Wings (A Black City Novel) (20 page)

“Darklings!” Mr. Kent cries from the north end of the wall. There’s more gunfire, and then a man’s scream, followed by something hitting the ground with a crunch.

People start running in a blind panic, bumping into each other, not knowing where to go, reminding me of the time a bull escaped the paddocks on the outskirts of town. Then I see them—dozens of shadows spilling from the alleyways and over the rooftops slowly take form as they step into the moonlight: pale skin, glittering eyes, hair like black fire.

I realize now we were being followed earlier, but not by Patrick and the others. It was by the
Darklings.
They must have been out looking for Lucinda and Annora and saw Lucinda with me, and followed us here. The townsfolk scurry out of the way as a tall Darkling stalks through the crowd. He’s dressed all in black, the tails of his frock coat fluttering behind him.

His dark, penetrating eyes slide over Patrick as he passes by. The boy stiffens, his hand tightening around the rifle, but he’s too scared to use it. Harriet and Drew keep their knives held out in front of them, but they too are frozen in fear as the Darkling approaches us.

“Icarus,” Grandfather exhales, his voice shaking.

“Hello, Hector,” Icarus drawls, turning his black eyes on me. “So . . . this is my son.”

I flush but hold his gaze. Around us, shadows move about the rooftops, closing in on the townsfolk. A few of them silently drop down into the plaza. There must be fifty Darklings, if not more. One approaches us. He looks similar to Icarus—narrow face, sharp cheekbones and thick brows over ebony eyes—so much so that I’m guessing they’re brothers.

“Girls!” he cries out, ushering Lucinda and Annora over to him.

“Dad!” Lucinda replies, a look of relief entering her pretty, elfish face. She shrugs off her jacket, gently wrapping it around her sister’s skinny body, and helps her over to their father. Kieran makes a move to follow them, but Ulrika grabs his arm and shakes her head.

Nearby, Mrs. Langdon angrily tugs on her husband’s arm. “Do something, Christopher.”

Mr. Langdon steps forward and nervously clears his throat. “You’re breaking the terms of our treaty. I must insist that you leave, or—”

Icarus turns, a terrifying darkness entering his eyes, silencing Mr. Langdon.

“Or
what?
” he says softly. “You broke the treaty when you captured my niece Annora. That makes our deal null and void. We’re perfectly within our rights to seek retribution.”

“Father!” Patrick yells.

We all whip around. A male Darkling has grabbed Patrick. Two more have Harriet and Drew. They snap the O’Malley siblings’ necks in one swift movement, and Harriet and Drew crash to the ground, the light in their blue eyes extinguished. From somewhere in the crowd their father, Mr. O’Malley, screams, a guttural, animalistic sound.

The two Darkling girls, Annora and Lucinda, look on, horrified. There’s a big difference between feeding on a human and killing one. It’s a fine line, but it’s one I wasn’t willing to cross with Catherine. The Darkling holding Patrick yanks his head to one side, baring his fangs, about to plunge them into the boy’s neck.

“No!” Mr. Langdon cries out. “Not my son! Please!”

Icarus flicks his hand. “That’ll do. We’ve made our point.”

The Darkling closes his mouth, but he doesn’t let go of Patrick.

Icarus takes a few paces toward Mr. Langdon, his eyes narrowing. “Haven’t we met before?” The Darkling studies him for a moment, and then a smile spreads across his pale lips. “Yes, I remember. You were Cassie’s boyfriend. And if memory serves, one of my best customers too.”

There are stunned gasps from around the plaza.
Mr. Langdon was a Hazer?

“Christopher?” Mrs. Langdon says quietly, her brow puckering.

“It’s not true,” he replies.

“Yes it is,” my grandfather says, leaning against me, clearly struggling to stand. “You, Cassie and these two”—he gestures toward Mr. Cranfield and Mr. O’Malley—“frequently went into the forests to meet with these
demons.
” He practically spits the last word. “And then Cassie went and got herself pregnant. Why do you think we had to force the Darklings out of the forest eighteen years ago? Your parents and I did it to protect you from
them
.”

