Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (16 page)

“D
on’t be a hater,” Zephyr grins
at Brownie, before winking at Buns
as she slips
into her armor
.
“I can feel the F
allen. They are here—
on
my island—
without my permission
. That Reaper was gathering intel. He was a scout, but a v
ery bad one. Why do they employ the tragically lame?”
Zephyr asks
derisively, looking at Reed. “The pizza man has more game.”

“The Reaper
didn’t expect you to be with them
, Zee
,” Reed counters
.

“No,
he did not,” he a
grees
. “I f
ound this on him.” Zephyr tosses
a small butt
onhole camera to Reed. Reed holds
it in the palm of his hand, crushing it into dust and letting it fall to the ground.

“You’re
off the hook, Brownie,” he says
, sniffing the air. “Zee’s right. Fallen are stalking us.”

“That doesn’t make us off the hook. They don’t care if Sheol is stalking us. No one gets a by
e
,”
Brownie states
emphatically
, pointing up
. “They’ll send Cherubim—
a Throne at the very least.”

“Shit’s
about to blow up,” Russell breaks
in. “You
feel that, Red,” he asks
quickly.

“Yeah,” I nod
, landing
on the ground
near him and placing my hand on his arm.

“What?” Zephyr sniffs
.

“It feels like…a wrinkle in the air…like someone touched the air with his
finger and it sent out ripples—
like
in
water,” I try
to explain
the waves of energy hitting us.

“They’re rampin’
up!” Russell says
through
his
gritted teeth
,
as the waves beco
me shockwaves pounding us.
Then
, one
huge wave hit
s
us. L
ifting us
both off our feet, it thro
w
s
Russel
l and me back
into the far wall, before dropping us
to the floor in a heap.

“
T
hat
completely
blow
s
,” Russell gasps
, holding his side.

Reed
is
at my side immediately,
having not been affected at all from the magic swirling all around us.
“It’s time to pull the plug
on you two,” Reed says while his hands rove
over my body, checking for in
jury. “Use your portals now, I’
ll follow
you
soon.”

“No, I’m staying,” I reply
stubbornly, trying to stand, but R
eed has his hand on my shoulder
keeping me down.

“Time’s up
, E
vie,” Reed orders
,
while his hand moves
t
o my necklace. I quickly cover
his hand
with mine
as it rests
on the onyx moon around my neck.

“Pleas
e, let me stay with you,” I plead
, tasting blood in my mouth.

“No,” Reed replies
grimly. “This whole place is wired. All we need to do is draw them in. They won’t know you’ve gone. Your mission is done. When they come, I’ll incinerate them and join you.”
He holds
up the d
etonator that triggers all the C
-4 on the island. It will be raining pieces of Gancanagh for days.

“Reed,” Zephyr says
in a stiff voice.

Looking u
p, the sky outside grows
d
ark as swarms of angels gather
in the skies above the big house. “H
oly
.
Freakin’
.
Hell!” Russell says
next to me. Window
s
in other parts of the house begi
n shattering, announcing the arrival of our evil guests.

“I didn’t know it was my birthday!” Zephyr g
rins
, like the F
allen amassing all around us
is a gift to him. “Time for you to go, Buns and Brow
nie, this is our party,” he says
, nodding toward Reed.

“Stay
-
ing,” Bun
s replies
in a singsong voice.

“Ah, you a
re
so cute, come here,” Zephyr says
. S
triding to Buns, he takes
her in his arms, kissin
g her. Drawing back, he breathes
, “Bye
,
” as he pul
l
s
the portal of her necklace open, while stepping back from her.

Instantly,
Buns seems
to fold and contort into the small open
ing of her sun necklace. I pale
, knowing that she is being squeezed through space to another destination. I remember what that feels like and I’
m not in any hurry to relive the experience.
Her
necklace f
a
ll
s
to the floor
, pulling the furniture toward it
. Zephyr ma
nages
to pick the necklace
up, his hand distortin
g and twisting before he snaps
it closed, smashing the necklace into dust
, so no one can follow Buns
through her portal
.

“Oh, you are so dead
, Zee
,” Brownie s
ays
, a smile
forming on her lips
. “I’m not even gonna help you out on that one. I’m just gonna sit back and watch her tear you apart.”

“Brownie, can you
give me a hand,” Russell groans
, looking like he’s having trouble standing.

