Fearless (2 page)

‘Fifteen, my lord.'

I hear Michael and the others huff around me.

‘Have you been a soldier long?'

‘Three years.'

This is such disturbing news that my power surges. I use the added energy to assist in removing her pooled blood, locate the other half of her severed artery and rejoin the two ends.

She inhales deeply and smiles, her eyes beginning to fill with tears, tears I have no time for today.

‘Uri.'

‘On it,' he says, and immediately guides the young soldier back to her position.

My gaze roams over the rest of the prisoners. ‘How many, Gabe?'

‘Nine hundred and more coming.'

Uri indicates the blue light. ‘Here come a further five hundred. We caught fifty escaping through the Crossing. Where do you want us to put them all?'

‘Here for now. Gabe, can you find me a Gatekeeper amongst this lot?'

‘Gladly!' Gabe plucks five out, dragging three males and two females out in front of me, before he stands beside me and glowers at them. ‘Which of you is the most senior?'

No one volunteers. They keep their eyes staring straight ahead, not even a flicker between them that might give one away. Luca has trained them well.

I walk past them slowly, stopping to stare into each p
air o
f silver eyes, so similar and yet each so individual. Something about the last one, the taller female with brown hair slic
ked t
o her scalp, draws my attention. It's just a mic
rosc
opic tightening of her chin, which she lifts slightly while under my inspection. It's enough to make me look deeper in
to he
r eyes. She doesn't flinch, but her pride gives her away.

‘You,' I say, curling a finger at her to make her look at me. ‘Step forward.'

Soundlessly she moves a foot-length.

‘What is your name?'

She continues to stare straight ahead. ‘Lailah.'

Her raspy voice sparks a memory.
Ah, yes.
On our way into Skade to rescue Ebony's parents, she was the senior Gatekeeper on duty. Though our passage had been court-sanctioned, she waved us through only once Uriel handed her a small bag of sparkling rocks. ‘Well, Head Gatekeeper, I don't carry pink diamonds on me today, but under the circumstances –' I drop my eyes to her shackled hands and feet – ‘I'm sure you understand.' Lifting them again, I order, ‘Open a gate. I don't care which one.'

Despite her confinement, she can barely conceal her smirk. The sight fills me with rage. I barely contain the urge to wipe the expression off her face with my fist. I need her expertise.

Her eyes slide to mine. ‘I cannot do as you command, my lord.'

‘Why not?'

‘The gates have been sealed.'

Heat spreads out in waves from the centre of my chest. ‘Sealed? For how long?'

She looks directly into my eyes and smiles. ‘A hundred years.'

2

Ebony

Luca grips me with iron strength as he carries me towards Odisha, the capital city of Skade. Wings, black as his heart, beat with deliberate, unfaltering synergy as beautiful as it is ugly. His heart – if that's what I'm feeling hammering against my ribs, thumps away at a dangerously fast pace.

Oh. No, that's
my
heart.

Maybe I'm not hearing his because he doesn't have one. I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. But no, there it is, thudding away in a steady, regular beat.

Surrounding us in the shape of a seven-pointed star, Dark Throne soldiers form our escort. Their silver eyes, glimpsed through narrow slits in their black armour, gleam with pride. They were successful today and it shows in the smug, arrogant looks they send one another.

We fly over farmland where silos, cement barns and stone castles emerge from barren hillsides. And as we draw nearer the capital, the buildings are higher as streets run closer together, and fill with curious onlookers pointing to the sky.

Is this really happening to me?

If only this was one of those dreaded nightmares where
Luca slips inside my mind and takes me on a journey through his realm. From the safety of my own bed, I could handle those, knowing I would soon wake and Nathaneal would hold me and chase away any lingering memories.

But this?

‘Turn your face away,' Luca suddenly snaps.

This is no dream. This monster's voice is real. The heat his body emits is burning through my clothes. The powerful flapping of the Thrones' metallic blue wings is moving the air like the slipstream of an aeroplane. And then th
ere's t
he air, with the pungent odour of sulphur dioxide, the sewer smell of hydrogen sulphide and the unmistakable stench of decaying flesh. I smell it, I taste it, and I have no choice but to breathe it in.

