World After

72

MY BREATH comes out shaky and I don’t think I can feel my fingers. I can’t see a way out of this.

Raffe stands over Beliel, watching the warriors all around him. His eyes are fierce but it’s obvious that our situation looks pretty bad. Even if Raffe was in his best form, he couldn’t fight off an entire legion of his own people, even assuming that he wanted to.

Paige and I are just as surrounded as Raffe. My sister seems to have some new tricks up her sleeve but the odds aren’t exactly in our favor. I look around to see if there’s a gap in the wall of angels that I could sneak Paige through to safety but there is none.

We’re trapped.

They’ve fanned out around us, cut off every direction—land, water, and air. I guess this isn’t the first time they’ve trapped their quarry. They know how to move in for the kill, I’ll give them that.

Several angels step toward Raffe with their swords. He assesses them, then glances at his wings on the ground as if memorizing their location. He steps over Beliel’s head to get in front of his wings for the fight.

The scorpions watch Raffe with a wary eye but continue their life-sucking of Beliel as he shrivels. When the angel swords clash with Raffe’s wing scythes, the scorpions startle and fly away.

Beliel’s eyes stare blankly while the rest of him bleeds through gashes, bites, and missing chunks. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume he was dead.

Raffe tries to keep the angels from treading on his wings but there’s only so much you can do when you’re fighting for your life.

I get down on the ground and snatch a snowy wing before anyone tramples it. I quickly fold it and hand it to Paige.

“Hold this. Don’t let anything happen to it.”

I duck to the other side of Raffe and crawl on the ground to grab the other wing just as an angel is about to step on it. Above me, Raffe slices and blocks in a frenzy of motion with his demon wings.

I crawl backwards with the wing to get out of the way. I fold the wing and give it to Paige. The wings are light but they practically cover her whole body as she holds them in her arms.

I guide Paige back away from the fight. But our way is blocked by a warrior who glares down at us.

In the torchlight, his wings look more like flames but I know that they would be burnt orange under a streetlight. It’s Burnt, the one who kidnapped Paige out of spite.

He looks the same as he did in Doc’s surveillance video—bitter and mean. He takes a step toward us.

“There you are,” says Burnt as he reaches for Paige. “You finally came in handy for something, didn’t you? It’s about time someone took that reject down.”

I push Paige behind me and yank the bear from my sword. I’m almost glad that I get a chance to fight him. I have a special hatred for Burnt, the Kidnapper of Helpless Little Girls.