Fallen Fire: The Complete Series, page 32
I ignored him, jogging down to the closest jetty. I spotted a man working on his boat, paying no mind to what was going on around him.
He was my ticket across the water.
I hurried towards him, sirens roaring behind me, coming closer by the second. Soon the harbor would be flooded with police, me ushered away along with everyone else while it was locked down. This was my only chance to make a move.
The man on his boat had better play nice.
“There’s no other way,” Lucifer whispered as if this were his idea.
I continued to ignore him, slowing my pace as I approached the man. He looked up at my footsteps. A red-flushed, weather-beaten face looked back at me, watery blue eyes, tufts of white hair flapping where it stuck out along the edges of a green beanie hat.
“Alright?” he asked.
“Hi. Nice boat.” I knew nothing about boats. This model could be anything. “I’m really sorry to do this, seeing as you don’t know me, but I need to ask a favor.”
“Thanks. This is my posh boat, not like the fishing one. Couldn’t have that here upsetting the locals. My clothes are bad enough.”
I came out with it. “How much for you to take me to Belle Island right now?”
“Right now? With all that going on over there?” He jutted a thumb behind him, completely unbothered by what he was pointing at. “Not safe.”
“I know, but I’m desperate. I have a friend stuck over there who needs my help. Can you help?”
He wrinkled his nose and fished out a peppermint from his blue combat trousers, admiring it like it was a rare gold coin. “Can’t say I fancy sailing that way. They’re all rich pigs who go over there. All those islands with their fancy mansions and rubbish. They look down on fishermen like me, send their minions to the fish markets to make their snotty demands about the fish, about how it’s got to be packaged. You know what I mean? Those kinds of people.” He sniffed and popped the mint into his mouth. “Can’t say I’m not a bit happy about that business today. Deserve to have their feathers ruffled. I’m not taking you there, but before you start begging, and I hate begging, you can take my speedboat. I don’t use her much now, so if you crash her, there’s no loss. Not like she’s even worth claiming insurance on. And you don’t look like a yuppie or some smarmy twat like the usual people I meet around here, so I’m happy to throw you this favor. My old man always told me I was a brilliant judge of character.”
Finally, he shut the fuck up, leaving me exasperated and staring at the small boat moored beside his bigger one. “I can’t work a boat.”
“And?”
“And how am I supposed to get to my friend if I’ve never sailed a boat before?”
A crunch of his mint. “Ah, it’s easy. I’ll show you.”
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Then why are you standing here moaning? Come on. Will cost you, though. Not a charity, you understand.”
“But… I…” I stopped myself, spotting more distant magic spray into the air. The last thing I was going to do was leave Charlie to face that island alone.
“How much?”
“Two-hundred.”
“I don’t carry that sort of cash on me.”
“Who said anything about cash?”
“You take card?”
“Who doesn’t? This is a modern world we live in.”
When terror and adrenaline collide, it makes for an oddly determined cocktail. A vicious wind beat at my back, churning the Atlantic Ocean into a frenzy. It wasn’t quite a squall but seemed like it was getting that way. In the distance, to the west, dark clouds were forming, spectacular thunderheads ready to strike down upon the world.
I was actually driving a speedboat, after having the quickest of lessons, and handing over two-hundred Angelica Dollars to the fisherman. Yes, it was utterly terrifying, also exhilarating, and a relief. I’d gotten away from the harbor in time before the police arrived, and now I was on my way to help my friend.
The booming sounds of the magic were louder but more infrequent as I approached. Less light show, as if things were heading for a quiet moment.
I slowed down as I approached the private beach, two boats bobbing in the waves, two capsized, another broken in half. A sixth boat was moored to the wooden jetty, with a dead man hanging over the side.
The waves were going to make it difficult to dock, let alone my extremely limited abilities to maneuver this boat. Straight ahead was manageable. Any other move, not so much. Also, with these obstacles in the water, I was bound to collide with one. I had to take my chances on swimming to shore. Leaving the boat floating free wasn’t ideal, but neither was crashing it and losing our only way back.
