Fallen Ashes: Fated & Forbidden

by T. F. Walsh

  Fallen’s gaze sailed to the Gothic-style church with a huge clock tower she’d heard the troll mention. The second largest church in Transylvania, it was decorated with three coats of arms. Arched windows reflected light, while people strolled around the place as if it were a fun park. Flanking the building was the equestrian statue of Matthias Corvinus, a famous Hungarian king, and the only one born in Cluj. And first cousin to Vlad Țepeș, a tyrant. Many in the human world believed the character of Dracula was based on his life. What a laugh. As if vampires existed.

  Alongside the church was a long garden strip, brimming with flowers.

  “This way.” She nudged Saber’s arm and picked up her pace.

  Instead of following her, Saber seized her elbow and pulled her up against him. Her palms instinctively rose in defense and planted themselves against his rock-hard chest.

  Her words vanished. She lifted her chin and stared at him, lost in his gaze, his tiny smile. For those few seconds, she forgot herself, forgot their mission, forgot that Saber was an Ash with a death mission locked inside him.

  One arm swept across her back while the other hand combed through her hair in a soothing stroke. “Wanted to say thanks again.”

  She studied the curve of his lips, their closeness seducing her.

  He lowered his head, and his mouth grazed hers. Not softly, but fiery, passionate, starving. Pulling away had crossed her mind for many reasons, but she couldn’t seem to remember how at that moment. Beneath his kiss, the tightness of his embrace, their breaths mingled. She swayed as if she were a leaf on a tree in the middle of a storm. Nothing else mattered but holding on for dear life. The rest of the world fell away.

  Saber’s fingers pressed into her back, pulling her closer until she felt the beat of his heart.

  “Fallen,” he whispered, prolonging each letter as if enjoying the sound of them on his tongue. “You can open your eyes now.”

  She did as he asked, not remembering when she’d closed her eyes. He hadn’t released her from his embrace either, and while she remained there, her troubles were miles out of reach. Nothing could touch her.

  “Thank you for helping me heal last night.”

  “I couldn’t let you die.”

  His arms unraveled from around her body, releasing her, but she wanted them back, along with his warmth and tenderness. Instead, a deepening heat consumed her cheeks as Saber stared at her. Was he going to kiss her again? Her eyes lingered on his T-shirt, wet from the rain and so tight on him it might be more decent if he went shirtless.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  The fire inside her intensified because for some reason being near Saber had turned her into a love-struck teenager who wanted to fall into his arms over and over. This wasn’t like her in the slightest. But right then, with the crisp smell of rain filling her senses and her body tingling from his touch, she couldn’t concentrate on anything else.

  “Ready?” She asked the question but really wanted to spend the day locking lips with him.

  Though he smirked, he made it appear magnificent. “To face Noah?”

  She spun on her heels, away from Saber’s fierce stare before he inspected her too closely and realized the impact he had on her. “Of course. Let’s do this.”

  As if he’d opened a door, the chattering voices from the crowds in the plaza grew.

  Right. Noah. That was their plan, not getting hot and smoochy in a public place. Now their kiss seemed to sit like a cold cup of coffee in the pit of her gut. She had to pull herself together. He wasn’t right for her on so many levels. Then why did her chest sting at the idea of him in someone else’s arms? How could she feel this way after only knowing him for such a short time? Regardless of what her head screamed, her heart beat so loud Saber had to hear it too. And his stare, filled with desire and sexy ferocity, wasn’t helping.

  Distance. Fallen needed an ocean between them.

  The thrum of cars echoed around the plaza. Voices escalated, but her sights were set on the church. Despite the coolness from the recent rain, her body scorched and buzzed. The pressure of Saber’s lips still lingered on her mouth, his musky scent a cloud in her head. A surge of pressure burned between her thighs. How could she possibly face Noah while she drowned in a fantasy?

  For fifteen years, she’d set her mind to stop Noah, to end his massacre and lust for power. And a clear head was what she needed. Having someone as powerful and strong as Saber by her side both terrified and empowered her.

