The Noru 7: Rage Of Angels

by Lola StVil

  “I think we’ll have a few more angels on this mission,” Diana says as she looks at her cell.

  “Is that Bex?” Pryor asks.

  “Yeah, I updated him. He wants to come, but there are riots breaking out all over the UK. Demons are celebrating their impending victory by setting humans on fire. He thinks it’s better that he help the Paras regain control. But he’s sending four of his top guards to help us on the mission to catch Ever. They are waiting downstairs,” Diana replies.

  “Great, let’s go,” Pryor replies as she heads for the door.

  “I have a few things that might help along the way,” Dylan says as he grabs a backpack and slings it over his shoulder.

  When we get downstairs, we find four larger-than-life Paras waiting for us. They look like carbon copies of each other. They are dressed in designer white robes and everything about them is annoyingly perfect.

  “Everyone, say hello to the newest members of our team. Otherwise known as One Direction,” East jokes.

  The Paras glare at East but remain silent as they bow to Diana. She returns their greeting and thanks them for helping us.

  “We do as our king asks,” the dark-haired one replies.

  Dylan addresses the group as we take off. “We’re headed to Cracked Soul Cemetery. It’s a no-fly zone, so…be ready.”

  We land in New Orleans not long after. We find ourselves standing at the base of a broken, weather-beaten, concrete staircase. The moment we touch the ground, our wings disappear and the sun is swallowed by a horde of dark ominous clouds. It must have rained earlier because the smell of wet earth fills our nostrils. We are surrounded by overgrown weeds and trees in various stages of death.

  There’s a chipped stone statue off to the side of the staircase, depicting an angel on her knees, praying as two demons on either side of her feast on the “meat” of her soul.

  “Charming,” East whispers as we walk past it.

  At the top of the steps, there stands a black wrought-iron gate with an upside-down symbol of the council. Beyond the gate is a vast cemetery with multiple headstones portraying enraged demons, weeping humans, and tormented angels.

  “I think she’s in there, waiting for us,” Pryor says, motioning towards the back of the graveyard. We follow her gaze and spot a small concrete mausoleum. The humble structure has been ravaged by time. Its walls are water stained, cracked, and mildewed. The only source of light comes from the small broken circular window above the fractured archway.

  The darkness deepens as we cautiously make our way across the cemetery. A few feet away, three black crows break the eerie silence by crying out as they take flight. Something with a thin tail and beady eyes darts past us. We survey the area on high alert. I spot movement near Swoop’s feet—or at least I think I did. I look again and there’s nothing there.

  No, something moved just now. I’m just not sure what it was.

  It moves again.

  What the hell is it?

  There’s subtle movement on my left. It could have been a leaf or another critter. Maybe I’m being paranoid. This place calls for that kind of crazy thinking.

  Wait—there it is again.

  This time, there’s movement to my right. I turn quickly but miss it yet again. It takes a few tries, but finally I am fast enough to spot where the activity is coming from—the headstones. The headstones are turning in the direction we are headed. Before I can call out a warning, the headstone near Swoop’s foot morphs into a vortex.

  “Bird, look out!” I yell.

  There’s no time for her to heed my warning. The headstone sucks up the air around Swoop and tries to pull her into its cavernous mouth. Soon, she’s swept off her feet and dangling sideways in the air. She reaches out for me; I grab her with one hand and attach my other hand to the nearest tree. But the vortex is so powerful; I can barely keep myself from getting pulled in.

  “Swoop, hold on!” Pryor shouts.

  We all band together and desperately hold on to her; unfortunately, the sheer force of the void makes rescuing Swoop almost impossible. The vortex rips the surrounding trees from the ground by their roots and swallows them whole. Small furry rodents and debris go hurtling past Swoop’s head as they tumble into the abyss.

  “It’s a Runt, a hidden portal that takes you directly to the house of fire. If you let her go, she is gone forever,” Dylan says in a panic.

  “Shut up and pull,” East shouts between clenched teeth. The Runt is winning the tug-of-war. Swoop can’t hold on with both hands anymore; the suction is just too strong. She can’t help it; she lets go of my hand.

