by Zandria West
Suddenly, the strangest feeling passes over me. A kind of cold shiver, which isn’t because of the chilly surroundings or because of my fear of what is happening to Lana. I look down, and for a moment my hands look strange, like they’re flickering. Then I understand.
The transformation Gabriel cast on me. It’s wearing off
Grayson closes his eyes and something shifts in his expression. Then he opens his eyes, and I see a new determination. ‘Go. Get out of here while you can. I’ll do what I have to.’
I study him, not knowing whether I can trust him or not. Not knowing whether I’m making a terrible mistake.
‘There may be some ensuing chaos,’ he continues. ‘Get the child out too, if you can.’
I nod. What choice do I have?
13
LANA
The Tower is flooded with light. After so long trapped in darkness in the bowels of the prison, the sense of light and space, the view of the city from up so high, is giddying. Knowing that this is where I’ll die is probably also making me a little lightheaded.
I’ve promised myself that when the time comes, I will stand. I won’t cower or beg. I’ll think of my father, think of Meow-Meow and pray that in the next world I will be with them again.
At one side of the cell is a doorway that opens out onto nothing but a sheer drop of a few hundred feet. It’s held shut with a heavy iron bolt, and the gap around the door lets a slight cool breeze in. The stones adjacent to the doorway are stained dark with blood. I can see how it works. They kill you. They toss you. Job done, and a spectacular message sent to any who think of defying the power of the Demon Council. A body falling from the Tower would be visible for miles around.
I feel suddenly sick, and sway a little on my feet, so I reach a hand to the wall to support myself. The drugs are still affecting me. I will stand. I will not crumble. Not now, not ever.
I wonder how long I have left?
I expect it will be a couple of days, at least, before they’re ready to execute me. Darian was going to wait until my mother was captured, and then seek agreement of the rest of the Council before handing me over to Garenda.
A few days. Grayson barely spoke as he brought me here, the climb seemed to last forever.
I think of the words he said before he locked the door and left me here.
‘Death is not the end.’
Like a fucking condolence card that you’d buy off the rack at a convenience store.
What a lie. I’ve seen people alive and I’ve seen people dead and I can confirm that, in every respect that matters, death is the end.
It’s the end of me being able to fulfil my purpose and make a difference to the world. It’s the end of breathing, dreaming, seeing. The end of strong coffee and buttery croissants. The end of love and hope and self. And right now, for what it’s worth, I want to hold on to every moment that I’m alive, even if it is only to remember the people who I’ve loved and who loved me. My family. My men. I shiver at the thought of losing them – dying will sever the bond between us. I wish I could spare them the pain that I’m sure will come. If there was anything I could change it would be that. I know I should wish that I could prevent the end of the world, but it turns out that’s just too big, too abstract a thing to wish for; it hardly seems real. But if I could have anything now, I wish I could save my men from their grief.
I startle as I hear a sound nearby. Footsteps. Footsteps on stone. Someone is climbing the stairs.
Grayson?
I don’t sense him. I gasp, my amulet – it’s so fucking hot it’s burning me.
I look around, my heart pounding, desperate for some way to defend myself, some way to prevent what is coming. Why so soon? I was sure I had longer. What’s changed?
I hear a heavy clank as the entry to the cell is unlocked, and then the hatch lifts and I see who it is.
Garenda. I’m flooded with nausea. From the look on her face I can guess the truth – Darian might have thought to give it a day or two, but she just can’t wait. She has me at hand now, and all she wants is to finish me.
I’m frozen to the spot. I only watch as she enters the cell and looks around appraisingly, like she’s thinking about interior decorating, before fixing her eyes on me.
