The Weight of a Wing (The Stolen Wings Book 1) (5 page)

With one last look around the blue room, torn between
needing to feel safe and not wanting to ever see it again, Alise stepped closer
to the exit.

Vale paused, his hand on the door handle, and glanced back.
“Ready?”

They had to be. The upper part of the walls had become
see-through. It was time to leave the safe house and face whatever waited for
them. Alise repressed a shudder. Despite its deprivations, the humans’ world
had been like home for four long years. Now the false impression of safety had
vanished. Wherever she went, she would always have to look over her shoulder
and fear an attack at any given moment. She sighed. Maybe the Guardians’
company wasn’t such a bad idea.

At Rafe’s tiny nod, Vale opened the door. He stepped
outside, holding the door open for the girls. Cassie needed Alise’s
encouragement to step over the threshold. The Guardians’ definition of “safety”
might be a little different from theirs, but they wouldn’t intentionally put
anyone in danger. Everything looked normal, like any regular early morning.
People were going to work, and cars were rushing by in the rapidly-heating air.

“We’re still here,” Cassie said, sounding disappointed at
the sight of her building down the street.

“This isn’t a teleportation device.” Rafe laughed, pointing
back at the room. “It’s a pocket in the fabric of the universe. Where it’s
opened, there it stays. We can’t hop around from place to place, although
people are working on it.” He sported an amused smile as he said that. “For
now, we walk.”

So they started walking. Behind them, Rafe closed the door
to a perfectly normal-looking drugstore. The safe house had disappeared. Cassie
shook her head as if trying to wake up from a dream. “Can we take the car now?”
The excitement in her voice came out a little forced, despite the courage elixir
she’d taken.

“Since you’re offering so nicely,” Rafe said with a grin,
“we will.”

They walked around the block. Once they got to the parking
lot in the back of the building, Rafe stared doubtfully at the small, black
Toyota parked next to a linden tree. Half-dried lime flowers were sprinkled on
the windshield.

“I expected something bigger,” he said. “By the look of your
place, I thought you could afford it.”

Cassie shook her head. “Well, my parents can, but smaller is
better when there is no place to park.”

“Hmm.” Frowning, Rafe moved to look at the other surrounding
cars, as if they were merchandise. His pursed lips and pinched brow showed that
Rafe was anything but happy with the Toyota.
Like most men, he would
have probably loved a tank.

“It’s the only one I have a key for,” Cassie said. “Good
thing I had it in my pocket when we ran from the apartment…”

Alise smiled, but Rafe looked up from the set of tires he
was inspecting. “Let’s see it.”

Cassie retrieved the key from her skirt’s pocket and held it
up.

“Thank you.” Rafe took the key from her so fast, she wasn’t
able to protest.

“Are you sure you can drive this?” Alise narrowed her eyes
at him. There were no cars on the other side, and Guardians didn’t stay in one
place long enough to learn how to do it. But, then again, they were
resourceful, so not much would have surprised her.

“Of course I can,” he said with a cocky grin. “Now, get in.”

“But…,” Cassie protested when Vale opened the back door and
nodded for them to get in.

Alise complied, determined to save her strength for the
times when it would make a difference. Cassie still didn’t realize that,
officially or not, they were prisoners. The girl saw the Guardians as friends,
their saviors, but Alise knew better. They had their orders. They were working
for themselves. And, as all domineering males, they needed to show they were
always in control. She let them believe that.

“This is so sexist.” Cassie huffed as she slid into the
back, moving closer to the window.

The car felt too small to fit them all. Inside the tight
enclosure, the thick layer of magic that surrounded the Guardians was almost
palpable. Alise’s breath caught in her throat, the thought of the elevator
episode frying her senses. No, she couldn’t have it. The magic would bring back
the pain and have her wounds open. She was amazed they weren’t bleeding
already. So, instead of reaching out and touching one of the Guardians like her
body wanted her to, she rolled down the window. Fresh air rolled in, and she
could breathe again. The only thing missing to make her nine circles of hell
complete were monsters. Hopefully, they were unable to materialize inside a
moving car.

This turned out to be the least of their worries. Although
Rafe could drive, he acted as if traffic rules didn’t apply to him. They flew
along the boulevard, weaving between cars and ignoring stop lights as if their
car were invisible. Alise would have bet that it wasn’t.

By the time they arrived in front of the big iron gate,
Cassie’s knuckles had long since turned white. Rafe leaned out through the open
window towards the panel which controlled the gate.

