Angels Falling

by Harriet Carlton

  There was an audible click as someone picked up. “Hello?”

  “Colton!” called Imorean, relieved to hear his voice. The rest of his squad chorused behind him.

  “Okay, guys,” said Colton. Imorean thought he could hear him smiling. “You’ve only been down there a few hours. Surely something can’t have gone wrong this quickly.”

  “We need some information, Colton,” said Baxter.

  A new voice called out from the background on Colton’s line. “Is that our group in Mexico?”

  “Gabriel, stop eating,” snapped Colton. “You’ll get crumbs all over the place.”

  “I’m hungry!”

  Imorean laughed aloud and leaned further over the phone. “Colton, what can you tell us about a tour called The Historic Three-Day Tour?”

  A few keys tapped in the background as Colton replied. “Computer’s searching.”

  “I feel sure I’ve heard that name before,” said Gabriel.

  “If you spray this computer with crumbs one more time Gabriel, I’m going to push you down the stairs!” shouted Colton.

  A laugh rippled around the squad members. It was good to hear Gabriel’s and Colton’s voices even after such a short time away.

  “Why are you asking?” asked Gabriel.

  “Imorean found a very scary and suspicious pamphlet,” groaned Ryan. “Truly an omen of despair.”

  “There’s something off about this place, Ryan,” said Imorean, a sudden burst of temper boiling up his spine.

  “No, he’s right,” said Gabriel. “Imorean’s more tuned in to supernatural energy. If something feels off, then I say trust your gut no matter how odd the reason.”

  “I’m not arguing,” said Ryan. “Just think it’s odd that a pamphlet tipped him off.”

  “Happens like that sometimes.”

  “Crumbs, Gabriel!”

  “Sorry, sorry.” A chair creaked and Imorean wondered if Gabriel had finally swiveled away from Colton. “What else?”

  Imorean held the phone close to his mouth. “There’s a weird tour guide out here. I saw his eyes glowing, Gabriel.”

  “Tour guide, you say,” muttered Gabriel. He sounded thoughtful. “Stay on him. Eyes are important. Windows to the soul and all that. If his eyes are doing something unnatural then it’s meaningful. Better yet, stay with the tour. See what you can find.”

  “What will you two be doing?” asked Roxy, standing next to Imorean.

  “We’ll be here reading up on this tour you mentioned,” said Gabriel. Colton had gone quiet, but Imorean could still hear someone tapping hard at a keyboard.

  “Where’s Michael?” asked Imorean. “He could help, too.”

  “He’s long gone. Off to bigger and better things. Already at Houska. Left us peasants here to do legwork and research,” said Gabriel. “Keep us updated. We’ll reach out to you when we find out anything.”

  “And we stay on the tour group in the meantime?” asked Kadia.

  “Yes. From the glowing eyes and the cold spots, I’d say you’re drawing close to finding those gods. Just be careful.”

  Imorean smiled. ‘Be careful’. They were words he so seldom heard now. It was nice to hear them again.

  “We will be,” said Imorean, pressing the ‘end’ button and finishing the call.

  “So, we’ve gone from god-hunting to stalking a tour group?” chuckled Ryan.

  Imorean shrugged. “It’s the best lead on the gods that we’ve got. They’ve concealed themselves well and they’re not here. What else have we got to go on?”

  Baxter looked at him. “Wasn’t it easy for you guys to find the Norse gods?”

  “Yeah.” Imorean drank. “That’s because we already knew where they were.”

  “Well, whatever we’ve got to do to find the Aztec gods, we need to do it fast,” said Roxy.

  “Why’s that?” asked Imorean, raising his canteen to drink again.

  Roxy flicked the pamphlet. “Look at these dates. Whatever’s happening with this three-day tour thing, it’s happening tomorrow.”

  Kadia looked at Roxy. “You mean we have hours to figure this out?”

  “Hours,” she replied. Imorean locked eyes with her. She was as worried as him.

