Noru 4: When Angels Break (The Noru Series, Book 4)

by Lola StVil

  Silver isn’t the only one who refused to go home. Pry spends every waking moment with Silver. Well, not really with him, they hardly speak a word to each other or even make eye contact. Yet she is never too far away from him.

  I spot her in the hallway of the clinic we’ve come to know so well. She peeks in through the window of the room where Silver is staring at a blank wall. The expression on his face is calm, but it’s a deceptive calm, the kind that hides inconceivable rage.

  “How is he?” I ask.

  “Quiet,” Pryor replies, never taking her eyes off of him.

  “I thought his dad was going to stop by?”

  “Uncle Rage was here, he stayed for a few hours and tried to get Aaden to come home with him, but he wouldn’t go.”

  “I called the team and they said Diana still won’t take in or drink anything at all. She mostly stays in bed, tracing the spots on her hand where the markings used to be. I think I may be able to help her with something.”

  “Help her, how?”

  “I’ll tell you later. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. It’s kind of a long shot. Oh, and the team asked if you want them to relieve you,” I reply.

  “Relieve me from what?” she asks.

  “Looking after Silver.”

  “Oh, no…I want to be here.”

  “Has he said anything to you?” I ask.

  “No. I try to talk to him, but the truth is there’s not much to say. He loved that little girl so much…”

  “Yeah, I know. And I don’t want to keep you from being here, Pry, but you look exhausted,” I offer.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, when was the last time you Recharged?”

  “I don’t…I don’t know.”

  I guide her into the waiting room. I make her lie down on the sofa. She tries to fight me on it, but I insist. She really is tired, because the second she closes her eyes, she’s dead to the world.

  Silver enters the waiting room and looks down at Pryor. He doesn’t have a reaction to me sitting next to her as she lies down. He doesn’t react to much these days.

  “She was ready to collapse, so I finally got her to lie down,” I tell him.

  He doesn’t reply. He’s off again visiting the dark spaces in his head where we are not allowed to go.

  “Silver, I really am sorry. Sparks was a great kid, really. She didn’t deserve what happened. If you need anything, just ask.”

  He nods slightly but doesn’t speak. I’m about to try again to engage him in conversation, but the head healer enters the waiting room.

  “We have the results on the poison that killed your daughter,” he says.

  “What was it?” Silver asks.

  “It’s a toxin harvested from the root of the oxen plant. It’s a plant that grows on the outskirts of Sardinia,” the healer says.

  “Kill barely touched Diana. He was still able to kill her with this toxin?” I ask.

  “It doesn’t matter. I wanted to know for sure what happened, and now I do. Kill tried to murder Diana and killed my daughter. Now I find him and he dies.”

  Silver says this in such a matter-of-fact voice I can almost see the chill run down the healer’s spine. Silver starts to march out of the waiting room when the healer calls out to him.

  “To be honest with you, I don’t believe the Kaster was trying to hurt Diana. I believe his goal, his only goal, was to take your child away.”

  “Why do you say that? Diana was hurt by the toxin too,” Silver replies as he turns to face us.

  “The toxin is what hurt Diana and weakened the baby Noru. But what actually killed your daughter was what Kill added to the mixture. He added a substance that is only harmful to Noru and no one else.”

  “What substance?” Silver asks.

  “Cobalt powder.”

  WTF?

  “Wait, if Kill used cobalt, it would have killed all the Noru or at least affected them,” I point out.

  “Normally yes, but like you said, he used a very small amount. It wasn’t enough to harm everyone, but it was certainly enough to harm a baby,” the healer adds.

  “It doesn’t make sense. Why not use as much cobalt as possible and take out all the Noru?” I ask.

  “That’s where it gets interesting. It seems Kill got his hands on an altered version of the powder. I’m guessing someone was experimenting with ways to use cobalt and Kill took it.”

