Wings of Light

by Katerina Martinez

  “Asshole!” That was petty, but it felt good.

  A hand wrapped around my wrist, only this time there was no magic zap. Using the momentum of my spin, I wound back my right arm and threw it at the person who’d snuck up on me. Felice was quick to block my attack, catching my fist in her hand and turning it aside. “Calm down, it’s me,” she said, “We need to get off the streets.”

  “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I warned.

  “Whatever, just come.”

  Felice pulled me across the street and into an alley in which there were strangely no homeless people. A steam-vent billowed from behind a couple of dumpsters. The smell of food danced heavily in the air; dumplings, chicken, stir-fried vegetables. At the end of the alley, an Asian chef stood by a side door smoking a cigarette. He took one look at us as we approached, then flicked his cigarette, stepped inside, and shut the door.

  When she was satisfied we weren’t being followed by any prospects, and that we hadn’t attracted any attention from the street, she pinned me against a wall. “What the hell was that?” she asked.

  “I thought I’d take the express way down,” I said, “What did it look like? That asshole tried to kill me!”

  “He wasn’t very subtle about it, no. But how’d you survive?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Alright, cut the amnesiac routine. That whole thing got you got past the Caretaker, but anyone with half a brain could do that. I happen to know you have more than just half a brain, and you can take care of yourself in a fight, so I’m not surprised you got past it. But this was some next level magic there’s no way you could’ve pulled off without knowing what you were doing.”

  “Look, I’m telling you, I don’t know what I did. I just landed.”

  Felice shook her head. “I’m your partner here, Seline. I need to be able to trust you, and right now you aren’t giving me much of a reason to. We can’t keep secrets from each other.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you. Believe me or don’t, but I should be dead right now.”

  She scowled, then shook her head. “Whatever, we have to find this fiend. If we hurry, we may still have a chance.”

  “That thing was flying. How are we supposed to catch up with it?”

  “It won’t be flying for long. It’s a fiend. It’ll go to ground soon, probably somewhere dark and wet.”

  “That could be anywhere under the city.”

  “Not anywhere, somewhere. You’ve lived here for ten years. Do you have any idea where it may have gone?”

  I tried to think. The fiend had taken flight across Central Park, but I’d seen it shift its flight pattern… where was it going? “I’m sure I saw it heading for the Queens,” I said, “Maybe it was heading for the bridge. If it wants to go somewhere dark, there are entrances to the sewers all the way along the riverside.”

  “We’d better get moving.”

  I went to pull away from the wall, but Felice pinned me to it again. “What is it now?” I asked, frowning.

  “Don’t give me a reason not to trust you,” she warned, she then let me go and started running down the alleyway.

  “Where are you going?” I called out.

  “You can’t fly, which means we have to run.”

  “Run?”

  “Yes! Run!”

  You’ve got to be kidding me.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I couldn’t count how many minutes it took for us to reach the Queensboro bridge because I had no sense of time other than the basic morning, noon and night, but I was already exhausted when I got there, panting like a dog in the sun. Felice probably hated me for having to run on my account, but sometimes we had to do things we didn’t want to do… like face off against a creature from another world without weapons, magic, or armor.

  The bridge itself was an impressive, stone monster, lording over the Hudson river beneath it. From my angle on the street below it I could just about see the sparkle of sunlight as it caught on the windows of cars making the commute, but no sign of the fiend yet.

  We reached a small promenade at the end of the street, the kind with benches and a wrought iron fence along the edge to keep lovers, joggers, and dog-walkers from falling in during their strolls. There were kiosks along the promenade, all in a neat little line, all of them opening up shop for the day. I walked over to where the water met the stone wall at my feet and held onto the fence, casting my eyes along the river itself and catching my breath. Seagulls cawed and pecked at a garbage barge slowly trudging along the water, there were a number of small boats on the river all going in different directions, and off to the right, a small cruise ship was getting ready to depart.

