Alexander took Maab’s bag and flew up, reaching down for Maab to help him and the others that followed in their human form. Once they were all on the ledge, he finally took stock of what Noor had found for them.
It was small, but it was dry and protected from the wind. Henric and Milena sniffed at the air, likely checking for anything that might have lingered in the darkness of the cave, but seemed satisfied when they flicked their heads back to Maab as if in agreement to it being a suitable enough resting place.
The scent of fires carried to them on the wind, but with the rain, Alexander couldn’t tell which direction the smoke came from. The forest and whatever else lay below them was pitch black, the sky heavy with clouds obscuring any moonlight that might have illuminated the landscape.
“No fires,” Alexander said to the others before facing to look out into the darkness. “It will draw too much attention.”
“Agreed.” Noor stood beside him. “Better we wait until morning. You need to rest. We may need your skills again tomorrow.” She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him, but there was only a hint of concern in her expression. Before he had a chance to argue, Noor pointed to the sky. “Osara returns.”
The white bird approached, landing gracefully on the rocky ledge beside them and transforming into a woman the moment its feet made contact. Osara threw her arms around Noor. “I missed you,” she said with a smile.
Alexander averted his gaze. She was naked—too small in her Igran form to tie any clothing to an ankle as Maab or the others might have done.
“You found it,” Osara said after a lengthy kiss with Noor. She looked up at the witch. “I knew you would. That’s why I went on ahead to scout the area further.”
Alexander held his tongue as Maab approached with a robe for Osara. “What did you find?” he asked in that same flat tone he always spoke in.
“A camp.” Osara shrugged herself into the robe. Her hair wasn’t wet, despite the rain, and Alexander wondered if it was something to do with her feathers. “A military camp. Full of angels.”
Alexander looked out into the darkness. That explained the fires. “Good work, Osara. We’ll get some rest and investigate further in the morning. I’ll take first watch.”
Maab looked as if he might object but simply gestured to the other Nords towards the back of the cave. Perhaps he was too tired to disagree; it had been a long day. Milena dropped a skin of water at Alexander’s feet and he took it with a quiet “thanks”. She padded over to Henric, turning a few times before lying down and settling her muzzle over one of the bear’s paws. Even Maab unclipped his armour and shifted into his white tiger to settle down for the night.
Alexander wanted to ask why he hadn’t remained as a tiger all day but it was none of his business which form Maab chose to be in, and it had certainly made communication easier. He took a swig from the water container, seating himself at the mouth of the cave. He braced his wings, protecting himself from the worst of the wind. The rain had eased and, as exhausted as he was, the cold didn’t bother him. A camp full of angels. Who served the king. Kings only caused trouble, in his experience. He’d been barely fourteen when the King of Himera had sided with the Makya, an alliance that had nearly destroyed much of Ohinyan. The Makya’s leader at the time had been killed in the process, and Par had taken over as head of the council, thankfully. She’d been the first to speak out against the Himeran. The first to show that the Makya were willing to change.
He looked at his hands. So many things were changing. I love you. No matter what happens. Was the gate Fia travelled to the same one they’d passed through that morning? What were the chances? But the soldier had mentioned the Wastes and Erebus’s prison. Would she look at him the same, once she knew what he’d done?
Dwelling on it would do no good, he’d have his answers as soon as he found her. And that connection between the two of them, that thread pulled and told him she wasn’t far away. He couldn’t explain it. Everything in Ohinyan was connected, he’d always known that. But the pull he felt towards Fia… he removed the golden cuff from his sheath, turning it over in his fingertips. That pull was far greater than anything he’d ever felt before.
Something chirped in the forest below, the only other sound the huffs of the Nords’ breathing. Lost to his thoughts, Alexander settled in for his watch.
***
“Angel.”
“Look.”
“She leaves.”
