Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
KELLAN
K ellan sat in front of the fire across from his siblings, his body barely fitting atop the large boulder he’d perched on. He glanced to his left, toward the mounts sleeping soundlessly a few feet away in the darkness that surrounded them before turning back to the others. He was used to the darkness, his senses sharp. Eyes that could see far more than the human fast asleep near his feet. He’d discarded his cloak the moment they’d sat down, offering it to Demitria as she rested her weary eyes. He found himself staring at her, too. At the way the curves on her chest rose and fell with each breath she took. He needed to stop staring. To get ahold of himself, and stop acting like an absolute fool.
It took him far too much effort to drag his gaze back.
“Have they answered?” Kane spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. Kellan already knew the answer. He knew Gabriel had summoned them every time they’d stopped riding to no avail. Heard the string of curses when they didn’t answer. The council was refusing their summons, and that unnerved him more than it should have.
“No.” Gabriel stared into the red-orange glow, the dancing of the flames reflecting in his dark, forest green eyes. His voice was gruff, stern, as if the very thought tasted foul in his mouth. His hands were balled into fists in his lap as he sat there, unmoving. So still, almost as if he was nothing more than stone.
“Why?” Eire chimed in. “Because of the girl?” She chided, shooting her sleeping figure a quick glance before meeting his own gaze. Eire rolled her eyes at him, her features contorted to one of disgust. “We’re only in this mess because of her.”
“I don’t know.” Gabriel didn’t even stop them from the argument that was moments away from happening.
“Something more is going on. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.” Kellan spoke, stretching out the kink in his arms. Massaging the muscles with deft fingers from being in one position for too long.
“You believe the claims, then? About him ?” To his surprise, Eire’s voice softened, her features doing the same as she mimicked their eldest staring into the flames. If there was one thing they could agree on, it was the gravity of those claims. What they meant to each and every one of them.
He didn’t want to, but everything since he’d got here seemed to point directly to the male ruling The Underworld. And he hated that. Loathed it with every fiber of his being. The Dark King—Lucifer, was not a being he wanted any part of.
“I do.” He sighed, his head falling back as he stared off into the sky above, watching the stars peek through the clouds.
“Then what? What does it even mean?” Kane asked. His features were such a stark contrast against the world around them. The white blond of his hair, the piercing blue eyes. Striking, as he watched on.
“It means we kill him.” There was no other answer. Nothing that he could come up with, other than ending the male’s life.
“You think we can do that?” Eire laughed, then. Her gray eyes practically glowing as if he’d just said the most humorous thing. “We barely got you out of his clutches, and you think you can kill him?”
“We don’t have a choice!” His voice rose, deepening, as his brows knit together.
“We can’t just go off and kill him, Kellan. We need to wait for the council’s orders, that has always been law.” Kane reasoned, and Kellan rounded on him. He was supposed to be the one that agreed with him. The easygoing one out of all of them.
“They don’t give a shit about us!” He almost yelled, the anger dripping from him. What didn’t they understand? Even after everything that’s happened, why didn’t they believe him? “In case you haven’t noticed.”
“Gabriel?” Silence fell over them as Kane spoke, waiting for the final orders.
It seemed like eons before he finally answered. “We continue this path.” Gabriel answered, voice low. He still hadn’t broken from that stare, and Kellan wondered what was coursing through his mind. “Wherever he is, we find him, and we apprehend him.” It was Kellan’s turn to laugh. Apprehend him? There would be none of that. They wouldn’t survive it if they tried.
“And what then, brother?” Kellan narrowed his eyes at him. Killing Lucifer was the only option they had. Gabriel knew that.
“We apprehend him, and take him to the council. To hold a proper trial, and they will punish him as they see fit.”
Fucking delusional.
He loved his siblings, but gods…sometimes they made it so damn difficult.
“And the girl?” That look returned to Eire’s face, and he was nearly ready to smack it off her. His temper flaring from the conversation.
“We indulge her.” Gabriel looked at him, then. “Accompany her until she reaches the town safely, then we forget this assignment ever happened.”
They broke from the fire minutes later, but Kellan stayed in his seat. He didn’t care where the others went right now. Not after that conversation. Lucifer was a risk that none of them could take, and they all knew it. He couldn’t fathom the thought of trying to capture the bastard, let alone bring him in front of the council. He of all people knew that would never happen.
He was angry. Too many emotions swirling around inside him. Rage. Always so much fucking rage. Confusion…even shame at the way his brother had looked at him. Spoken his final orders as if they were directed at him. And that made him even angrier.
So, when Eire left in the middle of the night, he didn’t try to stop her.
“We’re being tracked.” She’d been harsh. Absolutely sure of herself.
“There is nothing out here.” Kellan sighed, exasperated. He felt like a void. There was nothing, and had been nothing for miles. The smoke had driven away any individual. Nothing wanted to be near the blaze. That was why they had yet to encounter a single demon, angel, or creature of earth. “The air here is making you hallucinate. Nothing is following us.” He’d let himself slip to the ground some hours before, settling his back against the cool stone as he sat beside Demitria.
“I’m telling you, something is out there.” She glared at him from across the fire, already several feet away from their makeshift camp.
“You’re mad.” He rolled his eyes, losing interest in her claims as quickly as she’d brought them up. He hadn’t sensed anything, and the others hadn’t spoken up about it either. Eire had always been the tracker of the group, but someone else should have picked up on it too. “There’s nothing out there, Eire.” He sighed, slinging his arm protectively over the sleeping figure nestled into his side.
