by Hanna Peach
She dropped her scalpel on her instrument tray and took a pair of large tweezers. She pushed the tweezers into the incision and moved it around until it gripped the metal thing. Carefully she pulled out the object and dropped it into a metal pan next to her. Ana held the cut closed until Marin’s body sealed up the incision. She wiped the wound clean.
Frowning, Ana picked up the bloody object from the pan with a pair of tweezers and held it under running water to remove the blood.
It was not a bullet.
Ana felt the blood drain from her face. God help us. “Marin, we have to get everyone out of here. Now.”
Marin ceased his moaning and twisted his head to look at her. “What is it?”
Ana lifted up the tweezers to him. It was a small cage. Inside was a grotesque scaly Hell creature, its body glowing. A demon Communicator.
Chapter 43
“Did you really think I would let you capture me so easily?” Samyara said.
Alyx shifted her feet, the nagging feeling in her stomach growing more insistent. It had been too easy. And where was his army? Why had he only brought less than half a dozen Darkened with him?
Alyx’s eyes widened when Samyara began to split, peeling apart until there were two Samyaras standing there.
“Which one’s the real one?” the two Samyaras said in a mocking tone. “Is it this one?” The two Samyaras split apart again, “Or this one?” leaving four identical demons, then eight...
“It’s trickery magic,” yelled Alyx, remembering her run-in with the Darkened outside of the Purgatory bar. “Only one of them is real.” She lunged forward and began to slash at the closest Samyara. Her sword disappeared straight through his midsection as if it were air.
The Seraphim around Samyara also began to lash out. But all their swords, too, cut straight through the Samyaras. All the Samyaras. How was that possible? Where was the real Samyara?
The images started to fade one by one. But by then it was clear. Not a single one of them was real.
“You may have stopped me this time, but it’s only a matter of time before I get my hands on the keye...or make one.” The last of the Samyaras began to fade.
Alyx’s heart thudded. Make one? Alyx’s mind flashed back to what Michael was doing with Mini in the Hollows. No. She would not let anyone else go through something like that again.
“I’ll stop you, Samyara,” Alyx yelled around her. “Whatever it takes.”
His laughter faded in an echo.
“Everybody spread out,” she cried. “He has to be close by to throw his image here. We can still get him.”
As the others spread out, Alyx flew over towards the other side of the clearing, where Israel had Adere in an arm lock from behind and was holding a knife loosely at her throat.
Adere was struggling in Israel’s arms. “No! Samyara, come back.”
Alyx landed in front of the struggling Darkened. “Where is he hiding?”
The demon hissed and Alyx could see her red tongue flick out like a snake’s. “I’m not telling you anything.”
“Face it, Adere. He’s left you with us,” Israel said, struggling to hold her back. “He betrayed you. Give him up.”
“Never,” Adere snapped. “Samyara would never just leave me here with you. I am too valuable to him.”
Alyx frowned. Adere was right. Samyara would never just leave Adere with them. Alive.
“You might not tell us, but the real Adere will.” Israel swung her around, grabbed her by the back of her neck and planted his lips on hers. A stab of pain so fierce shot through Alyx’s heart that it hurt to breathe. Although she wanted desperately to look away, she couldn’t take her eyes off their kiss. His act of love. A wave of insecurity held her motionless. Did he really not love Adere?
Israel pulled away and for a moment Adere looked stunned. Then she growled in Israel’s face. “Fool. You think you can beat us?”
It didn’t work. Her face still showed the demon underneath. Why didn’t it work? Adere laughed again.
Out of the corner of her eye, Alyx saw movement and a glint behind a nearby tree. “Israel, look out!”
A knife swirled out from behind the tree towards Adere’s back. Israel grabbed Adere and spun her around. The knife plunged into flesh with that familiar sucking sound.
“No!” Alyx cried.
Adere screamed and tried to pull away from Israel. He was staring, mouth wide open. Then he collapsed to his knees, pulling Adere down with him.
