by Emma Slate
“But humans will be destroyed in the process, right?”
“Why would Lucifer want to destroy humans?” Gabriel asked.
I frowned in confusion. “He wants Heaven for himself. He’ll destroy Earth to get there.”
“Earth is merely the battlefield. Humans will die, but Lucifer has no plans to destroy them all.”
“I’m still not following.”
“Those that serve Lucifer will be given free reign of Earth,” Gabriel said. “There are worse things than death, Poppy.”
I sat back in my chair, suddenly chilled despite the fire glowing in the hearth.
“Humans will be commodities. They’ll be slaves, some of them will become food, and many will be used for pleasure,” Gabriel added, his tone grim. “If Lucifer wins, humans will survive. They just won’t want to.”
Chapter 18
Gabriel’s words rang through me. An eerie premonition that wasn’t a premonition at all. I’d never felt such defeat, such desolation.
“You aren’t human anymore,” Gabriel said, cocking his head to one side. “Why do you care what happens to them?”
“My parents are human. Everyone I’ve ever known or cared about is human, remember? And as you pointed out, this isn’t just about what happens to humans, but to all of us.”
“I wasn’t trying to anger you. I was merely curious if you still held any affinity for them.”
I studied Gabriel. He peered at me with a predatory stillness. My gaze dropped to his pectoral, and my eyes widened. On the left side of his chest where a human’s heart would’ve been, I saw it. A pulsing bright starburst. But it wasn’t pure—a black spot which didn’t move, took up one third of it.
My head swiveled to look at Thane. He nodded ever so slightly. He saw it too. The blight on Gabriel’s soul.
Gabriel’s eye flashed with anger. “Do not judge me.”
“I’m not judging,” I whispered. “But I can’t help what I see. I don’t know what you did, but your soul carries the mark.”
Gabriel shoved back from the chair, and his wings flapped, making a snapping sound in the otherwise quiet night. His eyes glowed. “You both are our last hope. I wish you good fortune.” With that pronouncement, he disappeared in a cloud of golden glitter.
“Fucking angel dust,” Thane muttered, shaking his head, gold specks flying from his hair.
I traced my finger through a trail of it that had sprinkled the table. My surroundings vanished, and I was suddenly on a bank of white clouds gilded with gold. In the distance, I saw a floating castle, nestled amongst more of white gold clouds. Beasts with huge wings made lazy circles in the lapis lazuli blue sky. With every flap of a wing came the sound of thunder.
“Poppy.”
The vision vanished, and I was back in the tree shelter, staring into the flames. I looked at Thane with wide eyes. “What did I just see?” I whispered.
“The Kingdom of Heaven, I imagine,” Thane said, his tone dry. “Angel dust is hallucinogenic. Where do you think the human drug came from? It’s a watered down version, of course, and with some nasty side effects that real angel dust doesn’t have.”
I blinked. “Wow. Yeah. That was weird. I felt there. I could even smell the air.”
“It’s sweet—like nectar.”
“Peaceful.”
“That’s the danger with angel dust. It seduces you.”
I nodded, even though my mind was no longer on Gabriel and his angel dust, just his message. “Is it too late?”
“I don’t know,” Thane admitted. “It would seem like it’s a lost cause. But I can’t stand by and do nothing. Even if they storm the gates of Heaven, even if demons pour out of every crevice and cavern and breach Earth, how can I not take my brother down? We have to free the mage if for no other reason, so I can help in the fight—if it should come to that.”
“We don’t have any time to spare, do we?”
“No, we have to go, we can’t just sit idly by hoping for a miracle,” he remarked.
“Do miracles even exist?” I wondered aloud.
He reached out and touched my cheek. “Of course, they do. I happen to believe it was a miracle that freed me.”
I rolled my eyes. “That wasn’t a miracle. That was sheer dumb luck on my behalf.” And a sharp pull of lust.
“Ah, Poppy. You could stand to have a little faith.”
“In what?” I demanded. “In an absent God who chooses to watch and wait?”
“The strife between Lucifer and his brother has gone on for a thousand millennia. Before that, even. Before the dawn of time, before the world was a glimmer in God’s eye. Lucifer has always hated his brother’s power. Resented it, coveted it.”
“Are you talking about God’s brother or your own?” I asked.
He shrugged. “One in the same, at this point.”
“Don’t brush it off, Thane. I know it cuts you deeply that your brother betrayed you.”
“He didn’t just betray me. He took everything I loved from me.” He sighed, suddenly looking exhausted. Leaning back in his chair, he rubbed a thumb across his stubbly chin. “It was the eve of my wedding…when Xan betrayed me.”
“Wedding?” I frowned. “You said Guardians don’t have spouses. Not in the normal sense.”
“I’ve loved another human woman, Poppy. Truly loved her. We chose each other. My parents had given their blessing and all was right in my world, but Xan wanted her for his own.”
“Because he loved her too?” I asked, trying not to choke on the bile of jealousy.
“Because she belonged to me,” he admitted. “It had nothing to do with love for Xan, and everything to do with the desire to take something that was mine. When you have something of value, someone will always want to take it from you. And he took her from me.”
