Angels Defying (Angels Rising Book 3)

by Harriet Carlton

  How could Colton simply forget what had happened? Imorean’s anger dissipated a moment later as Colton returned his gaze to the ground.

  “I’m sorry, Imorean,” said Colton in a small voice. “That was a stupid question. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “I know,” said Imorean, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry I snapped.”

  “No, you had every right to,” said Colton.

  “Let’s forget about it,” said Imorean, offering his friend a small, but pinched smile.

  “Thanks,” said Colton, still sounding very small.

  “You’re welcome,” replied Imorean, walking through the door into Outbuilding Two.

  Chapter 16

  “What is this?” asked Imorean, forced to jump to the side to avoid a large ball of falling yarn as he stepped inside Outbuilding Two. Structurally, Outbuilding Two was the same as Outbuilding One, but while One was functional for classes, Two was not. Covering the whole interior of the small building were maps dotted with thousands of pins. A spider web trail of red yarn connected all of the pins. Thousands of strings crisscrossed over each other on the walls and looped along the roof. Somehow, the center of the room was kept clear.

  “Oh, watch out, Imorean,” said Michael from the center of the room.

  “Look out, Colton!” called another voice. Imorean turned just as a handful of thumbtacks fell from the ceiling. Colton narrowly avoided them and Imorean looked up at their source. A ball of string hit him directly in the face before bouncing to the floor. Imorean shook his head and tentatively looked back up. Gabriel was hovering near the ceiling, pushing tacks into what looked like a map of China.

  “Gabriel,” said Michael, crossing the room and taking the tacks from Colton, who had just finished picking them up. “I have told you that that pin needs to be closer to Beijing.”

  “I’m working on it, Michael,” replied Gabriel, taking the pins from his older brother.

  “Michael, what is all this?” asked Imorean.

  “Come on,” said Michael. “Get in the middle of the room. You may be a bit safer there.”

  The door opened again just as Imorean approached the center of the room and the young Archangel hybrid knew that the rest of his squad had arrived. Imorean stopped near a large table, a map of the Arctic Circle spread out on top of it.

  “Is everyone here, squad leader?” asked Michael, rounding the other side of the table.

  “Yeah,” nodded Imorean, taking a quick headcount.

  “Right. Everyone, get where they can see,” said Michael, leaning forward and resting both hands on the table.

  “What’s with all the maps?” asked Baxter, standing next to Imorean.

  “What do you think?” returned Michael, looking between the members of Imorean’s squad.

  Imorean opened his mouth to reply, having a good idea of what the angels were doing.

  “Not you,” said Michael, holding up a hand. Imorean closed his mouth and frowned slightly.

  “You’re following someone’s trail,” said Mandy, looking around. Imorean smiled at the girl. It was as though she had taken the words right out of his mouth.

  “Yes,” nodded Michael. “There is more to it than that though.”

  “Vortigern’s trail,” said Dustin.

  “Perfect,” said Michael.

  “Good job, Dustin, Mandy,” said Gabriel, landing nearby and leaning on the table.

  “Now, Baxter, why are we doing this?” asked Michael. Imorean looked at Baxter, seeing the bigger boy balk slightly.

  “So you can see where he’s been,” replied Baxter, sounding unsure of his answer.

  “That is half of it,” nodded Michael.

  “So you can track his trail and predict where he’s going?” asked Dustin, his eyes flitting around the room.

  “Yes,” nodded Michael. “What we are trying to do in this room is establish a common thread of travel. We think we may have found it. Does anyone have any ideas what it may be? Feel free to look around.”

  Imorean watched as his squad members meandered away from the center table and went to investigate the room. Some of the maps were almost invisible under their blankets of yarn and pins.

  A few minutes passed and Imorean’s squad returned to the table, frowning.

  “Any ideas?” asked Michael, looking between the students. Imorean followed his mentor’s gaze and swallowed hard when he saw the blank expressions of his friends. There were several shrugs and head shakes. Even Colton looked stumped.

