Wings of the Wicked

  Then Nathaniel stopped, and the hole he’d created revealed a set of various weapons hidden in the wall. He reached his arm into the wall and pulled out a dark metal object: a mace. The weapon looked old and heavy, and the shaft was long and wrapped in leather. The round head of the mace was made of silver, and deadly looking spikes stuck out in every direction, reminding me of Rikken’s skull.

  Rikken. Where was he? And Merodach?

  “Nathaniel?” came a small voice.

  We both spun to find Lauren standing just inside the blasted-open front of the house, her long hair billowing in the violent wind. I was suddenly numb, and I glanced at Nathaniel, whose face was frozen with fear.

  He shook his head in disbelief, his copper eyes flashing bright and vibrant like brand-new pennies. “No,” he breathed. “Lauren, you’ve got to—”

  Before he could finish, Rikken appeared between them, reaching for Lauren, and Nathaniel hurled the mace with a cry of rage. Rikken leaned back, avoiding the blow easily, and as Nathaniel’s torso went down with the arc of his swing, Rikken smashed his elbow into the back of Nathaniel’s head, sending him to his knees. He recovered quickly and grabbed Rikken’s fist as the demonic reaper swung, and Nathaniel swept the mace up and raked the spikes across Rikken’s chest as Rikken jerked his head out of the mace’s path. Rikken doubled over, clutching his wounds as saliva poured through his teeth and hit the floor, and Nathaniel rose.

  Lauren’s hands covered her mouth in terror. “Nathaniel!”

  He reached for her, dropping the mace to the floor and grasping her hands with his own. “You’ve got to go. I can’t protect you.”

  “Come with me. Please don’t stay here!” She let her hands fall, but his closed around them and squeezed them tight.

  He shook his head and she started to cry. “I have to stay,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”

  With an awful sound escaping her, she nodded. He rushed into her and kissed her mouth fiercely, taking his hands from hers to firmly hold her shoulders.

  “I love you,” he said, his copper eyes glowing. “Now run. Get in your car and drive away as fast as you can. Don’t stop until you’re out of gas. Lauren, run!”

  She turned and bolted from the house. Nathaniel was trembling as we listened to her car start up and the tires squeal out of the driveway. I rushed forward to help him, but he held out a hand, stopping me.

  “No!” he called. “Go help Will. He has both of them on him now. Go!”

  I nodded and obeyed, spinning in the hall, and I darted through the hole in the wall Kelaeno’s body had made. Outside, I was back in the stinging, icy rain and she was nowhere to be seen. For a second I couldn’t see anyone, but I strained my eyes to make out a crumpled shape in the darkness of the lawn. My stomach dropped.

  A hand fastened around my throat and another hand forced my head down. The fingers were like steel, squeezing and squeezing, so hard I couldn’t breathe. My knees hit the deck, and I dropped my swords to claw at the hand strangling me. Then I was wrenched to my feet. The hand loosened just enough for me to breathe and turn to find that I was caught in Kelaeno’s grasp. I twisted, reaching for my swords, but she spun me around, repositioned her hand so that it clamped around the back of my neck. Her other hand locked both of my wrists together. I wrenched my body, desperate to escape, but it was useless. I heard something snap, and I watched my winged necklace fall to the ground, the chain broken. The temperature felt like it dropped another several degrees, and I shivered.

  “You have entirely exhausted my patience,” Kelaeno hissed, her breath hot and stinking of roadkill against my cheek. I gagged and twisted away from her face. She shoved me forward, pushing me down the swaying deck stairs to the ground. My shoes slipped in the mud, my balance off with my arms tied behind my back. Every time I slipped, Kelaeno dug her nails into my wrists.

  The shape ahead of me came into view. It was Will on his knees in the mud, his sword lying too far away. Merodach stood above him with a tight fistful of Will’s hair in his hand and one end of his double blade to Will’s throat.

  Kelaeno jerked me to the ground in front of Will, her grip tightening ruthlessly. “You shouldn’t have angered us like this,” she snarled. “We were just going to grab you and go, but now you get to watch your Guardian die first. Bastian’s orders be damned.”

