Dark Flight (The Shadow Slayers)

by Cassi Carver

  In one instant, he dropped his shield and flashed, reappearing a hundred feet above Brakken. Before he’d even drawn a full breath, he summoned his energy to him and cast it out with all his strength, raining down destructive force on the snowy-haired Aniliáre below him.

  But Julian didn’t get to witness what the energy did to him, because an instant later, Brakken was gone. Julian growled and quickly scanned the skies. He’d understood the concept when training with Mazeki that two black-wings sparring was never a simple thing, but it was occurring to him anew that unless he and Kara trapped Brakken and made him immobile, this would amount to little more than a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek.

  Suddenly, pain roared through Julian’s side. He spun his head around to see an arrow sticking from the back of his ribs. And it was no regular arrow—it was one of Brakken’s special creations. The pain was so intense it was like electric poison sizzling through his veins.

  “I am spirit,” he whispered to himself, but he wasn’t simply spirit in that moment with Brakken’s poison-tipped arrow anchoring him to his physical body.

  He quaked from his head to his feet, as though the energy was short-circuiting his wiring, and a second later, a disembodied voice spoke close to his ear. “Do you still think it’s too late for me to kill you, or am I making a believer of you?”

  “Hey, you!” To Julian’s horror, it was Kara’s voice. She couldn’t understand just how powerful Brakken was, but Julian was beginning to. If he couldn’t get free, maybe Brakken wouldn’t be the black-wing with a one-way ticket to the Abyss—maybe it would be Julian.

  When Brakken’s focus shifted to Kara, the pain of the arrow altered slightly to something more bearable. “Kara Reed,” the black-eyed devil said. “You have something that belongs to me—my grandson. I’ve rarely been surprised in my life, but your sprouting bones from your back and flashing with Gable Two made the list. Well done, female. If I was upset and punished the child’s mother for your escape…well, I can hardly be blamed, can I? I offered you my hospitality and you threw it in my face.”

  Julian saw Kara’s fear when Brakken mentioned punishing the infant’s mother, but she covered it quickly. “I’m glad you liked it. You can thank the Sanctiáre for that little mutation. When they heard my problems involved you, they were only too happy to help.”

  “The Sanctiáre?” Julian heard the skepticism in the black-wing’s voice mixed with a small hint of trepidation. Maybe Brakken had some boundaries after all, and crossing the white-winged angels was something even he tried to avoid.

  “Julian?” Kara called. “Talk to me.”

  With Brakken distracted by Kara’s arrival, his will wasn’t as focused on Julian. Julian gripped the arrow by the shaft, trying to ignore the terrible burning in his palm where it touched the wood. He tugged it from his side and gasped for air when it came free.

  “Run, Kara! He’s too strong,” Julian said. “Go home where you belong!”

  Kara glanced at him, and he saw the calculation in her eyes under the veneer of panic she projected for Brakken. “I’m not leaving you!”

  “Go!” he roared.

  When Kara flashed, Julian felt a moment of true alarm. What if she couldn’t navigate to the surface without him by her side? What if she couldn’t find her way back to San Diego? But it was too late to overthink it now, because when Kara flashed, Brakken followed her trail.

  It was show time.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Abbey readjusted her ponytail for the third time. There was something about death magic where she couldn’t do it with her hair blowing in her face. Watery eyes made it hard to read the spells—though she’d pretty much memorized everything she needed to know for tonight.

  When she was finished getting the stray hairs tucked in, Jaxon took her hand. “Stop fidgeting, dove. Stay focused. When Brakken arrives and realizes what you have planned, he’s going to be angry. And no matter what type of magic you’re wielding, an angry fallen angel is never a good thing.”

  “Sorry. I’m trying. Julian’s blood is messing with my head. It’s like every cell is dancing in its membrane.” Abbey exhaled through her mouth and shook out her arms, trying to regulate her breathing and get the blood flowing back to her extremities again. She glanced at her inner circle, those loyal to her priesthood who had proven themselves over the past months. “If this goes south, tell me how you’re going to get the other witches out of here.”

  “Abbey…you know if this doesn’t work, I won’t have time to transport your friends. And before you argue, your coven members have told me they’d kill me themselves if I let anything happen to their high priestess. If I can only take one person—it’s going to be you.”

