Wings of the Wicked

  I sensed Will near me, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him appear in the doorway. When I looked at him, his shoulders slumped.

  “Are you all right?” he asked. “Please talk to me, Ellie.”

  My mother’s face flashed across my memory, and I sniffed harshly, forcing back a sob. I curled my limbs close to my body and leaned against the window. “I miss my mom.”

  He sucked in his upper lip for a thoughtful moment, and he came over and sat down on the other side of the window. “I know.”

  The sob broke free, and before I knew what was happening, tears were pouring down my cheeks, and my lips and hands were shaking. I shuddered, choking on air as suffocating despair filled me up like a flood, filling my lungs and windpipe until I was crying so hard that I couldn’t breathe. He pulled me close, wrapping me in his arms as my own hung weakly around him. I buried my face in his chest as I cried, and his warm, familiar scent and hands caressing my hair were soothing. He murmured softly to me, but the words didn’t matter. I just needed to feel him around me.

  I pulled away from him at last, wiping at the wetness on my face with my sleeves. It took me a few moments to meet his eyes. I managed to get my breathing back under control and to stop my chest from heaving. I tucked my arms and legs close to my body again until I was no longer touching Will. He just sat there, unmoving and silent. We watched each other for some time, the stillness between us peaceful. I listened to the rain as it pounded hard against the house.

  “I’m worried about you,” he said gently. He put his hand around my knee and then leaned forward to kiss it. An obvious request for peace between us. “And about how you’re feeling.”

  “I’m fine. I feel better after crying a little.”

  He smiled, his lips brushing my knee, but the smile faded as soon as it began. “No, you’re not. I’m worried that you won’t get better for a while.”

  “I’m healing, Will. That takes time.” I tapped the backs of my fingers against the freezing-cold window glass, wishing he would do anything but continue our current conversation.

  “I know,” he said, and sat back. “You smile sometimes, but I don’t think you’re happy.”

  I shrugged and stopped tapping. “It’s hard to be happy.”

  “I understand better than most,” he said. “I worry you’re shutting down on me. We hunt every night, but it feels like you’ve lost your spark, some of your light. You won’t tell me how you really feel, and I just want to help you.”

  “I’m in a lot of pain,” I told him. “I want revenge, and we haven’t found Bastian yet. We have no idea what his next move will be, and I’m going crazy.”

  He took my hand and rubbed it with both of his. “I need you to keep fighting. Don’t give up on me, okay?” He touched my hair and got up to leave.

  “Will.” I called after him and followed him to the door. I wound my fingers around the bottom of his shirt. “I don’t mean to worry you. I’ve been so numb with grief since I lost my parents. You’re doing wonderfully, supporting me, and I appreciate that.”

  “I just don’t know what to say to you or how to act.”

  “You don’t have to say anything.” I pleaded, “Just be here … like you are now.”

  He sighed and wrapped his arms around me. “I promise I’ll always be here for you.”

  I felt new tears burning my eyes. “You can’t promise me that. I’ve already lost so much. I can’t lose you too, Will.”

  He pulled back, and his thumbs wiped my tears. “It’s a promise I plan to keep, and I’ve never lied to you. I swear to you that I will be your Guardian forever and I’ll keep loving you forever.”

  More tears rolled down my cheeks, and he kissed them away, his lips soft against my skin. I was so heartsick, so certain that if he died for me, I’d never survive that grief.

  He tilted my chin up, his green eyes bright in the dimly lit room. “You believe me, don’t you?”

  I nodded, my lips quivering. “I do.”

  He kissed me tenderly and I kissed him back more fiercely, our first kiss since the night my mother died. It felt like years ago, decades, like I hadn’t taken a breath in far too long.

  “Why don’t you get some sleep?” he offered, his hands spilling over my shoulders. “Take it easy tonight.”

  “Are you going to patrol?”

  “No,” he said. “I think I’ll go down by the lake for a while and get some fresh air. Let’s go upstairs and get you into bed.”