“
You
started the conflict between our people and the Darklings?” I say, my head spinning with the revelation that my grandfather started the Misery. At least now I understand how he was able to persuade the Lupines to join us in the fight—as their rightful pack leader, I’m guessing, he still must have some sway over them. I shoot a look at Alaric. His face is grim.

“I’m the minister of this town, Edmund,” Grandfather says. “It’s my duty to guard people’s souls from impurity.”

Icarus gazes at me. “You seem surprised, Edmund. Didn’t your grandfather ever tell you how he led the hunting party that slaughtered ten innocent Darklings in their sleep?”

“No,” I whisper.

Icarus slides a look past me toward the curiosity shop window. I follow his gaze. He’s looking at the remaining jar of Darkling hearts.

“Didn’t you ever wonder how they got those hearts?” he says, turning his attention back to me. “They were trophies your grandfather took from his victims that night. Two of those hearts belong to my parents.”

I wince, looking at my grandfather, struggling to take this all in.

“I only did it to protect Cassie’s soul,” Grandfather says. “They’re
demons,
Edmund. The world will never be a safe place until they are all destroyed.”

Icarus takes a step toward us, and instinctively I move in front of Theora. Her hand tightens around mine. The gesture doesn’t go unnoticed by Icarus. He arches a curious brow.

“Could it be . . . ?” He places a hand on my chest, and I shudder. A look of surprise briefly flitters across his features. “How is this possible?”

I slap his hand away and he growls at me, flashing his long fangs. He digs a finger under my chin, tilting my head up so I’m looking into his black eyes. Up close, I realize I have my father’s wide lips, his long nose and his square chin. Another shiver runs through me.

“You have your mother’s eyes,” he says. “Cassie always did have the most beautiful eyes. I must admit, I rather enjoyed seducing her.”

Fury burns through me. “Is that what you call rape these days?”

“Rape?” He laughs. “I didn’t attack Cassie. Where would the victory have been in that? I had no real interest in hurting her.” His gaze shifts to my grandfather. “It was Hector I wanted to destroy, after what he did to my parents. I wanted to take away everything he loved the most, and what better way to do that than to corrupt his precious daughter’s soul?” A cruel smile plays across his lips.

“It had only been my intention to get Cassie pregnant. I knew once everyone saw her bastard child, she’d be shunned from the community and Hector would be disgraced. I couldn’t have dreamed she would try to drown you and then hang herself, but I can’t say I’m disappointed at how it turned out.”

I whip around on my grandfather. “Tell him that’s not true! Mother dropped me in the bathwater!”

Grandfather lowers his eyes. “I’m sorry, Edmund,” he says quietly. “Cassie was heartbroken when he rejected her. She couldn’t live with the shame of what she’d done.”

His words are like a freight train hitting me in the gut, and I sink to the stone steps in front of the curiosity shop.
My mom tried to kill me?
Theora kneels down and puts her arms around me.

Icarus unfurls his hand, stretching it toward me. “Join me, Edmund.”

“No!” Grandfather says. “You took Cassie from me. Isn’t that enough?”

Icarus’s face hardens. “I gave you eighteen years with Edmund—the same amount of time you got to share with Cassie. I’ve been more than generous. But now it’s time for my son to take his place in our clan.”

My whole body begins to shake as I’m consumed with rage. Icarus toyed with my mom’s heart and brought about her suicide, and now he’s trying to take me away, all to punish my grandfather—the man who has spent his whole life protecting me, guiding me, even
killing
for me. I won’t let this happen.

Before I realize what I’m doing, I lunge at my father. Icarus is so surprised by my sudden attack that he doesn’t block it, and we both fall to the ground, me on top of him. My fist connects with his nose and there’s a snap of bone breaking. Icarus grunts and grabs my hair, yanking me off him, his fangs bared. Blood streams out of his nose. He clamps his strong hands around my throat, his fingers digging into my flesh, and drags me up onto my knees so I’m staring at him. There’s nothing but hatred in my father’s eyes as he glares down at me.

