by Hanna Peach
“I expected guards out here,” she said.
Passar shook his head. “Michael didn’t make your capture public. Only Varian’s flock, the warriors who captured Israel, know. They were put under an oath of secrecy. I had to knock Quade out so I could pretend to take his place. Putting guards out in front of the Hollows would have caused any passing Seraphim to ask too many questions.”
As Passar led them into the thick of the unforgiving forest, Alyx’s thoughts turned to Jordan. What happened to him? What did he do when she didn’t show up?
Alyx stopped. The girl, eyes darting around the forest, huddled close to Alyx. “I won’t be a moment, little one,” she said as she closed her eyes and sent out a DreamCall to Jordan. Hopefully he heard it.
“Why are you stopping?” Passar hissed at her from up ahead. “We can’t afford to stop.”
“Passar, I have to find my friend, Jordan. He−”
“Alyx, you should know better than to trust Rogues. I have friends waiting on the outside of the wards. They’ll take us to safety.”
Alyx continued forward, still holding the girl’s hand; her mind, tumbling fragments of thoughts.
You should know better than to trust Rogues. How did Passar know that Jordan was a Rogue? She didn’t remember telling him. If Passar’s friends outside the wards weren’t other Rogues, then who were they?
Something else didn’t make sense.
Passar had said that Varian’s flock were the only ones who knew about Israel’s capture. So how did Passar find out? The only others who were there for Israel’s capture were the Darkened.
The pieces clicked together.
“…the sparrow is on our side,” she had heard the Darkened say. It hadn’t made sense then but it made sense now. The Darkened hadn’t been talking about a bird, they had been talking about a person. A person they called the sparrow.
In the original language, Passar meant sparrow.
Chapter 44
Passar was the traitor.
Passar had the other magical pick to be able to break into Michael’s chambers to steal the Amulet piece. Alyx had told Passar where the warehouse was and the demons had been waiting when she had returned. Passar knew that Israel had been captured because the Darkened told him. Why hadn’t she put these things together sooner?
Because it just couldn’t be true.
“Israel, stop,” she cried, her head spinning.
Israel turned on the spot. “What’s wrong?”
Passar stopped as well. “What the hell, Alyx? We’ll have half the guards after us soon.”
Alyx rushed forward and pulled Israel behind her with her other hand, the girl squirming at her other. “It was you, wasn’t it?” she said to Passar.
Passar stared at her as if she had grown two heads. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
“You stole the Amulet piece and let them think it was me. You told the Darkened about Black Stone.”
Passar looked horrified. “How can you think−”
“Stop pretending, Passar. Or should I call you...the sparrow. That’s what the Darkened call you, isn’t it?”
Passar’s face melted into a cold mask. He pulled his soris from its sheath. “You are too smart for your own good sometimes.”
She felt a chill wrap around the base of her spine. Until now there had been a part of her that had thought, had hoped, that she was wrong. “Just tell me why.”
“Why? You ask me why?” Passar’s face twisted, hatred etching its mark across his face. “We have spent our lives fighting for the Elders, dying for them. Elijah...I loved him and he loved me.”
Love.
He continued, “But the Elders, they just keep pushing us out there. They keep sending us out over and over again. They don’t care whether we die or not, just that we keep them safe. Didn’t you ever wonder why we only patrole the mortal cities closest to Michaelea? The Elders don’t care about keeping the mortals safe, they just want us to keep the Darkened away from them.”
The lines on his face softened for a moment before hardening again. “Elijah died because of this war. This stupid war. They refused to let me be Entwined, refused to give me any other life than this warrior’s life. My bloodline was too diluted, they said. I wasn’t gifted, they said. A warrior’s life is not a life, it’s a death sentence. The Elders dealt me a death sentence.”
“So you sold your soul to the devil?”
“At least the devil cuts a fair deal.”
Alyx couldn’t believe what she was hearing from her friend since youngling. And how had she missed the signs? Passar and Elijah…in love.
