Fearless (17 page)

The judgemental jerk!

It gets darker suddenly. I look up. Clouds, sizzling with electricity, are zooming across the sky, obscuring the stars, the moon and anything else as they gather above the forest.

Goosebumps break out all over me.

Nothing about this developing storm is natural.

It hits fast, with lightning illuminating the sky in silver and purple streaks. A bolt, as thick as a telegraph pole, shoots straight into the forest, splitting an ancient blackbutt tree down its centre. Debris scatters as if a bomb has exploded. The force knocks me off my feet.

In a pleading tone Gabe yells out something I can't understand. Brushing away chunk-sized splinters, I get up and run towards their voices. But the sky opens up again. Purple lightning sizzles close a split second before it smashes into the ground. Trees shed their bark as thunder booms and rolls, shaking the ground from one end of the forest to the other. The pounding is so penetrating my ears ache. I cover them with my hands and crawl across the forest floor towards the blinding light.

I find the two of them in full angelic glow. I throw an arm over my eyes and watch them, facing each other, legs apart, wings shifting uneasily from their backs. I can just make out who is whom. Thane is holding a branch up over his shoulder like a spear he's threatening to drive into Gabe's chest.

‘You kept the message to
yourself
?' he accuses. ‘The
whole
time I was absent?'

Gabe shrugs, his palms out in front of him in a gesture of peace. After what he did, it's pathetic. He hears something and looks up. A bolt of white lightning shoots straight down from the sky. It crackles and hisses through the canopy, setting branches on fire as it forks into two, sending unfathomable streams of energy into the ground either side of him.

The Earth shakes, tossing me backwards again. Falling hard, I scramble to a tree, then think better of it and huddle behind a boulder.

Gabe gets up, his hands now shaking. ‘Brother, listen to me. I'm trying to apologise. But I need to explain my reasons.'

‘You knew how much I needed Ebony to have that message. You were with her every day; you must have known her doubts, seen how hard it was for her to believe without her memories. I couldn't give her back her own, but I could give her mine, and that message was so much more.'

Thane shakes his head in utter disbelief. The poor bastard had no idea. Well, nobody did. With polished all-black eyes glinting, Thane lifts the branch higher.

‘I found them together! I didn't want to tell you. I knew it would hurt.'

He stops moving. ‘Who? Ebony and Jordan?'

‘Yes!' Gabe squeals. ‘I'll show you. Then tell me what you would have done.'

Oh shit.

‘Continue,' Nathaneal's voice is like a chip of ice. What can he be thinking? What will he think when he sees
that
image. And who knows if Gabe will tamper with it? Show it to Thane the way he misunderstood it. Oh hell …

I can't let Gabe put
that
image in Thane's head the night before he leaves to bring her back! I get up and run as fast as I can, shoving branches out of my way, stumbling over a rock and landing with my face in the dirt between them. ‘Don't believe a word he tells you,' I yell from the ground, scrambling to get up. ‘He misunderstood everything, and no matter how hard Ebony and I tried to explain the situation, he wouldn't listen.'

Thane looks at me, then his brother. ‘One of you had better explain.'

‘Me first,' I say. Ebony deserves her side told before Gabe tarnishes Thane's mind with pathetic excuses to get his butt off the hook. ‘Whatever he shows you, all you need to know is that Ebony and I didn't do anything. Nothing! Maybe I would have if she had let me,' I confess. Honesty is what Thane deserves now, more than anything else. ‘But I couldn't sway her. She was committed to you the whole time you were away, even though she hadn't received your message and I fed her lies. But in the moment Gabe is talking about, being together was the last thing on our minds. Only a moron would misinterpret me and Ebony comforting each other after witnessing two innocent people die in our place.'

Thane glances at his brother, but I can't tell what he's thinking. I have to convince him. ‘Thane, I swear I'm telling the truth. I swear it on my life.'
No, wait, that's not worth anything.
‘I swear it on my mother's soul.'

He looks at me for a long time. I swallow deep in my throat and clench my hands into fists to help me hold still under his full black-eyed scrutiny. I've got nothing to hide. Not any more.

