She exhaled as relief washed over her. He didn't die. I didn't kill him. She hadn't meant to hurt him. The knife was meant for Samael.
She was laying on the big bed she had seen earlier. The back of her head hurt. She tried to touch it, but couldn’t move. Her wrists had been bound together and tied to the bed frame above her head. The knots in the rope burned her wrists. She jerked her arms back and forth, back and forth until her shoulders ached and her flesh chafed.
Exhausted, she leaned back against the bed. She glimpsed movement near Remiel and angled her body to look. Remiel’s eyes were fixed on something near her, just out of her line of sight.
A shadow fell across the bed at the same moment she felt the heat of a whisper in her ear, "Are you ready?"
Ready for what? Her heart raced and her palms grew clammy. Her vision swirled as adrenaline pumped into her bloodstream.
"Tonight's the night. While lover-boy watches, you will give me an heir."
Samael.
She shivered when his feverishly hot skin touched hers as he climbed onto the bed to lie beside her. He stroked her face. Bitter bile mixed with the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. She swallowed and turned her face away from him.
"I always thought revenge was my energy, my very life.” His rancid breath made her cheek moist. “I can take you away from Aliah, or Elchai’s sons away from him, but in the end revenge won’t satisfy me. I need power. Tell me where the Book is!”
She shook her head. "I don't know!"
He caressed her cheek again then suddenly squeezed her face between his fingers and thumb, until the insides of her cheeks pressed against each other. His nails pierced her flesh, and drew blood that ran down her chin.
"Then we'll do this the hard way. Maybe Remiel over there can help you by telling me where the Book is. Oh, wait. He can’t. You messed up his face." Samael’s lips twisted into a fleeting grin before he released her face. He slid off the bed, then removed his trousers. Hot tears ran down her face making her cheeks sting. Her throat tightened. She thrashed against the restraints, twisting her body while ignoring the searing pain in her hands. A guttural groaning came from Remiel and cut into Shai’s heart.
Samael slid closer to her and she squeezed her eyes shut, still thrashing. He gripped her inner thigh and twisted the sensitive skin there. Screams tore her throat, but the excruciating pain in her leg forced her to be still. She pressed her lips together and tensed as he breathed against her neck and into her hair. Then suddenly his weight was on top of her. The pressure of his mouth against hers added more pain. He kissed her, brutally crushing her lips between his teeth. She arched her back in a violent twisting motion as his fingers groped along the edge of her tunic while his other hand twisted into her hair and yanked her head back. He wound his leg under her and pulled her rigid body tight against his.
She gagged, coughed, then vomited against his mouth. Blood and bile dribbled down her chin and neck.
He jerked away then laughed. "That won’t stop me." He slapped her face and when she refused to cry he slapped her again, harder. Her eyes stung and her nose felt detached from her face like there was nothing left but a gaping hole.
A crash across the room made Samael turn and Shai pulled both her legs to her chest, then kicked him in the side. He teetered then began to fall, but caught himself. He turned towards her, his face purple and shaking with rage.
"Enough!" Spit flew from his mouth. He straddled her, then yanked the neck of her shirt. The buttons popped and the fabric ripped across her left shoulder. Samael grinned and grabbed the remainder of the fabric in both hands.
But then his eyes narrowed. A strange look was frozen on his face as he leaned in to stare at the exposed skin of her shoulder and the top of her breast. He trembled as he traced the birthmark on her chest with one skinny finger.
"I’ve seen this mark before. On your friend."
Aliah?
Another crash and Remiel suddenly stood behind Samael with his arms lifted high over his head. Shai gasped as she saw in Remiel’s hands the jagged remains of the chair he had been tied to. A splintering sound of breaking wood filled the room as the chair connected with Samael's skull, followed by a dull thud as he hit the ground.
CHAPTER 63
Aliah
His lungs screamed for oxygen in the dense air of the corridor, but he forced himself on. He focused on the smooth control of his body. His muscles tightened and relaxed rhythmically as he ran. The empty corridors echoed back the sound of his pounding feet.