Alexander opened his eyes to little white petals pulsating down onto his hands before they jumped off and away into the breeze. Had they whispered to him? Or had he been dreaming? He watched them drift away, his eyes adjusting to the dim grey of dawn, and a white bird taking flight. Osara. Something small was fastened to one of her feet, and in his tired daze, Alexander felt certain it was a scroll of parchment. He rubbed at his eyes and glanced between Osara and the strange white petals, pulsating away in the morning air.
“Rest.”
“Sleep.”
Maab was still at his watch, his back to Alexander, the same position he’d been in before relieving Alexander of his post. If Osara had left, it must have been at his authority. Content with that information, Alexander followed the quiet command of the strange little creatures and fell back to sleep.
***
Alexander awoke to Maab’s roar.
Two angels flew towards them but hovered a polite distance away in the air. Both males, they were dressed in a dark uniform that looked tight fitting enough to be a second skin. Soldiers.
Alexander stepped up beside Maab as one of them called out in a language Alexander didn’t understand. Alexander shook his head, hoping they’d understand that he didn’t.
“We mean no harm. We saw one of our own kind up here and were curious. You’re not from here?” the other angel asked in the common tongue.
How had they seen him? He’d been sitting down against the rock; his wings were bright, but he’d tried to make sure he was tucked out of sight. Maab made a throaty rumble beside Alexander as if he agreed with the sentiment. Angels are not welcome here. And yet these angels weren’t threatening them, their weapons hung in their sheaths.
Noor and Osara joined them, the latter on two legs and dressed in her armour.
“Friend or foe?” Noor asked Alexander as she drew a blade, loud enough for the angels to hear, and there was no doubting that they saw the blade.
One of the angels laughed. “You’re an unusual group. But please. We are friends. We’d never harm one of our own, or his friends.”
Alexander gave Noor his best reassuring look. The fact remained: there were only two of these angels, against the sixteen of them. Alexander often wondered how he’d fare up against Maab in his tiger form and hoped he’d never find out. Two angels wouldn’t stand a chance. Unless they have magic. He felt his own humming beneath his skin again, replenished after his rest. But he saw no harm in allowing them to come and talk, any information they could offer might help find Fia.
“Please,” he said, waving a hand to the angels still hovering a few feet away from their ledge, “let us swap stories.”
The angels landed beside him, and introductions were made. “I’m Marrin, this is my brother, Nerrin,” the one that had spoken from the air said. They both had light brown skin and short black hair, with eyes the colour of honey. “We’ve heard talk of other visitors to our lands in the last few days. The gate is forbidden to us, so you can imagine our fascination.”
Alexander thought his heart might have stopped. “What talk of other visitors? Please, we’re looking for our friend, a young woman with long red hair. The last we heard she was trapped in the Wastes. Have you heard of anyone by that description?”
The two angels looked at each other. “We’ve been told there are two of them,” Nerrin said. “Red-headed sisters and they travel with a cousin of theirs.”
Adrenaline spiked through Alexander’s body as his heartbeat roared in his chest. Fia and Lorn. And the girl, Evina, the girl
Fia had messaged about. He looked to the forest below as if he might see a glimpse of Fia’s red hair.
They were getting closer.
Chapter Eighteen
Lorn
L orn’s feet slammed into the ground, but she managed to hold back her nausea as Erebus released her. He’d left Fia behind, and Lorn couldn’t help the triumphant grin that stretched across her face at the thought.
“I’ll go back for her later,” he said, as if he’d read her thoughts. He was still ethereal, swirling around her in his cluster of shadows. “Now, do I have your word that you will not attempt to harm me? This is going to take much more time than is necessary if you don’t comply.”
Lorn looked around. They were high up on a rocky ledge; behind them a narrow path that wound up into the mountain, and beyond, the glittering lights of a city. The earlier rain clouds had cleared and given way to a starry sky, moonlight casting a bright glow on the landscape far below them, and in the distance, the unmistakable darkness of water. “I’ll make no such promises. What is this place?”
