Page 22 of Wings of Valor
I share the coordinates with Raph and Theo.Let’s go. We don’t have much time,I say through our mental connection. And as I pass by Mira on the way out, I whisper, “Don’t think, for even a second, that this conversation is over. Once we get Hayliel back, there’s alotwe have to discuss.”
Mira and Atlas’s schemes will have to wait.
It’s time we bring our girlfriend back to safety.
9
Pre-dawn light hasn’t broken above the horizon yet, leaving me bathed in darkness. In my rush to get out, I’d forgotten to grab the potion Mira mixed to hide my power signature. I suppose it might’ve been a waste anyway. I’m giving myself over to him. Hiding my power seems a little useless.
Still, I wish I’d brought them with me forafter. A shudder runs through me, and I shake the thoughts away. I can’t let myself think about what happens after my parents are safe and I’m stuck with Auriel. If I do, I’ll go mad.
As I fly over the housing district and toward the desert-like wasteland where I’m supposed to meet Auriel, my mind races. I think of my parents, constantly trying to reach them with the hopes that once I’m close enough, the connection will solidify. I think of my men, wondering if they’ve noticed I’m missing yetand hating how I had to leave them. I hate how I had to keep them in the dark, but it was a necessary evil. They would have stopped me.
Dawn approaches, lighting up the sky just enough to illuminate something up ahead that has my stomach falling. A sandstorm. It’s approaching quickly, blocking any view I might have had of what’s coming.
Shit.Mira and I didn’t even consider this a possibility. If I attempt to fly through that, I’ll be blind, and given the high likelihood that Auriel has his little demon buddies with him, I don’t need the additional disadvantage. I have to land, but where?
My gaze roams the area directly below me until I find a cluster of cacti and shrubs that will serve to hide me while I figure out my next move.
Dirt and sand shifts beneath my feet as I land, but this is no relaxing trip to the beach. This is my one chance to save my parents, to protect them the way they’ve always done for me. I hate what I have to give up, but for them I would do anything.
I eye the large shrub beside me that is miraculously thriving in the sunbaked land. The overthinker in me wonders if this is a sign. Will I become like this shrub, surviving despite the odds?
Pulling the blades Mira gave me from their sheath, I stare at them. They’re light in my palms, and even though the blades themselves aren’t very long, they’re sharp as fuck.
With a deep breath, I connect to the well of heated power inside me and push it through the blades. I push and push, not stopping until they glow an incandescent gold with hues of yellow and orange. The shine is almost too bright in the dim morning light.
I can’t stop the smile that spreads across my face.
If what little I imbued into the dagger with Zeke was enough to kill a demon, then the amount I just shoved into these should certainly do the trick.
Tucking them back into their sheath, I feel a little more confident and secure as I walk on toward the meeting place. I only check my slate twice, just to make sure I haven’t gotten turned around in the vast emptiness—especially with my pre-planned markers hidden by the encroaching sandstorm—but I’m nearly there.
With each step, I tap into my mental connections, hoping to reach my parents.
They don’t respond.
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear—worried. With this swap, they should be closer than ever. Maybe it wasn’t the distance after all.No.I can’t let myself consider any other options. I just can’t.
As the sun rises higher into the sky, the chill I barely noticed before melts away until my palms sweat and the little hairs that have escaped my braid stick to my skin. At least the heat inside of me has cooled off a bit since I imbued those blades.
I know I’m close when a sickly feeling washes over me. It coats me like oil—dark and thick, reminding me of the way it felt in the library when the cloaked figure, now known to be Archangel Auriel, came to take me.
But that wasn’t the first time we met. Only, he didn’t feel like this then. His mere presence wasn’t so weighted with wickedness.
How can his aura manifest in such different ways?
Whatever the reason, he’s here, and hopefully that means my parents are, too.
That thought has me trying—one more time—to reach them, and for a second, I’m almost positive I hearsomething, though I can’t make out any distinct words.
With one last big breath, I step around the dune I’d been hiding behind and find Auriel.
He has his staff, as expected. To his left stands three demons. A massively brutish looking one, a smaller yet still muscular one, and the scarred asshole that stabbed me.Great.
When I look to Auriel’s other side, I have to stop myself from shoutingI knew it!as my eyes land on none other than Useless fucking Uriel. He grins at me. There’s this cocky tilt to his lips that makes me want to smack it off his face.
Motherfucking piece of shit.
