Ethereal Knights

  ***

  We start down the highway with the windows down. A fresh whiff of soil and pine perfumes the air—Paragon’s signature scent. Skyla showed off the fact she could get into my truck without breaking her neck, and I applauded the effort. I would have sold the truck if she wanted me to—built her a scaffolding just to get in it if it were her wish. There’s not a whole lot I wouldn’t do for Skyla.

  “So where you taking me?” She shouts above the roar of the wind. I hadn’t noticed her hair blowing wild until now, so I roll up the windows.

  “It’s a surprise.” I give a little wink.

  I’ve been meaning to take Skyla to the Black Forest and teach her how to use her powers ever since that night Gage threatened to do it himself. There’s no way I’m letting him wedge himself into our relationship. Speaking of which, I’d like to drag his ass out here one day and do a little field practice using him as the ball.

  We veer off the main road and drive down a curtain of pines. The evergreens create a dark, looming circle, and the forest defuses the light in the clearing. We get out of the truck, and Skyla extends her arms, proud to have stuck the landing.

  “You take all the girls here?” She flirts when she says it, but I can tell a natural curiosity is layered just beneath.

  “I don’t think I’ve taken anyone here.” I pick up her hand and lead her down a pebbled path, deeper into the woods.

  “It’s kind of creepy.” Even though I’m with Logan, I feel entirely vulnerable.

  Don’t. We’re safe. I reach up and clasp a fattened tree limb, snapping it in half with minimal effort.

  Skyla’s mouth opens with awe.

  “I’m going to teach you how to do that.” I’m breathless taking in the wonder on her face. I want to teach her how to do far more intimate things and using our powers is nowhere near the top of the list.

  “I’m all ears.” She steps into me like a seductress, and for moment, I wonder if this afternoon is going to take a turn for the fantastic.

  “First, you determine that you can do this. Before you choose what you’re going to do with your strength, you need to believe.”

  “Okay. So I believe I can pluck this branch off.”

  She takes hold of what amounts to a twig, but I don’t call her on it. She snatches it with a firm grip, and it bends like a rubber pretzel, every which way but loose.

  “You have to really believe.” I brush the hair from her eyes. “It’s a biblical principle. You need to come from a place of knowing. Really understand that you’ve been given the power, and if you doubt it’s possible—it will be impossible.”

  “Great.” She moves to another branch and repeats the effort, then another, each time choosing one more meager than the last. “Can’t do it.” She pants as if she’s exhausted.

  “Okay.” I pull her in and scan the vicinity for a straight path that could double as a distance course. “Let’s try speed.” I bend my knee and tuck my torso before bulleting over to a tree at least a hundred yards away.

  Skyla jumps up and down and crosses her arms over her head.

  “Hey! How’d you do that?”

  The joy on her face is arrestingly attractive. I’d circle the planet if she’d cheer for me like that in private.

  I create a megaphone with my hands and shout, “Try it!”

  Skyla positions her body in the same manner I did.

  Damn, she’s hot bending over like that.

  She looks at me from over her brows like she’s about to administer an ass kicking, not that’d I mind. Right about now, I’d take any physical contact she’d be willing to offer.

  She starts in on a sprint then breaks through the human speed barrier, landing next to me, severely out of breath.

  “You did it!” I plant a kiss on the top of her head and twirl her in my arms. The pine needles crush beneath my feet, and I think we should seriously consider testing how soft they are by rolling around on them. Skyla swallows a laugh as I bow into her with a feather-soft kiss. There’s nothing else I want to do for the next several hours but breathe Skyla.

  A loud bang goes off in the woods, and we pull back. A crack erupts overhead and we look up just in time to spot a branch the size of a refrigerator toppling in our direction. I scoop up Skyla and get out of the way.

  “That could have killed us!” Her heart beats erratic against me as she stares horrified at the mass of foliage.

  “I believe that was the plan.”

  We might be safe for now, but I know damn well the fun is just beginning.