  “No!” I cry out as I watch the last Noru twin tumble towards her demise.

  Swoop manages to cling to the side of the gravestone seconds before it inhales her. She’s holding on by sheer will. The suction is so strong now, all of us are swept off our feet and holding on to headstones and tree trunks. Dylan scrambles to reach his backpack while still holding on to the tree that anchors him. But he can’t quite reach it.

  Pryor gets the tip of her foot around the strap and drags it over to Dylan. She’s not sure what his plan is, but she knows anything is better than watching Swoop die. Dylan uses his teeth and his free hand to open the backpack. He takes out a small glass orb the size of a baseball. Then the historian does the last thing we would have expected—he lets go of his anchor.

  We watch in complete horror as both Swoop and Dylan are sucked into the void. The hole closes up and returns to its original state as a harmless headstone. Everything that was airborne drops to the ground, including us.

  “What just—did Swoop—how did…” East can’t begin to comprehend what’s just taken place.

  “OHMYOMNIS!” Diana cries out. The four Paras immediately express their condolences. Pryor and I look over at each other, speechless. This can’t be happening, not to Bird. And certainly not like this.

  “We need to keep going,” the dark-haired Para reminds us.

  “I agree. We need to keep moving,” the blond Para replies.

  The other two Paras, with the long hair, add their two cents to the conversation. “The others are right. Let’s go,” they insist.

  “You don’t tell my team when to move; I do. And we are not going anywhere without them,” Pryor affirms. She doesn’t finish the rest of her thought, but she looks at me and right away I know what she’s thinking—it can’t end like this for Bird.

  “You need to be reasonable and keep your team in line, First Noru,” the blond Para suggests.

  “You are done talking,” I warn the blond.

  “There has to be a way to get them back,” Pryor says frantically.

  “They are down in the house of fire now. There’s nothing more to be done,” the dark-haired Para says.

  “We do not abandon members of the team, Para. You need to get that, or you can go back,” Diana informs him.

  “My Queen, you don’t understand—”

  “Screw you and the rest of One Direction. My cousin was just killed and—”

  A massive fiery explosion erupts from the center of the headstone. The blast lights up the night sky and sends us flying backward into the iron gate. Among the chunks of rubble is an injured but very alive Noru and a rattled but breathing historian. We run over to them and Diana quickly begins to attend to the couple.

  “I thought we lost you!” East says, pulling Swoop into his embrace.

  “East, it’s okay. We’re okay,” Swoop mumbles. East finally lets her go. She looks down at her arms and legs; she’s sustained large cuts and burns all over her body. But Diana confirms none of Swoop’s injuries are life threatening.

  “How about you, Dylan? Are you okay?” Pryor asks.

  “He’ll be fine, but when we get out of here, they both should go to the clinic,” Diana says as she applies a purple mixture to their wounds.

  “How did you get out of the vortex? What caused the explosion?” East asks.

  “He used an orb designed to ignite in the presen
ce of evil. It’s called the Lady, and it’s a forbidden object,” the dark-haired Para scolds.

  “Yeah, about that…” Dylan says carefully.

  “Why is it forbidden? That sucker worked great!” Diana replies.

  “It could just as easily have wiped out all of New Orleans. It’s unstable. That’s why it was outlawed,” the blond says.

  “To be fair, it wasn’t outlawed. It is merely frowned upon,” Dylan replies.

  “I don’t care. You saved Swoop, thank you. How did you know it would work?” East asks.

  “I knew that going to the house of fire meant we’d be surrounded by evil and it would go off,” Dylan explains.

  “So you set it off as you were falling, hoping the blast would be big enough to reopen the void?” Diana says.

  “Exactly, and it was. I was right,” Dylan replies breathlessly with relief and newfound confidence.

  “Thank you for saving her,” Pryor says.

  “I’m just glad Kiana’s all right,” he says as he places his bloody hand on top of hers.

  Swoop looks over at him, and I don’t know what it is Dylan is expecting to see, but it’s not what he gets. She glares at him and pulls her hand away; she is seriously pissed off.

