Indebted: The Premonition Series (15 page)

A jealous look of black rage transforms Brennus’ face just as I bolt out of the archway of the pagoda and down the crumbling stone steps outside. Feeling the fellas converging in on me to halt my escape, I pause for only a moment and bend down on one knee. Several of my clones explode out of me, fifteen or more, going in every direction. Shooting back up, I continue to run forward, escaping into the woods along with all of the echoing images of me.

Confusion reigns around me as the fellas split up trying to follow several of the clones that they believe to be the real me. I don’t have time to celebrate that victory because several of the Gancanagh fail to be thrown off their pursuit of me. Declan and Goban emerge off to my left side, so I veer sharply to avoid them. Declan chases me and he is faster than I expect. Hearing him growl behind me, he calls, “Genevieve, ye are still a bleedin’ hallion!” Something whistles by my head, striking the tree in front of me and exploding in a shower of fire, igniting the ground around me. Declan is using his magic to pitch flaming death at me.
Freaking faeries
, I think, dodging more sparks.

As fire ricochets off the rocks around me, I speed up the path ahead while it narrows and twists upward towards some kind of summit. There is a wall of rock on either side of me, so I can’t deviate from the direction that I’m headed. I’m pulling away from Declan, but I still hear him trash talking me, “Tick, tick, tick…BOOM!” he exclaims as a loud blast falls behind me, rocking the ground I have just vacated and leaving the bitter taste of fear in my mouth. He is not playing with me. He is probably still a little salty about getting tossed off the balcony at the chateau the last time we met.

“Give up, Genevieve. Dis path goes nowhere but up!” Declan calls from farther behind me. “Dere’s nowhere left ta run…” he says, and I hear laughter in his voice, hitting me like an anvil from above, crushing my spirit when I see that he’s not lying. The path ends at a peak where an observation gazebo was erected a long, long time ago.

As I reach the peak, I twist and turn, but there is nowhere left to run. I back away from the path and into the gazebo. My eyes focus on Declan as he makes it to the crest of the peak. I stop moving as my back soon comes up against the railing of the gazebo. Pivoting, I glance over my shoulder. I see a sheer drop of several hundred feet to the rocky terrain below.

Declan approaches me cautiously with Goban directly behind him and another Gancanagh that I have not yet met behind him. The fangs of the unknown Gancanagh jet forward in his mouth with a
click
as they engage. He attempts to walk past Declan to me, but Declan’s hand shoots out, holding him back from entering the gazebo. “Dat one would be sweet to taste, Keefe, but bitter to pay for. She belongs ta Brennus—no one touches her except ta stop her from leavin’.” The look of yearning is in Keefe’s eyes as he stares at me like a deranged psychopath, making every hair on my body stand on end.

“Oy, Genevieve, where are ye goin’?” Declan asks, as he raises his eyebrow that always seems to be asking the questions. Declan looks older than Brennus. He must have been middle-aged when he became undead, but he is still attractive in a hot-older-man kind of way.

“Who, me? Oh, you know, hot date with an Ifrit—can’t be late or he’ll kill my friends, so if you don’t mind, I’ll just—” I start to say.

Declan frowns, “An Ifrit, is it now?” he says with his dramatic accent. “Dat’s like talkin’ trash ta da rubbish, goin’ ta speak ta an Ifrit, dat is. Did no one ever tell ye dat da devil ye know is always better dan da devil ye don’t?”

“Brennus is the devil I know in this scenario, I assume?” I ask, pressing against the rail of the gazebo.

“He is,” he says as he takes a step to enter the gazebo, forcing me to climb up on the railing overlooking the valley far below.

“Then you stay with this devil and I’ll wish you all the best,” I reply, trying to stretch out my wings as far as they will go.

“Dere is another sayin’ where we come from, Genevieve,” Declan says, watching me hold on to the post and look again over my shoulder.

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” I ask Declan, trying to gather the courage I need to jump.

“He who has da boots does na mind where he places his foot,” he replies. “If ye make Brennus chase ye now, he is gonna have dat boot pressed ta yer neck.”

“They have a saying where I come from, too, Declan,” I say, turning to look at him.

“Oh yeah, whah’s dat, Genevieve?” he asks in all seriousness as he inches closer to me.