  Nev sits perched about fifty feet away, his feathers twitching as if affirming there’s trouble. I flick a finger and signal for him to go for help. The last person I want on my date with Skyla is Gage, but if things go the way I think they will, we just might need him.

  “It’s that raven,” she whispers. “What is that, your bird or something?”

  I open my mouth to correct her, but opt to dodge the topic for now.

  “It sends a signal.”

  “Can’t you just use your cell?”

  “It’s more than that.” I dig a half-smile into my cheek. Skyla has the power to melt me, even in the face of danger. “C’mon.” I pull her in and lead us back to the truck.

  A thick plume of fog settles in the woods, hugging the ground, the tree trunks until everything around us melts like a dream.

  A rancid smell clots up the air, and Skyla covers her nose with her sleeve.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a Fem.” I can hear its footsteps, faint like a heartbeat against the cushioned forest floor. I pull her in tight by the shoulders and keep us moving through the maze of evergreens. “We have to outrun it, or it’ll kill us.”

  “I can’t.” I’m gonna die. My mother is going to find me in forest eaten by a Fem. “It’s going to eat me, isn’t it?”

  “It might.” It’s nice to know I can’t count on the luxury of lying when I need it the most. Although, nothing in me ever wants to lie to Skyla.

  I case out the woods with my head spinning in every direction at once. The sky peers in through the dismal branches. The fog puffs its luminescent glow like a streetlamp, blinding me wherever I look. I can’t get my bearings. It’s getting closer. I can feel it.

  Shit.

  I scoop Skyla up and bolt through the maze of gnarled branches. She buries her face in my chest in fear. I feel horrible for ever thinking it was a good idea to bring her here.

  A dark shadow stains our path as tall as an elephant. I look up and there it is—a Fem with its leathery tail, its thick skin gnarled like an alligator. It’s the last thing I want Skyla to see, so I let out a ferocious roar to let it know I’m not in the mood to dick around.

  Skyla peers up at me. The whites of her eyes go off like lanterns as she shrinks in my arms. The Fem comes in fast.

  I hop up high into the branches, securing Skyla a spot nestled near the trunk.

  If this is going down, it’s for sure not happening with Skyla in my arms. I jump down and lunge at the creature.

  The Fem rises. A gurgle escapes its throat as he straightens at least twelve feet in the air. He falls over me and bellows a hiss that threatens to blow out my eardrums. I thrash the beast onto its back and try to secure his arms, but he folds me in half and tosses me through the air, easy as crumpled paper. I land flat on my tailbone, sending a fire line of pain straight to my skull.

  A fallen branch catches my attention and I carefully maneuver over to it before the Fem reels me in like a fish. I wait for the perfect shot, and then spear the branch into its neck like a javelin. It twists and writhes, hissing like an expired tire as I jump over its chest.

  “Skyla!” I call out, disoriented as to where I left her.

  A whimper goes off behind me, and I spin to find her perched up high, peering at me from over her arm.

  “You kill it?” It comes out weak, as if she doesn’t believe it were possible.

  Damn straight, I killed it. “Take a picture.?
?? I laugh holding out my arms.

  “You’re insane if you think I’m digging around for my phone.”

  Gage appears from thin air directly beneath Skyla with his arms open and waiting like some ready and willing Prince Charming. “Jump, and I’ll catch you,” he encourages. He didn’t need to do that. He could have just as easily gone up there to get her.

  “No,” she shouts down at him. “I’m very afraid of heights. I’ll need hours of therapy to repair the damage done here today.”

  Looks like the Dark Knight’s big, bad plan backfired. I climb the branches so fast that Skyla pushes back with surprise when I appear beside her. I bless the top of her head with a kiss before lowering us back to earth, soft and gentle like a leaf carried by the wind.

  The Fem lets out a viral hiss and dissipates in a wall of vapors. His foul odor magnifies through the area like some demonic calling card, leaving us gasping for air.

  I carry Skyla all the way back to the truck and buckle her in.