“Wait. Doesn’t he need the access code?” Cassie asked, but
Alise motioned for her to look. Rafe touched the panel with the tip of his
blade. Lightning ran through it, entering the system, and the heavy gate glided
to the side. “Oh…”

They rolled down the driveway until they made it to the
front of the building. Like Cassie had said, it was a monster of a house with
walls made of dark bricks. Flowerpots loaded with brightly-colored flowers
decorated the windowsills and the veranda. While clearly not more than a decade
old, the whole ensemble gave off a certain antique, distinguished vibe. Alise
hadn’t been inside before, but she had briefly met the owner at a party, and she
had a feeling the Guardians were going to like it.

“I can work with this,” Rafe said as he got out of the car
and took a long look at the building, pocketing the car key. Alise caught
Cassie by the arm and shook her head when the girl started to ask for her key
back. This wasn’t the right time for an argument.

The steps leading to the front door were uninvitingly steep
and narrow. Cassie went ahead to turn off the security system before Rafe had a
go at it and broke something. She’d had to house-sit a while back when one of
the dogs was sick, and Alise had to put up with all sorts of complaints because
of this. The house was too big, the beds too hard, no good satellite reception,
the internet provider sucked—things the uncle didn’t mind much since he was
hardly ever there. The only thing Cassie liked about it was the two Great Danes
with whom she had a great relationship. They absolutely loved her. Ah, the
dogs…
That’s
why she had hurried to the door.

They found them waiting in the doorway, wiggling their tails
with excitement. “Hey, boys!” Cassie patted their heads and pushed them back so
they could all enter the hall.

Rafe eyed the dogs. “Oh, we’ve got company.”

“This is Ben—” She hugged the gray one, “and this is Jerry.”
She pointed at the harlequin one.

“I don’t like this,” Vale said, his eyes on Rafe. The glance
they exchanged made Cassie turn to Alise for help.

 “Can you control them?” Rafe asked.

“Sure. They listen to me,” Cassie said quickly, but he was
looking past her at Alise.

She answered with a slow nod. “I can try.”

“Not good enough.” Rafe made a face. “But we can’t just kill
them.”

Cassie let out an audible breath.

“We’ll see how they fare. Let’s investigate the place.” Rafe
started to the first door on the right, which opened into a large lounge.

Cassie stood behind, still caressing her four-legged
friends. “Don’t they like dogs?” she whispered to Alise.

“Animals can be easily possessed and used as spies or tools.
And these are big enough to become threats.”

“Oh…”

Alise smiled and looked Ben in the eyes. She had to focus to
make her thoughts reach him.
Has anyone been here?

The Great Dane blinked and seemed momentarily startled. Next
to him, Jerry offered a confused sniff.
Only the human who feeds and walks
us.
Ben flashed her the image of a short, round, bad-smelling man.

Okay, keep an eye open. We might have unwanted visitors.

Jerry visualized the locked doors and windows.

Those won’t stop them
, Alise told them
.

Both dogs growled and huffed. No one better dare trespass on
their property.

“It’s all right. They’re on our side,” Alise said, not
wanting her friend to worry even more. The dogs would feel if something was
wrong, even if they didn’t know what it was. Their warning could be a small
advantage. “Come on.” She nodded for them to move from the hallway.

They barely had time to make themselves comfortable on the
large, burgundy sofa when Rafe and Vale joined them. It had been a short tour
through the house. They sure moved fast, though their steps made no sound on
the thick, expensive champagne-colored rug. In contrast with the bright white
walls, all furniture was in soft shades of colors that seemed based on wine
bottles.

“We’re like sitting ducks here,” Vale was saying as the
Guardians walked back in.

“Could be worse. At least we have a good view around the
place and won’t be taken by surprise,” Rafe said. “Ah, there you are…” He put
on a smile for the girls.

The dogs raised their heads from where they lay by the
fireplace. With a little effort, Alise could hear them debating whether the two
men were friends or not, since they sensed something strange about them. In the
end, they decided the visitors were no threat and rested their heads back on
their forepaws. They kept their eyes open, though, and stayed alert.

“We would be better prepared if we knew what Gorem wanted,”
Rafe said.

Vale pointed at Alise. “He wants
her
.”

Alise shifted in her seat on the couch while Cassie shuffled
closer, obviously prepared to defend her friend.

“Because she helped you locate him?” Cassie asked. “Doesn’t
he have better things to do?”

“No and no,” Rafe said. “We know for a fact that he came
here after her. That’s why he crossed over in Malta at the same spot as you
did,” he said to Alise, “and followed your path all across Europe. He obviously
has some unfinished business with you.”

Alise shook her head and raised her shoulders dismissively.
“I don’t know what that might be. He already took everything away from me.”