  She cut a glance to him. “We cross worlds here and see what we’re dealing with, then—”

  The snap of magic sizzled through her the moment Saber whispered the crossing chant, stealing her words.

  “Yep, nothing like talking this out first.”

  The cobblestones morphed into a burned wasteland, everything singed, the cloying stink of soot scratching her nostrils with each inhale. A city’s center always appeared the worst in Tapestry world, blackened, decrepit. Humans and their pollution and electricity destroyed the magic material that should be visible in Tapestry, yet it left the area looking bombed out.

  Without a response, Saber grabbed her arm and forced her into a fast walk. She pulled herself free and kept his pace. The cacophony of emotions running through her mind faded when they neared the charred church. The walls and roof still stood, not allowing her to see who inhabited the inside.

  Perhaps they should have stopped at her apartment first, picked up a spell, a knife, something. Dealing with Noah meant small stuff only got in the way. And she had the most powerful force, tightening by the second in the center of her chest. Plus, a trained Guardian accompanied her. Then why wasn’t she able to overcome the panic?

  She’d planned to finish Noah over the years yet never imagined it would go down this way.

  “What’s our plan?” Her words rushed. “Sneak in? Go through the back entry? Wait until someone exits?”

  “I don’t sneak.” He turned to face her. “Look, you can stay outside. We’ve got twenty feet of distance between us. Enough leeway for me to go and check out the place. Okay?” The way his glazed stare bounced to the blackened door and back said it all. He was planning to fight on his own.

  Her stomach tied into knots. She hadn’t come all this way to chicken out. Fuck that. Fallen couldn’t miss this opportunity to end Noah’s reign.

  “Listen, Saber. I have something to tell you first.”

  But he wasn’t listening. He turned on his heels and surveyed the church entrance.

  12

  Each breath Saber took seemed like a branding iron in his lungs. He studied the Gothic church for movement behind the heavily cracked windows.

  But when the ground shook beneath him, he froze. Someone approached.

  “Hey, are you listening?” Fallen’s voice was a whisper. With the dead silence surrounding them, she might as well have been screaming.

  He made a shushing sound. Stretching an arm across her back, he ushered her around the corner of the building just as the front door creaked open. He peered out from their hiding spot, his muscles tight.

  Two trolls carried a cage with a goblin inside. Was the creature dead or had someone bought it on the underground market? Well, one thing was certain—he and Fallen were at the right place.

  Noah’s ark.

  Before the trolls were completely out of sight, Saber darted toward the doors. Fallen’s faint footfalls tapped behind him as he entered the church.

  He froze just past the threshold. Inside, the long cathedral was gutted. Stone walls, charred and blackened. Cobwebs hanging on every surface. The sunlight behind him lit up the dusty altar at the rear of the room, past the stone columns. All around them were doors, but his attention focused on cages the size of washing machines. Dozens of them littered the space. Goblins, feasters, and draes filled them, all appearing unconscious from being drained. No trolls anywhere. That meant Noah hadn’t arrived yet.

  A sense of unease crawled across his skin as he scanned for silve
ry hair—his stepfather’s.

  “Oh, fuck.” Next to him, Fallen wore a grim mask of horror as she pressed a hand to her throat. Her hitched inhales caught his attention.

  She launched forward, scrambling from one prison cage to another. “We need to get them out.” Her voice strained, fighting emotions. The same ones that threatened to drown him.

  “Agreed.” For a smidgen of a second, he held still, feeling the ground beneath him. The only vibrations in the floorboards came from Fallen’s feet as she darted from one prisoner to the next, shaking them. Something twanged in his chest at seeing her agony, and he admired her tenacity for helping everyone.

  Mustiness filled the air, causing a stale taste in the back of his throat as he hurried to follow her. He swerved around a cage with two feasters slumped against each other like drunken buddies. The next enclosure held a male drae curled into the fetal position. His body was pasty white.

  Images of Saber’s time in captivity replayed in his mind. Despite being hardwired to fight, to never feel pity, he couldn’t eliminate the terrible recollections cutting his insides. While draes and goblins starved to death, others had been left to die. And Saber, a Guardian, couldn’t do a damn thing to stop the brutality. The thought dominated him, owned him.

