Stellar (The Halo Series Book 3)

by Melody Robinette

  “Her soul is still locked,” Anna said. “She isn’t going to wake up until it is released with everyone else's.”

  “Sev’s soul isn’t locked,” he said. “Do you think it will still work?”

  “Only one way to find out.”

  Jax moved the beast girl to another room, lying her on a couch and hanging the IV from a nearby lamp before returning to help move Sev to the examining table. This proved to be slightly more challenging, as he was still quite awake. Not to mention long and lanky and screaming like mad.

  “You’re going to need to tape down his—” Chord began, but was cut off when Brielle let out a loud squeal as Sev’s flailing foot connected with her face. “Legs…” Chord finished.

  “Jax!” Anna called over her shoulder. “Come hold down his legs.”

  Jax advanced to the front of the swarming group of Halos and immediately put his massive hands over Sev’s shins.

  But Sev still struggled.

  “Press down over his knee caps,” Anna ordered, her previously shy demeanor completely gone now. “So he can’t kick.”

  Jax did as she said. In other circumstances, it would have been mildly amusing to see such a tiny girl barking orders at such a huge man. But these weren’t other circumstances, and Chord wasn’t laughing.

  He was just trying not to cry or scream as loud as Sev.

  Brielle nursed her blackening eye as Logan and the two other girls worked to secure Sev’s legs before moving to his arms and then head, which thrashed back and forth in protest as he screamed.

  Once he was unable to move more than his mouth, Anna went to work on setting up an IV, ignoring Sev’s violent verbal protests.

  Chord paced back and forth beside his boyfriend. If this didn’t work, he couldn’t handle it. Well, okay, he could. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to handle losing Sev.

  The screams grew louder as Anna poured the saline into the funnel directed to the needle in Sev’s arm.

  The backs of Chord's eyes pricked with pain as he watched in tortured horror.

  If demons burst into flames when they touched salt, what must it feel like to have demon blood burn from the inside out? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. It sounded like Sev was being tortured. Maybe he was.

  Chord was approaching the point of just telling Anna to stop pouring the saline. To just try again later.

  But then Sev’s screams slowed. Chord ceased his pacing and approached the table as one might approach the open casket of a loved one.

  Reaching out, he took hold of Sev’s hand, taped down at the wrist joints.

  The hand was limp. Lifeless.

  Anna kept pouring the saline.

  Chord kept his eyes on Sev’s.

  Then they fluttered open, the thin ring of colorless irises looked up at the examining room ceiling before moving slowly down to Chord. The fingers in Chord’s hands moved, curling and hooking through his.

  Sev spoke a single word. “Chord.”

  And the final strength in Chord’s legs left him as he fell to his knees, pressing his forehead against Sev’s hand, still clasped with his.

  Thirty-One

  AURORA

  The blood river ended in a different location than it had initially started. They had not returned to Neverworld.

  Thank the Light.

  “Where are we?” Aurora muttered to Michael as they evacuated the boat.

  “Coast of Scotland,” he answered in a subdued tone. “As close as we could get to Caducus’s army without notice. Though they likely won’t be expecting anyone to approach on land.”

  Aurora glanced down at the red water in distaste. “Are there just random blood rivers all over the world we don’t know about or something?”

  “You cannot fully comprehend just yet. But there are far more dimensions in the universe than humans realize or understand. Heaven, Hell, and all that’s in between aren’t physical places mortals can simply visit.”

  Lilith and Lucifer moved away to speak alone, which Aurora found exceedingly suspicious. Gray stood closer to Aurora and Michael but kept his gaze on Lilith. His stance was stilted and stiff. Unnatural.

  Aurora’s teeth clenched as she looked away from him to Michael, whose eyes were on Lucifer.

  “You were together, weren’t you,” she murmured. “You and Lucifer. Before he fell.”

  Michael’s jaw tightened, and his dark eyes flicked to her. “In a sense. The names and labels humans use aren’t quite applicable in other realms. But we loved each other, yes. Before he began to change. Before he sought freedom from his duty.”