I hold up both of my middle fingers to him as I step off the railing of the gazebo and begin to fall.

CHAPTER 9

The Unholy Church

As I fall through the air, I have the extreme misfortune to still be facing up as Declan launches himself off the edge of the gazebo where I just jumped. He looks less than happy too; his face is a mask of determination as he rockets towards me. He appears extremely bitter as he exposes his dagger-sharp fangs in a sneer. Maybe he is mad that I flipped him off as I jumped from the railing, or maybe he’s angry at me for making him come after me on a several hundred feet drop. Whatever the case, he’s salty.

I turn over in midair, stretching my wings out as far as they can go, but that slows me down. With Declan moving like a streamlined missile, he is going to be able to grab me within seconds, and then we will fall together to the rapidly approaching ground. Judging by the fact that several Gancanagh plunged out of the sky back at our compound, they must have some way of cushioning their fall. I have a feeling that Declan is going to make it very uncomfortable for me once we hit the ground.

Panic seizes me as I glance over my shoulder, seeing Declan reaching out to grasp my ankle. Kicking my foot, I try to evade his hands, hoping that he will fall past me. Declan is practically an expert at freefalling, by all outward appearances. It’s probably because he’s a faerie and he used to have wings before he became a Gancanagh. His wings were destroyed when he was transformed into an evil, undead creature, but he doesn’t seem to need them at the moment. He is grinning at me now because he knows he doesn’t need them either.

Feeling my wings catch an updraft and flutter in the current, the movement triggers something—some deep-seated instinct in me. I concentrate on that movement, how it feels—where it originated. With effort, I move my left wing up and it pitches me sharply to the right.

Declan hasn’t anticipated that I would move, so he shoots past me, just missing me by inches. Concentrating harder, I move my wings rhythmically, up and down. The most amazing thing happens: I stop falling and flutter up. Looking down, I watch Declan continue to fall to the ground; his grim expression would almost be comical if he wasn’t so scary. But, because I am who I am, I give him a little wave as he plummets away from me.

I continue to move my wings and it takes me a second to realize I’m flying. I mean,
really flying
, not gliding, like I did with Russell in the woods of Houghton. I’m slow though, not moving very far or very fast, but I am definitely moving. I try to veer away from the rough cliff wall, so that if Goban or Keefe decide to jump off the gazebo and pursue me, they won’t be able to land on me.

When I am far enough away, I turn and look back at the gazebo. Several Gancanagh are watching me from the railing now and one of them is the unmistakable figure of Brennus. Fear threads through me as Brennus extends his hand to me, indicating that I should return to him. I feel a pull to return to him, like he is my master. Fighting that feeling, I turn away instead and begin to head in the opposite direction, wondering how far I can fly as I try to figure out where I am.

Flying is much harder than running—totally harder. It’s nothing like being held in Reed’s arms as he soars through the sky with confidence. This is like being a kite and being torn in the direction that the wind seems to want to take me. I have to fight against wind currents to continue in a fairly straight trajectory. Beginning to tire almost immediately, my head still aches from the faerie dust Brennus used on me and I’m exhausted from the struggle of evading Declan and his firebombs. I need to rest and regroup—find a phone—call Reed.

Reed must be out of his mind with worry;
I cringe as I descend towards the ground. The dense woods beneath me cause me to panic because I have no idea how to land on even ground, let alone in the woods, but I have to land or I’m going to drop out of the sky.

I pull my wings in hard as I near the trees and I manage to fly between the branches most of the way down. When they get thicker at the bottom, however, I crash into a pine bough and fall about twenty feet to the ground. Feeling the wind get completely knocked out of me, I lay there for a few moments trying to get the air back into my lungs. I’m tempted to just lie here forever. My body aches and I need to rest, but I pull myself up off the ground and stumble forward. I have to find a town so that I can find out where I am.

I lean up against a rock, breathing heavy. Stumbling forward, I walk past a few extremely large trees and then I still as someone says, “Evie.”

Poising to run, I stop when recognition dawns on me.

“Phaedrus!” I exhale in a rush. “How did you find me?” I ask, turning and stumbling towards him. I fall against his chest and he catches me and hugs me to him. As I peer into his black eyes, he smiles back at me, brushing pine needles from me.

