Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (15 page)

“Cere!” I protested with a wheeze; he was
squishing the air right out of me. Brace came to my rescue,
wrestling the giant puppy away.

I could see
the girls were disappointed to not be venturing with us, but we’d
decided that the natives wouldn’t appreciate a massive group of
outsiders storming in. The other girls would stay and continue
their training, both with each other and the
princeps of their Walker clans. I felt a little better
knowing I could tether to them from a distance. For some reason
when we were away from each other unease plagued me.

“
I need to
check in with Klea again.” Ria gave me a hug, her earthy warmth
surrounding me. It was like being hugged by the sunlight.
I was happy that her sadness from yesterday
seemed to have disappeared.

“I’ll take you,” Josian said. “I’ve already
promised Talina and Ladre that they could visit Spurn.”

“Don’t forget us.” The strong, but generally
silent Dune spoke up.

“Ah, yes,” Josian said. “And Fury and Dune
want to check on their dragoona. So we’ll have plenty to do while
you’re gone.”

“We’ll be back each night,” Brace said. “I
don’t think the Nephilius’ natives sleep, so we’ll rest here, in
safety.”

“They don’t sleep?” I blurted.

Damn, how strong were they?

“As far as I know, they don’t sleep, and
they don’t need to eat. They take their sustenance from some type
of energy in their land.” Brace shrugged, like this was no big
deal. He didn’t look worried at all.

And I wanted to say: what the eff?

While Walkers don’t require anything to
live, they will weaken and slumber without food. I attempted to
picture what these Nephiliuses would look like. Robots
probably.

“Stay safe and I’ll see you soon.” Lallielle
wrapped her arms around me. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.” I pulled her a little
closer.

I knew I still needed to have that chat with
her about Josian, but he’d been back to normal again so the worries
were pushed aside.

My mouth dried out and a lump formed in my
throat as I took one last look at my friends and family.

Every time I left I feared that something
would happen and this might be the last time I had them all with
me. I had no idea what the next day would bring and it scared the
hell out of me.

Brace opened a doorway again.

We had time for one last round of hugs. We
waited patiently while Josian gave his standard warning to Brace
and Colton about looking after us.

I hid my grin; his lectures often left me
fighting the urge to either kick my father in the shins or hug him
again. I didn’t bother to remind him that we weren’t helpless
little girls, he knew that, his warnings simply stemmed from
fatherly love and worry. And no one can really complain about
that.

Finally we stepped into the doorway. The
vacuum surrounded us and I could see that it looked very white and
bright at the end of the tunnel. Linking hands, we moved toward
Nephilius.

The chill in
the air was the first thing I noticed. The breeze was cold but also
soft; gently caressing everywhere I had exposed skin. We’d stepped
out into a world of white, the mists of Nephilius
swirling in fast-moving arcs. I had no problem
breathing, although it was making me a little light-headed, as if
it was less dense than the air we normally inhaled. And then as I
took my first step to follow Brace I practically bounced a foot in
the air.

“
Whoa,” I
said, landing heavily and holding both hands aloft as I tried not
to fall. My second step ended up the same way. “I’m guessing the
gravity is lighter here.” As I spoke I tumbled to the
ground.

I groaned; I’d landed face down. Opening my
eyes, I had a firsthand view of the land. What the hell was it made
of? Something white and fluffy. I gasped as Brace picked me up and
planted me back on my feet. Colton and he seemed to have adjusted
within a few steps, walking around like cocky asshats, and Lucy was
flying so she hadn’t noticed. I, on the other hand, took about five
minutes to get the hang of this gravity.

“This is going to make the fight
interesting.” Brace caught my eye, giving me a wide grin.

And then in a flash he had bounded away into
the white, and before I could blink he was back again. So fast that
his normal Walker speed seemed to move up to super speed.

“So how are we going to figure out where we
should be?” Lucy was fluttering her wings, but she looked cold as
she hugged her arms tightly across herself.

Colton wrapped his arms around her as well.
He’d keep her warm. All Walkers ran hot, and being a wolf he was
even hotter.

“I can’t see a damn thing, even with my
awesome new pixie vision.”

She was right. I also couldn’t see any
further than a few feet in front of us. “Why is it so misty
here?”

There was
nothing eerier than standing in these white swirling mists, so
quiet and cold. Almost as if we were dead and no longer existed in
the First World star system. It was freaking me out a
little
. My brain tried to process the
images it was receiving.

“It’s not mists; it’s cloud,” Brace
said.

“What?” Lucy and I both screeched.

“Are you trying to tell me that we’re
standing in the freaking clouds?” I spluttered. No wonder the
ground looked white and fluffy.

Brace and Colton took in our shocked
expressions, before exchanging grins.

Brace even let out a chuckle as he explained
further. “Nephilius is a land of clouds. I’m not sure if they have
any other elements in their lands or structures, because I’ve never
explored or spoken with an Angelica.”

Wait, what? Was he serious right now? They
were called Angelica, and lived in the clouds?

“Angelica?” I tried not to let my awe leak
out.

Brace locked me in his gaze. He still looked
amused. “The inhabitants are called Angelica. There are five
different flocks under that banner.”

I snorted out my laughter, unable to stop
myself. Clouds, Angelica and flocks. There was no way they were
actually … seriously? It had to be some sort of Earth reference
that was confusing me.

“Are you effing telling me that this is a
world of angels?” Lucy was fluttering her wings extra hard as she
pressed her hands against her cheeks. Colton seemed to be
preventing her from flying right up into the sky.

I shook my head. “I’m sure they aren’t. That
was just something from Earth, right?”

“Yeah, but how many of Earth’s myths and
legends have actually originated from either a Walker, or from one
of these other worlds?” She raised her brows at me. “Like, I don’t
know, pixie … faerie … Cerberus.”

