Niamh’s eyes burned a hole in my skull as she spoke. I opened my mouth to reply and snapped it shut again without a word. It made perfect sense. The Shadow Children had been a thorn in the Angelic Council’s side for two thousand years, but this act would catapult them to the status of full-scale terrorists. A potential modern-day assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The look in Lizzie’s eyes mirrored my own creeping dread. She sprang out of the chair and started to pace the floor. “Doesn’t explain how they got the other prisoners moved. Those orders had to have come from the Angelic Council or a senior Guardian.”
“And you think there is no corruption within the Angelic Council? Who has been hiding those Demon children in the Guardian’s prisons and their homes, ha? If you believe that every Angel is as pure as the fairy tales make them out to be, then you are crazier than your sister.” Aza cocked her chin in the air and looked at Lizzie down her nose. “But you don’t look crazy, and I know Gabriel can see truth. You ask him what he thinks. You’ll see.”
It was the most I had ever heard Aza say in one go, and I was struck again by the ferocity of her beauty. Warrior. The word echoed in my head. I met Lizzie’s stare, and we both looked at Niamh. “I am more cautious in my judgment than Aza, but there is no denying that there must be a certain level of complicity on the part of the Angels. I have an ear within the High Council, and he is trying to unearth any information regarding this as we speak. So far, he can find no official documentation that orders the clearance or relocation of British Silent Homes today.”
Niamh held a finger aloft in response to Lizzie’s open mouth. “I am not saying that I believe the Angelic Council endorse the actions of the Spirit Eaters. I trust my source, and I have met with the Head of the Council to discuss the increase in the Spirit Demon attacks many times in recent years, and I believe he was sincere when he told me he didn’t believe there were Demon-Born children. But somebody knows they exist. Somebody has been housing them in Silent Homes for decades. Somebody has been testing them. Someone with power.”
“You think these Spirit Eaters have high-level Angels on their payroll?” I tugged at my simple, gold bracelet as I waited for Niamh to answer.
She twitched her right shoulder. “Perhaps. It appears they had two of my own Demons on their payroll, so I can hardly deny the possibility of that being true within the Council also.”
“Fergus and Lara.” Aza spat the names of the traitorous Demons out with a downturned mouth.
The air in the room suddenly felt oppressively warm, and I pulled at the collar of my shirt. My lips craved a gulp of the cool, salty air outside. “Then we’re screwed, aren’t we? We can’t beat the Spirit Eaters—they’re always one step ahead of us, and now they have framed us, so the rest of the Angels will believe that we are murdering beasts with Angelic blood on our hands. We might as well paint targets on our backs.”
Lizzie laid a hand gently on my wrist, but I shook her off. “Stop, Lizzie. What do we do now? Give up and go deeper into hiding? Leave the other Demon-Born and Halflings to rot? It won’t stop the Spirit Eaters coming, they want something, and we know they do! We can’t just run away, so what the hell do we do?”
I spun to face Niamh. “What do you want from us? If you have all the answers, what do you want us to do?”
“I want you to go to the Angelic High Council.” Niamh’s voice was cold enough to freeze my blood.
Lizzie grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her. Her fingers squeezed around my ring finger with three determined pulses. A silent signal—get us out of here. She glowered at her sister. “What did you say, Niamh?”
I forced myself to keep breathing, drawing the air into my lungs through my teeth and releasing it slowly as I thrust my energy beyond myself, beyond the barely recognizable cottage, and across space.
Niamh’s voice echoed at the edges of my consciousness. “You need to present yourselves to the High Council. The Shadow Children cannot fight this battle alone. If you approach the Angelic Council first and try to make a case, perhaps they will believe you are not responsible for slaughtering those Guardians. I am going to the Angelical Council today to report my findings. You can tell the Shadow Children they have one hour to decide—come to the Shadow City as my guest and open a dialogue with the Angelic High Council on what can be done or be taken as prisoners. One way or another, I will change what has been foretold, Elizabeth.”
