Aura’s eyes darkened as she smoothed her hair back into place from her struggle with Fia. “He’s not my king. The man who sits on the throne stole it from another.”
“Pity,” Lorn said, her tone bordering on bored. “Where I come from, angels are free. Angels are leaders.” She held the angel’s gaze as she let her words sink in. Manipulating them to do her bidding would be all too easy. The angel would be offering to fly them both back by the time they were done.
She ignored Fia’s glare beside her.
“A war is raging here. We are merely pawns for the king’s plans for this world.” Aura reached to the scar at her neck, her eyes glazing over as if she were remembering who or what had put it there. “You are on Deganis, if it holds any meaning for you.”
Deganis. Lorn had never heard of such a place. But then, she’d never heard of other worlds until Erebus’s interference.
“But why?” Fia asked. “What powers does this king have that hold you to him?”
Aura held Lorn’s gaze. “Not all power comes from within.”
Before Lorn had a chance to reply, the other two angels strode into the tent, Evina between them. The dark-haired one took one look at Aura rubbing her neck and reached for his weapon, questioning her in their own language.
“It’s rude to talk about others when you’re in their company, you know,” Lorn said, raising an eyebrow.
He glared at Fia as Aura pointed to her.
“They could take down the entire camp, Rainn,” Aura said in the common tongue.
Lorn wondered why she hadn’t done it already. This entire conversation had been testing, to say the least. All this talk of free angels and leadership. It left a bitter taste on her tongue and set the fire in her gut alight.
“That doesn’t mean we have to yield to them,” Rainn said, his disgust written all over his face.
Lorn folded her arms across her chest and leaned back. “Help us get back to our world, and I’ll bring an army of my people to fight your king and help you to regain your freedom. Deganis will be yours once more.”
Rainn’s jaw tightened. “How much have you told them?” he asked, looking at Aura.
Lorn snorted. “Enough for us to know you hate it here and want out. Come with us. We’ll make it worth your while.” When I roast you, one by one.
The mousey-haired angel said something in their language from where he stood near the opening of the tent. At least someone was standing guard. Not that it mattered. Lorn had been quite looking forward to a fight, a release for the inferno building up within her. She’d start burning soon, she could feel it.
Evina had made her way to Fia and reached out to hold her arm in that way Lorn had noticed before. After a moment, Fia nodded. “She wants to come with us. She said she isn’t safe here, she can’t stay.” Fia took Evina’s hand in hers. It was disgusting to watch.
“And what did that one say?” Lorn asked, flicking her chin towards the mousey-haired angel, Jax.
Fia shot her a glare. Oops. Now her little secret was out. Well, now was as good a time as any.
“He said he’d give anything to get out of here.” Fia held her head high, and Lorn found herself admiring the way her hair fell in soft wisps around her face.
By the mother. It had been far too long since she’d had someone in her bed. There was that guard she’d considered on the airship, and before that, one of the maids back in Nadar, but that was before Alexander had rejected her. And just like that, that kernel of smouldering desire for Fia was snuffed out. The reminder that both Alexander and Erebus had chosen Fia over her, was enough to make Lorn want to burn everything to the ground without further discussion and find her own way to the damn gate.
Rainn said something to Fia, his words lined with venom even though Lorn couldn’t understand him.
“Because you never asked,” Fia said. “And because people usually reveal a lot more when they think others can’t understand them.”
The girl had a point. Lorn had seen it enough times on the airships with those disgusting mercenaries she’d hired. Rainn said nothing, but his contempt was palpable. Evina hadn’t released Fia’s arm, and she held Fia’s gaze.
“She’s pleading with me, Lorn. We have to take her,” Fia said.
Lorn rolled her eyes. “Must we?”
“She rescued us, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Evina.” Fia stared her down. The girl did have a point but Evina could be using them too. Lorn didn’t buy her rescue me act for one second.
