Chapter 38 Phin
Phin
Igrunted, struggling against the councilor’s grasp as I tried to get my lungs to expand.
My heart sank when I realized I couldn’t see the portal we’d come through, and that Ramsey hadn’t made it in our jump.
“Show me the door?” I whispered to the breeze, and the portal was visible as though it had always been right there.
I breathed a little easier. According to this new facet of my gift, we were in a place called Prawlin.
I didn’t even know what realm that was in, but at least I had a name.
Armaros groaned as I forcefully threw back my elbow. “So aggressive, Seraphina.”
I scrambled away from him as he reached up to touch a cut on his forehead, lurching to my feet.
Remembering I was armed at the sight of his blood, I undid the latch on my little dagger and pulled it out, the weight of the blade heavy in my hand.
I mentally chanted a reminder to keep the sharp parts far from my own skin.
As I hid it as best I could by holding it behind my leg.
“Come along,” he said once he stood, grabbing at my collar to pull me with him.
In that moment I was half grateful I’d started leaving my jewelry on the bedside table unless we were leaving the crossroads.
While the bracelet offering some invisibility might have been helpful, I would have deeply regretted breaking my necklace chain or losing either piece.
“Hey!” The tight grip he had on my shirt collar began to choke me and fear took over.
He was bigger, stronger, and a full angel—I was no match for him.
I tightened my grip on my new blade, waiting for a good moment to land a decent strike.
“Do you really think he won’t find me? He knows where every single portal leads. ”
“Not all of them,” he chuckled darkly. “Have you found your Voice yet, Seraphina?”
“None of your business.”
He tsked at me. “There’s no need for such animosity. I know your father after all, and I’m a councilman. Shouldn’t that earn me at least some respect?”
“Not after what I’ve learned about you, and much of that from your own mouth, no.”
Fury burned in his eyes, and he jerked me by the collar, my teeth rattling as he shook me.
“I am responsible for some of the boldest advancements in all angelic history!” I could only stare back, wide-eyed as he glared down at me.
The angel collected himself, the change visible as he forced himself to be calm.
It chilled me to the bone. He was truly insane.
“Now. What is your innate talent? What is the gift you bear with your angelic Voice?”
“It doesn’t matter, it’s not useful here,” I lied.
“No? Try me.”
“I work in a library. My talent helps me organize the shelves.”
He squinted, paused, then jerked me with him as he went left, through a stand of trees.
Abruptly, he pulled me forward and we went through yet another portal, landing us in a place covered in ice.
My landing was rough, my wrist bent awkwardly underneath my body, but my blade was still in my hand and by some miracle, I hadn’t cut myself yet.
I shivered immediately, my teeth chattering uncontrollably.
It was colder than I’d ever remembered it being in Aymonroux; it even hurt to breathe.
My eyelashes frosted over and I couldn’t feel the tips of my ears within just a few steps.
I turned to look and filed away that the doorway was marked Xylos.
“What talent does your father have?” Armaros demanded.
“I d-don’t know, I never s-saw it.”
He growled. “No point in lying to me, Seraphina.”
“I’m n-not lying.” I twisted the handle around in my hand, heart in my throat as I curled in on myself for warmth. I was doing my best to keep calm all while plotting to stab an angel in a place I didn’t recognize with no way to get back.
“That’s a shame. Perhaps I’ll just have to ask him myself.”
I stopped walking, and he continued on, my head bobbing as his momentum pulled me forward. “You know wh-where he is?”
“Of course I do.”
The words he’s alive pulsed through my mind over and over again.
“Ah. This way.” He tugged at me again, and we landed in a hot, humid, green place that reminded me of Florissar.
“And my mother?” I thawed bit by bit, my wrist throbbing from how I’d landed on it.
He snorted. “What will you give me for that kind of information?”
“I’m not going back to Heaven with you.”
Armaros spun on me, violet eyes blazing as he glared down at me. “Yes, you are. And you will do everything I say. It’s too important for you not to.”
