by Peach, Hanna
Angelsong (Dark Angel #3)
By Hanna Peach
Israel lies dying from a poisoned knife wound. To save him, Alyx needs Mayrekk’s help and the knowledge contained within the Threads of Dark.
But Mayrekk remains imprisoned in Michaelea, being punished for his hand in Alyx’s escape, and Michael himself guards the key to Mayrekk’s freedom. And the Threads of Dark is kept within a secret chamber deep under the Archives of Urielos, a Seraphim city clinging to cliffs somewhere along the coast of Italy. Even if Alyx does manage to find a way into the city, the chamber is guarded by ancient riddles and deadly traps.
Can Alyx rescue Mayrekk and retrieve the Threads of Dark before Israel slips away?
Chapter 1
Alyx sat at Israel’s side in his train compartment in the Saint’s Revenge, pressing a cold wet cloth to his forehead. The Saint’s Revenge was an old disused subway station under Saint Joseph, turned home-base of Israel’s old street gang. The Seraphim usually remained separate from the mortals. But Alyx didn’t know where else to bring the survivors of Aradale after Samyara, a demon Lord, had attacked and burned down their home. Not everyone had survived.
Since they had arrived here a few hours ago, Israel had developed a fever from the demon poison and hadn’t woken back up. The golden glow had been robbed from his skin. Even his plump lips seemed to have lost their fullness and color. If they didn’t get him a cure soon there was no doubt in her mind… he would be dead.
She heard the compartment door creak open but didn’t bother turning around. Footsteps crossed the short space between the door and the bed. She felt a hand touch her lightly on her shoulder.
“Hey, lassy,” she heard Mason say.
Mason had been wonderful so far, making room for the survivors of Aradale in their home and making sure that his men were welcoming. This couldn’t last long, though. Alyx and the other Rogues needed to find somewhere else to live. The only one who knew about them – about what they really were – was Mason. They wouldn’t be able to hide their inhumanness from the other men for long.
“How’s he doing?”
Alyx had to swallow to unstick her throat. “His body seems to be resisting the poison, but… it won’t for too much longer.”
Tobias thought it was probably the demon part of Israel that was slowing the effects of the poison, which would have been highly lethal for a pure mortal. It certainly would have been lethal for Adere, for whom the knife was meant. Adere, Israel’s ex-girlfriend who Israel had saved by taking the knife himself.
Now it seemed that the dark, unwanted part of Israel was the thing that was keeping him alive… for now. Alyx couldn’t help but see the irony.
“Do you know how long he has?”
Alyx shook her head and a fresh set of tears filled her eyes as she thought about what she had let happen in the last twenty-four hours. She had let Samyara get away with all the Black Stone that they had tried so hard to keep from him. She had played into Samyara’s hands and left Aradale unguarded, allowing the Darkened to attack. The Darkened had kidnapped Mini, poor Mini, who had been through so much already. And Ana’s son, Ky, had been killed.
She, the Guardian, had failed. And now Israel lay dying.
If Israel dies, I die. This deadly consequence of Israel’s and her Guardian-bond partly terrified her, yet also comforted her. Her chest tightened. At least if Israel died, she would not have to live without him.
“Don’t you worry, lass. Scrapper’s tough. He’ll pull through.”
Alyx shook her head. “He won’t if I don’t find a cure.”
“You’ll find it.” Mason squeezed her shoulder. “I'll come back later and bring in some dinner for yer.”
Mason’s hand left her shoulder, then she heard the compartment door click shut behind him. Without Mason’s sturdy presence, the melancholy was able to fall across her again.
She turned back to Israel and reached out to him with her mind. She had tried to appear to him as she had done so many times before, but she couldn’t. He wasn’t there.
Before she began to panic, there was one more thing to try.
Alyx steadied her breathing and felt herself drift into air. As her skin dissolved, her consciousness ebbed out and flew across the horizon. She searched for his soul – his light – as she had done so many times before through her Guardian-bond with him. Normally his soul would be there, shining brighter than any other. But this time, his light was not to be found.
How was this possible? What did this mean? Had Israel’s soul already left this earth? Why was he still alive, then? Or was his body just a shell?
Alyx drew back into her body with a sob. She grabbed his hands and twisted her fingers around his in a death grip.
“Where are you, Israel?” He answered not, stirred not. “Please,” her voice fell into a whisper, “please come back to me.”
She pressed her trembling mouth to his, desperately hoping it would spark their bond awake. Hoping that wherever he was he would feel it and come back.
Where her soul would have usually felt the pull towards him… there was nothing. Nothing. She didn’t want to believe – couldn’t believe – that their bond was broken.
She had to find a cure. But how?
Her mind brought forward the image of a pale, wispy blonde.
Adere.
She had been possessed by a demon, turning her Darkened until Israel took that knife for her. It was an act of love, the only thing that would exorcise the demon. Anger flooded like molten lava through Alyx’s cold grief. The poison which choked the life from Israel had been meant for Adere. This was Adere’s fault. So Adere needed to make things right.