  “You haven’t been able to forgive him for that, have you?” Aurora guessed. “For leaving you like that.”

  Michael took a deep breath Aurora assumed he didn’t need before letting the air out slowly. “I have forgiven him. But I have not forgotten. He’s changed from the angel I once knew. His wings hang in shreds behind him. And I cannot change that.”

  “Can angels ever regain their wings?” Aurora asked quietly. “If they want them? If they change how they feel?”

  “Once an angel has fallen, they cannot make their way back up to the Light. Regardless of a change in heart, or thought. They made their choice.”

  Aurora laughed humorlessly. “What ever happened to forgiveness?”

  “There is so much more to it than all that, Aurora.” Michael looked forlorn. “So much more than even I know. I do not question the Light, of that much I am certain. I value my wings, and I’m not eager to part with them.”

  This didn’t bode well for Aurora.

  Her whole life, she’d questioned things. Asked why something was the way it was. It was just her nature.

  What if, when she earned her own wings, she asked too many questions?

  What if she wasn’t good enough to be an angel?

  Maybe Lucifer would allow her to rent a room in his castle of Darkness.

  LILITH

  “Do not try anything foolish, Lilith,” Lucifer warned. “With Caducus. Do not attempt to be a hero for the Darkness.”

  Lilith kept her eyes on Aurora and Michael and the broken part of her soul residing in Gray. “Lucy, darling, you do not give me enough credit.”

  “I give you too much credit,” Lucifer corrected, looking to Gray. “I know you’ve possessed the boy. What do you intend to accomplish with that?”

  “Oh, just having a bit of fun. It’s been too long since I’ve shared my soul with a human.”

  “Perhaps the other half of the angels' greatest weapon is not the most intelligent choice of carapace to inhabit.”

  Lilith snorted. “Perhaps it’s the most intelligent. Don’t you worry. The two Stellars’ connection remains intact. But now the male has my power within him. My darkness. It shall make him stronger.”

  “You are rather naive for someone so old,” Lucifer stated.

  Lilith’s eyes moved from Gray’s to Lucifer’s who were now on Michael. She laughed in disgust. “I’m the naive one, am I? Which of the two of us is still in love with a creature of the Light?”

  Tearing his eyes away from his old lover, Lucifer scowled down at Lilith. “Sometimes, Lil, you are no more than a foolish woman, consumed by jealousy.”

  A spark of fire sizzled in her core.

  Let him think what he wants.

  He would soon regret all the derogatory words he'd spoken to her. All the times he'd fancied himself a greater dark ruler than she.

  He may have been cast from Heaven…but she’d never been an angel to begin with.

  AURORA

  Lilith collected the two Stellars before they parted ways with Michael and Lucifer. They followed her out of the dimly lit train-like station and into an even darker tunnel. The wicked woman strolled before them with her head held aloft.

  Gray and Aurora walked side by side.

  Aurora’s gaze continued to cut to his, half-hoping, half-fearing to see his eyes on her. But it was fixed on the trailing cloak of Lilith.

  Aurora di
dn’t often find herself in a place of jealousy, but before they traveled down into Hell, Gray had only had eyes for her. Until now, she hadn’t realized how much she’d counted on that.

  How much she’d taken it for granted.

  Something had happened to him to take his focus off of her. And she wasn’t okay with it.

  “Gray,” Aurora murmured, not caring if Lilith heard or not. She could probably hear them across the world. “Tell me what happened.”

  He looked at her coolly—in a way she’d never seen him look at anyone before. Almost with amused indifference.

  “When?”

  “Last night,” Aurora hissed through her teeth. “Or this morning. I don’t know. Whatever the hell it was that made you start acting like this.”

  “Like what?” Gray said casually. “Like I don’t worship the ground you walk on? How horrible that must be for you.”

  Aurora shot him an incredulous look. “No, actually. I was thinking more along the lines of how we slept together last night, and now you can’t even look at me.”

