Feathers and Fire Series Box Set 2

by Shayne Silvers

  Nameless was staring at me incredulously, as if stunned that our plan had truly worked – that I had actually survived Round One. The rest of the room was dead silent. My ears almost popped at the sudden silence in comparison to when my mind had been inside the Seal. Nameless grabbed me by the shoulders, shaking me. “What did you learn?” he begged, eyes dancing with eager anticipation.

  I recited the list of names and cities I had been given, not all of them, but enough of them. Kansas City had appeared to be the largest target for the Fallen Angels, but St. Louis and Boston had also been mentioned. Some of the names from Kansas City were vaguely familiar to me, but I didn’t know much about the other cities.

  Nameless’ face turned radiant as he demanded more answers of me, tears streaming down his face as he stared through my eyes, trying to peek inside the Seal. “WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?” He screamed at the Fallen Angels, laughing victoriously.

  I fell back into the Seal of Solomon, bringing his question with me. The Whispers surrounded me again, but I still grunted and gasped as the swarm of Fallen Angels battered my soul around like a punching bag. They hissed at Nameless’ question, howling at me for their promised release.

  But they answered the question.

  “To cripple the Riders, to burn Eden, to swallow mankind!” I repeated their anguished answers, shouting them out into the Church, feeling like a two-way radio, torrents of power washing through me – first one direction, and then another. My voice was a distorted howl as I hovered between worlds.

  “He shall rise!” I screamed, repeating another answer from one of the Fallen. My heartbeat skipped haphazardly for a few moments as I received a mental image of a humanoid figure on a black throne, roaring with his own triumph that seemed to mirror Nameless’ in the church.

  I knew that figure. I’d seen him before. When I had killed Johnathan, and then again when I killed Amira. But… who was he?

  Nameless laughed a challenge, and I forced myself to slip back out of the Seal before there was nothing left of me. I pulled the Whispers back out with me and they immediately fled from my mind. The ring on my finger seeming to buzz as the Fallen Angels within realized I had taken away their chew toys. I ignored them. “And I will defeat him singlehandedly!” Nameless roared, eyes clouded with anticipation as he imagined the battle. “I shall be the most loved of all the Angels!”

  The Seal of Solomon was a writhing fire of subarctic ice on my finger, slicing, burning, and grinding against my flesh until I was sure the very bone would freeze solid and my finger would fall off, a blackened, frostbitten digit.

  I gritted my teeth, grunting as I withstood the torrents of power warring to break free from the Seal of Solomon.

  Demanding I follow through with my promises to them.

  I flicked my eyes about the church, locking gazes with each and every person, waiting…

  Until each face was twisted with terror and despair.

  Then I took a deep, shuddering breath, and managed a shaky smile as I attempted to send a message into the Seal of Solomon, rather than jumping back inside myself.

  I was relieved that it worked.

  It is almost time, I told the screaming, Fallen Angels. I must neutralize your foes, first… They screamed in exultation.

  With supreme effort – hoping I was strong enough to survive it - I drew deeply from the Seal of Solomon on my finger, attempting to harness the arctic frost of the physical ring itself.

  If I was the blood of King Solomon – as it so seemed – it should obey me.

  Not just the beings inside, but the ring itself.

  Scalding fire bloomed behind my eyes, and I heard gasps of disbelief in the church, and I felt more tears cascading down my cheeks at the sheer agony. I glanced up at some unknown instinct, and saw a silhouette watching me from the rafters of the church. I saw wings tucked neatly against the back of a large, four-legged feline, tail twitching absently. Glowing purple human eyes assessed me and gave me a very approving nod.

  Phix. And a door creaked open in my mind, revealing sunshine and fields of flowers on the other side. I gasped as a memory slammed into me, making me blink hurriedly.

  Yes. I remembered!

  I immediately focused on the two Angels before me.

  Nameless cackled, head thrown back, relishing in his victory over darkness.

  I glanced at Eae to find his own eyes darkening, glaring at the Seal of Solomon on my finger.

