All Who Wander Are Lost (An Icarus Fell Novel) (54 page)

He looked right
into my eyes when he said it and I believed him. I didn’t want
to, didn’t think I should, but something sold me on his
sincerity.

But that would
mean...

I didn’t want
to finish the thought. The pile of evidence against Poe grew and
grew and an increasing part of me believed it. Still, a chunk of my
brain—and my heart—fought against the evidence, refused
to accept my guardian angel as anything other than the innocent,
sweet-faced being she professed to be.

“
Poe.
Stop, please.”

This time she
stopped and looked at me, her expression far from innocent. Her lips
were pulled back from her teeth; the look in her eyes bordered on
maniacal. The face of a person doing violence with intent. I gasped
at the sight and the sound of breath entering my lungs seemed to
bring her back to the world. The hardness in her expression
disappeared. She looked down at Piper’s head in her hands and
immediately removed her fingers from her hair as if she didn’t
realize they’d been there.

Poe stood and
stumbled back a step.

“
What...?
I...”

“
Poe.”

She faced me. Her
blond hair, usually neat but without style, in disarray; sweat stuck
her shirt to her chest heaving with the effort she’d expended.
She glanced from me to Azrael, then Piper, then back to me again.
Realization crept across her face, then sadness.

“
Fair
is fair,” Azrael intoned behind me and suddenly I was standing
on a street corner, watching as a man fell from a ladder and impaled
himself on a garden gnome.

When I returned to
the clearing, I stared at Poe and she looked back it me knowing what
Azrael had revealed.

“
You
could have taken him to Heaven.”

As I gazed upon
her, memories of the other things she’d done came to me
without the help of the angel of death, beginning with her not
ensuring I did my job when sent to harvest the priest’s soul
and ending with her taking my mother’s soul to Hell.

“
It
is time.”

This time, the
voice wasn’t Azrael’s. I turned to see the boy standing
beside the archangel. Behind them, the others all stood at the front
of their cages, hands gripping the bars in anticipation, all except
my mother who remained cross-legged and regarding her lap.

“
Who
are you?”

The boy smiled and,
for an instant, looked like any other mischievous ten-year-old.

“
You
know who I am, Icarus Fell. Decide.”

I looked away,
worried that if I didn’t take the opportunity when I had the
chance, I may never look away. My gaze swept across the cages: the
priest, Marty, Todd, Tony, Orlando. Three of them deserved Hell no
matter whether I felt responsible for their presence here or not.
This was the consequence for being an abusive priest, a pedophile or
a drug dealer. An argument might be made for the other two, at least
up until they tried to kill me.

And would the
world really miss a couple of drunks?

My eyes passed over
my mother, her head still hung refusing to meet my gaze. I’d
already beat that horse to death, which left the two so-called
guardian angels.

I turned to look at
Poe standing over Piper’s prone form.

†‡†

Poe’s heart
jumped when Piper rushed at Icarus.

Ric.

Her body reacted
without thought, without prompting, tackling her before Piper got
her hands on him. They hit the floor then slammed painfully against
the bars, Poe ending up on top of the woman.

She didn’t
remember much after that.

Her vision smeared
to a blur and she saw nothing through the mist it created in her
brain. The world disappeared, sounds disappeared. She pumped her
arms up and down, vaguely felt something in her hands, the tremor of
impact shaking its way up her wrists. The world seeped slowly back
into her mind and she realized there was a person at the end of her
arms.

Aaron Baxter. Or
his cousin.

The world remained
fuzzy enough for her to convince herself she gripped one of the
hateful boys until words finally penetrated the veil.

“
Poe.
Stop. Please.”

Her vision cleared
and she looked down into Piper’s face, her lip swollen, eyes
rolled back into her head. Poe looked toward the voice, snarling and
defensive until she saw Icarus standing outside the bars. His
expression showed shock, disgust, disappointment, and it pulled her
completely back to reality.

Poe jumped to her
feet and faltered back a step, eyes on the woman lying pressed
against the bars of the cage.

What have I
done?

“
What?
I...”

“
Poe.”