  He took my hand and led me up to his room, where I settled into his bed, pulling my limbs close to my body.

  “Will you stay with me?” I asked as I pulled the blankets up to my chin.

  “I’ll be up in a while,” he promised. “Try to sleep, okay?”

  I watched him leave the room and close the door behind him. Drifting off took forever, and I kept stirring in and out of sleep for what was likely hours. His bed was so warm and soft, but my heart hurt too much for me to settle into a deep sleep.

  Suddenly a tremendous roar blasted my eardrums, and the house gave a violent shake. I thrashed in surprise and terror, unsure if I’d dreamed what I’d just experienced. When my senses returned to me, I threw off the blankets and leaped to my feet. I tore open the bedroom door and darted down the stairs into the settling dust. The overhead lights flickered, buzzed, and went out, cloaking the house in darkness, my ears ringing shrilly. I moved toward the front of the house where the sound had come from, stepping slowly and silently.

  “Will?” I called. “Nathaniel?”

  The foyer—what was left of it—came into view. The front door had been blasted through, the wall around it demolished. The dust billowing in the moonlight now poured across the foyer tile. I slipped into the Grim and gasped when I saw what had caused the damage. A massive form appeared in the light and dust, the silhouette a jagged and crude shape of a man. But he was no man.

  “Preliator!” the deep, gravelly voice of Merodach boomed, shaking my body to the bone. “Come out and play!”

  Behind him, another shape appeared: Kelaeno, trailed by five more vir reapers.

  They had found me.

  24

  KELAENO FLEW ACROSS THE DEBRIS AND LANDED inside, her wings smashing through another wall as if the wood and drywall were made of paper. Her hair was a tangled, stringy mess and her facial features were more stable than when I last saw her. With an established form, she was prettier than I thought she’d be, but the violence and insanity in her eyes shattered the image. She looked as if she already had the taste of my blood in her mouth.

  “The time has come to fetch you, little huntress,” she sneered, creeping toward me with the quick, sharp movements of something more avian than human. “I think I may have a bite on the way back to Bastian. I’ve never tasted angel flesh before.”

  I stared into her wicked face. “Too bad your head will be rolling in the dirt in about five seconds.”

  “Bold words,” Merodach said as he stepped into the foyer, “for a dead girl.” His body was so dark that only the edges were outlined in blue moonlight. His horns spiraled toward the ceiling, and the ones on his back stuck out in every direction.

  Will raced by me, appearing out of nowhere, sword in hand. Merodach called his own sword—a hilt decorated with finely sculpted, razor-sharp points, and with sleek, vicious blades on either end. Merodach’s double sword met Will’s above both their heads, and the rush of energy slammed into either side of the hallway, crushing the walls. Merodach spun his sword so fast the blades blurred and nearly took off Will’s head, but my Guardian ducked and rolled, sweeping his sword low, and Merodach leaped into the air, landing on Will’s other side. Their blades clashed again, and Will struggled to keep up with Merodach’s double blades, slashing and swiping at speeds I could barely see. With each clang of metal against metal, their energies flashed, their eyes like beacons in the dark, so bright the blackness was stained and smeared with color as they moved.

  The small army of unknown reapers??
?three males and two females—held still and silent, as if waiting for orders to engage. The male standing out in front was shorter than the rest and was drooling revolting amounts of saliva that squeezed out from between his lips and sharp teeth and rolled down his chin. Instead of hair, this one had a dozen or so short spikes made of clean white bone sticking out of his skull in every direction.

  A hand locked around my throat and threw me across the living room. My body smashed into the stone fireplace, collapsing the mantle, and rubble rained down on me as I hit the floor. Kelaeno was above me suddenly, grabbing a fistful of my hair and yanking me to my feet.

  “Time to come with us,” she hissed.