  “You’re not upset, are you?” he asks her.

  “Ten minutes! That’s how long it took for you to break your promise to me!” Swoop declares.

  “Wait—I did what I did for you,” Dylan replies.

  “You said you would not be a hero; then you get yourself sucked into a void that leads to hell to save me! How is that okay?” Swoop demands.

  “I couldn’t let you die,” Dylan says.

  “That is not the deal we had! How could you break your promise to me?” Swoop asks.

  “Hey, what’s the name of that tree over there? It looks really familiar,” East says.

  “It wasn’t easy for me to do, but I wasn’t going to stand by and let you get hurt. And since when is it a crime to come to the rescue? Silver does that all the time for the First Noru. When we get married, that’s the way things are going to play out,” Dylan replies, paying no attention to East’s question.

  “Married?! You see, that’s the trouble with you. You are always going too fast. You make plans without talking to me,” Swoop shouts.

  “How can I talk to you? You’re always running away,” Dylan counters.

  “That is so not fair!” Swoop spits.

  “There’s something about the tree. Where do I remember it from?” East says to himself.

  I look over at the tree he’s referring to, and right away, I know what the tree is and why it’s important.

  Oh no…

  “Is that a Devil’s tongue tree?” I ask Dylan.

  “Yeah, it is,” he says, taking a quick look in the direction of the tree, then going back to his argument.

  “You are always running from us, and I—oh no! That’s a Devil’s tongue tree!” Dylan says, finally understanding.

  “Wait, the same tree that was in Mercy Island? The tree whose sap takes away an angel’s powers?” East says.

  None of us reply. The four Paras look at each other, and for once they too are silent. The first one to try their power is Pryor. Nothing happens. The rest of us try as well and still nothing. Even Diana has no powers, thanks to Phoenix, whose angel markings are all over her.

  “We have no powers!” Swoop says.

  “That’s why Ever wanted your team to meet her here. You guys are defenseless,” Dylan says.

  “We need to regroup and figure out—” Before the blond Para finishes his thought, I spot a large creature with horns and curved, bladelike claws headed in our direction at top speed.

  “Fawns! We need to go, now!” I shout as I help the team get Swoop and Dylan back on their feet. In a matter of seconds, we are off and running for our lives. We run at breakneck speed, but there’s no escaping them. But no matter how fast we are, the Fawns are only a breath away.

  The blond Para shouts that he has a Holder, but Pryor warns him to keep running because throwing the Holder will slow him down and get him killed.

  “I know what I’m doing, Noru!” the blond shouts back. He turns around and prepares to throw the Holder and imprison the Fawn. But in the time it takes him to raise his hand in the air, the Fawn is already on top of him, slicing into his chest like a blade through butter.

  The Para dies with his eyes and mouth wide open.

  The dark-haired Para slows down, contemplating going back for his friend. Diana grabs his arm and forces him to keep going. The more we run, the more Fawns begin to appear out of the darkness. There are two of them and then a third who’s just joined the hunt. They growl and roar into the night as they gallop towards us.

  “We won’t make it to the mausoleum. It’s too far,” I shout to Pryor.

  She looks around anxiously for another option. She signals towards a small toolshed hidden behind a cluster of trees. I can feel the Fawn’s hot breath on my back as we race towards the shed. We make it to the dilapidated wooden structure, and together, we bash in the door and scour for weapons. “Grab something, anything!” East orders.

  Diana and East each grab a shovel. Swoop gets hold of a pickax and hands it to Dylan. She then takes a hammer for herself. The two long-haired Paras wield rakes. The dark-haired one finds a pitchfork. Pry settles on a pair of large pruning shears that are nearly as big as her. I raid an old box of tools in the corner. I settle for a pair of large axes.

  Our makeshift weapons would have been great to work with ten years ago. Today, they are all dull and rusted over. But it doesn’t matter because there’s no time left—the Fawns attack the shed. They come through the ceiling, the side windows, and door. The roof caves in just as we flee.

