I hurried to the door. I would save the fallen angel for Ishka, and then I would send the creature on her way.
Blocks later, I came to a clearing. In the middle, not far from a walking path, Woe waited, moonlight caressing her naked body, shadows hiding her sacred places.
At the sight of her, everything in me cried out her name.
Prophecy or not, I already fought a losing battle.
3
Rescue
Woe
New Haven City Park
The crunch of gravel woke me. When I opened my eyes, nothing filtered through, and my whole body ached. The chill of the night air had settled in my bones, and bits of rock dug into my sides. Cold from top to bottom, I couldn’t feel my fingers or my toes. My teeth chattered. Biting my tongue didn’t help.
I tried to wrap my arms around myself, the way I’d seen mortals do. Everything was obscured by shadow, but I couldn’t tell if the dark came from mortal eyes that weren’t working properly, or if I’d woken at night.
The Fall should have killed me. A slow, freezing death didn’t suit my wishes.
“You won’t make it in. The Boss won’t let you,” said a boyish voice, coming closer.
“I will. I’ll work for her and make tons of money.” That one sounded slightly older.
Two kids argued, their voices snide. I tried to shift, but nothing worked right yet. Death should have eaten me up already. Why hadn’t it happened yet?
The children didn’t strike a maternal chord anywhere in my new body. I didn’t know anything about the Boss, and I wished they’d just shut up. At least they could let me die in peace.
Their footsteps stopped.
One of them whispered, “What do you think she’s doing?”
Freezing to death. That’s what I was doing. My chattering teeth should have given it away, but I pretended to be asleep instead. Two kids couldn’t do much, and it wasn’t like I could see them anyway.
The other one answered, “Dunno. Doesn’t matter. She made the wrong people angry and ended up naked in the park on a cold night. Remember that.”
“Should we help her?”
“Mind your own business. You know the Boss hates it when newbs are late.”
There was a scuffle, more argument, and then they started walking again, the sounds moving away. Same conversation, different voices. Several times as the night wore on.
Nobody stopped to rescue a naked woman lying in the park after dark. Not these days. I didn’t bother begging them. The last one pelted me with rocks until I asked her to stop. I expected to die but not by stoning.
I tried to wiggle my shoulders.
What was the word?
Ow.
God. I hurt all over, but the gouges on either side of my spine ached most. It had been a hard fall, though not hard enough to kill me, and my retinas still hadn’t adjusted to The Change.
Sirens sang counterpoint against the wail of a train. There was a scream from somewhere. Inside the park. If my muddled brain was correct about where the boundaries were. I couldn’t tell if the screamer was a woman or an animal, but it brought Hannah’s end to mind. If I had been sooner, I could have saved her.
Too late, I’d given everything I could for her, but I had nothing left to offer. Naked. Alone. Banished to an ephemeral body. It wasn’t fair that she could still haunt me. At least her attacker would not live on to murder another.
My teeth chattered until I tasted metal. I must have bitten my tongue.
The Change should have killed me. Surely, I’d be dead soon.
How long did it take to freeze to death? Waiting for it was senseless.
The crunch of shoes on the gravel announced another passerby.
What did this one make? Six? Seven? I wasn’t counting anymore.
The footsteps stopped at the same place all the others had. It’s wasn’t every day a morning walker found a sightless naked woman, curled in the fetal position on the ground in the park.
“Need some help?” A gruff voice offered.
I tried to smile, but it hurt my face too much. The pull of forming the expression set my thoughts spinning. “Mmm,” was all I could manage through the dizziness.
“Good,” he barked. “I could use some help myself.”
The footsteps jogged up, followed by the sound of a short zipper being undone.
That wasn’t right.
“Do you have a sling or something?” I asked.
“Something like that.” He grunted, and I could almost hear the smile.
It was all wrong.
“Wait,” I said, in a hoarse voice, whisper soft. “Please. Don’t hurt me.”
Hannah’s death replayed in my mind, and I wanted a different ending to my mortality.
I shifted on the ground, scooting away from where I guessed he was, and grit scraped my hips. Vice-like fingers grabbed my ankles and dragged me along the ground.
The putrid, skunk-ish smell of crude oil washed over me, and uncontrollable retching swallowed my cries. The world spun faster around us.
“Will you die for me?” He hummed a song to himself. “Won’t you die pretty for me?”
“No, no, no.” A moment ago, I had made peace with the idea of death ending my life.
No more. Until death came, sovereignty was mine, and I would not be a passive participant in my demise. I kicked wildly at him but could only guess where he was.
He lost his hold.
Elated, I scooted away, tucked my knees under my chin, and whispered, “Thank you.”
But he caught my flailing wrists and crushed them in tight fists.
“Thought I was gonna let you go, huh?” He chuckled.
He wrenched my arms and forced me flat on my back into the dirt. Bits of gravel ground into the wounds between my shoulder blades. Pain burned through me, I clenched my teeth to keep from wailing.
With another low growl, he dropped over me, straddling me, and in a tone thick with depraved intention, he pressed something sharp to my neck, and commanded, “Scream for me.”
I did.