“I see it this way.” Lorn cleared her throat and made sure she had the full attention of everyone in the tent before she continued. “Evina is useful, she serves a purpose with her powers. As do you two,” Lorn said, waving a hand at the two males who watched her every move with the trained eyes of skilled soldiers. “But this one—”
“Who says we’re going to help you?” Rainn’s mismatched eyes bore down on her, but Lorn didn’t baulk at his stare.
“Because,” she said after a few heartbeats of silence, “your desire for freedom is practically dripping off the three of you.” She pointed to Aura. “She’s too much of a liability. And she can’t help us travel anyway. She stays.”
Aura was on her feet, and Lorn thought of testing whether the angel’s shield was in place, whether she could break through it as Fia had threatened. Perhaps it was just an empty threat. But a threat Aura had flinched at. Lorn flicked the ball of flames from her palm and it hit Aura, or rather, it hit something just in front of Aura and fizzled into nothing. Her shield.
Aura raised an eyebrow. “I can carry you. Someone’s got to keep you in check.” Something flickered in the angel’s gaze. Smouldered.
Lorn narrowed her eyes, contemplating once more how those wings might feel if she ran her fingers over them. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
The angel said nothing but held her stare, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Fine. Maybe she’d allow Aura to tag along for the sheer fun of it. She could certainly do with the other kind of release. She toyed with another fireball in her palm as she thought things through. At least it would prevent her from bursting into flames in the middle of the tent, and she wanted to hold that particular surprise from the angels for full effect.
“Tell me why we shouldn’t just end this right now.” Rainn rested a hand over the pommel of his sword.
“He wants out.” Lorn thrust a thumb in Jax’s direction. He still hadn’t moved from his position at the entrance to the tent. Just as well, he seemed the easiest target of the three. “She wants out. And I’m fairly certain you want out too, or you wouldn’t have stood and listened to a word of this. And if you don’t comply, my friend here will fry through Aura’s shield, and then I’ll burn this whole pathetic excuse of a camp down without so much as a second thought.”
That earned another glare from Fia.
“Your friend talks an awful lot, given you’re the only one that can speak our words. Can you burn through Aura’s shield?” Rainn turned his attention back to Fia, back to the way Evina’s hand sat tightly in the girl’s own.
Fia gently released Evina’s hand. She slowly pushed herself to her feet, walked right up to Rainn, so close she had to tilt her head back to look up at him and quietly said, “Would you like a demonstration?” This girl. In another life, they might have gotten along. Just let her serve her purpose, and then she’ll be ash along with the rest of them.
Rainn didn’t so much as blink at Fia, or interrupt as she continued, “We need to get back, urgently. Ohinyan will die if we don’t return, both of us, as much as it frustrates me to admit that. I don’t want to hurt any of you, but I’ll do whatever it takes to get to this gate.” She turned away from him without waiting for a response and took her seat beside the table again.
Rainn gritted his teeth and looked at Aura. “You told them about the gate? We could be banished for merely mentioning it.”
Aura waved a hand dismissively. “What do we care; we’re talkin
g about deserting. I’m sick of this, Rainn, we deserve better.”
“But I assume you were not discussing desertion when the subject of the gate came up.” Rainn ran a hand through his dark mop of hair. He seemed to hold some authority over the other two, but Lorn delighted in how fragile a relationship it seemed to be. How easily it could crumble.
She poured herself some more water. This was too easy. “Fia was going to torch her. Let’s say she felt compelled to open up to us. And besides, you all want your freedom, don’t you?”
Rainn glared at her, he looked as if he were grinding his teeth as he tore through his thoughts.
“It’s what we’ve all dreamed of, isn’t it?” Aura pushed off from her stool and paced. “Think of the others. We can help them.”
Rainn’s expression seemed to soften a little at that. It was disgusting. “We all go. And then we bring this army of yours back to free the others from the king’s service, agreed?”
“Agreed!” Lorn raised her glass in approval and winked at Fia. The girl only shook her head.
Once these angels had done her bidding, she’d enjoy watching them all burn to nothing but ash at her touch.
Rekindle the sun. Ohinyan would revere her. And Ohinyan’s angels would be the first to go, now she had somewhere to send them. A king to punish them. It was only just.