* * *
They could not afford to keep watch over Adere, so Mason had placed her in a caged area in a back section of the subway station. When Alyx stepped up to the front of the cage, Adere’s body sat like a pile of crumpled matchsticks in the corner. Her eyes were vacant and she barely blinked. She didn’t move except to fray the edges of her dress with fingers crusted in dried blood from bitten-down nails.
“I need your help.” Alyx cleared her throat. “Israel… he needs your help.”
Adere said nothing. Her silence was an insult to the man that saved her pathetic little soul from that demon. The man who now lay dying because of her.
“Adere. Look at me.” Alyx moved around in front of the bars trying to get Adere’s attention. “Israel’s dying. Do you understand? I need to know how to save him.”
Still, Adere remained silent. She didn’t even look like she had heard Alyx, except that the rhythm of her fingers against her hem increased. Alyx felt her anger bleeding across her vision so that it narrowed to encompass only Adere.
“Are you just going to let him die? After saving your life? Answer me, damn you!” Her anger, like a ghostly puppeteer, jerked her hands forward, slamming them against the bars. Adere flinched.
Good. Be scared. If that’s what it will take to make you talk. Alyx’s fingers drifted to the handle at her hip. What about a blade? Will that make you talk?
Alyx thought that she heard a whispered “yes” as her fingers curled around the handle of her dagger.
“She is not in a place where you can reach her at the moment,” a soft girlish voice came from behind her.
Alyx jolted her fingers from her weapon and spun to face this intruder. It was Xiang, the lithe Asian mortal that she had seen with Vix. Alyx gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the icy trickle of guilt that was spilling into her burning blood. Had she really been considering drawing a weapon on Adere?
Xiang spoke again, “Getting angry at her will only push her deeper within herself.”
&
nbsp; “If she doesn’t talk soon Israel will die. I can’t give her the luxury of retreating from this world, from her responsibilities.”
Why the hell should Adere get that over anyone else? Weren’t there moments that Alyx wanted to crawl into a corner and disappear? Didn’t she want to forget about everything that had happened? About everyone she had already lost? Damn Adere to Hell. Weakness was not an option right now.
“Israel saved her life and now he lies dying. This makes it her responsibility.” Alyx stabbed a finger through the bars at Adere. “She needs to make it right.”
Xiang’s small, dark features pulled into an expression of sadness. “She has suffered greatly as a Darkened. She still suffers. The torment of returning to your own body after losing control of it to a demon… what she knows, what she has seen, what she has done… how she let this happen to her… all these things eat at her and threaten to destroy her already tattered soul.”
“What the hell would you know?”
Xiang’s face hardened. “I was once Darkened. Vix saved me. And it is only through her love that I was able to recover from the experience. Adere has no one who loves her to help her through this. Not even Israel, the man who saved her. It is clear to everyone, including her, that he is in love with you. Instead we have caged her, like an animal, like a criminal, which will only serve to confirm her opinion of herself.”
“We have to cage her. Otherwise she will run.”
“Tell me, Alyx,” Xiang said softly, “where would she run to?”
Alyx felt her face drain of blood as a pang of sympathy clutched at her. Then she stood taller and tried not to let Xiang’s words faze her. “It doesn’t change the fact that Israel will die if she doesn’t pull herself out of it. I can’t afford to give her time to escape into her head.”
Alyx turned back to stare at Adere’s broken figure, eyes vacant like a china doll. Wherever Adere was, it was clear that she wasn’t here.
“It’s not fair.” Alyx’s voice came out as a whisper.
“You are strong, Alyx. Much stronger than her. That is why you were chosen as the Guardian.” Alyx felt Xiang’s little hand clasping her arm. She didn’t pull away. For some reason Xiang’s words and that little touch began to soothe her turbulent insides like the first ray of light through storm clouds. “You will find a way to save Israel. But you won’t find it through her. And you won’t find it if you let yourself fall apart.”
Alyx felt tears welling up in her eyes. What if I can’t save him? She tore her arm away from Xiang and stormed off down another dark tunnel before Xiang could see the fat, hot tears slipping down her cheeks.
Alyx kept moving away through the tunnel until she was far enough into the dark so that she was sure that she was alone.
“You will find a way.” First Mason now Xiang. Everyone expected that she would find a cure. But would she? Did she even have the strength not to fall apart? The world expected miracles from her, when all she wanted to do was let somebody else take the weight. The pressure of this expectation bore down on her, causing her legs to grow weak. She slumped against the wall, the dampness seeping through the material of her shirt, matching her wet cheeks.
“You will find a way to save Israel.” What if their confidence in her was misplaced? She was just a young warrior. Expert in the hundred ways to skillet a man, not save him.
What should she do? What could she do?
Ana − Ana, who may have been their best hope for saving him − was so destroyed over the loss of Ky, her only son, that she could barely function.
And Adere, the reason for Israel’s condition, was allowed to just wallow in her own self-pity.
It was all up to her.
Her soul ached for Israel. He was the only thing that could make her feel better. She remembered how Israel had just held her the last time that she fell apart, when she had learned that Michael had killed her mother. Israel had held her while she broke down. God, how she needed him now. She needed him now but… Suddenly a wave of fury overcame her.
