Fearless (23 page)

Everything suddenly becomes clear.

I recall what Thane told me about Ebony's birthing chamber, how it was hidden deep within the Lavender Forest, and how, later, nobody could figure out how the enemy knew the precise instant to strike – the precise
instant Ebony was born. Not three minutes earlier when Thane's vest caught in the chamber's silk strands. Thane blames himself for inadvertently alerting the enemy. But the enemy was there already, waiting for a predetermined secret signal that the infant was born and ready for taking.

I glare at Gabe now, unable to keep disgust from my voice. ‘I know what you did the night Ebony was –'

A surge of energy in the form of a gleaming blue wave shoots out of his body and thrusts me back against a tree.

Oh God, I'm right!

He's in my head now, probing around, finding out how much I know. I bring the monastery to mind, show him that I know he was the one who made it possible for the Prodigies and Prince Luca to breach the wall.

Traitor!

My chest tightens. My jaw aches. I begin to sweat profusely as pain spikes down my left arm. It becomes hard to breathe. He's doing this with his power. He's giving me a heart attack, making it look like my human body couldn't handle the pressures of the Crossing.

Oh my God, he's gonna kill me – right here in this forest in no-man's-land.

I bring an idea to mind and shove it at him,
Killing me now accomplishes nothing. You would still be indebted to your brother and have to guard the gates and the wall you're gonna build for the next hundred years. Meanwhile, Prince Nathaneal goes off to be the hero everyone loves. With his beautiful princess by his side, they'll crown him king before you finish paying off your debt – even though you were …

I lunge for breath, but he's closing my air passage and my
heart is slowing down. His usually bright blue eyes shine all black as he uses his power to finish me off. It's getting harder to put one thought ahead of another.

Spots appear before my eyes. I'm passing out.

No, I'm dying.
Oh God
, I'm dying!

But if I die now, what has my life been worth?

I have to try again, just once more …
Listen, Gabe,
y
ou kill me now, and while it looks like … ugh … ugh … there will always be suspicion … but, let me … do what I really came here to do … and … no one will suspect you killed … the human boy.

26

Ebony

I'm starting to move like a robot, numb except for the pain in my heart where I ache for all that I've lost, the parents I may never see again, the parents I may never meet. For Amber, Shadow and Jordan. I miss Earth, the fresh air, the peaceful mountains, the blue sky. I miss the farm, the home Luca had destroyed as part of his intricate plan to bring me here.

But above all I miss Nathaneal. Dare I let myself think of him? For just a moment? Eyes that are so blue and intense it's as if they were created to look inside my heart. And his smile? So magnificent it brings the sunlight into my soul. It would make birds sing and flowers bloom. Rivers run.

My heartbreak grows deeper by the moment. It's relentless.

But I force myself to move because I have to. It's about hope. Without it, I have nothing.

Luca is sitting at right angles from me at the glass-top dining table slicing up a
turyep
, a spiky green fruit native to one of Skade's outlying provinces. It has blood-orange flesh with, he tells me, nutritious black edible seeds in its centre. Unfortunately, when sliced open, it smells of dead flesh,
reminding me of a rotting carcass, such as I saw on my clandestine midnight excursion with Mela. But the taste is not bad, like kiwi fruit crossed with papaya. Almost tropical.

He lays three slices and a spoonful of seeds on my plate. I'm not hungry and lift my eyes to the window. After last night, I'm not sure I'll ever be hungry again.

The sun is up, but as usual it's hiding behind grey clouds. Smoke billows from factory chimneys, spiralling into the already poisonous atmosphere. A large flock of birds the size of cars fly past, hindering my view of the city, where a million angels with their soul-slaves pour into the streets, making their way to work.

I close my eyes, and images of last night sweep me back to the moment when, just as I had got out of a shower, Luca appeared behind me. I hear his heart thudding, faster than usual. His breath shifts the hairs on the top of my head. I have an instant to brace myself, knowing deep in my subconscious it will not be enough. Nothing will.