“You know the worst part?” he continued. “Demons don’t die. No, no. When their mortal host bodies are killed, the demon gets sucked right back into Hell. They brush themselves off and come right back to Earth in another human host. But the Elders won’t tell you that.”
“No.”
“It’s true. One night out on patrole I fought a Darkened. He let slip something strange about how he wasn’t going to let me kill him again. I forced the truth out of him.” Passar nodded at Alyx. “Samyara has a plan for a new Earth, for peace. Once the Elders and Lucifer are out of the way there will be no more need for this war. You should join us. Look at how the Elders have turned on you.”
“I will never join the Darkened,” Alyx said. “You’re kidding yourself if you think they want peace.”
Passar pointed his sword at Israel. “I’ve only been sent to get him. Don’t get in my way. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”
“If you want him you have to go through me. Israel, take her.”
Israel grabbed the girl and she started to struggle. Alyx pulled out Jerome’s soris as Passar fell upon her. Their swords clashed, ringing out across the forest. Alyx swiped at Passar and missed. He kicked her and she went flying back, hitting hard against a trunk.
The girl started screaming, Israel trying to calm her down.
“Israel,” Alyx yelled as Passar and she continued to collide. “Get her out of here. I’ll be right behind you.”
Israel started to drag the girl through the trees.
“Oh no you don’t,” said Passar, pushing Alyx away from him.
He pulled a small object from his pocket. A spike, hooked and smooth like the claw of a beast. A demon-claw.
“Israel, look out!” Alyx yelled.
Passar threw it at Israel and it embedded in his back. Israel stumbled, fell, then collapsed into stillness on the ground. The girl shrieked and huddled into a ball, hands over her ears as she rocked back and forth on her heels.
“What have you done?” Alyx cried.
“Calm down. He’s not dead. It’s just Cerberus venom. Too bad I don’t have another one for you.”
Alyx threw herself at Passar once more, their weapons meeting again. But for some reason her blade kept missing him. He had a chance to kill her too but he didn’t take it.
“You can’t kill me. You can’t even stand to hurt me,” Passar said. “Please, just give up.” He was right. She couldn’t kill him, couldn’t even bring herself to hurt him. But she knew he couldn’t kill her either.
She had to do something. Otherwise they would stay at an impasse until either the Darkened or the lightwarriors found them. Alyx whirled and twisted around his body, deflecting his sword with hers. She kicked at his body with her right leg, sending him stumbling. Inside her the whispers from her bloodink were getting louder. Use me.
Alyx faced out her left palm to him. DreamWalker magic pulsed from her. It hit Passar square in the chest.
“No,” Passar growled. He started to droop in the air, sinking to the ground. But he raised his shields against the magic and remained standing. Alyx could see the soft purple glow now flooding around him like water around a rock.
She glanced down at her DreamWalker mark. Two thirds left and draining. Keeping her DreamWalker aimed at him, Alyx sheathed her sword and pulled FireTwirler into her right palm. But Passar could see the swirl o
f scarlet flame in her hand. He drew his own bloodink, azure blue, into his palm. She threw Fire at him. He aimed his Water and doused her Fire before it could burn away his shield.
She tried again and again as she darted around him. Again and again he countered her Fire with Water. The air between them soon sizzled with evaporating mist.
One quarter of her DreamWalker bloodink left. She needed to try something else.
Alyx turned her body to her side, her palm pulsing DreamWalker at Passar, her right hand behind her so he couldn’t see it. She drew EarthSifter from her skin into her other hand, cupping it carefully so as not to let the magic sift through her fingers. She threw her back arm forward and slammed the mossy ball of Earth magic to the ground at Passar’s feet.
The earth trembled. Passar cried out as the ground gave way under him. He threw out his hands to break his fall. It was enough to break his concentration. His shield collapsed. The DreamWalker magic flowed into him again. He groaned and his eyelids flickered, then he collapsed to the ground.
