Wings of the Wicked

24





KELAENO FLEW ACROSS THE DEBRIS AND LANDED inside, her wings smashing through another wall as if the wood and drywall were made of paper. Her hair was a tangled, stringy mess and her facial features were more stable than when I last saw her. With an established form, she was prettier than I thought she’d be, but the violence and insanity in her eyes shattered the image. She looked as if she already had the taste of my blood in her mouth.

“The time has come to fetch you, little huntress,” she sneered, creeping toward me with the quick, sharp movements of something more avian than human. “I think I may have a bite on the way back to Bastian. I’ve never tasted angel flesh before.”

I stared into her wicked face. “Too bad your head will be rolling in the dirt in about five seconds.”

“Bold words,” Merodach said as he stepped into the foyer, “for a dead girl.” His body was so dark that only the edges were outlined in blue moonlight. His horns spiraled toward the ceiling, and the ones on his back stuck out in every direction.

Will raced by me, appearing out of nowhere, sword in hand. Merodach called his own sword—a hilt decorated with finely sculpted, razor-sharp points, and with sleek, vicious blades on either end. Merodach’s double sword met Will’s above both their heads, and the rush of energy slammed into either side of the hallway, crushing the walls. Merodach spun his sword so fast the blades blurred and nearly took off Will’s head, but my Guardian ducked and rolled, sweeping his sword low, and Merodach leaped into the air, landing on Will’s other side. Their blades clashed again, and Will struggled to keep up with Merodach’s double blades, slashing and swiping at speeds I could barely see. With each clang of metal against metal, their energies flashed, their eyes like beacons in the dark, so bright the blackness was stained and smeared with color as they moved.

The small army of unknown reapers—three males and two females—held still and silent, as if waiting for orders to engage. The male standing out in front was shorter than the rest and was drooling revolting amounts of saliva that squeezed out from between his lips and sharp teeth and rolled down his chin. Instead of hair, this one had a dozen or so short spikes made of clean white bone sticking out of his skull in every direction.

A hand locked around my throat and threw me across the living room. My body smashed into the stone fireplace, collapsing the mantle, and rubble rained down on me as I hit the floor. Kelaeno was above me suddenly, grabbing a fistful of my hair and yanking me to my feet.

“Time to come with us,” she hissed.

My sword appeared in my hand and blazed with angelfire as I swung it up at Kelaeno’s face. She ducked, but my blade cut across her cheek, drawing blood and sparking. She shrieked and lashed out with her talons, slicing gashes across my chest. My angelfire seared into her face in a flash of light, and her skin scarred over. She shook her head violently, hissing and snarling and gnashing her teeth. Then she lunged for my throat, swiping, slashing, clawing. I kicked her chest and she hit the floor but bounced right back to her feet. Her hand clamped around my throat, and she threw me to the ground, grinding my back into the floor. Her boot stomped on my sword arm, keeping me from striking her as she crouched over me. I clawed at her hand as it tightened around my throat.

“Such a wild thing! You’re like an angry kitten.” Kelaeno laughed down at me, and her fingers brushed down my cheek. “And you’re so pretty. I want your entrails for ribbons in my hair.” She slashed her talon across my skin, and I flinched at the sting and the smell of the blood that followed it, despite the cut healing right away. She laughed again and shoved me harder into the floor.

Suddenly a fist collided with her head, and she was thrown off of me and sent tumbling. Will leaped over me and charged at the demonic reaper as she struggled to her feet. He hit her again and she fell. He swung his fist a third time, but her power lashed out and struck him in the chest, and he landed a few yards away on his back with a grunt.

She stood and cursed at the top of her lungs as she spun around to the waiting reapers. “Rikken!” she roared at the drooling reaper. “Disable the Guardian!”

Rikken gave an eager shake of his spiked head like a dog baring his teeth, and he stomped toward Will. Kelaeno stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Will just as I heard him growl in pain. Fear for his life stabbed at every inch of me. We weren’t going to make it out of here alive. There were just too many of them.

