Messenger (Guardian Trilogy Prequel 1) (17 page)

When she came at me again there was no restraint in her attack. She threw punches and kicks and I did my best to dodge them. What surprised me was that she wasn’t sloppy in her execution. Her strikes were exact and yet quick.

She got me in the leg, across the left side of my ribs and across the jaw, but none of it was with much power.

When she retreated it was to preserve her strength and I knew she was tiring. After that blast of energy, I didn’t see how she could go on much longer. And that was her weakness.

She drew in a few good, deep breaths and came at me again.

Her hits were still precise but slower, and it was easier to avoid them. She didn’t touch me this time.

I didn’t launch a counter-attack when she settled back to catch her breath again. Instead, I took the time to find Eran.

We were over the trees, on the opposite side of the hill from the camp, and moving out into the misty fields. The stirring swirl within the flat grey mist drew my attention. Eran was still in the midst of fighting Deschan and Cedric, blocking one hit while striking the other. In the few seconds I had, something in Eran’s movement stood out to me… It looked synchronized, almost effortless on his part, as if he might begin to fight them with one hand behind his back to make it more engaging.

I almost smiled as Kaila slammed into me, carrying me farther into the field. She had come at me from a higher angle and we ended up on the ground, tumbling through the yellow, dried grass and damp dirt.

The impact didn’t hurt, but she got a good fist to my forehead during our roll downhill.

I needed a way to end this. She was tiring, which was an advantage, but it wouldn’t finish her off. I needed something to incapacitate her.

We hit a dip and our bodies twisted over each other. I spiraled through the air and slammed my foot into her side. She bowed into it, contorting from the pain.

And we rolled again.

In midair, her appendages came close to me and I reached for them but she recoiled and evaded it.

Before I could hit the ground again, I pumped my appendages once and steadied myself clumsily in the air. Kaila did the same.

Our tumble had dizzied us and we dropped to the earth to find our balance.

Crouching, facing each other, ready for the next advance, we stared each other down.

Her gaze shifted to something over my shoulder and she was momentarily distracted.

Whatever it was, it was serious enough to send a twitch through her face.

This was my opportunity. I prepared to spring on her.

But her wings pumped and she soared into the sky, twisting to meet the other winged body coming at her. They didn’t collide though, but spun and steadied themselves. The other was missing a wing and needed her support. Propelling themselves higher, they fled together at full speed over the hillside and out of sight.

I twisted around in search of Eran.

He stood over a small body lying in an odd position. Its head was facing me and I could see Cedric’s face, dirtied with his eyes closed. His back was exposed and the grey appendages were in the midst of sinking into his body.

I looked up to find Eran staring over his shoulder at me, his handsome face contracting into dread.

He spun on his heel and sprinted for me, the fear in him deepening with each step.

As I waited for him, something flowed into my left eye, blinding me. I brought my hand to it and wiped. It was warm and stuck to me. When I pulled away to study whatever it was, a deep crimson color was swathed across my fingers. It collected at the bottom of my hand and dripped, splattering the same color on the dirt at my feet.

Blood…

Lots of it…

I suddenly felt dizzy, weak. I reached for Eran.

He was closer now, having taken to flight, the mist clearing in his wake. Down that narrow grey tunnel he created, at the end of it, something stirred. It left hollowness in my heart.

Cedric wasn’t dead.

He was knocked out and beginning to revive.

With Eran facing me, he had no idea.

I searched for my rapier, the one Oleg’s brother had given me. Somehow it had made it down the hill, landing a few feet away. The silver in its handle contrasted with the yellow grass, peeking at me from between the dead blades.

I went for it, picking it up, stumbling under its weight.

Then the ground came at me as I fell toward it. But before we could meet, I used the thrust of my fall and sent the rapier through the air.

My toes twisted with the force and my body rotated until I could no longer see Eran or Cedric or the rapier. I was facing the hillside by the time my shoulder and hip slammed into the dirt. But I was smiling because the aim was good. The rapier would hit its target. Eran would be safe.

I was smiling for all these reasons, and because I didn’t have the slightest notion how much danger I was actually in.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: RENEW

W
HEN
I
AWOKE IN THE
H
ALL
of Records, it was no longer peaceful. The end of a scream still vibrated the air.

Without thought, I braced myself, knowing that Messengers who had died before me had awoken with a scream on the stone bench just before perishing.

I placed a hand to my forehead expecting to find a gash, but the wound to my head was gone and the blood that had been streaming down my face was as if it had never been there.

“It wasn’t you,” someone grumbled to my right.

The voice came from Dante, a slender, genteel man known for his lack of humor and abundance of cynicism. “He’s down the way a bit…or at least he
was
…”

I opened my eyes to find a stream of people flying overhead, all going in the same direction and all doing it so quickly that the hem of their dresses and long jackets fluttered behind them. Sitting up, I discovered that Dante and I were the only ones not heading for the source of the scream.

“Who was it?” I asked.

Dante was leaning casually against the scrolls, legs crossed at the ankles, attentive mostly to his fingernails. As he filed them, which wasn’t necessary in the afterlife, he didn’t bother to look up. Clearly, they held greater importance than me or the newly deceased.

“Some cheerful fellow. Name started with a B. Brutus…Bastiaan…Batista…” He shrugged offhandedly and gave up.

Before he was finished with the third attempt, I leapt to my feet and sprang into the air.

“There’s no need to rush,” Dante called after me. “He’s not coming back any time soon.”