As loud and as long as I could. The skin of my neck broke against the knife at my throat. He tsked, and then the blade wasn’t there, but I was pinned.
Slapping and kicking at my assailant, I worked to free myself.
Above me, my attacker crowed with laughter, happy with my fear. I shuddered when he smoothed his thin tongue along my cheek and sighed, “Delicious.”
This was not the peaceful death I’d imagined.
And, with that thought, I realized that I did not want to die. Not today. I bucked upward and tried to throw the creature off me. I screamed again, hoping to bring attention to the predator that held me.
The whistle of a bird’s wings stirred the air.
“What the―” The words cut off, and his weight disappeared from my middle.
I shrank away from the scuffle and pulled myself into a ball. Knuckles pummeled flesh. Grunts came from one side and then the other. Finally, on the ground, close to me, there was a pain-filled cry followed by the splintering sound of a tree trunk breaking.
And then nothing.
I bit my lip, and my heartbeat thundered in my ears.
A moment later, heavy footsteps closed in on me, but I was too exhausted to flee. I held my breath, blind eyes squeezed shut.
A masculine voice rumbled my name, sounding something between a reverent prayer for mercy and a painful groan. “Woe,” he repeated.
“Who’s there?” Defenseless, I cringed and moved away. “My name isn’t Woe.”
Even as I said the words, the syllable struck a chord inside. A name that echoed the sound of Hannah’s wail.
“Do not be afraid,” he said.
Yet Humans were unpredictable, and I’d seen what ugly-hearted men do. I flinched as something velvety draped over my skin and blocked out the cold.
“They will not find you.” He whispered the words near my ear as his hands fluttered over me, wiping dust away. He tucked me into
the soft and soothing blanket. Strong arms flexed beneath me and lifted me from the ground. Woodsy smells, earthy―like those of a walk through a nicer part of the park―filled my nostrils.
In his arms, like the first step into flight, I felt weightless.
For a moment, I struggled, but a peculiar sensation stirred in the pit of my stomach, spread warmth through me, and eased the queasiness. The fight in me faded. He shifted me against his rigid chest, his forearms like steel supports beneath me. I had no reason to trust him, and he crushed me to him as though he were afraid I might fly away.
Never again.
I’ll never fly again.
My rescuer said nothing else. The sounds of the city surrounded us. His heartbeat thudded in my ear, a reassuring conversation with my own. The slow thud-thud was as peaceful as his movements were confident.
Two thousand footsteps tapped beneath me. I counted to distract myself from the questions. Finally, he moved forward to prop me in a corner where the cold of old stones supported my back. He banged a large fist against the door, and the sound reverberated throughout the building.
I imagined I could hear the whispering ancients again, but I still couldn’t see my captor-savior.
“Where are we?” I grasped at the empty air. For him. For the warmth of him.
He scooped me back into his arms and laced his fingers between mine to still their nervous fluttering and answered, “You will be safe here. The Priest will care for you.”
“Not here. Don’t leave me here. I don’t want him to see me like this.” A tear slid down my cheek, its wet trail an icy scar in the frigid air. “Please.”
His arms around me, he squeezed my hand. “I will be back for you, my Queen.” Fingertips smoothed down my cheek. “Sleep,” he said and pressed two fingers to my forehead.
I started to protest. He must have me confused with someone else. I wasn’t a queen.
Before I could get the words out, I shivered as a chill swept over me. A sudden tiredness pulled at my eyelids. Flakes of starlight moved across my thoughts.
4
The Priest
Arún
My skin still burned where hers had touched it, and my fingertips were afire. I could barely breathe, awash in a cloud of her. I pounded on the side door again. Though I meant to knock and run, I couldn’t leave a defenseless woman there alone. The priest should be at home, drinking coffee in the old stone church. Sunrise would break over the cityscape soon.
My stomach rolled as I watched her shuddering breath leave her body, and I willed her to take every inhale between. When my sleeping spell wrapped her in comfort, the noose pulled tight around my heart. Already, I caught glimpses of her dreams. The link was forged whether I agreed with it or not. I should have known that Prophecy wouldn’t give me a choice.
The best I could do would be leave her there and never come back. That would be the easiest way to avoid having to return to the Fae Realm, to a job I didn’t want. There were no assurances that the blight could be cured, and the prophecy had only been the whim and dying breath of a thousand-year-old grandmother.
The deadbolt twisted, the handle jiggled, and then Jason was there. He glanced at the figure in my arms, but his face didn’t change. He was tall for a human, but I was bigger.
“Priest,” I said.
“I told you I’m not a priest. I only work here. My office…” He gestured behind him. “Never mind.”
He frowned, drawing himself to his full height and looking me over from head to toe. When his gaze fell on Woe, his eyes widened.
Jason was the balance keeper. As the son of a Realm King, I brought New Haven City into unbalance, a constant source of irritation to him. But I believed there was something more to it. Something to do with Woe. Rude as it might be, I considered delving his emotions to root out his reasons.
I lifted Woe toward him. “Please help her.”
Jason glanced down, and his mouth opened slightly as though he didn’t know what to answer.
