by Linsey Hall
“Holy fates.” Awe surged through me.
This place was magnificent.
“The only room not full of books,” Declan said.
I sprinted up beside him to join him now that the corridor wasn’t so narrow. We ran down the middle of the enormous entryway. Either side of us was bordered by stone statues of angels. As we crossed the middle of the room, magic sparked on the air.
The statue to my left leapt off the pedestal, then his stone feet hit the marble floor with a thud. He was at least six feet tall, an angel with his wings flared and a sword gripped in his hand.
Oh, fates.
Another statue burst to life at Declan’s side. He turned to charge toward it.
I drew my mace from the ether and charged. The weight was heavy and comforting in my hand as I swung the weapon. The angel raised his sword as I neared, but he never got a chance to deliver a blow. I smashed my mace against his stone skull.
His head shattered, and shards of rock went flying. I darted left to avoid them, then sprinted toward the exit. To my left, Declan slammed his blade against his statue’s neck. He struck with such force that the neck broke and the head tumbled off.
Next to me, Wally appeared out of thin air. The tiny black cat sprinted forward, smoky fur wafting in the wind.
“I thought you hated this place?” My words escaped through gasps.
You’re about to need my help.
The cat had no sooner spoken than six more statues burst to life all at once. Some had wings, some didn’t. All carried weapons as they charged.
“Ah, shit. Good timing, Wally.”
Anytime. He charged the nearest statue, leapt into the air, and slammed his four feet against the statue’s chest with such force that the stone man flew backward and crashed into the ground.
I left Wally to it and charged the statue to my right. I got a good swing going on the mace and banged it against the statue’s head. Stone burst apart, a shard slicing against my cheek.
Pain shot through me, but I ignored it, turning to face a second statue. It had the jump on me, and was already so close that I had to duck low to avoid the sweep of the statue’s blade. Stone swords couldn’t cut me, but they could probably shatter bone. Or my skull.
The stone sword whizzed overhead, and I lunged to the right, buying myself some space. I swung my mace, aiming for the statue’s middle. I hit him with such force that my mace crashed right through. The top half of the statue toppled to the ground, shattering.
On the other side of the room, Declan beheaded two of the figures in quick succession, while Wally smashed another to the ground.
I sprinted for the door at the far end of the hall. With every step I took, another statue came to life. There were too many to fight, though. Eventually they’d overwhelm us all.
Fighting was all well and good, but right now, we needed speed. I stashed my mace in the ether and sprinted.
“Come on, guys!” I shouted.
Declan left the fight behind, but Wally seemed to be having too much fun, slamming into statue after statue like a tiny rocket. He had the magic to get himself out of there whenever he felt like it, so I left him to it. And anyway, he was helping to clear a path for us.
Together, Declan and I sprinted out of the main doors and into the courtyard. I recognized it from earlier. We were close to the bridge. It was right ahead.
I picked up speed, pushing my aching lungs and muscles to the limit. The sun shone overhead, fierce and bright. When Pelatin appeared in front of us, blocking the bridge, I almost missed him.
“I’ll leave this one up to you,” I said between pants. I could smash my mace into Pelatin to get him to move, but I didn’t want to hurt a real angel. Not when he was Declan’s buddy and was just doing his job.
Declan raised a hand that glowed with heavenly fire.
I gasped, horrified.
He hurled the blast at Pelatin. It slammed right into the angel’s chest, and the man smashed backward onto the ground, unconscious.
“It doesn’t kill him,” Declan said, as if reading my mind. “Heavenly fire can’t really hurt angels. Worst it can do is knock us unconscious.”
Thank fates. I had a feeling Declan would have regretted killing Pelatin. And since we were here to save me and Mari from a curse, I couldn’t have lived with myself.
We approached Pelatin, who lay stone cold on the ground in front of the bridge, and dodged around his form. Declan led the way onto the bridge, and my heart leapt into my throat as I took the first step onto the swinging surface.
Below me, clouds drifted by.
Oh fates, oh fates, oh fates.
Declan sprinted onto the bridge, and I followed, gripping the golden rope railings as the bridge pitched back and forth with every footfall. The wind tore at my hair, and I felt like I was a floating in the middle of the sky, about to plummet to my death at any moment. From behind, the alarm continued to blare. More angels would be coming, no doubt.
Magic wrapped around me, binding my power. It almost felt stronger than before, as if the bridge had realized that we were intruders and was determined to repress our magic so we couldn’t do anything funny.
We were to the middle of the bridge when I spotted the forces on the other side. Angels mounted on horses. Battle angels, from the looks of them. Their golden armor glinted in the sun, and each held a sword as long as my leg. None of them took to the air, and surprise flashed through me.
Oh, right.
It was impossible to fly in the space between the main headquarters and the Heavenly Archives.
“Should we go back?” I shouted.
“Nope.” He sounded so certain that I looked back to see why.
Another group of angels stood at that side of the bridge. There were actually even more.