I tried to decide what the right thing to do would be. I was not a fighter, and I wasn’t even good at strategy. What would Tap do? Seir? One of the other strong, talented women in the family? I bit my tongue instead, which only frustrated him further.
“So arrogant. After all I’ve done. After all my research, I still have to prove myself.
” I followed behind, his grip becoming more lax.
“Even Brookes, rest his soul, got proper recognition for what he did. All those couples, going against the express will of the councils! Pairing up and even having children.” He shook his head.
“Something had to be done to keep them from risking the safety of us all. Mating two strong powers together? Unpredictable and dangerous. Could throw the whole balance off. But my initiative will fix that! If the councils lost control over their factions, it would be disastrous …” He muttered incoherently and shook his head.
“And now, I’m the only one left! The only one who knows!
That should be more valuable.” He grumbled under his breath, something about titles and the council, but I couldn’t make it out.
He was fully ranting, and I wasn’t sure he even realized he was talking to me and not just himself. “What is it that you know?”
“Where the hiding place is, of course! Where they’re all kept.”
“Is that where my father is?”
He laughed. “Of course it is! Where else—” He stopped walking, mouth dropping open.
My heart flew behind my ribs, my ears clogging with the sudden rush of excitement mixed with fear as he turned on me.
“You little trickster!” I had only been going along with his mad rant, but I was sure he didn’t see it that way.
“Take me there first, and I’ll go with you,” I said hastily.
“What?”
“Show me where they are, and I’ll agree to go to Heaven with you. I just want to see them. They don’t even have to see me back.” He tilted his head and stared at me, clearly trying to detect any deception.
Armaros smiled, and it was full of teeth.
How a man so beautiful could be so terrifying confused me.
“Good. Good, good. I knew you’d see reason.
Come along.” I let him pull me through three more portals, the final one landing us in a bland, beige place, where everything felt …
empty. He’d taken a deep breath before the final jump, like he was preparing himself for the possibility that it wouldn’t work.
“Where are we?” I asked. He had only walked a few paces from the portal before stopping.
“The hiding place,” he said. But I could see plain as day that the portal was labeled Purgatory.
“Why did you seem afraid? Like you might be wrong?”
“Not wrong!” he roared. “It only opens during an eclipse,” he huffed as though what I’d asked was ridiculous. “You’re going to be a lot of work, Seraphina, I can tell. You’re bright, inquisitive.” He nodded and looked me up and down. “It’ll be so much fun watching you break.”
“Armaros?” I hated the way his name tasted. Sour, stale. Like moldy bread.
“What?” He stalked away from the portal, and I rushed to keep up.
“I lied.”
He spun again, mouth open and shocked rage in his eyes.
Holding the handle of my blade with both hands, I jammed the point down, aiming for his torso.
At the last moment he stepped back, so the dagger actually sank deep into his thigh.
The feel of the steel cutting through his flesh and stopping with an odd vibration as it hit bone made me gag, but I did what I’d been taught by my parents and twisted before pulling it back out.
I almost lost my balance but managed to keep my footing.
As he gaped at me, I backed away several steps, too stunned to run, even though my mind was screaming that I should do just that.
“You little bitch,” he swore, gasping as the pain of what I’d done registered. He sat down hard in the dead grass and wasted no time ripping open the leg of his pants so he could see the damage.
The area around the wound was already black, tiny tendrils creeping away from the wound as well.
“What is this?” he asked. “How dare you! You’ll pay for such insolence.
You’ll be punished! I’m a full angel, high ranking and of the old guard—” I cut him off with a wild swing of my blade, this one catching his forearm.
He cried out, pulling the arm against his chest, mouth open and eyes shocked. “What have you done to me?”
“Far less than you deserve.”
He blinked as though stunned I was still talking back to him in such a manner.
I turned and sprinted for the portal, wondering how else my Voice might work.
Scared to get too close at first, I screamed at it, giving our current location and every other place we’d stopped along the way.