He hated me and what I stood for—whatever he thought that was. I could discern that much without crossing the lines of propriety set forth in the Fae Realm.
Woe started to shiver.
“Please. You know how to care for her better than I.”
He scowled. “Why is that?”
“She is a fallen angel.”
He looked at her then. Really looked. His sharp intake of breath came next. “Oh, Ailin. What have you done?” Jason crouched down, trying to get his arms around her. He glanced up at me. “She’s a… she’s a she.”
“Indeed.” With a sharp elbow to his ribs, I shoved him away, stopping his movements. “I will carry her.”
I should be the one to carry her. It is my honor. Though, I said none of it out loud.
He leaned into my hand as if to push it away. “I am capable.”
A sporting challenge. Heat flared in my chest, and I raised an eyebrow. I hadn’t expected that out of him. He didn’t have the rights. If it had been a different day, the priest would be an entertaining aside, a foe worth besting.
If Woe wasn’t in jeopardy.
Her body was losing its hold on her soul. The distance between was growing, and the prospect of losing her set me on edge. That wasn’t an option. I didn’t know how to care for a mortal, and I wasn’t about to take Woe to my realm to meet my parents.
“Indeed, priest.” I drew out the ‘s’.
He took a step back.
“That is why I brought her to you.” I shouldered him out of the way and lifted her against me, her hair flowing over my forearm. “Show me where to lay her.”
He started to argue, but his gaze dropped to her. Her lips turned blue.
“Hurry,” I said. Surely, he understood what was at stake.
He pulled the door open wide and gestured me in. I followed him through the arched entrance and toward a narrow stairwell behind an ornate altar. Jason led us upward. The steps creaked beneath my feet, and I had to travel sideways to keep from bumping Woe on the walls.
At the top, Jason opened a door to the right. A musty smell assailed my nose. Scrolls draped a small table, and a bed waited in the corner. A modest seating area took up another corner with a sink-area along the wall. The one-room apartment was nothing like my high-rise. My hold on her tightened. I could care for her better at my home.
“She will stay here?”
“It’s the only available bed.” He pulled the covers back. “It’s mine.”
I paused, and Woe shifted in my arms. If I took her home, then I would be signing away my future. I relaxed my grip, if only slightly.
I didn’t like the idea of Woe sleeping in Jason’s bed. She shifted and slipped down in my arms. The wounds in her back grazed my forearms. Wetness seeped on my skin. She groaned.
“If you’re worried about propriety,” he said. “I’ll sleep downstairs on the couch in my office. They will have to be happy with that. But,” he gestured to the clean white bed linens, “she needs to be covered.”
His assurances made me feel marginally better, but I didn’t understand what business it was of his leaders that he had a naked woman in his bed. Males liked their females. It was the way of things.
I eased her down on the bed, and Jason moved around me, tucking her in. I straightened and took a step backwards. When she was settled to his satisfaction, he opened a drawer in the bedside table and pressed a button.
“Yeah, padre,” a woman’s voice came over the crackling loud speaker, broadcast throughout the apartment.
“She’s here, Vic,” Jason said.
“Understood. We’ll get moving.” Her voice cut out.
“When will she meet the others?” I didn’t know much about them myself, but I’d met them when I’d come to introduce myself to Jason and explain why I would be remaining in New Haven City.
“When the time is right.” His answer was as cryptic as the man himself. He turned toward me. “When did you find her?”
I crossed to the win
dow to study the sun that shone between two skyscrapers on the horizon. “Perhaps an hour ago. In New Haven City park.”
“Did anyone else find her before you?”
“A man attacked her.” And then I attacked the man.
“What kind of man?” Jason crossed his arms and tugged on his beard.
“Flesh and blood. Son of Adam.” I smirked at him, antagonizing him.
“This isn’t a laughing matter. She could die.”
“That is why I brought her here. By your own words, you have more experience keeping a being such as her alive. Have you been able to save any fallen?”
“No.” The muscles in his cheek worked.
I could take her home. No. Her healing wasn’t my business. She had to make that choice for herself. Even as I thought it, pain squeezed my heart.
I reached for her hand, wanting to feel her skin against mine once more.
“Did you tell her about the prophecy?” Jason asked.
I pulled my hand away. “She was frightened when I found her. I was more worried about getting her here than telling her about the prophecy.”
I didn’t tell him that I’d used the words my queen. They slipped out. Forged bonds frequently mimicked instinct. Fae people were often led by the links they formed.
“Did you put a spell on her? Take away her free will?” His face twists in a sneer. For some reason, he doesn’t like magic. His personal feelings don’t make much difference to me.
I shrugged. “She needed sleep, and she was anxious. That’s the only one.”
He wrinkled his nose and glowered. “I can smell it, lingering over her. I hoped it was smut from the city park.”
Tilting my head, I appraised him anew. That was an interesting twist to the balance-keeping priest. According to his studies of outer worlds, it implied something… other… in Jason’s blood. “A helpful talent in your position. Is that how you knew when I arrived in New Haven City?”
He didn’t answer but went back to tucking the cover around her.
Woe for a Faerie Page 2