  “You’re saying that Sparks didn’t die because of the toxin, she died because of the powder added to it?” Silver asks calmly.

  “Yes,” the healer replies.

  “Are you sure?” I push.

  “Absolutely.”

  Silver takes out his cell and makes a call.

  “Spider, I need a list of everyone who has access to cobalt…Yes, I know it’s a forbidden item…Because I also know you hang out with less than honorable beings…How long will it take you?…You don’t have a week; I need it in three hours…You either get me that list or risk being on it,” Silver says as he hangs up.

  “Silver, you need to stop and think things through. I know you’re hurting, man, I get it. But I don’t want you to do anything rash. You’re not thinking straight,” I reply.

  “When Pryor wakes up, she’ll try to come after me; everyone on the team will come. You stop them because it will be a waste of their time,” he warns me.

  “Silver, things are complicated right now, and you need to think things over.”

  “This isn’t complicated at all. I have only three things on my list to do today. Number one: get a tattoo of the markings my daughter made on her mother’s arms. That will take about three hours. Number two: get the list from Spider. And number three: Leave no one on the list alive.”

  I meet Hunter in the abandon playground a few miles outside of the castle. We used to meet up here when we were kids. It’s isolated and no one knows about it but us. Hunter looks at me with innocent eyes as he approaches.

  Could I be wrong about this? Dear Omins, let me be wrong…

  “What’s up? Why are we meeting here?” he asks.

  “You heard what happened to Silver and Diana’s baby?”

  “Yeah, major news. How are they?”

  “They just lost their child; how do you think they are?”

  “Yeah, you’re right.”

  “I’m gonna ask you something, and I want you to try really hard not to lie to me. Is that clear?”

  “Sure, whatever.”

  “Did you give Kill cobalt powder?”

  “No!”

  “Are you sure?” I ask.

  “Yes.”

  “How did he get his hands on the powder, then?”

  “I may know something about that,” Hunter says quietly.

  “Talk.”

  “Well, as you know, we’ve been working really hard to put an end to Malakaro. And when you decided to throw all our work away, I rescued a few samples of the powder and I found two beings that shared my interest. They understood the threat that the Norus pose. They agreed to help with more research and create various versions of cobalt.”

  The rage building up inside me is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. I tackle my brother and slam him up against the wall.

  “You allowed the powder to get into the hands of a Kaster! And now a little girl is dead!”

  “I didn’t know that the lab would be broken into. That’s not my fault!”

  “Are you fucking serious? You were supposed to stop working with cobalt. If you did what I told you to do, Sparks would be alive right now!”

  “I am sorry the kid is dead, but if we keep going like this, we’re all dead. You told me to stop working on cobalt, but you offered no alternative. I will not let our people die!”

  “You are such a fucking screwup! All you had to do was follow my orders. That’s it. But you couldn’t even do that, and now…”

  “I said I’m sorry Sparks died, okay?”

  “Oh no, Hunter, you’re not sorry yet, but yo
u will be in about two hours.”

  “What are you talking about?” he asks, breaking free of my hold.

  “Silver is going to get a list of everyone involved in experimenting with cobalt powder. Your name is going to be on that list.”

  “What? How can he get the names?”

  “You know there are no secrets in the angel world, you know that!”

  “Bex, if Silver finds out I had anything to do with it, he’s going to try to kill me.”

  “He won’t try, Hunter; he will.”

  “And you would let him?”

  I don’t reply. I just look away and try to figure out at what point things went wrong with us. Did my dad’s death really affect our lives that much? Did I coddle Hunter too much, or was it the opposite, was I too hard on him?

  “Bex! C’mon, man, help me!”

  “I can’t.”

  “What the hell do you mean? You have to stop Silver from finding out who was behind this. You owe me.”

  “Wow, really?”

  “Yes! You’re the one who took away the only father I had. You’re the one who ripped my fucking heart out by allowing our father to be attacked and left for dead! You will do this for me; you will stop Silver from trying to kill me!”

