Hidden Runes

by G. Bailey

  “What the fuck did you do to Evie? She came with us to save you!” Trex shouts, and he stands up, only to find himself unable to move due to the rope tying all of them to the wall behind them. “Why the fuck am I tied up?”

  “I will untie you once my sister, Evie, is dead,” Erica replies simply, and I hear Trex gasp.

  “Your what?” he asks, shaking his head and staring at me. His eyes run over my wounds and back to my eyes.

  “Well, seeing as we have a bit of time until she dies, I might as well go over a little royal history lesson,” Erica says, spinning the dagger she stabbed me with in her hand. She leans down, tilting her head to the side as she looks at me. I hear Connor waking up, coughing and talking to Trex. His words seem to fade out, and I can only focus on Erica. The crazy bitch.

  “Our mother was a little bit of a slut once upon a time, after she had me and my sisters that is. We were perfect, but never enough, and neither was my father, apparently,” she says, tutting. “She had an affair, and pop, you were born. We are only a year apart, you know? She didn’t wait long to cheat and have a creature like you.” I try to listen to her story, only hearing that my mother was the queen of the Protectors, and she had three other children. I had a family and, apparently, my father wasn’t the king. So . . . who was he? And what went wrong, so I ended up on the streets?

  “Lies!” Connor shouts, and Erica laughs, standing up and kicking me in the stomach. The pain almost threatens to make me black out as I roll across the floor and land on my back with a groan. I hear Connor shouting in the distance as Erica walks over and stands above me, looking down in disgust.

  “My father left me notes, a note with your name, and where to find you before he died years later. He wanted me to help you, bring you into the family because you are a part of my mother. All I saw was a repulsive secret, and one that needed to be destroyed,” she spits out, glaring at me.

  “You-you had me hunted all this time because you were jealous? Are you really that fucking crazy?” I ask, coughing and feeling warm blood drip down my cheek. She narrows her eyes at me before kicking me once more in the stomach, and I roll across the floor again, facing the Protectors this time and also getting closer to them.

  “Evie! Get up and fight!” I hear and see Nix shout at me. I want to agree, do as he asks, but I can’t. Erica leans down right in front of me and places her cold hand on my cheek.

  “Dear sister, I’ve wanted you dead since I was a child. I was ten when I sent the first Protector after you, and they failed. Every single one failed to kill you, and I knew I had to do something before the trials for the new queen started. I couldn’t risk fighting you in them, and it was about time you died,” she says almost soothingly, like she wants me to agree with her crazy plan.

  “You killed your sisters, didn’t you?” I manage to wheeze out.

  “Our sisters, don’t forget, and yes I did. They were smart, fast, and good fighters. I couldn’t risk not winning the throne. I need it for the future and what needs to happen,” she says, still stroking my cheek. I have a feeling she killed our sisters before they were even kidnapped by her demon friends.

  “You fucking bitch, Erica! The keepers will never give you the throne when they find out what you did!” Trex growls out, and I hear him struggling against his bindings, trying to escape and help me.

  “That’s what makes this all perfect, they will never know. Everyone that knows, is here, and will soon be dead or exiled from the Protectors for failing to save their princesses,” Erica laughs. She has planned this all, and we have walked straight into her trap. My sister is smart, but it’s a shame she is fucking crazy, too.

  “We know! And we won’t stay quiet. You kill her, Erica, and I swear I will hunt you down and finish you myself,” Trex threatens, and I’m surprised to find I believe him. I didn’t think the asshole liked me.

  “No one would believe you, and you have no proof. Our engagement is over, not that it was anything other than words, anyway,” Erica smiles sweetly at an angry-looking Trex, who keeps his eyes on me. Erica looks back down at me as everything goes black in the corners, and the pain starts to disappear into a feeling of emptiness.

  “Good bye, sister. Shame you’re not the deadly assassin I always feared you would be. You were too easy to kill,” she whispers to me with a maniacal grin, and she leans down, stabbing the dagger straight into my heart.

  “May death guide you on your way, may angels save your soul, and may you be reborn true. We bless your death in the light of the Protectors who fell before you,” I hear all three of my Protectors say with sorrow lacing their words, and then everything fades into darkness.

  Thirty

  Evie

  “Evelina, you are so beautiful,” I hear a woman say. Her voice is kind, gentle, and reminds me of a distant memory. A memory of a woman speaking to me, singing me a song. I blink my eyes open, seeing a woman floating in front of me. She almost looks like she is in a cloud, her white dress flowing and the cloud surrounding her. She has long black hair, a crown, and four runes marked on her forehead, with swirls dipping down the sides of her eyes. She is stunning, and as her blue eyes meet mine, I just want to know who she is.

  “Who are you?” I ask.

  “Evelina, I made a mistake, and as a result, you were left alone. I regret every moment of my mistake and now you must pay for it. I can only see you now because death closes in on you,” she replies, ignoring my question, and it’s all I can think about instead of her words.

  “Who are you?” I repeat.

  “Erica is lost in pain, and you must end her. Send her to me,” she says.

  “Who are you?” I ask again, demanding this time.

