Gabriel observed them with a clenched jaw. “Have that cleaned, Fergus. Cain and Paulius, take the girl to the Amber suite. Lara, please find out the current status of the hunt for our guest's friends. I will inform the Ambassador of events so that she can contact those who seek the Demon children.”
Fergus released Lara roughly. “You can clean up the poxy blood, Gabriel, I am the one who caught her, I will be the one who tells Niamh.” He shoved a finger in Gabriel’s direction. “You were about to let her walk out the bloody door.”
Gabriel took a step forward, pressing his chest against the accusing finger. “If it hadn’t been for the girl remarking on your uncanny similarity to a primate then she would have walked straight past you too.” He smiled coldly. “But of course, you are welcome to be the first to explain this happy accident to Niamh.”
Gabriel gestured for Fergus to walk ahead of him and they disappeared around the corner without a backward glance. Lara watched them go, her eyebrows knitted together, before addressing the two remaining men. “I’ll walk with you to the Amber Suite. Don’t let go of her until the door is sealed,” she cut her eyes in my direction, “we don’t know what their kind are capable of.”
She strode ahead of us down the corridor. The stocky man grabbed my right wrist, holding it tightly between his thumb and forefinger.
“Eh, this way, please.” The other man looked younger, his sandy hair falling messily in front of his blue eyes. On any average day, I would have blushed as he placed a gentle hand on my back to guide me forward. Not today.
The Amber Suite turned out to be only a hundred meters down the corridor. Lara stood outside the open door tapping her foot. The blond man ushered me over the threshold and stood back apologetically. “The feeling will pass as your body adjusts to not having magic.”
Lara shoved a key into his hands. “Paulius, stop trying to communicate with it and seal the door.”
He gave me a grim nod, and pulled the door shut, leaving me alone. I sank to my knees, all of my false bravado suddenly spent. The sound of the key twisting in the lock was accompanied by a strange throbbing. I shook my head, trying to release the pressure building inside my ears. I banged on the door. “What are you doing to me?”
Nobody answered. I curled up on the floor and tried to hold my soul together.
Chapter Thirty
Discomfort ebbed away and left behind an aching cavity inside my heart. I crawled across the room to a large window and dragged myself to my feet, gripping onto the windowsill. I felt as though the world had shifted on its axis. I had become untethered from my very being.
The view through the glass was as impressive here as it had been from the hallway. I rattled the locked window latch and wondered had Anne Boleyn been able to see the Thames from her prison cell. I paced the perimeter of the room, trying to control the panic that was building inside me. I searched for anything useful. Dining table, television, sofa, armchairs, drinks cabinet. I paused there for a moment before I caught sight of the phone.
I crossed the large room in four bounds and pounced at it like a jaguar, almost succeeding to hammer in Cat’s number before the line went dead. I smashed the phone against a door and it opened to reveal a huge bedroom complete with a walk-in wardrobe and a luxurious bathroom.
The bathtub was made from heavy porcelain. Its clawed feet reminded me of the baths Eve used to run for me in the Chelsea house when I was small. She would fill them so high that when I jumped in with all my dolls, the bubbles would spill over the sides and splash onto the tiles.
I climbed into the tub and pressed my face against the porcelain. I wanted to cry. To release the grief and fear building inside me like steam inside a pressure cooker, but the tears wouldn’t come. I closed my eyes and screamed in fury. I was unaware that anyone had entered the room until somebody turned on the tap, drenching me with an icy spray.
“Shit!” I sprang back, relieved that it was Gabriel and not Fergus.
He turned off the water. “Magdalene girl, it’s considered normal to remove one's clothes before you bathe.”
“Demon, it’s considered polite to knock before you enter an occupied bathroom.” I stepped out onto the floor, scrubbing my face with the back of my hand as I pressed my back against the tiled wall. “What do you want? Have the Guardians come to collect me?”
Gabriel grabbed my hand and tugged me out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. I struggled against his grasp but it his hands were like iron manacles. He pushed me into the chair in front of the dressing table. We eyeballed each other in the mirror. I tried not to focus on how badly my image compared to his groomed perfection.