I screamed in a rage and called my second sword and slashed it across Kelaeno’s chest, ripping her wide open. She roared and reared back, spreading her arms wide with clenched fists, thrashing her head from side to side in fury. I shot forward and swept my sword at her gut, but her hand knocked my arm away and she swung her body into me. A claw swiped my face and I hit the ground, blood seeping over my cheek and lips. I spat and wiped my arm across my face, feeling the numbness of my skin healing.

As I climbed to my feet, I saw two reapers racing toward me—a female with glossy black feathers in her hair and another male—with their claws spread open and teeth bared. I collided with them, spinning, ducking, kicking. I brought down my blade in a sweeping arc, splitting the female reaper’s body in two through her shoulder and below her left breast. She burst into flames, gone before any of her even hit the ground.

I wheeled to meet the second reaper directly behind me, but something large and glinting burst through his rib cage, cracking bone and tearing flesh. Blood flecked off silver metal as it halted for a brief moment, only inches from my own chest, and then the reaper’s body lifted into the air so that I could see it had been Will who had shoved his sword through the reaper’s heart. He flipped the reaper high over his head as the body turned to stone midair and shattered into a thousand pieces when it hit the floor.

Across the hall, Rikken clutched his throat and chest, which had been sliced wide open by Will’s sword moments ago, spilling red. He coughed and sputtered, but even from this distance I saw that his wound wasn’t fatal and was already healing.

A shadow passed behind Will, and I cried out his name. He turned and met Merodach, who charged through the darkness, driving his sword at Will’s chest, but Will spun to the side at the last instant. The blade ripped through his shirt and missed his skin entirely. Merodach slashed his double sword left and right and left and right, meeting Will’s giant blade each time.

I didn’t see Kelaeno appear beside me until she struck me across the temple. I staggered one step before I found my balance, spun, and reeled my elbow into her jaw. Her Harpy-like face snapped to the side. She swiveled her head around to meet my gaze with her holly red eyes, and she called two short, slick swords into her hands. She moved like lightning, one of her swords raised level with her shoulder before she thrust it at my face. I bounced away, but she followed, slashing and striking. Silver clanged against flaming silver, and her gaze locked onto mine as if she had nothing else to see. She drove one sword at my heart and I twisted away, but her other blade was too fast. Metal plunged into my shoulder, and I screamed as it ripped through my body. I stumbled against the wall and collapsed to my knees in agony.

Then Kelaeno jerked her head to the side in a blur, and her shoulder exploded. I saw Nathaniel standing behind her, staring down the barrel of his gun. Kelaeno had moved too fast for Nathaniel to shoot her in the head. He fired again, but she ducked low until her face was frighteningly close to mine. As she turned her head to look, her cheek brushed my nose and I jerked away, horrified. She slid her sword out from my shoulder, lifting my body as she did so. I shrieked in pain before slumping back against the wall.

Then she vanished.

Nathaniel’s eyes grew wide and he waited for her to reappear. When her form blurred into view, she was too fast for him to react. Her swords gone, she grabbed the gun from his hands and snapped it in half like a Popsicle stick before she chucked the pieces at the ground.

Will came out of nowhere and wrapped his arm around Kelaeno’s throat, digging up against her windpipe and yanking her back. He held on until she shoved her elbow into his gut and managed to wrench herself free. Nathaniel threw out a fist, but she caught it and struck him in the jaw. Will grabbed his sword off the ground and swiped it at the demonic reaper’s back.

Kelaeno’s ears pricked as she heard Will coming, and she spun around to defend herself, leaping back as his blade slashed across her chest, leaving a deep, bleeding gash and very nearly slicing off her head. She hissed and swung around in pain, clutching her open wound. The flesh wrapped over itself and wove back together, healing perfectly. Kelaeno’s red eyes burned like flames with her rage at receiving another wound of that severity in practically the same spot.