  “I love you. I loved you from the moment I held you, and you opened your eyes, breaking my heart because you reminded me of your father. You were the last thing I thought of as I died. I will always love you, Evelina.”

  “Who are you?” I ask once more, but this time my voice cracks, and hot tears fall down my cheeks.

  “You already know, but you have to leave,” she says sadly, moving closer to me and placing her hand on my chest over my heart. “I’m with you, always.”

  “Mother?” I ask, and she nods, only seconds before she fades away and I fall through the clouds.

  I lie very still as I look up at the light around me; it is the brightest light that I’ve ever seen. The light is everywhere, it’s soothing and perfect as it warms my skin. Most of me doesn’t want to move. Most of me feels nothing but the light for a long time, but then a brief glimpse of a memory comes to me. A man with red eyes. Another man with a cheeky smile, and two brothers with a dark appeal to them. I remember them, and it feels like they are calling to me somehow. I feel like they need me. I sit up suddenly, as everything else flashes through my mind, until I remember the last thing that happened.

  I should be dead.

  I feel around my chest, noting that I’m completely naked, and find a scar where the dagger went into my heart and my stomach. The scar is white, and there is no blood anywhere on me. My blue hair falls over my shoulders, hiding my chest as I look up at the white skies. They are beautiful.

  “Scars are good; they proved you lived,” a light, male voice says, and I look over, staring in awe as an angel walks over to me. He has big white wings, white hair, and bright-white eyes. He kneels down close to me, watching me carefully as I gape at his wings as they spread out. His clothes look old, like white rags.

  “Are you an angel?” I ask, and he nods.

  “Am I dead? Am I in Heaven?” I ask another question, and this time he frowns, shaking his head.

  “Angels do not die in Hell. We never have. We become the light,” he says like that should explain everything, but it doesn’t explain a damn thing.

  “I died in Hell . . . this doesn’t make any sense,” I shake my head, and he sighs.

  “You have no idea what you are, do you, Evie?” he asks, and I shake my head again.

  “Look behind
you, and that is the start of your answers,” he says. I turn my head to the side and see long black wings spreading out from my back, hovering in the air. Wings? I have goddamn wings? What the hell?

  Epilogue

  Trex

  “You crazy kid! Don’t try to bite me, I was only getting the water bottle out of the holder!” Connor shouts, with a pained grunt, and I stop the car in the middle of the highway, resting my head against the wheel. My mind flashes back to seeing Evie lying on the ground, blood pouring out of her stomach onto the floor, and my crazy ex-fiancé holding the knife. Evie was a royal, and I never knew. Evie is who we should have been protecting, and we failed her. I won’t fail her witch though. I look over at Nix, who holds a bottle of whiskey and just stares out of the window, not saying a word. He hasn’t said a word since Evie died, and oddly enough, her body faded away. It must have been something about dying down there because Erica didn’t seem shocked or even to have cared at all. We watched Erica walk through the portal before getting ourselves undone and escaping.

  “You kidnapped me! I was waiting for Evie to come back, and I need to be there, or she won’t know where to find me! She would never send Protectors after me!” the kid shouts, and I lift my head to see Connor trying to fight her off as she throws her shoe at him. You can tell Evie brought her up, that’s for sure.

  “Kid, listen to me,” I say carefully, watching as Star jumps onto Hali’s lap, and Connor leans as far away from her as possible. Hali’s pale eyes look at me, and all I can see is a scared kid. A scared kid that is acting out. “Evie is gone. I told you this, and I wasn’t lying. Now we need to get to a safe house, and keep you alive, because it’s what she would have wanted. I owe Evie, we all do.”

  “Evie isn’t dead! I know she isn’t,” Hali cries, looking away and out the window, tears streaming down her face that she harshly wipes away.

  “I wish she wasn’t dead either, kid, but we don’t all get miracles,” I say, and start the engine.

  Book Two link here.

  Death should have been the end, but instead, it’s the start of my revenge...and they won’t even see me coming.

  Evie survived a trip to Hell, literally, to find herself somewhere even more dangerous—with the angels. Angels who do not want to let her leave, not without paying a price for the life they saved.

  Angels. Demons. Protectors and more secrets than one world should hold. Who can Evie trust when everything is a lie? When it’s time for the assassin to return and claim what is hers, who will be on her side?

  18+ Reverse Harem romance.

  Prologue

  Azi

  The portal burns into existence, the pressure of going to the one place I knew was impossible to ever travel to without a great cost burning through my thoughts. The cost doesn’t cross my mind, not even for a second, as I make the portal larger and feel the massive drain on my power. I growl low as sweat drips down my head, and finally, the portal breaks the barrier to a place I never thought I would go to. I jump through the portal, landing on top of a white brick house as I take in everything. A screaming angel draws my attention behind me where a white-haired angel is running away from an army of souls, screaming her head off. My heart catches in my throat as Evie runs around a wall, a stone in her hand as the army of souls is just behind her. What the hell is she doing? The blonde angel trips, falling flat on her face in the grass. Evie picks up a fallen branch, spinning around and swinging it at a soul as I jump off the house and start running towards her. I run around a house just in time to see small black wings appear on her back, and she flies into the air, only to be caught around the foot by a soul. The souls slowly pull her down as I run, jumping over walls to get to her in time.