  She hated the fact that she was putting her coven members in danger, but they told her they didn’t mind. A sanctioned event where they got to go head to head with one of the Fallen was every senior coven member’s dream. Magic didn’t get cooler than this.

  She reached up and tugged the ponytail holder, trying to adjust it. And then, out of the blue and after what seemed like hours of waiting, Kara was suddenly standing in front of Abbey with wide eyes. “He’s coming!” she yelled.

  But Abbey was already shouting over her, “Raise your totems!”

  The four other witches positioned at the corners of the park raised the earth-filled bags in their hands and began to chant. Abbey had handpicked these witches to be part of her inner circle, and every single one of them was a force to be reckoned with.

  Abbey jabbed her thumb toward the sidelines. “Get out of the circle, Kare-bear, unless you want to be cast out of this realm too!”

  Kara leapt to the boundary of the circle. No—that wasn’t leaping, that was flying! Holy crap. Jaxon wasn’t kidding. Abbey’s oldest friend in the world had skeletal wings poking through the back of her T-shirt, and she knew how to use them.

  When Brakken materialized in the circle, Abbey went immobile for a second, mesmerized by the stark contrast of his completely black eyes against his white skin and hair.

  “Abbey!” Kara called, snapping her out of it.

  Abbey raised her totem and crushed it in her palm, mixing the earth from their coven ground and a small capsule of holy water. “Angel fallen from grace… Cursed to walk in the land of the Shadows… We rebuke you in the name of the Children of the Earth.”

  “Witches? Truly? Witches dare interfere in my dealings?” Brakken growled and strode forward until he hit the edge of the circle. When he bumped up against it and couldn’t go further, he really started to look pissed. “Excellent. I haven’t eaten witch in centuries. You, redhead—” he poked a long claw in Abbey’s direction, “—look exceptionally tasty.”

  The witch to Abbey’s right raised her totem and closed her fist upon it. “Angel fallen from grace… Cursed to walk in the land of the Shadows… In the name of the Children of the Earth, we bind your wings that you may not darken our skies again.”

  The night had been clear, but the sky started filling with angry gray clouds. Lightning lit the sky directly above them and the thunder pealed almost instantly, so loud it shook the ground.

  Brakken’s lips pulled back to reveal the strangest, sharpest teeth Abbey had ever seen. Every tooth was V shaped and steeply pointed at the tip. “Whatever you have planned, witch, I suggest you leave off now. Hand the female over to me, and I will go without harming you or your people.”

  The next coven member lifted his totem and crushed the ingredients in his hand. The lightning crackled across the sky, coming even closer. “Angel fallen from grace… Cursed to walk in the land of the Shadows… We revoke your right of passage to this realm.”

  Abbey tried not to lose focus when Julian appeared on the far side of the circle. She could do this. It would take every bit of strength she had, but when she was finished here, the Northwestern Coven would have prevailed over one of the worst fallen angels in the Shadowland.

  “Hurry, Abbey,” Kara said from behind her. “Do the last on
e.”

  Brakken stared at Kara and his skin started to glow with energy. With his sharp teeth and his eyes that seemed to absorb light instead of reflect it, he was one scary dude. Abbey wasn’t sure what the glowing meant, but it didn’t seem like a good thing.

  When the final witch with a role to play in the ceremony lifted her totem, Brakken’s head snapped in her direction. With a roar, he fanned his wings and took off running directly at her.

  When he hit the boundary of the circle, he almost bounced like it was elastic. Then he pushed forward and raised his glowing hands to the barrier, letting out a shriek that was terrifying—half murderous, half animalistic—and at a frequency that burrowed into Abbey’s ears like a carnivorous insect.

  “Angel fallen from grace,” the other witch began, but Brakken was pushing out on the barrier, using its elasticity and his astonishing strength to bend it to his will. Abbey saw the fear in her friend’s eyes when Brakken’s hand pushed through the sticky web and went straight for her throat. That wasn’t supposed to happen! He couldn’t get through the perimeter of the circle!