  My eyes met Will’s as Merodach’s blade pressed deeper into his throat, drawing a fine line of blood. I couldn’t let my emotion show in front of the demonic reapers—or in front of Will. I had to be as tough as he was, and he was so much closer to death in that moment.

  “Rikken was going to give him a slow, agonizing death,” Kelaeno said into my ear. “But it seems he is preoccupied with the other angelic reaper. I think letting your Guardian here bleed out in the mud will do nicely. We can spare a few minutes before we depart.”

  Merodach yanked Will’s head back, exposing his throat to the fullest, and began to draw his knife along my Guardian’s skin. Before I could scream out in protest, something zinged by my face, whirling, whipping through the air, and slammed right into Merodach’s chest, crunching bone. His body jerked at the impact, and he lost his hold on Will. Nathaniel’s mace was half buried in the demonic reaper’s ribs. Will shoved Merodach, hard enough to throw him even further off balance and force his dark wings to burst forth to catch himself. Will grabbed the shaft of the mace and tugged it out of Merodach’s chest with a crack of bone and a sickening wet slap of flesh, and swiped it at Merodach’s head, but the demonic reaper threw a hand up and knocked the weapon away.

  I glanced behind me and gasped as Nathaniel leaped off the deck and darted toward us. Beneath Kelaeno’s vicious grip, I looked everywhere for Rikken, but he was nowhere within eyesight. I could only hope that Nathaniel had killed him.

  Will charged suddenly, a blur in the darkness, and he beat Kelaeno off me. I jumped up and looked around for Merodach, finding that in those few seconds I’d taken my eyes off them, Will had incapacitated Merodach. Across the lawn, the demonic reaper was bent over backward at a disturbing, almost ninety-degree angle, struggling against Will’s sword nailing him to the ground. His wings beat against the dead grass and muddy patches of snow.

  Kelaeno managed to duck away from Will’s monstrous attack, her face and clothes soaking wet with blood and rain. She slipped through the mud and grabbed me again before I could react. She swung me around, contorting my arm so violently in the wrong direction that I cried out and stars danced across my vision. She pressed her knee into my back, shoving my chest and face into the mud, pulling on my arm at the same time, threatening to dislodge the bone from its socket. I ground my teeth and whimpered.

  “Not another step, Guardian!” Kelaeno cawed shrilly. “I’ll rip her arm right off. Merodach, get over here!”

  Though I couldn’t see much, I assumed Merodach was still staked to the ground by Will’s sword. I recognized Will’s feet in front of me, unmoving, and I glanced to my right and saw up to Nathaniel’s knees.

  Above me, Kelaeno loosed an ugly, impatient growl. “Enough of this.”

  And then she wrenched my arm right out of the socket. I screamed and crumpled, squeezing my eyes shut. Kelaeno dropped me, and all around where I lay, feet darted and splashed through puddles. I pulled my useless limb closer to my body with my good arm. It felt cold, numb, and lifeless. As the seconds dragged on, the pain intensified. I tried to get up, but shock paralyzed me and my body wouldn’t work.

  “Ellie.” A hand lay on my uninjured shoulder. It was Nathaniel.

  He touched my face tenderly and helped me turn over onto my back. He touched my dislocated arm, and I shrieked and twisted from him. As gentle as he was, any contact felt like a thousand knives were driving into my skin. My arm hung limp, like dead weight, and I tried to pull it over my lap, but my whole body was so weak that I could barely even raise my good arm.

  Nathaniel murmured to me, trying to soothe me, but all I needed was a distraction from the agony. Will and Kelaeno we
re fighting, clashing like titans from another world. The earth beneath me roiled with their power, and the air sparked with electricity.

  “Ellie,” Nathaniel repeated determinedly, snapping my attention back to him. I was getting dizzier with shock by the moment. “We have to put your arm back into the socket. You can’t heal otherwise.”

  I closed my eyes tightly and nodded. “Just do it. I’ve got to keep fighting.”

  He took a firm hold of my shoulder and my arm just above the elbow. The pain was blinding, and so brief that once it was over, I was almost a little confused. I could feel tendons and muscles healing themselves, and the sensation was sickening but necessary.

  I met Nathaniel’s stern gaze and took a deep breath. “Thank you.”