There was always that moored one with the dead man, which appeared to be seaworthy.
If it came to it, I would fly. A last resort, but one I would take if Lilith proved to be too much of a hindrance.
And I’d burn her mansion to the ground…
I checked the copper agate ring, and dove into the bitterly cold water.
The air was sucked out of my lungs upon impact. Fuck! The ocean was beyond any cold I’d experienced before. If I had been solely Humanblood, or any other creature that wasn’t Aquablood, I would’ve quickly succumbed to the deadliness of the water. But an internal heat sparked to life, protecting me. It didn’t switch me into a tropical mode because the cold wasn’t fully pushed away. However, it was reduced to a dull chill, the warm shield allowing me to swim without issue.
I wasn’t at lifeguard levels of swimming abilities, but I could swim well enough in the violent waves to get me to shore. It wasn’t pleasant, and my eyes stung from the endless spray of saltwater, my mouth tainted with a briny flavor.
I prayed for no rip current.
As I swam, more bodies floated past me, facedown, some of them with magical burns on their backs, still smoking.
If Charlie was one of them, the resulting rage would be unstoppable.
Such ridiculous thoughts were, well, ridiculous. Unproductive.
I pulled myself out of the water at a wooden ladder on the left side of the jetty, not taking a pause, hurrying up the walkway towards the formidable mansion, jumping over more bodies. Men and women in the black clothing I associated with Lilith, as well as others. One man had the Lucifer Star tattooed on his right cheek, a woman with it on her wrist.
The magical light show had stopped. There seemed to be an overwhelming amount of fallen Lucifer-lovers than Lilith-lovers. Not that I cared. As long as Charlie was alive, that was all that mattered.
I hurried up the stairs carved into the rock to the immense garden where two women in black had a man in blue and red on his knees.
“Lucifer will rise! This is not over! Soon he will walk these lands, and you will bow before—”
The crack of the gun bounced around the island as the man met his end.
I trudged forward, passing more bodies and damage. Some greenery had been ruined, and the mermaid fountain was missing her head, which was crushing a man a few feet away.
The two women were silent as they walked towards me, heading in the direction I’d just come from, paying the invisible-to-them me no mind.
“The house has been moving,” one of them said, just as they passed me.
I stopped, glancing over my shoulder.
“Apparently, he got out,” the same woman said. “Set off all the traps.”
Charlie?
“Our Lady will stop him. He’s a fool.”
I snarled as they passed, heading in the direction I’d come from. They were the fools. I was right there, so close to kill, heading into their mansion, and they didn’t even know I was lurking.
I kept going, the last visit to this place still fresh in my mind. Pausing at the main doors, I listened, waited, then tried the door handle.
Locked.
So I knocked.
The door opened, a man with a gun stepping out. “Hello?”
There was just enough of a gap exposed behind him for me to slip into that huge black and white hallway.
Two more men appeared, armed, both of them with pendant mechanisms still running, a ring of emerald energy coiled around their waists. Alert, pacing, discussing the attacks.
There were no bodies inside. Lucifer’s people hadn’t breached the mansion, it seemed.
What did that woman mean by the house moving? That didn’t make sense. And neither did Lucifer taking an interest in Charlie. Because he was a friend of mine? Because the dark lord and I had a past?
Fucking against a tree…
Whatever Lucifer’s intentions, I didn’t trust them, and they had evidently failed miserably. Lucifer’s army of supporters were no match for Lilith’s, which had me glad of the presence of the copper ring once again.
I checked the ground floor first, examining room after room, passing men and women, listening to their conversations. But they weren’t giving anything away.
From what I remembered of the layout when we were planning our failed breakout, the way into the catacombs beneath the mansion was over in a utility room in the west wing. Down there was Brett Keller, magical locksmith. And down there he could stay, even if he was the only way for me to destroy the essence.
