Gilded Wings (6 page)

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Malachi said, scooting past us. 

As soon as we entered, we were greeted with a boisterous voice. “Hey you beautiful people… except for the big, brawny, tanned guy in the front who looks somewhat akin to a pit bull.”

“Keep that mouth moving, Dom,” Malachi threatened.

“It’s early. I’m just getting started,” Dom stated, showing all his teeth in an exaggerated grin. He then turned to me and winked which made me blush.

Malachi walked past him, slapping him on the shoulder extra hard.

“Crap. Now I’ll have your huge paw print on my shoulder for the next few hours,” Dom huffed.

“Yep. I’ve marked you, bitch.”

“Dude, that makes me very uncomfortable. But I always knew deep down inside, you wanted to mark me as yours.”

“Don’t freaking flatter yourself.”

“Oh, but you’re the lucky one, broseph.”

Malachi turned to us, his eyes narrowed, the vein in the middle of his forehead protruding. “I seriously can’t wait until this assignment is done so I can be reassigned with someone normal.”

“Normal is boring. Which explains a lot about your personality.”

Malachi clenched his teeth and switched topics. “I heard Ephraim was ecstatic to see you.”

“Yeah, that guy loves me. He just can’t stand too much awesomeness in one room.”

“No, Dom. He just can’t stand you. Period.”

“Not true. He just doesn’t know how to handle all of this,” he said. His chair screeched back as he stood and started flexing. “I don’t blame him though. Not many do.”

“Sit down before you get a cramp,” Malachi barked.

“You’re the one cramping my style, dude. Chillax.”

“What the hell is chillax?”

“You know… chill out and relax. Dude, it’s a the mortal word that’s been around for ages, so you should obviously know it by now.”

“Hey guys,” Alex greeted, entering the room with Thomas behind him. “Did we miss anything?”

“Nope,” Kade said. “Just the normal blabbering banter between Dom and Malachi.”

“Ah, shucks,” he chuckled.

“Hey Emma,” Thomas chimed. “It seems like forever since I’ve seen you. How have you been?”

“Good,” I answered with a squeak, unsure of my word choice.

“Yeah, right. This chick is damn lucky to be alive. She seriously has like nine lives,” Dom blurted.

Miss Lily came into the room just in time with the first platter of sub sandwiches. I was glad she set the first tray in between the cluster of hungry Guardians. That would keep their minds and mouths occupied for a while.

I just hoped Dom would be able to talk to them soon and explain all the craziness, and without anyone from the outside finding out. I hoped Lucifer didn’t really have the threat of eyes and ears everywhere, like he threatened me with. I was afraid one of his goons would hear about my trip to Midway. All I could do was pray it would all blow over soon.

AFTER LUNCH, KADE WALKED ME back upstairs. “What are your plans? Not that there’s tons to do.”

“I actually promised to watch a movie with Courtney. Wanna come?” I asked, batting my eyes.

“No, thanks. I’ll pass,” he said, scrunching his nose and running his fingers through his hair. I didn’t blame him. “I’ll probably head over to the cabin and play some chess with the guys. It seems Samuel is the reigning King and needs to be dethroned.” He smiled, making my heart pitter-patter.

“Alright, Mr. Dethroner. I’ll see you later.”

I smiled at him, he smiled back, and the world seemed to pause around us. No one made a move; no one took a first step. We just stood there, frozen, staring at each other. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his. The color was like none I’d ever seen before. He was wearing black, which seemed to make them pop even more. Specks of yellow swirled within the blue and green. It was mesmerizing.

“Awkward,” Caleb exasperated, as he passed by us. We were so into each other we didn’t even notice him leave his room.

I laughed and blushed, then looked down to break the connection. 

“Since we can’t leave the house, how about I show something you haven’t seen before? Alaine would want you to know anyway. It’s a secret tunnel that leads through the house. Maybe we can get lost for a bit,” he said softly, his fingers brushing lightly across my hand.

“I’d like that,” I said, not able to turn him down.

“Alright, after dinner,” he said with a crooked grin.

“Wait.” A thought of fear shot through me. “The Darkling can’t get into this secret tunnel, can they?”

“No. It’s completely Darkling and Fallen safe. You’ll see.” He winked, making my knees weak.

“Good to know.” I exhaled in relief. I knew I shouldn’t be putting myself in a position of getting any closer to him, but I couldn’t resist. There was no way for me to say no. Not to him.