  “I can’t.”

  “WHY THE HELL NOT?”

  “I can’t stop Silver because I agree with him; you should die. You had a hand in the murder of the sweetest little girl…”

  “Well, fine. You think I don’t deserve to live, okay. Thanks, brother, thank you for everything. By the way, when this list comes out, you should know I’m not the only name on it. The two beings that helped me work on the powder, you know them too. I wonder if you think their lives are worth saving.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Wow, you care about them but not about me, right?”

  “Who the hell was working with you?”

  He tells me the names of the two beings and I immediately take to the air and head over to the team.

  Silver’s list has five names on it: Naturally there is Kill and his fellow Kaster Manic. In addition to my brother, Hunter, there is also Frank and Madeline. When I land in New York, I get a text from Hunter informing me that Silver has battled Manic. Manic is a Partial. That means he’s also half beast. According to social media and Hunter, it only took Silver ten minutes to separate the beast from his head. Manic the Kaster is dead.

  I rush into the team’s house, and as soon as I see the look on East’s face, I know I’m too late. Randy, the twins and Pry stand beside him and try to comfort him. East looks shocked and disoriented.

  “East, I’m sorry,” I offer.

  “I can’t believe they’re both gone. My stepdad is dead. I mean, I dreamt of ending his life but…he’s really gone…Frank is dead,” East says to himself in complete astonishment.

  “How did Silver kill him?” I ask.

  “According to the healer, Silver walked into Frank’s room, picked him up by the neck, and before Frank knew what was happening, Silver punched him in the throat. He told Frank that his death was not just about Sparks, that it was time he got familiar with the kind of pain he’d been inflicting on his own son. Then he beat him to death,” Swoop says.

  “He didn’t just beat him, he pulverized him. Silver took out all the rage he had and put it into each blow,” Swoop says.

  “I don’t get why Frank would be using cobalt in the first place,” Key says.

  East tells us he’s not surprised at the lengths Frank would go to, to get revenge on him and his mom. But he says he never thought his sister actually hated him that much. He couldn’t believe that both Frank and Madeline conspired to take his powers away with the cobalt powder. Or that they had so little regard for what that powder could do to the other Noru members.

  “Do we know how Silver killed Madeline?” I ask.

  “It’s on social media. They’re calling it a ‘sexy death.’ He entered her house, she told him to leave and he asked her if she’d ever had a crush on him. She was caught off guard. Then he said he would leave if she had a drink with him. The two of them drank four bottles of Coy. Madeline was drunk and she admitted she always wondered what it would be like to kiss Silver. So he leaned in, and once their lips touched, he summoned a small orb of fire in his mouth and sent it down her throat. He burned her alive,” Pry says.

  “Look, I know it’s wrong to say, but screw that, they had it coming,” Swoop says.

  “I don’t care about them; I care about Aaden. He can’t keep killing like this. He’s going to lose his soul in the process. Not to mention the fact that the Omari are going to come for him,” Pryor adds.

  “Would you really send the Omari after him?” Swoop asks.

  “Let’s just try to find him before he gets to my brother,” I tell her.

  “Him taking out Kill and Manic is fine, and we may even get away with him hurting two guilty Quo, but if he takes out a Para second in line to be Kon…” Randy warns.

  “Where is Silver now?” I ask.

  “We can’t find him. He took some kind of mixture that makes it impossible to locate him,” Pry answers.

  “Well, we can’t just let him lose it like this,” I reply.

  “Bex, we have literally been around the world twice, and we can’t find him. Uncle Rage is out looking too, and he has come up with nothing,” the twins counter.

  “After he killed Madeline, he went underground. I called, but he won’t pick up, we all called, but nothing,” Pryor says frantically.

  “Well, he won’t listen to us, maybe he’ll listen to Diana,” Randy says.

  “What am I supposed to say to him?” Diana asks from the top of the stairs.