“I will only ask you this once,” he says darkly. “Leave with me tonight and take your rightful place by my side, son.”

“I will never live with you demons!” I spit.

Icarus’s mouth twitches. “Have it your way.”

I claw at his hands as he slowly, deliberately, begins to squeeze my throat. Black spots start to form in front of my eyes as the air is forced out of my windpipe. In my peripheral vision, I spot something white flash past. Icarus suddenly releases me. I crash to the ground, gasping for air. Chaos immediately breaks out around me.

The Darklings surge forward, the humans try to flee. Bodies drop to the ground; blood flows between the cracks in the cobblestones. Mrs. Langdon’s lifeless body hits the earth. Her husband is next. Ulrika holds Kieran back, keeping him out of the throng, while Alaric fights a group of Darklings. They swarm over him until he’s swallowed by their bodies. A moment later the scent of Lupine blood bursts into the air.

“Dad!” Ulrika screams.

All this is background noise to the fight happening in front of me. Theora is on top of Icarus, her white hair flowing wildly around her as they brawl. Her gray top is torn, there’s blood on her lips, but she doesn’t stop, her silver eyes glinting with fury. They roll across the ground, wrestling with each other. She tries to pin him down, but he smacks her across the face and she falls to the ground, stunned by the blow. He stands up. Theora tries to crawl away from him, her fingers clawing at the stones. Her panicked eyes snag mine as Icarus looms over her. It all happens so quickly, I don’t even have time to cry out as his hands clamp around her head and twist.

I gasp, clutching my chest.

My heart clenches, there’s a stab of pain, and then:

Silence.

EDMUND

S
ILENCE. IT SITS INSIDE ME
like a physical thing, cold, unbreakable, everlasting. It can only mean one thing. My heart has stopped beating, because Theora is dead. The grief, the loss, is sudden and sharp, paralyzing me. I want to die. I am dead. Lucinda was right; Theora was my Blood Mate. But now she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone . . .

Icarus lets her go, and Theora flops to the ground like a rag doll. Somewhere to my left Ulrika wails with grief. The fighting continues around us, but I barely notice it. Ice already begins to form in my veins. Lucinda rushes over to Theora’s body, checking her pulse, but it’s no use, I know she’s gone. Grandfather puts his arms around me, holding me close.

“Why did you do it?” Lucinda shouts. “Theora saved me and Annora! She was kind and—”

“A mongrel,” he interjects. “Just a mongrel.”

My blood boils. “She was my Blood Mate!”

Icarus turns toward me.

“I had a heartbeat and you took it from me. You—” My words get trapped in my bruised throat as the loss consumes me again. Grandfather’s grip tightens around me and I can hear him crying too. Icarus got his wish without even realizing it; he destroyed my grandfather by taking away the one thing he wanted the most for me.

“Didn’t I tell you, Edmund? Darklings are demons,” Grandfather whispers in my ear. “This is what they do; they take everything you cherish.”

Icarus’s eyes drift toward something in the shop behind me. He steps over Theora’s body to retrieve it and returns a moment later, carrying a jar of Darkling hearts. He scoops the organs from the jar, carefully placing them on the ground, then kicks Theora onto her back. I’m too horrified to move as he leans over her body, blocking her from my view. There’s a crack of bones, the scent of blood, the
plop
of something dropping into fluid. A moment later Icarus stands. He strolls over to me, a sadistic smile twisted on his lips. Clutched in his bloodied hands is the glass jar. Floating inside it is Theora’s heart.

“It’s tradition in our culture to harvest your Blood Mate’s heart after they die,” he says tauntingly. “This is my gift to you, son. A
token,
just like your grandfather took from my people.” He gestures toward the pile of hearts on the ground before passing the jar to me.