Brownie shifts
her gaze from Zephyr to Russell.
“Are you okay?” Brownie asks
,
her eyes going wide while
hur
rying to Russell’s side and crou
ching down near him.

“
Yeah—
s
orry,” he says
, reaching up and flipping her
star
necklace open. Brownie folds
too, twisting into her
necklace as it drops to the ground in what feels
like slow motion.
Russell deftly closes
Brownie’s portal, smashing it in his palm.

I knock
Re
ed’s hand away from my necklace
while he is
distracted by what Ru
ssell just did. “No way,” I say
, grasping the moon around my neck in my fist. “I’m staying.”

“Evie,” Reed says in a stern tone, but he ca
n’t argue with me as a
voice from behind him distracts
us.

“OY! GENEVIEVE! Ye re
ally did it dis time,” Eion says
, walking through the
gaping ho
le in the wall that’s no longer
being blocked by my magic. “Ye broke his heart, now ye had better fix it, if ye know whah’s good for ye.”

“Eion,” I reply
, getting to my feet, “have you ever known me to do what’s good for me?”

“I have na,” he replies
, seeing me behind Reed. “Ye are a confusing, delicious craitur, but I do na mind ye, ‘cuz now, I get ta taste ye and
’
tis worth all da sleepless nigh
ts I’ve spent dreamin’ about ye
.
”

“Eion, you ne
ver sleep...or dream,” I reply
coolly, scanning his Gancanagh army and seeing many familiar face
s
behind him.
Brennus is not here, nor
are
Finn
, Faolan
or Declan. My heart twists
i
n frustration, knowing Brennus i
s avoiding our trap
. “Where is my king?” I ask
, trying to appear calm
.

“He could na
make it,” Eion replies
, allowing Ninian, Eibhear, Goban, Keefe
,
and Torin to enter t
he room ahead of him. Russell ge
t
s
to his feet beside me, pulling
out
the sword that
he had
strapped to his back
and gr
asping it casually in his hands. “He sent me instead. Ye’ll be seeing him soon, but only after I taste ye.”

“If any of you make it back to Bren
nus, give hi
m a message for me,” I announce
, ignoring Eion.
“
Please tell h
i
m that he i
s not
my king.
H
e failed to come here himself
. That makes him a coward and I bear no allegiance to a coward and ne
ither should any of you,” I add
, raising my ch
in a notch and scanning
their faces.

“Maybe ye
do
na mean as much ta him as ye t
ink
ye do, Genevieve,” Eion replies
, a sneer twisting his lips.

“Then,
why are you here, Eion?” I ask
,
tilting my head to the side
while
blowing a hole in his theory.

The doors behind us swi
ng
open admitting a score or more f
allen
angels
with more be
hind them. Their stench
fill
s
the room, making me
shudder
as my eyes
wide
n
. “It
is
my birthday,” Zephyr breathes
, lookin
g elated
. He speaks
in A
ngel to the big
f
allen
Power in th
e front of the pack, drawing the evil one’s
eyes from me to him. Watchin
g the angel’s eyes narrow on Zephyr
, I can tell that Zephyr is trash talking him, but it sound
s
like lovely music
all the same
.

“Go now, Evie,” Reed whis
pers
to me
, looking calm and relaxed as he does before every conflict
.

“I will, I just have to face the Gancanagh. I have to show t
hem that I’m not afraid of them—
that I’m
not
pu
tting up with any of their
shen,” I say
, raising my axe
in Eion’s
direction.
That is all it takes
for
the Gancanagh to scatter
like roaches
, running at the walls and using inertia to scale them.

Launching upward and
flying to
a position
in the center of the room,
Russell follows me
, taking a
position at my back. Ninian spri
ng
s
at me first, trying to grab onto me as he rocket
s
throu
gh the air. I grasp
him by his
wrist, spinning
him
around in the air
to gain momentum and tossing him
dir
ectly into Goban as he pitches
toward me. They collide
in midair, falling to the floor bene
ath us where Reed steps
on their necks, slicing off their heads.

A hoard of Fallen engage
Reed a
nd Zephyr in a battle below.
I can hardly follow
them
with my ey
es, not only because I’m fighting
with the Gan
canagh, but also because angels are
so incredibly fast.
T
here are too many F
allen, even if Reed and Zephyr are the best at what they do
, they will
soon
be overwhelmed
.