Flight (40 page)

He pulls me with him as he runs and throws me around a corner to escape the fireball. The blast rages past and I fall. Gid stops and pulls me to my feet, half dragging me along with him. Blue lights appear behind us as the Aves warriors make another drop to come get us, but the Runout defenses are between us and them.

We can do nothing but put painful distance between us and our only hope of getting out of here alive. More explosions boom out in front of us as we approach the same building that housed the siblings just an hour ago. The roof is caved in from the blue light penetration, so we run around the back and slam right into Aren.

I slip on the muddied sod and go down as Gideon raises his weapon to fire on the man who may or may not be my friend. It doesn't matter, because this Aren, whoever he is, dives for Gideon and knocks him to the ground.

I am desperately trying to figure what's what when the bitch attacks me from behind and I go reeling backwards.

Iliana's eyes rage red with hate as she stands over me and then swipes a set of razors across my chest, opening up my armor and penetrating wounds that have already seen way too much action. I scream out in pain and she laughs, just like I laughed as I shot off the other Iliana's arms and legs a minute ago.

"My, my, Junco, you haven't changed a bit. No matter how many of you they make, you always end up the same. A sadistic, insane bitch of a girl who thinks she can withstand anything and hand out punishments like she is the Goddess of Retribution herself."

I am a little distracted by the blood seeping out of my chest and my hand fiddling inside the gaping hole in my shirt armor to really get what she's saying at first, but then it all clicks and I look up at her. "Iliana, you never did get it, did you? That's why they love me so much, you dumb fuck. Because of my spirit. Because no matter what happens, I always go down fighting!" I pull the bloodied SEAR out of my torn shirt, powering it up to dagger size in one slick move, and I throw it at her with the confidence of a girl who's been wielding knives her whole fucking life.

It spikes straight into her chest and sticks there as I watch, waiting to see if she's really me or not.

The slow sizzle of her skin and the demonic wail of her scream tells me all I need to know.

That bitch wasn't even close to being me. Not. Even. Fucking. Close.

I scramble to my feet and pull my SEAR from her deteriorating body, then whirl to look back at Gideon. He's breathing hard and has a nasty plasma burn on his exposed arm where the armor has deteriorated, but Aren's body is charred and smoking in the wind created by war action.

He grabs my arm and pulls me into a run once more, this time back towards the middle of the compound to find our fucking ship. We have one grenade left and Gideon lobs it at a vehicle full of soldiers. We haul ass, but the wave of energy and flames catch up and extract their payment and we end up flying through the air and landing hard on the grass.

We get up once more and round another building to escape the intense heat, but we are flung back to the ground by a force so powerful my vision blinks out of existence.

"Two minutes to full core meltdown. Two minutes to full core meltdown."

I look up and see nothing but white.

Shit! I died!

That's not possible unless that stupid bitch Sera lied to me because I'm not done killing yet so how can I be
satisfied
?

I get to my feet but before I'm even standing upright a woman appears in front of me. Her hair is wild, her chest is bare of clothing, and her skirt is lined with jewels. Her weapons are attached all over her person, like mine were when I first landed at Subjack's camp.

And she is holding a little lapis lazuli wand covered in blue and white swirls.

Inanna.

"I killed you. I saw your head explode like a fucking watermelon rolling off the back of a farm truck." I'm not bragging, just stating the facts, but I'm not sure she sees it the same way.

"You cannot kill me, Junco. I am High Order."

I wait it out. I have no follow-up for that. Hell, I don't even know what it means.

"You are mine, did you know that? You do not belong to Lucan." Her eyes dart around my face. "Or any of those other people." She waves her hand as if they hardly matter. "Subjack or that bitchy mother of yours."

"I do not belong to you." I say it with confidence that I don't feel. Of course I'm hers, that's truly the only way this could end, right? I mean, if you're a cynical, jaded, bitter teenager like me. Belonging to the one person, being, whatever, who I despise – is the only proper way to end this whole fucking mess.

She smiles at me in the same way Esta did when I failed to pay attention during our first meeting. I half expect her to ask me how slow she needs to speak to get me to understand.

"We will leave now, and you will comply with my orders. I will take you and we wait for the High Order to return so you can make your choice and put an end to all this nonsense."

"No. Fuck that. I'm done." I throw down my SEAR and raise my chin. "I'm done, do you fucking hear me? Fuck you! Kill me, do whatever it is you want to do to me because I. Am. Done."

She laughs. "Kill you, Junco? That's funny. You cannot die by my hand, you are my daughter and High Order as well."

My head shakes and I laugh with her. Then stop and look her straight in the eye. I lean down and pick up my weapon and power it up. "Well, in that case, I'm gonna cut your head off every chance I get until the end of time." I fly at her and she flings me backward by simply raising her palm in my direction. I slam hard into the ground and stay there, trying to get my senses back for a moment.

"Stop it, now. You are mine and you will comply, Junco. You will not return to the Band, you will remain with me until your part in all this can be put into play. But if you're a good girl I will allow the avians to pick up Gideon and remove him for safekeeping." She smiles down at me. "Until I'm ready to take him. He's mine as well."

"No. I'm not a good girl, that's common knowledge. I'm a monster, just like you, just like my father, just like my mother. We're all monsters here."

"True, you are not even close to anything human, and the being you will become will put Lucan to shame." She raises an eyebrow at me. "You have a destiny, I'm sure this has been explained to you already?"

I stare at her. She cannot mean Sera. If I find out Sera is working for this bitch to get back at Lucan I will snap.

"Lucan explained your part in the prophecy?"