He spins me around and tries to control me with a kiss, but I turn my head just in time and his lips sear my neck instead. His hands swing to my back and he presses me against his body, half carrying, half dragging me from bathroom to bedroom. With nothing between us except my towel and pants he's wearing low on his hips, the heat is unbearable. It's suffocating.

Surprising him, and myself to be honest, I pull up my powers and shove them at him. He hurtles backwards, smashing into a wall. Without taking his eyes off me, he springs to his feet and walks back slowly and with purpose.

‘Don't touch me,' I sneer at him. ‘I'm sixteen. I know the
law angels live by. There's no way I will allow you to touch me, no matter how many days and nights you keep me imprisoned in your rooms.'

Standing over me again, he stares at me with green eyes flashing black, and I know he's going to punish me by punching his power into my head. It's the one way we both know he can control me. But since he brought me to Skade I've taken every opportunity to practise improving my powers, and in spite of trembling from head to toe, I block his mind from entering mine.

It turns into a battle between us. And angry that I could have become this strong under his own nose, Luca screams and rants and carries on. I hurt his pride and it stings. But so does the slap he gives me across my face, and the brutal kiss that follows.

I fight back with everything I have – all night long.

But in the end, just before dawn, both of us bruised, battered and broken, I'm the one who has nothing left. He stands over me while I lie at his feet and curse him, swearing as if I've lived on the streets my whole life. As if I've just stepped out of prison.

He hunkers down, gathers me in his arms and lays me on his bed with the first sign of gentleness all night. But he doesn't fool me. There isn't a gentle bone in his body. Greed and his own needs drive this king. What he wants, he gets. It's a simple equation.

‘I don't want to fight you, Princess,' he says. ‘You need to realise there's no rescue coming. Your shiny white prince can't break the gates I fortified with an impregnable seal. Nothing can get through. Absolutely nothing. I'm not even
concerned.' He holds out his hands, palms up and empty. ‘This is your life now. Accept it and we will get along better than you can imagine. You will have the adoration of your people, and if it's love you want, you will have that too. From me. And from our children. I don't
want
to hurt you. But I will. Don't be mistaken about that.'

I want to tell him how wrong he is about Nathaneal, that nothing will stop him from coming for me. That the love we share is eternal, an unbreakable joining of two hearts that belong together. No matter what happens. Even if the sky falls to the ground and the sun spins off into another galaxy.

We will always love each other!

I want to scream the words into Luca's smug face.

But if it takes Nathaneal some time to break the gates' seal, I can't let Luca touch me and possibly make me … I can't say it. Just thinking of … of … carrying Luca's child inside me – the binding to him that would occur as a result will ruin so much. It would jeopardise my future with Nathaneal. I can't bear to think of the consequences.

No. NO!

I open my eyes, reorienting myself into the present. The city of Odisha spreads out in all directions before me and
I si
gh, remembering it was
that
moment last night that I knew I had to think of something. I knew Luca liked to make deals, and I thought if I could just get him to agree to wait until … until …
the wedding
. It was a workable concept.

Mela said he planned to marry me on my seventeenth birthday. That's still weeks away. That would give me time to train more, to strengthen my powers more, to
grow a pair of wings at last. And to escape.

And by the stars, I would escape.

And somehow he agreed. But, as with all deals, there has to be give and take on both sides, and I had to give him something in return. We struck the deal that other than a kiss he wouldn't touch me intimately, as long as … as … he could … and that I would let him … look.

Oh
… the horror, the shame, the stain now lodged deep inside my memories! Will I ever be rid of it?

Damn him!

That's how I came to be seeing in the dawn with my eyes open wide, the pillow beneath my face wet with my tears as I lay on his bed, my towel in a heap on the floor.

27

Nathaneal

The walk along the crystal bridge reignites memories of the battle where Throne soldiers ripped Ebony from my wings. Anger rears its head but I drive it out, focusing on what lies ahead and not behind. By today's end I
will
be holding Ebony in my arms.