  When he heard a guttural sound behind him, he spun. Smoke rose in hazy O-rings toward the vaulted ceiling from halfway across the room, the scent layering his nostrils with a metallic stink.

  “Fallen?”

  “Just me. I’m okay.”

  He didn’t bother asking how she’d cast the fire magic, but after this episode, he would get to the bottom of her abilities. If she was a Spell Forger, then he had to know what he was dealing with. Maybe she had the strength to remove the message he carried inside him as an Ash.

  He cautiously entered deeper into the long room where darkness and dampness permeated. His gut turned at the sight of living beings treated worse than hardened criminals, but he checked each cage for signs of his stepfather. His eyes settled on decaying church pews stacked up against a far wall. Shrouded in shadows, they made a perfect hiding spot for anyone. Except, if any guards watched, they would have attacked by now.

  To his right, Saber caught the silvery glow of hair. His insides stiffened. The moment his eyes landed on his stepfather, he approached and dropped to his knees. The urgency to release the drae, to protect him as he’d done for Saber, rocked him. Yeah, his stepfather had lied to him, but Saber was sure there had to have been a reason. Why else would he take Saber into his home and family?

  Saber threaded an arm through the bars and tapped the father-figure who seemed to have aged 200 years since he’d last seen him. Emaciated, the drae’s cheeks were sunken. He lay slumped in the corner of the prison with his chin tucked into his chest.

  “Balc. Wake up.” Saber had never referred to him as “Dad”. Balc had always encouraged the boy to call him by his name.

  “It’s me, Saber. I’m getting you out.” Staring at his stepfather’s drooping mouth, the fragility of his body, Saber hiccuped a breath. Balc’s chest still moved, ever so slightly. Flashes of memories careened through Saber’s mind. The times they hunted together… built a chicken coop… and even keeping Saber company for two days after he had taken out his first troll. Sure, the creature wore Noah’s uniform, but it hadn’t eased the pain of taking a life.

  A moan caught Saber’s attention from somewhere behind him. He checked but found nothing. Only Fallen whispering to one of the captives. Saber’s gaze settled on his stepfather again, his mind overflowed with pity.

  He rounded the cage to the door, gripping the bars. No lock? He pulled, but it wouldn’t budge, so he sat in front for better leverage and with a foot wedged up against the side, he yanked with both hands. The door didn’t make a sound. Fuck. Magic must keep the prisoners locked. Of course, because Noah didn’t play any other way.

  Didn’t matter, Saber would carry his stepdad on his back along with the cell if it meant escaping and getting back home… whatever it took. His stepfather had been captured while searching for Saber after guards chased him out of the kingdom.

  The moment Saber stood and straightened up, the floor beneath his boots vibrated with the rhythmic, steady beat of footsteps. Were the trolls returning?

  He surveyed the entrance where the doors lay open. No sign of anyone yet. Still, wisps of black smoke curled up from a cage at the front of the room.

  “Fallen?”

  Had her spell gone wrong?

  One glance back at his stepfather and he decided to act.

  Saber crouched low and gripped the bars on either side of the cage, lifting it off the ground. His back smarted, his arms strained. This thing shouldn’t be so heavy, no shitting way. Had to be magic. That would explain why two trolls were carrying one cell out of the church. Didn’t matter. He grunted and raised it to shoulder level. His stepfather slumped onto his side from the movement, sending Saber into a stumble.

  “Hold on.” Resting a lower corner on top of another prison, he crouched underneath it and gripped the edges. With a loud groan, Saber pushed the box higher over his head, then took one steady step forward. And another.

  He surveyed the cathedral. The corners of the room remained in complete darkness, and nothing more than shadows from stark columns between them.

  “Fallen?” Where was she? Quickening his steps, he tried keeping his back level to avoid losing his balance or dropping the cage.

  When he spotted blonde strands fanned out across the floor in the front row of cages, he wheezed and felt a lump in his gut.