In a blaze of energy, I connected with my target and the sweet taste of relief flooded through my veins. I wrapped my fingers around Lizzie’s hand as Sam’s power enveloped me. Niamh stared calmly into my face as Lizzie and I were yanked from the room and across the ocean. Her final words echoed in my ears. “Nicely done, Seeker. Tell the Reaper I said hello.”
Chapter Ten
Cat slammed the small backpack onto my bed in a frustrated attempt to crush another set of clothes inside. Dawn pressed my pillow against her mouth to hide her grin, and I stifled a snicker with the back of my hand.
Cat blew a stray lock of silky, copper hair out of her face and shot me a black look. My smirk faded. “You don’t need to pack my bag, Cat. We aren’t going to be staying anyway. We’re meeting the Angelic Council, and then Lizzie’s sister is going to get us straight back.”
“Straight back.” Cat snatched the backpack away from my reaching fingers and marched over to my dressing table. “The London Demons got you straight back the last time, alright. Straight into the mouths of a pack of Spirit Demons, more like.”
I massaged my temples. “Cat, stop it. That was over a year ago, and I wasn’t even badly hurt. Gabriel always said somebody was watching over me anyway, I was never in danger of—”
“Gabriel! Don’t talk to me about bloody Gabriel!” Cat wielded a bottle of moisturizer like it was a weapon. “I can’t believe he voted to meet with the High Council. After everything he promised us, he volunteers to waddle himself into the jaws of hell with all of you following him like little ducklings.”
I scrunched my nose at the ludicrous suggestion that Gabriel would waddle anywhere. Cat crushed the little bottle of lotion into the front pocket of the bag and swiped it shut. “Emmanuel should never have agreed to let you go. You didn’t see any of the other Master’s offering themselves to the mission, did you? No, no. Victoria will be far too busy pruning her roses and eating cucumber sandwiches, or whatever other bull they get up to in London. And God only knows what that little rat-faced master from Germany is planning, he was furious that the Shadow Children would even consider approaching the Council.”
I snorted. “Rat face. That’s brilliant. I had been going with a weasel face, but you’re totally right—he is a bona fide rat face. All the beautiful German men and we get a rodent.”
Cat met my eye for a second and I wiggled my eyebrows, but instead of returning my smile her face crumpled, and she twisted away from me to stare at the wall. I crawled across the bed and wrapped my arms around her from behind, resting my chin on her shoulder. Cat pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s not funny, Grace. Nothing about this is funny.”
“I have to go, Cat. The Angelic Council has only agreed to grant us safe passage through the Shadow City if they get to meet a Demon-Born child. I’m the obvious choice—you and Cain need to stay with Dawn, Pryia is injured—I have to go.” I gave her a forced smile as I raised one shoulder.
Cat wiped her hand over her face. “I don’t see why anyone has to go. The High Council are liars, we are doing okay—”
“No, we aren’t, Cat. We aren’t. They’re closing in on us. If something doesn’t change soon, the Spirit Eaters are going to catch us all in their net. If this could save my family, I have a right to try.” I directed my words at the ground.
Cat contorted her body so that she could see my face. “Sam is going, isn’t that enough? He won’t be alone, Grace. Emmanuel, Lizzie, and Gabriel have already volunteered to go. There’s no reason for you, Brandon, and Megan to
go with them. At least Jasmine has the sense to stay here.”
“Jasmine’s only staying because she wouldn’t leave Elijah behind on his own.” I cringed at the surly sound in my voice and bit down on my lip. “Please don’t be angry with me, Cat.”
“I’m not mad at you, I just don’t want to see you follow Sam into a trap.” I pursed my lips and tried to pull away from Cat, but her small hands gripped my shoulders with surprising strength. “I love Sam, but he’s a troubled boy, Grace. He’s getting worse. Cain said he withdrew entirely when their half of the cell was sent to Russia, and he refuses to discuss what happened on that mission in Moscow—who knows how he will react once the news that Lydia and Frank are actually gone sinks in. I understand that you’ve feelings for him, and sometimes when we are attracted to somebody physically—”
Cat was distracted by the sound of a small body shuffling closer to us, and she stared at her daughter as if suddenly remembering that she was in the room. “Dawn, will you please run down to my bedroom and grab my perfume?”
Dawn squinted at her mother. “Why would Grace need perfume in the Shadow City?”