The same guard stood watch, a silent sentinel at the bottom of the stairs. He didn't react when Aliah snatched a short-bladed knife from the weapons table.
He took the stairs two at a time, running blindly up the dark stairwell, his feet finding each step from memory.
The blazing sun had finally set outside, cooling the air. The moonlight sharpened the angles of the towering factories and stretched their eerie shadows along the ground.
He ran with nothing but the knife in his hand and the page from the Book. He'd looked enough times at the page to know the map by heart. After the jagged Sector Seven terrain, the land became smooth and flat further west. On the map its label was simply the Outerlands. Gershom wasn't on the map. If the entrance to Gershom was through Death then he would face it. Even if he had to run forever. He would run until he stumbled into Gershom.
Memory after memory slammed into his consciousness. The next thought climbed on top of the previous thought, each one vying for attention. He shoved them all down and kept running.
Just focus on Shai.
Her long blond hair. But now it’s matted with blood.
Those incredible blue eyes. Eyes that had barely registered recognition when she looked at me. The further he ran the darker his thoughts became.
Acute pain attacked his left side and he squeezed it.
Breathe. In. Out. Run. Run. Keep running.
Breathe.
Whose blood was all over Shai? Hers?
He shivered. She would've attacked him if Elchai hadn't called out to her. But he saw in her eyes she wasn't really there. She hadn't been standing in the Center's Core. When she had raised the knife and came at him it wasn't him she was seeing.
Then who?
"Who did you see when you looked at me, Shai?" He spoke into the darkness. He asked the ragged shadows of rocks as he passed them. He lifted his face to the black sky and asked the wind that whipped through his hair and tore tears from his eyes.
You know who she saw. And you know where she is and who she is with. The voice penetrated his questions. Familiar and cold. Taunting and teasing.
Gershom was close now. I suppose I’ve always known it was close. As close as a person's next breath. The veil was always there, hanging between two realms, rippling in the icy wind he felt in his soul.
Shai, I know where you are and I’m coming for you. He felt her teetering between life and death. He knew she was standing on the threshold between Gershom and Edan. He wondered if she could feel the same cold wind that he felt. The harsh gusts that turned his blood to ice, his breath to frost.
Another memory rose in his mind, vivid in color. Sounds so loud he had to listen. His feet stumbled for footing, but still he ran while looking inwardly at the sudden memory.
They had been walking along the water (was it the river of Lael or the channel in Kent? He didn't know.) The three of them swinging their clasped hands: Remiel and himself with Shai between them. It was the last time he could remember being happy. Shai had squeezed his fingers and he smiled at her profile. The smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose danced when she crinkled her face in a laugh. His heart soared and ached at the same time. He loved her. He truly loved her. He nearly told her so, but he heard that voice. The voice that would often return to chill his soul and eventually harden his heart. That day he heard it for the first time.
“Be careful she isn’t taken from you. You can’t trust Remiel.”
He ha
d glanced sideways and saw Remiel's face as he watched Shai, the same hungry look he imagined he himself had when he was with her.
Something had twisted in his gut when looked at Remiel and Shai's interlaced fingers. Remiel was certainly more alive, more excited when he was with her. But who wouldn't be?
She was golden. Like honey on the lips.
He remembered the sudden dryness of his mouth. The instant sweat that slicked his palms. And he made a vow. I will do anything to protect Shai. Anything.
The memory dislodged something long-buried. An undefinable agony that ripped into his chest and left a gaping hole where his heart had been.
Aliah tripped on a loose stone and turned his ankle. He fell sprawling on the ground and felt the skin roll back from his palms and knees as the sharp gravel and dirt embedded in his flesh.
He spat and sat up. The memory dissolved like a spoonful of salt beneath his tongue, leaving behind a bitter taste.
I’ve been a fool. Listening to the voice had poisoned him against Remiel and twisted his own love for Shai into something selfish and evil.