Chapter 44
Ana could hear the sounds of screaming echo through the halls as she dragged Ky with one hand and tried to support Marin’s weight with her other arm around his waist.
The Darkened had breached the ward and were descending upon Aradale. Ana thought she could smell smoke.
“What about Mini?” asked Ky as he tugged at Ana’s hand.
Ana squashed down the rising guilt. They didn’t have time to worry about everybody.
“Ky, please. We have to go now. Someone else will look after Mini.” Ana pushed her way into Tobias’s office. She chewed her lip as she surveyed the room. There was the entrance to the bomb shelter here and a passageway that led out to the back of the Aradale grounds. She just had to remember where.
Marin moaned.
“Please hang on, Marin. I know it hurts, but we have to get out of here.”
“But I’ve got to get Mini.” Ky tugged again and Ana felt her fingers, moist with nervous sweat, starting to slip.
“Ky, no. We can’t do anything for her.” Ana tightened her grip on his hand. She knew that the bookcase swung open but where was the secret lever? Which book was it?
“Marin, I have to set you down for a moment.” Ana lowered Marin into a chair beside the desk.
“But Mini…”
Her fingers slipped against Ky’s insistent pulling.
“Ky, no!” Ana screamed, but he didn’t listen. He flew from the room calling out for Mini. The door swung manically behind him, sucking in wisps of smoke.
Chapter 45
“Israel, no,” Alyx cried, and rushed forward to him. There was a knife sticking out of the top right-hand side of his back. He had spun himself into the path of the knife.
She turned towards the direction from where the knife had been thrown. The trees rustled as a figure shot up towards the sky. Alyx’s heart hardened when she recognized his retreating figure. Passar.
Next time, one of us isn’t flying away, she promised.
Adere screamed again and pushed herself away from Israel, shuffling backwards away from him. Alyx fell to her knees before Israel. It was not a deep wound and it shouldn’t be fatal. But they needed to get him back to Aradale and to Ana, who could tend to the wound. Alyx breathed a little easier.
She yelled out for help as she held Israel to her. His head rested on her head. “You’re going to be okay,” she murmured to him. Alyx was comforted by the fact that he had enough strength to hold onto her waist.
Adere whimpered. And it was then that Alyx realized that her whimper was a single girlish voice. Alyx turned her head towards the girl. Her pale face, her terrified blue eyes, were human. It worked. The demon was exorcised when Israel took the knife for her. An act of love.
“What’s wrong?” Jordan landed from the sky near her with Lukas close behind him. “Is he...?”
Alyx shook her head. “It’s not a fatal wound, but we have to get him back to Aradale now. It was Passar, he was aiming for Adere. Israel took the knife for her and it looks like the demon was exorcised from her. I’ve left the knife in there to stop too much blood loss.”
Jordan nodded. “It looks like Samyara is gone.” He turned to Lukas, who had landed near him. “Lukas, round up the others and we’ll send everyone home.” Lukas nodded and took to the sky again.
Jordan turned to Israel, “Can you stand?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Israel said as Alyx helped him up.
The others started returning. There were some injuries from the Black Sto
ne blades but nothing serious. They had truly surprised and outnumbered Samyara.
Alyx began thanking the Seraphim from the other communities for their help before they took off into the lightening sky.
“We should get back, too,” Lukas said.
“Israel,” Alyx said, stepping in front of him, “are you sure you’re okay? You’ve gone pale.”
The color had drained from his lips even in the minute they had been standing there. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. His eyes rolled back into his head.
“Jordan,” Alyx cried as Israel collapsed forward into her arms. Jordan rushed to her side and helped her ease Israel down to the ground, onto his stomach.
Jordan wiped a finger along the wound where the knife went in. He smelled the blood and dabbed it on the tip of his tongue. “He’s been poisoned. This knife was dipped in demon poison. They wanted to make sure that Adere wouldn’t stay alive long even if the knife didn’t kill her.”
“Poison?” The air against Alyx’s skin suddenly felt chilly. “Will he...?”
