Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4))

by Amy A. Bartol

  “Right,” I reply sarcastically, while wetting my lips that have gone dry. “I hate to ruin your illusions of me, but I was only trying to protect me.”

  “No, if that were the case, you would’ve found a means of escape, but you didn’t. You entered the arena and stood right beside me,” he replies, and seeing his point, I bite my lip.

  “It was just a normal response to a perceived threat,” I contradict him.

  “It’s a normal response for an angel protecting her mate,” Xavier counters, like a skilled tactician.

  “No, any normal female would try to talk her way out of trouble,” I say with a brittle smile.

  Xavier’s fingers come up to play with a strand of my hair as he says, “There is nothing remotely ordinary about you—accept it. I’ll show you what you are.”

  “And, what am I?” I ask with a raise of my eyebrow while I pull my hair back from his large hand.

  “Mine,” he replies softly with conviction. The light from the chandelier overhead makes his hair golden and his wings a deep, blood-red color. “I will tear open the sky to make you see it.”

  Wildly careening butterflies take flight in my stomach, causing my eyes to shift from the intense, mismatched ones to the doors that lead to the West Tower. Despite my agitation, a smile curves my lips as I breathe, “Reed,” with relief so strong it makes my legs weak.

  As Reed walks toward me, I admire the seductive way he moves while my eyes wander from his green ones to his bare chest. His dark-gray wings, tucked casually behind him, unfold when mine flutter in some kind of primal signal to him. I can’t help touching him when he reaches me, letting my arms wrap around the back of his neck while my red wings spread out. Rising up on tiptoes, my cheek brushes his. I whisper near his ear, “You’re okay?” half in question and half in relief.

  Feeling his arms wrap around me, he presses me to him and responds, “Yes, you?” The incredible scent of him assails me, causing my fingers to reach up and entwine lightly in his hair.

  Before I can answer him, Xavier gives a low snarl next to us. Reed instantly stiffens, but otherwise he doesn’t outwardly react, except to plant a long, sensual kiss on my lips. Ending our kiss, he leans his forehead against mine, while saying, “I missed you,” with a sublime smile.

  “You wouldn’t have had to miss me if you’d let me come with you,” I reply, my hand slipping to his shoulder, while I straighten.

  “Flawless reasoning,” he replies with a small smile.

  “Did you find anything…bad?” I ask while trying not to hold my breath.

  “Yes, I did,” he says with a look of supplication. “Ostentatious decor is everywhere.”

  I give him a furtive look, knowing he is purposefully not answering my question. Reed’s hand slips from my back to my side, positioning me next to him so that he can face Tau and Xavier. Addressing Tau, Reed says, “The residence and grounds are still being secured. Zephyr and Russell are continuing to locate latent spells and portals, but there are layers of them—what we anticipated. It may be some time before we can safely allow Evie access to the entire estate.”

  “She will be well protected,” Xavier says in a cold voice. “I will not leave her side.”

  “You are not needed in that regard,” Reed counters in an equal tone. His fingers lightly touch the mark of my wings on his chest. “I will see to her.”

  Tau’s gray eyes are on me when he says, “Xavier is Evie’s guardian. He is well acquainted with the role.”

  Reed, still outwardly calm, squeezes me tighter to him. Feeling him tense, my heart accelerates while my face flushes, like I’ve just been caught in something tawdry. “Her guardian? But, he’s a Seraph,” Reed replies with a tilt of his head, clearly unhappy with the news.

  “Yes, I am,” Xavier agrees in answer to the implied question. “I have been hers since her inception.”

  “Clearly, it’s time that you were reassigned to another soul,” Reed replies with his green eyes narrowing. “This one now has an aspire.”

  “There is no other soul for me, nor angel for that matter,” Xavier says without emotion. “And if you believe that you deserve her, I’m here to let you know just how misguided you have become.”

  “I look forward to your challenge then,” Reed replies with a genuine smile of pleasure.

  “I will not keep you waiting long,” Xavier returns with the same kind of smile.

