Page 8 of Wings of Betrayal

He lets out a frustrated grunt, and I laugh.

“I know, but it’s important. Your mother asked me to arrange a meeting between her, Zalore, and Harlum. It’s pretty urgent. We can’t allow any more angels to be slaughtered.”

He slides his arms around my waist in a firm hold, and something tells me he doesn’t want me to go anywhere. I arch a brow at him, and he sighs, letting me go.

“I will come back. I promise.”

Kyle gets to his feet and pulls me up, and we head to the border, our hands woven tightly together. Leaving him after such a short time weighs heavy on my heart. I want to stay here forever, in all honesty. I can see us living here together. His Kingdom is amazing, but I have to go since it’s important.

I let out a whistle, and my Zelon, Keva, soon lands. Kyle takes a step back, his eyes wide as he takes in Keva.

“It’s okay. This is Keva,” I tell him.

Keva grunts, pawing at the ground before kneeling down to show Kyle he can approach. Kyle takes slow steps toward him and rubs his neck, and then Keva licks Kyle’s cheek. He laughs and wipes off the saliva.

I take Kyle’s hands and kiss him once more on the lips before climbing up onto Keva. Taking the Gateway of the Gods would have been quicker, but Keva enjoys flying together, and I haven’t flown with him this far before. I must admit, thoughts of bumping into one of those white-eyed creatures hangs heavily on my mind. But Keva and I can handle anything.

“See you soon,” Kyle says.

I blow him a kiss, and then Keva takes off into the sky. We leave Zarquon, flying out over the ocean back toward Silanthia. The sun is setting over the horizon, giving way to the most beautiful sunset with shades of yellow, orange, and pink strewn across the sky.

After about an hour of flying, we’re nearing the Galespo borders when movement catches my eye. I don’t want to take any risks, so I raise my veil over both Keva and me. As we get closer, I sense something is seriously wrong. It’s one of the creatures, just hovering there. But as we near it, I realise it’s an angel.

But it’s not okay. Its white wings are straggly and sparsely covered in feathers. There’s blood. A lot of blood, dripping from its wings, its long grey hair is thin and matted, revealing a flaky scalp. Its grey skin is flaking off, and I soon understand why. It’s dead.

Please don’t see me, please don’t see me.

As we fly past, it snaps its head in our direction, its milky-white eyes staring right at us.

It can see us.

CHAPTER THREE

Oh, hell no. Nope nope nope.

Keva knows something’s up before I even tell him, and he picks up the pace as the creature—dead angel, whatever it is—flies toward us, but I tap his side with my boot anyway to urge him to go faster.

“Go, go, go!”

Keva ducks his head down in concentration, his wings flapping faster than I’ve ever seen before. I can only imagine how Kyle is feeling right now. He would have absolutely sensed something was wrong. I focus on my ring and our connection, and his obvious concern filters through me, twisting my stomach into a knot. The last thing I want is him coming after me and getting ambushed by one of these creatures.

I risk a glance behind me. Stupid, I know, and the creature is gaining on us. It lets out a high-pitched, blood-curdling screech that has the tiny hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

“Faster, Keva!” I beg.

We’re not too far out from Silanthia, maybe a half hour. We can out-fly it, can’t we? Doubt creeps in when I check again to find it’s still hot on Keva’s tail. Jumping off and flying myself isn’t even an option, as Keva is much faster than I am.

Come on, come on.

Seeming frustrated with the chase, Keva shoots several poisonous spikes from his tail, narrowly missing the creature.

“Good boy, Keva. It’s okay! You got this!”

He grunts at my acknowledgement as I spin around to check the distance once more, and the creature is right there. It swipes at me with long, black claws, and I lose my grip on Keva and fall off.

I immediately release my wings, swooping up and catching myself before I hit the ocean. Keva yelps and flies down to check on me. The creature screeches, shooting down toward me, but I duck out of the way at the last moment.

Gods above, it stinks. The scent of rotting flesh seeps into my nose, and I gag, trying desperately not to be sick right now. It’s so not the time.

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