Jordan pressed his lips together. “Let’s get him to Aradale.”
Alyx brushed strands of hair from Israel’s forehead. His skin was already starting to break out in a sweat. Please, stay alive.
Chapter 46
Ky coughed from the smoke as he sped towards Mini’s room. He knew exactly where it was. He had been sneaking in there every day to keep her company. Sometimes twice a day. Sometimes at night when he was supposed to be in bed. He brought her treats and games. And she seemed to like him, too.
He didn’t think it was fair to keep Mini in this room all day, and his mama didn’t have a good explanation as to why when he had asked her.
The smoke in this section of Aradale was thicker. He could see Mini’s little face up against the glass portion of the door, banging on the glass with her little hands. She was crying. Ky didn’t like it when Mini cried. He frowned, wishing he had brought a cookie with him or something. That usually made Mini smile. And it felt warm inside him, like a hug, when he saw her smile.
“It’s okay, Mini. I’m getting you out of there,” Ky said as he reached the door. He turned the lock on the outside and pulled it open. Mini launched herself into his arms. He felt taller and bigger all of a sudden with her tucked against him, and he felt stronger as her trembling made her curls shake under his chin.
“Come on,” he said softly. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Not so fast.” The voice startled him. A hand reached around the door and grabbed him by the scruff of his collar.
It was a man who now blocked their path. No, not a man. He had a second face, a demon face. Mini screamed and buried her face in Ky’s chest. Ky just stared at him, struggling to hold the bravery in his frame. He had only heard of such monsters in the tales his mother would sometimes tell him before he fell asleep. But this monster was not a story. It was real and it was here.
The monster grinned as he peered at Mini. “And what do we have here?”
Chapter 47
Jordan had sedated Israel and Adere with DreamWalker sleep for the flight back to Aradale. As they traveled across the sky, Israel hung from the arms of Alyx, Jordan, Vix and Tobias. Lukas and Moloko were carrying Adere between them.
They were almost to Nordlingen when Alyx smelled the first hints of smoke. As they got closer, the air became thicker with the choke of fire. In the horizon, the flames licked the night sky, spewing forth ash and fiery rain. Sirens pierced the night like a wailing mother desperate for her child.
“Ana, Ky,” the first cry of despair came from Lukas when they realized it was Aradale that was on fire. Alyx’s stomach turned over.
“We have to hurry,” Tobias cried out. They sped towards the burning building.
They landed in the back gardens of Aradale, which seemed to have been spared the blaze as yet. A wall of flames rose up from the Aradale building. Alyx hoped that the residents had all gotten out.
Lukas let go of Adere and flew towards the building, yelling for his wife and child. Moloko dropped to the grass, not being able to carry Adere’s weight herself. Alyx, Jordan, Tobias and Vix lay Israel on the ground on his stomach, head to one side. They ran towards the building, Alyx staying with Israel. His breathing was ragged and shallow. Alyx pushed aside some damp curls now sticking to his forehead. What if he died before they got him help?
A moan to her left caused her to jump to her feet. There was a figure, lying some meters away, next to an open hatch in the ground. It was Marin.
Alyx ran over to him. “Marin.” Alyx peered at the seraph’s face as his eyes fluttered. “What happened? Where’s Ana?”
Marin squinted as if to help him focus on her face. He breathed heavily between each phrase spoken, “The Darkened...they came. Ky ran off...for Mini. Ana went back...for him.”
He had barely finished his sentence before Alyx took to the air. “I’ll be back, Marin. I’m going to find Ana.”
Alyx had to shield her face with her arm as she neared the building, the flames battering her with a searing heat. She called out for Ana, Lukas and Jordan, but she could barely hear herself over the roar of the fire.
She flew to the side of the building and saw that the mortal firefighters were already there, their trucks blazing sickly looking red and blue lights across the night. Several firefighters were directing a gush of water from a hose towards the fire. Alyx dropped to the ground and began to run.