“To spray on beautiful little girls who don’t do what their mom asks them to do.” Cat narrowed her eyes and tipped her head in the direction of the door. Dawn slid off the bed and out the door with a smile playing on her lips. I said a silent prayer that she’d leave the door into the corridor open so that Cat couldn't continue her lecture, but I was out of luck.
“Sometimes, when we have physical feelings for somebody, it clouds our judgment—”
“Oh my God, I’m begging you to stop this conversation. And stop using the words physical attraction, please! This is hideous. You don’t need to worry about it anyway, Sam is finished with me. I was going to break it off anyway, except he wouldn’t answer my messages. It’s a stupid time to be thinking about relationships, I just want to focus on my training and fighting the Spirit Eaters.” My voice was a slightly higher pitch than normal. I scrubbed at a fleck of dirt on my shirt.
Cat stroked my hair away from my face. “Oh, Gracie, I’m sorry, but I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t relieved. I worry for you. Sam, the missions, your power—if Eve were here she would never let you risk yourself like this.”
“Yeah, well, she isn’t here, is she?” I snatched the backpack with one hand and shoved myself away from the bed. The door swung open revealing Dawn and a bottle of Cat’s perfume. I stepped past Dawn onto the corridor and ruffled her hair. “I don’t need that perfume, after all, kiddo. You should keep it and spray it on your mother every time she bosses anyone around. That should keep her smelling like roses twenty-four hours a day.”
Dawn opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Emmanuel’s arrival. Megan and Lucas were with him. Cat emerged from my bedroom and stood at my shoulder. She tapped Lucas’s bag. “I see we have another hero.”
Cat’s tone was playful, but tightness around her mouth gave away her true feelings. Lucas wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear. Cat pressed her face into his shoulder before pulling away from him. I ran a curious eye over both of their faces.
Emmanuel led the way down to open staircase and out into the garden. Sam, Brandon, and Gabriel were already standing beside an open slip. Lizzie stood a few feet from them, locked in an embrace with Mathas. I averted my eyes from the public display of affection. Even though Mathas was physically as beautiful and youthful as Lizzie, there was something about the way he kissed her that always reminded me of a lion devouring its prey—like he might swallow her whole.
Jasmine appeared around the side of the building and stopped a few meters short of our motley crew. I made my way over to her. She yanked at the straining buckle on my bag. “You planning on leaving us for good?”
I patted my shoulder strap. “Cat channeled her frustration into packing my stuff. Training gear, cosmetics, and a wholly unnecessary chastity belt.”
“Chastity belt?” Jasmine grinned, and for a second she looked like the girl that I remembered, instead of a gray shadow of herself. Her eyes slid over my shoulder and locked on Sam’s back. Her smile melted away. “I always said Cat had brains.”
I chewed on the side of my thumb and silence fell between us like a glass wall. Lizzie broke away from her partner and strode onto the viewing bay. “Mathas made contact with Niamh. She’s going to meet us in the Shadow City, the High Council have granted us an audience and a forty-eight hour stay of goodwill.”
“Meaning that they won’t kill us for at least two days, right?” Brandon asked Lizzie. She returned his lopsided grin, and he gave her a thumbs-up. “Good. I have experiments to finish, new skills to master, data to collect—dying this week would be über inconvenient.”
Lucas stared down at his feet, and Megan pulled closer to him, pressing his shoulder roughly the way she did with her younger brother, Mark. Brandon flinched at his own insensitivity and shot me a pleading glance. I tucked my thumbs under the shoulder straps of my backpack and faced Emmanuel and Lizzie. “We should probably hit the road, Aza isn’t the kind of woman I want to keep waiting. I’m pretty confident she could kick my arse.”
“You can be entirely certain that she could kick your backside, Grace. Aza would annihilate you.” Gabriel didn’t crack a smile as he tipped his head in farewell to those waiting by the porch. His eyes slid over the small crowd. They passed over Mathas and Jasmine, with just a second of hesitation for each, and landed on Cain. “Stay sharp, my friend. Keep the home fires burning.”
