Enlightened: The Ascension of Meghan May

by Jaya Moon

  I held her at arm’s length. Had Lucien been kind to her? I still didn’t understand why he kept her locked away in this tower of his.

  I don’t like him, but he’s nice. He talks to me a lot, but I don’t want to talk to him.

  What does he say?

  Stuff. He wants me to shift. He said it’s important I show him.

  He’s never seen you in your human form?

  Why would Lucien want her to shift? Did he need her to prove she was an angel shifter? What if she did? He’d kill her. So why not kill her anyway?

  No. I don’t want him to see me.

  I pulled her back into my arms and held her tightly, stroking her back as much as I could, her magnificent wings softer than anything I’d ever felt before. It’s okay. You did the right thing.

  Can we go now?

  Go? Where? How? That bit I hadn’t worked out. How would I tell her I wasn’t sure we’d be able to leave?

  I wish I still had my wings. I can make them in my mind sometimes, but they’re not there when I’m human. When Lucien takes me to the rooftop, if I had my wings I would shift and I’d—

  There’s a rooftop? My mind raced with the possibilities. Could we get up there? Berron said my father was a sea eagle shifter. I’d never shifted. I didn’t think I could, but maybe that’s because I hadn’t tried. If I could get Savannah to the rooftop and shift into a sea eagle would I have the strength to pick her up in my talons and fly away with her?

  She wiggled from my grasp. There’s a door down the hall that goes up there. He types in numbers on a pad. It opens and he takes me up.

  Damn it. I couldn’t open a locked door like that.

  Seven, three, three, four, nine, eight.

  What did you say?

  She held out her hands and repeated the words and showed me on her fingers. Seven, three, three, four, nine, eight.

  Although her fingers didn’t always reflect the number she said, I had to assume her words were right. Those are the numbers for the keypad?

  Yes. I watch him. She beamed at me because of how clever she was. I haven’t gone up by myself. I want to run away, but it’s too high to get down.

  Show me.

  I removed my hand from her heart in the real world and found myself back in Lucien’s private room.

  “Don’t shift,” I whispered. “Just take me there.” If we were caught, at least she’d have a chance to scutter away and Lucien wouldn’t know I knew the truth about her—if he hadn’t already worked that out for himself.

  Savannah padded across the bed, jumped onto the floor, and went to the door, glancing back at me. It was already half open. Savannah scanned both ways and sniffed the air. I gathered she was sensing if Lucien or anyone else was near. Then she stepped into the hall and turned left. We passed two rooms and I saw the city lights through the glass windows. The night sky outside gave hints dawn would soon come.

  At the end of the hall we reached a door. I turned the knob and it opened. Beyond were ascending concrete stairs.

  Savannah sprang ahead of me, leaping up each stair, and I followed her. It was only a short climb before we reached another door. This one had a keypad to one side of it. She sat down. This had to be it. I held my breath as I punched in the numbers she’d told me. The door made a clunking sound as the lock disengaged. I couldn’t believe it. It had been that simple. I opened the door and night air blew in.

  “Well done,” I said, noticing her eyes on me.

  She sprang outside and I followed.

  Even though the night was warm, so high up the air whipped around me and made it feel colder than it really was.

  I’d seen rooftops on TV before, but I’d never been on one. I’d expected there to be cooling units, other things projecting from the roof. Instead it was absent of features, lined with a type of black stone, matching the rest of Heaven’s Gate. A high wall didn’t protect the edge. The only thing stopping someone from stepping out into the sky was a low ledge a couple of feet high and a couple of feet wide.

  We walked over to it and my heart sunk as Savannah stared up at me expectantly. Now what? How did shifters shift? Did they think something? Do something? Flick some switch?

  Change. Change. Change. Become a sea eagle.

  Maybe if I stood on the ledge? Perhaps seeing the drop might stir something in me? I climbed up onto it. Immediately a chill of fear flooded through my veins, seeing how high up we were, everything tiny down below. I blew out breaths through my lips to calm myself and looked out across the city.