‘Cover your face!'

‘Tell me why and I might consider it.'

‘What are you rambling about?'

‘It's your vanity, isn't it? You don't want your people to see me all messed up. Is there a smudge of your angels' blood on my face?'

He looks at my face, scrutinising it with such intensity that I quickly regret my words. The unnatural vividness of his green eyes is mesmerising. I look away but he's inside my head now, picking through my brain as if with an iron poker. I throw up a mind-block. Out of necessity this is something I'm fast becoming proficient at doing. His voice softens. ‘Turn your head, my lady, before it is scorched by the volcanic vents.'

Bursts of red steam erupt with a roar from the landscape below. The geysers shoot high into the atmosphere. One
narrowly misses us, and only because Luca veers sharply. As he swings back into formation I glance down at a swampland of steaming red mud bubbling just under the surface.

Crap. He was protecting me.

Well, I wouldn't need protecting if he hadn't brought me here in the first place. I don't want anything from him. I certainly don't want him to care about me.

Shivers pass through me in shuddering tremors. I force my heart to slow down, willing it to be calm, not to show fear – or panic – or go into shock. Reality is starting to kick in, a reality I'm not yet ready for. I might never be. But to have a chance to make it through this, I need to give my brain time to catch up.

OK, so Luca has my physical body, and maybe that's something I can't change for now, but it doesn't mean he has to have all of me.

He will never have my soul.

After years of my parents drilling into me that I don't have one, that
no one
does, I finally know the truth. There is a heaven and it's called Peridis. There's a hell called Skade, and a world where angels live, called Avena. That's where I'm supposed to be, where I was supposed to grow up and attend school, learn to fly and use my powers without exhausting myself.

The reality is I'm a real angel, which means I'm immortal. And if I don't get out of here, that means I'm going to li
ve fo
rever in hell.

If my uncle, Zavier, hadn't killed off my memories within hours of my birth, that instinctive sense of who I am would have kicked in sooner. He helped engineer my abduction
and hid me on Earth so my real angel family and my true love, Nathaneal, wouldn't find me. And when Nathaneal did, Zavier plotted with my best friend to make me doubt him, to trick me into a trap Luca had set. Eventually Zavier tried to make amends. But it was too little, too late.

I close my eyes and visualise Nathaneal carrying me to Avena. But it doesn't work. The arms around me are not Nathaneal's. Everything about Luca is different, from his overheated, hard-boned body to his slick, polished voice. Even his scent is sharper, woodier, not sweet and crisp and evocative.

As if my yearning conjures him, Nathaneal's blue eyes, as penetrating as ever, appear as if he were standing in front of me. My heart slows and a sigh escapes as his voice forms words in my mind:
Ebony. Ebony, I swear, with the stars as my witness, I will come for you as soon as I can. I will bring you home.
Tears ooze out. I squeeze my eyes shut to stop them, replying in my thoughts,
I believe you!

Consumed by thoughts of Nathaneal, I do not notice our descent. It comes as a shock when Luca sets me down on my feet. I lose my balance a little and his fingers steady my hips. It feels like a caress. Instinctively I spin around and slap him across the face.

He grabs my upper arms and yanks me in close. Too close. His eyes flash, a fire igniting like autumn leaves caught alight. He stands over me and pushes an image into my mind.

I shut my eyes and try to block him, but it does nothing to stop the beast appearing in my head. The creature is at least four metres tall, with yellow glowing eyes. It has the
body of a slender, well-formed man but a bull's head and long horns curving upwards. He sits in a chair made of twisting gold vines with flames licking up the sides. Around him flames burn in shiny black pots.

His arrogance is overwhelming. It pours out of his skin. He knows this but uses it as one of his strengths. He is all-powerful and rules this world. Lounging in his flaming chair of vines, fires burning around him, he is the almighty ruler here, the one, the only one that matters.

Luca is showing me that this beast is the true King of Skade.

