Stellar (The Halo Series Book 3)
Page 23
Adam’s hand ran down the length of Lilith’s bare arm. The old familiar, yet now foreign feeling of hearts pulling together, sparks sizzling from the places their skin touched exploded through her body. Eyes fluttering closed, Lilith leaned back, pressing against him.
He spoke against her neck, his lips brushing the delicate skin. “I want you to rule beside me. As my partner. Join me, Lil…and we shall take back what was originally ours.”
“Do you want me here because you love me,” Lilith whispered, “or is it because you know you're stronger with me than without me.”
“Can it not be both?”
Battling against every warning in her mind, Lilith turned to face him, placing her hands on his chest. “Before we can rule, we must rid the world of Aurora Coel and Grayson Cross.”
“Of course,” Adam murmured, his lips hovering over hers. “The world needs only one pair of otherworldly Stellars, my love.”
Lilith looked up at her own Stellar, the mate to her soul, feeling the battling tug within her bosom. If she gave in to him now, it would be nearly impossible to pull away again.
More difficult, even, than the first time.
“Then let the deed be done.” Her head turned to look out the window once again to see the golden orb of light sinking ever lower in the sky. “Before the sun touches the earth.”
Forty-One
SOREN
“How are we going to save Aurora?" Soren asked. "My mom, I mean.”
Scarlet now had ahold of his hand, guiding him through the shadows of the castle, avoiding all notice by the Horns guarding the outside of the fortress. They didn’t expect any attacks to come from the inside. They probably thought no one would be that stupid.
“I’m not sure yet.” Scarlet’s head turned left and right. Soren noticed how the sun peeking through the foggy sky cast a slightly blue sheen to her raven hair. It was nice looking... which was a weird thing to think. He didn’t usually care one way or the other about girls’ hair. “But we do need a weapon and something to hide it under.”
“Where are we going to get that?”
Scarlet giggled. “In the weapons room.”
They passed by a handful of Horns. Apparently, a pair of pre-teens didn’t raise any alarms in their minds. Surely no one so young could do anything worth worrying about.
“I’ve never fought with any weapons before,” Soren admitted as Scarlet led him through a doorway and down an aged stone staircase. “Unless you count a baseball bat.”
He thought of his book—the one his father burned—and pictured himself holding a wand or a giant sword gifted to him by a wizened wizard. Even in his mind’s eye, he looked ridiculous.
“It’s in our blood,” Scarlet said. “Demons and angels were made to fight. They fight for different sides, but they still both fight. Humans are the innocent ones. But half of us know what to do, even if we don’t know we know.”
Flickering torches hung on the wall, lighting the otherwise pitch-black darkness as they traveled down the stairs into the weapons room. When they reached the bottom of the staircase, Scarlet released his hand. For some reason, it felt emptier than it had before it had been there.
She waved a hand towards the multitude of weapons hanging on the wall, laying them out on tables. “Take your pick.”
“How do I know which one to use?” he said uncertainly, walking at a slow gait around the perimeter of the room, eyes roaming over blades and chains and spears.
“Weapons have a history and a sort of soul somehow,” Scarlet said knowingly, running a finger across the blade of a long sword as if it were a pet. “Pick the one that speaks to you. The one that jumps out at you.”
Soren blew out a stream of air as he stopped walking and just looked, revolving in a slow circle.
Then his eyes landed on a short sword, about the length of his arm, that was solid black. What looked like jagged cracks covered the length of the blade glowing white from the inside out. He approached it slowly, head tilting to the side as he took it in.
“What about that one?” He looked back to Scarlet.
Flames danced in her big eyes as she smiled without showing her teeth. “I was hoping you’d pick that one,” she said in a whisper. “In fact, I knew you would.”
“Why?”
“Its name is Lionheart. There is only one sword in the entire universe like that one. It was actually stolen from an angel ship long ago.”
“Whose ship?”
“Michael, the archangel. It was forged by him…and Lucifer.”
Soren, who had been reaching for the sword pulled back. “As in the Devil?”
Scarlet dipped her head in an amused nod. “He used to be an angel too, you know.”
Looking back to the sword, Soren itched to hold it, but hesitated for some reason. “How do you know so much about all of these things?”
“Samuel taught me about them.” At the look on Soren’s face, she added, “He’s not so bad…at least not all the time.”
“Why did you want me to pick this one?” Soren asked in an attempt to move the conversation away from the dark angel who creeped him out even more than his father.
A sly smile spread across Scarlet’s lips, and she approached the weapon, grasping ahold of the hilt and pulling it down from the wall. “Because only someone with blood from both an angel and a demon can hold it.”
With these words, she offered the sword to Soren.
He hesitated. So far, neither Samuel nor David had given him a weapon or even trusted him enough to hold one. He didn’t blame them. He wouldn’t give himself a sword either. Young boys like him were too unpredictable.
But now, as he looked down at the weapon unlike any in the world, a strange feeling took over him. Like something deep within him knew he was meant to hold that sword. Meant to use it.
