Chapter Twenty four
Gabriel
My wings beat at the heavy, storm-thick air, pushing me toward the village.
Gathering condensation drifted into fog.
I stayed low to the ground, skirting the western edge of the path to the village.
Movement to my right caught my attention.
I peered through the growing darkness, the sharp smell on the wind making me nervous.
A hare jumped through the tall grass, pausing to sniff on its hind legs, then tucked its tail and darted away.
Disappointment settled in my stomach. Only an animal.
Adjusting my grip on my sword, I pushed onward, angling toward Castiel’s home.
As I swooped toward the thatched roofs of the village, the few humans still outside as the weather worsened paused to look up at me.
I was near enough to see dismay and fear fill their faces as they saw my white wings against the storm clouds turned and scurried back into their houses.
I gritted my teeth. I might need their help, and they’d be too frightened to assist me. Perhaps I shouldn’t have played the monstrous, distant lord of the manor so well. But at least there was Castiel. They tolerated Castiel.
His cottage emerged from the gloom. I angled downward, nearly shearing off the edge of one wing against a nearby roof, and hit the ground right outside his door. My fist rose and pounded on his door.
“CASTIEL! OPEN YOUR DOOR, CASTIEL!” The longer I went without seeing Eve, the more my heart ached and the more my fear grew.
The door opened, revealing a scowling Castiel backlit by cheerful firelight. “Captain?”
Sweat dotted his temple, and his broad shoulders drooped, though his wings stayed in proper position. He must’ve returned from flying Azrael away. Azrael hated being anywhere near humans.
“What’s wrong?” Castiel demanded, taking in my appearance in one blink. He stared at the sword in my hand.
“Eve. She’s missing.”
He tensed, alert instantly. “I haven’t seen her. Could she be in the village?”
I shook my head. “We…argued. She might be leaving me.”
Shock filled his dark eyes, but I didn’t have time to be embarrassed at being such a poor mate.
“But her betrothed is also here, those people I asked Azrael to watch. He is a deeply unpleasant person. He could be forcing her back into their fold. I need to know if she’s well.”
Castiel left his house, shutting the door behind him. His wings nearly brushed mine, and I shifted backward to grant him space. “I can search the village.” He didn’t pause to put on a flying vest or shoes.
I sagged with relief. “Thank you, Castiel.”
He gave me a bemused look. “For you, anything, Captain.”
We turned as one. I expected us to shoot into the air, but Castiel tightened his wings against his back and walked the short distance into the village.
My tender feet protested as I hurried over gravel and coarse grass, but I ignored them.
Once inside the village, we walked down the main lane and glanced down side streets. Suddenly, up ahead at the pub, a door opened and a human woman tumbled into the street in a blur of purple skirts and shining, white-blond hair.
Castiel sucked in a breath and hurried toward her. I beat him. I hauled the woman upright. “Where is my Eve?”
She blinked up at me, blue eyes nearly violet framed by cornsilk lashes. Horror made her mouth drop. “W-w-who are you?” She tried to pull away, eying my sword with panic.
I growled. This was a waste of time.
Castiel’s hands set on mine, gently prying them off the woman’s arms. “We are looking for his housekeeper, Eve Lovejoy.”
Her face changed, a blush rising to her round cheeks. Her eyes fluttered nervously away.
“You’re one of them,” Castiel realized. The suspicious travellers on the road. “Why are you here?”
“I–I’m here because they told me I had to come,” she stuttered.
“And where is Eve Lovejoy?” Castiel coaxed, probably aware I was panting and furious.
With a shaking finger she pointed off into the wilds of the moors. “She escaped. They chased after her.”
“Good. Now, I need you to—” Castiel’s persuasive tones cut off as I whirled and threw myself up into the air.
Vertical takeoffs could only be accomplished by adults with fully developed muscles, and even then we could only do so many in quick succession before exhausting ourselves.
I pushed against the strain in my ligaments and muscles, climbing into the air.
I surveyed the wide, flat lands below me, so unlike my homeland.
Movement, brown against brown, caught my attention far off the path, deeper into the wilds. I squinted, and could make out two or three figures running toward the rock outcroppings. It had to be Eve.