  “Any ideas?” Felice asked.

  I took a deep breath of river air, then sighed. “I live in Brooklyn. I don’t know this part of town very well, but if we’re looking for sewer entrances…” I turned to look at her. “I don’t get why his people live underground, though. He’s got wings.”

  “It’s something to do with a war on the other side of the rifts,” she said, “I don’t know much about it, but what I do know is his kind decided long ago to retreat underground. If this guy’s is anything like… well, any of us when we fall through the rifts, he’ll want to go somewhere similar enough to his own habitat, somewhere that brings him comfort. He’s gonna have a hard time finding a basement to invade on short notice, so the closest thing I can think of is a sewer.”

  “Any chance fiends like hanging out under bridges smoking, listening to angsty rock, and sticking it to the man?”

  “Under bridges? I don’t get it.”

  I pointed. “Because he’s there.”

  “What?”

  Felice turned her gaze onto the bridge, following the line of my finger. I had no idea what the hell he was still doing there, or why he hadn’t gone underground yet, but it was difficult to miss his wings if you knew what you were looking for. He seemed to be hugging the underside of the bridge, sticking as closely as he could to one of the stone towers, where the sunlight couldn’t touch him.

  “How do we get over there?” Felice asked.

  “Same way everyone does. We walk.”

  “And then? It’s not like you can hoist yourself down to where he is. We need a plan.”

  “I’m not gonna say no to that. Any chance you’ve brought along a fiend trap with you?”

  “Oh yeah, I keep it tucked between my boobs. No, I don’t have a fiend trap.”

  “Then we’re gonna have to make one. Got any ideas on how we can attract this guy’s attention?”

  Felice turned her eyes toward the water and scanned the river. “Doesn’t look like any of the others have figured out where he is, but they probably will soon.”

  “Yeah, why is that? Some of them took off after him, like, within seconds…” My stomach went cold, like a block of ice had been dropped into it. “Shit, do you think he killed them?”

  “It’s possible. That thing over there is a killer, even if he does look like he was hand-sculpted by a woman with an exquisite taste in men.”

  “Alright, calm down. I’m not liking our chances here, and we still don’t have a plan.”

  “I have an idea, only…”

  “Only what?”

  She pointed to the people on the street, the cars on the road. New York was a city of eight million souls; everywhere you went, no matter what time of day, there were going to be people around. Earlier I’d been sure no one had seen me fall from the roof of one of the tallest buildings in the city but now, seeing just how busy it was out here, I wasn’t so sure they’d miss Felice and I fighting a demon-looking thing in the middle of the street.

  “Okay, tell me your plan anyway,” I said.

  “Fiends don’t like sunlight,” Felice said, “If I can get close enough to him, I may be able to lure him into the light long enough that it’ll weaken him. I doubt if we can kill him when he’s at full strength.”

  “So, we pull him into the light, and then we kill him
. Seems like a good plan, except.”

  “Except what?”

  “Well, do you happen to have a dagger hidden between those boobs?”

  “No.”

  I clicked my fingers. “Damn. Just checking. Aaryn could’ve let us get weapons.”

  “She didn’t say we couldn’t take them.”

  “That’s what I get for not paying attention. Alright, do you think you’ll be able to lure it toward you?”

  “I can. Fiends drink the magic of other creatures. If I make enough noise, I can draw it to me, and then… I don’t know.”

  I watched the fiend from across the way, narrowing my eyes, then I caught sight of one of the seagulls diving and pecking at the ship floating along the river.

  “That’s it!” I pointed at it. “Take it there, then we can pin it down and kill it. There has to be something on that barge we can use.”

  “And how are you going to get there?”

  I’d already started running. “You let me figure that part out! Just go!”

  The good thing about New York was, there was always more than one way to skin a cat. I needed to get on a ship moving along the Hudson river, but I had no boat of my own, no money to buy or rent one—not that I could buy or rent one on time—and basically no legitimate way of getting onto the water. Good thing I was used to living rough and making ethically questionable choices… for the greater good, of course.