  “Nothing?” asked Gabriel, sounding shocked. “Come on, one of you must have something.”

  “I can see that you’ve been tracking him throughout the world and most of his concentration is in either the United States or in Europe, but beyond that I can’t decipher much more,” said Colton.

  “What are your thoughts, squad leader?” asked Michael.

  Imorean turned back to look at his commander and frowned slightly.

  “Well,” said Imorean, running his gaze around the room. “You’re establishing a common thread of travel. I see you’ve already done that. As Colton said, Vortigern seems to hang out in the central and western United States quite a lot. He seems to have a lot of activity in Eastern Europe as well. Plus new activity in China and India.”

  “So?” prompted Michael, leaning on the table next to Imorean and fixing the young angel with a curious glare.

  “So that means you’ve come to expect him in those places. Vortigern isn’t an idiot, so he knows that you know he’s in those places,” said Imorean, turning to face Michael. Sudden realization dawned on Imorean. He looked at Michael and was shocked to find the Archangel grinning.

  “Do you think he’s looking for new bases?” asked Imorean. “I mean, he knows that Gracepointe is somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. He’s looking for a new base somewhere nearby, isn’t he?”

  “Perfect,” said Michael, his grin widening. The Archangel faced the rest of Imorean’s squad. “Well done, everyone. Vortigern is looking for new bases. We have tracked his movements steadily northward until only recently. If our recent intelligence is right, which it normally is, he should be trying to base himself somewhere in the Arctic Circle.”

  “The Arctic Circle is pretty small,” said Ryan, looking at Michael in what Imorean thought looked like worry.

  “You are correct,” replied Michael.

  “What you’re saying is that he’s nearby?” asked Mandy, her brow furrowed. Imorean heard her voice shake slightly.

  “We believe so.”

  “Where?” asked Imorean, his blood chilling in his veins. Anger was already coursing through him. The very idea of his family’s murderer being nearby filled him with cold fury.

  “We do not know yet. We have not gotten him pinned down to a specific country. We believe he may be in Greenland, northern Canada, Iceland or even still in the United States,” replied Michael, looking at him with a masked expression. “Our sources, however, are pointing possibly to Greenland.”

  “What are you waiting for then? Go get him,” snapped Imorean.

  “Calm yourself,” said Michael firmly. “You are not the only one to have lost something here, Frayneson.”

  The use of his last name snapped Imorean back to his senses and he drew a steadying breath. Michael turned back to the rest of the students and rested his hands on the map on the table.

  “Now, my intelligence team and I already have a relative idea of where Vortigern is at this moment, eastern North America, and where he is going. What I want for you eight to do today is work as a team and make several educated guesses as to where you think Vortigern may be heading. See how you do.”

  “Won’t we mess up your map?” asked Roxy.

  “How could you? The map is already a mess,” smiled Gabriel. “Besides, you’re just guessing. Who knows, one of your answers may be valuable for us. Think of it as an exercise in map-reading and prediction.”

  There were murmurs of agreement between members of the squad
and Imorean smiled.

  “We want you to work as a team,” said Michael. “Now, go to, and see what you can come up with. Squad leader, you are in charge.”

  Imorean swallowed. He still wasn’t used to being called by his position. He pushed away his reservations and stepped forward, taking Michael’s place at the head of the table.

  “Okay,” he murmured, thinking. “So there’s eight of us and seven continents. According to the maps there’s only been angel activity in Antarctica, so that rules out one continent. Each of you take one of the remaining six continents and see what information you can glean from the maps. Someone is going to have to share a continent. Ryan, team up with… Dustin and see what you two can see. I’ll stay here on the Arctic map and try and figure out something.”

  “Roger that,” said Roxy, giving Imorean a mock salute and walking away. Imorean smiled and shook his head. One by one, his squad members drifted back to the maps on the walls and began to pore over them.

  “Good idea,” said Gabriel quietly, leaning forward and giving Imorean an encouraging smile.