“True.” Rafe counted on his fingers. “He took your wings,
you can’t perform proper magic anymore, and you declined your status as a Fairy
and ran to hide among humans. What more could he possibly want?” he asked,
glancing at the high ceiling.

His insistence was close to being hurtful, reminding her of
everything she had lost, but Alise wasn’t about to give into him. She would
talk when she was good and ready.

“Maybe he wants to kill her,” Vale said. “All the other
Fairies were found dead.”

“Others?” Cassie paled.

Alise tried not to think about the other Fairies. Maybe she
would succeed one day but, so far, it hadn’t worked.

“Right. Why didn’t
he kill
you
?” Rafe stared
at Alise, his eyes hard and unforgiving. He wasn’t going to accept anything but
the truth.

“I don’t know.” Alise chose her words carefully. “I
thought…” She didn’t have to pretend it was hard for her to talk about it
because it was. “I thought he only wanted my wings. He took them, leaving me
lying there to bleed to death.” It still failed to make sense after that when
she had met Gorem that one other time. “I was lucky a Centaur found me.”

“It might be that he’s not the one who killed the other
Fairies, but I don’t believe that. So we’re stuck,” Rafe concluded, “which
brings us back to the same question. Why did he take your wings?”

Alise didn’t bother to answer. She didn’t have anything new
to add to the conversation.

“Okay, let’s tweak the question a little. What could he want
any
wings for?” Rafe tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, lost in
thought.

“Is there a spell he could use them for?” Cassie asked. “You
guys seem to be big on spells.”

“There are spells for just about anything,” Vale said, “but
I can’t think of any that require Fairy wings. I reckon you have to be a
skilled Wizard just to know them, then be willing to break several protocol
laws to cast them. And Gorem is far from being that. He is …
was
just
the Council’s secretary—”

“He’s nothing but a clerk,” Rafe bit back and hit the
backrest of a chair in frustration, making Cassie jump. “Which means we have to
deal with the Wizard who’s helping him first. Gorem can’t open portals or
create monsters, especially the kind of monsters we encountered. Those are not
monsters any of us could create. You need special skills for those.”

“You can create monsters?” Cassie’s eyes opened wide.

Rafe was a little taken aback by her question. “Well, yeah.
Anyone can learn how to do it. But it’s against the law to actually
do
it. I still have yet to see a monster do anything remotely good. Disgusting
creatures.” He pretended to shudder.

Vale shared Rafe’s disgust. He made a long face and sighed.
“All right. I’ll try to find out which Wizards have crossed over recently.”

“And I’ll set up some monster traps outside,” Rafe said,
grinning.

They headed to the door and disappeared in opposite
directions down the corridor.

“Do you trust them?” Cassie asked in a low voice.

 “I trust they’ll do everything in their power to catch
him.” Alise patted Ben’s back as he came to her, begging for a scratch. “Right
now, they’re the best option we’ve got.”

The page took forever to load, taking five minutes to only
load the search engine page. So there was no chance in hell a website as
complex as the one belonging to the university would ever load. Cassie threw a
murderous glare at her laptop screen as she sat next to Alise on the sofa. They
had moved into the study, a smaller, darker, and more intimate room.

“Arghhh…”

Picking up her iced tea from the coffee table, Alise went to
stand by the window. She stared out into the garden. Flowerbeds in all colors
alternated with patches of green and bushes also covered in flowers. Cassie’s
uncle might not spend a lot of time there, but his gardener did.

“Have they returned?” Cassie asked.

“Not yet,” Alise said. “They’re still working on protecting
the grounds.”

“They’ve been at it all day.”

In the distance, Alise spotted the golden top of Rafe’s
head, popping up from behind a row of bushes almost as tall as he was. She had
been watching the Guardians all morning and still couldn’t escape the feeling
that something was off. Maybe they appeared fast to Cassie, but Alise knew they
could move faster than that. They
should
move faster. They had no
interest in staying outside too long, so why did they? She hadn’t paid
attention to it earlier, but now that she had more time to observe them, she
couldn’t help but notice their dynamic was off. It was as if a part of them was
missing.

Rafe looked up, and their eyes met. Despite the distance,
the intensity of his gaze made her skin tingle all over. For once, he wasn’t
doing anything to cause such a reaction. He just stared at her. She forced
herself to look away and turned around to face the inside of the room.

“What’s the hurry?” she asked Cassie.

“Umm … I need to go into town,” Cassie said. “This piece of
junk isn’t working.” She pushed the laptop away. “There’s an internet café at
the bottom of the hill. I can connect to the library from there and get the
materials I need.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Do you think they’ll go with
me?”

“No.” Alise smiled, amused that Cassie had considered it.
“You can forget that idea.”