To one side, Alyx could see Lukas clutching at Ana, who was shaking and crying. A soot-faced Xiang was clinging to Vix. Dianne, Tobias, Moloko and Jordan were huddled together. Other Seraphim gathered around in clumps as they watched their home being consumed by flames.
Alyx ran over to them, a question in her eyes.
Jordan turned his haunted eyes towards her. “Ky is missing. He went after Mini. There are firefighters in there now searching for them.”
Alyx nodded. “I found Marin at the back. We need to−”
A piercing shriek interrupted her. It came from Ana. She was trying to push Lukas off her, crying incoherently. Alyx looked towards where she was pointing. A fireman was jogging from the building, a small limp body flopping across his arms.
“God help us,” Jordan whispered beside her.
Ana rushed towards the man holding her child, Lukas stumbling after her. Jordan and Alyx both moved towards him as well.
“We found him locked in one of the rooms,” the firefighter said as he knelt to the ground, laying Ky’s lifeless body across the dry grass. “I’m so sorry. We didn’t get to him in time.” The firefighter gave them a mournful look before standing back up. “I have to get back in there.” He jogged back towards the building.
The flames were dying down under the constant streams of water, but the horror was just awakening. Ana grabbed at her son. She sobbed and shook him and demanded that he wake up right this minute. Alyx half expected Ky to sit up, clap his hands and laugh at how he had fooled them all with his acting. But Ky didn’t sit up. He didn’t laugh. He would never laugh again.
Lukas stood over his wife, staring at the ground, his eyes reflecting only flames. He looked…devoid. Empty.
Alyx stared at him, wanting to reassure him but…she didn’t know how. She was torn between giving him space and touching him; she felt useless, completely useless. How do you reassure someone who has just lost part of their reason for living?
Lukas’s head snapped up. “Dianne,” he said, pushing past Alyx to get to the seraphelle. Dianne looked up from her conversation with Tobias, looking stunned and a little scared at Lukas’s forceful cry for her attention. “Dianne,” Lukas cried, grabbing the seraphelle by her shoulders. She screwed up her face as if his hands were hurting her. “You have to take his last memory.”
It was the right of the next of kin to have their loved one’s last memory if they wished. Dianne’s eyes widened and she mouthed a silent “no”. Alyx didn’t blame her.
“Lukas...you’re…hurting me
.”
“Dianne, please,” said Lukas, but it didn’t look like he loosened his grip. “You have to tell me what happened. I have to know…”
Dianne and Lukas stared at each other for a moment. In the silence, something was communicated between them. Dianne nodded.
It took two of them to pull Ana away from Ky. Lukas gripped his sobbing wife as Dianne placed her shaking hands on Ky’s forehead. After a moment, Dianne pulled her hands off him, gripping her fingers together and to her chest.
“Ky went to Mini’s room.” As Dianne spoke, her voice warbled. “He unlocked her door, but the Darkened arrived. They took Mini and locked Ky in her room. He died trying to save her.” Dianne’s face crumpled as tears began to roll down. “I’m so sorry, Lukas. I’m so, so sorry.”
Alyx wiped away tears as she watched Lukas fall upon his wife and child, encasing them both in his arms, rocking them back and forth. Their pain was a palpable thing, real and thick, and it cloaked the air in a somber, dark oppression, thicker than smoke. As Aradale crumbled, it left a red and blackened wound upon the earth.
Chapter 48
Mason woke up to a pounding on his compartment door. The clock on the bedside table read 6:02 a.m. in glaring red numbers. Still too bloody early in his opinion. His door pounded again.
“I’m coming. I’m coming.” Mason swiped his face with a rough hand. “This better be good,” he mumbled. He swayed a little after he stood, then stumbled towards the door. At the door was a worried-looking Owl, a youngster of about sixteen with large watery eyes who refused to sleep at night. “What?” Mason demanded.
“Angel is here.” He used Alyx’s Clan name.
“Alyx?” Mason frowned, looking around Owl. There was no one there. In fact, no one else was awake yet, Mason thought with a bit of resentment. “Well, where is she?”