  Chapter 35

  Risk. Risk. The amount of risk involved in this was astronomical. The only reason flight had even been an option was the heavy cover of rain clouds stretching for miles over the Mexican countryside. Somehow, incredibly, their luck had been good. It was a miracle. The previous night, Imorean and the rest of the squad had managed to follow the large tour group back to their hotel. A watch rotation had been set up so that they didn’t miss the tourists’ charter bus the next morning.

  Imorean tipped his wings, ducking down below the cloud cover and scanning the ground for the tourists’ bus. His hair and wings were already soaking from doing this every ten minutes to check on the bus’s progress. There had been a hair-raising moment an hour ago as the cloud cover broke, but since then, it had regrouped and, if anything, grown even darker. Imorean shook his head as he emerged from the clouds again, sending the longer hairs at his forehead backward. A few rivulets of moist vapor ran into his eyes. The warm sun still shone above the clouds, starting to dry out his clothes again. Far below, the bus was making hairpin turns. A sure sign it was ascending. They had been heading toward a mountain range all day with no clear sign of a destination.

  “Don’t you think this is dangerous?” called Roxy.

  Imorean looked over his shoulder. “It is, but it’s the only option we really have.”

  “I don’t like it,” said Baxter, his voice carrying.

  “Neither do I, but, it’s our only lead. Gabriel told us to keep an eye on the tour group. Kadia, where are we?” asked Imorean.

  “I’m not sure,” she replied.

  “You haven’t lost your compass, have you?” snapped Imorean, not concerned about the sharp edge in his voice.

  “I haven’t!” shouted Kadia. “It’s just this road … there’s no pyramids or temples or anything on it. It cuts through small towns and that’s it. It goes to nowhere.”

  “What?” asked Imorean.

  “There’s no temples anywhere near here.”

  Ryan snapped from his position as a rear-guard. “Are you sure we’re following the right bus?”

  “We have to be,” said Baxter before Imorean could reply. “I watched it the whole time we ascended. We can’t have messed up.”

  There was a note of desperation in Baxter’s voice. Imorean swallowed. It was possible they had been following the wrong bus, but it was improbable. They’d been so careful.

  “Let’s go down,” said Imorean. “We have to be sure. If the map’s right and there’s nothing big in this area anyway, what’s the worst that can happen?”

  “Fatal last words, Imorean,” called Roxy.

  Imorean offered them a grin and tilted his wings, descending into the rain again. Immediately, his clothes clung to him, sodden once more. He shook it off. He needed to focus and his attention couldn’t be on wet clothes. He fixed his eyes on the road below.

  The bus was gone. Words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  “How did we lose an entire bus?!” shouted Baxter.

  Imorean pressed a hand to his hair. Most people lost their wallets or their glasses. But them, they had to lose a bus, a massive bus, that happened to be their only lead on a hard mission.

  “We haven’t lost it!” called Roxy, her rainbow wings beating hard, still vibrant under the rain. “Look there!”

  Imorean spun in the air. It was parked a short distance away, nearly hidden by a dilapidated building. He nodded at the rest of the squad and shifted in the air, moving toward the bus and building. The rain seemed to pour down even harder.

  “Well, this is fun,” griped Ryan as they landed some distance away from the bus, hiding behind a thick barrier of dense trees. Their boots sank deep into a soft mixture of g
ravel and mud.

  “If you have nothing constructive to say, please shut up,” snapped Imorean. He pulled some leaves apart and looked across the narrow road at the bus. There was no movement inside. No lights were on. The building next to it looked the same.

  “Some historic destination they set up,” muttered Baxter. “Where are they all?”

  “I don’t think there’s anyone there,” said Kadia.

  “Shh,” said Imorean. He extended his senses. There was something there. A distasteful coldness. He flinched. It was alive, whatever it was, and it had bad intentions. Nearby, there was another life. Small. Unsuspecting. Oddly … feathered. He glared hard. A bird, it must be. But what was the other being? He felt sure he had felt that presence before. But where? His breath caught in his throat, then rushed up his nose in a horrible gasp. The feathered life of the small bird snapped out. A muscle in his lower lip twitched. Satisfaction. Triumph. He felt sick. Who would revel in the death of a small creature? Then, he smelled smoke. Dulled by the rain, but the acrid presence of it was unmistakable. Confused, he pulled his senses back into himself and shook his head, turning his eyes to the ground.