  “You’ll be fine in a moment.” He nodded once, and we both looked toward the battle.

  Will grabbed Kelaeno’s arm and rammed his fist into the side of her head. She staggered about and his knee shoved up into her gut, making her grunt and choke. Will’s fist swung to hit Kelaeno again, but her hand shot up and deflected his strike before she closed her fingers around his throat. He gasped painfully from the strength of her grip. She stood, glaring at him, and squeezed as tightly as she could. Will’s teeth clenched as he held back his pain and dug his fingers into her wrists. Then his gaze darkened and he summoned his power. He blasted everything he had into Kelaeno’s face, and she screamed and released him, spinning away and shielding herself from the explosion of winding, smoky black energy. She hit the mud sliding, and Will, now free, darted toward his sword.

  His sword that no longer pinned Merodach to the ground. My breath caught as I felt a rush of dark power close to me.

  I heard a gargled, anguished cry behind me, and I spun. Nathaniel was doubled over, and Merodach, soaked with his own blood, had his fist buried in Nathaniel’s chest. Something glinted in the moonlight and I blinked. Merodach’s sword stuck out of Nathaniel’s back—stabbed right through his heart.

  My entire body went numb as I watched Merodach tug his sword free and Nathaniel hit the muddy ground on his knees. He wavered unsteadily, blood leaking like a river from his chest. He looked up into Merodach’s face and then collapsed and rolled onto his back.

  For a moment, I couldn’t scream for him, couldn’t look away. Nathaniel sputtered and trembled. His skin brightened and shimmered, slowly turning to stone.

  He was dying.

  Merodach stared at me curiously as I scrambled toward Nathaniel and threw myself over him, running my hands along his graying arms to cup his face. He was just fine this morning, stretching his wings and telling me that anything was possible and to love who I wanted to love. He was just fine moments ago, putting my arm back into its socket and telling me I’d be all right. This couldn’t be happening. Not to Nathaniel.

  “No, no, no,” I moaned in a low voice, rocking back and forth, my entire body shaking.

  Nathaniel gaped at me, his face full of surprise and pain. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. He started to lift a hand, but his limbs were growing heavier and stiffer as he bled out and his heart chugged to a stop. His iridescent copper eyes widened and froze as his face turned to stone. Raindrops hit his rock skin, leaving dark, damp dots scattered across the white. Each soft metallic copper hair became pale and brittle and colorless, breaking off at the touch of my fingertips. Then he broke apart, piece by piece in my hands. Tears poured down my face as I screamed his name over and over until he was gone.

  I lifted my head and searched for Will as I sobbed hysterically. His green eyes stared at Nathaniel’s stone remains; the color drained from his face. His eyes brightened quickly, growing so vibrant that they blazed in the darkness. His hand squeezed the handle of his sword so tightly his fist trembled and I could hear the silver groan. With a cry of unrivaled wrath, he launched himself at Merodach at a speed so high it appeared that he skimmed the ground midflight, and then his white wings burst through his shirt, shredding the fabric. He swept his sword low and then swung it high over his head as he soared through the air. His blade slashed at Merodach, and the demonic reaper swung his own up to catch Will’s sword with a deafening screech of metal. They collided, and Will’s power slammed into Merodach, sinking the ground beneath Merodach’s feet into a crater. The dark flash of shadows and smoke of reaper power cloaked them for an instant, and when it cleared, I saw only Will in the bottom of the fissure he’d created. Merodach had leaped out of it, his own dark wings spread wide behind him. He stepped back on his heel and readied his sword. Will’s wings beat once and launched him high into the air, and he came down on Merodach, his sword streaking through the air, slashing, striking, cutting flesh, clanging off the other blade. He was consumed with rage, his attacks all power and no control. Merodach was going to kill him.

  “Will!” My voice was strangled, and I leaned protectively over what was left of Nathaniel. “Will, stop!”

  He couldn’t hear me, couldn’t hear or see anything. I realized then how terrified he was for me when I let my emotions and power take over.

  “Will, you have to stop! You’re going to get yourself killed!”

  A blast of power sent tremors through the earth, and I grabbed at the ground for balance.