He grabbed fistfuls of his hair as he cried out inside. Why? Father, why did you try to destroy my life? All this time I’ve let you into my head because I thought you were helping me. But you’ve never wanted to help me. You’ve always hated me. Why?
CHAPTER 64
Shai
Dried blood on her hand made her skin itch.
She gripped Remiel’s hand tighter and let him lead her down the long dark hallways. And when her bare feet could no longer carry her, when the skin on her heels and toes cracked and bled and the pain made her stop, he picked her up. He carried her.
Through hallway after hallway. He ran. Always running, never stopping. Her arms circled his neck, her head rested against his shoulder. The fabric from the dirty wrap around the lower half of his face tickled her cheek. Or maybe it was his blood, still flowing, that had dripped from his wound onto her face.
She was covered in his blood. Dried and fresh. And it mixed with her own. The pungent scent sharp in the darkness.
That smell was the only thing that reminded her that they were both still alive.
CHAPTER 65
Aliah
He saw the yellow glow of its eyes first. Piercing the darkness. Haunting.
After he'd fallen, Aliah's pace had slowed. His knees burned, his lungs ached and his blood pounded incessantly in his ears like the roar of the waterwheel in the Core. Confidence had given way to sheer determination long ago, and his feet thundered on by force of will.
The sight of the amber eyes slicing through the veil of night brought him a strange twist of relief. He knew he'd been watched by this wolf even as he had watched the Laelites. Its presence lurking and waiting for an opportune moment to whisper dark thoughts to him. To send him messages from his father beyond the veil of death.
Maybe this was it. He exhaled and wiped the sweat from his brow. He wouldn't fight it. He deserved what he got.
He bit his lip. He was ready for Gershom.
"Come for me!" He yelled into the darkness. The yellow of the wolf's eyes blinked out like two flames that had been blown out.
Aliah dropped to his knees and opened his arms wide. He tipped his face up, exposing his throat and a tremor of fear arced up his spine. He braced himself for the impending attack.
"Come..." Something hit his chest and knocked him backward, his breath escaped in a whoosh. He gasped and coughed then waited for the second attack.
This is too easy. I won't defeat you like this. Stand up and fight like a man. The voice hissed inside Aliah’s head.
Rocks and sticks bit into his back as he lay on the ground, but he didn't move. He smiled. The voice sounded almost irritated. Maybe because the puppet strings had finally been cut. He was his own man now. He may still hear the voice, but its power over him had broken.
He spread his arms and legs out and forced his eyes to stay open. "Come for me." His invitation rose barely above a whisper.
Suddenly the weight of the wolf was there, on his chest. Crushing him. He could see nothing but darkness and the pressure on his body made him think that in few moments he'd be one with the earth. He didn't struggle, but let the air escape from his lungs little by little. The muscles around his mouth twitched as his frozen smile threatened to fade.
The yellow eyes appeared again, inches above his face. At the same moment he felt icy fingers around his neck, crushing his windpipe. His legs trembled, his lungs pleaded for oxygen.
A cloud moved and a pale shaft of moonlight slanted across a familiar face. Hair he knew to be the same shade as the flecks of amber in the eyes, mouth twisted into a sickening grin.
It came as no surprise that Zev was the angel of death.
Aliah's fingers trembled against the blade he still held in his right hand. Hatred flowed like ice through his veins. The edges of Aliah's vision clouded. Soon I will cross over Gershom's threshold. He let the blade roll off his fingertips.
"You're really stupid. Why would you kill yourself just to enter Gershom? Won't do anyone any good to have you dead. You always were the dumb one." Zev released the pressure on Aliah's throat, enough for Aliah to take a breath, but he refused to. The trembling in his legs became violent.
"Remiel's dead. Shai's dead. Died together, in each other's arms," Zev sneered.
Aliah's survival instinct kicked in and he gasped. He coughed and rolled onto his side, sputtering and cursing.
"Ah, there you go. I knew that would get to you." Zev rolled off Aliah then sat cross-legged beside him while drumming his fingers on his knees.