  “Thanks,” replied Imorean, quirking a small smile.

  Imorean stood up straighter as his squad members started to return to the table. The young, Archangel hybrid quickly ran over in his mind which member had had which continent. Colton, unsurprisingly, had taken North America, the area with the most activity. Roxy had been looking at South America. Dustin and Ryan had looked at Asia. Mandy had chosen Africa. Toddy had taken Europe and Baxter had been looking at Australia.

  “What have we got?” asked Imorean when everyone had come back.

  “He’s often not close to mountains,” said Baxter with a shrug. “And there’s been very little activity in Australia at all.”

  “Okay,” nodded Imorean, scanning the map before him.

  “He can be found around a lot of major cities, but that’s not always the case,” said Roxy.

  “He hasn’t raised much recent activity at all in Africa,” said Mandy. “He’s been in the north a bit, but not many other places.”

  “He seems to like densely populated areas,” said Toddy. “He’s in China a lot, it seems.”

  “He’s in Eastern Europe a lot too,” said Dustin, agreeing with Toddy.

  Ryan spoke up. “I’m guessing he likes to be around people?”

  Imorean looked up to see what Colton would say. The small boy seemed to be mulling over something.

  “Like all of you said, he seems to like densely populated places, but that doesn’t account entirely for why he’s moving up the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. He hasn’t been out in California for some time it seems. Also, if you look at all of your maps, he likes the warm. Why would he come to the Arctic Circle? He’s got a trend… Oh! Of course!” cried Colton, looking at the maps. Imorean followed his friend’s eyes. “That’s what he’s doing! He’s breaking the trend. He’s trying to trip us up.”

  Colton dashed over to the map of North America and ran one finger up a trail of pins along the Eastern Seaboard.

  “If we follow his path here, you can see he’s sticking close to large bodies of water. Michael, angels can’t swim well, can we?”

  “No, not really. Our wings weigh us down. Feathers are heavy. Hence the reason we tend not to fight near bodies of water,” said Michael, sounding satisfied.

  “He’s making sure he can only be properly attacked from three sides, because the ocean will cover the fourth. He’s exploiting our weak spot for his own travel.”

  “Very good,” said Michael, stepping forward.

  Imorean joined Colton at the map and traced his finger up beyond the existing pins.

  “If he continues this,” said Imorean. “I think you’ll find he ends up right there.”

  “Eastern Greenland, yes,” asked Michael, looking to where Imorean’s finger had landed. “But tell me why.”

  “Bodies of water are difficult for us to cross,” said Colton, obviously following Imorean’s train of thought. “So, he’s looking to set up a base that will not only be difficult for us to access, but also one that he knows is in the same vicinity as where we have our academies.”

  “Well done,” said Gabriel, walking forward to pore over the map on the table. “Any specific ideas where he might actually be?”

  “If our speculation is right,” said Colton. “It’ll be somewhere near water, but not too distant from us. Like Imorean said, it’ll probably be somewhere in eastern Greenland.”

  “Right,” nodded Gabriel.

  Imorean returned to the table and focused on the eastern half of Greenland. He narrowed his eyes as they landed on a section of the country that was dominated by many large fjords.

  “Wait,” he said as Gabriel’s fingers glanced over that section of map.

  “What is it?” asked the Archangel. There was a shadow of a smile on Gabriel’s face and Imorean knew he was right.

  “Go back. That section of fjords. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Lots of water nearby. Little to no interaction with people, so it’s private. Smack between Felsenmeer and Norway.”

  “Michael,” said Gabriel, turning to look over his shoulder.

  “I know what you are thinking of,” said Michael, taking a few paces forward. The two Archangels exchanged a glance.

  Imorean looked at Gabriel and Michael’s faces. Gabriel’s eyes widened and there was a tiny pulse in the back of Imorean’s mind. Gabriel and Michael were talking to each other, a conversation that, Imorean could tell, they didn’t want him or the squad to hear. A sudden wave of firmness and aggression made Imorean shiver and he knew almost instinctively that it had come from Michael. The message had been clear. Back off. The Archangel’s green gaze returned to the map and none of the students moved. Imorean narrowed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. He wanted to know exactly what was going on. Michael looked up after a moment.