  “Will, stop!” I screamed, but my voice was lost in the chaos.

  Merodach’s elbow smashed right into Will’s nose, knocking him back several steps. The demonic reaper spun and kicked Will so hard he nearly hit the ground. Merodach spun again and pierced his sword right through Will’s chest, splashing blood across his white wings. Will collapsed onto his knees, and I screamed, scrambling to my feet and taking off at a run toward him. I couldn’t lose them both tonight. I couldn’t lose Will. I couldn’t lose him.

  Rikken emerged into my vision a few yards away, drenched with blood as if he’d bathed in it. Nathaniel hadn’t killed him after all. A shadow stretched directly over me. I looked up.

  The last thing I saw was the back of Kelaeno’s hand slamming into my face.

  25

  “LET ME GO! SOMEBODY HELP ME! HELP ME, please!”

  The voice screamed inside my head and stung my ears. I groggily shook myself awake, my skull hammering with pain, trying to figure out if the voice screaming was my own or not. My body was vertical, this much I could tell. My wrists were cut by the chains binding them over my head, and my healing shoulder throbbed. I slit my eyes open and could tell the light was dim wherever I was. The air was cold and damp, like I was underground—in a cellar.

  “You!” the voice said again, hushed but frantic. “Are you alive? You awake?”

  Not my own voice. I lifted my head painfully and forced my eyes open. The low light made it easier, but every muscle and joint in my body ached. I was definitely in a cellar with torches flickering firelight off stone walls.

  “Hey! Girl!”

  The voice was making my head hurt worse. I looked in the direction it came from and found a blond girl about my age standing next to me a few feet away. No, not standing. Chained. Her wrists were chained to the low ceiling, just as mine were. A stab of panic hit straight through my gut as I snapped my head up. I yanked on the chains as hard as I could, my body shaking with fear. They wouldn’t budge. Dust clouded above me, but the chains didn’t break. I summoned my power and gave a tremendous jerk, but still nothing. Fear turned into shock and confusion. Iron chains shouldn’t be able to hold me. I’d brought down an entire warehouse before, just by willing my power. This made no sense. None of this made sense.

  But why was I here? How did I get here?

  “Are you okay?” the girl asked. “Hey! Are you deaf?”

  “No,” I snapped, my voice hoarse. “I’m not deaf. I’m thinking. Or trying to, at least.” I looked around the room, looking for anything familiar, but I’d never been here or seen this girl before.

  And then it hit me, the memory rolling in like acid fog.

  Nathaniel.

  Will.

  Nathaniel was dead and Will probably was too.
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  I couldn’t breathe. I gasped for air—rapid, uncontrolled gasps. My lungs wouldn’t work. My heart pounded and my vision faded to black as I sagged heavily against my chains. I felt like I was dying. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I wept for my friends. The memory of Nathaniel turning to stone in my arms and Will taking Merodach’s blade to his chest was too much. I cried and thrashed and screamed, cursing the demonic reapers and swearing to tear them apart piece by piece.

  Then I swallowed hard and forced my tears to cease. I had to be brave. I had to escape and get back to Will if he was still alive. If he was dead, I’d have known. I’d have felt it in my soul. Now I had to get myself out of this, because no one was coming for me.

  And my panic wasn’t helping the girl I was imprisoned with to stay calm.

  “Are you okay?” she asked once I’d stopped crying. Her face was streaked with dirt and bloody scrapes.

  I ignored her question. “Where are we?”

  She shook her head weakly. “I don’t know. A basement, I think.”

  Useless. “How long have you been down here?”

  “A day. Maybe two. I don’t know. They’ve only come down once since I woke up in here.”

  “They?”

  She was quiet for a moment, her pale blue eyes locking on mine. “Monsters.”

  Reapers. “Do you know why you’re here?”

  “No. Do you?”

  Yes. Maybe. “We have to stay calm.”

  “I’m scared,” she said, shaking. “And I haven’t eaten in so long. I don’t feel well.”

  “Hey,” I said sharply, just as she was about to cry. “I’m going to figure out how to get out of here.” The problem was, I had no idea how to do that. Something was keeping me weak. I wasn’t so sure I could bust out of these chains by brute strength alone.