Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (84 page)

I hiss
softly in pain.

“Karma
,” Anya whispers
.

“I pushed him away?” I ask
skeptically. “Why would I do that?”

“Y
our mission
here
was confidential.
But, I have a theory,” s
he says
.

“Which is?” I ask
.

“I think you believed that you wouldn
’t be coming back,” she mutters
. “You didn’t want him
to suffer forever.
”

My mouth feels
dry again. “Oh…”

“He told me that something felt cut after you agreed to this mission…that intensity between your souls…it was, not gone, but it was not the same. I cannot describe
it because I have never felt it—
it’s the connection, the link…”

“The thre
ad,” I whisper
hollowly, thinking of t
he thread that connects me to Reed—
the one that we both hold onto so tightly.

“You understand,” she murmurs
. “Then, you became very involved with the planning for this mission. You and Russell fought. He didn’t want you
to
go.”

“Why?” I wonder
.

Anya i
s silent for a
moment, before she whispers
, “B
ecause y
ou were making yourself a
target for the angels in Sheol.
”

I close
my eyes. “So it’s true?” I ask
. “I wanted to co
me back to Earth and become half-angel and half-
human…a weapon against evil.”

Anya stills
behind me. “You think that is the only
reason you came here?” she asks.

“Isn’t it?” I counter
with my shoulders rounding.

“I know you well enough to say that the
re had to be more than killing F
allen to make y
ou volunteer for this,” she says
in
a tight voice. She gently tugs
the rope embedded in my
back out of my flesh. My finger
s grasp
the coverlet on the bed, balling it
in my fists so that I won’t cry out. A
nya exhale
s
softly, “I did not mean that one
.”

It takes
me a second to open my eyes and pant, “S’okay.”

The rope wrapped
around my wings slips
gently from
my crimson feathers. Anya moves
in front of me again in order to begin untying my
ankles. “Thank you,” I whisper
.

“For what?”
she asks, while her ebony wings pin
back
.

“Xavier is going to shred you when he
finds out what you did,” I say
.

“That is less scary than what Brennus has planned for Russell. You could’ve left him out ther
e alone…in the garden,” she says
,
while her fingers work
quickly.

“No
,
I
couldn’t have
,” I counter
.

“You paid the ultim
ate price for it,” she whispers
. “I can see why you love Reed. He
is different from a
ny Power I’ve ever known—
special.”

“I
have to get him back!” I choke
past the enormous lump in my throat, praying that she’ll understand.

“That is my plan,” she responds
immediately, and my arms reach out and hug
her, making it hard for her to move.

“Yo
u have a plan?” my arms loosen on her while my throat aches
with unshed tears.

Swiftly, she reaches
into my sleeve, pulling out the cool thing that Zephyr had handed to me earlier. “While you were meeting with Tau, I wasn’t just practicing my English
with Buns and Brownie,” she says
quickly, holding up a sorority pin belonging t
o either Buns or Brownie. It is
intricate, made of gold with tiny pearls on the face of it.
Upon closer inspection, I see that it opens
with minute hinges and a clas
p attached to it. Anya continues
, “We were coming up with ways to kill the undead monsters and then to get you away from the Seraphim. The Reapers were afraid of just this scenario. They’re outranked by just about everyone here and to use the
ir words, ‘
they
found you first
.
’
”

I blink as she presses the pin into my hand. “Is this—
”

“A portal,” Anya answers
.

“To where?” I ask
.

“To
—” she’
s cut off as the door crashes
ope
n and Xavier’s huge frame fills
the opening.

His eyes immediately narrow
into a scowl wh
en he sees
me untied on the bed.
Xavier’s eyebrows slash together. “Anya,” he growls
menacingly, raising the fine hair
s
on my arms.

Without even blinking, I pull
energy to m
e and then thrust it outward
, creating an invisible barrier halfw
ay between Xavier and us. He does
n’t n
otice it, because when he rushes
at us, he hit
s
it hard, knocking him back onto the exquisite rug covering the floor.

Xavier i
s up in an instant, stalking the wall I created, searching for an imperfection in the energy be
tween us. Behind him, Tau walks quietly into the room;
his eyes
are on me as his skin seems
to pale a little.

“You’
ve recovered y
our magic,” Tau states
, ignoring Xavier’s stealthy pacing in front of him.

My mouth turns down in a frown as I hold
my hand to the rope wound tightly around my ankles,
freezing it so that it
beco
me
s
brittle. Mo
ving my ankles, the rope cracks
and split
s
like glass, shattering away from me easily.

“Intense emoti
on hinders your magic,” Tau says
calmly, studying me clinically, like a bug behind glass.