  Nameless’ wings stretched wider as he lifted his arms up to Heaven, weeping. And like he had shrugged off a constraint, energy suddenly crackled around him, buzzing against me as if I stood before a live electric fence. He spun in slow circles, not seeing me, not seeing anyone as raw power washed over the church. He kept his hands out as he laughed, either unaware or relishing in it.

  His eyes were storm clouds of power, lightning flashing in their depths as they grew darker – more violent – less restrained. Like he had turned his Angel volume knob up to eleven.

  I noticed Eae’s fists beginning to pulse, and the chains holding him began to rattle all on their own, steaming and vibrating against his skin. Still, he stared at my ring, his own eyes growing darker with fury, flashing with inner lightning. The Nephilim held fast, but their boots were sliding against the floor, as if magnetically repelled by Eae’s loosening of power.

  Between the two Angels and the Seal of Solomon on my finger, I panted, grinding my boots into the floor to maintain my footing as pews, detritus, and other trash began to whip about the church, swept up by the storm of power raging within.

  There was quite literally an overabundance of epic shit going on.

  The floorboards began to rattle in protest, walls cracked, and pews splintered into puffs of kindling like dandelions – the sound swallowed up by the piercing gong of the two Angels suddenly roaring like eternal horns of war.

  The Seal of Solomon grew colder against my flesh, if that was possible, the beings inside furious at my delay in fulfilling my promise – and manic that I may have done something to change the ring itself, although they didn’t seem to know what. Even though I wasn’t inside the ring, they were affecting me, wearing me down. Just like I was somehow affecting them from outside the ring with whatever that bloom of pain behind my eyes had been.

  Or it was a combination of everything.

  Still, I waited, persevering through the agony with occasional grunts and hisses.

  I blinked through watery eyes, assessing the rest of the church.

  Olin and Beckett stared at me in awe as their hair whipped back and forth in the raging storm shredding through my church.

  Rai stood before the two Templars, eyes squeezed shut, praying under her breath as she rocked back and forth in the chaos. I sensed movement behind them but disregarded it as I turned to Eae. His eyes were crackling with white lightning.

  I turned to Nameless.

  Between one moment and the next, his eyes shifted from leaden gray to black.

  And my Darling and Dear boots – one pointed at Eae, and the other at Nameless – suddenly began pinching my toes like a son of a bitch.

  The one pointing at Nameless.

  Now, I told myself.

  Chapter 57

  I spun to the Templars, locking eyes with Olin and then Beckett. They recoiled at whatever look they saw on my face, but I didn’t take it personally.

  “Even Angels can Fall…” I shouted at the top of my lungs over the rampaging storm. “And even monsters can rise,” I yelled louder.

  Beckett nodded very slowly, possibly not even aware he had done it.

  But Olin’s face transformed into a snarl of outrage – that I would have the nerve to speak against an Angel about to vanquish evil once and for all. Then he seemed to notice Beckett’s lack of support. Olin rounded on Beckett, flinging Rai to the ground as he redirected his rage at the source of the betrayal.

  “How dare you!” he shouted at his acolyte, sensing Beckett’s apparent weakened resolve. “You want to side with th
e monsters over this? After what they did to your wife? Let me show you what it’s like to be a monster!” he shouted. And he raised a werewolf claw over his head.

  Which was the exact moment a nightmare flew out from behind a pile of pews – a wall of white fur and inches-long black claws, with teeth as long as my fingers. I couldn’t hear her roar, but to abruptly see a greater than ten-foot-tall polar bear with built-in human slicers on her paws suddenly appear out of nowhere, Olin and Beckett both froze for a fraction of a second.

  Beckett drew his gun and unloaded it on Claire when it became clear he was her target.

  Then Clairebear slammed into Beckett, ignoring the bullets as she sliced into his stomach in a spray of crimson blood before the force of her mass tore him clear of Olin – right before the werewolf’s claws slashed through now-empty air. The two smashed through another pile of debris and didn’t get up, Claire draped over Beckett, blood staining her fur.

  Claire had disobeyed me, too, showing up in time to kill Beckett.