Erebus made his tongue clicking sound. “I suspected as much. This is Mairossis, where the king currently resides. He and I are overdue for a meeting. I won’t be long. Wait here.”
Lorn didn’t get a chance to reply. The cloud of darkness dropped away over the edge of the path and down the side of the mountain. It struck her as unusual that sometimes he chose to travel as a swarm of shadows, and at others simply evanesced as Evina and the others had done, but then, nothing about Erebus was normal. And he does love a dramatic flair.
A flock of birds passed overhead; in the moonlight, Lorn could make out light feathers among dark, but the birds were small, and it was impossible to see any other discernible features in the twilight. A memory tugged at her of an afternoon spent training in the mountains above Nadar, the city the Makya called home. Birds had passed overhead as her tutor had chastised her for yet another wrong move, another step out of turn.
“The fire mother does not get distracted,” Rada had said.
“I’m not distracted,” she’d replied.
“Do not lie to me, child, I see the way you look at the flock. The way you long to be with them. The other children will make you weak, they will take you from your purpose. You are not like them.”
“Nor would I want to be.”
Rada had spun around, testing whether Lorn was paying attention. “And yet your gaze lingers on the birds every time they pass by. Do not envy their freedom. It is a false truth. If even one of them breaks away, the rest crumble and follow suit. That kind of weakness cannot be tolerated.”
She’d let out a stream of flames at the last bird as it had passed overhead and it broke away, just as she’d said it would. The rest of the flock had panicked and broken formation, scattering in different directions.
“You see,” Rada had said. “They lost their focus. Others will make you weak, Lorn. The fire mother relies only on herself.”
“What about you?” Lorn had asked. “I can rely on you, can I not?”
“To the great fire mother, everyone will be a disappointment in the end.”
Rada had turned out to be a disappointment after Lorn had later found her in bed with her brother, several years Rada’s junior. Lorn had killed her for it; she wouldn’t have shame brought upon her family in such a dishonourable way, and made her brother swear never to speak of it.
That had been the first time Lorn had truly learnt a lesson—that attachments made her weak. That she couldn’t trust anyone. That she would achieve her responsibilities, alone.
Sparks sizzled at her fingertips, but she didn’t release an inferno. Not yet. She was holding onto it for Erebus, for the moment she would let him have every last ember. Ancient darkness or not, she would never work with him. The fire mother worked alone. And she wouldn’t be upstaged by him either.
She set off on the path that zigzagged down the mountainside, settling herself with more warming thoughts than Erebus and her memories. Thoughts of Aura, and how that wicked grin of the angel’s made every muscle in her body tighten. At the thought of her lips, Lorn sucked in a breath. He kissed Fia. He kissed her fucking hand.
Lorn’s thoughts were shattered by the memory of how gently Erebus had pressed his lips to Fia’s skin, right after the girl had healed him. She released a controlled ribbon of flame at a rock, hoping it was low enough to be out of sight from spying eyes.
The moment he dropped that pathetic cloak of his and returned to his angel form, she would harm him. No. Be patient. Wait until he takes you back to Ohinyan. Wait until he helps you get what you want. More sparks scattered from her fingertips, fizzling onto the path at her feet.
Patience. She could muster enough, for that delicious moment when all of Ohinyan would be in her debt. A voice called out in a language she didn’t recognise, and Lorn spun around to search for the source of the voice.
A shadow passed overhead and two male angels landed before her. Pity. It was a woman’s touch she hungered for today.
“Stop! In the name of the king!” one of them said in the common tongue. They were both dressed in the same dark, tight-fitting uniform as the other angels on this world had been.
“Oh for the love of—” she began.
“State your purpose,” the other angel said. This one had deep brown skin and short hair the colour of midnight. Much easier on the eyes than his companion, whose long wavy hair was far too dishevelled for her liking, his pale skin too sickly.
