Chapter 24
There’s a magnificent, glimmering rainbow of wings above me. They fly in the shape of a triangular kite, trailed by—
My dagger falls into the dirt, forgotten and useless. I choke on a hysterical noise, caught somewhere between a laugh and a cry. It feels like it’s been an eternity since I’ve seen those familiar white and gold wings.
I use my free hands to wave both arms in the air, trying to catch his attention—but the distance is too vast, and he passes over me without wavering.
A loud, dramatic groan of frustration slips out of me. Because, of course, he wouldn’t see me. He’s way the fuck up there, lost in his own little dream world.
I pace, looking along the ground for something to kick in frustration, when an idea strikes me. There’s another way I can call him. I haven’t tried it yet, though if I close my eyes, it’s there for the taking. A shimmering pathway—the tether between us.
I pull it with ease, begging him to come my direction…
Miraculously, it works. He breaks off from the group immediately, flipping backward in the sky, diving in my direction like a hawk at breakneck speeds.
Within moments, he lands on the ground with a thud and a cloud of dirt.
“Dawn,” he calls, rushing towards me. I don’t even have a second to say another word before he scoops me up with lightning-fast reflexes, squeezes the life out of me, then plops me back on the ground. “Was that you? My, my, how you’ve progressed.”
“Yes,” I cough, catching my breath. “That was me. Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of my abilities.”
“Oh, surely not!”
“It is, trust me.” Dismissing that topic, I touch his shoulder in an attempt to be sincere. “Look, Dusk. I want to apologize for how I acted when you told me you were being reassigned. I took it way too personally—”
“No, let me stop you there.” He shakes his head. “You had every right to be upset with me. I’m the one who brought you here. When you needed my support, I abandoned you to deal with all this on your own. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I feel so bad.”
“It’s okay. I understand.” In the real world, I wouldn’t have taken offense if we’d been accepted into different medical schools or something.
I shouldn’t be upset about the demands of his angelic responsibilities, either.
If anything, his work is less trivial than anything I could compare it to. “You were just doing your job.”
“Even if so, I could have done a lot better.” Stepping closer, he takes my hands in his. “I’ve been a terrible messenger, but an even worse friend. Please forgive me. If you give me the chance, I promise I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”
One of my eyebrows rises. “I’ll forgive you if you quit being so painfully serious. I’ve had enough of that from the brooding angel who lives here.”
“Deal,” he says quickly, but doesn’t let go of my hands. Instead, he bites his lip, pausing. “I missed you.”
An awkward laugh escapes me. “I missed you too, Dusk. But I think we need to have some… uh… boundaries. To our relationship.”
“Right. Of course.” He drops my hands, taking on a soft smile. “Whatever you need.”
I need to know everything about everything, I almost say, but I stop myself. Dusk always seems to have a short attention span. Whenever I ask him too many questions, or too vague of a big question, he only seems to answer one part of it.
So instead, I start with a simple, “How’s the surface?”
“Not great, but relatively okay for now. The fuses are being lit, and it won’t be long before some things start to combust.” Dusk peers over my shoulder. “If you’re done beating the dummy into a bloody pulp, maybe we can head back to the castle? Particularly, the dining hall. I’m famished.”
“Fine, but I want more details later.” I cast a wary glance towards the castle. “Will your company be joining us?”
“Unfortunately, I’m fairly certain they will be. They’re the—”
“Council. I know.” Snatching my pack and dagger off the ground, I discreetly give myself a sniff. As expected, I don’t smell fantastic. That’s going to make a great first impression with the angelic overlords. “I don’t suppose I have time to take a shower before dinner?”
“I can help with that.”
My face tightens as I freeze, staring at him. “Uh…”
Like the devious bastard he is, he grins, waving a hand in my direction. Faint warmth floods over me, and a moment later, all the oil and grime clinging to my skin disappears.
“Good as new.” Dusk motions for me to follow him. “Come on. I’ll give you the run-down on the walk up.”
Stowing my items on my body, I follow him down the path out of the training yard.
“So, I’ll try to make it easy by color-coding them with their wings.” He holds up a hand to count them out on his fingers as he talks. “Red wings, excessively tall and buff, looks like he’s of Middle Eastern ethnicity? That’s the one I hoped you’d never have to meet. Michael.”
“Noted.”
“Second in command is Gabriel, outfitted with gaudy gold wings and samurai armor, who always looks like he’s constipated.
” He rolls his eyes before lifting another finger.