Not destroy…
Yes, destroy… Take…
He is so close. So damn close…
As I returned to the main hall after what felt like an eternity of wandering black and white corridors and rooms, finding nothing, I passed an alcove, approaching the hall from the east wing.
A Billy Wizard Bear, silver not gold, sitting in a glass cabinet—a bear and a different glass cabinet to the one I’d seen here before.
It was recent information, for me, that there were silver and bronze editions of these bears I loved so much.
Rotating within the glass walls on a chrome pedestal, the bear was in a frozen hop, clutching a bunch of colorful balloons. Usually, the bears were all gold and had different colored eyes—some sort of lovely, twinkling jewel. This silver wonder had gorgeous peridot eyes, but each of the balloons was a jewel—pink, red, blue, yellow, orange, purple. No ordinary edition, but a special one I had to have.
“I need you,” I whispered, placing my palm on the glass.
Saliva dribbled down my chin. I wiped at it with the back of my hand, licking my lips. It was so delicious, so splendid, so utterly spectacular. Lilith didn’t deserve this bear, and she probably only had them for my benefit. To distract me during the first breakout attempt. Unless she genuinely loved them. You didn’t have to be made of the same stuff as me to enjoy their beauty. You just needed taste. How anyone, including Charlie, could dismiss them as gaudy was beyond me.
“Charlie,” I said and blinked. “Charlie.” I looked away, rubbing my eyes clear of the enchantment.
I broke away from the cabinet, resisting the stretching elastic that wanted to drag me back to drool some more.
The angels should’ve shown me one of these instead of that pot of gold. That would’ve got them what they wanted.
I needed to be stronger.
I took the stairs two at a time, trying to see if I could hear anything, even smell anything. My senses were stronger than before all this, but not as acute as what Charlie’s would be. Possibly. I wasn’t sure. Were they growing?
Damn. I just wanted to see his face!
This mansion was a behemoth. Just because Charlie wasn’t in one place when I arrived didn’t mean he wouldn’t be seconds or minutes later. If he had got out of whatever trap he was in, then where would he go? To the main entrance? Another way? Was he already outside?
Had I made a serious error by coming inside?
Shutting the unproductive negativity down again, I covered the first floor as fast as I could, glancing out of every window for signs of Charlie.
No sign of him, only the patrols of the people in black.
After exploring yet another corridor, I came to a room with a staircase going up. I took it to the next floor. Well, that was the intention until the sound of clockwork. The stairs collapsed into a smooth slide, and I went down it, landing unceremoniously onto a mezzanine.
The world had seen far more graceful landings than that.
Leaping to my feet, I leaned over the balcony, all eyes on me.
What a set of eyes it was.
Charlie, those beautiful blue gems like a Billy Wizard Bear’s, completely stunned, crouched over a frail woman that must have been his mother.
Had Lilith hurt her?
Speaking of the devil’s wife, there she was, staring up at me with some of her followers and what appeared to be two figures made of gears and metal blocking one of two corridors branching off from the main space.
“Who was that, Charlie?” Lilith asked, not taking her gaze off the space I occupied.
She couldn’t see me but would know I’d come calling.
Charlie said nothing. Even if he did, she wouldn’t hear him because he had the ring on. But she knew he was there. Something to do with his sprawled mother, I was guessing.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” Lilith said. It was as if she was verbally processing what was going on. “Uriel is here.”
Her magic flared around her hands, her followers doing the same.
“Oh, I’m here,” I said.
“Uriel? Whatever you’re planning, you must listen to reason.”
“The same reason you displayed when you poisoned him?” Lucifer had arrived.
He strode past Charlie, manifesting out of thin air.
The people in black jumped forward to protect Lilith.
She waved a hand at them, forcing them to stand aside. “Don’t worry. He’s no more harmful than a cloud.”
“Clouds can be dangerous,” he countered. “Haven’t you been outside today?”