  Dad? Can you hear me? What do I do?

  The only reply I got was a gust of air so sudden I nearly lost my balance. I jumped back off the ledge. What the hell was I doing, apart from trying to get myself killed?

  Defeated, I sat down on the ground, my back to the ledge. Who was I kidding? I’d never been so far out of my depth before. Rescuing Savannah this way had been an idiotic plan from the start. It hadn’t even been a plan. It was stupid. I was stupid. I tried to smile sympathetically at her and shook my head as hot tears pooled in my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  She climbed into my lap and walked her paws up my chest until her face was in front of mine and I lifted my hand to reach for her heart so I could enter her mind and talk to her properly, tell her we’d have to go back downstairs, when a piercing shriek of an eagle filled the night.

  I looked up. Above us circled birds. Two were bald eagles, their white heads standing out against the darkened sky. The others I wasn’t quite sure of. Birds of prey who didn’t usually fly at night, apart from an owl. A tawny. Tallow.

  I grabbed Savannah, held her tightly to me and clambered quickly to my feet. “Look, Savannah. Look!”

  Her head lifted and her wide eyes fixed on the birds above us. Purring vibrated through my arms and chest, and a sob burst from my mouth as tears spilled down my cheeks.

  The tawny swooped toward me and the next moment Tallow stood on the rooftop in front of me, naked. I expected him to get angry with me for what I’d done and the situation I’d gotten myself in. That’s what he always did and this time I’d deserve it. But all my worries fell away when he grabbed me in his arms. Savannah struggled between us making him step away. I put her down, and then he took me in his arms a second time, holding me so tight I could hardly breathe.

  “Don’t ever do that again,” he whispered into my hair. “If you need to do something that badly you do it with me or you don’t do it at all. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I mean it, Meghan.” This time he sounded angry, but I didn’t care because that was the Tallow I knew.

  “I mean it, too.” I had been out of my depth for a long time, had a gun put to my head, been threatened with torture, and maybe would have been if he hadn’t come to rescue me. As long as we got Savannah off the rooftop, I’d have accomplished what Dore wanted me to, and hopefully she would prove the key they needed to end the war. Whatever came next, I’d never again risk myself in the ways I already had. I was done. If I got myself killed I would never have the life I wanted, one with Tallow and Mox. And Abriel.

  Abriel. He still remained captive somewhere in Heaven’s Gate.

  Tallow let go of me. “Mox has a car a block away. The eagles can’t fly with Savannah, but they’ll be able to hold her and break her fall enough to get her safely to the ground. Then they’ll guide her to Mox. Savannah, you need to get up on the ledge.”

  This Tallow I hadn’t seen before, so sure and in command.

  Savannah peered at me, obviously scared.

  “It’s okay. You’ll be fine. Trust me.” I picked her up and gave her one last hug before placing her on the ledge.

  Tallow and I stepped back as the two eagles flew down and hovered above Savannah before lowering themselves to be at either end of her body, their wings beating in a synchronized motion. They dug their talons into her and she let out a yowling growl but didn’t try to get away. Without hesitation, they pulled her from the ledge and the three of them disappeared from
sight.

  I ran to the edge, looked down and gasped. Savannah and the eagles were a tumble of feather and fur.

  “No. No. No.”

  Tallow lept up onto the ledge, and I knew he intended to go after them and help, but then the eagles righted themselves, beating their wings hard to keep Savannah upright. A current of air must have caught them and made managing her weight easier. They soared away from Heaven’s Gate.

  I beamed up at Tallow. “We did it.”

  “It’s not over yet.” He frowned and raked his hair with his fingers. “Now I need to get you out.”

  That’s when I realized we’d only completed half the rescue. I was stuck on the rooftop, and Abriel remained somewhere on the floors below.

  Tallow gazed toward the sky and the birds circling above started to descend toward us.

  “What are they doing?”

  “We’ll have to fight our way out and they’re here to help.”

  No. They’d get probably get themselves killed. And Tallow’s instinct to protect me meant he was in more danger than any of the others who might have the sense to flee if the situation looked hopeless.

