Broken (28 page)

It happens in a blink.

Once his wings settle into a steady rhythm, everything about him relaxes. I sense a change around me but I’m not sure exactly what. I listen keenly for sounds, but there’s only the paced swish-swishing of . . . thirteen, no, fourteen pairs of wings. Gradually I become aware there are no animal sounds, no insects or birds. There’s no rustling of branches or leaves, no distant hum of traffic, no siren or blasting horn. It’s creepy. I hate not knowing where I am, or seeing where I’m going, but this blind silence is different. It’s overwhelming.

Now and then male voices sound off in a pattern: the twelve Prodigies and Prince Luca must be flying in some kind of formation around us. After a while of careful listening I catch something in the distance. It takes a moment to realise what I’m hearing is wind.

‘Where are you taking me?’ I ask.

‘My lady, how are you feeling now?’ Zavier’s voice sounds different from the classroom teacher’s voice I came to know so well. It’s more formal, and also stronger.

‘You
tricked
me. And I don’t know who I’m more disgusted with:
you
, or myself for tolerating your lies.’

‘Ebony, you were played, and not just by me.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You would not have entertained doubts about being an angel without your trusted friend Jordan feeding your insecurities regularly.’

‘But . . .’ Conversations flit through my head with speed and clarity I’ve not experienced before. This has to be more of my angelic nature coming out. It’s amazing! ‘Jordan had his reasons.’
I’m sure of it, or else why would he try to manipulate me?

Zavier takes his time replying. ‘Yes, he did.’

I didn’t need the confirmation, but I’m glad I got it anyway. ‘Where is Jordan?’ I recall the last I saw him, beaten, bleeding, and chained to a rock wall. ‘Zavier, tell me Prince Luca released him.’

‘Stay calm, Ebony.’

‘Zavier, where is Jordan?’

‘I’m sure Amber will alert the Brothers.’

‘Does she know where the cave is?’

He doesn’t answer quickly enough. ‘The Brothers will search until they find him.’

‘Like my parents? No one has found them yet. What did you do with them?’

‘Ebony, listen to me.’

But my heart is frantic. My mind is frantic. Both are moving astronomically fast.

‘Ebony!’

‘
What?
’

‘You have to calm down and stop worrying about your friends. They will find their own way now. I know this is hard to hear, but it must be said.’

‘Go on.’

‘You’re not part of their lives any more. You need to concentrate on taking care of yourself. And . . .’

‘Not that I’m interested in
your
advice, but go on. Amuse me.’

‘The best you can do for yourself is to submit to the demands of Prince Luca.’

He has to be joking. ‘You’re deluded if you think I’m going to submit to that monster! Clearly, after months of studying what makes me tick, you don’t know me at all.’

‘Perhaps not, but for your own survival you need to accept that you belong to Lord Luca. You are now the King of Skade’s property, soon to be his wife and the Queen of Skade.’

‘Never going to happen. But thanks
so much
for setting me up with the most evil creature in the universe, who only
just
takes the title from you!’

‘Don’t make this harder than it need be, my lady. Think wisely. Lord Luca doesn’t have to be unkind to you.’

‘So, if he is, that will be
my
fault? Is that what you’re saying? And why are you calling him “Lord” now? What happened to “Prince”?’

‘Before the First Angelic War, Luca was a prince who held the highest rank of all the princes in Avena. After the great rebellion he became king of his own new world, but his compatriots refused to recognise his title. Outside of Skade, they still call him prince. Ebony, you must forget everything you learned on Earth. Equality and fairness don’t exist in Skade.’

‘If your lord or king, or whatever he calls himself, expects me to be his slave, he can just forget it.’

‘He wants you to be his
queen
, not his slave. How it all goes will be up to you.’

‘He may as well kill me now.’

‘Ebony, even if you want to die, you can’t. And it would only entertain him to watch you try to kill yourself.’

‘That’s sick!’

As much as I hate the thought, I probably should listen carefully in case something Zavier says proves useful. ‘That story you fabricated about my birth was very convincing. I almost believed you. At times I think I did. How I allowed myself is unfathomable to me.’

‘Don’t be too critical of yourself, Ebony. I’m good at what I do and there’s something about me that you don’t know.’

‘I don’t want to know anything more about you. I’ve heard enough of your lies.’

He goes silent, but I have questions, lots of them, and he owes me answers. ‘How long have you been planning my abduction?’

‘Let’s see, I began planning for this day a century ago.’

‘
Excuse me?
’

‘To ensure absolute success I covered every possible outcome.’

‘But there would have been so many variables! You couldn’t possibly have prepared for every one of them. That’s impossible. Life isn’t formulaic.’

‘Yours was. I made sure of it.’

‘How? Give me an example.’

‘I ensured you would be raised with a scientific mindset.’

Well, he did achieve that. Even when the subject wasn’t science, in my home-school lessons Mum would always remind me to, ‘Observe, propose, test and analyse. Believe only in what you can see, feel or touch.’ This fact-based way of thinking had quite an effect on the choices I made growing up. It eventually became the way I selected to believe or not believe in things, like religion, near-death experiences, or anything supernatural.

‘How did you know my parents would comply with all your conditions?’

‘I just had to find a suitable couple.’

‘You didn’t answer my question.’ His arms stiffen around me, and I ask again, ‘Just tell me how you knew John and Heather Hawkins would follow your orders without question.’

He hesitates and I think about what type of people he needed – a couple who, once they had started to raise me, would be so terrified of losing me that they would abide by any conditions he put in the adoption contract.