Standing before the bright pulsating gates, I close my eyes and bring my thoughts to the point of absolute stillness. Maintaining this sense of inner calm I hold my hands out for the
hanival
, which Michael lays across
my p
alms. My fingers close around the handle. It adjusts itself to my size with a silver glow as it stretches and reshapes itself.

‘I think it likes you,' Michael remarks, generating a few sniggers that help to ease some of the tension the presence of this unknown device gives us.

With the
hanival
in my right hand, I wrap my left around it and stretch both arms out to shoulder height. The
hanival
is heavier than it looks, the tube barrel made of an unfamiliar crystalline metal.

I close my eyes again and re-enter my quiet state, drawing power up from my core and directing it into my hands.
It builds faster than usual, thrumming through my body and making my hands glow, and grow hot and hotter and hotter.

‘Michael,' I check, ‘is everyone in position?'

‘All three teams are ready and waiting.'

‘And Gabe's soldiers?'

‘In place along the length of the twelve gates.'

‘Have more arrived?'

‘Affirmative. The total now is six hundred.'

‘Keep the first six hundred on the bridge. When the next unit arrives, direct them to begin constructing the wall.'

As sure as I can be that we're prepared should the enemy be waiting on the other side, I release a steady burst of power into the
hanival
, simultaneously squeezing the tool's trigger.

A beam of bright silver light shoots out, hits the gate, and causes a flurry of sparks and embers. It's chaotic and loud.
I pl
ant my feet firmly so recoil doesn't affect my aim as I begin to burn a circle into the gate large enough for my teams to pass through one soldier at a time.

I keep a rhythm going of drawing up my powers, channelling them through my outstretched arms into the
hanival
. With each throbbing surge that pulses from my hands, the
hanival
magnifies my energy.

It's not long before my arms ache and my hands shudder from the immense power the
hanival
is generating. I now understand why the High King insisted the device not fall into enemy hands.

The possibilities of what the enemy could do with it are endless.

Everyone is on edge, wondering what awaits us on the other side. Another legion of Luca's armed forces? Prodigies or Throne warriors?

There's a flash of white light as ignition occurs and the circumference ignites. Sparks shoot out like fireworks, and a subdued cheer erupts around me as we celebrate this first stage. I've come full circle and the gate is definitely aflame, so I stop squeezing the
hanival
and draw back my powers, watching as layers peel away along the circumference and inwards towards the centre, eventually burning through the layers of the gate's substance to the other side.

The breach is successful. The gate is penetrated. We've done it. The good news quickly spreads through the teams.

Michael catches my eye and smiles.
Good work, cousin.
He shifts his focus to the gate, where the chain reaction has left a completely circular opening in front and what appears to be a tunnel of flickering gold flames clean through to the other side.

What do you think?
I ask him.

It's enough. Even Sol will get through that.

Michael holds out his hand and I give him the
hanival
. He places it into its titanium box and locks it. As arranged, he gives the box to a pre-assigned soldier to guard with her life. The key he gives to another officer after the first has left to return the tool to Empyrean.

Looking satisfied, Michael nods at me and I turn my attention back to the gate. There is apparently no sound, no lights, no action stirring on the other side.
Could Luca be that arrogant? Could he really believe his seal is so impregnable he has
no need to defend his gates? Or is he hiding in wait until we are exposed in the Skadean atmosphere, to then hit us with everything he has?

I take a deep breath and make my first decision of the mission.
Jerome and Sami, you're up first.

28

Ebony

This is it. I've spent three days in Luca's apartment, and now it's the morning he's supposed to give me the choice of whether I want to stay or return to my rooms. But he hasn't brought the subject up yet. We're sitting at the dining table, having our ‘usual' breakfast, and if he doesn't raise the topic soon, I will. I look forward to shouting my ‘
NO, THANKS
' into his too-perfect face. I would rather be a prisoner in my own apartment than his plaything with palace-walking privileges. Yes, it might afford a better opportunity to escape, but … No. As long as I'm here, I will fight him every step he drags me further towards adapting. I will fight him every chance I get.