I stare at it, revulsion crawling through me. This isn’t a gift. It’s a cruel reminder of everything I so briefly had but will never experience again.

He killed her.

The shimmering fluid in the jar begins to vibrate, and for a moment I think Theora’s heart is beating inside the glass container. Then I hear the thunder deep within the earth, slow at first, then growing, growing, like the anger boiling up inside me.

He took her from me.

Houses begin to shake, the bell chimes in the church spire, glass shatters. The fighting in the square stops as the earth violently quakes. All around me people cry out in terror. Kieran grabs on to Ulrika while Lucinda scrambles back to Annora and her parents. Tiles slide off the curiosity shop roof, smashing around us. Nearby, Patrick struggles against the Darkling still holding on to him, but the creature refuses to let go.

Right then, there’s a low, ominous rumble in the distance. Everyone turns to look at Mount Alba, silhouetted against the stars. The trees growing up the mountainside start to tremble. There’s a moment of silence, like the world holding its breath, then:

BOOM!

The force of the blast knocks everyone onto their backs. Plumes of ash and smoke spew into the sky, forming a mushroom cloud miles above Mount Alba, where its claw-shaped peak once stood. The heat is intense, singeing my eyebrows and lashes. My ears throb with the roaring, churning, belching sound of the volcano as it disgorges the earth’s innards.

Everyone begins to scream, even the Darklings. Grandfather lets me go. I look about me. To my left, Ulrika is beside Kieran, close to Alaric’s mauled, lifeless body; to my right, Grandfather has his arms thrown over his head; in front of us, Icarus just stares up at the sky in awe. Nearby, I spot Annora and Lucinda being led out of the plaza by their father and a pretty female Darkling I hadn’t noticed earlier. The other Darklings scatter, including the one who had held Patrick hostage. Patrick scrambles to his feet and takes a few steps toward me, when something bright orange shoots through the sky—a volcanic bomb! The molten rock crashes into the town square.

Boom!

There’s a tremendous explosion, sending stone and debris into the air, making the glass jar in my hands rattle. Patrick lies on the ground, groaning with pain. Nearby, the enormous cross that my grandfather was recently strapped to starts to teeter dangerously, the damaged frame creaking loudly.

“Look out!” Ulrika shouts.

Icarus whips around, his eyes widening as he notices the shaking cross. Grandfather and I scramble to our feet just as the wood splinters and the cross falls. It’s going to hit us! Grandfather pushes me out of the way a split second before Icarus grabs him and pulls him into an embrace. The cross lands on them, crushing them both under its weight.

“No!” I scream. “NO!”

I thrust the glass jar into Ulrika’s hands and attempt to lift the cross off Grandfather’s body, but it’s too heavy. I push it, kick it, but it just won’t budge. Ulrika tugs at my arm.

“Edmund, stop!” she says. “He’s gone! We have to get out of here!”

Tears slide down my cheeks.
Gone.
First Theora and now my grandfather. Everyone I’ve ever cared about, gone. My eyes shift to Icarus’s dead body. It’s his fault. He took them both from me. His last act on this earth was to murder my grandfather and leave me alone in this world. My father’s soulless black eyes stare up at me, blank, hollow, but there’s a mocking smirk on his frozen lips.

Another volcanic bomb lands in the town, toward the east, making the ground shake. Thankfully most of the townsfolk are running toward the north end of the town, near the paddocks. There’s a second gate there, which leads out to the main road that connects Amber Hills to the nearest city, Gray Wolf.

“Edmund, we have to go!” Ulrika says, blinking rapidly as ash settles on her eyelashes.

“We have to get Dad first,” Kieran says, pointing toward the mountain. “Our whole pack is up there, we—”

The ground shifts again. Ulrika falls against me, nearly dropping the glass jar in her hands. There’s another roar of thunder from the volcano as a scorching torrent of rocks and mud slides down the mountainside like a river, drowning the forest, destroying everything in its path, including the Lupine village. It’s heading straight for Amber Hills!