Finally he shifts his focus to Gabe. ‘Ebony protected you.'

Gabe frowns. ‘What are you talking about?'

‘When we saw each other in the tunnel and the battle raged around us, I asked Ebony if she had received my message. I now realise she was fishing for a name. She figured out it was you, and while she didn't lie, she implied she knew and went along with my relief that you had passed it to her successfully.'

‘What? Why would she do that?' Gabe asks, his voice as weak as a little boy's.

‘So I wouldn't be angry at my brother.'

‘I misjudged her,' he murmurs. ‘This whole time I thought …' His voice fades. ‘Thane, if Ebony didn't want you angry at me then, it stands to reason she wouldn't wa
nt yo
u angry at me now.'

Gabe is still using Ebony's selfless nature to get out of taking responsibility for what he did. He's worse than a jerk. ‘Do you have any idea how different today would be if you
had
given Ebony Thane's message?'

He doesn't answer and I hear myself snarl like a wolf, ‘She would still be here with us.' I wish I were a wolf right now, a wild grey one, with giant canines. I would take Gabe's jugular out in one bite. ‘I was with Ebony all the time. She cried over that promised message, thought it meant Nathaneal had forgotten her.'

Nathaneal growls from deep in his chest, and the sky ignites with hundreds of thick lightning bolts that split into thousands of crackling fingers that race across the sky. Thunder detonates, shaking the mountain from top to bottom.

I drop to my knees, gripping my ears.

The next thing I know, angels are crashing through the canopy. First to arrive is Michael, who goes straight to Thane's side. They talk, but my head throbs, both ears ringing, and I can't hear a word they say.

Uriel, Tash and Jez drop down a few seconds later. Issac and Shae must have gone to the house first. They run in from the driveway, moving so fast they're just blurs of light skimming round the trees. Other angels come too, a dozen or so, their glowing bodies lighting up the forest like fireflies. I recognise a few as Gabe's soldiers that used to come help him locate the dark forces. They must be part of the crew leaving for Skade in the morning.

Thane sends Jez straight to me. She tugs my hands down. ‘It's all right,' she says, though I can barely hear her. ‘Your eardrums have perforated and you have a few broken ribs, but I can help you. Keep still.'

She lays glowing hands on my ears, then looks at me with raised eyebrows. ‘What did you think you could do? Stop them from killing each other?'

‘Nope. As long as Thane was winning I wasn't gonna do a thing.'

‘I see. So what has Gabriel done to upset you and Nathaneal so much?'

‘He didn't give Ebony Thane's message.'

Her hands go still. Her eyes freeze on mine.

‘I was just making sure Thane heard the truth behind the reason Gabe gave him.'

Someone suggests we take this inside. I hear the words clearly, but Jez is still healing my ribs. When she's done, I thank her.

Everyone starts moving towards the house. Michael carefully plucks the branch from Thane's hands. Jez picks me up. I tell her I can walk. She takes no notice. Then Thane takes me from her arms and carries me himself.

‘I can walk, you know. I look like a child when you do this.'

‘I'm sorry I hurt you,' he says. ‘I lost myself for a moment.'

‘Not long enough, if you ask me,' I say. ‘Your message would have changed everything. It would have cleared her doubts, removed her confusion and completely transformed how she saw her future. Not getting your message made her think stupid thoughts, do stupid things. It helped her believe my lies. Zavier would have had no power over us if Ebony had known positively who she was. His plan to deliver her to Luca wouldn't have worked and we wouldn't have fallen into his trap.'

He shakes his head. ‘It pains me to think of what Ebony went through, and how it all could have been avoided.'

‘And look where she is now,' I remind him.

He growls, low and deep. Lightning flashes overhead. Angels look at us, but he just keeps carrying me to the house.

‘And you know what? She told me once she wanted to know the truth of her heritage for your sake.' At his questioning frown, I explain, ‘To make sure you weren't wasting your time on the wrong girl.'