  Alarmed by the satisfied looks on both their faces, I ask them, “What are you talking about? What challenge?”

  “I will explain it to you later, love,” Reed says gently, while petting my cheek with the back of his fingers.

  Tau doesn’t share their smiles as he says, “Evie has agreed to dine with me this evening. I’ll meet with Preben and make the arrangements.” Then, his eyes soften when they find mine again. “Would you like to rest before we dine?” he asks me.

  “No, I’m good. I’d like to be alone with my aspire,” I reply in a firm tone, still feeling awkward with him.

  “Then, I’ll meet you later tonight,” he says with a small smile.

  “Okay,” I reply, shyly. I try not to stiffen when he leans forward and places a kiss on my brow. “You’re taking him with you, right?” I ask Tau, shifting my gaze to Xavier.

  Tau says something to Xavier, which makes Xavier’s smile turn into a grim line.

  Shaking his head slowly, Xavier says in a determined voice, “I’m staying with her.”

  Reed sounds calm as he says, “I’ll be with her. She will have my protection.”

  “Brennus was able to get to her under your protection,” Xavier counters Reed with elegant disdain.

  “Everything was able to get to her when you withdrew yours,” Reed responds.

  As Xavier loses his calm look of disdain and steps aggressively forward in anger, Reed slips me behind him. Tau moves faster than Xavier, holding him back from Reed with both hands on his chest. Reed’s dark wings match the menacing width of Xavier’s crimson ones at full extension.

  Still holding Xavier, Tau says over his shoulder, “Take Evie to see her friends, she has been worried about them.”

  Frozen where I am, I stare at Xavier. Breathing heavily, like he’s trying to gain control of himself, his eyes slip to mine. He speaks to me in Angel: it sounds painful and unmusical, falling from his lips to hang in the air between us.

  Reed has to tug gently on my hand to get me to move away toward the corridor leading toward the West Tower. I walk midway down the hallway next to Reed before I know it.

  Glancing at Reed’s severe expression, I ask, “What did Xavier say?”

  Reed instantly changes direction and ushers me into an adjacent alcove, pinning me to the stone wall with the cage of his arms flanking me. “Who is he to you, Evie?” Reed asks me, while searching my eyes for answers.

  A guilty panic hits me then, and I try to explain, “I knew Xavier in high school—we were friends. Well, maybe we were a little more than friends at times, but then he’d get weird and moody and act like he didn’t like me…I don’t know. Xavier said…he said we knew each other before I was sent here—that we were a lot more than friends, but I don’t remember him, I swear! I don’t remember Paradise at all—”

  Reed pulls me in his arms, kissing me passionately. “I’m sorry—of course you don’t know,” Reed says against my lips. His hand presses to my heart as it beats hard in fear.

  “What did he say to me?” I ask again.

  Reed doesn’t answer right away, and then he murmurs, “He said, ‘What has been, will be again.’” Seeing my confusion, Reed adds, “It’s our mantra—it means that one day, the war of Heaven will end and we will be united once again under God in Paradise.”

  “Oh,” I exhale, lowering my eyes from Reed’s in relief that Xavier hadn’t been saying something about me.

  “But,” Reed says softly, causing my eyes to lift to his again, “I don’t think that’s what he meant when he said it. I think he was speaking of you and him: wha
t has been, will be again.”

  I lift my arms to him, hugging him and saying, “You know that I love you. It’s you and me—it will always be you and me.”

  “I thought he must be dead,” Reed says in a low tone, “your guardian angel. When you showed up at Crestwood and you were alone…and I began to know you—I was certain that you would have had one. The only conclusion that I could come to was that he had been killed.”

  “He said he was called back to Heaven. He said he couldn’t refuse them,” I murmur, not fully understanding what that means.

  “You were present when a soul ascended, Evie, you know the pull of it, and should he have tried to resist, he would’ve been taken by force,” Reed replies grimly.

  “Then…Heaven could take you back—make you leave me?” I ask with a chill of dread filling me at the thought of them taking Reed from me.