“I have a knack for finding my targets when they need me. Rough landing?” he asks, holding me up as I lean against him unsteadily.

“A bit,” I reply, feeling the super soft feathers of his wings brush my cheek like silk as I rest it on his shoulder. He rubs my arms, trying to warm me up because the shock of what just happened is now setting in.

“We had better start moving, Evie,” Phaedrus says, sniffing the air. “I can smell them.” Seeing the alarm in my eyes, he adds, “They are not close, but they have been through here recently. It makes me nervous.”

Phaedrus grasps my hand, leading me away from where I had landed. Pulling a protein bar from his pocket, he smiles as he hands it to me. Tears come to my eyes as I say, “How did you know?”

He shrugs, “You looked hungry in my head.”

Ripping open the packaging I all but stuff the entire protein bar in my mouth, chewing rapidly. After I manage to swallow it, I ask, “When did you start seeing me in your head?”

“Last night,” he replies. “I saw you taken by the Gancanagh. I was already on my way back to the compound because I had seen some things in my head that made me worry about you. I have been in contact with Reed and Zephyr. They are planning on attacking the Gancanagh to get you back, once they find out where they are. I didn’t know that you had escaped until I just saw it in my head. They don’t know,” he says.

“Where are they now?” I ask in panic.

“They are still back at the compound. They killed most of the Gancanagh that remained behind after Brennus took you. They didn’t know where he went with you, so they have been interrogating Gancanagh survivors to try to find out.”

“What about Brownie and Russell? Did you find them?” I ask.

A pained expression crosses his lips. “We think we know where they are. We had a plan, but now—I will tell you about it when we meet up with Reed and Zephyr,” Phaedrus says, cryptically. “I need to get us out of the mountains so we can find a tower that gets cell phone reception. We are blacked out, so it is just us for now.”

I slow my pace, pulling against his hand and stopping him. “What happened? Did the Undines really back out?” I ask. “Because of what Safira did?”

He glances back at me before he gently pulls me forward again. “It’s more complicated than that, Evie,” he says, picking his way between dense trees and over jagged rock.

“I’m sure it is, why don’t you tell me about it?” I say, following him.

“Reed nearly killed Safira. If it weren’t for Zephyr, she would be…” he trails off. “As it is, I hear that most of the Gancanagh did not survive because of him. Zephyr had to ban Reed from interrogating the prisoners because he lost perspective and was just carving them up one-by-one.”

“Oh,” I murmur, knowing that I have to get back to him so that he will know that I’m okay. “So he is flipping out a little.” Phaedrus gives me a sidelong look to indicate that I have understated the situation.

“He will be better once he sees you. I doubt he will let you go anywhere after that, so enjoy the scenery while it lasts,” Phaedrus says, half-joking, trying to lighten the grim topic.

I still, letting go of Phaedrus’ hand.
No, Reed will never let me out of his sight or near anything remotely dangerous, not after this.
He’ll keep me in the dark about Brownie and Russell. They’re dead now, without the help of the Undines; they stand almost no chance at all. That’s why Phaedrus left them to find me—he can help me, he can’t help them.

“Slight change of plans, Phaedrus,” I murmur, knowing that he is not going to like what I have to say. “We can’t go back to the compound, or meet up with Reed.” I add, almost choking on my words.

“No?” Phaedrus says with confusion.

“You’re going back to help Brownie and Russell, aren’t you?” I ask in a low tone.

His expression turns grim. “I have to, it’s what I do,” he says.

“Well, me too,” I reply.

Phaedrus’ eyebrows pull together. “No. I was sent here to protect you,” he states firmly.

“Are you sure about that?” I ask. “Why do you think that you couldn’t find them before? You needed my help because I’m supposed to go with you. It’s the only way to save them.”

“You are not a Virtue, you are a Seraph. You cannot perform miracles,” he says with a stubborn edge in his tone.

“No, that’s why you’ll be there. Just look at me as back up, a bargaining chip,” I say reasonably.

Phaedrus’ expression grows darker. “I don’t bargain with evil, they never hold to their end,” he replies, like I’m a naïve child.

“They will if you give them everything that they want—at least I think they will,” I say, biting my lip in indecision. “It’ll be worth the price, if we save Russell and Brownie.