“That, and the fact that I was reluctant to hurt you, two things that don’t seem to be affecting me
much now,” I reply with as much calm as I can
find.

“I have found your
aspire
, Evie,” Tau says, and then glances
from me to Xavier.

My barrier crumbles
for
an instant, distracted as I am by what Tau has said. Xavier capitalizes
on my slip, coming to within inches of the bed before he hit
s
th
e hastily erected barrier I thro
w toward him.

Xavier snarls
at Anya, speaking to her in angry, Angelic tones.

Anya retorts
with an equal snarl, “She tried to shift with the lariat on!”

Xavier pales
as he
looks
at the discarded rope saturated in places
with my blood. His eyes pivot to mine, while he says
in a hushed tone, “You cannot shift when your wings are bound.”

“Really?” I ask
, intending for my tone to
sound sarcastic, but it sounds
more hur
t than I would like
.

Xavier’s hands splay
on the barrier between
us. “Are they severed?” he asks in
panic.

My wings move
of their own accord, spreading out painfully, but fully functional.
The pain in Xavier’s eyes eases a little, but only
a little.

“I kno
w where Reed is, Evie,” Tau says
again, gaining my attention, but the w
all holding Xavier back remains
intact.

“I k
now where he is, too,” I reply
above the sound
of my racing heart as it pounds
in my ears. “He’s with Brennus, waiting for me to come and free him, so don’t try to lie to me and tell me that
you found him. Brennus was here, he—
”

“
BRENNUS WAS HERE?” Xavier roars
.

His eyelids narrow
to slits over his
distinctly
different colored
eyes before he picks up a table and
smashes
it against the barrier between us, t
rying to get to me.
I feel the energy push back at me as the table
shatters
into
splinters on the floor, but it does
nothing to gain him entry.

My heartbeat doubles, “Will you calm down?” I ask
with a condescending frown. “You’re freaking me out!”

“The bad freaking out!
” Anya adds
beside me, nodding in ag
reement while her hands tremble
.

Tau joins
Xa
vier at the edge of the barrier:
two huge, red-winged angels standing side-by-side wi
th grim expressions. Tau brushes
his auburn hair ba
ck from his gray eyes. I think
I see
a flash o
f guilt in them
before he asks
, “How did you fend him off?”

“You believ
e that he was here?” I counter
.

“I believe you,”
he corrects
me.

“I didn’t fend him off. He wa
sn’t here to turn me,” I reply
before taking a deep breath to calm my raging heart.

“Did he harm you?” he asks
with his eyes closing just a little.

I shake my head. “Physically? No,” I reply, “u
n
less you consider his kiss—
”

Xavier turns
away, picking up a chair and smashing it with his bare hands.
Splinters and shards of it fall
to the flo
or, but the really scary part is when he opens
his fists a
nd dust fa
ll from them. He stands
with his back turned to me, panting in frustration. “He will nev
er touch you again,” Xavier says
tensely.

“Don’t make me any
more promi
ses that you can’t keep,” I counter
with a bitter edge.

Tau’s hand reaches
out
to Xavier’s shoulder when he sees
it round a fraction. His ha
nd rests on it
before his eyes turn
bac
k to mine. My father’s voice is calm when he asks
, “Brennus wants something from you
. What is it?” My eyebrow arches
at his quick m
ind. “It’s obvious,” Tau replies
perceptively. “He wants something very badly if he’s willing to stave off his hunger to have you now. What is it?”

“Revenge,” I croak
.

“Will y
ou give it to him?” he asks.

“No,” I reply, shaking my head while a tear slides over my cheek
.

“So, you will protect Russell and let Reed go?” he inqu
ires
with an un
readable expression.

My eyes gro
w wide at
his intuitiveness.

Tau explains
sof
tly, “Russell is the only thing he could want
…it’s the only thing that would make sense as a reason for him not to turn you the minute he found you here.
Russell is growing in power. He’
ll be as powerful as you one day—powerful enough to come between you and Brennus.
Does he want you to br
ing him Russell?”

I nod
, feeling my throat closing up ag
ain.

“
He will not let
him live. He cannot—neither will he
turn Russell
into
a
Gancanagh
. You do know that, don’
t you?” Tau asks me. “
He has to stop Russell from evolving into a more powerful being than him
and he has to do it now, before Russell becomes a real threat
.
If he takes you now without
killing
Russell, Russell will hunt for you. He will find you, like he found
you before. Brennus cannot afford to turn
Russell because there is
no
guarantee
that Russell will stop evolving if he were to become undea
d. Who was Brennus’
maker?
”