  My sword appeared in my hand and blazed with angelfire as I swung it up at Kelaeno’s face. She ducked, but my blade cut across her cheek, drawing blood and sparking. She shrieked and lashed out with her talons, slicing gashes across my chest. My angelfire seared into her face in a flash of light, and her skin scarred over. She shook her head violently, hissing and snarling and gnashing her teeth. Then she lunged for my throat, swiping, slashing, clawing. I kicked her chest and she hit the floor but bounced right back to her feet. Her hand clamped around my throat, and she threw me to the ground, grinding my back into the floor. Her boot stomped on my sword arm, keeping me from striking her as she crouched over me. I clawed at her hand as it tightened around my throat.

  “Such a wild thing! You’re like an angry kitten.” Kelaeno laughed down at me, and her fingers brushed down my cheek. “And you’re so pretty. I want your entrails for ribbons in my hair.” She slashed her talon across my skin, and I flinched at the sting and the smell of the blood that followed it, despite the cut healing right away. She laughed again and shoved me harder into the floor.

  Suddenly a fist collided with her head, and she was thrown off of me and sent tumbling. Will leaped over me and charged at the demonic reaper as she struggled to her feet. He hit her again and she fell. He swung his fist a third time, but her power lashed out and struck him in the chest, and he landed a few yards away on his back with a grunt.

  She stood and cursed at the top of her lungs as she spun around to the waiting reapers. “Rikken!” she roared at the drooling reaper. “Disable the Guardian!”

  Rikken gave an eager shake of his spiked head like a dog baring his teeth, and he stomped toward Will. Kelaeno stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Will just as I heard him growl in pain. Fear for his life stabbed at every inch of me. We weren’t going to make it out of here alive. There were just too many of them.

  I screamed in a rage and called my second sword and slashed it across Kelaeno’s chest, ripping her wide open. She roared and reared back, spreading her arms wide with clenched fists, thrashing her head from side to side in fury. I shot forward and swept my sword at her gut, but her hand knocked my arm away and she swung her body into me. A claw swiped my face and I hit the ground, blood seeping over my cheek and lips. I spat and wiped my arm across my face, feeling the numbness of my skin healing.

  As I climbed to my feet, I saw two reapers racing toward me—a female with glossy black feathers in her hair and another male—with their claws spread open and teeth bared. I collided with them, spinning, ducking, kicking. I brought down my blade in a sweeping arc, splitting the female reaper’s body in two through her shoulder and below her left breast. She burst into flames, gone before any of her even hit the ground.

  I wheeled to meet the second reaper directly behind me, but something large and glinting burst through his rib cage, cracking bone and tearing flesh. Blood flecked off silver metal as it halted for a brief moment, only inches from my own chest, and then the reaper’s body lifted into the air so that I could see it had been Will who had shoved his sword through the reaper’s heart. He flipped the reaper high over his head as the body turned to stone midair and shattered into a thousand pieces when it hit the floor.

  Across the hall, Rikken clutched his throat and chest, which had been sliced wide open by Will’s sword moments ago, spilling red. He coughed and sputtered, but even from this distance I saw that his wound wasn’t fatal and was already healing.

  A shadow passed behind Will, and I cried out his name. He turned and met Merodach, who charged through the darkness, driving his sword at Will’s chest, but Will spun to the side at the last instant. The blade ripped through his shirt and missed his skin entirely. Merodach slashed his double sword left and right and left and right, meeting Will’s giant blade each time.

  I didn’t see Kelaeno appear beside me until she struck me across the temple. I staggered one step before I found my balance, spun, and reeled my elbow into her jaw. Her Harpy-like face snapped to the side. She swiveled her head around to meet my gaze with her holly red eyes, and she called two short, slick swords into her hands. She moved like lightning, one of her swords raised level with her shoulder before she thrust it at my face. I bounced away, but she followed, slashing and striking. Silver clanged against flaming silver, and her gaze locked onto mine as if she had nothing else to see. She drove one sword at my heart and I twisted away, but her other blade was too fast. Metal plunged into my shoulder, and I screamed as it ripped through my body. I stumbled against the wall and collapsed to my knees in agony.

