Just that fast, Eli changes. His jaw extends, fangs drop, and his body quivers with silent fury.
But he still doesn’t move.
Soon, silence. The one who stands closest to Eli bends over and picks up the boy lying crumpled on the ground. He holds him effortlessly, suspended in midair, by the back of his neck. Only then do I recognize the boy as Ian, the one I’d saved from the alternative St. Giles’. He is limp, head hanging, arms and legs like sacks of boneless gel. I also recognize the man.
He’s the cloaked and hooded Fallen from my dream. The one I watched burn that human.
Then the other two turn to Eli. They’re speaking in that fucked-up language directly to Eli, and acting as though his vampiric state isn’t very impressive. Eli just stares at them, unblinking. Quivering, like his body is fueling. Eli! Snap out of it, goddamn it! I yell silently to him, but he still ignores me.
The one holding Ian turns his head in my direction. The flashes of light and shadow are so rapid that I can’t get a good visual on his features, but it’s definitely the same one from my dream. He’s as tall as Eli. Solid. Older.
I stare at him. Pain, take over his body. Nerves, seize. Tendons, cinch up. Unmoving. Completely still.
A chilling smile stretches across his face, and he cracks his neck and looks me square in the eye. My power of suggestion doesn’t work on Fallen. Jake was wrong after all.
A presence approaches. I whip around, my heart leaping from my chest, but relief drowns me. Noah stands beside me in the shadows. His face is drawn tight; his mercury eyes, illuminated by the flashing lights, are filled with fury. They lock on to the scene before us. His hand reaches for mine, squeezes, and drops.
Then everything happens at once. So fast.
So fucking fast.
A train approaches the tunnel, and it’s not slowing down. The screech of steel on steel all but deafens me, but that train isn’t braking. It’s flying into the tunnel, heading straight for PLATFORM 11. Then, in the midst of that blinding flash of light and shadow, the one holding Ian also grabs at Eli.
Just as the train approaches.
Just as the other two speak. One Fallen points at the tracks. Eli stands perfectly still. Frozen in place.
I scream and lunge, and Noah grabs me. Pushes me behind him and lurches forward. I grab him. Hold fast. He allows it.
The Fallen throws himself at Eli, and they both fly in front of the train.
The vociferous sound of the train squalling through the station drowns out my anguished cry. All air leaves my body. I’m numb, in shock. Sick to my stomach. The wings are still beating furiously overhead, but their sound no longer rises above the screeching train. I try to move, try to speak, but nothing comes out of me. I barely feel Noah’s arms around me, keeping me upright. My larynx is paralyzed. Breath sticks to the lining of my lungs. I’m frozen in place against the wall in the shadows.
Eli! Eli, please! Answer me!
Then, all at once, the train passes through and the wings cease, as does the incessant flashing light and shadow. Everything around me is a dull gray. The train disappears into the darkness, and I free myself from the choking fear, push out of Noah’s arms, and stumble to the platform’s edge. Eligius! Please!
Nothing. I hear nothing. I see nothing. No remnants of their bodies, no . . . nothing.
Impossible.
My eyes scan the tracks. My mind screams for him.
Only silence. Only shadows.
Only Noah and I are left on the platform. The others have disappeared. Noah looks at me, kisses my forehead, and takes off up the tracks. He’s moving so fast, I lose sight of him in the next blink.
I leap down off Platform 11 and onto the tracks. I begin to run, forgetting momentarily that behind me, on the platform, stands a . . . being. I don’t care.
I don’t fucking care.
As I run, I scream for Eli in my head. My feet move swiftly over the tracks, and once outside the tunnel I follow them far, to Edinburgh’s city limit. I don’t know how far I go or how long it takes me. Suddenly, though, I slow, then stop. I’m standing on a lone track, and behind me, way behind me, is the tall clock tower of Waverly Station.
I feel a chill inside of me, something too close, in my space, and I whip around.
The one who’d been holding Ian stands there. No more than two feet away.
He’s alone. A Fallen. Tall. Too shadowy to see features. Even two feet away, he crowds me. Fear escapes me. Fury replaces it.
“Tell me where he is,” I demand. He knows I speak of Eli. No need to explain.
In the darkness, he cocks his head. Studies me. Remains silent.
I find it hard to turn away.
“Tell me!” I scream to the top of my lungs. That voice doesn’t even belong to me. It belongs to someone who has lost her mind. Fury brews just below my skin’s surface. I feel like I’m going to combust at any second.
Wordlessly, he extends an arm, fist closed, facing down.
Hesitantly, I hold out my hand.
When his fist opens, a medallion falls into my palm.