‘Demons are always so cautious; don’t you think Lana? A surprisingly conservative bunch really. Sticklers for rules. They didn’t want to work with me, even though they knew I could get them what they wanted with barely a thought. They didn’t want to kill you too soon for fear that the spell might be unleashed. They do not understand the true workings of magic. But I do. And I say the sooner you die the better…’
A terrible pressure rises through my body. My heart throbs and my vision blurs. I can’t hear anything but a loud shrieking that fills my ears and sings in my blood. Something hot and wet spills down my face and onto my chest. I drop to my knees. Dizziness is taking me, the world spinning around me. I can just make out the sound of laughter. Everything is turning to black, the pain, the pain is terrible…
Then, in an instant, it stops.
I can just make out what looks like a white light.
Am I dead? Is this it?
And then, as my vision gradually returns, I see a figure in the midst of the light.
It’s Grayson. He looks huge and he glows with a ferocity that makes me think of a terrible weapon being unleashed. A pulse of power moves through me at his mere presence. The sign on my chest burns. I’m alive. Pain equals life, and I’ve never been more grateful to be in agony.
‘Lana, come…’ he reaches for me.
I struggle to stand but I’m too dizzy. The drugs they gave me combined with Garenda’s attack have left me barely able to move.
‘Come!’ he says urgently and takes my hand.
‘What are you doing?’ I say.
‘Getting you out of here.’
‘So, you did have a plan…’ I smile faintly as my body hums with relief.
He pulls me towards him and wraps his arms around me and the light is cold as ice all over my skin.
There’s a sudden explosion as the glass all around us shatters.
RISE
His voice is like a mountain crumbling. It’s like something deep within the earth shifting and stirring. It’s like the heavens breaking apart with a rain of fire and blood.
And then I see.
Grayson has wings. Actual motherfucking wings. They look like they’re made of light. They stretch so wide that for a moment they are all I can see. I close my eyes as he holds me closer. He takes a few strides and leaps through a broken window and out into the air.
I close my eyes wait for gravity to claim us, but it doesn’t. We’re flying.
We’re hundreds of feet above the ground and we’re flying. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I open my eyes. Grayson glows like a meteor, like a bomb. There’s no way that every demon within the nearest hundred miles isn’t going to see that.
‘You’re really an actual angel?’ I murmur, feeling like an idiot at the realisation. My face is pressed against the side of his neck, close to his ear. He doesn’t respond, just grips his arms tighter around me like he’s scared that I might fall.
Strangely, I’m not afraid at all.
We fly over the city. We’re so high now that the buildings and streets and people all look tiny, like nothing more than toys. I should be terrified, but I’m elated. We’ve left Garenda and the prison far behind.
Finally, he speaks: ‘I’m rescuing you, Lana, but I’m not saving you,’ I just make out the words he whispers in my ear. ‘There is no safety for you in this world.’
A moment later, the light that surrounds him begins to dim and I see his wings disintegrating in a rain of smoke and ashes.
And then we fall.
14
ALEX
‘There!’
I trace the path of light across the sky.
Fucking Grayson. Always liked to make a scene. But if he’s gotten Lana out of the prison
safely, I’ll let him have this one. Only problem is, every single other demon in the entire city will see it too.
Then, as we watch, the light sputters and goes out.
Fuck, what just happened?
I turn to Gabriel. ‘We have to find them.’
‘We need to wait for Reuben,’ he says.
‘I give him three minutes,’ I say, then turn and walk over to where the new car is waiting. Acquiring it was the first thing we did after getting back to the city. I miss the car we left in the forest, it had sentimental value, but I’ve come to terms with the likelihood we’ll never see it again. Still, a man needs wheels. And this baby has grunt on steroids.
As I watch, Reuben jogs around the corner towards us, a scrawny kid at his side.
‘I found Grayson – ’ he starts.
‘Yeah we know,’ I frown.
‘He rescued Lana –’
’Yeah, we saw,’ I frown even harder. ‘Now get in and buckle the fuck up,’ I say as Gabriel takes the front seat next to me and Reuben slides in behind. The kid stands looking hesitantly at the car.
‘You never seen one of these before?’ I ask him and he shakes his head. For fuck’s sake.
