Dark Angel Box Set

by Hanna Peach

Israel nodded.

  Jordan flexed one palm out to Israel and a pulse of DreamWalker came at him. He could see the shift in the air as it traveled towards him, but more importantly he could feel it. Israel yanked at his self on the inside, tried to puff it out like a shield as he had been instructed. He felt it draping out like empty sails against an anorexic wind. It won’t work.

  It didn’t. Israel felt the pulse of DreamWalker hit him square in the stomach. He felt his lids start to close as Jordan tilted in his vision. Israel tried to fight against the sleep, he tried to concentrate solely on remaining awake, but it was all too much. The imbalance of the rough rock under his feet caused his concentration to slip. He began to tip. His legs buckled under him.

  The cold water shocked his body back to consciousness. Israel drew in a large audible breath of air as he pushed his head out of the water. He grunted as he pulled himself up onto the bank. Standing up, he shook himself and droplets fell off him like rain.

  “Oh dear. You’re all wet.” Israel could tell that Jordan was trying not to laugh.

  “Think that’s funny, huh?”

  “One of us, at least, should be having fun.”

  Israel saw red and a rush of blood filled his head. Fun? He would have fun with his fist against Jordan’s face.

  Israel leapt out towards Jordan, arms outstretched, to tackle him to the ground. Before Israel could reach him, Jordan soared up out of reach. Israel’s arms closed around nothing and he landed on the ground with an ungraceful thump.

  “Really? Is that necessary?” Jordan asked, his voice infuriatingly placid.

  Israel rolled to his back and sucked the air back into his chest. He needed a second. Just a second. He would get up when the sky stopped spinning.

  “Did you stop to think,” Jordan continued, “that I may be deliberately goading you?”

  “’Cause you’re a bastard like that?” wheezed Israel.

  “Because you need to learn how to control your temper. The littlest thing seems to set you off. And that doesn’t bode well for your ability to prevent mind magics from affecting you.”

  “Whatever, Rogue. Admit it, you’re enjoying this.”

  Jordan floated down to land near Israel’s feet. From this distance Israel could see that Jordan’s lips were pressing into a thin line.

  “Listen up and listen carefully. I am helping you for Alyx just as much as for you. She will put herself on the line for you because she is your Guardian and because that is who she is. I don’t want to see her get hurt. And, under all this bravado you seem to be so intent on displaying around me, I believe that you also don’t want to see Alyx hurt either. You need all the training you can get to make sure that you can at least help in your own defense. So, when you’re quite finished messing around in this one-sided pissing contest, I’ll be waiting to help you train again.” With that, Jordan turned and began to float away.

  Israel closed his eyes as Jordan’s words sank in. If Alyx was hurt, or worse, because of him...he would never forgive himself.

  “Wait,” he called out. Israel opened his eyes and pulled himself up to a sitting position. Jordan had stopped floating away and was watching him over his shoulder. “I want to train. I’ll take whatever you dish out, just...help me train.”

  “There’s something blocking your shield,” Jordan said. “You almost had it, I could see it growing around you, so it seems that it is possible for you to block against DreamWalker, but...something was stopping it.” Jordan tilted his head. “What do you think that is?”

  Israel shrugged and tried to keep his voice from being too sarcastic. “I don’t know. Aren’t you supposed to tell me?”

  Jordan lifted an eyebrow. “Get back on the rock. Try again.”

  Israel thought about protesting but instead he clamped his lips together and did what he was told.

  The rock was slippery this time, having been splashed with water after his dip into the creek. Israel gripped the stone as hard as he could with his toes.

  “I’m going to send a smaller pulse this time. It should just be enough to make you drowsy. I just want to see your shield again.”

  “I’m ready.”

  Jordan faced his palm out at Israel. Again Israel pulled from within him, his lips pressed in a gritty determination. He had to do this. He had to do this to prove himself. To prove himself to her.

  His shield spilled from him, but again it collapsed without substance. The DreamWalker pulse drew into his body.