  The Fawn closest to Diana runs after her with unparalleled rage. She takes off down the broken path as fast as she can. The Fawn swings its claw through the air, severing a tree in half. The tree topples over and heads straight for Diana. The dark-haired Para tackles his queen, removing her from the path of the tree. Unfortunately, it places him right in front of the Fawn that was chasing Diana.

  The dark-haired Para strikes the beast in the leg with the pitchfork. It howls in pain but doesn’t slow down at all. It swings its claws into the air once again, this time managing to make contact. East tries to get over to the Para, but it’s too late—the Fawn skewers him on the tip of his claw.

  Seeing this, the last two remaining Paras, now fully enraged, avenge their friend by smashing their rakes into the Fawn’s already wounded leg, slowing the creature down. The Paras break the rakes in half and use the handles to jab the Fawn in the knee.

  It tumbles down to the ground, but it still has the use of its claws, so East and Diana use their shovels and beat down on the Fawn’s wrists until its claws are severed from its hands. The Paras grab the shovels from Diana and East, and together they plunge the shovels into the Fawn’s neck and use such force they are able to cut its head off completely on the first try.

  A few yards away, a Fawn has Dylan backed up against a tree with nowhere to go. Swoop takes her hammer to the back of the Fawn’s leg, but she isn’t wielding enough strength to get his attention. The Fawn sees the terror in Dylan’s eyes and enjoys it so much he makes the terror last longer by getting within inches of Dylan’s face and roaring thunderously.

  I run to help them, but another Fawn rams into me from the side and sends me flying headfirst into a headstone. Blood gushes out from my forehead like a damn spring. My vision starts to blur, and when I try to get up, I fall back to the ground. I force myself to focus on finding my weapon as the Fawn that attacked gears up for a second strike.

  Fuck! Where the hell is the ax?

  The Fawn charges towards me like a pissed-off bull on steroids. That’s when I spot one of the axes lying on the ground behind the Fawn.

  Seriously?

  I have only one move to make. I ignore the pain in my head and the screaming muscles in my body, gather up a
ll my strength, and stand up. I cry out in frustration and anger as I run towards the Fawn as fast as I can.

  The Fawn, fed up with playing with its food, opens both claws and swings. Just before we crash into each other, I drop down to the ground, slide between the creature’s legs, and reach for the ax. As the Fawn turns around for round three, I fling the ax with everything I have left in me and hope to Omnis it lands. It does, right in the center of that bastard’s head.

  Round three, my ass!

  I look towards Dylan, fearful that Swoop was not able to save him. Swoop couldn’t get Dylan to safety, so she placed herself in front of him. The Fawn bears down on her; it lowers its head and rams her with its horn.

  “Swoop!” Dylan cries out behind her. Swoop’s body starts to go limp. As I run over to them, I spot Pryor quickly climbing the top of the tree near Swoop and Dylan. She leaps off the tree, shears in hand, and lands on top of the Fawn’s head. The creature shakes wildly in an attempt to throw her down to the ground. Pry holds on but drops her shears. She improvises by snapping a branch off the tree and stabbing the Fawn in the eye.

  The pain makes the creature even more volatile. It throws Pryor off and sends her down to the ground. She falls hard on her back and calls out in pain. The Fawn, no longer concerned with Swoop and Dylan, focuses on Pryor. It cuts through the air with its claws then stops midstride. It looks down at the pool of black blood dripping from between its legs. Pryor found the shears. The Fawn collapses. East stomps on it hard with all his might, and the Fawn’s head cracks open like a watermelon.

  Diana stabilizes Swoop enough so that she can be moved. Together, we head towards the mausoleum. We are about a yard away when Dylan stops us and points to a trail of pixie-like creatures invading the corpse of a crow. They open their mouths, and their tentacles leap out and turn the crow’s body into an empty shell.

  “We should be fine. They’re busy with the bird. Just don’t step on them. They have an inner alarm system. When one of them is killed, they all track the source and invade it. So whatever you do, don’t step—” We hear a crunch, like crispy leaves crushed under the weight of a shoe. But there are no leaves near us. We all look down at Dylan’s foot. He raises it, and under his shoe is the remains of a Wintuk.