Reaching out, he grasped the hilt just above Scarlet’s hand. He felt his cheeks warm as their fingers brushed together.
“Good.” Scarlet smiled, pulling her hand away. “But that’s not how you hold it.”
All the badass-ness he felt about holding the weapon ebbed slightly as he realized he had no idea how to hold it, yet alone fight with it.
“First, you have to pay attention to the way you stand, and then look at how you move and hold the sword. All of that will affect your control and how fast you can act. Stand like this.” She moved her feet shoulder-width apart. “And your leading foot, the one on the side you hold the sword, should be a little bit forward. So, in this case, your left.”
Soren did as she said, his muscles tight and unnatural.
“Okay, yes, but you need to relax.” She placed her hands on his shoulders, pushing down a bit. “You want to be springy, not stiff. Makes it easier to move and keep your balance.”
He tried his best to relax, though, given the severity of the situation and setting, this was rather difficult.
“Now, hold the sword mostly with your thumb and first two fingers, the other two are just for balance. Keep your wrist relaxed.”
Scarlet took the sword from Soren then and showed him a couple of moves until he was able to imitate her. Kind of.
“Don’t you think they’re going to suspect something if they see me walking around with the most unique sword in their weapons room?” Soren said.
Giggling, Scarlet flitted away from him, to the dark corner, rummaging through an oversized trunk. Soren watched, dropping the short sword to his side as he waited with a tilted head.
Pulling two shapeless black garments out of the trunk, Scarlet announced, “Cloaks! We can hide our weapons under them.”
“You don’t think they’ll be suspicious that we’re wearing cloaks?”
Scarlet rolled her eyes with mixed amusement and exasperation. “We’re children, Soren. They don’t think we’re capable of anything more than being annoying and whiny. Half the time, I don’t think they even notice I’m there.”
“Doesn’t that bother you? Always being ignored?”
Soren shook his head slowly back and forth as Scarlet slid her arms through her cloak and hooked the silver clasp just beneath the base of her neck.
They were in the middle of a holy battle, and she was thinking about the ease with which she stole cakes from the kitchen.
She was fascinating and confusing all at the same time.
“Here, put this on.” Scarlet handed Soren the slightly larger of the two cloaks, though she’d clearly overestimated his height. His cloak dragged on the floor.
Soren tucked the sword beneath the material, his hand tightening on the handle, making sure it didn’t slip from his grasp. He turned to Scarlet, whose ever-wide eyes were sliding up and down him, a glimmer of humor, and something else in their depths.
“Now what?” he asked.
She swiped what looked like a silver ax off the middle table and swung around to face him. “Now we find your mom. And I think I know exactly where she’ll be.”
Soren let Scarlet lead him out of the weapons room, sticking to the shadows like all the dark creatures of the world. She’d been right, though. None of the Horns or demons or Fallen paid them any attention whatsoever. It was like they were invisible.
“Up here,” Scarlet said, pulling open a door at the base of the tallest tower. It led to a staircase, spiraling upwards. It looked newer than the rest of the castle.
Had Caducus built this specifically for prisoners?
This time, Scarlet let Soren take the lead. Any amount of bravery he felt with the sword grasped in his hand began to dwindle away as they reached the top, which ended in a single iron door.
“Go on,” Scarlet urged.
Soren got the sudden, uneasy feeling that Scarlet could be tricking him.
He looked guardedly down at her and back to the door. None of the people he’d come across in this new life of his had been trustworthy. And if she had been trained by Samuel, then it was likely he could have taught her how to be charming like him, before snapping her victim’s heads off.
But then…she'd let Soren hold the sword.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered. “Are you afraid?”
“No,” he said quickly.
“It’s okay if you are.”
“I’m not afraid.”
He turned from her and climbed the last few steps to the iron door, turning the handle, pushing inwards.
His eyes took in the sight before him, unsure of exactly what he was seeing.
Only bars separated Aurora and David, kneeling before one another. David’s hand was on Aurora’s throat. But she didn’t seem afraid. Her eyes weren’t wide.
They were almost pleading.
David’s head began to turn, having clearly heard the door open behind him. Heaving the sword out from hiding, letting it swing, Soren watched in astonished horror as his father’s head parted from his body, spraying both Aurora and Soren in the face with a splatter of liquid red.
Aurora looked, wide-eyed, up at Soren, holding Lionheart tightly in his shaking left hand, now slicked with his father’s blood.
Forty-Two
AURORA
Moving a trembling hand to her mouth, Aurora looked from the crumpled, headless body of David, to her son who was ghostly white, covered in bloody freckles. Clutched in his left hand was a black sword, white light shining through cracks in the blade. His chest rose and fell rapidly. A small form appeared behind him, a girl with black hair and wide eyes.
Her gaze fixed first on David’s body before sliding slowly up to Soren. “We should probably hurry now…”
Glancing over his shoulder at the girl he apparently knew, Soren took a step back from David’s body, seeming to just now comprehend what it was he’d done.
“Soren,” Aurora said through a pain filled voice, realizing this was the second time he’d come to her rescue. Only, last time, he’d asked her to spare David’s life.
