The Weight of a Wing (The Stolen Wings Book 1) Read online

  “Of course I can,” he said with a cocky grin. “Now, get in.”

  “But…,” Cassie protested when Vale opened the back door and nodded for them to get in.

  Alise complied, determined to save her strength for the times when it would make a difference. Cassie still didn’t realize that, officially or not, they were prisoners. The girl saw the Guardians as friends, their saviors, but Alise knew better. They had their orders. They were working for themselves. And, as all domineering males, they needed to show they were always in control. She let them believe that.

  “This is so sexist.” Cassie huffed as she slid into the back, moving closer to the window.

  The car felt too small to fit them all. Inside the tight enclosure, the thick layer of magic that surrounded the Guardians was almost palpable. Alise’s breath caught in her throat, the thought of the elevator episode frying her senses. No, she couldn’t have it. The magic would bring back the pain and have her wounds open. She was amazed they weren’t bleeding already. So, instead of reaching out and touching one of the Guardians like her body wanted her to, she rolled down the window. Fresh air rolled in, and she could breathe again. The only thing missing to make her nine circles of hell complete were monsters. Hopefully, they were unable to materialize inside a moving car.

  This turned out to be the least of their worries. Although Rafe could drive, he acted as if traffic rules didn’t apply to him. They flew along the boulevard, weaving between cars and ignoring stop lights as if their car were invisible. Alise would have bet that it wasn’t.

  By the time they arrived in front of the big iron gate, Cassie’s knuckles had long since turned white. Rafe leaned out through the open window towards the panel which controlled the gate.

  “Wait. Doesn’t he need the access code?” Cassie asked, but Alise motioned for her to look. Rafe touched the panel with the tip of his blade. Lightning ran through it, entering the system, and the heavy gate glided to the side. “Oh…”

  They rolled down the driveway until they made it to the front of the building. Like Cassie had said, it was a monster of a house with walls made of dark bricks. Flowerpots loaded with brightly-colored flowers decorated the windowsills and the veranda. While clearly not more than a decade old, the whole ensemble gave off a certain antique, distinguished vibe. Alise hadn’t been inside before, but she had briefly met the owner at a party, and she had a feeling the Guardians were going to like it.

  “I can work with this,” Rafe said as he got out of the car and took a long look at the building, pocketing the car key. Alise caught Cassie by the arm and shook her head when the girl started to ask for her key back. This wasn’t the right time for an argument.

  The steps leading to the front door were uninvitingly steep and narrow. Cassie went ahead to turn off the security system before Rafe had a go at it and broke something. She’d had to house-sit a while back when one of the dogs was sick, and Alise had to put up with all sorts of complaints because of this. The house was too big, the beds too hard, no good satellite reception, the internet provider sucked—things the uncle didn’t mind much since he was hardly ever there. The only thing Cassie liked about it was the two Great Danes with whom she had a great relationship. They absolutely loved her. Ah, the dogs… That’s why she had hurried to the door.

  They found them waiting in the doorway, wiggling their tails with excitement. “Hey, boys!” Cassie patted their heads and pushed them back so they could all enter the hall.

  Rafe eyed the dogs. “Oh, we’ve got company.”

  “This is Ben—” She hugged the gray one, “and this is Jerry.” She pointed at the harlequin one.

  “I don’t like this,” Vale said, his eyes on Rafe. The glance they exchanged made Cassie turn to Alise for help.

  “Can you control them?” Rafe asked.

  “Sure. They listen to me,” Cassie said quickly, but he was looking past her at Alise.

  She answered with a slow nod. “I can try.”

  “Not good enough.” Rafe made a face. “But we can’t just kill them.”

  Cassie let out an audible breath.

  “We’ll see how they fare. Let’s investigate the place.” Rafe started to the first door on the right, which opened into a large lounge.

  Cassie stood behind, still caressing her four-legged friends. “Don’t they like dogs?” she whispered to Alise.

  “Animals can be easily possessed and used as spies or tools. And these are big enough to become threats.”