  I wanted to ask if he had found out my father was a shifter and ask if he thought I could shift and fly away too, but if I waited a moment longer the other kin would reach us. If I couldn’t shift I’d have Tallow and the other kin there on the rooftop to support him, back him up. He’d refuse to listen to me, that his plan was reckless and more dangerous than anything I’d ever done. I’d never forgive myself if any of them got killed. And I couldn’t bare the thought Tallow might die because of me.

  He still stood on the ledge after he’d watched Savannah’s fall.

  I stepped up to him. “I’m sorry.”

  His eyes latched onto mine. “We can talk about this later.”

  I doubted he’d ever talk to me again.

  I shoved him with both hands as hard as I could. He fell into the sky. I only allowed myself a second to make sure he transformed into a bird to stop his fall before I ran to the rooftop door. It had locked itself after Savannah and I had come out, but the numbers came to me immediately. Seven, three, three, four, nine, eight. I punched them in, wrenched the door open, and went inside, pulling it closed behind me. The clunk of the lock should have relieved me. It didn’t. Tallow was safe, but would he ever forgive me, and what would Lucien do once he found out what I’d done?

  22

  I had to live with the decision I’d made, even though, with he door at my back, I thought about opening it again. If I’d had more time to think about it, maybe I’d have chosen differently. I wasn’t sure I could do this on my own, but I’d created this mess and I had to be the one to fix it—rescue Abriel and myself, and not let Tallow sacrifice himself.

  I headed down the concrete stairs and hesitated at the door that opened onto the hallway in Lucien’s penthouse, listening for Tallow. I half expected him to start banging on the rooftop door demanding I let him in, but it was silent.Where have you gone? Don’t go doing something stupid. I’m the one that does dumb things.

  Heaven’s Gate had a façade like a skyscraper with windows that didn’t open. The only way I knew to get in, apart from the rooftop, was through the foyer. He wouldn’t try that way, would he? The Fallen would sense him and any shifter before they made it through the doors. I could only hope Tallow knew Abriel was still in Heaven’s Gate and Abriel would help get me out, like he had the first time.

  The safest plan would be to return to Lucien’s private room and wait for him to come back, pretend I’d been asleep. If the subject of Savannah—his mountain lion cub—came up I’d say I hadn’t seen her. But that left too much time for Tallow to do something reckless. I needed to find Lucien and gauge if he’d told me the truth—would he help Abriel and me?—and if he intended to I’d say we needed to get out now. If he refused? I couldn’t afford for him to refuse.

  I opened the door to the hall.

  A Fallen, dressed as a security guard, stood in front of me. He immediately grasped my wrist hard, wrenched me out of the doorway and forced my left arm behind my back. Pain screamed in my shoulder and down my spine. I howled. The Fallen only tightened his grip and pushed me forward.

  “Please? Let go,” I begged. The intensity of the pain made me want to throw up, and the angle he held my arm at was so acute I thought he would pop my shoulder out of its socket.

  “Shut up.”

  He roughly guided me down the hall, past Lucien’s private room. I half cried, half howled in agony, but also managed to scream out Lucien’s name. Where was he?

  The hall open up into the room I’d entered off the elevator that first time I’d been brought to Heaven’s Gate. The floor’s glossy black marble with golden streaks, furniture made from wrought iron apart from the rouge leather sofas and armchairs had seemed decadent the first time I’d seen them. Now the room only appeared oppressive and ominous.

  By the elevator stood three more Fallen, none of them Lucien, one who I’d seen before but couldn’t remember where.

  The Fallen behind me shoved me toward them, not releasing his grip.

  Through pained cries, I begged again, “Please let me go. I’m Lucien’s guest.”

  The Fallen who looked vaguely familiar smiled, but there was something wrong about it. “Let her go.”

  Released from the Fallen’s grip, I grabbed at my left shoulder, squeezed at it as though that would relieve the burning pain.

  “Where’s Lucien?”