Around the time of my birth, Mum and Dad were grieving for the baby boy they had lost. He wasn’t even an hour old when he stopped breathing in Mum’s arms. Yeah, they were desperate enough to do just about . . . Wait . . . No, he wouldn’t . . . Only a monster would contemplate something that horrendous.

The thought terrifies me and I pull at the
lamorak
.

‘Stop moving,’ he hisses.

But I don’t. I need to see his eyes. I take a deep breath. ‘Zavier, tell me you didn’t . . .’

His sudden erratic heartbeat reveals that it’s true.

‘He was an innocent baby who had just started his life! I haven’t been an angel long, but I’m pretty sure that killing a human infant is breaking a damn serious law in any dimension.’

‘You would be correct.’

‘You’re evil!’

‘I had no choice.’

‘No choice but to murder a healthy infant to ensure his parents would agree to
any
condition you put in front of them?’

His voice drops. ‘There’s no going back, Ebony. I can’t change the past.’

‘I hope you find it extremely difficult to live with yourself.’

‘No more, no less than usual,’ he murmurs.

‘Why are you doing this? What does Luca hold over you?’

He sighs. ‘It’s a long story.’

‘Then give me the short version.’

He sighs again. ‘A long time ago I had to leave Avena. Lord Luca welcomed me to Skade, but . . . I disliked it there so I asked the king to cease my existence.’

‘Why didn’t you go back to Avena?’

‘I was forbidden.’

‘So you wanted to die?’

‘Yes. At the time existing seemed pointless.’

‘But here you are, in the flesh.’

‘Lord Luca said he would do it himself but only after I managed his Death Watchers for a thousand years. It would mean living on Earth for that time.’

‘So even death has a price in Skade,’ I remark dryly. ‘I’ve heard of Death Watchers. They convince the dying to choose Skade. So what happened?’

‘I came to like Earth.’

‘Did he let you go after you served the thousand years? Or is he charging you to live on Earth by doing his dirty work?’

He inhales sharply, as if caught by surprise. After a moment he says, ‘Every hundred years I must do a job for him.’

‘Aha! And this century it’s me! I suppose you jumped at the chance. Did you?’

‘No, I refused. I offered to do anything,
anything
else.’

‘Sure you did.’

‘I don’t blame you for not believing me.’

‘What does it matter whether I believe you or not? You’re a monster, just like your employer. So what was the deal?’

‘On your safe delivery to his palace a thousand human souls will be released from Mount Mi’Ocra.’

‘How philanthropic of you!’ I hope the coldness in my voice freezes his heart. ‘So what is this mountain, a village for souls?’

‘Something like that, except their housing takes the form of caves, crevasses, a nook under a ledge or even a rock, if they’re lucky.’

‘Zavier, the hero,’ I mutter sarcastically, so angry inside my blood is boiling. The red haze descends and makes me feel claustrophobic. I try to breathe slower, lighter, calmer. ‘Tell me, what was in this for you?’

In a tight voice, as if he’s speaking through clenched teeth, he says, ‘Ten million dollars.’

‘Thought as much.’

He stiffens and says, ‘In a world where money is the commodity by which all things are measured, a man does what is necessary to survive.’

‘But you’re not a man.’

‘No more, no less than your precious Nathaneal, who lives more amongst humans than angels.’

Yeah, because he’s been looking for me!
‘Don’t compare yourself with Nathaneal. You are poison where he is wine. Now get this
lamorak
off me.’

He goes quiet, and in his silence my mind ripples with a sense of familiarity about this mountain he called Mi’Orca with souls living in caves and nooks. I try to hold on to the feeling, recall where I’d heard it mentioned before, but I’m so tense it hovers just out of my reach. ‘Tell me more about Mi’Ocra.’

‘Let’s see, Mi’Ocra began as a volcano and was active for tens of thousands of years. Its walls grew to unimaginable heights, and when the lava ran out over time the reservoir filled with water and has since become an underground ocean. But, Ebony, there is more to this place, and it’s time you know it all.’

I brace myself inside this enforced darkness. ‘Go on.’

He takes a deep breath. ‘There’s an island in the centre of this ocean with a prison on it.’

At the mention of a prison my mouth goes dry. ‘This island, is it dangerous?’

‘Deadly.’

‘How so?’

‘Altering the prison’s weight ratio will trigger an explosion. The island and everything on it will sink to the ocean floor where prehistoric aquatic creatures live in perpetual hunger.’

‘Zavier, why are you telling me this?’

‘Because, Ebony, there’s something you need to know.’

But I’ve figured it out, and it makes me angry and sad at the same time. ‘This is the prison where Luca is keeping my parents.’

‘Yes.’

How will anyone find them
there
?

‘Try to keep calm, Ebony.’

‘Calm. Who would know to look in this underground world? It’s not as if I can tell anyone who might be able to help them. Obviously, this is why you’re only telling me
now
. Do you have any idea how much I hate you?’ I need to see his face to tell him how much. ‘Zavier, get the
lamorak
off me.’

‘But, Ebony –’

‘Get it off now, or I’ll crawl out of it. I swear, Zavier, I will keep moving until I find how to open this thing.’

He shifts position, balancing more of my weight against his chest while he tugs on the fabric at the back of my shoulder blades. As he finally lowers the
lamorak
from my head, I imagine Mum and Dad locked in this underground world, so far from home and all alone. I take in a shuddering breath as tears flow freely from my eyes.

‘Are you all right, Ebony?’

Wiping my tears away, I sniff hard and take notice of my surroundings for the first time. We’re flying over a violent, dark-grey ocean, while above is a muddy-coloured sky half covered with green-tinged clouds moving fast and in two different directions. Instinctively, I grip Zavier harder. ‘This is not Earth.’