“That sword can cut through iron,” the girl said to Soren in an urgent voice as she tossed a glance over her shoulder. “Do it. Cut through the bars.”
“Stand back,” Soren said to Aurora, sounding much older than he was.
But she did as her son said, climbing shakily to her feet and pressing her back against the stone wall of her cell.
Holding the sword over his left shoulder like a baseball bat, Soren swung, slicing through the iron bars as if they were nothing more than thin paper. Red sparks flew as metal hit metal.
Aurora cursed under her breath.
Aiming much lower this time, Soren swung again, sections of the bars clattering to the floor as they broke free, creating a small square hole for Aurora to duck through. Stepping over David’s body, she made it to her son. He looked up at her with dark blue eyes. Eyes that matched hers.
“I lied.”
“What?” Aurora asked through a breath.
“About not having a mom,” he clarified in a shaky voice. “I lied. So they wouldn't—” His sentence broke off like rocks tumbling down a cliff.
Aurora’s eyes filled with tears. She bit down on her trembling lip. “I know you did.”
And, unable to stop herself, she gathered her son in her arms, holding him tightly to her. Before, she’d been too afraid to hug him like this. She hadn’t wanted him to pull away. They'd barely known each other, after all.
But she’d been wrong.
He didn’t pull back or push her away. He squeezed her more tightly—like this was all he’d ever wanted from her.
All they’d both needed to seal their bond of mother and son.
A small voice broke the silence. The young girl. “Sorry, but we should really get out of here before—”
The distant sound of murmured voices and footsteps on stairs could be heard. Aurora recognized both of the voices. Terror and pain gripped her.
“Give me the sword, Soren,” she said hurriedly, holding out a hand.
Soren went to give her the weapon, but the young girl with him pulled him back.
“No,” she said through gritted teeth. “She can’t hold it.”
Aurora wanted to smack the little girl across the face but refrained from doing so. Soren looked at the girl, then to Aurora, and finally down to the sword. Something akin to sudden comprehension dawned on his face.
“Soren,” Aurora said more urgently, stretching her hand out for the sword.
“You can’t hold it,” he said, parroting the girl's words. “You’re only a Halo.”
Taking in the pitch blackness of the sword, cut through with white cracks of light, Aurora slowly began to realize what he was telling her. She couldn’t touch the sword…because she didn’t have any demon blood in her veins. But the footsteps below were growing louder.
“Hide behind the door, Soren,” she whispered hurriedly.
Soren planted his feet. Standing taller. “No.”
“Soren—”
“No, Mom,” he said in an earnest voice. “I came to save you. I’m not going to let them take you.”
“Soren,” she pleaded. “They’ll kill you.”
“She’s right, Soren,” the young girl jumped in. Okay, maybe she wasn't as bad as Aurora thought. “We can try to save her again. But right now we’re cornered. They’ll kill us if they know what we did.”
“Keep him here,” Aurora ordered the raven-haired girl. Turning to rush out the door, Aurora paused, placing a hand on Soren’s cheek. “I love you,” she said.
Just in case.
Then she ran. Out the door and down the stairs.
Let them think I'm powerful enough to break out of that cell.
Let them think I killed David.
Let them think I ripped off his head with my bare hands.
Let them.
Halfway down the stairway, she nearly crashed into a dark pair of shadows, the light from the torches on the wall not touching their features. She didn
’t need to see them to know who it was. She already knew.
She could feel it.
A coil of black shot out and wrapped around Aurora as she fell at Gray’s feet. He didn’t move.
Then Lilith spoke. “Looks like we came for your Stellar just in time, Grayson.” Lilith’s tongue sucked the back of her teeth twice. A double click. “Now, how on earth did you manage to escape without the other half of your soul to help you?”
“You don’t know the half of what I can do,” Aurora spat.
A bluff. All a bluff. But Aurora felt the pause in Lilith’s words as if she were considering this.
“Clearly…” Lilith purred. “Grab her, Grayson. Time is slipping from us. The Halos draw near, and they must see their savior struck down. To have their hopes of winning this battle crushed like the bones in her little neck.”
Gray’s familiar, yet now foreign, hands reached down to grasp Aurora by her upper arms, touching her in a way he never would if he had any control over himself. Picking her up, he slung her over his shoulder.
And even as this monster that looked like Gray carried her down the stairs, she could feel their hearts pulling together. The hollowness in her chest filling. She wondered if, somewhere deep inside him, beneath the coiling darkness, he could feel it too.
SOREN
He knew his mother had been taken as a dull thump sounded down the stairway. He made to follow them, but Scarlet held him back.
“Stop, Soren,” she hissed. “They’ll kill you too. We have to wait.”
“They’re going to kill her.” He choked down a sob.
“And if you go down there now, they’ll kill you too!” Scarlet said in a harsh whisper. “They won’t be so easily destroyed. Not near as easily as David was. Caducus and Samuel. They’re Fallen. Lilith is a demoness. You are just a Trinity, Soren. You’re half human. Please. Just wait.”