  “Oh…”

  Alise smiled and looked Ben in the eyes. She had to focus to make her thoughts reach him. Has anyone been here?

  The Great Dane blinked and seemed momentarily startled. Next to him, Jerry offered a confused sniff. Only the human who feeds and walks us. Ben flashed her the image of a short, round, bad-smelling man.

  Okay, keep an eye open. We might have unwanted visitors.

  Jerry visualized the locked doors and windows.

  Those won’t stop them, Alise told them.

  Both dogs growled and huffed. No one better dare trespass on their property.

  “It’s all right. They’re on our side,” Alise said, not wanting her friend to worry even more. The dogs would feel if something was wrong, even if they didn’t know what it was. Their warning could be a small advantage. “Come on.” She nodded for them to move from the hallway.

  They barely had time to make themselves comfortable on the large, burgundy sofa when Rafe and Vale joined them. It had been a short tour through the house. They sure moved fast, though their steps made no sound on the thick, expensive champagne-colored rug. In contrast with the bright white walls, all furniture was in soft shades of colors that seemed based on wine bottles.

  “We’re like sitting ducks here,” Vale was saying as the Guardians walked back in.

  “Could be worse. At least we have a good view around the place and won’t be taken by surprise,” Rafe said. “Ah, there you are…” He put on a smile for the girls.

  The dogs raised their heads from where they lay by the fireplace. With a little effort, Alise could hear them debating whether the two men were friends or not, since they sensed something strange about them. In the end, they decided the visitors were no threat and rested their heads back on their forepaws. They kept their eyes open, though, and stayed alert.

  “We would be better prepared if we knew what Gorem wanted,” Rafe said.

  Vale pointed at Alise. “He wants her.”

  Alise shifted in her seat on the couch while Cassie shuffled closer, obviously prepared to defend her friend.

  “Because she helped you locate him?” Cassie asked. “Doesn’t he have better things to do?”

  “No and no,” Rafe said. “We know for a fact that he came here after her. That’s why he crossed over in Malta at the same spot as you did,” he said to Alise, “and followed your path all across Europe. He obviously has some unfinished business with you.”

  Alise shook her head and raised her shoulders dismissively. “I don’t know what that might be. He already took everything away from me.”

  “True.” Rafe counted on his fingers. “He took your wings, you can’t perform proper magic anymore, and you declined your status as a Fairy and ran to hide among humans. What more could he possibly want?” he asked, glancing at the high ceiling.

  His insistence was close to being hurtful, reminding her of everything she had lost, but Alise wasn’t about to give into him. She would talk when she was good and ready.

  “Maybe he wants to kill her,” Vale said. “All the other Fairies were found dead.”

  “Others?” Cassie paled.

  Alise tried not to think about the other Fairies. Maybe she would succeed one day but, so far, it hadn’t worked.

  “Right. Why didn’t he kill you?” Rafe stared at Alise, his eyes hard and unforgiving. He wasn’t going to accept anything but the truth.

  “I don’t know.” Alise chose her words carefully. “I thought…” She didn’t have to pret
end it was hard for her to talk about it because it was. “I thought he only wanted my wings. He took them, leaving me lying there to bleed to death.” It still failed to make sense after that when she had met Gorem that one other time. “I was lucky a Centaur found me.”

  “It might be that he’s not the one who killed the other Fairies, but I don’t believe that. So we’re stuck,” Rafe concluded, “which brings us back to the same question. Why did he take your wings?”

  Alise didn’t bother to answer. She didn’t have anything new to add to the conversation.

  “Okay, let’s tweak the question a little. What could he want any wings for?” Rafe tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, lost in thought.

  “Is there a spell he could use them for?” Cassie asked. “You guys seem to be big on spells.”