  “They could take you from me, and then make you forget that you were ever loved by me…or wanted me,” Reed replies sadly. “It would seem that they’ve already done that to Xavier.”

  “They can’t do that to us! I’ll rebel—I’ll fight for you,” I say in a harsh voice before Reed covers my lips with his, kissing me almost senseless.

  “Don’t say that, Evie,” he whispers against my mouth. “You are beloved in their eyes—whatever they conceal from you has a purpose. You must trust in that purpose.”

  “If they took you from me, it would be like they concealed my heart from me,” I say in a hushed voice.

  Reed’s eyes soften then, as he says, “And you have just proved to me how beloved I am in your eyes and in the eyes of Paradise. I have lived for centuries and never hoped to hear my own emotion echoed so passionately by the lips of one so fair.”

  Feeling somehow better after hearing that, I rest my cheek against his shoulder. “Xavier said he has been with me since my inception,” I say in a shallow voice. “Does that mean that I was always intended for this—that this, all my lifetimes with Russell—everything has been leading to this…it’s all still one single on-going mission?”

  “Are you asking me if I believe that you were created for just this purpose?” Reed asks.

  “Uh huh,” I reply.

  “I think that you have been given the freedom to choose your own destiny, and that’s what makes you so supremely unpredictable—lethal. You have the perfect poker face because you hardly know what you’ll do until you do it,” Reed says with a gentle squeeze. “You follow your infallible instincts that are ruled by your heart.”

  “I don’t know how infallible my instincts are—I agreed to have dinner with Tau tonight,” I say quietly.

  “That was very accommodating of you,” Reed says with an encouraging smile.

  “Do you think so?” I ask with faux cheeriness. “Because I was just thinking that it will be a perfect opportunity to rise up and take back some of the control the Seraphim have wrestled away from me.”

  “Really?” he asks sounding amused.

  “Uh huh,” I nod. “I want them to know that we are a unit—unified. We make the decisions that affect our lives, not them.”

  “How do you perceive that going?” he asks.

  “Hmm, not well,” I reply with a quirk of my eyebrow.

  “As long as you have no illusions going into it,” Reed smiles. “There is almost no rank higher than Tau’s and you’re his daughter. He has only just found you again, and he never meant to leave you.”

  “So, you’re saying he’ll try to hold onto every ounce of control with both fists?” I ask warily.

  “By any means necessary,” Reed warns me.

  “Great,” I sigh. “I’ll see if anyone has antacids for this meal.”

  “Why don’t you go and try to get to know him instead?” Reed asks while he puts his arm around my waist and leads me back into the corridor.

  “You mean try to form a relationship with him?” I wrinkle my nose. We turn down several hallways and I realize that he’s taking me toward the North Tower.

  “Yes,” Reed says.

  “I don’t trust him,” I reply softly.

  “Maybe, if you allow him to, he can earn it,” Reed says, stopping in front of the closed doors to the library. “There’s something else you can do, too, Evie.”

  “There is?” I ask curiously.

  “Anya could use someone she can trust,” he says gently. “She’s just seen some things that were less than optimal for a newly arrived angel.”

  “Oh, what happened?” I ask.

  A reluctant look crosses his face, “We had to end some new Gancanagh. They were females from the harem. It was somewhat gruesome.” For him to say it was gruesome means that it was off the charts disgusting.

  “Oh,” I reply as my face loses some of its color. “Is she okay?”

  “She could use a friend,” he admits, opening the doors to the library.

  Looking around the room, many of the Power angels who had been with us in China mill around on the brown-leather couches and chairs. Most of the French doors that line this room and overlook the stone terrace are intact, only a few have been boarded up. The exposed beams of the ceiling makes the room appear like the structure of a ship—very much like the ceiling in the kirk. At the far end of the room, a cheerful fire snaps in the grand fireplace. I almost don’t see Anya on one of the chairs facing the fire. She looks so small and unmoving.

