Chapter Twenty three
Gabriel
Grimshaw smiled. “I see you wish for me to prove my knowledge and devotion to you. Very well. I’ve researched all I can about this.
When you Fell from the sky, my grandfather thought you and your whole company had died.
But then you rose. And after you, others did as well.
The demons who tormented you fled at the sight.
“My grandfather also retrieved a single feather from your wings. Pure white, glistening in the sunlight.” Grimshaw’s voice took on an awed tone.
“He used the feather in healings, long periods of prayer over a sick person. He used the feather as not only a physical reminder of faith in our lord, but also a blessing. Those who were meant to die were hurried into death’s waiting arms. And the others grew healthy again, springing forth from their sickbeds and returning into our arms.”
I didn’t bother to hide my sneer. “My feather did all this?”
He nodded fervently. “We need you, oh great one. We shall provide for all your earthly and spiritual needs, and in return we shall boast to the world that a Herald resides with us. I swear, we shall make everything to your specifications.”
I didn’t trust this man one bit. I wished Eve had told me earlier about him so I could understand better what he wanted.
He took my silence as encouragement to continue, for he eagerly delved into his plan. “We have created chambers for your comfort. We shall provide all food, drink, and material needs for you. We only request that you provide us with your blessing as well as your heralds for life and death.”
Did he think I could predict and prevent death?
Or also cause it to fall upon other people?
I could not. Seraphim were predators of humans, if we wanted to be.
Some seraphim did have magical powers, but we couldn’t access it here.
But still, I’d learned not to brush off fanatical belief.
It could make a man do strange things. And a whole group of them?
Repulsion rippled through my body. Eve was right; this was a cult.
My mate had a far stronger will and inquisitive mind than I realized to overcome all of this.
“Well?” He looked expectantly up at me.
I blinked. Apparently he’d still been talking. “What?”
“Will you come?” Grimshaw prodded.
I cocked my head to the side, as if thinking. Then, “No.”
His jaw dropped. I don’t think he’d even considered the idea that I might say no. His face turned red. “I must insist you reconsider. You can find a better life surrounded by us. We wish to give you the adoration one such as you deserves.”
I held back a grimace. “The answer is no.”
“Lord Herald,” he got out through a fiercely clenched jaw. “I must beg you—”
My patience was at an end. I couldn’t believe Eve was betrothed to such a jackass. “And I must insist you leave. Now.”
For a heartbeat he stared at me, anger radiating from his body.
Then he recovered himself, smoothing a hand down the front of his clothing and readjusting his hat.
“I see.” The change in behavior and body language was impressive, I had to admit.
“You need more time to think it over. I can come back tomorrow and we can discuss what else you might need to feel at home among us.”
“The answer will be no,” I told him.
He nodded to himself as if he hadn’t even heard me. “Women. We can certainly offer women.”
I sneered. “Get out of my home, human.” I pointed to the door behind me.
He left with his nose in the air and back ramrod straight, a picture of perfect dignity. He slammed the door shut behind him, the only display of anger he let slip.
Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair and looked around. Everything was the same, everything was as it should be, but something gnawed at me. Something was missing.
Eve. Eve was missing.
Shame and regret drenched me. She was probably angry and hurt, perhaps hiding in her room. I needed to make this right.
I was a terrible mate, and we hadn’t fully bonded yet. How would I convince her to give me another chance? I rubbed at the growing pain in my chest. I needed her, and I’d flown away from her in a fit of rage.
Meeting Zorababel Grimshaw made me understand Eve much better. I wanted her to be mine. She was mine. I couldn’t imagine the fortitude she must have to not only escape her cult, but tell her leader and her betrothed that no, she wouldn’t share my secrets with him.
I could trust her. I had trusted her all along, and I should’ve listened to the pounding ayim in my heart this morning.
I love her. Like the moon here was strong enough to draw in the tides, so she pulled at my heart just by the virtue of being herself.
She needed to know that. What a fool I had been, wasting our time together without baring my heart to her.
Without recognizing what pumped through my veins.
I would find her, go to her, get on my knees and beg for forgiveness. Turning once more, I went into the servants’ wing instead.
“Eve?” I called, tightening my wings so they wouldn’t brush the walls on either side of the narrow corridor. “Eve, please answer me. You were right. I should’ve listened to you earlier, understood what you were trying to tell me. Please let me make that right.” I love you.
Silence echoed around me.
I pushed open the cracked door to her room and glanced around. “Eve?”
The small room was so still it felt like it had been empty for weeks. The fire was out in the small fireplace, the boxbed shut. Her trunk sat in the corner of the room, lid open and belongings tangled and twisted inside.
A strange sense of foreboding made my feathers ripple against my back.
She wouldn’t…she hadn’t left. Surely. It would be like last time, when she’d gone for a walk.
I stalked across the room and rifled through the trunk.
It was only half full. I turned to the small vanity dresser and jerked open each drawer, finding them empty.
Hadn’t she had a valise when she arrived? Where was that?
Dread spread like poison through my veins, my heart pumping faster and faster. I scanned the room. It looked neat, tidy, and empty of life. The only thing she’d left behind was that trunk, because it was too heavy for her to carry.
Fear dug its claws in me, pinning my wings and freezing my body. “Eve,” I croaked. “Please, oh stars, please, Eve.” But she wasn’t there to hear me.
I had to find her. With Grimshaw on the moors, she wasn’t safe. He could force her to travel back with him, and I knew that would be the last thing she wanted.
And selfishly, I wanted her back for me. I hadn’t breathed in decades until she arrived, blowing the cobwebs and dust away from both the house and my heart. She was the spring that arrived on my doorstep as winter descended around us, and I couldn’t live without her. I wouldn’t want to.
