.
Mace shook his head as he stood. “No, Nikki.” His voice was soft, but final. “You’d just slow us down. I’m sorry.”
Fear and relief turned into embarrassment.
She sat there for an instant feeling the prick of pain accompanying his words. She was a useless, helpless human.
Slowly, she rose and headed toward the hillside trying to ignore the screams from the people inside the train. As she passed Raven, she thought she heard him say, “I’d have let you help.”
Nikki watched from the hill. Mace was probably right. She didn’t know how to handle the questions the people were undoubtedly asking about how the train had slowed, where the group of rescue-teenagers had come from, and why they seemed to have wings. What could Nikki do? Just get in the way. Just slow them down. After all, she was only a human.
As time wore on, and she’d tired of pacing, Nikki angled her attention to Will, who was waiting quietly, solemnly, beside her like a sentry. Below them the Halflings worked their way through the passenger sections of the train. One crashed train car then the next, all the while pulling survivors from the wreckage. She counted fifteen passenger cars, and the Halflings were sifting through them at lightning speed.
With each passing minute, she felt more inadequate. “Humans are powerless,” she spat.
Will’s inquisitive gaze turned on her. “No, they’re not.” Such conviction drove his words, she had to look at his face to see if he was serious. He was.
She shook her head and looked away.
“Nikki, humans wield one of the most powerful forces in this realm.”
She crossed her arms. “Which is?”
“Prayer.”
“Prayer?” she said, half-mocking.
“Everything that’s done is done by petition. A great battle wages for the lives and deaths of those below.” Will nodded toward the train.
“If there’s such a great battle going on, why can’t I see it?”
His mouth quirked a smile. “Perhaps you haven’t petitioned to do so.”
She threw her arms up. Fine. “I’d like to see the battle,” she said to no one.
When the sky darkened around her, Nikki crouched for a moment. A cloud blotted the sun, and she had to wonder if a silent airplane or a huge blimp floated overhead. When she looked up, she saw something filling the sky in a circle above the train. Ominous gray-black clouds were hovering, gathering, but something kept them at bay. Another circle created a barrier between them and the train. Each cloud was independent of the others, and when she squinted she realized they had shape. Not quite human shaped, but close, like a person’s distorted shadow.
“Show me more,” she whispered, reverence entering her voice.
The scene above cleared, and she watched the barrier circle become beings of light. Silver warriors blocked the dark clouds by holding swords of chiseled sunbeams. The brilliant glare was so intense, Nikki’s eyes watered. She rubbed the moisture from them then tipped her head to look again. “What is this?” she finally uttered.
Will didn’t answer, but his attention drifted to one section of the large circle of what she now knew were angels. A being maneuvered through the dark shapes. He was bigger than the others, darker almost, as if he himself were a cavernous void, a black hole. The other menacing creatures cleared the way for him.
Icy coldness seeped through Nikki’s clothing, stroking her skin and causing her to shudder. “What is that?” she whispered.
“Death. He’s come to claim another.”
Nikki’s heart skipped and her focus trailed to the train. The Halflings had maneuvered many of the wounded to a grassy spot where they laid each person down gently before returning to the train to search for more.
Will pointed. “He’s come for the boy.”
Nikki followed his gesture to the small child stretched out on the ground, his mother crying beside him. “No.” Indignation arose within her. “No, he can’t have him!”
Will shrugged. “There’s nothing you can do to stop him.”
The ugly, lumpy cloud had made his way to the edge of the angelic wall. Even from below she could feel the smug sense of superiority it oozed. Her eyes fanned to the boy again, still clutching a bright yellow toy truck. Blood smeared his forehead from a wound along his hairline. “No, you’re wrong. I can pray.”
Will’s brow rose.
She closed her eyes, but no words came. She really didn’t know how to pray. Will had called it a petition. All she knew was that a petition was a heartfelt plea. The heartfelt part won’t be a problem. She threw a glance to the tiny hands clasping the toy, hanging on as if the truck represented life itself.
“You might want to hurry,” Will said. “He’s breaking through.”
Nikki’s eyes closed to slits and she looked up. The dark being pressed against the angelic army and pierced a hole in the perimeter.
She clamped her eyes closed and dropped to her knees. Pray, her heart screamed. But her mind kept spinning. Was this part of the big picture? Did the Halflings pray? Stupid question—Raven had done just that in the forest after she’d killed the hell hound. He’d held her and stroked her back, and it was like the words flowed out of him. What did he say? Oh, I am really bad at this.