“It’s not the Guardians who want you, child.” He spun me around to face him. “Can you slip? What are your gifts?”
I shrugged his hand off my shoulder. “I don’t have to answer your questions, let the Guardians, or whoever wants me interrogate me themselves. Traitor.”
Gabriel blocked my attempt to stand up, putting his face close to mine. “What did you say?”
I fell back into the chair and squeezed my arms against my chest. “I remember you. You were there when Dawn was born. You brought Catherine to Eve.” I wrapped my fingers around the pendant hanging from my neck, perturbed once more by its inexplicable familiarity. I bit down on the sob that was threatening to escape my lips. “You helped bring her into the world, and now you are going to let her die.”
Gabriel stared into my face for a minute before turning away. “If you hadn’t opened your foolish mouth you’d be home by now.”
I bit my lip. “Then let me go. Please, I’ll never come back. Just show some mercy.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened. “Don’t talk to me about mercy. You have no idea what you’re involved in. Now, I strongly suggest you stop wasting my time and accept the help I am offering you because my time and my temper are running very short.”
I shrank away from his violet glare. “You want to help me?”
He exhaled, moving back a step. “I want none of this, Grace.”
The sound of my name was strange coming from his lips. “Are you on our side?”
He grabbed my hand and tugged me off the chair. “How am I supposed to know whose side you are on?”
I shook his hands away. “Do you answer every question with another question?”
Gabriel gave me a grudging half smile. “Can you slip if I open the magical vacuum?”
I shook my head and gave an apologetic grimace. “I can’t slip. I have no magic skills.”
Gabriel pressed his thumbs against his eyes. “There is an outfit in the closet, those who hunt you have very specific criteria for how a Demon-Born should be presented to them if caught. The female outfit is hanging up, put it on while I try and think. I passed the guard under the guise of preparing you for the offering. If Fergus sends any of his minions to check on you, they will expect you to be wearing it.”
I grabbed the only piece of clothing hanging on the vast rail and closed the bathroom door quietly behind me. I stripped off my black outfit and threw it over the side of the bath.
Gabriel rapped on the door. “Get out. There’s no time.”
I shimmied into the thin silk dress and flung the door open. Gabriel stood in front of the window and with a flick of his fingers the glass vanished leaving a gaping hole in the wall. “I won’t risk assisting you more than this, Grace. When they arrive, I will tell them I found the room in this state, that we underestimated your power.”
He turned on his heel and headed straight for the door to the corridor.
“Gabriel, what the hell? What am I supposed to do? We’re three flights up in the middle of a city, this doesn’t help me!”
He met my stare coldly. “Help yourself, Grace.”
The sound of the door clicking shut behind him rang in my ears like a gunshot. I sprinted to the empty window frame and leaned out to examine the wall below. The white ledge looked wide enough for my feet to grip. There was a three-foot jump to the
next window ledge, and a wrought iron fire escape ladder directly below it, descending all the way to the pavement.
I had been terrified of heights for as long as I could remember. I gripped the charm around my neck, focusing on getting it back to Dawn as I swung myself through the window and planted my bare feet onto the window ledge. My toes gripped the cold cement. No, no, no. I dug my fingers into the rough grooves in the redbrick, whispering to myself to stop the waves off panic from dragging me into hysteria. Don’t look down. My body shook violently as I eased myself onto the fire escape ladder, sending silent prayers of thanks for the long arms and legs I generally cursed.
I rested my forehead against the cold metal rungs for a split second to catch my breath. Two strong hands grabbed me from above and hauled me in through the living room window.
“No!” I hurled myself towards the bedroom in desperation.
Gabriel leaned against the doorframe and examined his nails as Fergus dangled me in the air. “I warned you she shouldn’t be underestimated, Fergus.” He lifted his head. “Get rid of her. Now.”
“You sneaky, lying, treacherous snake.” My voice quivered as I strained to reach him, still suspended in midair. Lara was spinning a small object in the center of the room. Her arm contorted with such speed I couldn’t focus on her movements. I winced as the space in front of me collapsed, eaten away by swirling blackness to form a portal.
