Fearless (9 page)

‘How so?'

‘Prince Luca plans to build an army of Soul Readers from the combination of his and Ebony's bloodlines. When he has enough descendants they will infiltrate Earth and place an invisible mark that only the Soul Readers can see on every child who has the potential for dark acts. These Luca plans to take young, train and build his armies in secret locations in preparation to invade Earth.'

‘I did not know this,' the Monsignor murmurs, his face turning as white as his robe.

And from the gasps and sudden chatter, neither did most of the others around the table. Amber catches my eye. Horror fills hers. Like me, she would be thinking of Ebony being forced to bear Luca's children.

The Monsignor shakes his head. ‘This changes everything. We will assist you in any way we can.'

Thane releases a deep sigh. ‘Thank you, Lawrence.'

‘How soon can you get your hands on this weapon?' I ask.

Thane looks straight at me. ‘Immediately after this meeting, Michael and I will travel to Empyrean to see the Sentinels.'

Gabe says, ‘There's a certain protocol that has to be followed, Jordan.'

‘But this is an emergency.'

‘Yes,' Thane says, ‘and I will ensure the Sentinels appreciate the urgency.'

Gabe scoffs at his brother. ‘You can't just knock on the Sentinels' chamber door, Thane, and expect an immediate audience with the High King. An audience could take weeks to arrange. Some have waited months, even years.'

‘
What?
' Amber gasps. ‘Nathaneal, there must be a way to make this happen sooner.'

‘We're trying our hardest to bring Ebony home,' Gabe yells, shifting his eyes from Amber to me, ‘and you two are not helping. Can you do anything except complain that we're not fast enough, we don't do enough –'

I shoot to my feet, knocking my chair over backwards. ‘Don't patronise us because we're humans and you have such a high opinion of yourself. This is just bullshit!'

‘Mind your language, Jordan,' Isaac reprimands.

‘OK! I'm just saying, it shouldn't be
that
hard to get our hands on a weapon to blast open a stupid gate. I suppose next you'll tell us you don't even know how to use the thing.'

Silence. Everyone turns to look at Thane. He says, ‘I'm a quick learner, Jordan.'

‘Oh, that's just brilliant. Why don't you have it already?' I look pointedly around the table. ‘If that were my fiancée in Skade, I wouldn't be sitting around a table discussing what to do; I'd have done it by now.'

Amber hisses at me, ‘Shut up, Jordan. Let him speak.'

‘What? Are you on their side now?'

‘We're all on the same side, Jordan, the side that gets Ebony back safely. Have you stopped to think that rushing
in bull-headed might fail, or worse, get Ebony killed?'

I open my mouth to say something but she doesn't give me a chance. ‘The angels live in worlds we don't know anything about. They would know what rules they have to follow, and the ones they can break.'

‘They make mistakes, Amber.' I turn to glare at Thane, ‘How long is it gonna take? You gotta have some idea. You do know who she's with, don't you? Think about what that creep could be doing to her
right now.
'

‘Young man!' Isaac bellows, his voice reverberating around the room, his dark eyes boring a hole in my skull. ‘Your frustrations are only delaying what needs to be decided at this meeting. No one wanted you here. But Nathaneal insisted we let you hear our plans to help ease your anguish, and we obliged him. So, as our guest, I strongly
suggest
you sit down and shut up.'

I pick my chair up and thrust it down harder than I intended and now I don't know where to look.

‘Jordan,' Jez addresses me, giving me somewhere to focus my eyes, ‘we know how you feel about Ebony.'

I shake my head. They can't. No one can possibly understand this.
I
don't even get it.

‘Jordan, your love for Ebony is intense. We see that. We
feel
it pounding away in your chest, pouring out of your skin, and we understand you better than you realise. But think about this – angels love
one
other for
all
eternity. Imagine how deep and passionate and powerful an angel's love has to be to endure thousands upon thousands of years. Sometimes that's why a partner is found for us.'