  “There are spells for just about anything,” Vale said, “but I can’t think of any that require Fairy wings. I reckon you have to be a skilled Wizard just to know them, then be willing to break several protocol laws to cast them. And Gorem is far from being that. He is … was just the Council’s secretary—”

  “He’s nothing but a clerk,” Rafe bit back and hit the backrest of a chair in frustration, making Cassie jump. “Which means we have to deal with the Wizard who’s helping him first. Gorem can’t open portals or create monsters, especially the kind of monsters we encountered. Those are not monsters any of us could create. You need special skills for those.”

  “You can create monsters?” Cassie’s eyes opened wide.

  Rafe was a little taken aback by her question. “Well, yeah. Anyone can learn how to do it. But it’s against the law to actually do it. I still have yet to see a monster do anything remotely good. Disgusting creatures.” He pretended to shudder.

  Vale shared Rafe’s disgust. He made a long face and sighed. “All right. I’ll try to find out which Wizards have crossed over recently.”

  “And I’ll set up some monster traps outside,” Rafe said, grinning.

  They headed to the door and disappeared in opposite directions down the corridor.

  “Do you trust them?” Cassie asked in a low voice.

  “I trust they’ll do everything in their power to catch him.” Alise patted Ben’s back as he came to her, begging for a scratch. “Right now, they’re the best option we’ve got.”

  Chapter Nine

  The page took forever to load, taking five minutes to only load the search engine page. So there was no chance in hell a website as complex as the one belonging to the university would ever load. Cassie threw a murderous glare at her laptop screen as she sat next to Alise on the sofa. They had moved into the study, a smaller, darker, and more intimate room.

  “Arghhh…”

  Picking up her iced tea from the coffee table, Alise went to stand by the window. She stared out into the garden. Flowerbeds in all colors alternated with patches of green and bushes also covered in flowers. Cassie’s uncle might not spend a lot of time there, but his gardener did.

  “Have they returned?” Cassie asked.

  “Not yet,” Alise said. “They’re still working on protecting the grounds.”

  “They’ve been at it all day.”

  In the distance, Alise spotted the golden top of Rafe’s head, popping up from behind a row of bushes almost as tall as he was. She had been watching the Guardians all morning and still couldn’t escape the feeling that something was off. Maybe they appeared fast to Cassie, but Alise knew they could move faster than that. They should move faster. They had no interest in staying outside too long, so why did they? She hadn’t paid attention to it earlier, but now that she had more time to observe them, she couldn’t help but notice their dynamic was off. It was as if a part of them was missing.

  Rafe looked up, and their eyes met. Despite the distance, the intensity of his gaze made her skin tingle all over. For once, he wasn’t doing anything to cause such a reaction. He just stared at her. She forced herself to look away and turned around to face the inside of the room.

  “What’s the hurry?” she asked Cassie.

  “Umm … I need to go into town,” Cassie said. “This piece of junk isn’t working.” She pushed the laptop away. “There’s an internet café at the bottom of the hill. I can connect to the library from there and get the materials I need.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Do you think they’ll go with me?”

  “No.” Alise smiled, amused that Cassie had considered it. “You can forget that idea.”

  “But I’ve got an exam on Friday. I have to study.”

  For everyone else, the girl’s thought process would have been mind-boggling, but Alise wasn’t surprised. She had spent a lot of energy making Cassie ignore everything related to magic ever since they had first met, and she kept doing it without thinking about it. The courage elixir helped, too.

  “Forget it, Cassie. You won’t make it to that exam,” Alise told her. “No one is leaving the house until they say so.”

  Cassie’s eyebrows furrowed. “So we’re under house arrest?”

  “Something like that…” Alise turned her eyes to the garden. The sigil in the middle of her back itched. She couldn’t leave even if she wanted to. They would find her anywhere she went, the same way Gorem would. It was better to stay put and let the others do the fighting for her.

  “Will it work?”

  Cassie’s question made Alise give the girl a puzzled look.

  “What they’re doing … those traps… Will they work?” Cassie repeated the question.

  Alise set the glass down on the windowsill. “It won’t stop him, but it will set off some alarms. We’ll know when he gets close.”

