Her Guardian Angel 4-Her Angel Series (41 page)

The
angels that had escaped her attack looked up at her, drew their
silver blades, and spread their wings.

Time to
test the limits of her power. She wasn’t sure how it worked and she
wasn’t going to question it. Instinct had controlled her actions
just now and she was sure it would be the same this time. She would
know how to use her power if she let it flow through her and didn’t
think about it too much, just as she knew how to use her
wings.

She beat
her wings to take her higher and half of the angels took flight and
followed her, leaving the eerie white grounds of the fortress. When
she was level with the highest tower, she turned and looked down at
the dizzying drop below her. Angels filled the space between her
and the ground where Marcus still stood, fighting those who had
remained with him.

Tears
blurred her vision as she watched him, the bitter taste of fury
coating her tongue. It shouldn’t have been like this. Marcus
shouldn’t have to fight his own kind. It hurt him to do so. She had
felt his pain and his struggle when he had been holding her
hand.

The feel
of that pain still beat in her heart, fuelling her anger with
Heaven and controlling her actions. Heaven shouldn’t have treated
him this way. Marcus’s duty had been everything to him, his whole
world. He had been so loyal to his master, had trusted Heaven and
his superiors, and had believed in them. They had taken that
loyalty and used it against him, forcing him to do things against
his will even when it hurt him. No one should be used and betrayed
like that.

Especially not someone as wonderful and kind as
Marcus.

Amelia
flung her wings back to stop herself, brought her hands out in
front of her and focused on the space between her palms. She
brought them closer together as her power flowed into them.
Dazzling blue and white sparks skittered over her skin and leapt
along her arms.

The
sparks jumped from one palm to the other, snapping against her
flesh and crackling as they thickened and intensified.

She
frowned as the energy leapt and twisted, forming a small orb in the
gap between her hands. It glowed bright blue, throwing off beams of
light as it spun faster and faster.

Amelia
slowly pulled her hands apart again and drew a deep breath,
channelling all of her anger and feelings into the sphere of
white-blue energy growing between her palms.

When the
orb reached a foot across, she focused and brought her hands around
behind it, shifted herself upwards with a gentle beat of her wings,
and looked down at the angels swarming towards her.

Heaven
would pay.

The
bluish sphere of light turned to shimmering silver and shot towards
the angels coming at her, growing as it headed for them. They tried
to evade it but it was growing too swiftly, spreading outwards
until it engulfed all of them. It didn’t stop there. It brightened
until it blinded her and started growing towards her too, rapidly
expanding in size until it was over fifty metres across. Amelia
held her hand out towards it, afraid that it was going to suck her
into it too.

Blue
light danced across its surface as it halted just inches from her
palm, and then it collapsed in on itself so quickly that she was
pulled down through the air with it. She jerked to a halt and
snapped back a few feet. A dazzling flash of light pierced her eyes
and then it winked out of existence. Her vision slowly came
back.

Her head
spun.

Her wings
faltered.

Perhaps
she should have tested the limits of her power before going all
out.

Amelia
fell backwards, expecting to drop from the sky, but she hung there
instead, suspended by her waist with her wings streaming out below
her.

“Not so
much next time. Leave some for yourself,” Marcus said with strain
in his voice and Amelia felt his arms around her as the world
slowly came back into focus.

He flew
downwards with her and her eyes widened when she saw what she had
done.

She
hadn’t only taken out the angels.

The orb
of power had cut through the ground too and the thick white stone
wall, and even the shimmering blue shield over the entire
area.

She might
have killed Marcus.

He pulled
her closer to him as they descended through the huge hole she had
created in the grounds and then tucked his wings against his back
once they were on the other side. They shot downwards
together.

Marcus
flew hard and the wind numbed her face, feet and fingers. Droplets
of moisture coated her skin as they dropped through the clouds,
freezing against her flesh and soaking her flimsy dress. The clouds
thinned and then cleared, revealing the world below them. They were
almost home.

“Tell me
again,” Marcus whispered into her ear and she looked up at him.
There was so much pain in his eyes and such tiredness that she
reached up and touched his cheek. His skin was hot against her
palm. He had risked everything for her and was still fighting
himself.

“I love
you so much.”

He smiled
but there was such sorrow and hurt in it. “Catch me.”

She
didn’t understand.

He
stopped with her, held her against him with one arm and took hold
of her hand. His smile faded and he pressed a kiss to the back of
her hand and then stared into her eyes. His irises burned bright
blue and he grimaced, screwed his eyes shut, and then looked back
into hers. His hand shook against hers, the trembling relaying his
fight to her. Heaven was trying to seize control of him
again.

Marcus
brushed his lips across hers, so softly that her insides flipped,
and then drew back and smiled at her.

“I
renounce my master and my duty… I love you, Amelia.”

He closed
his eyes and then they were dropping fast. Marcus turned with her
and her eyes shot wide when she saw his wings were gone and so was
his armour and weapons. He slipped from her grasp and dropped
further from her. Amelia’s heart slammed against her chest and she
reached for him, tears stinging her eyes and blurring her vision.
He shot through the patchy clouds ahead of her and she came through
it with him, out into warmer air high above the Earth.

The
distance to the indistinct green and blue world below turned her
stomach.

It
dropped along with her heart when she saw that Marcus was even
further below her now.