I ignored him, flying so fast I had to turn my appendages to catch the air and slow my arrival. I met the solid mass of onlookers and tried to peer in, but they were shoulder to shoulder, head to head.

I circled them, located a hole, and slipped in.

There on the bench was Benedictus’ blood, gradually disappearing as his body had done.

He had chosen a tall, lithe facade, lacking muscle for which he made up for in humor. There wasn’t a night that went by I hadn’t heard him laughing.

“Not another one…,” I muttered before my tone grew contemptuous. “Not another one.”

Before anyone could address me, I pumped my appendages and lifted myself from the crowd, determined to make my mindless utterance a reality.

I soared over the heavens and swooped down into mine. There, Daniel and Jacob were standing alone in the clearing, awaiting their students.

“It’ll be too much for them,” Daniel was saying.

“It’ll be exactly what they need!” Jacob countered.

As my feet slammed into the ground and I stumbled, having misjudged just how much gravity I’d built into my world, both of them promptly stopped their arguing.

“Are you all right?” Daniel asked, moving to help me up.

Jacob, who never coddled, sighed and rolled his eyes at his partner.

I disregarded them both in order to get right to the point of why I was there. Not knowing how much time I had before being pulled back to my body on the other side, I spoke quickly.

“We need to make our trainings harder.”

Pleased with my announcement, Jacob slapped Daniel’s chest with the back of his hand. “There you have it,” he said proudly and I got the sense he’d just won the argument from a moment earlier.

Daniel eyed him, unconvinced, before asking me, “How so?”

“We need to prepare them to fight Fallen Ones.”

Jacob threw his hands in the air and spun around, indicating that I was following his line of thinking. When he’d made a full circle, he said, “That’s the best approach. I was just telling Daniel, teach them how to fight the worst offenders and they’ll be able to handle anyone.”

“No,” I said gravely, “I mean, train them to fight Fallen Ones so when they do fight them they can survive.”

Daniel and Jacob gawked back at me.

“You don’t expect the messengers to go up against Fallen Ones?” Daniel asked, appalled.

“I do,” I replied flatly.

In shock, Jacob mumbled, “But…why? They have guardians.”

“Because I think, despite their added security, Fallen Ones are taking the lives of messengers.”

Their eyes widened, their reaction being due equally to my revelation as much as to comprehending the dangers it posed.

“We’ll get right to it,” Daniel said, his lips barely able to move through his shock.

“Thank you,” I said with a respectful nod. “It’s not certain yet, but preparing for it can’t harm them.”

They nodded their heads in unison.

Suddenly, as if I were made of lead and a magnet was directly behind me, I was yanked backwards, ending up in my body on earth.

Someone exhaled over me and a second later I felt the pressure of something settling against my forearm.

“Thank you,” Eran whispered with his beguiling accent. He was directly beside me but muffled. “Thank you…Thank you…Thank you…”

I rolled my head to the side and lifted my eyelids. His face was down, resting on me, but when he heard the crunch of the makeshift pillow it shot up.

“Magdalene?” he said in a rush.

I had never seen him so unhinged.

“Friedricha,” I reminded him, bringing my hand to my forehead. The gash was back, but it was covered with a bandage.

Eran closed his eyes and chuckled. “Good to see you made it, stubbornness intact.”

“You made it too,” I sighed.

“You seem relieved,” he teased, his smile turning into a smirk. “I thought my demise would have been a blessing to you.”

I rolled my head from side to side, refuting. “Departure, yes. Demise, no.”

He rotated his mouth upward and laughed loudly. “I would have to say that’s progress.”

I tried to laugh but the pulse in my head kept me from it. Instead, I pushed my elbows beneath me and prepared to sit up, but Eran placed a hand on my chest. It was light and settled just below my chin, but it sent a spark through me anyways.

“Don’t move,” he encouraged. “Not yet.”

I wasn’t concerned so much about my movement as his hand. If he didn’t take it away, my pulse was going to break right through the bandage and intensify my already aching forehead. When he did, it was lifted slowly, hesitantly.

“What happened to my tunic?” I asked, feeling it restrained across my back again and not in loose shreds as it had been.

“It’s been stitched, with a few modifications, made by Mrs. Volkmar.”

“Modifications?”

“There are holes now…between your shoulders. My suggestion. I didn’t tell her what they were for,” he hinted, grinning.

“Where…Where are we?” I asked.

“In our tent. I wouldn’t let them keep you in triage.”

“I appreciate that,” I muttered. “And Cedric?”

“Getting the burial he deserves. They carried his body to a bog around midday.”

“Midday? How long have I been asleep?”

“Just until dusk.”

“It’s night again?”

“Yes, or have you forgotten how time works in the afterlife?”

I exhaled gradually, searching for the energy I had before I’d gotten the wound to my head. It allowed me just enough to stare pointedly at Eran.

“I do recall, and it feels odd to admit it openly.”

“Yes, it does,” he said quietly, staring at me.

This was the first time either of us acknowledged that we remembered it, and I felt relieved at lifting the shroud of secrecy between us. He seemed nearly entranced, and strangely content, as his eyes made their way across my face, but this look fell away when I spoke again.

“Another Messenger is gone.”

“How?” he asked, sitting straighter.

I recounted what I knew and by the time I was done he was standing with his back to me. The clench of his fists and steady, focused breaths told me that he was struggling to overcome the anger surging in him. He looked like he was in need of a distraction.