  My cheeks felt cold from all the wind as Olin howled in defeat, partially shifted, now. Then he fled, forgetting all about Rai who was sobbing on the floor, curled up in a tight ball.

  Stop swatting insects and release us! One of the Fallen Angels bellowed, somehow speaking to me from within the Seal of Solomon, the pulse of raw power making me see stars.

  I nodded stiffly. I’m trying! You’re not strong enough to stand against him as you are, now. I must weaken him!

  They railed against the prison in protest, and I felt a part of me being tugged back in. As if whatever I had done to the ring had made our connection a two-way street, not me subjugating it completely.

  We are Legion! One Brother is nothing!

  But we didn’t have just one Angel to worry about. We had two.

  Only seconds had passed since Nameless’ eyes had blackened and my boots had pinched.

  The time to truly open up the Seal of Solomon was now. I couldn’t maintain my tentative hold much longer or else I would be consumed.

  I gasped as one of the imprisoned Fallen Angels suddenly growled in a voice I hadn’t ever heard from the others.

  Your games take too long.

  I don’t know how I knew, but I was certain it was the Silent Emo Angel. Even though he wasn’t a physical entity, he suddenly raked at my soul with fiery bone claws, breaking his talons and snapping his finger bones as he threw every fiber of his being into the attack on the Seal of Solomon, and by default, on me.

  He had seen through my ploy.

  I called upon my Silvers with the greatest need I could imagine, relinquishing some of my control on the Seal of Solomon, knowing I couldn’t do this alone, yet until only moments ago, having been unsure I had any allies. Who the enemy truly was.

  Or if I instead had multiple enemies.

  Eae now shone before me like a golden beacon, illuminated in his own sunbeam – pointedly not Fallen.

  The Emo Angel continued to tear at my mind in the prison, roaring.

  Nameless still did his Unholy twirl thing.

  My Silver blade of power struck the chains strapped over Eae, shattering them like glass. Fragments of molten metal designed to restrain an Angel struck the Nephilim, burning their faces or cracking bones. They screamed as Eae slammed into them, bowling them out of the way like dolls, sending them flying into the depths of the church as he roared like a lion of God.

  I reached out and grabbed Nameless’ wings since he had his back turned to me. He spun instinctively, lashing out with his hands to knock me clear. Except they were no longer hands.

  His claws slashed across the back of my hands, flashing with fire and a metallic scraping sound where he had made contact, spilling my blood onto the floor.

  He stared down at his long black claws in confusion. They were spattered with silver droplets.

  Not caring about my sliced hands, I stared down in horror at the Seal of Solomon. A charred line bisected the symbol emblazoned atop the signet ring, breaking the protective ward.

  Mr. Emo Angel had used the fragment of time before I could react to break free of his prison.

  A black fog zipped up into the air, out of my reach as I frantically rubbed my bloody thumb over the scored line on the protective symbol, hoping that Nameless’ claw hadn’t damaged the actual metal too greatly. I glanced down at it and let out a stunted breath of relief. Nameless’ claw had only scratched and charred it, not destroyed it entirely. It was still intact but had been momentarily broken enough to let out the once-silent Emo Angel. Nameless hadn’t been strong enough to permanently damage the seal, only to score a charred line across it.

  Essentially, a Fallen Angel had helped another Fallen Angel bust out of Fort Solomon.

  And the exhausted Warden Callie Penrose only had time to nail the door back into place – by rubbing off the sooty line – before the rest could escape. The Fallen Angels still trapped within screamed as they rushed toward the weakness in their prison.

  I panted in relief when they slammed instead into the prison wall, not breaking free.

  But I knew my original plan had officially gone to shit. I had discovered which of the Angels was trustworthy but had accidentally given the bad one an ally.

  And I was too exhausted – too unfamiliar with this strange ability of mine – to do anything about the escaped Angel, the black fog.

  I knew that as much power as the Seal of Solomon wielded, I was also the weakest link. To use it, I had to wear it. But if I didn’t wear it, it was just an impenetrable prison again. As long as that symbol was intact.