Alyx flew to where Israel was lying motionless. Thank heavens he was still breathing. With some difficulty she heaved his body into her arms, then over her shoulder. She then scooped up the quivering girl by the waist with her other arm. The girl cried out and struggled as Alyx lifted her into the air.
“I’m sorry to do this to you,” Alyx said. She thrummed DreamWalker into the girl, causing her to fall limp in her arms. One sliver of DreamWalker left. She looked back at Passar’s sleeping body. “Goodbye, old friend.”
There was the sound of swift movement behind her. The other lightwarriors had been alerted to her escape. Alyx sped forward through the air as fast as she could, but the extra weight was slowing her down. It made it harder to dodge the branches and trees that seemed to come out at her, flicking at her face and arms. She could hear Yael’s voice calling after her, taunting her. She pressed on.
A branch snapped in her path and she jolted back in the air. The Darkened? The bushes parted.
“Alyx.” It was Jordan. With him were Lukas and another Rogue that Alyx didn’t recognize. She almost cried with relief.
“Jesus, Alyx, what did they do to you?” Jordan cried at the sight of her, still covered in her own dried blood.
“I’m fine,” she said. “The lightwarriors, they aren’t far behind.”
“There’s a group of Darkened not two hundred meters from here,” said Jordan, nodding to the right. “We should go around them. Who is she?”
“Move now, talk later.”
Jordan nodded towards Israel. “Lukas, take him.”
Alyx felt more than Israel’s weight lifting off her shoulders as Lukas took Israel from her. She shifted the girl in her arms.
“I−” Alyx didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence.
A blur flew towards them through the trees. Something pierced her shoulder. The pain caused her to groan.
It was an arrow. A Seraphim arrow.
Alyx held the girl out to Jordan. “Take her too. Take them both somewhere safe. I’ll hold back these guys for as long as I can.”
“We,” Jordan said, drawing his sword. “We’ll hold them back. Lukas, take the girl as well. We’ll meet you at Tara. Go.”
Lukas eased the limp girl out of Alyx’s arms. Hands free, Alyx pulled the arrow out from her shoulder and threw it to the ground. The wound started to close. Lukas took to the air with Israel and the girl slung across either shoulder. Alyx drew her blade as she watched them go. The other Rogue drew his blade, too.
“You didn’t have to stay,” she said, meeting Jordan’s gaze.
Jordan’s lip tilted into a half-smile. “Here they come. Keep it tight.”
Chapter 45
Alyx, Jordan and the other Rogue stood close together in a semi-circle as they faced the oncoming band of lightwarriors breaking through the bush. Yael and Stantanople zeroed in on Alyx. The others split between Jordan and the other Rogue.
Swords clashed.
“You’re not getting away this time,” said Yael, hacking at her with his soris. Alyx said nothing. She kept her eyes focused on the moving blades. There was a stampede of movement through the bushes coming towards them from the other side.
Yael’s eyes widened. “The Darkened. How dare you reveal our city’s location to them.”
His sword impacted so hard against hers that her teeth clattered.
“Yael, listen. I’m not on their side,” Alyx pleaded between the clashing of swords. “Passar directed the Darkened here. He only rescued us so he could hand us over to them. We have to work together if we are to fight the Darkened off.”
“You’re trying to trick us,” Stantanople said as he lashed out at Alyx. She flinched as the tip of his sword caught her stomach.
“I’m not. I swear to you.”
The noise of the Darkened approaching grew closer still. Alyx glanced to her left. Jordan and the other Rogue were also fighting two warriors each. Alyx and her friends were already outnumbered. They wouldn’t survive the Darkened joining the fight against them.
The Darkened burst through the undergrowth. They paused for a moment, looking confused as they saw that the Seraphim were fighting each other. The other Rogue cried out, falling as a blade pierced his side.
Alyx made her decision. “The sparrow has the mortal,” she yelled at the Darkened. “We’re with the sparrow. Help us defeat these lightwarriors.”