Chapter Eleven
Fia
F ia had little to say since Lorn’s presentation earlier. The Makya’s mind seemed to move a hundred miles an hour as if she were always working on the next plan. The next scheme. She probably was. But they were stuck together, whether Fia liked it or not.
Lorn was pacing. They’d agreed to wait until nightfall when most of the camp would be asleep. “What are you staring at?” she snapped.
“You’re going to wear a hole into the rug.” Fia waved a hand towards the Makya’s feet. They both had to make it back to Ohinyan alive if there was even the slightest possibility one of them was the fire mother. But that didn’t mean Fia didn’t hate every moment of having to be around Lorn, of having to replay how she killed Enne, of imagining her killing Alexander’s father. Of how she’d likely killed countless others. Lorn continued her pacing. Around the table, Aura and Evina were silent. Jax stood watch outside whilst Rainn attended to his duties.
The city of Turaunt had been razed along with many more, all at Lorn’s command. How many of them had been at her hand too? And to what end? Lorn’s motivations didn’t seem to make any sense. She seemed eager to be the fire mother. So why destroy Ohinyan?
Fia let out a breath, and Evina caught her gaze. She’d lowered her hood and fastened her white braids above her head in a knot. Fia hadn’t tried to speak with Evina, and Evina hadn’t reached for her again, not since begging to go with them. The way she’d begged, the desperation, Fia couldn’t refuse.
The young woman sat unnervingly still. When she did move, which had not been often, her silver adornments were silent. Fluid, almost, like liquid metal, they enveloped her. Still, she held Fia’s gaze, and Fia thought of the ocean, of waves tumbling over themselves in Evina’s eyes. If she could speak, would she? Or was her silence a choice? It was none of Fia’s business, she knew, but her curiosity always got the better of her.
Rainn entered the tent and Evina looked away. “The camp is winding down for the night.” Those mismatched eyes assessed each of them as he spoke. “We should be able to evanesce two or three times before stopping for the night.”
“Can’t we evanesce right to the gate?” Fia wished she had her wingsuit still, then she could fly herself straight there. Though it didn’t matter, she wouldn’t have been able to carry Lorn. Let alone find the gate in the first place. Her wingsuit was probably long gone by now, anyway. Most likely some merchant had found it above Djira and sold it at the harbour. She wondered whether Okwata might be able to make her another.
She reached for the cuff Alexander had given her but remembered again it was no longer there, and made a silent wish he’d made it back to Ohinyan. She’d send him another message anyway, as soon as she was alone. Which might not be for a little while. Thoughts about what he’d make of her powers pushed their way to the surface, but she shoved them back down to deal with later.
Aura let out an indignant laugh. “It’s too far to the gate,” she said when Rainn made no attempt to answer. “You’re lucky we’re close enough to reach it at all.” She folded her arms across her chest. “It’s days away from here. We won’t be able to head straight for it, and there’s a strong possibility that we’ll get caught up in things along the way.”
There wasn’t time for this. Erebus could return at any moment. He could apprehend them on their way to the gate, and there was no knowing if they could stand against him even with the angels on their side.
Fia exhaled a long breath, slow and steady, to keep the spiralling thoughts at bay that in the past would have often had her hugging her knees by now. “Things?”
“We are at war, lest you forget.” Rainn leaned against a tent pole; his muscled arms folded across his chest just as Aura had done. But his pose was relaxed. If anything, he looked bored by the whole situation, and Fia couldn’t decide if that was reassuring or unsettling.
“How could we, we’re sat in the middle of a war camp?” Lorn spun to face him and almost spat the words. She was like a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment.
Maybe she hasn’t used her powers enough. Did she feel the same sensation Fia could running beneath her skin? It was a pulsing, ever-present hum of something she’d only recently begun to become aware of, since that first time in Erebus’s prison when she’d made her first speck of blue flame.
I need more practice. But she was noticing things now. She could feel Aura’s shield, and she’d meant what she said about burning through it. She didn’t know why; she just knew. Fia watched the way Lorn paced, the way she flexed her fists open and closed at her sides.