The ayim pounded in my heart, surging through my body and sending me into an alertness I hadn’t experienced since the war. Rage and fear nearly blinding me, I cut through the thickening fog to rescue my mate. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
If they touched a hair on her head, I would slaughter them where they stood.
* * *
Eve
I climbed between the rock outcroppings, stumbling over the bumps and dips in the land.
“Come back here, Eve,” Zorababel shouted, his voice hoarse now.
Rock scraped my palm, ripping open the sensitive skin, and my skirt’s hem tore beneath my feet. I had stumbled my way back to the dangerous hill and sheer cliff up ahead. If I could lose them among the rocks…
Lightning flashed behind one of the clouds, illuminating my path. In response, thunder boomed across the wide, oppressive sky.
“There she is!” Absalom’s dull, loud voice broke across the open air.
I ducked behind a boulder, taking a second to catch my breath. My chest heaved, and the wet, cold air burned my throat as I gulped it into my lungs.
A boot scraped on damp rock somewhere behind me.
Fear shot through me, making my heart skip a beat and hair stand on end. I bolted, jerking away from the noise and hurrying further up the hill. I bent nearly double, climbing with my hands and feet in hopes that they would miss my figure in the lowering night if it was closer to the ground.
“Run, girl, run,” Zorababel taunted. “But the lord guides my path, and I am his instrument to smite punishment upon the rebellious and wicked.”
My leg muscles burned and my feet ached from the rocks and pebbles I’d trampled. I gripped long, dead grass to steady myself, and it cut into my bleeding palms.
I bit back a whimper.
Suddenly, the rock formations dropped away and I was there, on the edge of the cliff. I peered over, my stomach flipping anxiously. Although it was only mid afternoon, the black clouds and the bleak landscape had caused night to fall early upon the land.
I reached the brink of the cliff, found a spot where the grass grew up and outward, which disguised the edge. I couldn’t catch my breath. I bent over, my hands on my knees, and gasped. Sweat made my necklace, still caught between my dress and my skin, stick to me.
Ever-present wind whipped my hair in my eyes and tangled my torn skirts around my legs. From the corner of my eye I could see the bottom of the cliff. It wasn’t a tall cliff—these were the moors, after all—but the rocks at the bottom were deadly.
Zorababel’s grunt reached my ears above the shrieking wind and the rumbling thunder.
I looked up, my heart sinking. This had been my plan, a foolish one, yes, but the only one I could think of.
“There you are.” Zorababel appeared into view, stepping out of the shadows of the tall rocks and leering at me. “If you’d stopped earlier, I could’ve granted you mercy. But you, Eve Lovejoy, have been very, very wicked.”
I licked my dry lips, feeling the first sprinkle of rain. My heart rattled in my ribcage.
“Get over here.”
I straightened, shaking my head.
“Eve,” he snapped, his face a rictus of fury. He would murder me, I realized. I’d pushed him too far. “Get over here now.”
Again, I shook my head.
He clenched his jaw so hard I was surprised I didn’t hear a tooth crack. With his hands balled into dangerous fists, the reverend stalked toward me.
I stood still, the cliff edge at my back. Fear grasped my chest, squeezing like a vise. I could scarcely breathe from the crushing grip.
Lightning flashed again, capturing an image of the violence in every line of his body.
“You’ll have to come get me.” I couldn’t breathe. I let him come closer. If I could move out of the way at the very last second, he should go hurtling over the edge.
Thunder roared above us, sounding like Gabriel’s growl.
I didn’t dare close my eyes, but I focused on Gabriel, his gruff sweetness, the gentle slide of his feathers against my skin, the way I loved him. I love him. I only wish I could’ve seen him one last time. It’s not over yet.
Zorababel was three steps, then two steps from me.
My fingers twitched as I resisted the urge to run.
Light flashed overhead again, much closer this time. The white light fluttered again overhead.
“EVE!” It sounded like…Gabriel.
My heart skipped a beat. I glanced up and saw white wings stark against the black sky.
The wings spread wide across the sky, catching what little light remained on the horizon and sparkling like diamonds.
