Iniquity (The Premonition, #5)(20)

“I’m not drowning,” Reed replies. “I’ve only just begun to live.”

Xavier grows still. “You should remember that you’re here for one purpose: to kill fallen, not to interfere with our mission.”

Reed doesn’t back down. “She’s my mission. That couldn’t be more plain to me if it were written in the stars.”

Tau speaks again in Angel, this time to the Powers behind us. They retreat, seeming to dematerialize at the speed with which they depart, and just like that, Reed and I are alone with Cole, Tau, and Xavier.

“What did he say?” I ask Reed.

“He ordered them to await him at the chateau.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say.”

Tau gives me a small smile. “If only you’d obey my orders like them.”

I don’t return his smile. “Hold your breath for that to happen.”

“It will happen. I’m not here to be your friend. You’ll need to learn to obey me.”

“Any hope of that died when you wouldn’t help me in Ireland. You think you can make me obey you now?” I scoff.

Tau smiles again. “Not me. Xavier. I have an army to lead. Reed will accompany me and be my right hand in that for now.”

“Why would he do that?” I ask with a sinking feeling.

“Because he doesn’t want me to hurt you,” Tau replies, “so don’t make me.”

Something shifts inside of me. I start looking for weaknesses in him. “We may share some of the same DNA, you and I, but Reed is my family. Try to separate us and it’ll be war with no winners. Are we clear?”

“I think I understand you,” he replies in a relaxed tone. He holds up his hand—the one with the ring on it—for me to see. “These rings don’t just serve to protect us...they also protect a secret.”

I begin to fear what he’ll say next. Reed feels it because he inches in front of me. Tau grasps the hilt of the tiny, silvery sword in his ring that pierces the shield diagonally from top to bottom. He twists the sword, turning it over within the shield. Suddenly, the sword loosens and he pulls it free from the shield base. He reinserts the sword into the shield from bottom to top, and lifting it up, he opens the surface of the ring to reveal a hidden compartment within it.

He waits for Cole and Xavier to open their rings. Cole’s brown eyes watch mine as he reaches into his ring, extracting a round silver ball a little smaller than a marble. It’s flat on top with a hole hollowed out. He hands the orb to Tau. Tau pulls a flat, silver square from his ring. It’s a trifold of metal. When he straightens it, the hinges lock it in place, creating a single rectangle only a few inches long. Xavier removes a delicate, silver hollowed-out cylinder. He pulls the ends apart and the cylinder expands to become a small, arcing pipe. One end is cut at an angle and the other end has a lip on it.

Reed and I watch Tau deftly assemble the pieces, fitting them together. Reed whispers to me, “It’s a whistle—a boatswain pipe. Cole had the buoy, Tau had the base—‘the keel’, and Xavier had the pipe—‘the gun.’”

I exhale in relief. “A whistle.”

Tau smiles. “It’s a very special boatswain, Evie. It’s a key.”

“A key to what?” I ask.

“Sheol,” Tau responds.

Reed tenses, whispering, “Evie, leave now. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Not without you.”

“Together then.” Reed’s eyes lift to the sky, indicating that we should fly.

Xavier calls something out loudly in Angel. The word is familiar; I recognize it from my time at Dominion’s chateau when Reed had declared himself my protector in order to fight for me. He’d said the same word then, before just about every Angel there repeated it—it means “Champion.”

Reed stills before he glances at me. “Go, Evie, contact Zephyr and Russell—I’ll meet you after.”

“After what? I’m not leaving you.”

“You don’t want to see this,” Reed murmurs. “Xavier has challenged me. I cannot refuse to fight him.”

I inhale sharply, before I say, “Yes, you can. Come with me now.” I tug his hand in desperation, but he doesn’t move. The wind stirs his dark feathers, showing the crimson one that lies between them.

“I won’t lose,” Reed promises. His thumb caresses my hand, but I barely feel it.

My eyes leave Reed’s green ones to shift to Xavier’s imposing stare. “Xavier, don’t do this.”

“It’s done,” he says grimly. “I can’t hold out forever. I’ve been dreaming of you—of us. I need you with me.”

“This won’t fix what’s broken between us.”

“When you remember me, he won’t matter, Evie,” Xavier’s face darkens in its earnestness.

The sky turns gray with overcast clouds that threaten the daylight, as if Heaven disapproves. Reed lets go of my hand and I feel the loss of it more deeply than just the cold air turning my fingers to ice.

Xavier leaves the deck like a charging bull and hurls himself at Reed. Tau is next to me in less than a second; his arms engulf me. He holds me back when I would jump into the fight to pull them apart. I struggle in Tau’s arms. “You have to stop this!”