“You know,” she said, inspecting her fingernails, “I have it on good authority that you hate your king, and that you’re nothing but glorified slaves.” As if she would ever bring an army to save these pathetic creatures. They were as disgusting as the Ohinyan angels, although at least they had the decency to wear more garments.
“We serve the crown, as is our duty,” the scruffy one said.
Duty. Lorn despised it. “Ah, I see, loyal to whoever holds the position.” She smiled her sweetest smile, willing them to move closer.
They took a step towards her. Perfect. Lorn channelled everything she had at them both and pictured Erebus in the midst of the inferno with them. They didn’t even have time to scream. They fell to their knees first. Hair and feathers turned to ash, and then bubbling flesh gave way to bone. Lorn was certain an enraged cry had left her, but the roar of her power was so strong, she wasn’t sure if it was only in her head.
“Must you play with the locals, Lorn?”
She swung around, and Erebus stood on the dirt path behind her, an amused look on his face. He clasped his hands in front of him and tilted his head to one side as he waited for a response.
“You choose this moment to appear before me as an angel?” Lorn seethed. After he’d seen her use half her powers on roasting the two angels. “Coward.”
Erebus said nothing, just stared her down in silence.
“I will meet this king of theirs.” Lorn brushed a few embers from her jumpsuit.
Erebus waved a finger at her. “Not today, I’m afraid. We must return. Fire mother duties await.”
“It wasn’t a request. I’m making my way to the city.” Lorn watched as a few angels flew towards the city in the distance. “Besides, I thought you had tests to carry out, to decide which of us is the fire mother?”
“I told you. I will return for her. But it was you who inflicted this upon me, was it not?” Erebus took a step closer, waving a hand at the places she’d struck him.
Lorn folded her arms across her chest, glancing back at the angels flying in and out of the city. As she looked closer, she realised there were dozens of them. “And do you not think her blue flame would harm you too?”
Erebus stilled beside her. “Her flame is blue?”
“You’ve yet to see it? It is somewhat… a spectacle. What I cannot understand, however, is how an ancient darkness doesn’t know this.” She broke her gaze away from the city and turned to face him. “You don’t seem to know very much. Which one of us is t
he fire mother? Do you even know how to rekindle the sun? You just sat and watched when the first sun died, did you not?”
His hand brushed the veined marks that spread across his chest where Fia had healed his wounds. Perhaps not entirely healed them then. “I…” His expression darkened. “My body was made new upon my release. There was no sitting throughout my imprisonment. No body with which to sit. Only my shadows.” He looked away, out towards the city in the distance and the angels flying to and from it.
“Am I supposed to pity you?”
His gaze snapped back to face her as he grinned. “If it warms you to my cause.” He exaggerated the last word with a bow of his head.
“Your cause?”
“Our cause. We seek the same outcome. We will achieve it, together.” He waved a hand towards the city, to the angels flying in and out.
Lorn pressed on down the path. She could see hundreds of angels flying to and from the city and doubted it would be long before the bodies of the two behind her were discovered. Towers clad in metal panels reflected the moonlight, and at the very peak sat one tower, higher than the rest. A tower fit for a king.
“This king of yours,” Lorn called out over her shoulder. She was certain Erebus had followed her down the path and didn’t bother turning back to check if he was there. “He stole the throne from another. But you wouldn’t have been able to play a hand in that from your prison, in your shadow form, would you?”
Erebus laughed quietly. “And why would I do such a thing?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Let’s say… you needed something to aid you in your release from your prison. Something to break the last of the wards holding you there, and the Earth witches alone were not enough,” Lorn mused. She’d often wondered how he’d done it—how he’d escaped. The Earth witches certainly didn’t seem powerful enough. Perhaps that old crone might have been, the one who’d died upon his release. But the others seemed to lack any real skill. She turned to face him. He’d stopped following her.
The First Dawn (Daughter of the Phoenix Book Three) Page 13