The Thrice Marked
Page 15
I turned slowly. Ezeil, the Archangel of Transformation, stepped across that now open seal. Great folds of his white robes billowed around him like they had not been touched by time. It meant that as soon as the seal had been broken their connection to heaven had been mended. Light glistened out from around him as that power welcomed him back into the fold. Molten gold illuminated over his grey gaze as he looked down at his son. The soft red curls that fell across his forehead and the beard of a matching hue were longer than what I remembered. His body was tighter, his arms more defined, showing that he had used his imprisonment to train as Drest had mentioned.
I looked back at Felix and saw his face lost in the deep wave of emotions that overtook him when he looked at his father the first time in centuries. Fear flooded through him at the anticipation of rejection over the mistakes that he had made. Eziel’s magnificent aura closed in around us as he kneeled beside me and I only felt love. Love so thick and heedy that I could taste it, swallow it down into myself.
“The pain is because you fight the transformation, my son,” he told Felix. The sound of his voice made me shiver just as it did to Felix. But he gave himself over to the faith he still had in his father then and his body convulsed up off the ground.
Eziel took my hand away from Felix’s and gently guided me to give his son space as his body trembled. The shirt exploded off of his back as great black wings tore themself out of the flesh of his back. I yelped and fell back onto my butt, startled by their appearance. Eziel touched my face to make me look at him and said, “You put a little angel in his demon.”
He left me sitting there while he drew his son up off the ground and while being mindful of the wings, pulled him up into his arms to be braced against his chest as he recovered. Then another aura had me looking back at the entrance to their prison cell.
Azrael, the Archangel of Death and my angel father, stepped across that broken seal, a free soul again. Two great fathers had made me. Ellison Hunt had given me my mortal life, a curious mind and all the love of his heart. Azrael was the power of my faith and in my veins. The veils that had hidden my abilities in my human brain were lifted that moment that seal was broken. That backwash of power had sprouted Felix’s wings.
I stood as my father walked toward me. His long blond hair was pulled back into a low ponytail that trailed down between his double set of wings. Four wings marked him as being one of the seven immaculate seraphim. He could also wield a blinding halo above his head. Not every angel had a halo and the shining ones were only for the most elite of heaven. He had not called it to him as he held out his hand to me. I reached back out to him as my mother’s emergence drew my attention.
Hanna, guardian angel and love of Azrael, came out of their prison with tears in her sweet green eyes. She was a darker blond than my father and wore it in a long braid that was pulled over her shoulder to lay across her chest down to her waist. Her two white wings were tucked closely against her back, a nervous gesture that always told us when she was feeling anxious.
Her hands cupped my face as the tears spilled down over her cheeks, wiping at the ones that were trailing down my own cheeks. My father touched my hair, tucking it behind my ear as he leaned down and kissed Hanna’s temple.
“You’re so beautiful,” my mother told me. My face was no longer a mix of theirs. My hair a much darker blond than it had been before. This was their first time to see my human looks and it stole my breath to hear her say it.
The time for reuniting was cut short as Raguel ran into the room. Hanna gasped with surprise to see her brother. He paused long enough to give her a joyful smile, then looked at Azrael and said, “Reinforcements are coming.”
My father lifted his hand into the air and a sword appeared in a blinding flash of light. His halo blossomed to life over his head, casting light down onto his face and humming with power. He shot an aggressive grin at his brother-in-law and said, “Let them come.”
Eziel stood and drew Felix back to his feet. Azrael looked over at them and asked, “Is he recovered?”
“Better than he was,” Eziel responded.
Drest and Barden ran into the room with us a moment later. The angels reacted warmly to Drest and he to them.
“It is good to see you on this side of the wall,” he told them, “but the Trow king has called in the goblins. He has not let Devina know yet. If I can get to him I can challenge him for rule now that I’ve been crowned in the Gloaming Court.”
Azrael gave a quick nod and gestured to Raguel and said, “Take my Trow friend to challenge the king. Eziel will go with you. I will take my family to safety if the dark one can lead me and then join you.”
“His name is Barden,” I told my father.
“Barden, will you help me get my girls to safety?”
“Yes, I am loyal to Rozalyn always.”
My father looked at me with his serious sky blue eyes and said, “We love the name Rozalyn, my daughter.”
Hanna slid her arm around my shoulders and smiled at me before saying, “We do. There is so much to talk about when we get away from here.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Felix was saying, catching out attention. He was telling Eziel that he was going to go with him and Drest. Eziel took his shoulders firmly as Azrael walked up to them.
“Son, your father goes one way and your love goes another. Go with Rozalyn.”
Azrael touched Felix on the arm with a nod of agreement to Eziel before adding, “I will need you to stay with them when I come back inside.”
“He doesn’t want to lose Eziel again,” I said quietly, “and we are not helpless. I can call out to him or my father if we are in danger.”
Eziel and Azrael looked at each other, then nodded and looked at Felix. “Okay,” his father told him.
Azrael and Raguel led the charge out of the room, then split ways in the hallway. Drest, Felix and Eziel followed Raguel deeper into the Trow’s home while me, my mother and Barden quickly followed Azrael to get back outside. We only made it about halfway before the goblins started pouring in the doorway that led out.