I squeezed his hand in sympathy, hating that he’d lost someone he loved, hating his pain.
“It was a long time ago,” he said. “I was young. Foolish. I saw the signs, the anger and resentment in Xan’s eyes. I ignored them, not wanting to believe my twin was capable of such madness. All because of the order of our birth.”
“Do you think things would have been different if Xan had been born first? Would you have wanted what was his?”
He laced his fingers through mine. “I’ll never know, will I? But Xan never understood the burden of being Guardian. It’s an obligation, a curse. The power is a curse.”
“I don’t believe it, you know.”
“Believe what?”
I leaned over and pressed my lips to his. “Believe there’s not a trace of humanity within you. Sometimes, you sound so incredibly human.”
He chuckled, but it was dark and full of remorse. “To be a human… If I were human, I’d have no idea that the balance of my life—of all our lives—hangs by a thread.” He shook his head. “I guess I’ll take the curse, knowing I still have a chance at turning the tide.”
Thane looked at me, his dark eyes flickering with emotion. “I’ll take the curse, knowing I have you.”
Chapter 19
We left the shelter of the treehouse before the sun had risen. There wasn’t any point in trying to go back to bed. We were both wide-awake after Gabriel’s intrusion, not to mention we didn’t have a lot of time to spare.
I kept up with Thane’s relentless pace, wishing we could use magic to speed up our journey. But there was nothing we could do to move the Ebony moon to the highest point in the sky.
We walked deeper into the mystical forest. The trees grew tall enough to nearly block out the bright sun overhead. Mid-afternoon felt like early evening.
“How large is this forest?” I asked.
Thane handed over the canteen of water. I took a long drink as I waited for him to answer. “Not nearly as large as the desert.”
I spat out the water. “Desert? We have to cross a desert?”
He nodded.
“On foot? We have to cross a desert on foot?”
“Well…technically, w
e could find some transportation.”
“Like what?” I snapped. “Purgatory camels?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Scorpions, actually. Giant scorpions.”
“Guess we’ll be walking then.”
Thane’s head drooped but not before I caught his smile.
“You think this is hilarious.”
“I don’t,” he protested.
“You do! You’re laughing at me.”
“I’m—enjoying your visceral reactions.”
“Giant scorpions, Thane? That’s just too much for me.”
“It won’t be the last strange thing you see. The desert isn’t even really a desert.”
“Okay, Riddler. What does that mean?”
“It means—” A white arm covered in fur shot out of the tree line and knocked Thane on his head. He collapsed to the ground and didn’t move to get up.
A shaggy beast standing on hind legs marched out. Its eyes were beady and red, and it pointed its snoot toward me and sniffed.
I took a step back.
The beast was at least seven feet tall and covered in white fleece. It strode toward me. I took another step back, my gaze darting to Thane’s unconscious form, but he was clearly in no position to help me.
Screw that, I thought angrily.
I could outsmart this beast, which was currently bellowing toward the sky and pounding on its chest like a furry Tarzan. Before I could even let out a shriek, I was hoisted over the white furry thing’s shoulder and carted off deeper into the forest.
The beast made short grunting noises as it ran and showed no signs of tiring any time soon. At this rate, I’d be miles from Thane before he even woke up. My heart rate was spiked with adrenaline and fear, my ribs bruised from being bounced and jostled. All the blood was rushing to my head.
Thane!
There was no answer from him.
Great. So the longer Thane was asleep, the farther and farther apart we grew thanks to the furry beast that had kidnapped me for who knew what purposes. No doubt it wanted to pick the flesh from my bones.
It adjusted me to the other shoulder, and when I pressed my hands to its back to try and lift myself up, it smacked my butt with a large paw.
“Hey!” I yelled. “That’s not nice!”
It made a noise that sounded strangely like a chuckle.
“I’m uncomfortable, and I’m in danger of passing out.”
For that insolence, I got another swat to the backside. I let out a growl. All that did was make the beast chuckle again.
Though I tried to keep my face away from its hairy backside, the position I was in didn’t allow me to hold myself up. My nose was flush with its fleece. I expected it to smell dirty, but it didn’t. It was strangely devoid of odor and actually felt soft against my cheek.
My mental connection with my spiders pulsed. I instantly sent a stand down thought back at them. There was no point in using magic yet. I wasn’t in any sort of immediate danger—that I knew of, anyway. If I used magic to get out of a non-dire situation, I would only be too pissed I didn’t have the foresight to watch and wait.
When the furry white beast strung me over a boiling cauldron like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, then I would use my spiders.
“You really don’t want to eat me,” I stated, resting my elbow on the creature’s back and propping myself up. “I’m lean and stringy. Not at all tasty.”
The furry beast’s paw rested on the curve of my thigh, right before it met my butt. He gave my flesh a hearty squeeze. I yelped because I was ticklish.
I swallowed in trepidation. The beast didn’t remind me of a human at a grocery store, salivating over the cuts of filet mignon.
Nope. The touch had felt a little too…personal.
Poppy?
Thane! You’re awake!
Where are you?
Currently? Over the shoulder of the beast that knocked you out.
Describe the beast.
Tall. White and furry. Red eyes.