  “What will happen when he does?” Cassie asked.

  “Are you afraid?” Alise softened her voice in an attempt to calm her down, even if there was nothing to be calm about.

  “Aren’t you?” The girl looked at her with big, innocent eyes.

  “No.” The word came out quietly. “He can’t hurt me.” Not anymore.

  “He can kill you!” Cassie blurted out.

  Alise’s smile strained when she said, “If he killed me, he’d be doing me a favor.”

  Cassie’s honey-colored eyes widened in shock. “You want to die?”

  “No, of course not.” Alise took a sip of her iced tea. The ice cubes had already melted. “But in a way, he has killed me already. I tried living as a human, and it’s not a bad life…” She slowly shook her head. “But there’s always going to be a part of me missing, and no one can bring that back.”

  The sadness in Alise voice compelled Cassie to climb off the sofa and offer her a hug. “You’re my friend. I won’t let anything happen to you,” she whispered against her dark hair.

  Alise laughed inside the girl’s embrace. So naïve. Humans could be so endearing at times with their courage and passion, especially when they had no grounds to stand on. No wonder she had taken a liking to the girl beyond her regular debt to her.

  “Well, well, well… Isn’t this nice?” Rafe smirked at them from the doorway.

  When had he come back in? Hadn’t he just been in the garden?

  “Fraternizing with the enemy now?” he teased.

  “Enemy?” Cassie said.

  “Okay, bad choice of words,” he amended. “You can’t be the enemy. Humans can hardly be anyone’s enemy.”

  “You think I’m harmless?” Cassie frowned, grinding her foot in the carpet.

  “I know you’re harmless.” With that statement, Rafe sat and reclined on the couch, stretching out his long legs. “Except to yourselves. Humans have the uncanny capacity to hurt themselves, and they don’t even have to try hard to do it.”

  “You can’t?” She sounded surprised to discover there was actually something he couldn’t do.

  “None of us can. I’ve never heard of anyone killing themselves on the other side.” He smiled, distracted by the cloud of butterflies on the screensaver.

  “Can you make it work?” Cassie pointed at her laptop.

>   “No. Any burst of magic can be traced, and we don’t want that.” His grin became less friendly, almost menacing.

  She blinked, confused. “But you used magic for protection around the house, didn’t you?”

  “That’s different. It’s for protection so it sort of hides itself.” Rafe turned to Alise. “You haven’t taught her anything. What did you girls do all morning? Paint your nails?”

  “I was just going to.” Alise smiled sweetly at him. The question that followed was less sweet, though. “So, where is he?”

  “Who?”

  “You’re supposed to be a Triad. Where’s the third one?” she asked. It was a shot in the dark. She had no proof for her theory, and Triads were extremely rare.

  Rafe’s face darkened. “Not here.”

  He could mean not in town, not in this world, or simply that he didn’t want to talk about it now. It had to be all three. It explained the lack of balance in the Guardians’ dynamic, and their inability to keep up the large blue room. One was missing. She wasn’t happy about the discovery. Two Guardians fully in tune with each other were stronger and more reliable than a broken pair. Then again, a Triad was not something easily ignored. A Triad could fight a Wizard with fair chances to succeed. If she could only figure out what had happened to the third one.

  There wasn’t time for more discussion on the subject. The dogs trotted excitedly down the corridor on their way to the front door, chanting, He’s coming! He’s coming!

  A moment later, Vale yelled from the main hall, “We have visitors!”

  In an instant, they were all on their feet, rushing to the closest window that faced the road. A dark blue Audi entered the driveway.

  Cassie glared. “Well, here’s the enemy.”

  Chapter Ten

  The two camps met on the front steps, which was the closest thing they had to neutral ground. A small carry-on waited by the man’s feet. The Guardians looked relaxed in their stance, although their eyes remained cautious. Cassie’s uncle was tall and well built, in his forties, and very male. He may have been human, but that didn’t stop Rafe and Vale from being ready to pounce at the slightest sign of aggression.