  “Becky!” Abbey screamed when Brakken yanked her friend into the circle and tore into her throat with his wide mouth. When he pulled away and threw her down, Becky’s throat was a ragged hole and Brakken’s pale skin was glistening with blood.

  Whether from his own power or their lack of focus due to their fear and horror, the walls of the circle began to quaver. “Hold the line!” Abbey shouted, desperately wanting to run to her friend, but knowing if she did, she would be the next to die.

  The remaining witch on the other side of the circle called to Abbey. “I need the totem!”

  Abbey saw it when Jaxon’s gaze flashed to the bloody totem in the soil next to Becky’s body. “Don’t do it,” she wanted to say, but utter terror stripped her of the ability to speak. Not Jaxon. No. If he went in he couldn’t get back out without them releasing Brakken.

  “Jaxon!” she shrieked when he drew his sword and darted inside the circle.

  Mouth still dripping with blood, Brakken laughed. “I should visit the surface more often. You are so much more diverting than those walking corpses in the Shadowland.”

  Jaxon charged him, and it was such a bold move, Brakken seemed momentarily caught off guard. Jaxon got in one good blow, catching Brakken in the shoulder, before the black-wing backhanded Jaxon hard enough to send him flying into the perimeter of the circle.

  When Abbey saw him hit it like a solid object, her heart shriveled to dust. Jaxon was trapped inside with the man he hated most. After all that Brakken had done, a clear head wasn’t an option for Jaxon, and it wouldn’t help him survive this.

  “Reposition yourselves around the circle!” Abbey called to her remaining coven members. If by any stroke of luck, Jaxon was able to get the totem, they needed to be ready to finish the spell fast. “Kara, get to Julian. See what he can do to help, and get ready in case we have to drop the circle to get Jaxon out of there.”

  Jaxon and Brakken circled each other slowly, but suddenly, Brakken flashed, and Jaxon flashed an instant later. They couldn’t get out of the circle, but maybe Jaxon could evade him long enough to stay alive.

  “Abbey,” Kara said. “You can’t drop that circle. He’ll kill you all!”

  Desperate, but trying not to lose her focus, Abbey glanced to Kara. “Don’t tell me what we can and can’t do. I’d rather give Jaxon a chance than leave him trapped in there.”

  Kara ran to the other side of the circle where Julian was tracking Jaxon’s and Brakken’s movements, but Abbey had one duty to focus on in that moment—to keep the circle strong until it was clear that Jaxon’s only hope would be getting out.

  Jaxon flashed again, but the area wasn’t big enough to allow him many hiding spots. This time, when he rematerialized, Brakken was ready for him and grabbed him by the neck.

  “You are one of the braver and stupider silver-wings I’ve seen, boy.” He began to squeeze and Jaxon’s eyes bulged and his face went purple-red. “You actually chose to enter this trap with me, knowing I would kill you. What a lovely surprise.”

  “Just wanted to…spend some quality time…with my father,” Jaxon choked out.

  As though truly taken aback, Brakken dropped Jaxon to the dirt but then pressed his foot to Jaxon’s back. Abbey heard the sickening sound of ribs snapping and saw Jaxon’s responding grimace.

  “My son? No, my offspring wouldn’t be so stupid. Who is your mother?” Brakken demanded, and one of the most disturbing things Abbey had ever witnessed was the way Brakken seemed to be interested in the answer—even hopeful maybe. Could he truly be so insane that he thought children conceived by rape and torture still belonged to him?

  Jaxon squirmed against the soil, and his hand under Brakken’s legs—and out of Brakken’s sight—snaked out, feeling around for Becky’s body. When he found it, his fingers wandered down her arm to her hand, as though hoping he would still find the totem there. “Hexa,” he wheezed.

  “Hexa the Hairy?” Brakken’s responding burst of laughter was so strong it rippled through the boundary of the circle. “Ha! I haven’t seen her in more than a hundred years, bless her hairy heart.”

  Jaxon growled, and Brakken pressed harder, choking out the sound. “Listen to you. So offended on your dam’s behalf. Trust me, boy—I did her a favor. No other man would touch such a repulsive creature as Hexa. I wasn’t even tempted to keep her in my menagerie, to tell the truth. The novelty wasn’t worth the repulsion of breeding her. I would bet you a hundred gold pieces I was her first, her last, and her only.”