And that the beast is him.

3

Nathaneal

Word spreads quickly, causing outrage, shock and panic amongst us all, even the prisoners who have been locked out of their own world. The impact of the Gatekeeper's words is not lost on me either. I will myself to remain calm.

I look into the Gatekeeper's eyes. ‘A hundred years?
A
hundred years?
'

‘Yes, my lord.'

‘Since King Luca sealed the gates, I'm sure he can open them again, especially when he learns how many of his soldiers I have captured.'

‘Even if he could unseal the gates, my lord, he will not barter for us.'

‘Really? So none of you is worth anything to him? Not even
one
of you?'

She flinches. Pain, fleeting and sharp, appears in her eyes but is quickly gone. ‘Even if he would agree to such an arrangement, his highness sealed the gates so
no one
can open them, not even
he
, my lord, not for a hundred years.'

‘You're lying!'

‘No, my lord, I am not.'

I see that this soldier has already resigned herself to death. She has accepted the fate of a martyr.

But killing an unarmed soldier, a prisoner, is a line in the sand that I will not cross. All the prisoners before me now are simply soldiers obeying commands. They trust their king, and even though he has effectively abandoned them, they're still willing to die for him.

What will Ebony think when she hears this news? Will she give up hope that I will find a way?

Breathe
,
cousin.
Michael lays his hand on my shoulder. Always beside me when I need him, I do what he advises and somehow the urge to explode remains contained, at least for now.

I survey the large number of prisoners Gabe and Uri's soldiers have gathered; more are descending through the blue light. Since dark angels are forbidden to enter Avena, and to hold them in the Crossing would be impossible due to the way the landscape changes, there is only one place we can take them until … until what? Surely Luca will negotiate for their return
one
day, even if it is a hundred years from now.

‘Gabe, Uri, secure the prisoners for transportation. We're taking them to Earth.'

Gabe blinks hard, but wisely doesn't question my command. ‘Destination, brother?'

‘Select three of your best to go on ahead and warn the Brothers of the Holy Cross Monastery. They are to inform Monsignor Lawrence of our need to access the underground facility. Those rooms should contain the prisoners until we can expand it.'

‘Understood,' Gabe says. ‘You know, it's a large number of prisoners we'll be taking to Earth. You've done well today, brother.'

‘If I had done well today, Ebony would not be …' I pause to gather my thoughts. ‘Ebony would be standing beside me now, preparing to go home to meet her real parents for the first time. That would have been a job well done.'

‘Of course,' Gabe says. Swearing under his breath he murmurs, ‘I'm sorry, Thane, I didn't mean anything by that. We're all shaken by her loss.'

Jerome nudges him with his elbow, hissing under his breath, ‘
Loss
, brother?'

‘
Ah, shit!
' Gabe looks straight at me. It's the first time I have seen fear in my eldest brother's eyes. ‘Thane, forgive me, I …'

I shake my head. There's no time for apologies, no time for
anything
except figuring out how to get Ebony back. ‘Forget it. Forget it!'

Solomon arrives, adding several more hundred prisoners to the tally. I call him over. ‘Have you spoken with your informant since the gates came down?'

‘I've tried over and over, but there's no response.'

‘Keep trying, Sol. I want to know where Luca has taken Ebony, and … how she's coping.'

‘I'm on it, my prince.'

I watch him fly into the blue light of the Crossing, my mind whirling with what I need to do next. ‘Isaac, what are your interrogation techniques like these days?'

‘Excellent. I'm glad you asked. Do I have permission to
use them?' His eyes roam purposefully over the rows of prisoners. ‘Any prisoner in particular, my prince?'

‘All of them.'

For a moment there is utter silence.

‘I want them talking. I want to know everything there is to know about Skade's defences. I want information on all Luca's residences, from his city palace to his secret mountain hideaway. I want to know exit and entry points. The prisoners must give me maps, floor plans, drawings, schedules, secret tunnels. I want servants' names, routines, what uniforms they wear, their daily habits and who sleeps where.'