“Pray from your heart,” Will said.
She nodded, clamped her hands together, and petitioned the Throne. Nikki didn’t know how long she prayed, but her knees ached from the press of rocky ground beneath her. When she opened her eyes, the sky seemed a little lighter and death was gone. “I did it?”
Will smiled down at her. “You weren’t the only one praying.” He nodded to the boy’s mother. She held him in her arms, rocking him back and forth and weeping.
“The sky is lighter.”
“Yes. Some of the darkness was forced to flee. Imagine if everyone down there was praying.” Will’s storm-blue eyes sparked. But something else flickered there too. A challenge. And Nikki knew what she had to do.
Chapter 11
Mace caught her in his grip as she ran past the last passenger car. “Nikki, why aren’t you up on the hill?” He supported her arms, grasping her elbows, and she let her weight rest on him while she tried to catch her breath. “I had to come. Look.” She pointed to the sky.
Mace stared overhead.
“People are praying, and death isn’t taking any more prisoners today.”
A slow smile spread on Mace’s face. “You’re dealing with this whole clash of realms thing really well. You should be proud.”
“Well, I’m not. I’m leveled by it. Angels, Mace. I saw angels.” She thought a moment. “I mean, I always see an angel when I look at you. And there’s Will. But these were white-clad, swordcarrying warrior angels floating in the sky.” Nikki felt the blood drain from her cheeks.
Mace’s grip tightened. “Hmm, maybe you aren’t dealing with it as well as I thought.”
Tiny spots appeared before her eyes. She shook her head in an attempt to scatter them, but the spots remained.
“Deeeep breaths,” Mace said.
She nodded, but her lungs were light as a feather and they didn’t seem inclined to accept the oxygen her deeeep breaths were offering.
A voice came from the right. “Mace, I need your help.” It was Vegan. Or maybe Winter. Strange that she couldn’t tell. Strange that everything felt so dreamlike and foggy.
“Sit down,” Mace instructed while his arm encircled her waist, lowering her to the ground.
Once there, he released her. He was talking, mouth moving, words coming out. Something about being right back. Okay, she thought. And hoped he heard. He must have because he disappeared in the direction of the Vegan/Winter voice.
Nikki rested her forehead on her knees and tried to calm her speeding heart. She’d grown accustomed to the hammer blasts in her chest over the course of the day. But really, that couldn’t be good for a system. Get a grip. Everything’s fine.
She glanced around. Wounded were still being taken out of the railcars, the heavenly army was still holding back the clouds. Off to the right Mace and Vegan were dragging someone from the last car. A noise to her left drew her attention. A black, lumpy cloud lumbered toward her. It’d taken shape, and
its fat, grotesque legs, one bigger than the other, carried it in a sort of awkward, loping run. Holes in its misshapen head framed white eyes. No irises, only a tiny pupil. Nikki stood as it approached her. But it didn’t see her. When she glanced over her shoulder, she discovered its milky eyes were focused on Mace.
“No!” she screamed.
Death continued running as if she wasn’t even there.
“No,” she said again, this time with more force and holding her hand out to stop it. “God, please, don’t let this happen!”
It skittered to a stop at her feet. Milky eyes turned on Nikki as if trying to focus. The creature’s odor closed around her while the being found a new target. Her. She felt consumed by the monster. Black hands reached toward her throat, but its touch was everywhere, and Nikki was instantly submerged in its vat-of-snakes embrace. Her skin crawled in response, and she desperately sought a way to gain release. She opened her mouth to scream, but could only suck in a breath of the creature. Something slid across her tongue then down her throat. She wanted to clamp her mouth shut to close it off, but it was too late. It fisted and tugged as if pulling, ripping her soul from her body.
Nikki tried to hold on, but her sanity was slipping from her. The creature smiled a toothless grin and once again a cracked, bleeding tongue darted out as if he intended to lick the side of her face. She was immobile. Death puffed hot breath into her face.
Behind her, she heard the words, “You have no authority here.”
And as quickly as it had leeched onto her, it released her from its grip.
Nikki felt the weight of Will’s presence warming her back, persuading life to return to her.
The creature opened his mouth wide and an anguished screech split the air. She clamped her hands over her ears.
A moment later, it was gone.
She blinked and sagged to the ground as life pooled back into her. “What just happened, Will?” Around her, everything looked normal: Mace and Vegan placing a brace against the contorted door of a passenger car, a green pasture dotted with Halflings and humans, Will.
Guardian Page 10