Page 62 of Far From Center
Chapter 26
The keep-away spell was effective, but Nyalla gritted her teeth and squeezed the handle of the bolt cutters together. This seemed easier in the movies. In reality the chain was thick and the cutters awkward and not as sharp as she’d thought. And the whole time she felt like she was going to throw up or pass out.
The last link finally broke. Nyalla looked down at her blistered hands again overcome with the need to vomit.Just a little bit longer. She pulled the chain from the door and slid the bolts aside.
“Gabe?” A wave of cold air hit her as she opened the door. It was pitch black inside, and she couldn’t feel any light switches along the side so she set the bolt cutters down and took out the keychain-sized flashlight from her pocket.
“Looking for this?” A man in the shadows threw something large at her feet —someoneat her feet. Nyalla gasped, angling her flashlight down to see Gabe, bound and gagged, bloodied and bruised. He glared up at her and she bit back a hysterical giggle. He was mad that she’d come for him. Well, too bad.
Except it wasn’t the right time for levity. The man in the shadows wasn’t a man, he was an angel, and he’d obviously been waiting for her.
“Resya wasn’t the only one I had following you. Humans can be quite useful, as I’m sure you know. I’m quite impressed that you managed to capture him.”
“I’ll exchange Resya for Gabriel,” she offered, hoping that Snip was already in the air, on his way back to the States, and then to Hel to find Sam.
“I don’t care about Resya. And honestly I don’t care about the former archangel Gabriel either. He’s useless, expendable. He’s not a threat to anyone. It’s you I want, Nyalla.” The angel stepped from the shadows into the narrow beam of her flashlight. “Once I realized who you were, I knew I had a back-up plan. The Iblis will do anything to ensure your safety.”
“I don’t have the Tear. She doesn’t know where it is, and neither do Snip or Terrelle. It would take them centuries to find it. By that time, I’ll be long dead.”
He laughed. “I don’t want the Tear in exchange for you, I want the Iblis’ cooperation. She gets you and gets to have this place with all the stupid humans and elves. We get Aaru and the archangels are no more. I don’t care if they’re dead or stripped of their grace like Gabe here, I just want them out of Aaru and powerless.”
“She’ll never do that. She loves one of those archangels, and she’d never betray him by agreeing to help you win Aaru.”
He stepped close. “Yes she will. All I want is for her to remain neutral in the war, Switzerland, I believe you humans call it. Remain neutral, and lift the banishment once we’ve won. She’ll get you, all those humans and Lows she’s so fond of. I’ll even let her keep that angel she’s sinning with as long as we take his wings first.”
Nyalla clenched her teeth. Sam might not actively fight against the archangels, but she’d refuse to fight for them in return for her safety. Normally Sam would never agree to this, but to save Nyalla, she might. But demons lied, and all Nyalla had to do was stay alive long enough for Sam to find and rescue her, then the imp would smash these rebels like only an angry imp with a powerful sentient sword could.
The angel waved a hand and the door slammed behind Nyalla. She spun around, but the handle was locked and she could hear the chains once more wrapping around the exterior and the bolts sliding home.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you have enough food and water to survive,” the angel whispered. “I’m guessing this whole thing will only take a few weeks. But I’ll be back tomorrow to move you to a new location. Can’t have the Iblis sending half of Hel here to find you now, can I?”
There was a rush of cold air and the angel was gone. Nyalla dropped to the floor and struggled with Gabe’s bonds, finally holding the little flashlight in her mouth and using a pen knife from her pocket to cut through the tape.
“You fool,” he raged the second the tape was off his mouth. “Why did you come here?”
Not the most romantic statement, but Nyalla didn’t care. She threw her arms around him, yanking the flashlight out of her mouth so she could kiss him. After a second he kissed her back, running his fingers through her hair and across the nape of her neck.
“I was afraid they would kill you,” she whispered, her lips still against his. “They were after me anyway, trying to get the Tear. We managed to grab that other angel before he snatched me, but I couldn’t leave the island without you. I couldn’t leave knowing that they had you and that you were defenseless.”
“I just need a few more days,” Gabe said, his hands brushing the hair from her face. “My angel-ness is returning. I kept it from Sidriel, letting him beat me up so he’d think I was powerless, that this was permanent. I was waiting until I was strong enough to surprise him and kill him.”
She leaned her forehead against his. “But what if he killed you before that? Gabe, you heard him. Your only value was to ransom for either the Tear or for me. If I hadn’t come for you, if I hadn’t been willing to exchange the Tear for you, then you would have just been dead weight. Emphasis on dead.”
She felt the muscles in his jaw clench. “Then I would have fought with everything I have. I might not have won, but I could have injured Sidriel. He’s arrogant, and when pride is your sin, you underestimate your foes. That makes you vulnerable. If that imp of an Iblis has taught me anything, she’s taught me that.”
“Yes, but I don’t want you dead, even if you injured Sidriel. I want you alive. And now we’ve got a few extra days or weeks for you to regain your powers. It will take them that long to find Sam since she’s in Hel right now. We’ll just stay here, eat whatever horrible food they send us, and when you’re an angel again, we’ll make our move.”
Gabriel winced. “She’s going to know about me — the Iblis, that is. Great. Everyone will know. Humans, elves, demons, angels. I’ll never live this down.”
“As long as you live, I don’t care. It isn’t like everyone else doesn’t have embarrassing things happen to them. You said Rafi flew into a billboard. Micha ended up bound by an imp not even a thousand years old. You’ll survive some teasing.”
Nyalla turned off the flashlight to conserve the battery and curled up next to Gabe on the hard ground. It was going to be a long few days. “What was it like, growing up as an angel? Were you always in Aaru?”
She felt his arms around her, his cheek resting against the top of her head.
“Those first few billion years seemed to go by in a blink. I’ve got vague memories of trying to do the same things as Michael and Uriel, and failing miserably, then before I knew it we had Raphael and Samael, and the pair of them seemed to turn everything upside down. They were so contrary, especially Samael, and constantly breaking the rules. In time I caught up in strength and abilities. I’m pretty sure I could take Uri, and hold my own against Micha if I pushed it, but I always resented how the younger two always got away with breaking the rules.”
“Rules you had to follow,” Nyalla commented. “Doesn’t sound like a very good childhood to me.”