They were a mix of every color and size. Some were just as tall as Azrael as he ran forward to meet them while some were the size of a toddler. Goblins were a strange mix of wolfman and catman, walking upright but with muzzles, fur and some with tails. I stood shoulder to shoulder with Barden, already calling some newly unlocked power to my hands to defend us from the ones that got past my father.
But there was no need. He moved like he had choreographed the entire fight with sword clashing against sword and goblin bodies flying through the air away from him. That solid gleaming halo cut through the front lines with bursts of scalding light. His sword met the ones that managed to squeeze through the defense of the halo. All the while, he steadily drove them back.
My father had always been a skilled warrior, but this was more intensity from him than I had seen before. The sword glinted in the light of the halo as it whirled back and forth in a blur. He would toss it from hand to hand to change his direction of attack. Goblins in the very back started to catch on to what was happening to the ones in the front and the numbers started thinning quickly.
It was possible that they were regrouping outside but Azrael didn’t hesitate when the last few goblins turned and ran when he reached the door. He charged outside, Barden at his back with his own sword in his hand.
They stood there watching the goblins flee when my mother and I finally stepped outside with them. Barden turned his golden panther eyes on me and smiled. I let out a relieved breath and hurried forward, letting him sweep me up into his arms and twirl me in a celebratory moment. He let my body slide down his, molding his hand up across the back of my neck to my head and pressing me in for his lips to slide across mine. I kissed him back excitedly and when he broke the kiss I was breathless. But then I had two sets of angel parent eyes on me.
He set me on my feet and took a step back, giving me a sheepish look for display of affection in front of paren
tal units. I was trying to stand there and form the words to explain my lifestyle choices to parents that come straight from heaven, but Azrael stopped me before I spoke and simply kissed me on the forehead.
“I must return to the others, but I will be back soon.” He nodded towards Barden, “Take them to safety?”
“I am taking them back to the Gloaming Court. Felix and Drest will be able to get you back there after you are finished.”
Azrael nodded, kissed Hanna, then rushed back into the Trow sithen to help the others. Barden whistled for the fairy horses then helped us get mounted up. He pushed the pace to get back to Court since it was just the three of us. It all went by in a blur for me since I couldn’t drag my eyes off of my mother. But she couldn’t stop looking at me either.
We walked into the main hall hand in hand, the view of the ocean in front of us and Darby’s silhouette before it. Beside her stood Ariel, mother to Felix and Darby and wife to Eziel. Hanna let go of my hand and rushed forward to throw her arms around Ariel. The two long time friends clung to each other as me and Darby also hugged beside them.
We switched, Ariel scooping me into her arms and wings as Hanna pulled Darby into hers. Over Ariel’s shoulder, I saw Conall walk forward with my human parents beside him. She let me go so I could take my angel mother’s hand and lead her over to meet them.
“Mother, this is my mom and dad, Ellison and Evelyn Hunt.”
Hanna reached out and cupped Evelyn’s face in her hands and told her, “Your daughter is beautiful.”Mom smiled through her tears and responded, “Of course, she was sent from heaven.” She looked at Darby and Ariel, “Both of the girls were.” All three moms embraced, rubbing their hands on each other’s arms and backs, forever bonded over the children they had shared together.
Conall moved over to my side, looking down at me with his serious spring green eyes. “I am very happy that you got them free.”
“Me too,” I replied.
“What now?”
I blew out a sigh and said, “I honestly don’t know. We can’t take Felix back home without Devina knowing he is free and then she would know that our parents are free. We need more time to plan on what to do about her.”
“I can help,” the voice came from behind me. I looked back to find Maeve standing there. Darby walked up beside me and said, “You’ve probably helped enough, don’t you think?”
Maeve winced, but persisted and said, “But I can help. I still have the power to use the enchantment Devina made for Felix. I can adjust it myself for Meredith, I know her well enough.”
Conall turned to face her fully. “If you are willing to do that, it would undo some of the wrongs you have committed against the Unseelie Court.”
“Thanks but,” she shrugged and continued, “it still works out better for me if Felix can win against Devina. She would never leave me to the mercy of the Unseelie Court if she could torture me herself for giving her away.”
“Drest was successful in his challenge to the throne. We are coming back.” Felix breathed through my mind.
“Felix and the rest are on their way here. They managed to defeat the old Trow king.” I frowned between Conall and Muara and said, “If she’s serious then it would be helpful. We can’t stay hidden here the whole time and leave Mac to fend for himself to protect everyone back home.”
Conall inclined his head toward me before looking at Maeve and asking, “Do you need time to prepare?”
“Some. I need to alter the charm, but I have it with me. I cleansed it after we got here but it still draws on the magic that Devina pledged to it.”
“Let me know if there is anything you need. We will have to move quickly. There are far too many witnesses to their release tonight.”
She nodded and left the room. I had very mixed feelings about putting something so important into her hands after she had disrupted my path in life over the past few centuries, but I trusted Conall’s opinion on it.