  “Dammit,” Israel growled as the energy began to slip from his limbs. True to Jordan’s word, this time the pulse wasn’t enough to cause him to fall asleep and slip off the rock.

  “Interesting,” Israel heard Jordan say.

  There was that damned word again. It was enough to wake him up a little more.

  “What’s so damned interesting?”

  “I have a theory about why your shield isn’t working.”

  “Enlighten me.” Israel tried not to snap.

  Jordan laughed. “Even half asleep you manage to find the energy to be angry.”

  Israel heard a low growl then realized it was coming from his own throat. He forced himself to take a deep breath. Through gritted teeth he said, “Please, oh great teacher of mine, tell me why you think my shield isn’t working.”

  “Your shield isn’t working, my dove, because there is a part of you that doesn’t want to be saved.”

  * * *

  Later, when Israel and Jordan returned to Tara, Israel was huffing with frustration and grumbling under his breath. They had repeated the exercise countless more times after that, but he had still not managed to pull up his shield. In fact, his ability seemed to have gotten worse.

  A part of him that didn’t want to be saved? What the hell did that mean?

  Jordan pushed open the front door of the Tara farmhouse.

  “Jordan,” Israel heard Alyx call from the living room. He may have gotten angry that she had called Jordan’s name out and not his. But the fear that he could hear in her voice overruled it. Israel’s muscles tensed as he sprang forward through the house as fast as his aching body could go. He hated hearing fear in her voice. It scared him. Alyx was always so strong, so fearless – his warrior angel. Whatever could have scared her?

  “What’s wrong?” Israel and Jordan both spoke at once as they ran into the living room. Israel glared briefly at Jordan before turning his attention back to Alyx.

  Alyx was standing next to Marin, who had just returned from Aradale. Alyx’s hair looked even more tousled than usual. Israel knew this meant that she had been running her hands through her hair. Her face was pale and stricken. What was going on?

  Marin’s face also looked distressed, his eyes rimmed with red. At the sight of Israel, his eyes widened, then his nostrils flared wide.

  “You,” Marin pointed at Israel with a single finger that seemed to shake with rage. “This is all your fault,” he yelled. He advanced, his clawed hands aiming for Israel’s throat.

  Israel jumped back with his fists at the ready just as Alyx grabbed at Marin’s hands. “Stop it, Marin. It isn’t his fault.”

  “Marin, stand down,” Jordan said as he stepped forward to block Marin’s path to Israel. “What the hell is going on?”

  “That godforsaken mortal is going to be the death of us all.” Marin yanked his hands from Alyx’s grip and glared at Israel.

  “Marin, this is a tense time for all of us,” said Jordan, placing his hands on Marin’s shoulders. “But I need you to keep your head about you, otherwise you are no good to me. Go for a flight until you calm down. If this mortal really is to blame for something, then I shall make sure that he is detained and tried. But we will not have any trials by fists. We are not like them.” Jordan’s voice remained firm but without evidence of aggression, despite the tension and heat in the room.

  Israel felt a little bit of respect growing for this Rogue; he could keep his cool. Jealousy bit him when he realized that Alyx was looking at Jordan with th
e same air of respect. Israel involuntarily clenched his fists. He forced himself to look away from Alyx and back to Marin. Marin’s jaw was working back and forth and he hadn’t taken his eyes away from Israel. But at least, Israel noticed, his breathing had become steadier.

  “Fine,” Marin said. “But you make sure that mortal doesn’t go anywhere.”

  “I will,” Jordan said.

  Marin stormed out of the farmhouse, glaring at Israel as he left. The door slammed behind him, making the whole house reverberate. The tension seemed to have been sucked out of the air.

  Alyx’s shoulders slumped and she collapsed into the closest chair. Israel leapt forward, his legs protesting. He slammed his knees into the floor as he fell to her side. She wouldn’t look at him. What had happened? What had he done?

  Israel reached out instinctively to put his hand over hers. His heart dropped when she didn’t move to clasp his fingers.

  “What happened, Alyx?” asked Jordan, who crouched at Alyx’s other side.