Isaac holds the front door open and Nathaneal lays me down on the sofa. But I'm feeling fine and I sit up and grab his arm. ‘What are you going to do to him?'

Gabe plonks down in an armchair looking exhausted, and too pretty, as far as I'm concerned.

Thane sits opposite him. ‘If I didn't need you tomorrow, I would lock you up in a cell with Dark Thrones. Tell me why I shouldn't lodge a report of this incident with the Courts?'

Gabe leans forward, elbows on his knees. ‘I can make this up to you,' he tells Thane. ‘I have something to offer that will benefit both you and Ebony.'

‘Sure you do, Gabe.' Sarcasm pours out of my mouth. ‘As long as it's self-serving, because you only care about yourself.'

Jerome gives me a look that's part sympathy, part warning. He stops his pacing in front of Gabe. ‘Whatever you believed you saw pass between Jordan and Ebony that night – or on any night – you had no right breaking the agreement you made with our brother. You gave him your word.'

‘I know. And I'm really sorry.'

‘But I'm willing to hear you out for Ebony's sake.' Jerome glances at Thane. ‘Will
you
listen to him too, in case he has come up with an idea that might help?'

Thane looks at me, his eyes asking if I agree.

I shrug. ‘S'pose it can't hurt to listen.'

‘It's a simple plan,' Gabe says, barely waiting for me to finish. ‘Our scientists, engineers and biochemists have studied the Skade gates for centuries. I saw them myself tonight. I talked to a team of our best and they've helped me come up with a solution.'

OK, now he has my attention.

‘We take the
hanival
and use it to open a passage through one of the gates, and as planned, our three teams work together to find Ebony and bring her back.'

So far, so good, but nothing new.

‘And what
exactly
are you offering?' Thane asks, apparently thinking along the same lines.

‘Once we have Ebony back safe, I begin constructing an impenetrable brick wall made to the specifications formulated by our specialists. The wall will run parallel to Skade's twelve gates and no creature will be able to pass through it.'

‘A wall that size could take years to build,' Thane says, but I can tell his mind is thinking about the merits of Gabe's plan. An impenetrable wall is not a bad idea.

‘I'm prepared for that,' Gabe says.

‘How would this wall work?' Thane asks.

‘I'll show you the report on the way.' He taps his skull. ‘It's in here. But simply put, the wall will be constructed from a combination of two of the toughest substances in the universe –
adamene
, and diamonds.'

‘What's
adamene
?' I ask and, glancing around, I can see there aren't many faces that look as if they know either.

Gabe explains. ‘
Adamene
is similar to
graphene
but where graphene is limited to one dimension,
adamene
can be combined with other substances to form three dimensions, like the bricks we need to build the wall.'

Someone whistles, heads nod, angels whisper to each other, but I still have no idea what he's talking about.

‘And what do we do while the wall is being constructed?' Thane asks.

‘I won't let anything through the gates, I promise you. No souls or angels – not even Prince Luca himself – will escape. Under my command, half of my troops will construct the wall while the other half will patrol the breached gate, ensuring nothing comes through.'

Michael asks, ‘How long before you can begin construction?'

‘Everything we require to make the bricks and construct the wall is already on its way. And I promise to maintain the wall and patrol the gates for as long as necessary.'

‘For a hundred years, Gabriel? Can you do that?' Tash, sitting beside me, questions Gabe's staying power, but she seems to be the only sceptic in the room, other than me.

‘Yes, Tash, I'm committed for a hundred years if that's what I must do. But the wall will be completed well before then.' He slides his elbows to his knees again, pinning Thane with focused eyes. ‘My offer means you and Ebony will be free from having to do this yourselves. You could get on with your lives.' He glances at me. ‘And you too, Jordan.'

Gabe reaches across the short distance from his chair to Thane's and pulls his brother up with him. ‘Thane, before all these witnesses, tell me you accept my offer.'

‘What of Rebecca?'

‘Who?' I whisper to Tash.

‘Gabriel's wife.'

‘Or haven't you told her?'

‘She knows. We talked earlier this evening. She agrees it's the only way I can make this right between us.'