  Brennus had ordered me to avoid this room because the elite fellas used it as a kind of gentlemen’s club. Just being in here makes me feel disobedient. Suddenly, the realization that I’m stranded once again in my elegant prison begins to creep over me, causing goose bumps to rise on my skin. My throat tightens as the oppressive walls creep closer around me. My hand goes to my neck as it searches for the moon pendant that used to hang there, but it’s gone, incinerated on the island along with several of the fellas that used to call this home.

  “Are you okay?” Reed asks worriedly.

  “I’m fine,” I murmur with a small smile. “I’ll go sit with Anya for a while.”

  On shaky legs, I move towards Anya’s chair. She doesn’t look up when I near her, but continues to gaze hazily at the fire. I don’t bother pulling the other chair nearer to hers. Instead, I sit down on the floor in front of her chair and lean my back next to her legs to watch the fire with her. When she doesn’t object to my presence, I reach up and take her hand in mine, resting my cheek against her knee. It occurs to me that maybe she is the only other being that can possibly know how I feel.

  I’m not sure how long we sit there like that, holding hands, but I look up when Russell lifts Anya into his arms and then sits back down in her seat with her on his lap.

  “Stop lookin’ at the fire with that doll-eye stare, Red. You’re startin’ to freak me out,” Russell says as he strokes Anya’s long, dark hair.

  “I do not have a doll-eye stare,” I reply, blinking my eyes that have gone dry.

  “Yeah, right! My sister Scarlett’s American Girl dolls have more of an expression than either of y’all,” he replies. “And they were adopted.”

  I smile, forgetting where I am for a second. “I was thinking,” I say, straightening up and stretching my legs that are numb.

  “Good, ‘cuz I’ve been thinkin’, too, and I’m thinkin’ you’re not allowed anywhere near that room with the knight’s armor in front of it without me,” he says agitatedly.

  “The kirk—uh, the Knight’s Bar?” I ask, paying closer attention to him. He looks really tired—older.

  “That’s the one,” Russell says, running his hand through his tawny hair. “I just had to walk by it and all my hair stood straight up on my arms like somethin’ walked ‘cross my grave,” he explains.

  “You are not dead, yet,” Anya says softly, looking him over to make sure her assessment is correct.

  “It’s an expression,” he explains gently. “I just meant that it was toxic with bad energy. Zee went in while I waited out in the hallway, but he couldn’t find anythin’. I t
hink I’m gonna need your help if we go in there. There’s somethin’ not right ‘bout it.”

  “Let’s not go in there, then,” I reply with my eyes widening in concern. “There are plenty of other rooms around here for us to play in.”

  “Deal,” Russell agrees so quickly, it makes me nervous. “I’ll stay out if you do.”

  “I really wouldn’t mind never seeing the inside of that room again, anyway.” I reply, remembering being shot in that room by Casmir before I nearly destroyed it with a spell. In that room, Brennus was forced to free me from the magical contract that bound us together.

  “We thought you’d feel that way, so we’re cleanin’ up the East and South Towers. You weren’t allowed in them when you were here, so they should be less painful—less memories for you to deal with,” Russell says.

  “Thanks, Russ,” I murmur, choked up by his thoughtfulness.

  “It was Reed’s idea,” Russell replies. “And then frick and frack took the ball and ran with it. You’re gonna be in the Harem Tower whether you like it or not ‘cuz the Reapers freaked when they saw it. I mean they freaked in a good way,” he adds for Anya’s benefit.

  “So, ‘freaked’ can be good and bad?” Anya asks softly, with her head still listlessly resting against Russell’s shoulder.

  “Yeah, I know it’s confusin’, but you’re so quick, you’ll have it in no time,” he says, using his sweetest, most charming tone.

  “What is frick and frack?” Anya asks, seeming to be snapping out of the fog that she has been in.

  “Ah, that’d be Buns and Brownie,” he smiles, brushing her hair behind her ear tenderly.

  “When did they get here?” I ask.

  “Not long before you, but they came in like a couple of generals. They’ve been givin’ orders to the Powers—makin’ them move furniture ‘round, which is kinda funny ‘cuz you know they’re strong enough to do it themselves,” he smirks. “I just think they enjoy tellin’ them what to do.”