  When tears ran from Jaxon’s eyes, Abbey had never been so livid in her life. She wanted to kill Brakken in a way she’d never wanted to kill another being.

  “You aren’t worthy to even occupy the same realm as my mother,” Jaxon answered. “She is a great woman, and I love her. You will never know the love and devotion of a child, because you are broken at the deepest level. You are empty and miserable, Brakken. A waste of space. One Hexa, hair and all, is worth ten thousand of you.”

  Brakken removed his sandal and Jaxon rolled to his side, gasping for air, almost rolling on top of Becky’s still form in his writhing pain. But before Brakken even gave him a chance to catch his breath, he curled his hand in the air and lifted, and Jaxon’s body rose off the ground like a limp mouse dangling from a cat’s mouth.

  Brakken held Jaxon suspended without even touching him, and Jaxon was helpless to escape. It seemed when a black-wing had a silver-wing under his control, flashing was no longer an option.

  Brakken brought Jaxon’s face closer to his and began to squeeze. “I will not mourn you when you are gone, my son. You are an abomination, just like your mother.”

  When Jaxon couldn’t even get a breath out this time, Abbey knew he was really in trouble. “No!” she shouted at Brakken, unable to think what she could do to save him beyond taking down the circle. But with Jaxon in Brakken’s grasp, would it even matter? He wouldn’t be able to flash.

  Brakken met her eyes and smiled. “Every once in a while I have to cull my offspring to keep the lines strong. Don’t be dismayed, redhead. I generally produce stronger and more appreciative sons than this one. Maybe with your Kara I’ll have better luck?”

  With only the movement of his eyes to give him away, Jaxon pulled back his fist and let something fly. A brown suede bag sailed through the perimeter of the circle, straight into a witch’s ready hands.

  As Brakken dropped Jaxon and strode toward the circle, the witch was already beginning to chant and Abbey was reaching out with her powers. Energy seethed through her, wanting not to simply bind this man but to destroy him.

  “Angel fallen from grace… Cursed to walk in the land of the Shadows…” the witch rushed out quickly, squeezing the bag in his fist to mix the ingredients.

  But Brakken was already pounding on the wall of the circle, making it quake so hard, Abbey thought he might break through at any moment. From behind him, Jaxon lifted h
is sword.

  “In the name of the Children of the Earth, we cast you back whence you came and seal this land evermore from your presence.”

  Just as Jaxon thrust the blade through Brakken’s back, the stormy skies above them opened up and a blinding flash of lightning streaked through the sky, straight into Brakken. As the energy burned through him, it followed the path up the blade, straight into Jaxon’s extended arm. He went stiff then fell limp to his side as Brakken roared and started to go misty.

  “No!” he bellowed, but the energy was already pushing him from the earth, back to the other realm.

  When the last of his outline vanished, Abbey and the other witches dropped the circle, and Abbey rushed to Jaxon’s side. “Jaxon!” she cried, falling to her knees beside him.

  Kara rushed over and took Jaxon’s cheeks in her hands. “He’s okay, Abbs. I mean, I don’t know how long he’ll be out, it could be a while. But he’ll regenerate. He’s going to be okay. And I’m so, so sorry about Becky.”

  Abbey couldn’t hold back her fear and horror any longer. She broke down, running her hands over Jaxon’s silky hair and weeping like a baby.

  “Kara,” Julian barked. “We have him trapped in the Shadowland now. Let’s take advantage of this.”

  When Kara met Abbey’s eyes, Abbey whispered, “Go.” But as Kara and her ex-lover flashed, it occurred to Abbey that “trapping” Brakken in the Shadowland was almost the same as trapping a shark in a cove and then diving in.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Kara trailed Julian’s energy back into the Shadowland, and as she opened her eyes, she was so thankful that it didn’t hurt to travel anymore like it had before the bony wings.

  She looked around, but they weren’t anywhere she recognized. “Where are we? And more importantly, where’s Brakken?”

  “Well, we know where he’s not. Escaping to the surface won’t be an option for him anymore. Tell your witch friend ‘well done’ on my behalf.”