Ariel, Hanna and Evelyn were all still grouped together and chatting. Dad and Conall picked up a conversation they had left off when we arrived. The two men chuckled at each other as I walked over and gave Dad a hug. He stopped mid-sentence, letting me feel all of his love as he held me close. I knew that they knew I loved them, but part of me wanted to make reassurances that I was still their little girl even if I now had another set of very immortal parents.
I felt Felix’s aura as he entered the sithen. “They are back,” I whispered.
Dad loosened his grip on me and looked at the door as Felix and Eziel walked in. “That's your other dad?” he asked me quietly.
“No, Felix and Darby’s.”
Then we were all rendered speechless at the look on Eziel’s face when he saw Ariel. Centuries of being split apart, unable to hold each other, showed in the anguish on his face. Nothing would have kept them apart for another moment. They collided into each other and Ariel’s sob shook the air around us.
I, and every damn person in that room, cried right along with them when Eziel’s own sob echoed hers. Then I felt the sharp agony of guilt that stabbed through Felix. “No,” I said firmly and ran over to him. He tried to turn his face away from me but I caught his cheek with my hand and forced him to see me and hear me.
“Felix, you will not carry this burden like this.”
“Son,” Eziel said, tears still on his face and his arm still around Ariel. “There is one villain of this story and it is not you. Don’t let her keep on winning by destroying the happiness that we can finally share together as a family.”
Ariel held out her hand for Darby and said, “Come see your father again.”
I’m not sure Eziel realized that Darby would be here. He was completely shaken as Darby walked across the room to him. Oddly, Darby looked more like his daughter now in this human form than she had as an angel. He pulled her into his arms reverently, as if she were a delicate thing that he could break. They sank to the floor together and clung to each other.
Eziel had to clear his throat more than once before he could look at Felix and say with a thick voice, “I want to hold both of my children.”
Felix’s dark eyes met mine. I gave him a little shove in their direction. He lifted his lips in a bit of a smile then walked over and sat down there with them. The four of them weaved each other into an embrace that was not going to be broken quickly.
Azrael walked up beside me as Eziel and Ariel loved their long lost children. I smiled at him, tucking myself up into his side. “I want to meet your other parents,” he told me. We walked over to where Mom and Dad stood beside my angelic mother. Azrael stepped away from me to immediately shake Dad’s hand. His voice was rough around the edges with tears he would not shed as he said, “I want to say thank you, but it’s not the right words to use. She is yours just like she is mine. So I’m going to tell you that I’m honored to share a daughter with you.”
Dad was fighting his own emotions, he swallowed more than once before he finally was able to say, “The honor was all mine.”
***
“I think it’s a good plan,” Felix said through the glower that he aimed at Maeve, “but I don’t trust you to stay there in Steiner.”
Conall frowned, reaching up and rubbing his forehead where his black stone crown rested against his forehead. Aurnia and Drest sat beside him in their twilight colored crowns. Watching Conall mess with his made me want to reach up and touch the diadem on my own head. We were being very official as the Unseelie King made his proclamation on Maeve’s fate.
“Proximity will be necessary for her to control Meredith,” he said shifted in the armchair he was sitting in and stretched one long leg out in front of him while his spring green eyes flicked to me then back to Felix. He had left his white blond hair down so that it brushed the tops of his shoulders. I stared at him harder, realizing that the shirt he had on was more form fitted than he usually wore. He was a broad man with big shoulders and a well defined swell of his chest. Was Conall trying to be noticed?
My mouth dropped open before I gasped out a laugh. Felix looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I felt him caress across my mind. I focused on the thought that Conall was trying to make some moves now that we had gotten our parents free. Then thought very loudly that sucking up to my human parents was not going to get him in my pants. I felt Felix’s amusement in response before he coughed in his hand, covering up his grin.
“Okay, I can work with that. We can settle the details after we get there. So you will take Maeve and Roz back today and see if Meredith can be placed under Maeve’s spell?” Felix asked him.
“Yes. And Darby. She will need to appear as if she is returning to work with Roz.”
They both agreed on some more small details. I took time to tell all four of my parents that I loved them and would see them soon, but in my head there was only one thing that was repeating over and over, Mac. I hadn’t seen him in almost a week and I was ready to be in his arms again.
When Conall motioned for me to join him, I threw my arms around Felix and kissed him until we were both breathless. “See you soon,” I told him.
“Very soon. I love you.”
“Love you back,” I said before giving him one more peck and joining Conall along with Darby and Maeve. Aurina was several feet across the room from us, but I could see that she and Darby had locked eyes with each other. As the smoke from the roving candle thickened around us, Darby never looked away from her.
When the smoke from the roving candle cleared in the kitchen of the home I shared with Darby, Mac was standing there with a big smile waiting for me. I flew into his arms. “You did it, Dove,” he said against my ear as he held me close. I sunk my fingers into his hair and pressed him even closer. After such an eventful few days, it felt so good to be back in his embrace. A tension I hadn’t even been completely aware of eased and I felt myself finally relax into the joy of having Felix back and rescuing our parents.