  This is the worst I’ve ever seen her look. She’s frail, her skin is pale, and there is no light in her eyes. Pryor rushes towards Diana and pleads for her to call Silver and make him stand down.

  “I am not going after anyone because I think it would dishonor my daughter’s memory. But that’s how I feel. I can’t tell Silver what to feel. If he feels he needs to burn down the world to avenge our child, then so be it. I won’t light the match, but I damn sure won’t blow it out.”

  The way Silver murdered Kill would be talked about in both the angel and demon circles for centuries to come. The team and I pieced the scene together from various sources. Apparently Kill had been on the run for hours. Ever since he found his friend Manic dead.

  Although the Kaster leader was powerful, given the level of rage that Silver had shown, Kill was not in a hurry to encounter him. However, all the measures that Kill took were pointless because once he got to his hideout, Silver was waiting.

  Kill’s hideaway was in the Dominican Republic, in a little town called Punta Cana. It was a Spanish-speaking town with hardworking families. Kill had had this hideout for years and he knew he would be safe. He’d only told one other person about this spot, but that was years ago; in fact, he didn’t even remember whom he’d mentioned it to.

  He placed the key in the door, turned the knob and entered his hideout. He found Silver sitting on a chair in the middle of the room. Right away, Kill tried to blast Silver, but his powers did not emerge.

  “What the fuck did you do to me?” Kill demanded.

  “I found this really nice lady who makes mixtures. She sold me this herb thing that tells your mind and body you are human; that means you have no powers. It takes a whole day for your body to fight the poison and regain control. But she also gave me this powder; you’re familiar with powders, right, Kill?”

  Kill didn’t reply. Silver went on to tell him the powder makes his body open to commands.

  “It’s like I’m holding the remote control and you’re the TV. So you will do what I say. Or well, your body will. Your mind will still hate me. You ready?” Silver said.

  “Wait! Who told you where this hideout was?”

  “Diana. It turns out when you kill a woman’s child, she gets mad and remembers every little thing you ever told her, es
pecially if it can help to locate the scum who killed that child. Now, let’s get started.”

  Silver suppressed Kill’s powers and controlled his body for over six hours. That’s how long it took for Kill to slice himself open and remove his own insides.

  I go to Punta Cana and all I find are flies feasting on what’s left of the Kaster leader. I start asking around, thinking maybe Silver was seen, but so far, no luck. I’m about to give up when I get a frantic call from Hunter saying Silver is on the way to the castle.

  I tell him to meet me at the playground and that I will talk Silver out of doing anything rash. When I get to the playground, I find Hunter on the ground by the swings, barely moving. Silver is about to throw a power ball down on him. I tackle him and he prepares to fight me.

  “Look, I know you’re angry and you have every right to be. But Hunter is just a kid.”

  “SO WAS MY DAUGHTER!”

  “He just wanted to protect his people and he went about it the wrong—”

  “Bex, stop.”

  “You don’t have to give in to this anger. You don’t have to lose everything,” I plead.

  “I already did.”

  “If you hurt him, I will have to send the Omari after you. Silver, they will kill you.”

  He laughs and shakes his head as he looks at me.

  “Silver, I mean it. I can administer punishment to Hunter, but I can’t let you hurt him. He’s my brother. If you kill him, I will come after you. I will have to kill you.”

  “Fair enough,” he says simply.

  And that’s when I look into his eyes and realize a sad truth. Silver is not only okay with death, he would very much welcome it.

  “Silver, don’t do this. You still have angels that love you. She loves you. Watching you fall apart like this is killing her,” I beg.

  “We’re not together anymore, remember? I screwed that up. I’m good at that,” he says.

  “You know Pryor still has feelings for you.”

  “Yet she slept with you.”

  He laughs and tells me it’s okay and that he’s happy she has someone who can be there for her.

  “Pryor and I didn’t sleep together,” I reply.