When I spotted Armaros back on his feet, hobbling my way, I closed my eyes, shoved my face into the strange nowhere space between the wood frame and screamed it all there as well.
Then I pictured the crossroads and Tap, willing the portal to take me home directly.
Unfortunately, it flickered and went dark just before I stepped in.
I could only hope some part of my other efforts was successful.
“What have you done?” Armaros roared, the black spreading from the single stab wound now thick, following along every place that blood flowed through his thigh.
“Please show Tap the way here,” I muttered, standing my ground, blade held in both hands out in front of me as the angel groaned and writhed.
There was a hum, and suddenly Ramsey and Tap both stepped out of the portal.
I hardly recognized my hound; she seemed larger than usual, her eyes red and teeth bared. Her black smoke poured from her all over, and she didn’t speak to me at all. I’d never seen her so worked up.
“Thank all the saints,” Tap breathed, sweeping me into his arms. “You called for me, Feather. It nearly knocked me off my feet in the hall it was so clear, so loud.”
“It worked.” I was equal parts thrilled and terrified by the potential power of my Voice.
“Yes, beloved, it did.” He pulled me in, planting a fierce kiss on my mouth. “Are you alright?” Tap hastily checked me over, hands and eyes covering every inch until he was satisfied that I hadn’t come to harm.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “What about the others?”
Everyone is fine, mistress. Your demon’s family and the stone kin have everything well in hand. The crossroads is secure, and the other three Nephilim are safe in the fae realm.
Tap grimaced, appraising the angel’s condition. As if taking that as permission, Ramsey latched onto Armaros’s wrist over his shirt and tugged, making him cry out.
Weak, arrogant angel. Not even worth my effort to bite down.
“Don’t bite him! The blade—”
I would not be harmed, mistress. Don’t worry. But I can tell he would taste bad. She sneezed and sat right at his side, staring at him while he moaned and tried to shuffle away from her. Coward.
“It’s moving so fast,” I said, already seeing tendrils of black curling up from under Armaros’s collar, creeping along his neck and over the top of his hands. I relayed what I could as fast as I could string my words together, the mentions of the council and the hiding place we’d stumbled into.
Tap’s dark smile gave me an odd thrill as he approached the angel. “Speak.” When Armaros didn’t, Tap pressed into the bloody gash in Armaros’s thigh with his thumb, eliciting pained shrieks from the angel. “I might be inclined to get you aid if you tell me what I want to know.”
Armaros, more than a little panicked, began to repeat what he’d told me.
There were a few other tidbits about the workings of Heaven, but he started to struggle to use his tongue fairly quickly.
Before long, it was clear that there was no hope that he might survive the terrible poison that was my hybrid blade.
Armaros shuddered as the black spread through every vein. He babbled incoherently, hands fisting and relaxing uncontrollably.
I gasped, hand over my mouth as his chest was slower and slower to rise again. “Saints,” I breathed. “What have I done?”
“What you had to. You saved yourself.” Tap’s tone was soft, placating.
“I k-killed him.” The weight of my actions hit me all at once, and my knees buckled.
Tap caught me, lowering me gently to a sitting position before kneeling beside me on the ground.
He forced me to meet his eye with his hands on either side of my face.
“Phin, beloved, listen to me. You just stabbed him. Understand? He took you, and you defended yourself.” He took the blade from my hand, and with one sharp motion pierced Armaros’s heart with it, the angel groaning out until the sound was only a wheeze.
Then there was silence. “See? I killed him.” He stared at me, those silver orbs insistent and unyielding until my breaths were no longer so loud in my ears and my heartbeat had settled to a more normal pace.
“Okay?” I nodded, and he copied the gesture, relaxing his grip on me.
“Good. Look away, Feather. You don’t need to see this. ”
I did, eyes scrunched closed and hands covering my ears, but not until after the first meaty thwack of Tap’s blade rending Armaros’s head from his body had embedded itself in my brain.