“Why aren’t you here?” she screamed to the empty tunnel. Her knees gave out and she slid to the ground. She didn’t know what to do, or how to fix things. And the thing she needed most she was about to lose. Or maybe, he was already lost. The emptiness left behind from their broken bond throbbed in her heart.
Alyx hugged her knees to her chest, not caring that the dampness was soaking through her clothes. She began to sob. The dark tunnel blurred behind her tears as she withdrew into her well of pain, her thoughts only on Israel. She remembered how he looked at her, how he made her feel like she was soaring. She pretended his hands were on her. Like a warm cloth on a chill, it soothed her somewhat, and her sobbing soon faded into heavy breathing and the occasional intake of breath.
She thought she felt his presence appear like a ghost before her. “Israel?” she whispered. Alyx retreated further into her memories until they consumed her. She let herself believe that Israel was really there with her. She rolled onto her back and felt him press down onto her. He dipped his head to kiss her. Then he buried his face in her neck. Past his shoulder she saw the painted angel flying across the ceiling of the abandoned theatre that they had once called home.
“Angel,” she heard him whisper. “My dark angel.” She moaned. Her fingers gripped at the damp ground as she felt his breath on her cheek.
A woman’s voice, a soft shushing, broke through her memory. Alyx became vaguely aware of a blurred figure leaning down over her. She felt a hand stroking her forehead. Immediately she felt a pull. Alyx resisted. This pull wanted to take away all the love she felt for Israel, all these loving memories linked in her mind like the chain of a cherished necklace.
“Let go my child,” she heard the soft voice cooing.
“Mother?” Alyx mumbled, squinting at the ghostly figure. No, it wasn’t her mother. Her delirium was causing her to imagine things.
“Just let go,” the apparition whispered.
Just let go. Words so familiar, so comforting. Alyx began to comply. The love she had for Israel began to pull from her mind. She almost tugged it back, but with it, it was taking her pain. Pain that she didn’t have the energy to carry anymore. Yes. Please take the pain away.
Alyx let it go.
Everything faded to black.
Chapter 2
“Where are you, Israel?”
Israel heard her voice, lighting across his darkness like a shooting star. But he couldn’t see her. Alyx. His angel. Where was his angel?
Where was he?
This was a strange place − wherever this was. This place held the absence of color. An absence of light. Except when she called his name.
Israel moved towards the voice’s origin. But then he reached a point where he couldn’t move any further. There was something stopping him. He pressed against this invisible wall.
Their bond. He could reach her with their bond. He closed his eyes and held the image of Alyx’s face in his mind, every curve and lash defined. Lord only knew how often he had studied her face when she wasn’t aware of it. When he opened his eyes he would see his angel.
His heart leapt in anticipation as his eyelids snapped open. But this time she was not there.
“Please,” her voice was a whisper, “please come back to me.”
“Alyx?” he called out. “I’m here.” That’s when he noticed that the warmth he felt whenever she was around was gone. Gone?
As her voice faded, so did he.
Chapter 3
Alyx blinked. The dark roof curved above her. Underneath her side was damp and slimy. A chill oozed though her. She frowned, trying to clear her head. Where was she?
She sat up as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. She was in the tunnels near the Saint’s Revenge.
She frowned. Something felt off. She took a deep breath and placed a hand to her chest. Something felt… missing. An odd hollow void sat within her. Hollow… she was used to feeling hollow, but this… this was different somehow
…
Why was she on the ground? Alyx struggled to piece together her last memories… Adere, she had been going to see Adere. Alyx remembered being so angry. The memories of her fingers on her knife made her flush with shame. But why had she been so angry? She had been almost insane with anger.
Israel… her bonded. That’s right. He was dying from poison that was meant for Adere. Thankfully Xiang had stopped Alyx from resorting to torture. Alyx frowned. She had been scared for Israel. She didn’t want him to die.
If he dies, I die.
I must be scared of dying. Alyx felt her skin grow cold. She had never really contemplated her own death. Even though as a warrior she knew that her immortal life could end in battle, she never feared death. Or perhaps it had been because she hadn’t really cared about her own life. Not caring had made her fearless. But now… Alyx let the memory of her desperation to save Israel roll around in her mind. It shamed her. She had never feared for anything so much in her life.
Coward, she snarled at herself. What kind of warrior are you to be afraid of death? Pick yourself up and get on with it.
Alyx pushed herself up to her feet and brushed her clothes down. How would she get a cure for the demon poison? She didn’t even know what the poison was. She was never very good with herbs and the like. She had never even taken a basic class in herbs or medicines back in Michaelea. Those kinds of classes weren’t for warriors. The only times she had even seen herbs in use was with Mayrekk.
Mayrekk. The ruddy face of the Elder who lived on the outskirts of Michaelea came into her mind. Back in Michaelea, Alyx had followed Mayrekk through the forest around Michaelea while he collected plants and roots. He seemed to know the purpose and medicinal qualities of the whole forest.
Mayrekk will be able to tell me what the poison is, Alyx reassured herself. Mayrekk will have a cure. She just had to talk to him.
Jordan… she needed Jordan’s help.