Something unspoken passed between the two men before Gabriel turned and walked through the slip without a backward glance toward the spot where Jasmine and I stood. I peeked at Jasmine out of the corner of my eye and felt a stab of pain at the sight of her small arms wrapped tightly around her body. Emmanuel gestured at Sam and Lucas to step forward. “Samuel, Lucas, please assist Gabriel in ensuring the area is secure.”
Lucas jogged over to Jasmine and kissed her on the cheek. “My mom said she’d contact you when she got back to New York. Tell her to give Ozzie a hug from me, okay? And I’ll visit Eli the minute I get back. I promise.” He turned to walk back toward the slip but stopped halfway. “Mind yourself, Jas.”
Jasmine squeezed her lips shut and gave him a tight smile. I leaned forward to hug her goodbye but her rigid posture deterred me, and I landed a pat on her shoulder instead. I crossed to the slip with my eyes on Cat’s pale face. She didn’t wave or return my smile. I quickened my pace, battling the anxiety that had already begun to seep into my bones and paralyze my muscles. I focused on breathing in the fresh mountain air as I waited for Emmanuel to give me permission to pass through the slip, but the ethereal beauty of the North Carolina wilderness only amplified my fear. Why was I leaving this piece of Heaven? Why must I risk losing even more than I already had?
Emmanuel nudged his palm against my back to move me through the slip, but I balked and pushed away from the slip instead of through it. Sam appeared on the other side of the portal. My body ached to move closer to him, but confusion and fear sent adrenalin pumping through my brain in a stream of sudden clarity.
If I went to the Shadow City, nothing would ever be the same again.
I shook my head and started to back away from the slip. Emmanuel and Lizzie called my name, but I could barely hear them over the roar of my pulse throbbing in my ears. Cat’s face was a storm of emotions as she sprang down from the steps, but a small dart of copper cut in front of her and embraced me in gentle, skinny arms.
I bent my neck to look into Dawn’s delicate face. Her eyes stared into mine as she pressed something small and soft into my hand. I inhaled. I didn’t need to look to know what she had given me. I crushed my forehead against hers and scraped my courage together. My fingers pressed into her little shoulders one last time before I broke away.
I ran past Cat with the grubby teddy bear clasped against my chest. Dawn’s voice reached me as I burst t
hrough the slip, an echo from my childhood, my foster mother’s words brought to life again. “Good people and evil are separated only by their deeds.”
Good and evil. I prayed to Eve that I had the wisdom to know the difference.
Chapter Eleven
The slip opened into a dank, narrow yard. The walls surrounding the enclosed space towered high above us and blocked the light from reaching the cracked concrete ground. From the patch of blue sky overhead, it looked as though it was still afternoon.
Niamh was waiting for us in the center of the yard, but her lips remained pinched tightly until Emmanuel had sealed the slip. Aza was leaning against the wall beside a narrow wooden gate that had been painted white at some stage in its sad life, but had now faded to a dirty gray. Aza’s pose was casual, but her eyes burned with intensity as she focused on Gabriel’s back. Niamh extended her arm and directed us into a line. She pointed her finger at each person in turn. “Emmanuel, Elizabeth, Gabriel.”
Niamh’s voice caught on Gabriel’s name and she paused to clear her throat before continuing. “All three of you are familiar with the geography of the Shadow City. The Angelic Council have announced your arrival to the people of the city, and have forbidden any violence against you, but you know as well as I such guarantees are not written in blood. Should the need arise, I expect you to return to this point immediately. You must ensure the children stay with you.”
Icy blue eyes flashed in our direction as Niamh scrutinized us. “Demon child Seeker, Demon child Reaper, direct line Angel, lower house Angel.” Niamh’s stare lingered on Lucas’s face for a moment before she moved her focus to Brandon. Her lips pursed as she took in his sculpted frame and the defiant set of his jaw. She flicked an arm toward her second in command. “Aza, this is the Human? The one Gabriel gave his life blood to rescue? The one who’s emancipation from the Guardian’s clutches could have cost us our standing with the Angelic Council had Gabriel not marked himself a traitor to the London Demons?”
The Demon-Born Trilogy: (Complete Paranormal Fantasy Series) Page 35