I glance at Thane, and this time I take in his red-streaked
eyes, the shadows around them, the sunken, skeletal cast of his face. I don't remember ever seeing him so carved up.

Amber's eyes fill with a fresh crop of tears, but she refuses to look at me.

Thane starts allocating jobs for the angels to do while he and Michael are away. Solomon is to keep trying to get in touch with his informant in Skade and find out whatever he can about Ebony, where Luca's keeping her, and how she's holding up. ‘Anything, Sol. Anything at all, and wherever I am, you let me know.'

Solomon is huge, his hair black and all curls, skin like chocolate and sea-green eyes. Not only is he much bigger than the other angels, but he doesn't resemble them either, with his top-heavy build. He doesn't have the slender physique of the Seraphim. ‘I have this covered, my prince. As soon as I hear anything I'll be in touch.' And when he says, ‘I'll reach you,' I believe him.

‘Thank you, Sol.' Thane glances at me. ‘And when you d
o he
ar, inform Jordan and Amber immediately.'

‘Sure thing, my prince.'

‘Uri,' Thane says, moving around the table, ‘check c
ondition
s in the Crossing and find us the fastest route to the island. Tash, supplies for three days. Isaac, you're in charge of weapons, and work with Gabe on the construction of the prison downstairs. Keep me informed. Jez, you're responsible for Ebony's parents, Heather and John. Let me know when they're well enough for a human hospital to take over their care.'

He goes on but he hasn't selected the rescue team yet, and that's what I'm waiting for, because there's no way
they're going to get Ebony without me. I don't want to argue in front of everyone now. I can do that later, after he and Michael return with the
hanival
. At least now I know I can travel through the Crossing, as long as I'm wearing a
lamorak
, and … one of them is willing to carry me.

Thane stops suddenly and tilts his head.
Shit
, did I slip up scrambling my thoughts? I brace myself for the straight-out rejection I'm expecting, but the other angels hear something too and flick curious glances at each other. Then Thane looks directly at Isaac and lifts his eyebrows. Isaac shrugs and heads to the door.

The door swings open with a bang before Isaac gets there. In the corridor, Brother Bernard throws his hands i
n th
e air as a female angel barges in, looking spectacular in skintight metallic bronze body armour. Her brown hair is up in a ponytail that reaches past her waist, with two deadly-looking swords crossed over at her back. She surveys the room, zeroing in on Thane.

Amber cups her mouth and whispers across the table, ‘Who's that?'

‘Ebony's sister Shaephira.'

Shae walks over to the table, where she takes the seat Isaac was sitting in. ‘Whatever your plan is to retrieve my sister,' she says to Thane, with a look that dares him to argue, ‘I'm going with you.'

Thane returns to his seat. Seeing the hurt she is feeling at the absence of her sister and knowing there are no words to soothe her, and that she is another person whose love for Ebony cannot be denied, he turns to Shae and simply says, ‘Of course. Welcome to the team.'

9

Nathaneal

Finally the meeting nears its end. The plan is set and everyone knows what he or she is doing. There's just one more thing I have to do.

A few months ago, when I was forced to return to Avena to stand trial for revealing my powers to the enemy, the court handed me the punishment of repairing a forest destroyed by a cosmic storm. But that would have kept me away from Ebony for up to two hundred years and I couldn't stand the thought, so I suggested the alternative punishment of undergoing a dangerous mission into Skade to rescue two humans that Prince Luca had kidnapped and taken prisoner. The two humans were Ebony's adopted parents. Every team that had tried to locate John and Heather Hawkins thus far had failed, and so the court approved my request.

Unfortunately the mission took much longer than I had hoped.

Standing up, I indicate Gabe with my open palm. ‘Before we finish up tonight, I want to thank my brother for looking out for Ebony and Jordan in my absence.'

Smiles and murmurs meet my heartfelt statement. I
motion to Gabe to stand. He does so reluctantly. ‘I know your heart wasn't in it at first.'