Amelia
sucked in a sharp breath and focused. Catch him. He had renounced
everything for her and had fallen. She had to catch him. He had
placed his faith in her and she wouldn’t fail him, not as Heaven
had.

She
tucked her wings against her back and rocketed towards him, cutting
through the air so fast that it froze her damp skin. Closing. The
ground was coming at them fast now and she recognised the area they
were over. Europe. Home. It seemed surreal to see it like this. She
beat her wings and gritted her teeth, using everything she had to
go faster and close the distance between them.

Warmer
air buffeted her, sending her silver hair flying across her face
and tugging at her clothes.

Marcus
continued to fall below her, his legs and arms bent towards her,
his back taking the brunt of the wind as he plummeted to the
ground.

Amelia
growled and focused everything she had, everything she didn’t
understand herself, into one last attempt to reach him. She beat
her wings and then tucked them right against her back and shot
towards Marcus.

And
straight past him.

Damn.

She
opened her wings enough that she shot upwards, back past him, and
then dropped again. She stretched her hands out to him and caught
hold of his, and then inched her grip on him to his wrists, tightly
grasping them so he couldn’t escape her.

“Marcus!”
she yelled over the wind but he didn’t stir.

The
ground was closing in fast now.

They shot
past a passenger plane and she hoped that she was invisible to
human eyes just like an angel could be and that the people onboard
hadn’t just seen an angel falling holding a naked man.

Amelia
struggled and pulled Marcus closer to her, fighting to get her arms
around him. He murmured something and relief briefly touched her
heart but then the world below started taking on shape and colour,
and she could distinguish cities and towns. Not good.

With a
low growl of effort, she yanked Marcus up to her, wrapped her arms
around him and then spread her wings. They shot up again but she
was still coming in too fast and her grip on Marcus was tenuous at
best. He was heavy in her arms, slipping through her grasp and
dragging her down.

Amelia
desperately beat her wings and tried to slow her descent. The
cities took on more shape and she recognised one.

Paris.

Marcus
murmured something that sounded a lot like ‘pull up’ and she tried
to but he was so heavy and she wasn’t accustomed to flying. She
wasn’t sure how to pull up. He leaned into her, forcing her
shoulders back, and her feet came down.

Trees.

She was
heading straight for them.

This was
not going to be a good first landing.

Amelia
shrieked when she hit them, her feet catching the highest branches,
and then screamed when she was flipped head over heels. She spun
through the air and came crashing down into a green field on the
other side of the clump of trees. Marcus hit the dirt first and she
followed him, tumbling and bouncing along, her wings twisting
underneath her and snapping into painful positions. She stopped
rolling but the world didn’t stop pitching.

She lay
there a few seconds, staring at the dirt, grass in her mouth and
pain blazing through every inch of her, and then closed her
eyes.

“No
rest.”

Those two
words forced her eyes open and she looked across the grass to
Marcus where he lay sprawled on his back, naked and covered in
green stains and dirt.

“What
happened?” She pushed herself onto her knees and crawled across the
knobbly ground to him.

“Must
go.” He nodded upwards.

Amelia
looked there and she didn’t like what she saw.

Angels.

They were
tiny dots in the sky but they were coming at them fast.

She
didn’t have the power left in her to take them down. Even if she
did, she couldn’t unleash it on Earth. It had caused so much
devastation in Heaven. She didn’t want to imagine how many it would
kill if she used that same attack down here.

Amelia
struggled to her feet, pulled Marcus onto his, and slung his arm
around her shoulder.

“Hold
on,” she said and ran with him, trying to gain speed so she could
lift off.

She beat
her silver wings and rose into the air with Marcus, holding him
close to her, but could only manage to fly a few feet off the
ground. How the hell did he fly with her so effortlessly? He was a
dead weight in her arms and she was tiring.

Paris
loomed ahead of them, the Eiffel Tower her beacon of hope. If they
could reach civilisation, surely the angels wouldn’t attack her.
They wouldn’t harm the mortals. Would they?

A dark
spot appeared on the horizon.

Another
angel?

She kept
flying. If it was, then she would deal with it, but she couldn’t
slow down now. She had to get Marcus to safety. She wasn’t sure
what damage he had done to himself by renouncing everything but she
had certainly broken him with that landing. He was bleeding and
hurt, and he felt weak to her.

Was he
mortal now?

Did that
mean he could die?

She
prayed that their crash wouldn’t kill him and redoubled her effort,
determined to get to Serenity so the witch could heal
him.

The dark
dot grew into a man that she recognised.

Veiron.

Had he
come to finish her off?

She
braced herself for his attack as they neared and then frowned when
he nodded at her and shot past her, heading for the angels. A loud
explosion rent the peaceful summer morning a moment later. She
looked over her shoulder at him. He was fighting the horde of
angels, holding them back for her. Was he on their side
now?

Amelia
flew onwards, heading over the city. Marcus came around again and
tugged on her shoulders, steering her right.

“Others,”
he whispered and she nodded.

She knew
where to go only she didn’t know the way. She was relying on Marcus
to remain conscious long enough to guide her to Serenity and
Apollyon’s home.

A
brighter spot appeared on the horizon above the grey slate roofs of
the city and came into focus.

“Lukas!”
She couldn’t contain her relief. While she barely knew the angel,
she knew that he could lead her to Apollyon’s home and that he
wouldn’t harm her.