Rainn ignored Lorn’s outburst. “We travel light. Jax will be back shortly with some supplies, but there will be very little.”
Lorn threw out her arms. “Do we look like we’re into material possessions?”
“You look like you need a hot bath and a change of clothes,” Aura replied before Rainn had a chance to respond.
Fia bit back a laugh. It was true. Lorn looked, well, a mess. The Makya had left her coat behind in the cave, and her jumpsuit had more than a few tears to it. Blood crusted the side of her face and her short hair was filthy. Fia imagined she looked only marginally better right now.
Lorn rolled her eyes. “This garment is a requirement for my… abilities. Regular fabric would not last very long.” Interesting. Fia hadn’t noticed her own clothes singeing from the heat of her flames, and her hands had been ablaze enough that she’d expect some charred sleeves, but, no, nothing.
Aura remained silent, but Fia didn’t miss the way the angel bit down on her lip, eyes sparkling as she held Lorn’s stare. It lasted only a second before her expression became stoic once more. It was as if all three of them had taken lessons in looking utterly bored.
Rainn sighed, loud enough for all of them to hear it. “There’s no time for a bath or a change of clothes. Can you use a weapon?”
“She already has a weapon—” Aura began, dipping her head towards Fia.
“I am the weapon,” Lorn said at the same time, a ball of flame already alight in one palm for effect.
She loved the dramatics, this woman. Just like Erebus did. A bitter taste coated Fia’s tongue. Why would you even think of him? Who knew how long they had until he found them? But they had to try and make it back before he could.
“I have a dagger,” Fia explained. “We can defend ourselves well enough.” Had they seen her blue flame? Perhaps they just saw the glow and didn’t know which one of them it had come from. She didn’t want to admit that she’d be no good with a sword. She’d had a fair amount of practice with a bow, but her aim was still not as accurate as she’d have liked. “An
d Evina?” Fia was certain the young woman had more powers than she’d let on.
“We can defend Evina,” Rainn began, shifting his posture almost imperceptibly as he said her name. “Defending one of you is easy enough, but three of you is a liability.”
Again, Fia wondered what Evina had told them, if she’d told them anything. She was breathtakingly beautiful, but these angels didn’t seem like the type to fall in line for just a pretty face. Still, Fia watched Rainn closely.
Lorn scoffed. “I think you’ll find both of us to be quite the opposite.” Was that a compliment? Fia supposed it was as close to one as she’d ever get from the Makya’s mouth. Not that she wanted her approval. Not that she wanted anything from her at all. They just had to tolerate each other until they figured this fire mother thing out. Until they were home.
Before the conversation could go any further, Jax entered the tent, his arms full of bundles of cloth, leather bags hanging from his arms. “I managed to swipe some extra food. The blankets got me some odd looks, but I told them Rainn gets grouchy with the thin bedrolls.” A wide grin broke across his face. He’d said it in their own language, and he’d either forgotten Fia could understand, or he simply didn’t care. She didn’t dare laugh as Rainn’s expression turned murderous.
Aura cracked a smile as she took the blankets from Jax and helped him pack them into the bags. “Remember when we stole his uniform that time outside Fairholde?”
Jax didn’t reply, but both their shoulders shook with silent laughter. They worked side by side at the table, one of the only hard surfaces in the tent. Aside from the bedrolls and the orblights, the tent was barren. But then what would soldiers bring with them anyway?
“Care to share the joke?” Lorn demanded. Her eyes were embers, and Fia worried that it wouldn’t be long before the Makya burst into flames, and wondered why she hadn’t done it already.
Rainn pushed himself off the tent pole and spoke directly to Fia. “I’m only going to say this once, so you’ll have to repeat it for your sister.” He flicked his gaze in Lorn’s direction and back again. “You must stay with us at all times. If we get separated, if she steps one foot out of line, it’s very unlikely that we will come looking for you. We’ll be named as deserters, and I’ll not have Aura and Jax lose their positions because of you. You will be alone. Do you understand?”
The First Dawn (Daughter of the Phoenix Book Three) Page 8