  “Maybe I’ve looked all I wanted, and now I’m bored of it. I’ve seen all I can see. No more intrigue. No more secrets. No more curiosity. I’ve seen you with all your guards and defenses quite literally peeled away. What more is there to look at?”

  Heat flared up Aurora’s face, from embarrassment or anger or both, she wasn’t sure.

  She felt sick to her stomach. This was what she got for letting herself fall for him. This was what happened. After giving in to him physically—sexually—for the first time.

  Of course he would do this. Of course he would.

  But then...no.

  No matter what he said or how he acted, nothing could convince her that he hadn’t felt how she had last night. He wasn’t a good liar or actor. No one undergoes such a severe personality change overnight.

  Something was wrong. Something had happened to him.

  And judging by the knowing smirk Lilith was throwing the pair of them over her shoulder…Aurora had a feeling she knew exactly who was behind this change in the other half of her soul.

  Thirty-Two

  SEVASTION

  Eyes peeling slowly open, emerging from the half-asleep, half-awake state he’d just endured, Sev took in his surroundings in a daze.

  He tried to move his extremities but found them pinned to the table with duct tape. It was a rather effective binding agent. As he’d expressed to Chord before.

  He felt a pressure in his hand and squeezed back, gaze falling to see a wide pair of yellow eyes, peering at him through a window of tears.

  “Chord.”

  Sev squeezed his hand again, grateful for the physical connection. He felt starved of it for some peculiar reason.

  Everything that had transpired since his blood had been saturated in demon venom felt like the state between dreaming and waking. He wasn’t asleep, but he wasn’t truly cognizant either.

  “Sev?” he heard someone whisper. It wasn’t Chord.

  In slow motion, his head swiveled to the side to take in the other beings in the room. He recognized three of them. Brielle. Logan. Jaxon. The others were familiar, but only barely. They all wore Halo armor.

  “Can…” he tested his vocal cords, which felt strained and scratchy as if he’d been screaming. Maybe he had been. Or perhaps that had been a dream too... He tried to speak again. “Could someone please release me from this table?”

  “Jeez,” he heard one of the girls whisper. “He’s so polite.”

  “He’s British,” Chord said through a watery smile. “It’s in his blood.”

  Jax ran a sharp knife through the duct tape, allowing Sev to sit up slowly. The room spun for a moment, and he pressed a hand to his eyes to stall it.

  “How do you feel?” Brielle asked tentatively.

  “Just a touch of dizziness. It should pass.”

  The group gave Sev a moment to collect himself, to slide off the metal table into Chord’s supportive arms. He was led to a cushioned seat in the adjoining sitting room and handed a glass of water. He thanked whoever it was that offered the drink and downed it in seconds. His mouth felt dry, like he’d just been drinking liquid salt. The short-haired girl he heard someone call Trixi ran off to get him a pitcher of water.

  “What do you remember?” Logan asked in a quiet voice. “Anything?”

  Sev thought back. It felt like he’d been stuck inside a dream of sorts. The last thing he remembered clearly was struggling with that beast girl and her biting a chunk out of his arm. He looked down to see it covered in a white bandage. The rest sort of blended together.

  “I remember flashes. Images,” he said. “It was like being submerged in water, in a wetsuit with a glass helmet. I could see things, but I didn’t quite comprehend what was happening. And I couldn’t control anything. As though I was paralyzed.”

  “That sounds terrifying,” Brielle whispered.

  “Not particularly.” Sev shrugged. “Just mildly disconcerting. As I said, I wasn’t completely aware of what was happening.”

  Trixi brought Sev the pitcher of water, and he filled another glass, drinking it just as quickly.

  “How did you all come to be here?” he asked Brielle and Logan, indicating the rest of the Halos.

  “Boat,” Logan answered. “We were sent here to take out the Horns responsible for turning all the people to beasts. Apparently, Seattle was hit pretty hard.”

  Sev nodded in agreement. Then he stood. “Well. Shall we?”