I spun on my heel, ready to tear into the sky, but something made me pause. I instead hitched my wings as high as I could and ran to the gymnasium. My eyes searched the room—there. I jerked the canvas and leather cords free, then pulled my sword from its scabbard and inspected the metal.
Still strong. I didn’t have time to strap it to my back or my hip. I took the naked blade with me, racing toward the largest window to burst into the sky.
* * *
Eve
I twisted in my bonds, gritting my teeth against the pain of the rough fibers rubbing into my raw wrists. “Lilith,” I tried again.
She had returned to the bed with a book of poetry. It had to be contraband, by the way she’d pulled out from the very bottom of her valise, wrapped in her undergarments. There was no way Zorababel allowed her to read something so worldly. “I’m not listening, Eve.”
I sighed. “Obviously you are.”
I heard another page turn.
“Please. You may want to stay, but surely you can understand that tying a woman up and making her travel back to the community is wrong.”
Lilith echoed my sigh. “I’m not an idiot, Eve. You don’t like me, and I don’t like you. Still, I don’t wish you ill. But you know how we have to please the reverend and his elders.”
“We don’t have to,” I began, but Lilith cut me off with a tinkling laugh.
“Oh, it’s all well and good for Eve to skulk at the corners, never drawing attention, getting away with breaking all sorts of rules. But me? Every single man in our church knows me. Watches me. Wants me. I can’t slip. I can’t break a single rule, because they’ll all know immediately.”
“You are favored above all other women!” I snapped.
“That means I have farther to fall,” she retorted.
Before I could reply, the door burst open. It slammed the wall so hard it dented the plaster. A furious Zorbabel stomped into the room, his brown eyes blazing with rage.
I tried not to cringe back into the bed.
His eyes found mine. “You scheming little harlot,” he seethed, jabbing a finger in my direction. “You poisoned him against me, didn’t you?”
I shook my head. “No, Zor, I didn’t!”
“Don’t call me that!” He strode two steps to me and bent over, withdrawing a knife. “I am your reverend, your leader, and your master. You will address me with the respect I deserve.”
I gasped and tried to wriggle away from him, but the ropes held firm.
He grabbed my hands roughly. They’d gone nearly numb from the tight knots.
I held my breath, expecting sharp pain and blood, but instead he sawed through the ropes. “You and I are going to have a chat.”
“Reverend,” Lilith broke in. “Perhaps—”
“Keep silent, woman.” Zorababel’s eyes, unholy and crazed, flicked up to her.
She fell silent.
Pain shot through my hands into my fingers, the pinpricks of blood finally returning to veins. I gasped as I tried to make two fists, my hands finally falling to the ground by my side instead of wrenched behind me.
He worked at the rope around my ankles. “My two elders are waiting outside. We will be—”
I bolted upright, listing heavily to the side. I crashed into Zorababel, who wasn’t prepared. He fell to the ground, the knife clattering across the floor and under the bed.
“You rebellious whore,” my betrothed seethed. “I will break you, do you hear me?”
I fought against the pins and needles feeling traveling up and down my calves and into my feet.
I couldn’t yet clench my fists, but I didn’t need hands to run.
I charged out the door as best I could, careening wildly in the hallway.
But I kept going. I tripped and fell halfway down the stairs, picked myself up, and then kept running to the back, through the kitchen, and out the back door.
The outside door slammed open, and wintry flurries swept into my eyes. Heavy clouds rolled across the sky, bringing in a storm. The air smelled sharp and crackled with energy.
Blinking rapidly, I rushed out into the back yard.
A box of dirt, probably an herb garden in warmer months, lay between me and the wide, open moors.
I leapt over it, my foot catching on the lip of the wooden box.
My arms flew out, and I nearly fell into the brown, brittle grass.
I caught myself in time, then kept running.
My heart pounded so hard I thought it would jump straight out of my chest.
“Get back here!” Zorababel’s anger struck out like a snake. I flinched, as if it could literally catch hold and drag my back to him.
I didn’t dare look over my shoulder. I could imagine him racing out of the pub, leaping over the herb box, and catching me. Gasping for breath, I lengthened my stride, picked up my skirts, and ran.
Where did Castiel live? He would protect me. But with the two elders waiting in the front of the pub, nowhere in the village was safe.
My mind raced as my feet dug up the wet, cold earth and turned toward the manor, where I’d last felt safe.
I was leaving footprints for him to follow, but I didn’t know what to do about it.
I pushed harder. Wind whipped past my face, stinging my eyes and scraping my cheeks. My hair flapped behind me.
I could hide at the manor, and Gabriel would protect me.
I knew that now. How I wished I’d realized that weeks ago.
Clenching my jaw, I ignored the stitch forming in my side.
The village faded behind me, but the pounding feet of three men did not.
Sparing a glance over my shoulder, I could see Zorababel Grimshaw chasing me.
He had no knife—had he left it behind, or was it in a pocket? I didn’t want to find out.
The two other elders came up behind. Absalom’s long legs ate up the cold ground until he was beside the reverend.
Terror squeezed my heart. I tripped on a tuft of grass and nearly sprawled onto my stomach.
The moorlands stretched beyond us in all directions, the sky turning black above us and the horizon a faint glimmer of thin light.
Gentle hills rolled in every direction. The barren landscape, void of trees, made it nearly impossible to hide. One could see a mile in each direction.
Jagged rock formations cut into the sky off to the right, gray against the brown land and the blackening sky. Mirkwold wasn’t in that direction, but it was close enough. I veered toward the rocks and the cliff I knew would be beyond it.
I knew now that area wasn’t safe for anyone on foot, and I could use it to my advantage.