Intuition: The Premonition Series (55 page)

His heavy breathing registers in my mind first. It sounds like he can’t get enough air in his chest because of the pain he is experiencing. The agony I see on his face is nearly breaking me as my trembling hand reaches out to him. Without me seeing him do it, Reed grabs my outstretched hand and pulls me to him, crushing me in a vise-like embrace.

“You are not going anywhere without me,” Reed says in my ear.

He must have heard what I have been saying… has he been listening somewhere nearby this entire time?
I wonder.

“How much did you hear?” I ask, hoping he was spared from having to hear about Brennus.

“All of it,” he says, squeezing me and burying his face in my neck. I hold him tighter, trying to erase the images for him in his mind, but just like mine, I can’t get rid of them.

My eyes lock on Zephyr’s blue ones over Reed’s shoulder. He looks wrecked, like he has given everything that he has to get to this point. He is breathing hard as he inches back to where Reed and I are standing. I reach out my hand to him and he takes it in his, hugging Reed and I together. “Zee, Buns is here. She is waiting for you in your plane. She wants me to tell you that she misses you. Maybe they will let you go, now that they have me,” I murmur.

His blue eyes look very sad, but he doesn’t comment one way or the other. He lets go of us then, but Reed still has me crushed to him. Absently, I hear Pagan speaking in low tones to the council. She is arguing some point with them. Reed continues holding me in his arms while his body tenses and his eyes narrow to slits. He is listening to Pagan, observing her in a predatory way. It’s as if he is stalking her in his mind, gathering all of her weaknesses and compiling them into neat categories. “What is she saying?” I ask Reed, holding him firmly so that he won’t attack Pagan outright.

“She is arguing for her death,” Reed says in an even tone, and it is the cool detachment that I hear of calculated thought. He is recovering his sanity and now his mind is taking in every detail of our situation. He is watching several things at once: the council, Pagan, the tiers of Powers, Preben and my entourage behind me who haven’t moved to break us up, yet. Preben is focused on Pagan, too, and he is frowning over whatever she is saying.

Pagan looks smug. The war council is discussing something and none of them look very happy about whatever it is. In fact, Cillian and Gunnar are arguing heatedly with one another over it. I glance at Reed and attempt to gauge his reaction to what is being said. He, too, has a smug expression on his face as he continues to scan Pagan with growing aplomb.

“What is it? What’s happening?” I ask Reed, but he just pulls me tighter to his side, stroking the feathers of my wings hypnotically, which is starting to do really crazy things to me.

Gunnar wins his argument with Cillian and speaks directly to Pagan. A cold, calculating stare replaces her smug smile as she turns from the council to assess me. She is looking at me in the same predatory way that Reed had been assessing her only moments ago. Goose bumps rise on my arms as I shiver. Then, I narrow my eyes at her and begin to assess her in the same way, trying to pick up on any weakness I can find.

Reed speaks in Angel, addressing the council for the first time. Since I can’t understand anything they are saying, I look at Zephyr’s face, trying to see if I can decipher what he thinks regarding what Reed is saying. Zee is completely ecstatic. I glance at Preben, who is assessing Reed with what looks like growing respect and amusement. Pagan, on the other hand, has lost her confident demeanor and now looks ill as she listens to Reed.

Cillian smiles at Reed, nodding, and at the same time, Gunnar looks really annoyed. Then, without warning, Reed yells out something really loud. It startles me and I flinch because I didn’t expect him to do that… he had called out a word in Angel. I have no idea what it means, but Zee also calls it out, right after Reed. Preben shouts the same word, which makes Reed’s head snap up as he growls at him menacingly, holding me closer to his body. Preben doesn’t seem threatened by this. He just smiles and winks at me. And then, the strangest thing happens. The whole place suddenly explodes with the word that Reed had used. It comes to us from every level and from all sides.

Reed looks a little bewildered as he scans the room, but then he turns to me. As Reed sees the complete confusion on my face, he gently holds me by my shoulders and explains, “You have been challenged by Pagan to fight hand-to-hand in this arena for your life.” Panic courses through me as I look over at Pagan who doesn’t seem to be smug anymore. Reed pulls my chin back so that I will look at him again. I focus on his beautiful green eyes and try to concentrate on what he is saying.