Eire swung her body up atop the gray mare and her heels dug into the horse’s sides in a harsh jab that sent her reeling off into the dark night air, grumbling about proving her point as she left.
Kellan knew the others were awake. Listening to his interaction with Eire. Their eyes were closed, but he could tell. Kane and Gabriel had come back to the warmth of the flames sometime within the last hour, sitting much the same as he had, their backs propped against a stone. He knew they were absolutely sick of breaking up the two of them, it was their usual dynamic, even before things seemingly went to shit. Violence almost always was involved, especially as of late, it seemed.
Morning crept up on them all too soon, and they all stirred as the first rays broke over the horizon. There were no signs of Eire, or the being she had claimed to be tracking them since the burning community. Kellan was sure it had all been for show. Whether it be to scare Demitria, or something entirely different, he didn’t know. Maybe even to get away from him. Some days, he felt as if he hardly knew his siblings anymore.
“Thirsty?” Kellan held the canteen out, motioning for her to take it. Demitria didn’t flinch. Didn’t even blink as she watched his movements. She hadn’t changed since the other day. The deadly calm still radiating through her. The claim about killing the Dark King still hung fresh in his mind. She’d die doing it, he knew that. Hell, he might die doing it. But none had questioned her on the proclamation. He wasn’t sure if it was because the council still wanted her dead, and they’d seen it as a way to have her eliminated without setting a finger on her, but it would make sense. Kellan didn’t want to know, so he didn’t ask.
“Where do we even start?” Kane asked.
“I know a place.” Demitria said, catching him off guard. “We got word of a group of angels that took up residence not too far from here. J—” She caught herself, only faltering slightly at the near mention of his name, before continuing. “Sent a few scouting missions to keep an eye on them, watch what they were up to.” She finally took a large swig from the canteen, screwing the lid back on before passing it back to him. “They’ve been here for a few years. Never caused any trouble, so we never bothered them. It was…where I was headed before—” Everything ? She didn’t need to say the words for each one of them to know what she meant.
He and his siblings stared at the girl. They’d defected? Being on Earth meant those angels had abandoned the council and its orders. They were Fallen.
They had known about some angels going rogue every once in a while, abandoning Eden for Earth, leaving behind the responsibilities of the High Council with them. Kellan had thought about it once. Maybe twice, albeit briefly. Being shackled to the council, having to obey their every order when sometimes they just didn’t make sense. Like now .
He stared at Demitria again. He still had so many questions. Too many to count. Now this? The Fallen were always found, and always eliminated. It was only a matter of time before the council would send out an Angel of Death. Usually weeks, sometimes months. Their freedom never lasted long. But years?
“They will know where the Dark King resides. Where he hides, I’m sure of it.” Demitria met the eyes of each Horsemen present as if in challenge. She stared the longest at Gabriel.
“Lead the way.” He motioned toward their horses, waiting patiently for them to mount up and ride out. She stared, one last long look before swinging her body atop Atlas. The rest followed, only moments behind as she took off northbound.
Eire had yet to return, but she’d track them down without a problem. It was what she was best at, after all.
“How do you do it?” Demitria asked hours later. They’d been riding at a fast pace all day, following closely behind as she led them toward the Fallen. She’d slowed her mount down now until they were in line to speak. “How do you kill with no remorse?”
Gabriel was the first to answer. “We do not kill without reason.” He watched the human as Kellan had the day before. Recognizing the dark depths of where she now lay, the rage that leeched its way through her, eating away every ounce of humanity. One he’d seen on Kellan far too many times. “Our purpose is balance, and nothing more.”
“That’s nothing but a lie, and you know that.” Face hard, she glared at the eldest.
“I do not thrive on killing. It is my job, and nothing more.” Harsh. Final. Kellan stayed silent, unsure on what to say. He did not have a clean past, and the blood on his hands was far too great. He could drown a thousand times over in it. His hands had never been clean from the moment the council trapped him in their clutches. Not like his siblings.
“We are required to keep the balance. Our job is to eliminate anything that threatens that, and nothing more.”
“So why me? Why was I deemed a threat?” She asked.
“I do not know.” He answered.
“Does my existence threaten the balance so much that I had to be killed? Where is the logic in that? Why did they want me dead?” Demitria was irritated, they all could see it.
“I do not know that either.” Gabriel sighed, pulling his gaze from her.
“Do you know anything?” She quipped.
“Only what they wish us to know.” His answer silenced her. Kellan knew his brother had just as many questions as he did, if not more. As their leader, he was granted most of his knowledge directly from the council themselves. And yet they’d held back, even from him.
Why?
“Follow your orders. Do whatever you wish with me, but I will kill him first.” Those green-gold eyes had gone dark. “Regardless of what you have to say, I will follow you on your quest to eliminate him. The attack on my family made things personal.” He didn’t have it in him to tell her Gabriel hadn’t wanted the male dead. That they were to attempt to capture the being, to leave this world and bring him before the council to stand trial. She wouldn’t even get the chance.
If the Horsemen hadn’t known better, they could have sworn she had been one of them. Nephilim. The power she exuded. The command in her voice as she challenged them, it was like one of their own. Like Gabriel.
“I don’t care what you do with me afterward, but I will kill him for everything he has done.”
Gabriel was silent, now his turn to watch her. Kellan waited with bated breath, unsure on the road his brother would take. His breath left him in a whoosh as the faint hint of a smile graced Gabriel’s features before promptly disappearing. “I look forward to seeing how the council’s most wanted killer works.”