  “Shall we what?” Chord said cautiously, speaking for the first time in a while.

  “Find these Horns,” Sev clarified. “No need sitting around here waiting for them to come to us.”

  Chord looked Sev up and down, like a machine scanning for cancer. “I’m not sure that’s the best—”

  Sev pressed a steady hand on Chord’s shoulder. “I’m fine. If we are to prevent the change of more innocent humans into demon machines, then we must act now. We’ve found the cure, but that will do no good if the disease spreads faster than we can treat it.”

  “Yes, but—”

  Moving the hand from his shoulder to cup his cheek, Sev looked directly into Chord’s eyes. He needn’t say anything. His gaze communicated everything it needed to. Chord’s eyebrows softened, and he nodded slowly, reluctantly.

  “Now,” Sev said with finality, “who has my Rapier.”

  CHORD

  Chord wanted to clothe Sev in bubble wrap. After what they’d just gone through, Chord didn’t know if he could handle much more.

  Part of him had feared Sev had been forever changed. And, if that phlebotomist girl hadn’t come along, he might have been.

  But there was no time to worry. No time to focus on the what ifs. They were too busy stringing weapons through their belts and adjusting their Halo armor.

  The group of them—all nine—left for the top deck. The sun was sinking lower in the sky, which didn’t exactly bode well for Chord.

  Darkness brought with it the dark creatures.

  They traveled stealthily, flitting from one shadowy alley to the next, making sure they weren’t spotted. The group made it past the public market, moving farther into the city. Sev, who usually walked with his head held high, kept his eyes on the ground.

  Chord knew he was being paranoid, but he still asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Quite,” Sev murmured. “It’s just this purple glass in the footpath. Perhaps it is just a trick of the light, but I swore I saw something move beneath it.”

  Chord’s eyes fixed on the sidewalk as well. Every few feet, a patch of small purple squares made of glass dotted the path. Squinting, Chord thought he saw what Sev had described. A shadow moving.

  He stopped. “Wait, guys,” he called ahead. “Look.”

  Logan, who’d been leading the pack, shot a glance over her shoulder, slowing her forward progress. “Very pretty glass, Chord,” she said. “But we’ve got some Horny bastards to kill.”

  Eyes rolling up
ward, Chord said, “And I think I’ve found the Horny bastards.” He pointed at the purple glass. “Down there.”

  “I seriously doubt all the Horns are located in the basement of one building.”

  “It’s not just one building,” Anna from Oregon said suddenly. Her eyes appeared to be igniting with a dawning realization. She pointed across the street to another patch of purple glass. “Seattle has an underground city beneath it.”

  “What?” Logan said in disbelief.

  Anna nodded shyly. “The original city was built mostly of wood. When a fire broke out in the late 1800’s, at least thirty blocks of buildings were destroyed. The city leaders decided to rebuild two stories higher to help with flooding and plumbing issues they’d had previously. So, what remained of the old wooden city was left as it was, and they just built on top of it.”

  Chord’s head tilted sideways as he looked from Sev to Anna. “Are you two long lost relatives?”

  Sev shook his head in mild amusement. “Not all cerebral types are related, darling.”

  The other gay, Anthony, shot Chord and Sev what looked like an envious glance. Chord wondered why at first, and then realized he was jealous of their relationship. This might have been the first time he was on the other side of an envious glare.

  It felt kind of good.

  “Well, then,” Logan said, keeping the group on track. “Guess that means we should find a way underground.”

  “Perhaps there.” Anna pointed at a dilapidated stone staircase covered in fall-colored leaves. At the base rested a heavy wooden door, slightly ajar.

  The group of Halos descended the steps in pairs, Logan and Brielle, Jax and Anthony, Chord and Sev, followed lastly by Anna, Trixi, and Danni Jo. Logan entered the door first, peeking inside.

  And then she disappeared.

  The others went to follow when the door slammed in their faces, knocking Brielle backward.

  From just beyond the door, they heard a dull thump…like a body falling.