Holy fates.
Even Wally couldn’t get us out of this one.
When the bridge disappeared from under me, I was too shocked to even scream. Wind blasted me as I fell, and my stomach leapt into my throat. Declan plummeted in front of me.
Holy fates, we are going to die.
8
Panic was a living, clawing thing inside me as I fell through the wide-open sky, thousands of feet above the earth. I could feel the binding spell still wrapped around my power, keeping it repressed inside my chest. Not that I had any magic that could help in a situation like this.
Declan did, but his wings remained trapped.
Clouds whipped past us as we fell, and we plummeted through thick banks of mist. Fear like I’d never known filled me, dread nearly suffocating any instincts I had.
Think, damn it. Think.
I was so close to Declan that I could almost touch him. I wanted to, if only for comfort.
No.
No giving up yet.
I could no longer see the islands of the angelic headquarters above us, but their magic still bound my own.
An idea flared.
“Declan!” I screamed. “Reach back!”
He couldn’t turn in midair, but he managed to reach his hand back. I reached my own forward, desperate to grab onto him. My idea might be impossible, but I had to try. Fear tingled across every inch of my skin as I stretched for him.
Finally, my fingertips touched his. I stretched a tiny bit farther, every muscle in my arm burning, until I grabbed his hand. We yanked ourselves toward each other, then grabbed on. I wrapped myself around him, desperately calling upon the nullifying magic inside of me.
At first, it was hard to reach. The angel’s repression spell kept it bound up inside me. But it didn’t work perfectly on the nullifying magic since nullifying magic, by its very nature, would break down magic that tried to touch it. I could feel the power as a faint spark inside my chest.
I called upon it, forcing it to grow inside myself. It was faint at first. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to ignore the outside world as it whipped by me. I forced the nullifying magic to grow, then pushed it toward Declan.
I had no idea if
my plan would work, but I gave it my all, trying to use my magic to nullify the spell that bound Declan’s own magic. The spell that bound his wings. It could just as easily bind his own magic, but since we were screwed anyway, it was worth a try.
“It’s working.” His voice was low and rough, likely from the effort of trying to call upon his wings.
I could feel the effort. The strain.
My heart thumped in my chest, loud as a drum. Finally, Declan’s wings burst free. They flared, huge and glorious, behind his back. I clung to him as we shot upward, no longer falling.
In control of our fate.
I laughed, nearly hysterical, as Declan began to fly us toward the ground.
“Holy fates, that was insane,” I said between gasps.
“You saved us.”
“We saved us. And Wally.” For all I knew, the hellcat was still up there, knocking over statues with ferocious glee.
“We’re right over Magic’s Bend. Look down.”
I did as he said, my jaw dropping at the sight of the city sprawled out below us. Dusk was falling, and the lights were starting to come to life, making Magic’s Bend look like a blanket of stars butting up against the sea.
Declan’s strong arms tightened around me, and I looked up at him.
Holy fates, he was handsome.
And he’d risked so much for me.
“You knew they would catch us, didn’t you?” I asked.
“I had a feeling. No one has ever successfully broken into—and gotten out of—the Heavenly Archives alive.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would it have mattered? You’ll die if we don’t find this bastard and get the cure.”
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t.”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t worried about that.”
Emotion made it feel like my heart had expanded in my chest, a sensation that was both lovely and extremely uncomfortable.
I was really starting to feel something for Declan, and damn, it was weird.
Feelings sucked.
I tried to ignore them as we landed on the roof of his building. When my legs finally hit solid ground, a low laugh of relief escaped me. I stumbled away from Declan, grateful to no longer be in the clouds.
“Let’s get off this roof,” he said.
“Best idea I’ve heard all day.”
He led us toward the door, and I felt even better as I entered the stairwell and descended to his apartment. It would be a long time before I liked bridges again. Probably forever.
We stumbled into his apartment, both of us on shaky legs.
“Can I get you a drink?” he asked.
“Definitely. Something strong.” I followed him to the kitchen, where he poured us each a glass of whiskey with no ice.
I wasn’t a huge whiskey fan, but I slugged it back with gusto. It burned my throat as it went back, but it was so worth it.
I sighed and leaned against the counter. “I’m not normally into drinking my feelings, but I needed that.”
“Me too.” He looked out the window. “The sky is usually my favorite place to be. But that? That would give anyone anxiety.”
I nodded. “Couldn’t agree more.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the paper that he’d torn from the book. I approached and leaned over his arm, stealing a peek at the smudged ink.
“I still can’t make anything out.” I frowned, squinting.
“Beyond the damage, I think it’s in another language. So that’s two things against us.”
“You got anything in that uber high-tech room of yours that can help us?”
“I do, in fact.”
I smiled. “Perfect. Let’s go check it out.”
His stomach grumbled, and the noise made me realize that I was also famished.