I rushed forward to help Will, but two other vir intercepted—the remaining female and the last male besides the wounded Rikken. They slashed and hissed, throwing punches and kicks that I dodged. I buried one blade in the male reaper’s heart on my left side, whirled at the female on my right, and cut off her head with my remaining blade. The male was in flames when I spun back to him, and I caught my falling sword as his body turned to ash.

Kelaeno grasped her clawed hand around my arm, and as I swung the blade in my free hand, she grabbed that wrist and squeezed, nails digging into my skin. I screamed and cried out. Blood seeped, and I was forced to drop my sword.

“Time to go,” she said sharply, and began dragging me toward the nearest escape route.

Then Will struck her brutally in the side of her head, so hard that she released me and her knees buckled. Will clamped his hand around the back of her neck, wrenched her off me, and threw her through the kitchen wall with all his strength. Wood shattered around her body as wet, icy-cold air rushed inside through the hole. Kelaeno crashed into the deck, destroying the railing, and she disappeared as she hurtled toward the ground with a scream of fury.

Will turned to me, and I exhaled a sigh of relief.

The breath caught in my throat as Kelaeno burst through the air over the deck, her wings spread and beating violently. Time seemed to slow. I stared deep into Will’s eyes, my expression widening in horror, as Kelaeno’s outstretched claws grappled at his body, snatching him and yanking him back out the hole in the wall and into the rain and darkness.

“Will!” I shrieked, and grabbed my fallen sword and dived through the demolished wall. The deck groaned and shifted uneasily beneath my weight, but I didn’t care as I ran to the edge and peered over the shattered floorboards. Icy rain stung my skin, and I shivered viciously at the wind whipping my hair, clawing at my clothes, and beating my face.

Down on the cold, muddy ground, dashing through the rain, Will and Kelaeno were fighting. Talons ripped Will’s arm wide open and he yelled out, tearing away, as Kelaeno landed in a crouched position. She jumped up and swiped again, her claws shredding Will’s shirt. Kelaeno ducked as he swung his sword, and she kicked him in the chest, making him grunt and knocking the sword out of his hand. They collided in a fury of swinging, pounding fists.

I heard a tremendous sound behind me, and I whirled. Merodach and Rikken were nowhere to be seen, but Nathaniel was punching through the only remaining wall in the hallway leading from the kitchen to what was left of the front door. The staircase behind him was a demolished and nearly inaccessible pile of rubble. Nathaniel pounded his fists—left, right, left, right—into the wall, exploding wood, drywall, and insulation. I stared at him, distracted by my confusion as to why he would be trying to knock this wall down. For a second, I almost forgot about the missing demonic reapers.

Then Nathaniel stopped, and the hole he’d created revealed a set of various weapons hidden in the wall. He reached his arm into the wall and pulled out a dark metal object: a mace. The weapon looked old and heavy, and the shaft was long and wrapped in leather. The round head of the mace was made of silver, and deadly looking spikes stuck out in every direction, reminding me of Rikken’s skull.

Rikken. Where was he? And Merodach?

“Nathaniel?” came a small voice.

We both spun to find Lauren standing just inside the blasted-open front of the house, her long hair billowing in the violent wind. I was suddenly numb, and I glanced at Nathaniel, whose face was frozen with fear.

He shook his head in disbelief, his copper eyes flashing bright and vibrant like brand-new pennies. “No,” he breathed. “Lauren, you’ve got to—”

Before he could finish, Rikken appeared between them, reaching for Lauren, and Nathaniel hurled the mace with a cry of rage. Rikken leaned back, avoiding the blow easily, and as Nathaniel’s torso went down with the arc of his swing, Rikken smashed his elbow into the back of Nathaniel’s head, sending him to his knees. He recovered quickly and grabbed Rikken’s fist as the demonic reaper swung, and Nathaniel swept the mace up and raked the spikes across Rikken’s chest as Rikken jerked his head out of the mace’s path. Rikken doubled over, clutching his wounds as saliva poured through his teeth and hit the floor, and Nathaniel rose.

