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Peter’s eyes grew wide as he gripped his neck. Blood gushed over and between his fingers. Then he collapsed.
It took me a second to register what had happened until an ear-piercing scream exploded from my mother. Tears streamed down her cheeks. The blond demon covered my mother’s mouth to shut her up.
Peter is gone. The only father figure I had known, the man who loved me despite knowing I wasn’t his child, was dead.
No. No. No. I tried to speak, but my tongue knotted as the roaring of the fire behind me grew louder and the smoke blocked out the moonlight and the stars. My mind raced as I gasped for air, reaching for reality because this could not be happening. Each breath felt like it might be my last as my heart pounded out an erratic rhythm.
Levia pointed her bloody dagger at me, Peter’s blood dripping on the dirt. “You move, then they die too.”
“Let them go.” I clenched my fists, shuddering with rage. “I already told you I’m coming with you. If you kill them, I’m coming after you. You’re going to wish you never met me.”
“I’m only following my orders.” She jerked a chin to my mother and sister. “They’re coming with me. If you follow my instructions, they won’t be harmed. Be at the castle in five days. Not a day earlier.”
She wanted time to reach the castle before I arrived since I could travel faster with my wings.
“Once you submit to your king, they’ll be set free, got it?”
My feathers shuddered with the urge to expand, but I kept them at bay as I inched closer. “Mark my words, Levia. Their lives are in your hands. If they even have a scratch, I will end you.”
“Stop. Don’t come any closer.” She pointed a dagger at Abagail’s chest.
I halted. “Abagail. Mother. I will come for you. I promise with my life.”
Mother’s gaze was focused on Peter’s bloody body as tears continued to stream down her delicate face.
“Michael …” Abagail smeared fingers across her wet cheeks. “I love you, but don’t come for us.”
“Take them, now.” Levia narrowed her eyes at me as her demons rushed across the stream behind them, taking the only two members of my family left.
I let out a roar loud enough to shake the forest, and rushed to Peter’s side.
Chapter Five
Sanctuary
Evangeline
I nestled into Zander’s warm embrace after I had been rescued. He spiraled us down but we didn’t touch land. Instead, we hovered at the mouth of a cavern, high up on a cliff, misty fog shrouding us from probing eyes.
Zander’s wings closed with a whoosh, and a lock of my hair flapped. I should stop staring at his bare chest. I had seen those ripped muscles time and time again, but something had changed. I couldn’t control myself. I blamed the adrenaline still pumping through my veins from the almost execution and then the rescue.
“This is our new home.” He held my hand. “Come with me.”
I had expected the cavern to be pitch dark, but light filtered through the cracks from high above in the jagged ceiling. A pool reflected the dappled light back to the ceiling in dancing sparkles. A patchwork of flat rocks lined the streambed.
Water seeped over the ridges of the rocky walls and collected in a stream that seemed to flow endlessly into a dark tunnel. With one foot on the gravel, the other planted on a small rock, I lowered and dipped my hand into the water to gauge the depth. Deep enough to hide if necessary.
My reflection bounced off the water and my sparkling violet eyes locked on the dark strands on either side of my face.
Unlike humans, angels couldn’t discern differences in temperature. That came in handy in the prison. I didn’t know how cold it was, but I knew winter was nearing from the sprinkle of snow on the mountains we passed, and the humans wearing cloaks.
Footsteps padded and Zander stopped next to me. “Dawn and Snow found this hideout when we were searching for you. Dawn and Snow went to the mountains, while Tank and Otis went to the forest, and I—”
“You went to the village to find Levia,” I finished for him as I wiped my hand on my uniform.
“I had no choice.”
I rose, anger in my tone. “But now you owe her. And what does she owe you?” I didn’t want to bicker, but unexpected bitterness found its way into my words.