“But I’ve got an exam on Friday. I have to study.”

For everyone else, the girl’s thought process would have
been mind-boggling, but Alise wasn’t surprised. She had spent a lot of energy
making Cassie ignore everything related to magic ever since they had first met,
and she kept doing it without thinking about it. The courage elixir helped,
too.

“Forget it, Cassie. You won’t make it to that exam,” Alise
told her. “No one is leaving the house until they say so.”

Cassie’s eyebrows furrowed. “So we’re under house arrest?”

“Something like that…” Alise turned her eyes to the garden.
The sigil in the middle of her back itched. She couldn’t leave even if she
wanted to. They would find her anywhere she went, the same way Gorem would. It
was better to stay put and let the others do the fighting for her.

“Will it work?”

Cassie’s question made Alise give the girl a puzzled look.

“What they’re doing … those traps… Will they work?” Cassie
repeated the question.

Alise set the glass down on the windowsill. “It won’t stop
him, but it
will
set off some alarms. We’ll know when he gets close.”

“What will happen when he does?” Cassie asked.

“Are you afraid?” Alise softened her voice in an attempt to
calm her down, even if there was nothing to be calm about.

“Aren’t
you
?” The girl looked at her with big,
innocent eyes.

“No.” The word came out quietly. “He can’t hurt me.”
Not
anymore
.

“He can kill you!” Cassie blurted out.

Alise’s smile strained when she said, “If he killed me, he’d
be doing me a favor.”

Cassie’s honey-colored eyes widened in shock. “You want to
die?”

“No, of course not.” Alise took a sip of her iced tea. The
ice cubes had already melted. “But in a way, he has killed me already. I tried
living as a human, and it’s not a bad life…” She slowly shook her head. “But
there’s always going to be a part of me missing, and no one can bring that
back.”

The sadness in Alise voice compelled Cassie to climb off the
sofa and offer her a hug. “You’re my friend. I won’t let anything happen to
you,” she whispered against her dark hair.

Alise laughed inside the girl’s embrace.
So naïve
.
Humans could be so endearing at times with their courage and passion,
especially when they had no grounds to stand on. No wonder she had taken a
liking to the girl beyond her regular debt to her.

“Well, well, well… Isn’t this nice?” Rafe smirked at them
from the doorway.

When had he come back in? Hadn’t he just been in the garden?

“Fraternizing with the enemy now?” he teased.

“Enemy?” Cassie said.

“Okay, bad choice of words,” he amended. “You can’t be the
enemy. Humans can hardly be anyone’s enemy.”

“You think I’m harmless?” Cassie frowned, grinding her foot
in the carpet.

“I know you’re harmless.” With that statement, Rafe sat and
reclined on the couch, stretching out his long legs. “Except to yourselves.
Humans have the uncanny capacity to hurt themselves, and they don’t even have
to try hard to do it.”

“You can’t?” She sounded surprised to discover there was
actually something he couldn’t do.

“None of us can. I’ve never heard of anyone killing
themselves on the other side.” He smiled, distracted by the cloud of
butterflies on the screensaver.

“Can you make it work?” Cassie pointed at her laptop.

“No. Any burst of magic can be traced, and we don’t want
that.” His grin became less friendly, almost menacing.

She blinked, confused. “But you used magic for protection
around the house, didn’t you?”

“That’s different. It’s for protection so it sort of hides
itself.” Rafe turned to Alise. “You haven’t taught her anything. What did you
girls do all morning? Paint your nails?”

“I was just going to.” Alise smiled sweetly at him. The
question that followed was less sweet, though. “So, where is he?”

“Who?”

“You’re supposed to be a Triad. Where’s the third one?” she
asked. It was a shot in the dark. She had no proof for her theory, and Triads
were extremely rare.

Rafe’s face darkened. “Not here.”

He could mean not in town, not in this world, or simply that
he didn’t want to talk about it now. It had to be all three. It explained the
lack of balance in the Guardians’ dynamic, and their inability to keep up the
large blue room. One was missing. She wasn’t happy about the discovery. Two
Guardians fully in tune with each other were stronger and more reliable than a
broken pair. Then again, a Triad was not something easily ignored. A Triad
could fight a Wizard with fair chances to succeed. If she could only figure out
what had happened to the third one.

There wasn’t time for more discussion on the subject. The
dogs trotted excitedly down the corridor on their way to the front door,
chanting,
He’s coming! He’s coming!

A moment later, Vale yelled from the main hall, “We have
visitors!”

In an instant, they were all on their feet, rushing to the
closest window that faced the road. A dark blue Audi entered the driveway.

Cassie glared. “Well, here’s the enemy.”