Lauren’s hands covered her mouth in terror. “Nathaniel!”

He reached for her, dropping the mace to the floor and grasping her hands with his own. “You’ve got to go. I can’t protect you.”

“Come with me. Please don’t stay here!” She let her hands fall, but his closed around them and squeezed them tight.

He shook his head and she started to cry. “I have to stay,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”

With an awful sound escaping her, she nodded. He rushed into her and kissed her mouth fiercely, taking his hands from hers to firmly hold her shoulders.

“I love you,” he said, his copper eyes glowing. “Now run. Get in your car and drive away as fast as you can. Don’t stop until you’re out of gas. Lauren, run!”

She turned and bolted from the house. Nathaniel was trembling as we listened to her car start up and the tires squeal out of the driveway. I rushed forward to help him, but he held out a hand, stopping me.

“No!” he called. “Go help Will. He has both of them on him now. Go!”

I nodded and obeyed, spinning in the hall, and I darted through the hole in the wall Kelaeno’s body had made. Outside, I was back in the stinging, icy rain and she was nowhere to be seen. For a second I couldn’t see anyone, but I strained my eyes to make out a crumpled shape in the darkness of the lawn. My stomach dropped.

A hand fastened around my throat and another hand forced my head down. The fingers were like steel, squeezing and squeezing, so hard I couldn’t breathe. My knees hit the deck, and I dropped my swords to claw at the hand strangling me. Then I was wrenched to my feet. The hand loosened just enough for me to breathe and turn to find that I was caught in Kelaeno’s grasp. I twisted, reaching for my swords, but she spun me around, repositioned her hand so that it clamped around the back of my neck. Her other hand locked both of my wrists together. I wrenched my body, desperate to escape, but it was useless. I heard something snap, and I watched my winged necklace fall to the ground, the chain broken. The temperature felt like it dropped another several degrees, and I shivered.

“You have entirely exhausted my patience,” Kelaeno hissed, her breath hot and stinking of roadkill against my cheek. I gagged and twisted away from her face. She shoved me forward, pushing me down the swaying deck stairs to the ground. My shoes slipped in the mud, my balance off with my arms tied behind my back. Every time I slipped, Kelaeno dug her nails into my wrists.

The shape ahead of me came into view. It was Will on his knees in the mud, his sword lying too far away. Merodach stood above him with a tight fistful of Will’s hair in his hand and one end of his double blade to Will’s throat.

Kelaeno jerked me to the ground in front of Will, her grip tightening ruthlessly. “You shouldn’t have angered us like this,” she snarled. “We were just going to grab you and go, but now you get to watch your Guardian die first. Bastian’s orders be damned.”

My eyes met Will’s as Merodach’s blade pressed deeper into his throat, drawing a fine line of blood. I couldn’t let my emotion show in front of the demonic reapers—or in front of Will. I had to be as tough as he was, and he was so much closer to death in that moment.

“Rikken was going to give him a slow, agonizing death,” Kelaeno said into my ear. “But it seems he is preoccupied with the other angelic reaper. I think letting your Guardian here bleed out in the mud will do nicely. We can spare a few minutes before we depart.”

Merodach yanked Will’s head back, exposing his throat to the fullest, and began to draw his knife along my Guardian’s skin. Before I could scream out in protest, something zinged by my face, whirling, whipping through the air, and slammed right into Merodach’s chest, crunching bone. His body jerked at the impact, and he lost his hold on Will. Nathaniel’s mace was half buried in the demonic reaper’s ribs. Will shoved Merodach, hard enough to throw him even further off balance and force his dark wings to burst forth to catch himself. Will grabbed the shaft of the mace and tugged it out of Merodach’s chest with a crack of bone and a sickening wet slap of flesh, and swiped it at Merodach’s head, but the demonic reaper threw a hand up and knocked the weapon away.