  I made my decision and yanked it off my finger, panting. The sensation of Fallen Angels railing against my mind abruptly ceased, and the silence in the church felt suddenly oppressive in comparison. I let out a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived as I glanced up to see the black cloud hovering above me.

  It regarded Nameless standing frozen beside me. Eae was halfway to us, as if running, but stuck in mid-stride. I quickly realized that no one around me moved. Only the fog and me.

  The fog chuckled, seeming to inspect his new Brother, Nameless. “You allowed an Angel to Fall, daughter of Solomon. But do you dare try to put the cursed ring back on after he almost broke it?” He drifted back and forth for a moment, as if pacing, or stretching.

  An unbidden thought, as clear as a struck bell, bubbled out of my mouth, making me shiver.

  “Samael…” I whispered, not knowing how I knew, or where it had come from. But I did know he was powerful. A Fallen Archangel.

  He froze for a moment before he began to roil in a slow, circling cloud. “I am He…”

  “What… will you do, now?” I whispered, my mind racing. I had done this. Holy Hell.

  I’d been so close to trapping Nameless into the ring, locking away his selfish pride into the Seal of Solomon. But I had been too weak to hold him, and as he had recoiled, I’d let him damage the ring – the prison.

  I had known it was the only way to take an Angel out. I couldn’t kill an Angel without risking Armageddon. The only option left to me had been to deceive everyone, to try and find out if Nameless or Eae was corrupt – which of the two was beyond salvation – and then trap that Angel where he could no longer hurt anyone.

  Inside the Seal of Solomon, that they had both coveted.

  Instead I had driven us into a cozy, quaint little town by the name of FUBAR – or Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition, as the locals lovingly called it.

  “You impressed me,” Samael murmured. “To meet one with such adept skills at deceit, and then witness them using that gift against the Princes of deceit…” he truly did sound amazed. “Perhaps we will cross paths again one day, in the dried husk that will be the Garden of Eden… I thought I was the deceiver, but it seems you’ve bitten from the Apple itself. Eve would be proud…” Then he drifted away, off into the night through a crack in the window high above.

  My eyes were blurry with tears, horrified at my failure. I wiped them away, shaking my h
ead, wondering if I had just doomed us all.

  Chapter 58

  Everything whipped back to normal speed, and Nameless was still roaring in outrage that his hands were now claws. Eae was suddenly beside me, staring up at the window in horror.

  He had noticed Samael, too.

  Nameless finally spun to see us, face contorted with a wild darkness of despair. Without thinking, I reached out and grabbed him by the face. His flesh instantly sizzled beneath my touch, and I was startled to realize that my hands were coated in liquid silver, dripping off to splash onto the ground and run down my hands and forearms.

  I gritted my teeth as Nameless screamed in defiance, his black eyes dancing with agony, shame, fury – a truly diverse cascade of emotions, refusing to accept what he had become.

  A Fallen Angel.

  And he currently couldn’t move – as if my touch had frozen him.

  “LOCK HIM AWAY IN THE RING! HE’S FALLEN!!” Eae screamed beside me, his wings tucked around his body like armor. “I’ll hold him while you put it back on!” he shouted in alarm as soon as he realized the Seal of Solomon lay at my feet where I had dropped it at one point.

  Eae tried to grab onto Nameless in a bear hug and was promptly thrown across the length of the church by an unseen force, striking the opposite wall about a dozen feet off the ground.

  I stepped down on the ring, keeping it under my boot as I gripped Nameless, staring into his black eyes as my own blazed with white fire to battle those depths. Bolts of black lightning slammed into my hands, trying to knock them free. But even as exhausted as I was, I barely felt them. I was on the verge of passing out, yet the strikes of black lightning struck no harder than someone tapping me on the shoulder with a forceful finger.

  I didn’t dare try to put the ring back on as I would have had to release my grip on Nameless to do so. I knew without a doubt that I couldn’t hold back the imprisoned Fallen Angels in my current state. I was too weakened from my ordeal. They would overwhelm me and possibly all break free, not even counting that the ring was potentially damaged and might not be able to withstand their combined offensive.