‘Well, get in, it won’t bite.’
For a moment the lack of Lana hits me like a mallet to the centre of my chest. She should have been sitting right there behind me where I could watch her in the rear-view mirror and sneak a listen to her thoughts. She would have had some way of reassuring the kid, of pulling us all together.
Soon, I tell myself. Grayson has her. She’s out of the prison. She’s safe. We just have to get to them faster than everybody else, and get out of this goddamn hellhole of a city. We have the advantage of the bond. I can’t see Lana but I can feel her now, clearly for the first time since she was taken. I could find her with my eyes closed.
The kid climbs in without a word and Reuben reaches across and slams the door shut. I turn the key in the ignition, put my foot down on the pedal. The engine roars.
‘He broke his promise,’ Gabriel says, his voice grave.
‘What promise?’ I accelerate then turn right, and then right again. I need to get out of these side streets and onto a highway where I can really let the car move.
‘To his God. He had been cast out, but not for all eternity. He had to do the bidding of the God of Light in the demon realm, and one day he would be permitted to return to his home. The first rule was that he was not allowed to use his angelic powers.’
‘Not allowed to? I always thought he couldn’t? That he’d lost them?’
Gabriel laughed, a cold laugh. ‘No. That would have been too easy. Grayson had his powers still, but he was given the choice. He had to choose not to use them.’
‘So he’s thrown away his entry card to Heaven to save Lana?’ My eyes widen.
‘Any of us would have done the same,’ Reuben says fiercely.
He’s right, of course. I look to the sky but it’s empty and dark now. No sign of the brilliant glow that lit it up.
Half an hour later, we make it to the outskirts of a giant abandoned quarry. It’s empty and eerie. The bottom pit has filled with water and formed a huge, still, strangely green lake. The quarry lies at a distance from the city on the edge of the forested lowlands.
‘They’re here somewhere,’ Gabriel says, though I don’t need him to tell me that to know it. I can feel Lana is close. Every sense is tingling, every nerve thrumming. I can’t sense her thoughts yet, but I know she’s in pain.
‘Did he have to fucking crash land?’ I mutter.
‘He’s out of practise,’ Reuben says. ‘Wait here, kid,’ he says to Lawrence.
We clamber down a narrow dirt path. It’s steep. If one of us trips, we might all end up hundreds of feet below.
‘Lana!’ Reuben calls.
‘What the fuck are you doing?’ I turn on him. ‘Do you want everyone for miles around to know that we’re here?’
‘There is no-one for miles,’ Reuben says. ‘And she might be hurt. She might need our help.’
‘Here –'
The cry is so faint I barely hear it. My heart races as I look around. I still can’t spot any sign of her.
And then, I see movement. A long, long way down. She’s there.
‘Look!’ I say, but Gabriel has spotted her already.
He’s glancing around carefully, looking for the best way to reach her. Reuben doesn’t wait, and we follow him in single file. A little way down, the path is replaced by a ladder, and the slope becomes almost vertical.
‘We’re going to have to climb,’ Reuben says, and starts down without hesitation.
I put a foot on the top rung of the ladder and the whole structure lets out a tired groan.
‘Wait –’ Gabriel calls urgently. ‘It’s not going to hold more than one of us.’
Now I look more closely, I see that the structure is ancient and rusted out, and the bolts that hold it to the face of the rock are coming loose, some of them missing altogether.
‘Well how the fuck are we going to get them back up then?’
‘We’re not. Not this way,’ Gabriel says. He looks around, squinting slightly. Using his farsight, I figure, so I don’t say anything. I don’t want to distract him,
‘They’re on a ledge above the lake,’ he says. ‘Unless Grayson can manage some more flying, they’re going to have to swim. Reuben, you keep going,’ he calls down. ‘Help them to shore.’
‘Across that?’ I gawk. That lake gives me the heebie-jeebies. I don’t know what it is about it, but I for one would not willingly dip a toe into that water.