  With bent knees, he slid the prison on top of another and darted toward Fallen.

  She lay on her stomach, gasping for air. Walls closed in around him at the sight of an injured Fallen. He rolled her onto her back. Her mouth was red and swollen.

  When he eased her into a sitting position, she made a whining sound that terrified him to the core. He couldn’t control the tremor in his voice. “Fallen?”

  Faint white lines of energy connected Fallen’s chest to the bars. The fuck-head. Noah must have set up a glyph in case anyone tried to open the enclosures. Draining hexes only worked in close vicinity. He’d seen it too many times while captured. Why hadn’t he tested the prisons first?

  He scooped Fallen into his arms and climbed to his feet just as a voice boomed across the room.

  “My fighter monkey’s returned.” The familiar voice, akin to scraping sandpaper, sent a chill up Saber’s spine, and he twisted around.

  Six feet of evil, Noah was dressed in tailored pants and a matching vest with a crimson shirt underneath. Long, black hair slicked off his face, without a loose strand. And he still had that fucking long, purple crystal necklace that Saber had pictured skewing into Noah’s throat again and again.

  To anyone else, Noah might pass as a thirty-something geek who had a fascination with Victorian clothing. Couldn’t fool Saber. The guy was a power-hungry wannabe warlock with a black heart. His parents mustn’t have loved him enough as a child.

  Many believed evil was born, not made, but Saber disagreed. Noah had grown up in the human world with his parents and two younger sisters. Aside from being part drae, they went to school and wanted normal futures. Then one day his mom and dad and siblings were caught and butchered by a new recruit in the queen's army for living outside the Tapestry world. The action taken was a mistake because no Guardian had that right. The queen stated she never killed draes for breaking her rules, but anyone who left the realm was punished. The only reason Noah had escaped successfully was that a troll had taken pity on him and rescued him from the Guardians. Since then, Noah had lived with the trolls and fought his way up the ranks to become their lord. Sometimes evil wasn’t inherited but forced upon victims. And while Saber pitied Noah for his loss, it didn’t excuse his actions. Everyone had fucked up shit in their lives. If they all went psycho, the Tapestry citizens would be long extinct.

  He’d pictured this moment hundreds of times. Just N
oah and him. The various ways he’d rip him to shreds, yet with Fallen in his arms, Saber hesitated. His role-plays never involved Fallen getting injured. And if he didn’t do something soon, the glyph would zap away all her strength… possibly her life… if her magic was tied to her life force. Still, anger churned within Saber, hungry for revenge.

  “You know how much money and respect I lost after you escaped from your prison? But your payback atonement can be the gift you’ve brought me.” His smile filled with malice as he caught sight of Fallen.

  The fact that Noah didn’t recognize her meant she’d been caught by the trolls not him. So, had Saber been wrong to believe their bond was a spell put on them by Noah? Except, the bastard laid hexes everywhere, and he could have issued the bonding one at the prison.

  Noah clapped his hands once, ricocheting sound through the room. “I’ve got something special for you.” The cruel look in his eyes had Saber shuddering. The reflection brought back his time in prison. Tortured. Beaten. Made to watch others die. Horrible thoughts, unclean ones clouded Saber’s mind with memories that would always haunt him. The goblin whose limbs had been ripped apart by feasters. The females Noah raped.

  Saber’s emotions were mixed with fear and bravado.

  His gaze switched between Noah, the exit between them, and his stepfather a few feet away. But the warmth of Fallen in his arms, her eyes staring at him, reminded Saber he couldn’t rescue them both. When that realization sunk into his gut, he cringed. He should have known better than to leave Fallen alone, should have kept her by his side. If he had, her fire spell could be used against Noah.

  Noah’s arm swiped outward. The front doors slammed shut, expelling the sunlight and the promise of freedom. Shards of light streaked the room from the small windows high above them.

  Saber’s heart remained torn. He’d trained to be the perfect Guardian. With his bare hands, he could take down most creatures. Yet, he couldn’t compete against a magical lunatic while rescuing Fallen and his stepfather. Regardless, he’d try.