  “Look!” hissed Roxy, sounding horrified.

  Imorean looked up as a head of short, blonde hair vanished into the trees. He glanced at Roxy. She was worried.

  “What are we waiting for?” asked Ryan.

  “I was checking who’s nearby,” said Imorean. “As far as I can tell, the last person just cleared the area. We can go ahead now.”

  Taking a deep breath, Imorean set onward, crossing the road quickly. In that moment, he understood how wild animals felt, anticipating the arrival of a vehicle. He pressed himself hard against the side of the bus, waiting for his squad to join him. There was something hungry in the air now. Oppressive. Ravenous and eager.

  “Swords out,” he said. As the words left his mouth, he realized that this was the first time he had ever given this order. Never before had they stood so alone in the face of this kind of anticipated violence.

  Imorean pulled his own weapon free of its sheath with the satisfying hiss of metal on metal. Jogging on quiet feet, he shifted to the back of the bus and, sword poised to strike, bounded out on the other side.

  Nothing. Not a soul in sight. A trail of footprints in the mud was the only trace that the tourists had been there and they vanished into thin air.

  “What?” gasped Kadia.

  “What’s going on, Imorean?” asked Roxy.

  Imorean took a deep breath. “I think I know. Give me a minute.”

  He swallowed hard and shifted his mind. He forced himself out of the confines of his body. Once more, he was just soul. No fleshy prison trapped him. There was a muddy flop from behind him. His body had just thudded down into the mud. Astral Imorean couldn’t help but laugh as Kadia screamed. Ryan rolled his eyes.

  “Should we do anything?” asked Roxy.

  “Just roll me against the bus, would you?” said Imorean. He watched as his body’s mouth moved, speaking with his voice.

  It was Roxy’s turn to scream. “Don’t do that!”

  “Sorry. I’m still getting used to this astral plane stuff.”

  He turned around as Roxy rolled his body toward the bus. For a moment, he was spellbound. A wall of orange flared before him. The world pulsing with life. A steady thrum coursed through his head. It was as though the jungle itself had a wondrous, unified heartbeat. Spellbound, astral Imorean stepped forward, reaching a hand out to the forest, wondering if he could join the heart of nature itself.

  But the world seemed to reel back away from him. It froze. Then surged forward, shattering in a burst of orange glass.

  Chapter 36

  Imorean screamed as he felt himself hurtle away from the edge of the forest and slam forcibly back into his body. Panting, he rubbed the back of his head, still pounding from where he had fallen against the ground.

  “Imorean, are you okay?” asked Roxy, crouching next to him.

  Shaky, Imorean wiped his eyes, sure that they were bleeding. His hand came away dry and bloodless.

  “I’m okay.” He raised his gaze to the forest edge. “I think we found the entrance.”

  Ryan and Baxter exchanged glances and Imorean could feel Kadia’s nervous eyes on him. She split away from them, trotting around the back of the dilapidated building.

  Imorean’s eyes stayed fixed on the jungle. “The only question is how to get in.”

  “What happened?” asked Baxter.

  “I was thrown back into my body. Someone doesn’t want us at their door.”

  “Imorean!” called Kadia.

  He followed the sound of her voice, the rest of his squad stepping in behind him. He stopped dead, revulsion tearing up through his throat. The hot, acidic taste of vomit hit the back of his tongue.

  Lying in the soaking leaf litter was the broken body of a songbird. Its tiny neck had been wrung and broken. Sightless, black eyes stared ever upward. Surrounding the feathered body, were the still smoldering remains of something else. Against his better judgement, Imorean took a step forward. A few twigs still smoked, not quite extinguished by the rain. Inches away from them, a tiny fragment of black stone glimmered. Some of the songbird’s feathers, plucked and the tips bloody, were scattered nearby.

  “That’s a sacrifice,” whispered Baxter.

  “But by who, and why?” asked Kadia.

  “Someone sick,” said Ryan, raising his voice.

  Imorean paused as Ryan’s voice bounced off the empty hills. They were all alone. It was horribly disconcerting. He sheathed his sword and heard the others follow suit.