I snorted. “You made your point.”

Guess we’d just have to wait and see.

“What else do you know about the Angelica?”
I asked Brace.

His brow
furrowed. “I believe the Angelica have different talents. Each
flock …” He paused. “I don’t know the flocks’ true names; Walkers
refer to them by the color of their wings: black,
purple, green, blue, and white. I know black are
the leaders, and the whites can manipulate the mists, but I’m not
sure what the others do.”

“Colored wings?” I breathed the words under
my breath. “Of course they’d have wings.”

Holy gods above. They were going to be
angels, I just knew it now. And suddenly I couldn’t wait to see
them.

“I can hear the sounds of battle,” Brace
said, tilting his head to the right.

He started to move into the mists, and with
no other options we followed him into the unknown. I had to stop
myself from reaching out and taking Brace’s hand. It was moments
like this I forgot that he was no longer my rock to lean on.

Lucy must have sensed my distress, because
she captured my left hand in hers. Colton held her other as she
floated between us.

After a few minutes of walking blind, I
started to hear clanking sounds, like that of steel on steel. It
still took a while for the scene to come into view, and then in a
blast of frigid air the mists were gone.

We stepped
out of the blinding maze we’d been in and suddenly we could see
them in all of the
ir magnificent
glory.

“
Oh
, my freaking god … I mean
gosh, shit.” Lucy had momentarily lost control of her wings and had
collapsed to the ground.

“An … Angels,” I stuttered.

I’d always talked a big game of not really
believing in god, but if I examined my feelings closely, I more
didn’t believe in organized religion. But I must have held some
spiritual beliefs, because seeing these beings which were the very
depiction of angels from Earth sent very strong emotions through
me.

They were tall, at least Brace’s height, but
many of them were larger. The males had armor over their bare
chests and wore just a simple white garb around their waists. The
females wore armor also. They had varying tones of skin, hair and
eye color, but they were all perfect. I mean, almost as if they had
been drawn, with each stroke as precise and spot-on as the last.
And they had these incredible wings. And not wings like Lucy, no,
these were massive and strong feathered appendages, standing many
feet above their heads. The feathered edges looked delicate and yet
razor sharp. How was that possible?

On the
battlefield right now was a
purple and a
green. Just as had been the case with Lucy, I found myself both
fascinated and envious of their wings. The first was a deep rich
purple and was one solid color with no variance along the feathered
lengths. The other was a dark, leafy green. I could see the
strength and power in the muscular extensions of these Angelica.
And then the purple spun around, his wings flattening out, and with
a swoop he sliced through the arm of the green male.

Okay, now I was really jealous. Wings that
were also weapons.

“I’m really glad you’re not fighting them,
Abbs.” Lucy’s eyebrows were almost lost in her hairline. She was
bug-eyed staring at them.

“Me too,” I said, although I was still
worried about Brace.

I knew he was an amazing warrior, and a
Walker, but it was abundantly clear that there was something
magical about these Nephilius natives. And as if the wing weapons
weren’t enough, they also fought with long swords – the length of
my torso – which I wouldn’t have even been able to lift, let alone
swing. Unless of course it was a lot lighter than it looked. Maybe
the weaker gravity was a benefit for weapon play also.

It took them moments to realize we stood at
the edge of their training field. And suddenly we had dozens of
eyes locked on us. In swift movements they’d sheathed their
weapons, and each fell in with their flock and moved toward us. It
was obvious they were separate and distinct groups. And then, as
they moved I finally noticed the white-winged Angelica standing
around the training area. They were beating their wings in rapid
motions and the powerful thrusts were keeping the mists from
flooding into the clear area.

Well, that explained why this training spot
was so free of fog.

The other flocks were still marching toward
us. Their expressions ranged from stoic to the anger of drawn
eyebrows and clenched fists. This was going to get messy if they
didn’t stop to let us explain.

I stomped my feet a few times, trying to
warm myself in the arctic breezes. My foot sank into the slightly
spongy ground, and I had to look down at it again. I still couldn’t
get over the fact that the ground here was exactly how a cloud
looked, but solid. I could lift my foot and slam it down and it
felt as if I was hitting pliant dirt. It was not translucent; I
couldn’t see through to what lay below. I wondered if this was
their land mass or if we were somehow in the sky and there was more
land below us.

My attention was drawn upwards again as the
Angelica stopped ten feet from us. Representatives from all five
flocks were present, their expressions unnervingly similar, making
them all look the same. They were muscular, even the women. For
many of these androgynous beings I’d have had trouble deciding on
which were male and which female. But there was no doubt they were
a warrior race.

A black-wing stepped forward and started to
speak. It was in no language I’d ever heard.

Brace interrupted him. “Speak in
Walker.”

I hid my smile. The flocks looked a little
astonished at his arrogance. They clearly hadn’t spent much time
around Walkers.

“As you wish. Now prepare yourselves for the
first test.” The black spoke again, his voice husky, and it sent
tingles down my spine. The otherworldly quality of the Nephilius
was unnerving.

“First test?” Lucy squeaked. “Abby’s
terrible at tests. She cheated off me every year.”

“Shut up.” I flipped her off. “It wasn’t my
fault; school was boring.”

“Somehow I don’t think they’re talking about
the math or science of Earth,” Brace said, his voice calm.

And in that moment with one synchronized
movement the Angelica had hands full of weapons.

Yep, definitely not math.

“You must prove your worthiness to be in our
tournament.” Another black-wing with a creamy brown skin tone spoke
this time.

A
purple broke from the formation and came at us
from the side, his six-foot-wide wings extended. Colton and Brace
moved so quickly I didn’t even see them, but within seconds they
had the angel on the ground. Both of them rested a foot on his
wings to keep him from moving.