  Then Kelaeno jerked her head to the side in a blur, and her shoulder exploded. I saw Nathaniel standing behind her, staring down the barrel of his gun. Kelaeno had moved too fast for Nathaniel to shoot her in the head. He fired again, but she ducked low until her face was frighteningly close to mine. As she turned her head to look, her cheek brushed my nose and I jerked away, horrified. She slid her sword out from my shoulder, lifting my body as she did so. I shrieked in pain before slumping back against the wall.

  Then she vanished.

  Nathaniel’s eyes grew wide and he waited for her to reappear. When her form blurred into view, she was too fast for him to react. Her swords gone, she grabbed the gun from his hands and snapped it in half like a Popsicle stick before she chucked the pieces at the ground.

  Will came out of nowhere and wrapped his arm around Kelaeno’s throat, digging up against her windpipe and yanking her back. He held on until she shoved her elbow into his gut and managed to wrench herself free. Nathaniel threw out a fist, but she caught it and struck him in the jaw. Will grabbed his sword off the ground and swiped it at the demonic reaper’s back.

  Kelaeno’s ears pricked as she heard Will coming, and she spun around to defend herself, leaping back as his blade slashed across her chest, leaving a deep, bleeding gash and very nearly slicing off her head. She hissed and swung around in pain, clutching her open wound. The flesh wrapped over itself and wove back together, healing perfectly. Kelaeno’s red eyes burned like flames with her rage at receiving another wound of that severity in practically the same spot.

  I rushed forward to help Will, but two other vir intercepted—the remaining female and the last male besides the wounded Rikken. They slashed and hissed, throwing punches and kicks that I dodged. I buried one blade in the male reaper’s heart on my left side, whirled at the female on my right, and cut off her head with my remaining blade. The male was in flames when I spun back to him, and I caught my falling sword as his body turned to ash.

  Kelaeno grasped her clawed hand around my arm, and as I swung the blade in my free hand, she grabbed that wrist and squeezed, nails digging into my skin. I screamed and cried out. Blood seeped, and I was forced to drop my sword.

  “Time to go,” she said sharply, and began dragging me toward the nearest escape route.

  Then Will struck her brutally in the side of her head, so hard that she released me and her knees buckled. Will clamped his hand around the back of her neck, wrenched her off me, and threw her through the kitchen wall with all his strength. Wood shattered around her body as wet, icy-cold air rushed inside through the hole. Kelaeno crashed into the deck, destroying the railing, and she disappeared as she hurtled toward the ground with a scream of fury.

  Will turned to me, and I exhaled a sigh of relie
f.

  The breath caught in my throat as Kelaeno burst through the air over the deck, her wings spread and beating violently. Time seemed to slow. I stared deep into Will’s eyes, my expression widening in horror, as Kelaeno’s outstretched claws grappled at his body, snatching him and yanking him back out the hole in the wall and into the rain and darkness.

  “Will!” I shrieked, and grabbed my fallen sword and dived through the demolished wall. The deck groaned and shifted uneasily beneath my weight, but I didn’t care as I ran to the edge and peered over the shattered floorboards. Icy rain stung my skin, and I shivered viciously at the wind whipping my hair, clawing at my clothes, and beating my face.

  Down on the cold, muddy ground, dashing through the rain, Will and Kelaeno were fighting. Talons ripped Will’s arm wide open and he yelled out, tearing away, as Kelaeno landed in a crouched position. She jumped up and swiped again, her claws shredding Will’s shirt. Kelaeno ducked as he swung his sword, and she kicked him in the chest, making him grunt and knocking the sword out of his hand. They collided in a fury of swinging, pounding fists.

  I heard a tremendous sound behind me, and I whirled. Merodach and Rikken were nowhere to be seen, but Nathaniel was punching through the only remaining wall in the hallway leading from the kitchen to what was left of the front door. The staircase behind him was a demolished and nearly inaccessible pile of rubble. Nathaniel pounded his fists—left, right, left, right—into the wall, exploding wood, drywall, and insulation. I stared at him, distracted by my confusion as to why he would be trying to knock this wall down. For a second, I almost forgot about the missing demonic reapers.