  “Smells like raw sewage.” She says through the sleeve of her sweater, and I dot her forehead with a kiss.

  I circle around to the driver’s side and catch Gage already seated next to her—swear to God, it looks like he just gave her a kiss.

  By the time I arrive, he’s long gone. Lucky for him—I was going to arrange for him to kiss the windshield on the way home. Not really, but I’m getting there.

  “What exactly is a Fem?” Skyla asks as I climb in. “And please tell me that was the last one.”

  “A Fem can change shapes to be whatever it wants—whatever it thinks will frighten you and weaken your defenses.”

  Her face goes pale against the backdrop of the necrotic woods.

  “And what do they want?” She whispers, almost afraid to ask.

  “They personally don’t want anything. They’re a lower faction of the Sectors. They do all the spiritual dirty work. It’s been long believed that Countenance hire them out to do their bidding, but of course, they deny it. There’s not enough evidence to bring them to the Justice Alliance.”

  “You said they hire them out.” She glances out at the blackened sky. “What’s their currency?”

  “It’s a power exchange. I don’t know how it works. All I know is if you ever come upon a Fem, one of you will be leaving dead.” And today, it wasn’t me.

  “I could never kill anything like that. I’d be too afraid.”

  “That’s why it looks the way it does, because it wants to scare you. You have to remember it’s nothing more than a ball of air.” It was all I could think of, but in the end it’s true.

  “Ball of air.” She shakes her head, unconvinced.

  I bet right about now, Skyla regrets ever setting foot on Paragon.

  ***

  By the time we get back the mall, it’s a ghost town with half the shops already closing their doors. I walk hand in hand with Skyla over to the movie theater, and it feels like we’re an official couple. A couple should be able to share everything with one another, especially the truth. But after what just happened, I don’t want to tell her how much danger I think she’s in. Fems don’t just shoot out of the forest unless someone’s sicced them after you.

  She flashes a quick smile up at me between talking to her mother on the phone and texting her sisters.

  “So you’re like a superhero.” She slides her shoulder into my chest.

  “So are you.” I push back before securing my arm around her waist.

  “Yeah, but you killed a dragon. That practically makes you a prince.” She bats her lashes, driving me insane in the process.

  “It wasn’t a dragon, but it might be next time.” It could be twenty dragons, but I leave that detail out. “And if I’m a prince, you must be a princess.” She is in my book—in the story of our lives.

  Skyla lands a kiss at the base of my neck. She runs her tongue up my jaw in a heated line, and everything in me wishes we were anywhere but here.

  “It’s pretty amazing that we’re both Celestra,” she moans into me. “We could have an entire faction of perfect Celestrial beings running around one day.”

  I like her line of thinking. I go to correct her—that it’s celestial and not celestrial—and a thought comes to me, about as welcome as a landmine.

  Shit.

  My features darken with the epiphany. There’s no way in hell the Counts will tolerate a perfect Celestra family. Not now, not ever.

  “Or flying,” I take a breath as I change the subject. “We could always learn to fly.”

  “So we can learn other gifts?” She swings our hands, innocent of the hurdles the future undoubtedly holds.

  “Yeah, but it’s like learning the piano for the very first time or another language. It takes great effort to master it. With your natural gifts, you just need to believe. He does the rest for you.”

  “Who’s he?” She glances around with suspicion.

  “Master.” I point up.

  Her cell goes off, and she inspects it with a frown before answering.

  Her face explodes with worry. Skyla hangs up without saying a word.

  “I have to find the girls,” she bleats.

  I purchase a pair of tickets so we can get into the theater. Hopefully we can locate her sisters before her mother banishes her from ever leaving the house again. We split up in hopes to divide and conquer, but I don’t see a sign of her sisters anywhere.

  Skyla meets me by the concession stand without her siblings in tow, so I guess the answer to whether or not she found them is a big, fat no.

  “They’re not anywhere.” She rattles me by the shoulders in a panic. “You think someone took them?”