“How do you feel about cold pizza?” he asked. “I can get something fancier if you want, but that’s what I have on hand.”
“I feel extremely good about it. Under normal circumstances. Right now? It sounds like heaven.”
He winced.
I frowned. “Yeah, bad choice of words.” Heaven hadn’t treated us so well.
Declan grabbed a box of pizza from the fridge, along with two refillable glass bottles of water.
I eyed them. “Into the environment, are you?”
He nodded. “When you can fly above the ocean, you’re able to see all the plastic floating in it. Changed the way I think about things.”
That made sense. And I admired it. I’d never been great about that kind of thing myself, but he made me want to try harder.
And I would. As soon as I cured myself and Mari of this damn curse. Even now, it was burning through my veins. I tried to shove the thought aside and followed him to the room in the back.
Right before I entered, my comms charm came to life.
“Aeri?” Mari’s voice carried through static.
“Mari! How are you?”
“Weakening, but still going. We think we’re onto something.”
“What did you find?”
“A clue about—”
Static cut her off, and I tapped the charm. “Mari? Are you there? Mari?”
No sound. Crap.
Declan, who stood in the doorway, turned back to me.
I shrugged. “She thinks she’s onto something, but she’s somewhere with magical interference. My comms charm keeps cutting out.”
“She’s doing all right? With the curse?”
“Weakening, but all right.” Just like I was. The curse dragged at me, fire burning in my veins. I ignored it and followed Declan into the control room.
The computer monitors and magical devices all blinked and flashed with different colors. Declan set the pizza and water on the table, and I grabbed a slice and bit into a cold pepperoni and mushroom. The water was icy and refreshing, and the combo helped settle some of the nerves that were still going wild inside me.
Declan polished off a slice of pizza in record time as he approached a fancy gizmo on the left wall. Vials of colorful potions were positioned around a platform in the middle. Glass tubes extended from the potions toward the center of the platform, joining in the middle and pointing downward toward the center. Tiny candles sat beneath the potions, their wicks blackened and burned.
“What does this do?” I asked, keenly interested in the potions.
“If it works as I intend, it will help us recreate what was written on this paper. It can turn back time for an object.”
“Wow.” My eyes widened as I inspected the vials of potion. “These can do that?”
“When used together, yes. It’s the smoke that does it.”
I looked at him with newfound appreciation. I knew he was a genius, but it was dawning on me how much of a genius. The way he experimented with this stuff was similar to the way Mari and I experimented with our blood sorcery potions.
I liked having that in common. We could learn a lot from each other.
Declan laid the paper on the platform between the potions, then drew a lighter from his pocket and lit each of the candles. They burned with an extra hot blue flame, causing the potions in the vials to boil and steam. The steam filled the glass tubes, then filtered toward the middle of the platform, where they formed a fog over the top of the paper.
I held my breath as I watched.
Slowly, the fog dissipated enough that I could see the paper. The black ink that obscured the writing faded, and golden writing began to form, scrolling and ornate. The writing was now legible, but like Declan had said, the language made it impossible to read.
He raised a cell phone and snapped a picture “The spell won’t last long. Maybe a few more seconds. Once that mist totally disappears, the paper will revert to normal.”
The words had barely left his mouth before the scrolled writing began to disappear. The smudges on the paper were all that remained.
“It shows an image of what it looked like in the past, then?” I asked.
“Ex
actly. It doesn’t turn back time so much as reveal what once was.”
“Cool.”
Declan raised his phone and peered at the image. “Let’s put this into Google.”
I smiled. A little regular technology to go with all the fancy magical stuff. I liked the mix.
We each grabbed a second slice of pizza as we sat down in front of a computer. It took a few searches before we got lucky.
“Jackpot,” Declan said. “It’s a version of Old French—I thought it looked vaguely familiar—that says that we need to go to the SuperLouvre, in Paris. There will be a painting called The Fall there.”
“The SuperLouvre?”
“A magical version of the human museum.”
I leaned back in my chair. We had a location. Another piece of the puzzle.
Thank fates.
Relief flowed through me, followed quickly by a searing pain and weakness.
I sagged in my chair, curling over on myself.
Oh fates.
The curse.
It was like adrenaline had kept me going, and now that it was fading, the curse could roar to the forefront.
“Aeri.” Declan turned to me, concern on his face. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.” My voice was a croak.
“You’re not. Is it the curse?”
I nodded. Every inch of me felt like it was on fire. Like I was being burned from the inside out. It had hurt before, but oh fates, this was awful.
“What can I do?” He sounded frantic.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to take much of the potion that held off the effects, but I couldn’t even move. The curse was so strong that it was incapacitating me.
“Potion. Right front pocket.” The words took all my effort.
Declan went immediately for the pocket on my pants, but it was hard for him to access with the way I was curled over on myself. Finally, he pulled the potion free and uncorked it.
With his help, I drank half of it, then turned my head away. Too much of that stuff could kill me as surely as the curse itself.