Lilith smiled. “Haven’t you? Did you enjoy the sight of your failure spread across my grounds?”
He shrugged. “You still have to deal with the cleanup.”
She steepled her manicured fingers together, the red of her nails as bright as her magic. “I’d never assume you’d tell me what your plans are. I know enough to not let them come to fruition, but not the full extent. You never talked to me when we were married. I lived in darkness, didn’t I?”
Lucifer rolled his eyes at me. “So dramatic.”
Lilith caught it, still smiling. “Belle Island isn’t the only place to benefit from your attention today.”
“That would be correct.”
I moved down the stairs, straight for the Felineblood.
“Thank the angels,” he breathed.
He said that a lot. He didn’t need to thank them for anything. “Are you okay?” I crouched beside him.
As if it were the most natural action in the world, I took his face in my hands in a tender grasp. His skin was so soft. Even his stubble was like silk.
My breath hitched as I drowned momentarily in the cobalt pools locked onto me, as his own gentle, warm breath trembled past his parted, pink lips.
I let go immediately. Whatever the spell that’d driven my hands to behave that way dropped.
“My mum,” he said. “She’s hurt.”
“I’m getting you out of here.” I stood. “We’ll get her to hospital. Don’t worry, Charlie. Everything will be fine.”
I shouldn’t make statements of that nature without the strength to back them up.
“You came for me,” he said.
“Sorry?”
“You came for me, Zayn. You actually came for me.”
He looked ready to sob. “Of course. I wasn’t going to leave you here.”
“Lucifer?” Lilith’s voice. “Want to explain what you’re staring at?”
Us. He was staring at us like we were insects in a jar. Fascination, maybe something else. I didn’t know. I also didn’t like it.
“Pardon, my love?” His attention returned to Lilith.
“You heard me.”
He simply gave her a charming grin.
“I’ll stop you, Lucifer. Charlie will not be leaving here. It isn’t safe.”
I paused as I lifted Mrs. Ellison into my arms. What did she mean?
“Zayn,” Charlie said. “Lucifer wants to kill me. Apparently, he lives if I die, after the Lucifer Stars are cast.”
I met the dark lord’s eyes. “What is this?”
“Lies.”
“Uriel?” Lilith said. “It’s true. He’ll kill him.”
Anger stroked my soul. “What does your return have to do with Charlie?”
“She’s lying,” Lucifer replied icily.
Not so much as stroking my soul, but scratching at it with rusty nails. “Why is it I don’t believe you?”
Lucifer’s mouth curled upward at the edges. “Interesting how you’d take the word of the woman who wanted you killed over mine.”
“I’m taking no one’s word. What I’m doing is taking this woman to the hospital and getting my friend out of here.”
“Uriel is in my house once again.” Lilith’s voice cut through the air like a wicked scythe. “Hidden beneath a veil of magic. Tell me, husband, do you know what magic they’re using? Have the two of them somehow obtained a spell beyond my understanding?”
Out of all the folk who I’d assumed would be in on the knowledge of copper agate, Lilith was at the top of my list.
I was happy to have been wrong.
Lucifer took a moment to answer. “I thought you were the fountain of knowledge, my love.”
“I never claimed to be.”
“Could’ve fooled me. I thought you’d figured out all of my supposed plans to use Charlie as a sacrifice.” He shook his head, chuckling.
Lies buzzed around him as a dense cloud of flies. It was just a hunch.
“What did you want with the citadel?” Lilith asked.
“Figure it out.”
I watched realization work on her face. “No…”
“What, my love?”
“How could I have missed this?”
Lucifer was grinning madly. “You’re not the quick-minded woman my heart once swelled for.”
“You want a diamond mechanism.”
18
Diamond mechanisms.
No matter the illegality of other magical things, diamond mechanisms were at the top of the naughty list. Their power was deadlier. Like the other precious stone mechanisms, only a Magiblood could use them, but unlike the others, diamond mechanisms could summon Demonbloods from the Shadow Realm.