Fergus pulled me closer to him so that my back was pressed against his abdomen. He bent his head to smell my hair. “Anything you want to say before you go? Want tempt with a little personal time for a few minutes reprieve before you meet your maker?”
“Go to hell, Demon filth.” I tore my nails along his exposed arms, drawing lines of scarlet blood along his flesh. Fergus released me with a violent jolt and I fell forward against Gabriel’s chest. He looked down at me and stroked my cheek, before shoving me backward, into the abyss.
I imagined the feeling was similar to being dragged under a high-speed train. The energy sucked me through space with enough ferocity to bruise my skin before it spat me, face first, onto the rough ground. I rolled onto my back. The portal had already vanished. I scrambled to my feet and ran my fingers through the warm air. Nothing.
I turned in a full circle taking in the endless miles of sun-bleached hills. There were clumps of grass growing every couple of feet, but there appeared to be nothing else alive under the scorching sun. My skin was already feeling tight, and the soles of my feet were begging for relief from the heat. I ran towards the base of the nearest rocky slope, pressing myself into the shade under a small outcrop of rock. Wherever those assholes had sent me, I was confident it wasn’t to the Guardians.
Hugging my knees to my chest, I scanned the horizon for movement. I crushed Dawn’s pendant inside my fist. My eyes focused on the darkening sky over a distant hilltop. The storm was building fast, and the charcoal clouds stretched across the heavens, moving closer at an astonishing rate. It hit me like a bolt of lightning. They weren’t clouds.
I ran, frantically searching for somewhere to hide. A cave, or a crevice I could bury myself under. My feet blistered as I sprinted over the scorched earth, pulling desperately at cracks in the stone with bloody fingers. Trying to open them wide enough for me to slither inside. “Help me, somebody help me.”
I didn’t expect an answer, it was just sheer desperation, but I heard the whisper of voices in response.
“Where are you? Can you hear me?” I strained to make out what the voices were saying, as I watched the darkness bleeding across the sky towards me.
We have to go, it’s too late, it’s closing.
“Don’t go! I am here, wait for me! Where are you?” My throat was raw.
I can feel her, just wait one more minute, I can feel her.
My heart stopped. “Sam?”
They weren’t here. They were in my head. I could hear him in my mind, his voice swirling around my mind in a storm of colored light. I reached out to him. Sam! Can you help me? They are coming for me, please, help me! I sobbed, clinging to the rock with one hand, crushing Dawn’s pendant into my palm with such force it tore through my skin. Warm blood trickled over my skin and splattered onto the parched earth.
I lifted my eyes to face the black swarm as it descended on me. Feeding on the blackness hidden in my heart. I heard Sam screaming my name in my mind as I squeezed my eyes shut, sending every bit of my soul to be with my loved ones. I felt my body hurtling through the air, and I braced every cell against the pain.
It never came.
I landed with a thud against something warm and solid. Strong arms wound their way around my body with agonizing tenderness. I kept my eyes squeezed shut, terrified that my heart was deceiving me.
Voices called out, reaching for me. I clung onto his body and pressed my face against his chest. Sam ran his hands up and down my back as he spoke.
I heard the familiar sound of Cat’s light feet approaching. Without opening my eyes, I tugged at the delicate chain around my neck and prised my bloody fingers open. Cat was talking as she unfastened the necklace and stroked my ravaged skin, but I couldn’t decipher what she was saying.
Only one sound made sense. The voice whispering in my ear, over and over. Just one word. As if it was God’s own prayer. Grace, Grace, Grace.
I let the tears come.
Chapter Thirty-One
“She should never have been there in the first place, Eve. You must have been out of your mind.” Cat’s voice dragged me from the weight of a restless sleep.
“I didn’t think she would be in any danger, I wouldn’t have sent her—”
“You didn’t think she would be in any danger? In the Tower? Goddamn it, Eve. Cain told you about the attacks he’s been tracking for Peter. And you sent two Demon-Born kids into that bloody viper's nest? Satan himself doesn’t know what whoever is hunting the Demon-Born wants with us.”