“Traitor!” Yael cried.
His soris cut deep into her arm. Alyx hissed at the pain. The Darkened swarmed into the fight. Their demonswords, black blades flashing, clashed with the lightwarriors’ steel.
Alyx slipped away from Yael and Stantanople as they were surrounded by the Darkened. She flew over to Jordan, who was pressing his hands over the Rogue’s wound. It had started to close but he was still losing a lot of blood. His face was screwed up with pain.
“We have to get out of here before the Darkened realize I’ve tricked them,” she said.
Jordan nodded. “Hang on, Marin. I’m going to put you under, for the pain.”
Jordan pulsed DreamWalker into his friend and the Rogue named Marin fell limp. Jordan scooped Marin up in his arms.
While the forest was raging with metal on metal and singing with the cries of the fallen, Alyx and Jordan slipped quietly into the forest.
“You don’t look very happy,” Jordan said to Alyx as they sped towards Tara.
“I have just given the Seraphim irrefutable proof of my alliance with the Darkened. I have no hope of ever going back or of ever clearing my name.”
“Would you want to go back?”
She shrugged.
“Being a FreeThinker isn’t so bad. There’s more out here for you than you think.”
She remained silent.
“That was actually kinda smart, what you did,” he said. “And brave.”
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Chapter 46
Since Elijah was taken from him, Passar had oscillated between consuming rage and crushing sorrow. Sleep had been his only reprieve. Tonight as he was shoved into this sitting room by the Darkened servant named Alzeke, he felt the first new emotion in weeks. Fear.
Samyara was reclining along a black chaise smoking a cigarette and staring up at the ceiling. His cinnamon skin was set off by the ivory suit and pale blue shirt that he wore. He flicked ash into a crystal ashtray on a mahogany side table inlaid with diamond-shaped patterns in mother of pearl. The table matched the walls, also mahogany. A bookcase that took up a whole wall was full of books that had never been opened, thick spines still uncreased. “Spring” by Vivaldi was playing in the background, the sound drifting down from strategically-placed speakers that had been installed into the ceiling.
Alzeke left, closing the door behind him. Passar was left alone with Samyara. Unlike Purgatory where Passar was under the protection of the enchantment, here he had none. But he had no other choice than to come here.
Samyara had still not t
aken his gaze away from the ceiling. He took a long draw of his cigarette then blew one, two, three smoke rings into the air. Finally he turned his head to look at Passar. Samyara waved an arm out across the room. “What’s missing in this picture?”
“It wasn’t my fault. Your Darkened let them get away, too.”
“Only because of your mistake. You have disappointed me.”
“I risked my life for you. I gave up my home, my−”
“No,” Samyara growled. He stabbed the cigarette out in the ashtray. In a single bound he was in Passar’s face. “You did that for you.”
Passar swallowed.
“You should have just killed her.”
Passar’s blood turned icy as it drained from his face. “You promised she wouldn’t be hurt.”
“No. I promised that I wouldn’t hurt her.”
“Hurting innocents wasn’t part of the deal.”
“Did you really think that you can start a revolution without making sacrifices?” Samyara’s lip curled. “Isn’t the life of a few worth the greater good?”
Passar stumbled back in horror. “This isn’t… This…”
“Don’t you want Elijah back? Weren’t you telling me how you’d do anything to get him back? Isn’t this true anymore? Don’t you love him anymore?”
“No. I still love him − more than anything.”
“Then you’ll do what you have to.”
Passar remembered the look of pain in Alyx’s face when she was forced to defend herself against him. Her blade didn’t once cut his skin, even though she could have killed him several times while they fought. “She was my friend.”
“Your friend. Your friend?” His voice grew louder. “She’s the Guardian. You won’t get to him unless you get rid of her. Next time you don’t hesitate. Just do what you have to.”
“But I...” Passar’s shoulders slumped. He what?