“She has the right to challenge you because she has been the one hunting you. It’s her mission and she refuses to give it up, even though it has not been proven that you are evil. However, since you are a Seraph, you have the right to chose a champion to fight for you, because you outrank a Power and you are not a fallen angel,” he says, smiling at me and tucking my hair behind my ear.

He has found a loophole in their laws that I slide through. I’m not Fallen and they can’t prove right now that I’m evil,
I surmise. “Oh. I can choose anyone to fight for me?” I ask in confusion, but he shakes his head.

“No, you can only choose me,” he replies in a gentle tone.

Preben breaks in and says, “She may choose whoever called out ‘champion.’ I believe that it was just about everyone in the room, so she may choose anyone,” he clarifies for me.

“No,” Reed refutes with authority, pulling my chin back so I’m looking at him. “You may only choose me. I have earned the right to fight for you. I will not let you put your life in someone else’s hands. You must choose me,” he says, and my whole body goes cold.

“Maybe I can fight her…if they let me rest a little bit. I’ve been training and I’m getting pretty good—” I say as I wobble a little on my feet. The room is spinning and nothing feels that real to me anymore, like this is all a silly nightmare and I will be waking up any moment. A look of alarm crosses Reed’s face as his hand goes to my forehead. It feels so cool to have it there that I never want him to take it off of me.

“Genevieve,” Reed’s voice is stern as he shakes his head at me. He is absolutely adamant about fighting for me. I look over at Zee and he nods to me, indicating that I have to pick Reed if I know what’s good for me.

“But… I can’t live without you. I tried and it was like I was dying a little more every day,” I whisper to Reed, and see that my words make his eyes soften. He crushes me again in his embrace. “What do I need to do in order to choose you?” I ask him in a soft tone.

“Just say my name,” he breathes against my neck in the sexy voice that I can’t resist.

“And, they will kill me if you die?” I ask for clarification, because I need to know that I will be following him if he leaves me.

“Yes, but I won’t lose,” he says with assurance.

After closing my eyes and praying, I call out the name of the one who means everything to me. “Reed,” I say, feeling his body relax against mine. All of the tension is leaving him as he holds me close. Then, lifting me in his arms, he places me in Zephyr’s waiting embrace. My heart refuses to beat properly as it rests against Zephyr’s chest. I can hardly breathe; I can only get air in shallow gasps. Zephyr is trying to calm me down by speaking to me softly in Angel while petting my hair.

This is worse than anything I could have imagined. I would rather be facing Brennus again with Faolan, Goban, and Declan ready to carve me up, than to be standing here while Reed takes on the extremely agile and fatal Power who wants us dead.
God, this is so painful,
I think as Zephyr pulls me back from the center of the room. Zee is eyeing all the other angels suspiciously while his arms remain around me. Preben stays close to my side as well. I’m not sure now if he is guarding me from escaping, or just making sure nothing happens to me. He keeps looking at me with a concerned expression, but I can’t focus on him while Reed and Pagan are listening to the council speak to them, probably giving them their instructions.

Weapons!
I cringe, panicking as Pagan selects a battle-axe and a spear-like weapon. This weapon has a wicked blade on the end of it, made to pierce and slice. I don’t even have a name for it because I have never trained with something so gruesome-looking. Holding my breath as Reed selects his weapons, I am confused, seeing him pick two small knives that look very much like spades on a deck of cards. Although these knives are sharp, they are no bigger then the palm of his hand. They don’t even have traditional handles on them, but small, notch-like, horizontal holders that fit between his fingers. Zephyr grunts when he sees Reed’s choice of weapons.

I pale and look at Zephyr’s face. “What, Zee?” I ask, because I need to know what he’s thinking.

“Reed is avenging you,” Zephyr says with approval in his voice.

“Why do you say that?” I ask, as my lips turn grim. My eyes skim over every muscle and contour of Reed’s perfect shape. The white, Egyptian-like sarong that he has on makes his charcoal-gray wings stand out in deep contrast.