Their voices filtered into the room through the closed door and I covered my head with the blanket to escape the hushed argument. The floorboards on the other side of the bed creaked. My heart told me to turn around, but my head begged me to have sense. I opened my eyes and stared at the wall. The large mahogany wardrobe was open, and a familiar outfit hung on the rail. Déjà vu. I was back where I started, in the healing rooms.
“Is Grace okay?” I didn’t turn my head to ask the question.
“One hundred percent.” Emotion hit me like a tidal wave. Grace was okay. Sam was at my bedside. I buried my face in the pillow and waited for the world to right itself before turning over to talk to him.
“How long was I out this time?” I said a silent prayer that my face was clean and my breath didn’t stink. Sam was sitting on a high-backed chair beside the bed, close enough that if I reached out with my hand, I could have pinched him to check I wasn’t dreaming.
One side of his mouth quirked upwards. My pulse skipped in response to the flash of his dimples.
“Just since last night,” he said.
I stretched my arms over my head and sat up, careful to keep the covers hiked up over the skimpy, torn dress. I smiled. “Better than twenty days, I guess.”
Sam held my eye, and I felt the hairs rising on my skin. “It felt like a year.”
My stomach flipped. He inched the chair towards me, and his knees pressed against the bed. Part of me ached for him to move even closer, to hold me in his arms again. “Sam, did you sit with me the last time, after Eve shattered my binding?”
Sam pulled back and let out a deep breath, rubbing his hand along his jaw. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes.”
Something jagged dislodged itself from the soft tissue of my heart and circulated through my veins. “Once?”
He glanced at me for a second before looking down at the floor. His hair fell forward, hiding his face and muffling his response. “Every day.”
I curled my knees up against my chest as a thousand emotions battled for supremacy. My hands closed into fists, the rig
ht palm stinging as the broken skin split open again and wept blood down my wrist. “Why? Why would you sit with me when I was unconscious and then treat me like a leper I was awake?”
There was a knock on the door, and it swung open before either of us could respond. Cat’s face was red and puffy. Eve hung back, one foot still in the corridor. Cat padded over to the bed and tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “You’re awake. How are you doing?”
I wriggled my fingers and toes. “I'm all right, everything in perfect working order, no harm done.”
Cat grabbed my chin. “Stop it, Grace. This isn’t a joke. If Sam hadn’t done what he did… He could feel the Spirits tearing at you.” She dug her fingers into my skin. “You never go anywhere without telling me. Never. Okay?”
“Okay, Cat. Okay.” I reached out to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “But I would do it again if it meant getting what Dawn needed.”
Cat’s jaw clenched under my hand, and she shot a look over her shoulder at Eve. “I know you only did it for Dawn, Gracie, and I know that I wasn’t here.” Fresh tears coursed down her face. “That won’t ever happen again, whatever happens from now on, we stick together. Yes?”
I nodded, unable to trust my own voice.
Sam shifted in the chair, stretching out his long legs. “Catherine, Emmanuel wanted us to tell him when Grace woke up. To discuss what happened after we got separated. We have to get Cain and Peter as well.”
Cat mopped her face on the corner of my bed sheet, revealing the thin straps of the silk dress on my bare shoulders. Sam’s face flushed and he stared at his hands. Cat leaned in and kissed my forehead.
“Right. Duty calls. You get dressed, and we’ll rally the troops.”
I smiled at her back as she marched out the door. Eve melted into the wood as Cat passed by. Sam stood up and shoved his hands into his pockets. He was still wearing the skintight black outfit that Lucas had chosen for him. “I better go.”
He hesitated for a moment, throwing a glance in Eve’s direction before stepping closer. His face was stripped bare. “I know I’ve been an asshole. I messed everything up, Grace, right from when I realized what you were. I wanted to fix it, but I guess you’re not the only coward.”
The Shadow Children (The Demon-Born Trilogy Book 1) Page 17