  There was a moment before Alyx spoke. “They found a body. A FreeThinker...”

  Israel remembered that “FreeThinker” was what the Rogues called themselves.

  “Her name was Zia,” Alyx continued. “Marin said that you knew her. I’m so sorry, Jordan.” Her voice sounded hollow, heavy with responsibility.

  “Go on,” Jordan said, his voice still eerily calm. “What has this to do with Israel?”

  “Her body was left out in Remembrance Park in Saint Joseph…” Alyx’s voice broke. Israel’s stomach dropped. He was beginning to see where this was going. “It was the Darkened. They killed her and then they carved Israel’s name across her stomach.”

  A message. For him. Like the one he had left Adere. Oh God. They were using the Seraphim to get to him.

  “This is my fault.” The words dropped, hollow and wooden, from Israel’s lips.

  “No,” Jordan said. “This isn’t your fault. It’s Samyara’s. You didn’t kill Zia. They did.”

  “Jordan is right,” Alyx said softly.

  “But I need to stop them,” Israel said, feeling the guilt weighing down his shoulders.

  “We,” said Alyx. “We’ll stop them.”

  Jordan nodded. “But now we know that they want to smoke you out. We need to get you somewhere safer. We travel to Aradale tonight.”

  * * *

  For the moment, Alyx sat in her room on the edge of the bed, staring out the window, rolling the soulglobe absentmindedly between her palms. Mini was chittering incoherently behind her, having obviously picked up on the disjointed and excitable energy that had marred this place since Marin had arrived with his news.

  Alyx barely registered Mini. She was thinking about how this all started with the first body in Saint Joseph being a sign of the prophecy. Her mind was working over the last things Mayrekk had said to her: “The prophecies talk about a Seraphim and a demon-mortal that fall in love.”

  The prophecies were wrong about that. She had fallen for him...he had not quite fallen for her. Only a week ago he had agreed so easily to being just friends. If he had loved her, he would have protested against it, raged against it. He would have grabbed her shoulders and kissed her and ordered her to reconsider. But he didn’t. He had just sat there, placid as the soulglobe between her fingers, and accepted “friends”.

  A sudden rush of sadness lashed through Alyx’s chest, making her gasp for breath. She flinched, her fingers fumbled, and she dropped the soulglobe. It landed with a thwack on the wooden floorboards and rolled towards the wall. Alyx let out a small sigh and leaned forward to retrieve it. It hit the floor molding and made a hollow noise. A hollow noise? Alyx frowned and her pain was forgotten for the moment.

  Alyx picked up the globe, put it back on its holder and turned her attention back to the molding, a section now partly coming away from the wall. Alyx pried the molding away.

  There was a small hollow in the base of the wall. Alyx peered closer. There was something in it.

  Moving away small cobwebs, Alyx pulled the item out of the hollow. It was a bunch of Threads, small scraps of material rolled and twined together.

  Dearest Yael,

  I waited just as I said I would. But you did not come. Instead Do’hann came. He said the most horrible things... I don’t believe him, not for a second.

  Then a group of lightwarriors came for me. I had to flee, my love, I could not stay.

  What happened to you? Did they detain you? Are you hurt?

  Oh my love, I cannot tell you how my heart aches for you. I pray that no harm has come to you. I will wait every day at our meeting place for you to come.

  I don’t know how I could get this Thread to you but it eases my heart to imagine you reading these words.

  Love always,

  Siana

  Five Threads, all letters, from someone named Siana to Yael. Could this be…Yael Ostin?

  Alyx’s mind brought forward an image of Yael, her old lightwarrior rival, rude and brash and rough. He had never made her life in Michaelea easy. And after she had fled, he had almost recaptured her.

  Alyx stared at the Threads and ran her hands across them again.

  She couldn’t imagine anyone ever loving Yael. Or Yael ever loving anyone back.

  She heard Jordan calling for her. This mystery didn’t matter anyway. She was leaving Tara now.