Plus, we were prisoners here, housed under the same roof. How the hell were we supposed to stay away from each other when his room was less than a football field away from me?

Yeah. Impossible.

“Alright, dinner and a tour,” he said, turning and walking away.

“I’ll be there!” I said, on my way up to my room. As soon as I took the turn, Courtney’s head was peering at me from her room down the hall.

“Are you coming?” she asked.

“Aren’t you hungry? I didn’t see you at lunch.”

“That’s because I went down earlier and raided the kitchen. Miss Lily gave me food and snacks.”

“Sounds great. Let me go and change into something a little more comfortable and I’ll be right over.”

“Alright. You don’t have to knock. Just come in,” she said, disappearing into her room.

I ducked into my room and headed for my dresser. It was a little chilly inside, so I decided to put on some sweat pants and a sweatshirt. When I opened my drawer, I noticed there were a few new hoodies. They must have been from Alaine. I pulled the first one out. It was grey with
Hidden Wings
written in a fancy font with feathers falling around it. It was so cool, and totally true for the new world I was living in. All the angels and Fallen did have hidden wings. I wondered if it was a premonition. Would I have hidden wings one day? I guess I’d have to wait five months to find out.

I took in a deep breath and exhaled. The thought was ridiculous.

Slipping into my sweatpants and new hoodie, I headed toward Courtney’s room and pushed the door open. The floor was covered with pillows, popcorn, licorice, gummy bears, lemon heads, peppermints, and even an apple.

She smiled as my eyes caught sight of the apple. “That’s in case you get another healthy craving. I wouldn’t want you to leave and get lost on your way to the kitchen again. See, I thought of everything,” she said slyly.

I laughed. “Yes, you have. But…I don’t know. That apple I came back with the last time was pretty darn sweet,” I grinned.

She rolled her eyes. “Should I go ask the sweet apple if he wants to come join us?”

“I already did and he politely declined. He needs to dethrone the King chess player in the cottage.”

“Wha—?” she asked with a scrunched up nose.

“Nevermind,” I giggled. “He didn’t want to join us this time.”

“Oh well. His loss,” she sighed. “Cool hoodie. Where’d you get it?” She asked.

“I think Alaine must have bought it for me. When I opened my drawer, it was there.”

“I’m going to ask her to get me one. Then we can be the Hidden Wingirls.”

“Sure,” I laughed.

“I saw Ethon the other day, when I visited Caleb. I glanced out his window, and Ethon was standing out near the entrance of the labyrinth; just staring blankly into it. He didn’t move. I sat there and watched him for a good five minutes. He looked lost, almost sad. I felt really bad for him. But then—” her voice raised and she started to get excited. Her hands spread out to her sides. “All of a sudden he spread out his arms and two humongous black wings appeared out of his back! I was freaking out. And then he took off into the sky so fast, I don’t even know where he went. I thought I was going crazy.

“I tried to tell Caleb, but he just rolled his eyes and said, ‘what’s new?’. That pissed me off, but then I realized, there is a lot more going on than people are telling me. I know about the angels, Fallen, and those horrible Darkling monsters, but now I’m finding out they have wings that magically appear. Hidden wings! Oh my God. Do they all have wings? Can they all fly?”

“No,” I said quickly, before she had a meltdown. “All of the Guardians don’t have wings. They supposedly have to earn them, and it takes five hundred years. The only ones who do have wings around us are Ethon, Samuel, and the goons… Bane and Azzah. Everyone else is basically normal.”

“Samuel has wings? Are they black or white? They must be black because he is one of the Fallen, right?”

“Right,” I nodded. “All of their wings are black.”

Her face beamed with confirmation. “
So
, if you get wings when you transform, what color will they be? Since Alaine doesn’t have wings, and Samuel has black wings, will yours be black too?”

“I don’t know, but that’s a good question. One that will take another five months to find out.”

“Well, if you get wings, I call dibs on the first ride.”

“Oh gosh. If I get wings, you’ll definitely have more than one ride. That much I can promise,” I said, shooting her a thumbs-up.

“Yay! Well, here’s to hidden wings,” she said, raising her sparkling apple cider bottle. I grabbed mine.

“Hidden wings!” I cheered, clinking our bottles together.

She grinned. “What do you want to watch? I have two new movies;
The Hobbit
or
The Sound of Music
.”

“Hmmm.” I had to think about it a minute. “I’m feeling like a little Julie Andrews.”

Her face scrunched up. “I didn’t expect you to say that. I seriously thought you’d choose the hobbits over the nun.”