I glanced behind me and gasped as Nathaniel leaped off the deck and darted toward us. Beneath Kelaeno’s vicious grip, I looked everywhere for Rikken, but he was nowhere within eyesight. I could only hope that Nathaniel had killed him.

Will charged suddenly, a blur in the darkness, and he beat Kelaeno off me. I jumped up and looked around for Merodach, finding that in those few seconds I’d taken my eyes off them, Will had incapacitated Merodach. Across the lawn, the demonic reaper was bent over backward at a disturbing, almost ninety-degree angle, struggling against Will’s sword nailing him to the ground. His wings beat against the dead grass and muddy patches of snow.

Kelaeno managed to duck away from Will’s monstrous attack, her face and clothes soaking wet with blood and rain. She slipped through the mud and grabbed me again before I could react. She swung me around, contorting my arm so violently in the wrong direction that I cried out and stars danced across my vision. She pressed her knee into my back, shoving my chest and face into the mud, pulling on my arm at the same time, threatening to dislodge the bone from its socket. I ground my teeth and whimpered.

“Not another step, Guardian!” Kelaeno cawed shrilly. “I’ll rip her arm right off. Merodach, get over here!”

Though I couldn’t see much, I assumed Merodach was still staked to the ground by Will’s sword. I recognized Will’s feet in front of me, unmoving, and I glanced to my right and saw up to Nathaniel’s knees.

Above me, Kelaeno loosed an ugly, impatient growl. “Enough of this.”

And then she wrenched my arm right out of the socket. I screamed and crumpled, squeezing my eyes shut. Kelaeno dropped me, and all around where I lay, feet darted and splashed through puddles. I pulled my useless limb closer to my body with my good arm. It felt cold, numb, and lifeless. As the seconds dragged on, the pain intensified. I tried to get up, but shock paralyzed me and my body wouldn’t work.

“Ellie.” A hand lay on my uninjured shoulder. It was Nathaniel.

He touched my face tenderly and helped me turn over onto my back. He touched my dislocated arm, and I shrieked and twisted from him. As gentle as he was, any contact felt like a thousand knives were driving into my skin. My arm hung limp, like dead weight, and I tried to pull it over my lap, but my whole body was so weak that I could barely even raise my good arm.

Nathaniel murmured to me, trying to soothe me, but all I needed was a distraction from the agony. Will and Kelaeno were fighting, clashing like titans from another world. The earth beneath me roiled with their power, and the air sparked with electricity.

“Ellie,” Nathaniel repeated determinedly, snapping my attention back to him. I was getting dizzier with shock by the moment. “We have to put your arm back into the socket. You can’t heal otherwise.”

I closed my eyes tightly and nodded. “Just do it. I’ve got to keep fighting.”

He took a firm hold of my shoulder and my arm just above the elbow. The pain was blinding, and so brief that once it was over, I was almost a little confused. I could feel tendons and muscles healing themselves, and the sensation was sickening but necessary.

I met Nathaniel’s stern gaze and took a deep breath. “Thank you.”

“You’ll be fine in a moment.” He nodded once, and we both looked toward the battle.

Will grabbed Kelaeno’s arm and rammed his fist into the side of her head. She staggered about and his knee shoved up into her gut, making her grunt and choke. Will’s fist swung to hit Kelaeno again, but her hand shot up and deflected his strike before she closed her fingers around his throat. He gasped painfully from the strength of her grip. She stood, glaring at him, and squeezed as tightly as she could. Will’s teeth clenched as he held back his pain and dug his fingers into her wrists. Then his gaze darkened and he summoned his power. He blasted everything he had into Kelaeno’s face, and she screamed and released him, spinning away and shielding herself from the explosion of winding, smoky black energy. She hit the mud sliding, and Will, now free, darted toward his sword.

His sword that no longer pinned Merodach to the ground. My breath caught as I felt a rush of dark power close to me.