  Before I can answer, a loud bang ignites on the other side of the window. Skyla and I look up to find her mother looking good and pissed, glaring right at me as if I were solely responsible for everything that’s transpired tonight, and I might be.

  Skyla mouths goodbye and speeds in her direction.

  The theater lets out, and I blend into the crowd as I make my way outside. I follow Skyla and her mother all the way to the parking lot and watch as they take off without her sisters.

  It makes me wonder what in the hell happened to those girls and why.

  Gage

  I’m showered and shaved and ready to meet with Skyla at Lexy Bakova’s party tonight. After encountering a Fem in the forest earlier, I’m sure she’s ready to let loose a little.

  If Skyla’s parents let her hang out at the mall all day, for sure she’ll be at the party. They can’t be that aggressively insane.

  I pause just shy of pulling a soda from the fridge. That kiss we shared in Logan’s truck replays in my mind. Well, okay, maybe “shared” is a bit of a stretch, but she didn’t slap me when I planted one on her, so that’s a good start. Although, I did manage to teleport myself back into my bedroom like a coward as soon as our lips made contact. Truth is, I didn’t want to hang around and wait for the rejection. The last thing I saw was the look of surprise on her face, her lips parted like they wanted to meet with mine.

  Logan pushes into my arm and knocks me out of the way before retrieving a drink for himself.

  “You’re wasting electricity.” He manufactures a smile. “And what the hell was that, ‘Jump and I’ll catch you’ crap you pulled today?” He cracks open his soda and pours a third of it down his throat.

  “She needed help.” And I like the thought of being the one to catch her when she falls.

  “Mmm,” he nods as he swallows. “What are you all spit-shined for?” He raises a brow, inspecting my fresh pressed clothes.

  “Lexy.” I say it flat, bored, like I mean it—like I’m not really trying to throw him off the bunny trail and into a bear trap for the hell of it. “Big party. You going? Oh, that’s right, you and Skyla probably want to be alone. Are you going to lure her to the base of Devil’s Peak? See if you could get any Sea Fems to scare the crap out of her? Maybe they’ll yank her head off and use it as a buoy?”

  He
pulls his cheek to the side, not in the least amused by my efforts to entertain him.

  “I’ll be at Lexy’s conducting operation take-the-diary-back-from Miller.” He digs his palm into his eye, trying to wipe away the fatigue, a sure sign he overdid it in the you show-me-yours-and-I’ll-show-you-mine super powers department. “Skyla lost track of her sisters. Turns out they took a bus to the East Side Mall, and Skyla was busted for not watching them, so she’s stuck at home.”

  “Nice work.” Damn.

  So much for going to Lexy’s. Maybe I should accidentally morph into Skyla’s bedroom? Tell her, my wires got crossed or something equally lame and desperate. I’m sure I’d give her a heart attack in the process. Not quite the night I had envisioned. Not that I could teleport freely without getting low on juice—I’d end up walking home or worse, calling Logan for a ride. Of course, Skyla would want his company, and I’d land them together in my effort to pull them apart.

  I glance over at him. I’m not really trying to pull them apart. I’m just going down fighting, that’s all.

  Logan nods to the door “Let’s do this.”

  “There’s something I gotta finish upstairs.” I shake my head ever so slightly and wonder how in the hell I grew so desperate so damn fast. “Go ahead and take off. I’ll meet you there.”

  “Perfect. I’ll let Lex know you’re on your way.” He leans in mockingly. “Set out the feelers for you.” He knows darn well I couldn’t care less if Lexy greeted me naked.

  “You do that,” I shout as he takes off.

  Instead, I go with plan B and teleport over to Skyla’s neck of the woods.

  I land by the foot of the driveway just as the minivan comes barreling down, swerving left and right, nearly taking out the mailbox at the bottom.

  I jump back and spot Drake at the wheel and Brielle in the passenger’s seat, laughing and clapping like they’ve just robbed a bank. A girl with long, golden hair sits clutching her neck in the back—Skyla.