“Dad!” Kieran screams as if his voice could somehow carry across the miles. There’s nothing we can do but watch as the forest is shrouded by clouds of molten ash.

“We need to leave!” Ulrika shouts over the roar of the landslide.

I give my grandfather’s and Theora’s bodies a final glance, knowing it’s the last time I’ll ever see them, before we race through the crowds and join the throng of people trying to escape. I shoot a look toward Mount Alba. The landslide is getting closer, closer, tearing up the earth. The Boundary Wall will slow its progress for a short while but I don’t know for how long. Ash and small rocks rain down on us, cutting our skin, burning our clothes, but we don’t slow down. The smell of rotting eggs fills my nostrils and I gag.

We leap over the dead bodies. Something grabs my ankle and I nearly lose my footing. I look down. Patrick’s hand is gripped around my leg. There’s a large gash in his thigh.

“Help me,” he begs.

I could leave him. I
should
leave him. He tried to kill me. But it’s not like I’m blameless. If I hadn’t fed on Catherine, my grandfather would never have had to kill her.

I look up at Ulrika. “Head to the paddocks! Just follow this path—it’ll take you there.”

She leaves with Kieran, the glass jar tucked under her other arm, while I help Patrick up. He briefly looks back at his parents’ lifeless bodies in the plaza, and then we’re hurrying through the streets as fast as we can with his injured leg, toward the gate beyond the paddock. It’s hard to see as volcanic ash rains down on us, scorching my throat with every breath. Through the gritty fog, I notice the Boundary Wall looming up ahead. The gate is already open, and people stream out of the narrow entrance to the world beyond. We run toward the gate, but halfway there Patrick yells out in pain as his injured leg buckles beneath him.

“Leave me,” he gasps.

“No.” I grit my teeth as I lift him over my shoulder.

I carry him out of the gate and run down the main road as fast as I can, putting as much distance between us and Amber Hills as possible. Along the way we pass the townsfolk who managed to escape the town. I spot Ulrika and Kieran among them.

“You made it!” Ulrika says breathlessly. She’s still carrying Theora’s heart in the jar.

The four of us keep running, running, running. I run from the landslide, I run from Amber Hills, I run from the life I once had. I don’t stop until my legs burn and my lungs are unable to take another breath. I drop Patrick on the ground and collapse, panting, heaving, throwing up bile and ash. He groans, but manages to sit up, clasping his bleeding leg.

Kieran collapses on the ground beside him. “I think we’re safe.”

I look down the road. It’s hard to see through the smog and ash, but I think he’s right. The Boundary Wall must’ve slowed the landslide down just enough to keep it from coming this far.

“Thank you,” Patrick says.

I glance at him. His whole body is covered in ash, so he’s gray from head to toe. So am I. So is everything. The sky. The ground. Our faces.
Gray.
Everything is the same.

“No problem,” I say flatly.

Ulrika hands me the glass jar. It’s covered in soot. I wipe away the black dirt, revealing Theora’s heart inside. Grief spills over me, thinking about the life we might have had together. I’ll never get the chance to love her or have her fall in love with me. I’ll never feel my heart beating again. Icarus stole that from me. I want Theora back, but not in this way.

I thrust the jar into Ulkira’s hands. She doesn’t say anything as she accepts it.

“What do we do now?” Patrick says.

I look down the road. There’s no point in going back to Amber Hills; there’s nothing there to go back to. I turn my head. The road on this side leads to Gray Wolf, then beyond that . . .
freedom.
I can go wherever I want to go. Be whoever I want to be. My options are unlimited. But there is one thing I am certain of: I will make the Darklings suffer for what they’ve taken from me. I clutch the circle pendant around my neck as a plan starts to formulate in my mind. The future stretches out before me, and I see it how I want it to be:

A world without sin.

A world in her image.

A world united.

So sayeth us all.