I look at her sideways. At least it wasn't Sera. "No, not exactly. Actually, I'm gonna have to go with no, absolutely not. He never mentioned you at all."

My revelation wounds her, I can see it on her face, and I almost smile. This was the woman in the nargala who asked for the carrier of light, for Lucan, whose name literally means light, and was denied by her uncle. My summons finger begins to twitch and ache and I rub it with my thumb as Lucan's words come back to me.
In that last moment, Junco, when you truly have no more options. Use the summons
.

This time something appears, but it's not any Lucan I've ever seen.

The creature's eyes are glowing red from within. And not like Gideon's pansy-ass red eyes, either. They rage with the fires of Hell. The black wings unfold from its back as its arms reach out for Inanna. The demon wears ancient black armor made of small metal scales and it clinks as it stalks my kidnapper with taloned feet that click on the ground.

It growls at Inanna, the mouth open to reveal fangs, and with one swipe of the sword-length razors it cuts her body in half.

I bow down and hold my hands over my head as she falls to the ground in two pieces. I look up and wait for it to do the same to me but the monster morphs before my eyes into a man.

A man I know all too well.

He's not wearing a black suit and he's still got the black wings, his eyes red, but not glowing, and the fangs are shorter. His hair is not quite blond, his face more rugged, and his power more dark.

But he's definitely Lucan.

The next time I look over to Inanna she is whole again, no damage whatsoever. I stay crouched and wait it out. I'm absolutely a spectator as far as this fight goes.

"You dare!" Her temper ignites as she approaches him.

"I dare, that's correct." The anger drains out of Lucan in the same moment that Inanna's is building. He regains his composure and a portion of his refined look, but he is not back to being an Archer, not even close.

"She is mine!"

Lucan stands absolutely still, not even a flinch as Inanna storms up, circling him. Her turn to make the morph into a demon. Her teeth become fangs and her fingers claws that share zero characteristics with my sleek razors. His eyes follow her, but he does not turn. "She might have been yours, perhaps. When she was made. Before she came to us. But she's been gifted by the Fallen Archers of the Band, you already know this, Inanna. She is not yours. She is ours."

"That is not possible, you lie! It is illegal to gift my own daughter! It is illegal, like the other one you gifted over and over again until you made Junco pay his price!"

Lucan shakes his head. "You're wrong, Inanna. I made no such mistakes with Junco. It was all arranged. She was gifted and it was sanctioned. She is ours and we will keep her. Junco?"

I look up at him, my eyes wide with fear.

"The High Order is coming and when they get here you will have a choice. But it will take years for them to arrive, years you can spend with me in the Band if you so wish."

"Junco!" My attention is one hundred percent on the words of this new Lucan but her command snaps me back. "I am your true mother and he is the incarnation of evil. He is guilty of crimes you cannot even imagine, banished from Earth thousands of years ago with no path to return. He caused the End Times, Junco. Him. He cheats at this very moment to be here. He will kill you if you let him – he has final powers that I do not, powers he stole. He will kill you! And then he will finish what he started. He will make his race of slaves, and make you choose him. He only wants you for one reason, Junco. To prevent you from stopping what's coming! You can choose Earth, Junco. Choose humanity and leave the Fallen to die off like they were commanded to, thousands of years ago."

Her words reverberate in my head. It's always been about choices, hasn't it? All my life I've felt powerless against those who tried to control me. They never asked, simply shifted me by force. Holding me down, scaring me, inserting fear into everything I did and then erasing it all when they fucked me up. They demanded obedience and compliance like I was an animal. And maybe I can accept that it was necessary, to keep me alive and make my clutch the one that mattered, the one that changes everything.

But Lucan let me decide to stay with him or leave with Slag. He let me choose to fight or yield, to obey or not, who I would follow into battle, which man I wanted to love, which team I wanted to join, to tell the truth or lie, to hear the truth or hide from it.

And most of all, whether or not I wanted to help restore the avian race or let it die off. And each decision caused a ripple through my fragile pool of fate that only I could create.

Looking back, he let me make all the decisions. Every single one. And even though he said he would punish me, and even though I know he can hurt me in ways I can hardly imagine and force me to bend to his will, it never went beyond that single smack on the cheek out on the grass in front of Fledge. Even after I helped Sera create chaos, he took me into his home and tried to guide me towards closure. Look at your problem from both perspectives, he said. And then choose your heart if you don't have time to study it properly.

My entire experience with the avian comes down to my own free will and the one person, monster if I believe what they say, who actually stepped back and gave me control.

I look over at Inanna and feel sorry for her. And then I look up at Lucan in his semi-demonic form and I crave him and his world so bad I have no words to describe it.

But I do have power. The power of me. I am my own true north and I can shift myself.

I am the Seventh Sibling, the Seventh Evil Spirit, the Wind of Vengeance, and I know my one true purpose.

I will gladly take sides now.

"Fuck that, Inanna. I choose Lucan."

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The white world disappears and I'm back on the battlefield, the alarms wailing in my head as the female voice counts down the seconds until full core meltdown.

Lucan is gone and so is Inanna.

Now it's just Gideon and me. And he's looking like total shit, lying face first, sprawled out on the ground as the warriors continue their fight around us.

"Fifty seconds to complete core meltdown. Fifty seconds to complete core meltdown."

I pull him up to a sitting position and slap his face. Hard.

His eyes flutter and I shake him. "Gideon, get up! We have to go!"

He is silent and then I see it, the gaping wound across his neck. A slow pulse of blood seeps out in a perfect heartbeat rhythm.