‘I think it’s the only way. We can circle around and meet them on the other side.’
‘Do we know if Lana can swim?’
But Reuben is already out of sight and Gabe has started climbing back up again. I look down for a long moment, a shiver of apprehension chilling me, then follow him back up the slope.
15
LANA
My entire body hurts. My head, most of all. But the rest of me gives off little twinges and stabs of pain too. It’s like my arms, legs, back and feet all want to keep my poor sore head company. I close my eyes again, trying to block out the daylight.
‘Here,’ Grayson reaches for me.
We’re balanced precariously on a narrow ledge where we somehow landed after the side of the mountain broke our fall.
Grayson touches me. I can only move a little bit closer to him for fear of falling again. It’s enough though. A moment later I feel a sudden relief, as the pain flows out of me like smoke sucked up by an exhaust fan. His beautiful features harden, and his powerful hands clench.
‘It hurts you, when you do that?’ I ask, though I know the answer already.
‘I feel whatever you felt,’ he speaks through gritted teeth.
I study him for a moment. There’s nothing else to do so I may as well. He has a rugged beauty, broken by scars, the imperfection just better setting off the hypnotic allure of his features. His skin is pale silk, his eyes are like molten metal, his jaw strong and those lips…
I think of what we did in the cells. How he fucked me so brutally, we didn’t even kiss. I want to kiss him, right now, more than I’ve ever wanted anything.
He looks away.
‘What happened?’ I ask. ‘Why did we fall?’
‘It was like I just… forgot. I forgot how to fly.’
‘How long has it been since you used your wings?’ I ask. I can see no sign of them now.
‘Too long.’ He falls into a heavy silence and I sense that his thoughts are dark and brooding. I close my eyes and enjoy the absence of pain, though my relief is tainted by the knowledge that he is bearing it for me. I’m exhausted but terrified of falling asleep for fear I’ll relax and tumble from the ledge. Then I sense something. A tingling that turns into a sharp spark.
‘The others are here,’ I say. My heart races.
Grayson stirs and looks around. I can’t see them yet, but I can sen
se them. They’re coming closer.
‘Thank god,’ I breathe.
‘Don’t thank God. This has nothing to do with him,’ Grayson says, his voice hard.
Finally, I hear a voice. Reuben is calling my name. My heart leaps. I can’t believe, after everything we went through, that they’re so close.
‘We’re here!’ I yell so loud my lungs feel ready to burst. ‘Down here!’
It feels like an eternity before I finally spot him. He’s lowering himself down the ladder that runs down the side of the pit, ending at the ledge where Grayson and I are waiting. He’s alone. I look up. Where are the others? I was sure I sensed them too.
‘It won’t work,’ Grayson says.
‘What do you mean? What won’t work?’
‘That ladder won’t hold our weight.’
‘It’s holding Reuben,’ I say, but even as I do, I hear it groan and see it shift.
Fuck.
‘Get down off there!’ I yell at Reuben. He’s so close now. I couldn’t bear it if we’d made it all this way only to watch him fall. He doesn’t move any faster. I want him to hurry up, to get the hell off that thing.
As I watch, a bolt pops out from the rock and one side of the ladder drops a full few inches.
He’s almost at our level. My heart beats harder. It hurts to see him and not hold him. I’ve missed him so much, I’ve missed all of them so much. I didn’t know if I’d ever see them again. The final seconds of waiting feel like an agonizing eternity.
At last, he makes it to the ledge. He climbs off the ladder awkwardly and looks across to us. His forest green eyes burn with an intensity I don’t know if I’ve ever seen before in anyone. My own eyes fill with tears.
‘Lana, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. My pack betrayed you, they sold you…’ He chokes up.
‘Stop it!’ I say. ‘Get over here so I can hug you.’ I sniff and wipe away the tears that wet my cheeks.
I see Reuben look at Grayson and freeze. The silence stretches on for long enough that I start to feel awkward.
