Wings of the Wicked
Page 6

“Wait,” he pleaded as I curled my hand around his throat and pressed him harder into the wall.
My eyes went wide when I recognized him. My spiked adrenaline hadn’t allowed me to think straight right away, but I’d know that ethereally beautiful face and pale-gold hair anywhere. It was Cadan. He was like the real-life version of an ancient Greek statue—except not totally naked. Thank God … or maybe not. I grimaced and shook my head, trying to banish the thought.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“Nice to see you, too,” he said with a grin, as if reading my mind.
My heart slowed down, but I didn’t release him. “What are you doing here? Isn’t this a little early for you to be up, seeing as how the sun’s out and all? Pretty gutsy of you, if you ask me.”
“I needed to catch you without your Guardian,” he said. “He’d never let me speak to you otherwise.”
“Can you blame him?”
His grin widened, and something dark flickered there. “Not in the slightest.”
“If you came here to speak, then speak,” I said, my voice ice cold.
His smile vanished. “I’ve come here to warn you.”
I almost laughed. “About what?”
“Bastian has the Enshi.”
My blood ran cold and my lips went numb. I stared into his opal eyes, watching the flames flicker there, searching for any sign that told me he was lying.
Footsteps echoed down the hall. I quickly released his throat in exchange for his arm and dragged him into the girls’ restroom for some privacy. Humans couldn’t be allowed to overhear our conversation, and while the Grim could conceal us from sight, we could still be heard.
“How?” I barked, and let go of him a little too roughly.
“I have no idea,” he said, rubbing his arm. “A submarine, maybe a leviathan, who knows. But he has it. I’ve seen the sarcophagus with my own eyes.”
I studied his face, perplexed. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I like things the way they are,” he confessed. “This Enshi, whatever it is, scares me, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. It could be more dangerous than anyone ever imagined.”
“That’s strange for one of the demonic to say. I thought you guys loved chaos, death, and destruction.”
“Chaos is a treasured pastime, but I’m not really interested in destroying the world.”
“I thought Bastian just wanted to destroy my soul.”
“You’re only a stepping-stone, angel girl. Bastian wants a war. Like in the old days. Hell on Earth, if you catch my drift.”
“The Second War,” I concluded. “The Apocalypse.”
Something flickered in my senses, and I shoved Cadan into one of the stalls. The door opened suddenly. I spun around, my heart pounding, as Kate emerged.
“Dude, where have you been?” she pressed, her annoyance obvious.
“Just in here,” I said with a smile. If I’d gone into the Grim and no one could find me, I would’ve created a lot more problems for myself.
“You’re going to get into trouble if you don’t come back soon.”
“I’m just fixing my hair,” I lied. “Another minute and I’ll be back.”
She narrowed her eyes, frowning. “Your hair looks fine.”
“Whatever. I’ll be back in a minute. I promise.”
“’Kay. See you.” She disappeared out of the restroom, her long blond hair swinging behind her.
I turned back and pushed open the door to the stall I’d shoved Cadan into. His grin made me want to punch him. Again.
“Imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t heard her coming.”
“Screw you,” I growled, and grabbed his collar to drag him out of the stall.
“In a public restroom, Ellie? Really? Didn’t think you were that kind of girl.”
My jaw ground tight. “I don’t have all day and neither do you. Finish what you came here to say and get lost.”
“I’m here to warn you that you’re being hunted,” he said, suddenly serious, his words edged with something frightening.
“I’m always being hunted.”
“They want you alive, and Bastian’s sent his nastiest to snatch you up. The nycterids are only the beginning. If they fail, Bastian has worse things lined up. Worse than me, worse than Ragnuk, worse than Ivar. Things that know what they’re doing. They’ve lived a long time, even by my standards, and they calculate every move they make. They aren’t fueled by rage or madness like those you’ve fought before. Killing is their occupation, and they are very likely to succeed in capturing you if Orek and his ilk don’t get you first.”
I leaned back against the sink and crossed my arms over my chest. Pressure built in the front of my skull as I weighed his words. This was not what I wanted to hear the day I had to start a new psych project. Why couldn’t evil wait for summer, when I had nothing better to do than fight it and get a tan?
“Are they vir?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Oh, great. The humanlike vir reapers were the strongest by far, and I’d only killed two before in this lifetime—and barely. If these could scare a demonic vir like Cadan, then my future was bleak. “Why doesn’t Bastian come for me himself?”
“Because he’s looking for a key of some kind,” Cadan explained. “The Enochian prayer on the sarcophagus is actually a spell. Angelic magic has it locked up tight, but every spell can be broken. Something will unlock it, and I think it has to do with you. That’s all I know. I’m no longer in Bastian’s private circle, and he doesn’t trust me—for good reason.”