He doesn't say anything, but shuts his eyes as I hail him with my praise. It's not like Gabe to shy away from adulation, but I have no idea what he underwent in those months of my absence. I never meant to be away so long. I told Ebony I would be a week. What struggles she must have endured when I didn't return and time marched on. But my brother was in my house, keeping her safe. And most importantly, he gave her my message so she understood why I loved her before I even saw her, and how I loved her even more once I had.
You and I will talk privately soon, Gabe.

That we will, brother. We need to.

I hold out my hand. He looks at it for a moment that feels almost too long. Then he clasps it and I tug him forward into an embrace.

Cheers erupt with applause.

When we pull apart, he lingers while I turn to face those still sitting, more eager than ever now to bolt out the door and embark on their tasks. But Gabe clears his throat and says, ‘Ah, brother, there's one more item that needs our attention.'

I catch a glance he shares with Jerome, and my throat tightens. ‘What is it?'

Jerome forges a private link:
You're not going to like this, brother. You should probably sit.

My heart screams,
No more delays!
What more could go wrong?

‘I started out taking care of this issue on my own,' Gabe announces, ‘but realising this problem was growing too big
for me to handle alone, I enlisted a crew from my first unit to assist.'

Shae growls under her breath as Gabe explains how an unidentifiable entity with strength beyond anything he's encountered before on Earth now lives, breathes and slaughters livestock on human properties.

Everyone has questions but contains them, knowing I'm becoming agitated at this delay.

‘We've come to refer to them as dark forces. It's what Ebony and Jordan called them the first night the entity chased them home, the night it made its first human kills.'

Michael asks, ‘How did this dark force come into being?'

Jerome looks at me with something like pity.

Shae catches it and her condemning eyes soften.

Gabe explains, ‘It exists because of how my brother's powers practically annihilated Prince Luca and his twelve Prodigies. In their severely weakened conditions they couldn't return to their own portal. They didn't even make it off the mountain.'

Murmurs start up around the table. They will be thinking the same as I am. How could I have overlooked such a basic rule of battle?
Bury your dead. Collect your injured.
Clean up your mess.

‘And while Prince Luca and his Prodigies lay helpless on the forest floor, evil leached from them, like the sludge that oozes from the bottom of a sewage pit. And somehow the energy and matter came together, creating a powerful and dangerous entity.'

Is it my imagination
, Michael asks in a private mind-link,
or is Gabriel enjoying this a little too much?

He loves a good story, Michael.

And is that what this is? It seems too serious to be telling it like a horror story round a campfire to a group of Cherubs, but then he is your brother. You would know.

You have known him longer. Right now, I just want him to get on with it.

‘The teacher Zavier came across the prince and his Prodigies in their dire condition and helped them into an underground cave, where they remained for several weeks while their bodies healed.'

‘Where was the dark force during these weeks?' Isaac asks.

Jerome explains that they don't know. ‘But once it was able to move, it instinctively sought nourishment. It picked up Ebony's scent and, drawn to her as Luca is, hid by day inside caves in deserted outback areas, returning at night to feed and be near her.'

‘What is the situation now?' I ask, wondering, bizarrely, if this dark force misses her as much as I do.

With his flair for dramatics and a captive audience, Gabriel announces, ‘After it
split in two
, it began taking shape. First the two appeared as if they were becoming angels, but ever since Ebony's been gone, the two have become
four
and taken human shape.'

‘Oh my God!' Amber's shriek pierces through stunned silence.

Monsignor Lawrence says, ‘Can you imagine what would happen if they ingratiated themselves into human society?'

It's a frightening thought that Jordan takes a step further. ‘If they breed with humans, will they create a new species?'

No one answers. No one knows. And no one wants to imagine
that
happening.

The Monsignor asks, ‘Where are they now? Can they be captured?'

Jerome explains, ‘They have found refuge in the Cedar Oakes hinterland, up in the rocky hills where there are caves and dense forests.'

‘Why there?' Jez asks. ‘What's the attraction?'