"Take your time and catch your breath. You're not going to go that easily." Zev narrowed his eyes. "I don't know why you waste your time trying to be the hero. What are you trying to prove? That you're worthy?" Zev snorted and shook his head.
Aliah collapsed back on the ground, breathing heavily.
"Worthy of what? Daddy's love? Well, your father doesn't want you. He never did. Poor, poor orphan boy." Zev leaned over and looked into Aliah's eyes. "He doesn't want you! You hear me?" Zev yelled into Aliah's face and specks of spit hit Aliah's lips. Aliah tried to steel himself, not against his father's voice this time, but against Zev's words. Words that sliced into his heart.
"He chose Remiel, not you! You failed, remember? You tried to murder Remiel. You.Tried.To.Kill. Your. Brother. And that's why your father disowned you. He couldn't stand to look at you. You sniveling coward!"
Pain roared through Aliah's body as he curled up tight, fighting the tide of memories. Wave after wave of shame crashed upon his soul like a storm-ridden sea when it pounds the shore. Suppressed guilt unleashed its agony and bitter tears sprung to his eyes.
A new pain exploded in his back as Zev kicked him again and again as he lay curled on his side. Each time Zev rammed his foot into Aliah's side he punctuated it with curses and shouts. Liar! Murderer! Loser!
Aliah surrendered to the pain in his body. It washed over him and would've relieved him if not for his tormented mind. I deserve this. I deserve punishment. I am deserving of whatever Death wants to do to me.
He scratched the earth and left scars in the soil with his nails. He crushed a handful of gravel in his fists and let the sharp rocks slice into his palms. Let my blood run. Let it flow.
He'd cut himself open and let his blood soak into the ground if he thought it'd wash him clean. But he was filthy. His blood too filthy to clean anything.
He pulled his hair until his scalp went numb, but the physical pain paled in comparison to his mental anguish.
Finally a shuddering sob erupted from a deep place in his chest. "My brother! My brother, I didn't mean... No! Remiel, please... oh please." He rolled onto his stomach and buried his face in the dirt. Zev brought his boot down on Aliah's lower back, then ground his heel into Aliah's spine. Pain shot up his back, travelled along his nerves and ended in an explosion in his torso.
Then nothing. The pain left. Zev disappeared, swall
owed up in the curtain of darkness that suddenly descended.
CHAPTER 66
Aliah
When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw in the dim half-light was the little mountain of gravel still inside his clenched fist. The cold stone floor bit into his cheek as he laid face-down. Where am I?
He tried to lift his head, but a peculiar weight prevented him. He blinked and focused past his hand. Iron bars stretched before him as far as he could see without moving his head.
Dread washed over him.
Gershom.
At least I made it. He swallowed hard. Why do I feel so funny? It wasn’t pain but a kind of heaviness. He tried moving his legs, his toes, anything, but nothing responded. Panic bubbled up. He tried again. There. He watched his index finger shiver with effort. Then his thumb.
Something dripped near his head and splashed its fetid liquid on his face when it landed. He strained his ears and heard more dripping, then something else. Something moving beyond the bars. Someone walking in heavy boots. The boots stopped outside the bars. The toes were scuffed and worn. Buckled up the side. The sound of jingling keys flooded him with a mixture of fear and hope.
The bars slid open and the boots came. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Until they stopped near Aliah's closed hand.
"My son. What have you done?"
That voice.
Aliah closed his eyes. "I'm not your son." His own voice sounded strangled and rough, his throat restricted and painful where Zev had choked him.
The toe of the boot touched the back of Aliah's hand. "No? Well whose son are you then? Certainly not Elchai's. You told him so today." The boot pressed Aliah's hand into the ground a little harder. "Isn't that right? Didn't you tell him what you just told me? I'm not your son."
The voice mocked and the pressure increased on Aliah's hand. He heard bones grind and pop and he gritted his teeth, waiting for the pain. But it never came. When Samael removed his boot, Aliah stared at the little flecks of dirt that stuck to the tread mark embedded in his hand.
The Coalition Episodes 1-4 Page 21