  Not far from where Felice and I had been standing was a dock with a huge sign on the boardwalk pointing to it. The words Ultimate Hudson Tour Experience were printed across it in large, white letters against a blue background. An impressive, modern looking white cruiser sat idling on the edge of the pier, and already there were people lining up along the dock for the first tour of the day. There was only a snowball’s chance in hell I was going to be able to commandeer that ship and take it out into the river, not that I’d even have the faintest idea how to pilot it. But there were other, smaller boats on the dock, one in particular which caught my eye.

  It was a tiny craft maybe large enough to seat three or four people, with a big engine strapped to it. The boat’s pilot stacked a box onboard, then he started untying the rope attached to a stone block on the dock. I sprinted for it, pushing through the line of people waiting to get onto the SS Ocean Spirit and making an adrenaline-fueled dash for the dinghy about to set sail, ignoring the tuts and huffs being thrown my way from tourists waiting to get on their cruise.

  By the grace of all the Gods, I managed to catch the small boat just as the engine started to grumble to life. The water churned behind it, frothing white, and I finished my sprint with a leap into the boat. The pilot, who’d just been given the fright of his life, kicked his feet back and almost toppled heel over head into the water, but I grabbed him by his knees and helped him settle back into the pilot’s seat.

  “What the hell are you doing, lady?” he yelled, his voice breaking as he took in the sight of me. Flattered.

  “Go!” I yelled, “He’s trying to kill me!”

  “Kill you? Who?” He tried turning his head, but I grabbed his face and kept his eyes locked on me.

  “Please, I beg you, go or he’ll kill us both.”

  “Alright, alright!”

  The pilot focused on getting the boat moving as fast as it could go, and in a couple of seconds we were clear of the dock and on the Hudson river, moving aimlessly away from the pier and the cruiser. Across the way, I caught sight of what looked like Felice gliding beautifully beneath the bridge, sticking as closely as she could to the underside to avoid detection, and even though she had white wings, she was still difficult to see. I wasn’t sure what was going on, maybe it was an optical illusion, or maybe the way the sunlight interacted with her form was playing tricks on my eyes, but I almost couldn’t keep track of her movements.

  The pilot turned his head to the pier again, then back at me. “Lady, you’ve gotta talk to me. Who’s trying to kill you?”

  I ran my fingers through my hair and shook it out, then I sighed bringing my hand to my chest to make sure his eyes went where I wanted them to go. I wasn’t a stranger to seduction, although I wasn’t trying to seduce him, only make sure he wasn’t thinking with his big brain, and was instead thinking with his little one.

  “My ex-boyfriend,” I said, breathing short, forced breaths, “He thinks I stole money from him, and he showed up at my place this morning with a gun!”

  “Jesus Christ,” he turned around again and scanned the pier. “I don’t see him, what does he look like?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I don’t see him on the pier anymore.”

  “Alright, I guess that means you’re safe for now… where can I take you? Want me to call the cops?”

  I pointed across his shoulder, making him turn around again. “That pier, next one down,” I said, “Think you could do that for me?”

  “Oh… yeah, I mean, for you… I just want you to be safe.” he reached for my leg with his other hand, gave it a squeeze, and that made my next decision much easier.

  When he turned around again, I punched him across the face as hard as I could, but that didn’t knock him out. “Hey!” he said, dazed, slowly putting his hand up. I hit him again, and this time he went down.

  Once he was unconscious, I pulled him away from the boat’s engine, sat in the pilot’s seat, and copied his movements to make the boat start pulling across the river again. It only took a moment to get the hang of it, and then I was screaming along the water—well, it was more of a whine than a scream—and toward the barge covered in trash and gulls, hoping the captain wasn’t paying attention to little old me heading right for him.