  “Not here,” the familiar Fallen answered. “We’ve met before. Do you remember?”

  I shook my head knowing I was about to find out where.

  “Just over a week ago. In an alley. You may remember, I had an owl, which you decided to take from me.”

  Oh God. He was the Fallen who I’d sprayed in the face with a canister of bear spray, the one who was the first to try, and fail, to enrapture me. The one Abriel had said was in the barn where Eloise was tortured. Michael.

  I didn’t have to think hard to realize there was no chance of sweet-talking him. I was in danger. Real danger. I should have listened to Tallow from the start. I shouldn’t have shoved him off the rooftop.

  “Where’s Lucien?” Right at that moment, he was the only one who had any chance of getting me out of the mess I’d gotten into.

  One corner of Michael’s mouth rose. “Lucien isn’t going to help you.”

  He wasn’t?

  “We’ve been watching you on security cameras on the rooftop.”

  Watching? Lucien had set me up. He said there were no cameras. If they could see me, what purpose did it serve letting Savannah get away, unless Lucien’s only intention had been to let us get to the rooftop to confirm that I knew what Savannah was—why else would I try and save her? Perhaps they’d been too late to stop me. They wouldn’t have expected the kin to be there waiting to rescue Savannah.

  “Not surprising an owl came to help you. A tawny at that. Same species as the one you took from me the other night. You might have been able to deceive some for a time, but it’s over. You are an aider of abominations, and I am sure you’re very aware of what happens to them.”

  I knew what happened to Eloise, even if Abriel hadn’t explained what exactly they’d done to her. The details hadn’t mattered and still didn’t. The only thing that did was my grim reality—I would soon find out what they’d done to her because they were going to do it to me.

  Fast deaths are kinder. My death wouldn’t be fast. The excruciating burning of my shoulder was only the beginning.

  “Lucien!” I screamed his name like it was a promise or a prayer. He said he’d help me and Abriel escape. He said! He said! He lied! “Lucien!” Why had I locked Tallow out on the rooftop? “Lucien!”

  “Shut her up,” Michael barked.

  I expected one of them to knock me out. Instead the Fallen who had grabbed me when I’d come into the hall took me again and wrenched my opposite arm behind my back. I screamed in pain.


  Another of the other security guards stepped forward. He had a roll of silver duct tape, and within seconds some of it was stretched across my mouth. He pushed it down roughly as I tried to resist by shaking my head this way and that to stay away from his hands, despite the pain in my shoulder. If I couldn’t scream no one would hear me and if no one could hear me how would anyone know where I was to come and save me?

  Someone always saved me. Someone would save me.

  “Let’s go.”

  Go where? Abriel? Where are you? Help me. Please, help me.

  The elevator doors were black glass-like material. In it I saw my reflection, my face contorted, my eyes betraying me, staring wide with fear as my nostrils flared with each panicked inhale, and the manic look of the security guard who still manhandled me.

  There was a bright “ting”, a sound of such contrast to everything. As the doors opened, I hoped Lucien would be there, that what he’d said was true and he intended to help Abriel and me, but greeting me was nothing but the black void of the interior walls.

  The Fallen who held me shoved me into the elevator, making my shoulder scream with pain again. Michael and the two other guards followed, and the relief was hot in my shoulder as the Fallen holding me let go. I hugged myself, a hand on each shoulder, tears slipping down my cheeks.

  There were no buttons for floors, only a speaker that Michael spoke into. “Taking her down.”

  Down? To where? There wasn’t a display like most elevators telling us the floors we were passing. All I could do was wait.

  In silence we descended. My thoughts terrified me, blossoming with unknowns, and my stomach filled with the feeling of being on a roller coaster when the elevator came to a stop, the one I associated with flying and Tallow. I would have burst out crying if it wasn’t for the tape across my mouth.

  My heart pounded in my ears. What did the torture floors of Heaven’s Gate look like?

  When the doors parted, I saw cars. We weren’t on another floor. We were in an underground parking lot. If they weren’t taking me to their torture floors, were they going to take me in a car somewhere?