“Then we have Uriel, with his lavender wings—pale as a corpse, looks like walking death, makes you feel like someone’s walking over your grave when he speaks… .”
If I’m not mistaken, goosebumps seem to rise on his arms just talking about the angel.
“And, finally, there’s Raphael. Green wings, dark brown skin.
Always radiating peace, love, and sunshine.
The healer type, you know? He’s the only somewhat tolerable one.
” Leaning towards me, he drops his voice to a whisper, as if telling me a secret.
“But don’t be fooled. Being around him may feel like a warm hug, but he’s still Council. ”
“Huh.” The leaders of the entirety of the Elohim angels are shitty people. I don’t quite know how to feel about that. Or, maybe, Dusk is just being a touch too dramatic? “So they’re really all that bad?”
“They’re insufferable, Kae. I can’t stand to be alone with them for any substantial amount of time. Luckily, it was a direct trip here… I think I’d rather gouge my eyes out than travel with Michael any longer than this took.”
“Gross?”
“You’ll understand soon enough,” he says with a dry laugh. We’re almost to the side door of the castle, closest to the dining hall. “But I hope you’ve been doing okay? Has the King of Moroseness been taking care of you, at least?”
I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say he’s been caring for me. I haven’t been maimed or killed under his watch, which is good, at least. “I’ve been doing, um… mental exercises… with him. Trying to understand my soul, find the star, and shit.”
“Sounds like so much fun.”
“Totally. It’s been such a blast. Abaddon is the biggest bucket of sunshine there ever was.”
Dusk stops me by grabbing my arm. “But he has kept his oath, correct?”
“Yes.” I refuse to look him in the eyes, instead glancing at the castle door. I, myself, can’t understand what’s going on between Abaddon and me. There’s no way I could explain it to him, even if I wanted to. “We’ve just had a bit of a disagreement lately.”
“Ah. So that’s why you were beating that sack of meat to a bloody pulp… In that case, dinner definitely won’t be excruciatingly painful for both of us.”
He holds the door open for me, and I give him a wry smile.
“Definitely not.”
We walk down the corridor, closing the short distance to the dining hall. Nothing seems amiss, but my apprehension builds in each step. Something feels off in the air. Where I might have expected some noise coming from behind the carved double doors, it’s deathly quiet.
“Be ready.” Dusk mumbles, reaching for the ornate handles.
My eyes flit to him, and I rub my clammy hands on the side of my pants. “For what?”
“Anything.”
The moment he swings the door open for me, a wave of power crashes into me like a hot sonic blast.
I stumble backward, clutching my chest. Pressure pushes in on my body, my soul—everything. I try to suck in a breath, but I can’t breathe. It’s as if all the air around me is sucked out, leaving me in a crushing void, and I. Can’t. Breathe.
“That won’t be necessary, Michael. I have already vetted her.” I hear Abaddon’s cool, steady voice slide through the air. For once, I’m grateful to hear it. To have him on my side.
But his command seems to change nothing. The pressure persists. My vision becomes spotty, my head quickly growing lighter, lighter—
“Michael,” Abaddon’s pitch drops to a low, lethal warning. “This is my realm, where Kae Lambros is a resident under my protection. Release her immediately.”
The air floods back into my lungs with such suddenty, I stagger backward. Darkness still blots out my vision, quickly threatening my head with the ground, but Dusk slips an arm around my waist to steady me.
Desperately, I try to calm my ragged breath and pounding heart, staring at the ground until it comes into focus again.
They’re likely all watching me, gauging how easily I can recover from such a violent intrusion, and I’m ashamed.
Overwhelmed with shame. Never in my life have I felt my fragile human mortality to be such an embarrassing weakness before.
“Come on,” Dusk whispers, close enough to my ear that his nose brushes my hair. “Let’s get you to a chair.”
I only glance up for a moment, briefly noting the small litany of angels seated around the table, before I avert my eyes again.
“Right.”
Dusk plays the gentleman as he guides me into the room, disguising his help as chivalry. He even pulls the chair out for me, which is something I don’t think he’s ever done, before he sits down beside me. It’s then that I notice his demeanor seems softened, his glow weakened.
It drives a needle into my heart.
He has to be accustomed to working closely with this Council. If what I just experienced is even a fraction of the control that Dusk has lived under for over a thousand years, then I’ve entirely misjudged him.
He’s not a loyal lapdog.
He’s traumatized by these people.