Irritation sparked. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not leaving you here.”
Adonis folded his arms, wincing just a bit at the movement. “She should stay here until Johnny shows the first signs of recovery.”
“What are you talking about?” My voice came out a little too harshly.
Adonis stared at me. “If Johnny recovers within days, your sister can keep him confused for as long as possible. She has a remarkable skill.”
Grease smeared Hazel’s lips, and she wiped it off with the back of her hand. “Yeah. See? I have a purpose here.”
I cocked my hip. “I really don’t see how that’s safe.”
Hazel fixed her dark eyes on me. “I’m staying, Ruby. You go do what you can, and I have my own part to play here. You have to trust me. I survived the dragons, and I can survive the angels.”
Adonis smirked. “See? She’ll be fine here. Useful, in fact.”
I clenched my jaw, pointing at my sister. “At the first sign of danger, you need to flee, okay? I don’t care how hungry you are.”
She nodded. “I’m going to keep a bag packed with food and clothing at all times, ready to go. Don’t forget that I can summon dragons if I need to, so like, it’s really not a big deal.”
I frowned. “You can?”
“I told you. I charmed them.” She pulled a gold dragon’s tooth pendant from her shirt. “Right before I left, Uthyr the Harvester of Souls gave me this. Says he’ll come for me when I need him. He’s actually quite nice once you get to know him.”
Well. I didn’t see that coming.
I turned to Adonis. “What are you going to tell Kratos? He doesn’t want me anywhere near you.”
Adonis was already heading for the door. “You pack your things for tomorrow morning, and you leave the rest to me. Meet me outside the Tower of Wrath after the sun rises tomorrow morning.”
The door closed with a final click, and his footsteps echoed off the hallway outside.
The farther he moved from me, the more that gnawing hunger began to return, and I pulled the ham from my sister’s reluctant hands. “Tomorrow morning, I need you to make contact with Yasmin, from The Order of the Watchers. I told you the signal, right? She’ll let you know where to meet her. Tell her everything. Johnny came back, he could recover his memory, and Adonis is taking me—somewhere. Tell her that he plans to rule the celestial realm, I’m the Bringer of Light, and that’s all I know.”
“And how will you and I communicate when you’re away?”
“We won’t. That’s why I didn’t want to separate from you in the first place.”
She crawled into the bed, pulling up the covers around her. “Such a worrier. What’s the worst that could happen?”
My mouth dropped open. “The world could literally end and all living things could die?”
She blinked. “I have faith in you, Ruby. You’ll figure something out.”
A memory clawed at the recesses of my mind—a dark pool of glistening blood and gore on the pavement. If I couldn’t save Marcus… I slammed an iron door over the memory. No point dwelling on the past.
A fae believed in beauty, in pleasure—dark thoughts were wasted moments.
After a final bite of ham, I crawled into bed next to my sister, listening to her breaths as they grew heavier.
Chapter 7
With the morning rays streaming into our room, I shoved my meager, useless clothing into a backpack. My chest ached at the thought of leaving Hazel again—but maybe she was right. I had to trust that she was smart enough to survive. And considering she could apparently summon a dragon at will—as well as befuddle anyone around her—I had to admit she had her own set of protections in place.
Dressed in my warmest clothes—my berry-blue wool coat from the night before, my leather leggings—I crossed to the bed. Rolling over, Hazel blinked sleep away. For just a moment, I caught a glimpse of my sister as she had been—the little twelve-year-old who’d cried when a boy at school dumped milk onto her backpack.
She smiled sleepily. “Ruby. You’re dressed already.”
“I have to go. I can’t tell you where I’m going, because I don’t know. Only that I’m going to Adonis’s castle, and that we’re looking for…something.”
Hazel rubbed her eyes. “I’ll keep Johnny and Kratos off your case.”
“Just keep yourself safe. And check in with Yasmin to tell her what we know. Remember—use the candle to summon her. She’ll want to meet you by the cave at the northern edge of the forest, near the mulberry grove. Find it as soon as you can.”
She nodded. “Got it.”
It was no wonder Adonis was keeping me in the dark. I took all the information I had straight to The Order.
I pushed through the door into the frigid hallway. Every step away from my sister felt like a growling hollow in my chest, and I blinked away my tears.
Still, I had to do this. We couldn’t stay here. There was only one way out of this situation alive, and that involved stopping the apocalypse itself. Unfortunately for me, I had to rely on one of the angels of death himself to get what I wanted.
I traced my fingertips down the cold stones as I descended the stairs. What made me a Bringer of Light? Yasmin had said something like “you can be our beacon, but first you must descend into the shadows.” Maybe she meant it literally.
At the bottom of the stairs, I used my gloved hands to pull the iron bar from the door. I pushed outside into the frigid February air, and the sunlight dazzled my eyes for a moment. When they adjusted, I gaped at the slightly terrifying sight of two angels on horseback, their wings on full display.
Kratos sat on top of his powerful white horse. Sunlight streamed over his copper wings, blazing off his head like a crown of light. He wore his battle gear, and given the rigid set of his shoulders, he looked as if he were about to rip Adonis’s heart out.
Adonis didn’t look any more approachable. His midnight wings swooped out from a dark cloak, and he and his pale eyes blazed from within a dark cowl. His left wing hung at an awkward angle. I winced at the sight. I guess now I knew where to attack an angel. An angel could rise from the dead in just a few days, but a wing injury seemed like it could lay them out for weeks.
A sheathed sword glinted on his back, the hilt studded with red gems. His horse was a color I’d never seen before—a sort of purple-gray, like a fading bruise, with eyes of pure white and a silver mane. A large, black satchel hung off his saddle.
Another saddled stallion stood to Adonis’s side, his fur a murky blue-green, like seawater. A gleaming, silver star shone from his forehead, and his mane flowed over his shoulders, the creamy color of seafoam. Clearly, these were not ordinary horses. In fact, they were creepy as hell.
As I drank in the scene, it took me a moment to realize both angels were glaring down at me.
“What?” I asked.