Good job, Poppy. You somehow got the attention of a forest troll.
Forest troll?
They’re creatures that prefer their beastly form to their other form.
What other form?
Never mind.
I don’t like the direction of this conversation. Where is it taking me?
Its lair.
Is it going to eat me? Do forest trolls like the flesh of human women not prone to athletics?
Thane chuckled. Uh, no. It—well—wants to keep you.
Keep me? If not for food then for what?
To be its mate.
You’re coming to get me out of this, right?
Already on my way.
Chapter 20
The forest troll lifted me off his shoulder and gently set me on the ground. Because all the blood had rushed to my head, and I’d been nearly upside down for who knew how long, I swayed and then collapsed.
My vision swam as the forest troll loomed, peering at me with red eyes. He crouched down onto his furry haunches, and with a gigantic paw, patted my face.
I batted his furry arm away, but the troll was adamant—and bigger. It continued to stroke my hair and face as if to assure itself I was hearty enough to bear its young.
“What do you normally look like?” I asked, not really expecting it to answer.
It barked something in a garbled language.
I shook my head.
The forest troll ran a paw down its face, like it was deep in thought.
I wondered what I had to do to get a drink of water. I mimed a sipping motion. The forest troll shot up on its hind legs and then dashed off into the thick brush. I was suddenly alone in the middle of the magical woods. I could hear the faint sounds of insects—or what I assumed were insects—and the flapping of wings. The forest was clearly alive with wildlife—but obviously not with anything I’d ever seen before. Minuscule purple and pink flower buds grew along the base of the tree trunks, and they swayed gently in the breeze.
I thought about leaving the forest troll, but I had no idea how much time I had to flee, if I could even escape, or if it was a smart idea. I was in a place with beasts I didn’t recognize—and danger lurked in places I wouldn’t even have considered. I also had no idea the direction of the desert, which I was supposed to cross with Thane.
So I waited.
Where was Thane?
One of the purple flowers nestled in the dirt bounced in the gentle breeze, its petals dipping forward. Its stem elongated, and the head of the bud pushed forward and began to slink toward me. I hastily crab-walked backward as the flower continued on. The stigma parted and something resembling a forked tongue slithered out. It danced in the air, perked up, and began to pulse.
I watched, frozen with bemusement, as the flower tongue wriggled at me. And then it shot its tongue to latch around my wrist. I struggled to free myself, but it tightened its hold, crunching the bones of my wrist. I cried out in pain.
While I was busy struggling with the flower tongue, there was a rustling sound, followed by more flower tongues charging out of pink and purple flowers. They tied around my arms and legs, and I went down on my back. I opened my mouth to scream, but a flower tongue curled around my head to cover my mouth, effectively ending my call for help.
I couldn’t rely on Thane, nor could I even rely on the forest troll to come back to save me. I shoved the fear down and focused on summoning my spiders. They poured from my mouth, slicing through the flower tongue that covered my lips. The sound of clanging metal was sharp in my ears. They attacked the flowers, their legs sharp as knives. Shrieks of dying buds rang through the forest as their tongues were severed from their stigmas.
I pulled my arms to my chest and sat up. Petals that were once pink and purple were now ash gray. My spiders roamed free for the time being, climbing trees, their black eyes twinkling. They were a comforting, watchful presence.
I looked at my wrists, which were chafed with red marks.
Lacerations.
How do you know?
I can see them. You’re showing them to me.
They burn.
I know how to heal them.
How?
Turn around.
I swiveled my head. Thane leaned against a tree, looking no worse for wear. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Indisposed.” He grimaced and placed a hand to his forehead. “That forest troll clocked me good.”
“You’re immortal. How did you get taken by surprise?”
“Forest trolls are notoriously underhanded. Where is your furry little friend?”
“I think he went to get me some water.” My heart rate had finally been returning to a normal beat, but now it thudded in my chest for an entirely different reason. Thane’s gaze was heated.
The forest troll pushed through the brush, interrupting our reunion. He stooped, leveling his gaze at Thane and baring his teeth.
Thane made no move to come near me, and I had no desire to get up. I wasn’t even sure I could.
“There’s venom in the Flowers of Fire,” Thane explained, his voice droll, his gaze still on the furry beast. “It has minor paralyzing capabilities. So their prey can’t get away while they devour it.”
“Your realm sucks,” I said to him.
He grinned.
The furry beast snapped its jaws. He pulled his attention away from Thane to crouch down in front of me. He took my wrist in one of its large paws and turned it over. He made a noise of distress and lifted my wrist to his mouth.
“Is this thing going to eat me?”
The troll glared at me and then spat on my skin. The throbbing around my wrist eased immediately. I relaxed when the troll took my other wrist and repeated the action.
“Was that going to be your way of healing my burns?” I asked Thane. “By spitting on them?”
“I was going to find a type of plant that makes a nice salve.” He took a step toward me. The troll growled in warning.
I rolled my eyes and looked at the troll. “Okay, look. It’s kind of hard to have a conversation with you when you’re like this. But I have a feeling you have the capability of changing. So why don’t you morph into your other form, have a discussion with me, and we’ll talk about what it is you want.”