  "Evie!" I shout as more souls get hold of her, and I call my fire into my hands. I run and jump right into the middle of the souls where Evie disappeared, praying that she will survive this. I can’t exist without her.

  Thirty-One

  Evie

  “Come up off the ground. The outside is not safe for our kind. Let us go to my home,” the angel says smoothly as I stare at my wings. My wings. I have freakin’ wings. I repeat the same things in my mind as I reach over and smooth a hand down my left wing. I can feel the soft feathers under my fingers, and my wings flutter gently. Can I fly? I wonder about it for only a second before I realise I have bigger problems. Like where the hell I am, for one.

  “Child, we must leave,” the angel demands. I turn to look at him and stand myself up, only to nearly trip at the new weight of the wings on my back. They aren’t that big and stop at my hips, but they weigh a lot. The angel holds his hands on his hips as he waits for me to say anything.

  “I am not a child, and I want to know where the hell I am. I need to know how quickly I can get back to earth,” I snap, and I look at my wings once more. “And who the hell gave me wings? I am no angel, so someone made a big mistake there.”

  “That is a complicated answer, one I cannot tell you here. It is not safe. The souls are leaking into the third layer of Hell, and every night, we get attacked,” he explains, and I almost laugh at his lie.

  “That’s impossible. The three guards of the third layer would never let souls in. They can’t even get to the second layer!” I exclaim, calling the angel out on his bullshit and wrapping my arms around me as I suddenly notice I’m naked as I chat to the strange, older angel. I think he is old anyway, I’m not that sure. His long white hair makes him look aged, as well as those white eyes. The white clothes aren’t helping him look younger, that’s for sure. I stare at the angel for a second, wondering how it is even possible an angel is alive. They are all meant to be dead. The ones I’ve heard about were crazy enough to try and destroy earth and paid for their mistake. I should be on guard with this angel and find a weapon as soon as possible. And some damn clothes before my butt freezes off.

  “They do not know about what truly happens in the layer they are meant to protect. No one truly knows what happens in Hell anymore because there are no royals,” he says, his tone clearly frustrated. When I just stare at him, not believing one word of his crap, he points a finger at a small building in the distance. “That is my house. I am going there, and you can come if you wish. I won’t force you but only suggest that being out here isn’t a good idea.” With that lovely statement, he walks off, and I’m stood alone, watching him go. I don’t know the angel or anything about angels in general other than they are crazy. I literally don’t have a clue what powers he could have.

  I run my hands over my scars without thinking about them, and suddenly, I’m remembering Erica’s victory face as I died and feeling nothing but overwhelming anger. I am going to kill that bitch when I get to her. I also remember the Protectors shouting for me as I died, and that Hali is now alone. Azi is captured, but I doubt even his brothers can keep him long, and when he escapes, he will go for Hali. At least I hope so. I can’t stand the thought of her being alone with Erica, who will no doubt kill her or send her to the witches to spite me. I need answers and to get the hell out of here quickly, and it looks like the old angel is all I have for now. Let’s hope I don’t have to kill him if he is as crazy as his relatives must have been.

  I run after the angel, looking down at the ground, which I think is actually a white cloud and feels so soft as I run on it. Everywhere just looks white, full of clouds, and there isn’t anything other than the small white house I get to. What the hell is this place? If it is Heaven, then someone made a big mistake. I slow down as I get to the house, which looks extremely old, made of white stone and has an ancient Greek feel to it. The angel has left the white door open for me, but I don’t go in straight away as I hear a loud unrecognisable noise. I sharply turn around and see a massive group of souls in the distance, running towards something I can’t see. The angel was telling the damn truth. I carefully walk through the door, not trusting the angel. He might be leading me into a trap, but I know he is right about being outside. That is way too many souls to kill.


  “Shut the door, won’t you, child? We don’t want to get the souls’ attention. They never come this way, but let’s not test it tonight,” the angel asks with a long huff. I look over to where he is sitting on a chair, in front of a white fire which is inside a white stone fireplace. The fire burns pure white, and there is no wood, stones or anything holding the fire. It is just floating in there like a creepy ghost. I pull my eyes away when the angel clears his throat, and I shut the door behind me quietly. He is right, but I’m not admitting that to him.

  “There are clothes over there. They belonged to a friend, and she is smaller than you. They may be tight,” the angel says as he points to a small table next to a wooden, clearly unused, bed on the other side of the room. I ignore his comment as I go over, picking up the white dress that is designed to be held up by your boobs I think. I pull it up, and it rests nicely, not bothering my wings which knock into the bed, causing a slight bit of pain. Great, this is not what I need right now. I glance around the room, searching for any weapons and finding nothing. There are no plates, glass or anything other than a chair that I could use to make damage if this angel attacks me.

  “Shit,” I say, nearly tripping again as I attempt to turn around. The wings spread out, and I just stare at them in exasperation. I did not want them to do that.

  “You can put the wings away until you’ve learnt how to control them,” the angel says, sighing loudly like I am an annoying child or something to him.