She looked at
Icarus. Azrael stood behind him, arms crossed, a frightful,
impatient look on his face. She glanced at Piper who hadn’t
moved since Poe removed herself from atop her and wondered how badly
she’d hurt the other woman. Not wanting to think about it, she
returned her attention to Icarus, but Azrael had said something and
Icarus’ face went blank. All the blurry anger disappeared from
her, shouldered aside by regret and sadness. She knew what Azrael
was showing him.

“
You
could have taken him to Heaven,” Icarus said a moment later.

Poe blinked and a
tear ran down her cheek. She wanted to wipe it away but resisted.

Ric. Remember to
call him Ric.

Somehow, during the
fraction of a second she’d closed her eyes, the boy appeared
beside Azrael and told Icarus it was time.

Time for what?

Icarus and the boy
exchanged words but Poe didn’t understand what they said, then
Icarus looked at the people in the other cages. She knew them: the
priest, the drinking buddies, the soccer coach, the drug dealer; all
of them people from his past who ended up in Hell because of Icarus’
actions or inaction.

Except his
mother. She’s here because of me.

The elements came
together in her head like the answer to a puzzle finally becoming
clear. These people, her and Piper, Azrael.

Decide,
the
boy said.

Icarus was to
choose who would remain in Hell and who returned with him.

Poe breathed a
shuddering sigh and peered down at Piper again. The woman’s
eyes were closed, breath shallow; a line of blood ran from the
corner of her mouth. Poe’s gaze followed the thin trail of
blood as it etched the edge of her jaw line and disappeared into her
hair. Any hope she’d held of returning with Icarus, of
escaping Hell a second time, seemed to follow a similar path:
thinning, fading, disappearing.

Why did I do
that?

She’d been
protecting Icarus, didn’t he see? Did he know she’d done
it for him?

Would it matter?

She raised her head
and saw Icarus looking at her without forgiveness or understanding
of what she’d done for him, now or in the past. For decades
she protected him, watched over him, kept trouble from him time and
time again before he knew she existed.

But you couldn’t
keep muggers from killing him, could you?

He continued to
stare without speaking.

“
Decide,”
the boy said again.

It’s
not my fault,
Poe
wanted to say.
I
did as I was told. Forgive me. Forgive me.

“
Trevor
is safe?” Icarus said over his shoulder, eyes on Poe.

“
Your
son is no longer in Hell,” Azrael replied.

Icarus nodded.

“
Then
I’ve made my decision.”

The hair on the
back of Poe’s neck prickled and goose bumps crept along her
arms. She attempted her sweet smile, to appear the shy young woman
Icarus met in the coffee shop, but so much had happened since then.
Even Poe had to admit that girl no longer existed. She tried anyway.

Icarus turned his
back on her.

“
I’m
not taking any of them.”

Poe’s heart
sank.

Bruce
Blake-All Who Wander Are Lost

The boy rubbed his
chin like a man considering what to do—an action not often
seen from a ten-year-old boy.

“
If
you do not choose, I will,” the boy said. “And you may
not like the soul I send back with you.”

“
I
didn’t say I wouldn’t choose. I said I’m not
taking any of them.” I gestured toward the cages in case the
little bastard didn’t know who I meant by ‘them’.

“
I
see. You have someone else I mind.”

No shit,
Sherlock.

I held my tongue
and nodded instead.

“
Who?”

“
A
policeman who shouldn’t be here, a good man you took as
payment when I rescued another soul.”

“
Stole
another soul, I believe you mean.”

“
Whatever.
Let him go.”

“
I
know the man of whom you speak.”

I glared at him,
awaiting his answer. When it didn’t come immediately, my eyes
wandered to the cages behind him. All my past acquaintances were
gone, the cages empty but for straw scattered on the floors. Rusted
bars, flaking paint and straw—no priest, no mother, nothing.
Behind me, I thought I heard a sob escape Poe’s throat, a
small sound that might have been my imagination.

After a few more
seconds, the boy tilted his head toward Azrael. The archangel strode
between two of the cages and disappeared, the cages fading away
immediately after. I spun around to see if the cage holding Poe and
Piper disappeared, too. It hadn’t. Poe’s glistening eyes
held mine, resignation plain on her face.