Page 100 of Under the Iron Sky

That look in her eyes though, that was pure rage, like he was peering into the heart of a collapsing star ready to burn everything in its path.

Oh, she was going to have someone’s head for this. The question was, whose?

Wings rustled a few feet away, then Mortis sneered, “I bet your friends thought they were clever, didn’t they, setting a trap for us like that.” He stepped toward the human, and some instinct in Ikarus had him wanting to drag her closer to him. He brushed it off as fumes from the smoke. “Too bad. Was that sniveling whelp Morana brought in a friend of yours?Poor little human, you are a delicate species, aren’t you? I heard him scream like a little piggie when that metal sliced him apart.”

Laughing, he turned to one of the Irons and began piling his weapons into their waiting arms.

“At least I won’t be the only one losing someone tonight.”

The words were so quiet, Ikarus thought he’d imagined it—until every eye in the crowd, Mortis’s included, turned to stare at her.

“What did you just say?” Mortis snarled.

“Morana,” she said slowly. She slid her gaze toward him. “That’s your wife’s name, isn’t it? The fairy with black hair and wings uglier than yours? She’s still inside.”

Mortis’s usually gray face turned ashen. “You lie.”

“Do I? Where is she, then?” she asked, and even Ikarus couldn’t stop his spine stiffening at the cold authority in her tone.

It was only slight, but the first spark of terror shone in Mortis’s eyes as he quickly scanned the surrounding area. “Where is Morana?” he spat to the nearest Iron when he couldn’t find her.

The Iron, sword shaking in his hand, looked as though he might pass out. “I … I don’t know, sir.”

Mortis whirled to the other soldiers. Everyone standing around them did the same, even Ikarus and Malakai, all of them looking for a pair of gray wings that were not there.

“Where the fuck is my wife?” Spittle flew out of Mortis’s mouth. He asked the question again and again, snarling it to the guards around, the stalactites above.

No one answered. There was no answer—the only way to know for sure would be to charge into that building that looked seconds away from total collapse.

A risk Mortis was willing to take. Wings flaring, he shot across the cave, ignoring the few soldiers that pleaded with him to stop, to think this through, and disappeared into the smoke.

Silence, then …

“What’s going on?”

Every spine around him seemed to shoot straight at that high-pitched, shrill voice.

Morana stood there, that horrible black whip curled at her side like a tail, dark eyes narrowed to slits. “What’s the matter? Why is everyone looking at me like that?”

When no one spoke, she looked out at the mass of soldiers, presumably doing a headcount. And Ikarus watched the moment disgust fell away from that horrid face of hers to make room for cold dread. “Where is Mortis?”

No one dared answer.

Morana grabbed the nearest soldier by her jaw and lifted her off the ground, clawed nails sinking into her pale throat.

The soldier whimpered, scrambling frantically for something to lift herself off the death grip that was slowly squeezing the life from her.

“Are you listening, worm?” Morana’s grip tightened, fingers digging into the soldier’s face so hard blood was beginning to drip down her neck where she’d broken skin. “I said. Where. Is. Mortis?”

“I-inside …” the soldier choked out beneath that death grip, face beginning to purple. “He … went in there … a-after you. S-someone said they … saw you … in there.”

“What are you talking about? I was the first one out of the temple—I went to get reinforcements!”

The soldier went limp.

Snarling, Morana tossed the woman aside. She was airborne for about two seconds before crashing into a nearby stalagmite. Her armor might have been just thick enough to stop the impact from breaking her spine, but that was one hell of a throw …

A loud crack bounced off the cave walls, and Morana’s scream was swallowed up when the western wing of the Astro Temple collapsed entirely.