  Alyx returned the Threads back to their hollow in the wall and replaced the floor molding. She put out her hand to Mini, who was standing at the top of the bed drawing invisible lines on the wall and mumbling.

  “Come on, Mini. We’re going to a place called Aradale. It’s safer there.”

  Mini had more questions in her eyes than she could communicate, but she took Alyx’s hand. Alyx’s heart tightened at the wordless trust of this little girl.

  They joined Jordan and Israel on the grass in front of the farmhouse. Marin had still not returned.

  “He’ll be alright,” Jordan had said. “He just needs to be alone. He’ll go back to Aradale when he’s ready.”

  The sun was just falling under the horizon. Israel was walking without his limp now, but Alyx could tell from the slight tension between his brows that he was hiding some pain. Why did he feel the need to be brave all the time? Why couldn’t he just let anyone help him?

  “If you wrap your arms around my shoulders from behind, it’ll be easiest for me to carry you,” Jordan said to Israel.

  Israel shuffled, obviously uncomfortable. “Why do you need to carry me?”

  “Well you can’t fly, and you obviously can’t walk all the way to Aradale. We also have Mini to think about. I suppose if you felt more comfortable, I could carry Mini and Alyx could carry−”

  “No. No, no,” said Israel. “I’ll hang off you.”

  Alyx’s heart clenched with rejection, but she kept a nonchalant look on her face. I’ll show you that I don’t care.

  Jordan nodded at Alyx and she moved towards Mini, crouching beside her and speaking softly to her. “We’re going on a trip and it’ll be better if you go to sleep, little one. Go to sleep and when you wake we’ll be there.”

  Alyx felt the pulse enter Mini’s body. Her little eyes closed and Alyx eased Mini into her arms.

  Within minutes they were in the air.

  Dearest Yael,

  I have met a Rogue out here. His name is Lukas. He is friendly, and he claims that this is what he does to help new FreeThinkers when they first become Rogue. He can help you, too.

  Lukas tells me that the Rogues have sanctuaries out here, my love. Hidden communities scattered across the globe. Some of them are even nestled among the mortal population! Imagine that − living among mortals!

  They have leaders of each community (chiefs, they call them), but they are elected by the Seraphim. Out here, everybody is equal. There is no class system, no Elders, no Castus, no warrior class. We could have a happy life out here, my love. Happy and fulfilled.

  Lukas wants to take me to Aradale, the neares
t Rogue community, but I have said that I won’t leave without you.

  Please escape. Please escape, my love, and come find me. Without you, I have nothing.

  Yours always,

  Siana

  Chapter 5

  In Samyara’s den, the stench of the collective Darkened was choking to Passar. He pressed further back into the corner, into the polished mahogany wall panels, as if doing so could make him disappear. It didn’t work.

  Before him Samyara slumped in his chair, surrounded by his favorites like he was some kind of maharaja. Samyara’s eyes opened and he straightened up. “This isn’t working,” he snapped, frustration evident in his voice. “Israel is too closed off from me. He’s too aware. I can’t whisper into his mind.”

  Samyara roared in displeasure. The Darkened around him flinched. Things are not good when the boss is angry.

  “What do we do now, huh? How do we find him?” Samyara glared at every Darkened around the room in turn.

  “Maybe,” Adere piped up, a hopeful smile on her face, “I can get through to him again.”

  “Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. You tried that and it failed.”

  “Only because of the Seraphim,” mumbled Adere.

  A thought came to Passar’s mind. For a moment he hesitated to speak up…but if Samyara found out that he had hidden things from him…

  “Can…can you only whisper into the minds of mortals?” he asked.

  The Darkened between him and Samyara parted and he was exposed. He almost wished he had stayed quiet.

  Samyara narrowed his eyes. “I can whisper into anyone’s mind, but they have to be open to it. The Seraphim are too closed off for it to work with them. Mortals are easier because they aren’t aware. Why?”

  Passar paused. Could he endanger an innocent? Elijah’s voice seemed to echo accusingly in his mind. Anything. You said you would do anything for me.

  “There was a girl,” Passar blurted out.