He looked down at me, expression determined and fierce.
His sword was in his hand. His other was aloft, palm open as if reaching for lightning.
His wings snapped back and he dove toward us, one arm outstretched.
He was glorious, everything a seraph could be. I had seen the captain part of him from the beginning, the burdened yet caring man who wanted to do the right thing for his people. But now I saw the warrior.
How the Gar must’ve quaked with fear when he’d come at them with a sword in his hands. I froze, not in terror, but in admiration of the avenging angel.
Gabriel grabbed Zorababel by the back of his collar.
Shock cut across Zorababel’s face as he was jerked backward and tossed against the rocks.
Gabriel landed in a crouch, one hand planted in the wet earth. Water dripped from his black hair, and his wings spread, the primary feather trailing in the dead grass. His sword reflected the lightning flash in the sky.
Need cut into my chest like a knife. I needed this man, this seraph, in every way. I couldn’t breathe without him, let alone live. He was etched into my soul, and I could not cut him from me anymore than I could cut a limb from my own body.
Slowly, he raised his head. His burning green eyes burned through the fog, the sprinkling rain, the terror, the falling night, and pierced me with a heat that enveloped every inch of my skin.
Lightning cracked behind him, backlighting him and shattering a boulder.
The possession in his gaze made my toes curl.
His bare chest heaved, and the corded muscles in his arms flexed as he stood.
His wings snapped back against his spine, but I would never forget the breathtaking sight of them slashing through the night.
“Gabriel,” I whispered. The wind whipped my words away, off the edge of the cliff, but he must’ve heard me. His nostrils flared and his pupils dilated further.
“Eve,” he rasped, voice like ground glass.
Shadows moved behind him, and I jerked my gaze beyond him. I gasped, pointing at Zorababel. He had shaken his confusion free and stood, and he was now creeping toward Gabriel.
Gabriel whirled, taking a warrior’s stance with knees slightly bent, sword hand out, and wings arched and poised to move. I should not have doubted him. He had earned his place as captain of a sedge. I was seeing a master at work.
With a scream of rage, Zorababel charged at Gabriel.
I skirted away, taking two steps to the side and away from the edge of the cliff.
“You’re no herald, no god.” Zorababel was practically foaming at the mouth as he pulled his knife and lunged. “A demon! That’s what you are!”
Gabriel neatly sidestepped, then grabbed Zorababel’s arm and pulled.
It snapped, the sound echoing across the ledge.
Zorababel screamed, and even I winced.
Zorababel waved the knife wildly, trying to scratch Gabriel in any place he could. “I’ll kill her!” he shouted, arm dangling at his side. “I’ll kill her, and then you’ll be sorry.”
Gabriel calmly dropped his sword, reached out, grabbed Zor’s neck, and twisted. With a little snap, his neck tilted impossibly to the side, then his legs crumpled and he fell to the ground. The knife flew out of his grasp and teetered on the edge of the cliff.
I gasped, hand to my mouth. He hadn’t even needed his sword. Just his bare hands.
Gabriel’s wings rose and fell as he stared down at the dead man. He wasn’t even wounded. He wasn’t winded. This was a seraph in all his glory, all his might.
I took a step toward him, reaching out to touch those soft feathers. “Gabr—”
Something hit me in the side, knocking the breath right out of me. I staggered under the assault, tripping on my skirts and falling to my knees. A hard, heavy body landed on top of me. The weight caused me to skid and roll to the edge of the cliff.
“Got you,” Absalom’s deep voice growled in my ear. “Now you and I will—”
The ground disappeared beneath me. I screamed, reaching for grass, roots, anything to keep me from falling. Blood pounded in my ears.
“Eve!” Gabriel’s shout sounded so far away.
I fell, the night swallowing me whole.
Absalom bellowed with rage and fear, falling beside me.
It only took a heartbeat or two, but an eternity passed between each beat. I blinked, rain catching in my lashes, as my mouth opened in a scream. Gabriel’s stricken face hovered high above me, wings wide and bristling.
My body hit the rocks below. Pain shattered me, and I knew no more.