I heard a gargled, anguished cry behind me, and I spun. Nathaniel was doubled over, and Merodach, soaked with his own blood, had his fist buried in Nathaniel’s chest. Something glinted in the moonlight and I blinked. Merodach’s sword stuck out of Nathaniel’s back—stabbed right through his heart.

My entire body went numb as I watched Merodach tug his sword free and Nathaniel hit the muddy ground on his knees. He wavered unsteadily, blood leaking like a river from his chest. He looked up into Merodach’s face and then collapsed and rolled onto his back.

For a moment, I couldn’t scream for him, couldn’t look away. Nathaniel sputtered and trembled. His skin brightened and shimmered, slowly turning to stone.

He was dying.

Merodach stared at me curiously as I scrambled toward Nathaniel and threw myself over him, running my hands along his graying arms to cup his face. He was just fine this morning, stretching his wings and telling me that anything was possible and to love who I wanted to love. He was just fine moments ago, putting my arm back into its socket and telling me I’d be all right. This couldn’t be happening. Not to Nathaniel.

“No, no, no,” I moaned in a low voice, rocking back and forth, my entire body shaking.

Nathaniel gaped at me, his face full of surprise and pain. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. He started to lift a hand, but his limbs were growing heavier and stiffer as he bled out and his heart chugged to a stop. His iridescent copper eyes widened and froze as his face turned to stone. Raindrops hit his rock skin, leaving dark, damp dots scattered across the white. Each soft metallic copper hair became pale and brittle and colorless, breaking off at the touch of my fingertips. Then he broke apart, piece by piece in my hands. Tears poured down my face as I screamed his name over and over until he was gone.

I lifted my head and searched for Will as I sobbed hysterically. His green eyes stared at Nathaniel’s stone remains; the color drained from his face. His eyes brightened quickly, growing so vibrant that they blazed in the darkness. His hand squeezed the handle of his sword so tightly his fist trembled and I could hear the silver groan. With a cry of unrivaled wrath, he launched himself at Merodach at a speed so high it appeared that he skimmed the ground midflight, and then his white wings burst through his shirt, shredding the fabric. He swept his sword low and then swung it high over his head as he soared through the air. His blade slashed at Merodach, and the demonic reaper swung his own up to catch Will’s sword with a deafening screech of metal. They collided, and Will’s power slammed into Merodach, sinking the ground beneath Merodach’s feet into a crater. The dark flash of shadows and smoke of reaper power cloaked them for an instant, and when it cleared, I saw only Will in the bottom of the fissure he’d created. Merodach had leaped out of it, his own dark wings spread wide behind him. He stepped back on his heel and readied his sword. Will’s wings beat once and launched him high into the air, and he came down on Merodach, his sword streaking through the air, slashing, striking, cutting flesh, clanging off the other blade. He was consumed with rage, his attacks all power and no control. Merodach was going to kill him.

“Will!” My voice was strangled, and I leaned protectively over what was left of Nathaniel. “Will, stop!”

He couldn’t hear me, couldn’t hear or see anything. I realized then how terrified he was for me when I let my emotions and power take over.

“Will, you have to stop! You’re going to get yourself killed!”

A blast of power sent tremors through the earth, and I grabbed at the ground for balance.

“Will, stop!” I screamed, but my voice was lost in the chaos.

Merodach’s elbow smashed right into Will’s nose, knocking him back several steps. The demonic reaper spun and kicked Will so hard he nearly hit the ground. Merodach spun again and pierced his sword right through Will’s chest, splashing blood across his white wings. Will collapsed onto his knees, and I screamed, scrambling to my feet and taking off at a run toward him. I couldn’t lose them both tonight. I couldn’t lose Will. I couldn’t lose him.

Rikken emerged into my vision a few yards away, drenched with blood as if he’d bathed in it. Nathaniel hadn’t killed him after all. A shadow stretched directly over me. I looked up.

The last thing I saw was the back of Kelaeno’s hand slamming into my face.