Chapter 52
Agentle brush of feathers over my cheek pulled me from unconsciousness.
I fluttered my eyes, blinking away sleep until the room around me became clear.
Brilliant light filled every inch of space, overwhelming my senses.
I groaned, pushing to sit up. Leaning back into the pillows supporting me, I took another good look around.
Aquamarine eyes, wet with fresh tears, found me first.
“Good dawn, Ellie.”
My voice was a ragged, broken thing. Like I hadn’t had anything to drink in a long time. I reached out to hold her hand. The tears slipped down her cheeks as she took a deep breath.
“I didn’t know if you’d…I wasn’t sure…at some point you stopped breathing and…”
She closed her eyes, holding my hand tight. She wept, hanging her head low. Daelun reached over with a wing, wrapping it around Ellabeth’s frame. His eyes were wet, too. All of Seventh Choir was present. Not one had a dry eye. Not even Kazemir.
“The Scourgers,” Daelun began, stumbling over his words. “They…even when you’d fallen. Even when…you stopped fighting back. Even when you went unconscious…they didn’t stop. She…she never told them to stop.”
He didn’t have to say her name for me to know who the she was. Granmanmi Asarah.
“Quazar…he…well. Hèls. Never heard a grown male scream like that before. Your…Granmanmi. She…dragged your body so it was…it was directly in his sight.” Daelun paused for air.
I shuddered at the visual. “You would’ve thought his wingmate bond was being broken.
Stars. He screamed. Tried so hard to break free to get to you. But his shackles…”
I nodded.
Granmanmi had mastered cruelty. She knew what she was doing.
I was the fool for taking so long to recognize it.
She’d allow for the Scourgers to butcher me, publicly, as a lesson.
Stars. If she was willing to do that to me, what had she done to Manmi?
To my Tatis? My Kouzis? I wondered if Jael had been exposed to this version of her. Hosea? Ezekiel?
“What made the Scourgers stop?”
My voice was no more than gravel. I tried clearing my throat, but it didn’t help.
“The dragons,” Amayah whispered. She sat at the edge of my bed with her knees tucked beneath her, her wings hanging off the edge of the bedcloud.
“The parilielthai of our temple-mates came. They rushed to the Talons, but Quazar demanded that his parilielthai save you from the Scourgers. His dragon ripped the Scourgers apart. Well, Jeroah and Lilithine escaped unscathed. Anyway, by then, their damage to you had already been done. We thought you…”
Were dead is what she didn’t say.
“Well, the angels got the bloodbath they wanted,” I whispered, dropping my head back to my pillow. Stars. I was exhausted. However long I’d been asleep, it wasn’t enough.
“No, they didn’t.” Omarion’s lips twitched into a smile. “They wanted the Fallen Prince to bleed. Not you, the fifi of their beloved Amaryss. And by the hand of your Granmanmi no less! Chaos descended.”
I raised a brow.
“Chaos?”
“The angels were begging her to stop. To make the Scourgers stop,” Omarion said, leaning close to brush a stray hair out of my eyes. He sat on the other side of me, his entire body a hardened wall of protection.
“She didn’t. Some tried jumping in on your behalf,” he shrugged. “But they were arrested.”
“Some in the Farasee Order had surfaced, ready to shut down the uprising with brutality,” Daelun chimed in, excitedly. “So we jumped in, too. Felt good ripping out that big ones tongue. Remember when we first got here and he wouldn’t stop staring at you?”
I thought back. I did remember. I’d felt so small. So vile.
“You ripped out his tongue?” I chuckled.
“And his eyes. His rib cage. You know, the necessities.”
I shot up into a sitting position.
“You killed a Farasee?” I breathed.
“We all did.”
I turned to Amayah, shocked at the vengeance in her voice. The bristling rage in her eyes.
“They were going to kill you. So we got to them first. All’s fair in Hèls and war. They touched our Choir, we touched their Order.”
“Amayah,” was all I could say. I was completely stunned.
“You’re my friend, Safah,” Amayah said. “A burning good one, too. Your Granmanmi isn’t taking your life. Not without a fight.”
“Burning right,” Daelun and Isandra said at the same time. I was touched by the actions of my friends. I sat back, speechless for a moment.
“And…” I steeled myself, braving for my next question. “Quazar? The Talons?”
“Thanks to you”—Ellabeth’s eyes shone bright—“Alive. Your shield kept them from being hurt. The Scourgers tried to punish them. They couldn’t.”
I pressed my hand over my hearts, sighing with relief. He was alive. They were alive. And I kept my word. They hadn’t been touched.
I checked our bond. The veil was gone. There was an open door on the other end.
Quazar was distant, a bit far for me to reach him freely, but for the first time, he’d left the door wide open.
The gesture was significant. If I needed him, whenever I needed him, I could access him.
My eyes prickled with fresh tears, my hearts swelling. Ellabeth squeezed my hands.
“He’s okay,” she whispered. “All he cared about was you. His dragon, Rhaevion, stood over you and fought off any angel who dared try to hurt you more.”
Rhaevion.
I’d have to find Quazar’s shifter and thank him personally.
I wiped the tears from my eyes, sitting up again. My entire body hurt. There was a lingering, pulsing sensation in my elbows, my ribs, and my ankles. My bones were brittle, my nerves shot.
“Has Zara been to see me?”
“She has. But even with her mending…the Scourgers had done a lot of damage, Sazu.”
I nodded at Ellabeth’s words. So, I’d been on the brink of death. Again.
I brushed my fingers through my hair, finding the strands newly moisturized and detangled. My hand came away with makristi oil and a sweet-smelling leave-in conditioner.
“Ellie,” I cried, my throat bobbing. She’d taken the time to deal with my mess of hair. I threw myself into her arms. We clung to each other like we often did. It felt good to hold my best friend and know no matter what happened, she was there.
And though it had only been several months, so much had happened in the short period of time. So much abuse. So much pain. So much death. We clung to each other, letting our hug say what our words couldn’t.
Then a thought occurred to me.
“Quazar’s been shadow locking my room for a while now. How did any of you get in?”
“His Majesty, the King of Shadows, made sure Ellabeth could get in before he and his Talons were deployed to the Seal Gate,” Isandra offered.
“To where?” I shrieked.
“The Farasee Order said they would remain alive as a means of mercy. But they would have to work double to prove their commitment to seeing a better empyrean for all angels. That meant sending their unit to the frontlines. It’s not even the entire Xadari Legion,” Isandra said. “Just the Talons.”
“Granmanmi,” I hissed.
“Granmanmi.” Ellabeth nodded.
“On the bright side, they still live here. For now. They just spend way more time at the gate than they do here now. No more classes for them. No more trials with them. From now on, they will remain at the gate. When our complete Ascension ends, if they’re still alive, they will be released back to Azarath Academy, and from there, they will be sent to deal with the Fallen conflict on a regular basis. ”
“Anyway, it’s about time you’re up. I know you want to sleep more, but you can’t. Our Choir has been summoned by the Order’s Council. They refused to see us separately. So we’ve been waiting for you to recover,” Omarion cut in.
I frowned.
“It’s been—”
“Fourteen dawns. Two weeks. I really don’t know how you pulled through,” Omarion said.
“Two weeks?” I gasped. “Stars. Alright, you can all leave me now. I’ll meet you in the great hall in a little bit.”