Eli’s medallion. His family crest. I know it before I even look at it. I can feel the particular ridges in the pattern. My heart sinks to the bottom of my soles. I know what it means. I know what it’s supposed to mean. I can feel it.
But I refuse to acknowledge it. I fucking refuse.
I lift my gaze to stare at this demented asshole angel . . . whatever and whoever he is. After a moment more, he turns and walks away.
I blink. He’s gone.
I mean, goddamn gone.
Jogging up the track a bit, I search the area. A mist rolls in from the Firth of Forth and creeps across the tracks. The air is boggy with the scent of sea life, so thick it’s like soup. Gulls scream overhead. At least I think they’re gulls.
There isn’t the first sign of that guy. Of Eli. Or of the other two.
Did Eli just . . . I squeeze my eyes tightly shut, feel the strength go out of my legs. “No,” I say, slipping to the ground. Rough gravel and stone bite through my Lycra and dig into my knees. “No . . .” I can barely even say the word. It’s like there’s something stuck in my throat and I’m unable to breathe. Unable to speak. Someone has their hands around my throat, choking me.
Noah is beside me now, crouching down, his eyes locked onto mine. Never have I seen his face so stern. “Ri,” he says calmly. “We have to get out of here.” With his hand he pushes my loose hair back, off my face and out of my eyes. “Now, darlin’.”
I stand, looking around. I scan the tracks. No way what just happened, happened.
No way. It just didn’t.
Noah’s hand grips my shoulder. “Now, Riley—”
“Let me go, Noah!” I say angrily, and take a few steps up the tracks. I see nothing but grayness and mist. In the distance, a train rumbles. Steel against steel. A sound that now jabs my heart.
“You don’t know what we’re up against,” Noah says behind. “We can’t do this alone. Not just the two of us. Maybe not all of us.”
I turn and stare at him. Pissed. “The hell I don’t, Noah.” I glance in the direction of the train. “It’s not real. It didn’t happen.” Again, air sticks in my lungs. “Those kids.” I turn and look at him. “Eli, Noah.” I shake my head, dig my knuckles into my eye sockets. “It didn’t fucking happen!” As I’m standing here, arguing with Noah, I feel my legs turning rubbery again. Swear to God, I don’t think I can walk.
“I’ll carry you outta here if I have to,” Noah says. “But you’re the strongest soul I know, Riley Poe.” He tilts my head, knuckle to chin. Eyes filled with a mix of rage and pity stare at me, pleading. “And we gotta get the hell outta here. Now.”
I stare across the tracks at the tall gray buildings. The mist is even thicker now than before. The heavy scent of brine fills the air. If there’s a horizon, I can’t see it.
I’m completely numb inside. I don’t even know what to do. I just want to sink to the ground.
“I’ll help you,” Noah says, both hands on my shoulders. He squeezes. “But we have to get back to the Crescent.”
Eli’s medallion weighs heavy in my hand and I glance down at it. I’d been gripping it so hard, its imprint rests in my palm. With a deep breath I nod and slip the medallion over my neck. I glance at Noah, nod again, and begin to run. It’s still dark out, but the mist rolling in makes even the shadows hazy. It feels like a spray of fine water against my skin, and I inhale it into my lungs. The air is chilled, salty, and for a second it reminds me of Savannah. Of the salt marshes. Of home.
Only this place isn’t home. Home is where Eli was, safe. Fearless. Top of the food chain. No predator could confront and win against a vampire. Impossible.
Yet I can’t even say the words I know in my heart are true. I’d watched it. Witnessed every move. I saw it happen. I know it happened.
Edinburgh houses a brand of evil I can’t seem to grasp.
I just encountered it. I know it with all of my heart.
At Old Tolbooth Wynd, I swing through the arches, run up the narrow path, and leap over the Crescent’s iron gates. Noah is right behind me.
Jake has to know something. Darius. Gabriel. One of them has to know what to do.
As I hurry up the steps, the weight of Eli’s medallion burns into the skin of my chest.
The Black Fallen just fucked up.
I’m going to make them wish they’d never fallen from grace.
Or I’ll die trying.
Part Seven
UNINVITED
Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.
—Samuel Butler, 1835–1902
The change in Riley now is like mist to black vapor. It is as obvious as a knife plunged into the heart. She won’t accept her mate’s fate. Will not. I can see it in her eyes. There’s a fury there that is chilling. For the first time since arriving in Edinburgh, I feel like the Fallen have no chance in Hell of surviving. Not Riley Poe anyway.
—Lucian MacLeod
“Riley.”
The moment I walk through the door, Victorian is there. Noah immediately steps in front of me, blocking the Romanian vampire from me. Noah says nothing. He simply stares at Vic, who only returns his hot glare for a second before turning his brown gaze to mine. What is it? Talk to me.