  “You are dismissed,” he said in a firm voice. “You too, Frayneson.”

  “Why?” asked Imorean. “We traced Vortigern to a viable location. I want to know why we had to do so and I want to make sure my squad does too.”

  “I do not have to answer to you, you little upstart,” said Michael, standing up at his full height and flaring his wings slightly. “You are dismissed. I advise that you go.”

  “Imorean, come on,” said one of the squad members. Imorean turned and was surprised to see Baxter standing at his side. Imorean elevated his gaze slightly to look up at the taller boy. Baxter was darting worried glances at Michael.

  “Fine,” replied Imorean, nodding at Michael and turning on his heel. One by one, his squad fell into step behind him. Despite the fact that he wasn’t happy with Michael’s refusal to explain what was going on, he was glad that his squad was already starting to see him as their leader.

  Imorean held the door open so his squad could all leave the building, but just as the door closed, he heard Gabriel speak.

  “You aren’t thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

  “We may have no choice,” replied Michael. “When they have returned to the main building, go into my office, you know where, and fetch me the plans for the operation we drew up this winter.”

  Chapter 17

  “They’ve got a plan,” said Imorean, looking out a window as he leaned on one of the lobby walls that evening. All the students were gathered there. Baxter and Ryan were watching a rerun of a football game on Baxter’s laptop. Toddy and Dustin were battling one another in a video game, blasting pixelated aliens to pieces. Roxy was reading a book. Mandy was refereeing between Toddy and Dustin. She looked weary, but was smiling. Colton had a calculus textbook resting on his lap, but couldn’t look less interested in it.

  “Wow, I would never have guessed,” said Ryan, smirking as he turned to look back over one of the couches at Imorean.

  “Your sarcasm really isn’t very funny, Ryan,” said Roxy, looking up from her book.

  “You say that, but you don’t mean it,” said Ryan, his voice sof
tening slightly.

  “What makes you say that, Imorean?” asked Baxter. “That the Archies are up to something.”

  “Archies?” asked Imorean, smiling.

  “It’s easier than saying Archangel all the time, right?”

  “I suppose so,” shrugged Imorean, the smile falling from his face.

  “You’re really worried, aren’t you?” asked Baxter.

  “What do you think they’re planning?” asked Roxy.

  “I have no idea,” said Imorean, dropping his arms to his sides. “And that’s what worries me.”

  The sound of Toddy and Dustin’s game stopped and Imorean realized that he had his squad’s full attention.

  “What do you suggest we do, squad leader?” asked Ryan with a smug smile. Imorean ignored the mocking tone that Ryan addressed him with and frowned in thought. The side of his mouth twitched as Baxter elbowed Ryan.

  “I honestly don’t know,” replied Imorean walking closer to them all and sitting down in a vacant chair.

  “Why don’t you ask?” asked Baxter, placing his laptop on the lobby’s table.

  “Because Michael is unpredictable,” replied Imorean.

  “He likes you though,” said Dustin.

  “Surely, there’s no harm in asking,” said Mandy, peering around Toddy’s wings and inclining her head.

  “Believe me,” said Imorean, shaking his head. “There could be.”

  “Well then,” said Roxy, snapping her book closed and drawing everyone’s attention. “You know there’s only one thing for us to do.”

  “Oh?” asked Dustin, setting his controller down on the table. “And what’s that then?”

  “We go into Michael’s office. We find out for ourselves.”

  “Absolutely not. Don’t be an idiot. It’s a stupid idea,” said Imorean sharply, his frustration rising. “Roxy, if demons don’t kill us, Michael would. Going in his private space isn’t something I really want to do.”

  “I could get us in. Only if it’s the only way though…” began Ryan.

  “Squad leader said no,” said Baxter. “And to be honest, I support that.”