I laughed. “I only chose
The Sound of Music
because it was my mom’s favorite. We’d watch it on her birthday every year, and she’d sing all the songs out loud.”

“She sounds like a wonderful person,” Courtney said softly.

“She was.” I breathed out, fighting back tears which stung my eyes at her memory.

Courtney walked up to the player and stuck the DVD in. She then plopped on her pillows, grabbed some popcorn and Pepsi and settled in. I did the same, except I chose a handful of peppermints, a chocolate bar, and a Dr. Pepper.

As the movie started to play, I felt a heat on my chest. Puzzled, I looked down to see the bloodstone amulet glowing bright red. I touched it and it zapped me.

“Ouch,” I gasped. That never happened to me before.

“What?” Courtney asked, looking at me with a bewildered look.

A sudden hair-raising scream vibrated around us. As I turned to look out the window, something large was hurling toward us. I dropped to the ground as it collided with the window. Glass exploded, shattering everywhere. Courtney screamed and covered her face. I shielded her with my body from the shards of glass being thrust around the room. A large rock, about a foot round, slammed into the wall directly in front of us and rolled back touching my foot.

Fear gripped me as a familiar, horrifying stench filled the room.

It can’t be.

I looked up as long decrepit fingers reached inside her window.

The Darkling were here. 

“Courtney,
run
!” I screamed, but she didn’t budge. She took one look at the Darkling climbing through her window and lost it. I jumped up and grabbed her arms, yanking her with me, dragging her out the door. “Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, to anyone who could hear me. “Help!”

“Emma, release the barrier!” Ethon’s voice boomed from outside.

“I don’t know how!” I yelled back.

“Emma, what’s wrong?” Kade called, running from his room. Thank God he hadn’t gone to the cabin yet.

“Darkling in Courtney’s room,” I was out of breath, and those were the only words I could push out before dragging Courtney to my room. I pulled her in and slammed the door shut, locking it behind us. I left her screaming against the door, and ran to my closet. Grabbing the dagger, it instantly started to tingle in my hand. I ran over to my window and looked out. It was clear, but I did see some movement within the Labyrinth.

Is this Lucian’s attack?

I ran back toward Courtney and moved her off to the side, away from the door.

“You’re safe here,” I whispered, not sure if we really were. I took a deep breath, unlocked the door, and cracked it open. Kade ran past my room, making me jump. He had his sword in hand, and I soon heard a Darkling scream in pain.

I knew there were more Darkling than just one, and Kade would need my help. At least until the rest of the Guardians came.

Courtney was huddled in the corner with her head between her legs, rocking back and forth, wailing.

“Courtney, honey, I need to go,” I said.

She grabbed hold of my arm. “You can’t leave me. Please don’t leave me here.”

“I’ll be right back. I promise,” I said, grasping the dagger. “If you can, I need you to go downstairs and get the others. We need help, and I need you to be strong for me. Can you do that?”

She nodded with tears pouring down her cheeks. “Yes.” She wiped her face and stood.

“You’re so brave, Courtney. Now, run straight to Alaine. She’ll gather all the others, and make sure you and Caleb are safe.”

“What about you?” she asked, squeezing my arm.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just get to Alaine as quickly as you can. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said, taking in a deep breath.

I opened the door again and peeked out. It was clear, but I could hear Kade fighting the Darkling in Courtney’s room.

“Go!” I urged, exiting the room first. Courtney ran out from behind me and bolted down the stairs. I turned and ran down the hall to help Kade. The smell of Darkling was overpowering, the burning stench made my stomach twist.

When I entered the room, there were three headless Darkling sprawled out on the floor, but there were a lot more wrestling Kade to get in.

“Emma!” Ethon shouted with urgency in his voice.

“Kade, do you know how to release the barrier?”

“No. Only Alaine, James, and Samuel can release it.”

Dammit.

The sky was dark and overcast. That’s why the Darkling were coming out during the daytime. The last time they attacked was in the same kind of weather. How could we ever feel safe, knowing they could crawl into our windows at any given time? 

“Ethon. Go get Samuel!” I shouted.

He didn’t answer, so I assumed he left to get him.

I rushed to the window, helping Kade by slaying the Darkling as they attempted to come in. I kicked a few in the chest, sending them flying back out. Below the third-story window was already a pile of wounded and dead Darkling. I thought we had the advantage, until I heard more glass shattering in one of the adjacent rooms.