“His weapons are very intimate. He will have to get very, very close to her to kill her and it will be extremely painful and…personal,” Zephyr explains. Reed remains still and calm, not even flexing his muscles to display his strength. I can’t read anything about him. I don’t know what he is thinking or which way he plans to attack Pagan. I can’t tell if he is weary, or if his chest is troubling him from the cuts and bruises that mar his perfection. He is blank—incomprehensible.

When Pagan faces off against Reed, I find that the space around me is becoming too small for me to exist in it. The vastness of the space is caving in on me. I feel like the air is too heavy for me to abide, so I have to retreat into myself, to a place where I can detach from the outside world. In this place the noise around me is muffled and the colors are dimmer and nothing really makes much sense. I can watch what is happening from this place because it’s surreal and there is less emotion attached to any of it. It just is and I am not.

The signal, given by Gunnar, means the slaughter instantly begins. Reed melts into the air with a quickness that I can hardly follow. I think that Pagan is not expecting the velocity of his attack either. When she does manage to launch into the air, Reed is there above her, knocking her back to the ground with a slashing blow that leaves a long, jagged slice along her left cheekbone. The blood from her wound seeps out as she tumbles and pivots on the ground, coming back up to her feet only to be knocked back down to the ground by Reed. He slashes her other cheek, causing her to drop her axe from the cruelty of the blow.

Pagan, slashing desperately at Reed with the spear while prone on the ground, catches him in the forearm, tearing open his flesh. He doesn’t even flinch when his arm begins to bleed; he just moves back to evade the next swing.

Something becomes clear to me in the next instant. I realize as Pagan stands, using her spear to try to pierce Reed’s left side while he counters the move by gripping the spear in his hand, tugging her to him and cutting a deep, painful rend into her side, that Reed is by far the superior warrior. It’s no contest at all. He is killing her slow, in pieces and by inches. He is paying her back for every branch she threw at me in the woods, when I ran for my life because I had no ability to do anything else. He is paying her back for chasing me over a hundred miles through the snow in freezing temperatures while I cringed in terror that she would rip out my heart. He is paying her back for every day that we spent apart because I was afraid that Reed would be taken by Dominion. He is paying her back for what the Gancanagh were able to do to me without his protection to aid me. He is killing her in the most ferocious and merciless way because that is what she would’ve done to me, if she had been allowed to fight me now. As I gaze around at the faces of the angels, I see that they feel that this is justice.

I push away from Zephyr and stumble toward Reed in the middle of the room. Zephyr is at my side in an instant, holding my arm back to stop my progression and gathering me to him to pick me up in his arms, but I look in his eyes and I shake my head. Zephyr won’t let me go any closer to the fight, so I call out to Reed across the room, “Mercy… please Reed, mercy… please…” I beg him. Reed stiffens and stills over Pagan who is now barely able to fight back and bleeding from a multitude of wounds. He is owed her death, but the brutality of it is more than I can take. Her pain is killing me.

I learn then that “mercy” to a human means something entirely different than “mercy” to an angel. In the instant between me saying the words to Reed and what happens next, I feel certain that no one would have been able to explain the difference to them. After Reed hears my plea, he kneels down beside Pagan, slicing her throat, effectively dispensing angel mercy in the form of death. Zephyr explains to me in my ear that Reed can’t allow Pagan to live. The council will demand that he finish her and the other angels will see him as weak. Reed has to send the message to everyone that if they hunt me, they will cease to be because Reed will protect me by any means necessary and there will be no other mercy for them except death.

CHAPTER 17

Binding

The war council reconvenes after Pagan’s body is carried away. There is nothing poetic about her death. I find nothing noble in it and I grieve inside because I can’t make sense of it. I’m truly grateful to Reed for fighting her because I know that Pagan would have killed me without hesitation or remorse, but I just cannot comprehend why it had to come to that. Maybe I’m still too human to understand their world. I have to keep reminding myself, that although I see myself as being on their side, it is not how I’m viewed by most of them.
I should remember that I’m a pawn in this world,
I think, standing between Preben and Reed with Zephyr on Reed’s other side. We are near the middle of the room now, but we are no longer on the raised platform, just near it, which somehow feels less conspicuous than being on it.