  “Imorean?” asked Kadia. “What do we do?”

  “This is how we get in.” The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying. This was what Gabriel had meant when he spoke about Huitzilopochtli’s motivations. Sacrifice was the way in.

  “Killing a bird, or any innocent creature, to get into a god’s lair doesn’t sit right with me,” said Roxy, folding her arms.

  “I don’t think it sits well with any of us,” said Baxter with a tremor in his voice.

  Kadia knelt down and picked up the tiny body of the dead bird. “It’s still warm. Can we bury it, Imorean?”

  “We don’t have time to waste burying dead animals,” snapped Ryan, drawing himself up to his full height.

  “Ryan, stop,” said Imorean. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Yes, Kadia, bury it. Let me see it before you do, though.”

  Kadia hesitated, but settled the bird into Imorean’s hand. She eyed him warily. He forced himself not to make eye contact as he tore out a few of the bird’s primary feathers.

  “What are you doing?” gasped Kadia.

  “Giving something a try,” replied Imorean, looking at the tips of the feathers. They were still damp with blood. “I think we need to recreate the sacrifice. Roxy, grab that piece of obsidian, would you? Ryan, see if you can light a fire.”

  “You’re supposed to be the one with fire powers,” sighed Ryan.

  “Yeah, I haven’t had as much practice with them as I’d like. I’d rather not burn down the whole rainforest.”

  Ryan shook his head and knelt down on the forest floor.

  “What do you want me doing, Imorean?” asked Baxter.

  Imorean looked over his shoulder and saw Kadia kneeling in the leaf litter, digging up the earth with her hands. “Go bury that bird with her. I think she’d like some company.”

  Baxter flushed red and Imorean nodded at him. He waited for Baxter’s footsteps to fade, then turned his attention to the problem facing them. Not for the first time, he wished Gabriel or Colton were here with them.

  “These are bone dry,” said Ryan, making a tiny teepee out of the twigs.

  Imorean crouched next to him. “Yeah, they are.”

  Roxy settled opposite them. “You guys saw her too, then?”

  Imorean looked up, locking eyes with Roxy. The worry in her hadn’t diminished. He turned the bi
rd’s feathers over in his hands. “Yeah.”

  “Do you think –”

  “Don’t say it,” he snapped, more venom in his voice than he had intended.

  “You tell me not to be nasty to people, then you turn around and do the same thing to the others,” muttered Ryan. “Great leadership skills.”

  “I didn’t hear that, Ryan,” growled Imorean. “Want to speak up?”

  “I got your fire going,” huffed Ryan, sitting back on his heels and flaring his wings to protect a tiny tongue of flame from the pouring rain.

  “Well done,” said Imorean, pushing his irritation away. It was stress. “Roxy, slide that piece of obsidian under the sticks.”

  She did as he asked and Imorean opened his hand, letting the feathers he had plucked fall into the orange flame. As they curled up and fizzled, stinking the air, there was a sucking sound. He looked up. The jungle fog was parting, drawing away to the sides and creating a pathway.

  “Kadia! Baxter! Come on!” shouted Imorean, shooting to his feet and sprinting toward the path through the fog. Roxy and Ryan were hot on his heels.

  Footsteps spurred Imorean on. They were all together. They had made it! They had broken into the realm of the Aztec gods. A strange energy rushed through him. Triumph. He wasn’t used to feeling it. He whooped as he leaped over a large root, overjoyed they had made it this far. The thick jungle trees thinned slightly and he slowed, panting. It was more humid than he had realized. Cooler from the clouds and rain, but horribly humid. Ryan skidded to a halt near him, clapping a hand on his shoulder with a grin. Roxy staggered to a stop, breathing hard.

  “Don’t take off like that,” she gasped. “It’s too muggy to run.”

  Imorean laughed as he straightened, waiting for Kadia and Baxter to draw into view. Silence. A few jungle birds called. A few insects made their chirps. But there were no more footsteps.

  “Where are they?” asked Ryan.

  “I don’t know,” replied Imorean. “Didn’t they follow you in, Roxy?”

  “They were right behind me!” she cried in desperation. “We have to go back.”

  “No!”