  Out of the corner of my eye I caught a flash of light and movement, and as I turned my head to look, I saw Felice dogfighting with the fiend in under the bridge. It was a tangle of wings, swift hand movements, and kicking legs, an aerial fight between what looked from a distance like an angel and a demon.

  “C’mon, Felice!” I said, “Get moving!”

  It took her a while, but she was able to break free from the fight and start speeding across the river, hugging the water to keep a low profile. At first the fiend didn’t follow—it floated near the bridge, watching Felice as she moved, but I noticed a sparkling trail of purple light following her, a trail that led all the way back to the fiend. I didn’t think he’d take the bait, he was taking too long to decide, but he finally decided to dive toward her, caring a lot less about being subtle than she was.

  I was running out of time, but I’d reached the ship. Keeping one hand on the steering rod and reaching for the iron rung ladder on the side of the barge with the other, while making sure my boat and the ship’s paths and speed were parallel, looked a lot easier in movies than it actually was. I had to stretch as far as I could just to get my fingertips to brush up against the first rung. Bumping against the much larger vessel at this speed wasn’t a good idea, considering the boat I was on was a lot smaller, so I had to be careful, but also quick.

  I got a little closer to the barge, as close as I could, feeling the edge of my boat bump up against the ship. The boat started trembling, but I managed to grab hold of one of the rungs. I let go of the steering rod, turned the ignition off, and then hoisted myself onto the barge, letting the little boat putter out on its own. Though I was already exhausted, I pulled myself up to the deck only to be hit hard in the face with the stink of the trash, and the call of hungry seagulls which scattered as soon as I clambered aboard.

  A large shadow zipped along overhead, dropping tiny purple sparkles on me, then a second shadow whooshed along behind it. Though on the inside I heavily disliked this idea, I climbed onto the heap of trash and started looking for something with which to kill this fiend. People threw away all kinds of stuff in the trash, and all I needed was something sharp and small, like a knife. I mean, preferably I’d have a fully automatic rifle in my hand and I wouldn’t be on a garbage barge in the Hudson river, but we make do.

  Then I not
iced something, a detail I’d overlooked. The captain. I could see him from where I was. He hadn’t spotted me, but he was pointing at Felice and the fiend flying above us, moving his head to follow their motions. Shit, they were both being too obvious and he’d spotted them. I turned my attention over to the sun sitting comfortably in the eastern sky, and for a second time, found myself actually trying to pull whatever magic I had inside of me out into the world.

  I’d made the sun rise one morning, and I just had a feeling in my gut like the sun was important in some way, or maybe light itself. I concentrated, reaching for the sun with one hand in the hopes that I’d stumble upon a gesture that would unlock something magic inside of me. For two weeks I’d tried to do what other prospects seemed to be able to do at a whim, and so far, I’d come up totally empty handed. To make matters worse, it looked like the captain was trying to get his phone to start recording video.

  I only needed to blind him, only for an instant, long enough that he’d look away and maybe forget about us again, but nothing was happening, and I was getting desperate. “I need this to work!” I yelled, pointing at the captain, “Please, just let me blind this guy!”

  A beam of light suddenly erupted from my fingertip and shot toward the captain’s eyes. I watched his hands go up, his phone flew across the cabin, and then he fell on his back. The light faded after an instant, leaving me not only wide-eyed, but also screaming with pain. The pain was white hot, and all across my upper back. I clenched my jaw against the feeling, but it was so intense I almost passed out—would’ve passed out if not for the stink and the massive, winged beast that fell on top of the pile of trash.

  “Shit!” I yelped, staggering back, my arms pinwheeling. It took everything I had to keep my balance and stop from falling over the edge, but I managed.

  Felice then descended on the ship like an angel with plum colored hair. She had scratches on her face, her jumpsuit was torn in places, and she was bleeding, but she was alive. “Pin his arms down!” she yelled, but we still didn’t have a weapon. That was when I spotted the lead pipe.