It went on and on, until a thousand remnants separated them and the battle they’d abandoned. They didn’t stop, and the girls kept running until each of their gasps hurt David’s insides. They’d gone at least a kilometer past the edge of the remnant swarm before Laoko hissed, stopped, and half collapsed against a leaning tombstone. Her side was soaked red.
“I think we can slow down,” Caera said between pants. “I don’t hear him.”
The group looked back. No signs of remnants or the rider in the fog, and the screams of the remnants were distant and faded. Teleius had lasted far longer than they could have hoped for, all for Laoko.
“The rider follows you?” Laoko asked.
“No,” David said. “I mean, not just me. I think he’s hunting unmarked, like I said. And he seems to have some general idea of where we are, but he’s walked past me a couple times before.”
“Then he does not know your exact location.” Sighing, she slumped back against the tombstone, sat, and gestured at her bleeding side. “I did what I could to keep the blood trail from being obvious.”
“Smart,” he said. “The remnants bleeding everywhere probably covered it up, too.”
Daoka, panting worse than any of them, set the angel down, back against a broken tombstone. Moriah’s eyes were closed. Unconscious, or faking it, maybe.
“He only found us,” Jes said, “because of this bitch!” The gargoyle squatted in front of the angel and slapped her. Her eyes snapped open. “You! You stupid fuck! Your friend nearly killed Dao! I should fucking–”
Daoka tugged on Jes’s hand and pulled her away. Good thing, because the gargoyle looked ready to snap and rip out Moriah’s heart. Without her armor, it’d have been easy.
Without her batlam rune. The rune shined in David’s mind, spoke of armor, of weapons, of the ability to protect and attack, and if he could lift it, he could wear it. The angel couldn’t lift it anymore, injured, and now she wore her potram rune, white silks, some small jewelry, and gladiator sandals.
Moriah was gorgeous. Dark tan skin and black hair, smooth and long. But before his stupid horny brain could analyze further, the giant, burned gashed cutting through her shoulder into her chest slapped him.
“Think we can stop here for a bit?” David asked.
Caera nodded, lowered herself, and David hopped off.
“I think so. For a minute. Can the rider fly?”
Moriah, eyes barely open after the slap, glared at David, but every attempt to lift her good arm failed, and she slumped back against the tombstone.
“The rider cannot fly. That is the right of angels.”
“We’ve seen him glide,” Caera said. “In the canyon. But, yeah, I guess he can’t fly. But that goort can outrun us.”
“We’ll hear it coming,” Laoko said.
David sat down in front of Moriah and forced himself to look her in the eyes.
“Then we can take a quick break, and maybe get an answer from the angel.”
Not likely. The angel stared at David, ruby eyes stabbing him. In any other world, a beautiful, tall woman staring at him like he was the garbage she’d accidentally stepped on would have shut him up hard. At this point, it felt like Tuesday, and rolled off him like gentle rain.
“I will answer nothing.”
“I want to know why you were willing to throw your lives away to kill the rider.”
“What?”
“I saw you go at the rider like killing him meant more than killing me, Moriah. And I know you hate my guts. You have orders to kill me on top of that. But when the rider showed up, you thought he was helping me, and you thought killing him was even more important than killing me.” He gestured back the way they came. “You can see the rider was trying to kill me, too, now, right? Can you at least tell me why you want him dead?”
Moriah’s glare was unrelenting. On death’s door and still willing to fight, just like a demon.
“You expect me to believe–”
“You saw it.” Don’t yell, don’t yell. “The destroyed forest? I did that because it was the only way to get away from the rider. He’s after me, and I don’t know why. Can you at least tell me why you want him dead, too?”
“I will share nothing. The rider’s sins are known.”
“I’ve read about the rider,” Caera said. “He’s killed countless demons, but I don’t know of anything he’s done to piss off angels. If we knew why he was chasing us, we might avoid him better.”
Moriah ground her teeth and glared. “Just kill me and be done with it.”
“With pleasure,” Jes said, but Dao held her back, pulling on her arm.
“With pleasure,” Acelina said, marching forward, but Caera put herself between her and the angel. “Step aside, tregeera.”
“David doesn’t want her dead.”
“David is a naive fool. Surely this second encounter has proved what the first apparently did not. Angels are cold and ruthless. They do not care about lives, especially those of demons. Worse, this angel is a killer, and–”
“She’s from Azoryev,” Laoko said.
“Say what?” David asked.
“Azoryev. Heaven has nine islands, and each has their own… dispositions. Azoryev is notorious for being brutal. It would not surprise me at all if they somehow enacted some of the more devastating acts of God in human history.”
Everyone stared at the tetrad, Moriah included.
Ceara prowled closer. “Uh, how do you know this?”
Laoko grinned. “Ca a girl not have her secrets?” Caera opened her mouth, but Laoko raised a hand. “Keep me alive until we get to Timaeus and I’ll explain.”
Leverage. He should have expected that.
“Moriah,” he said. “I don’t want to kill you. You have to believe me.”
“The council has decreed the unmarked must die. You will not reach False Gate.”
This woman was a bundle of hate, and David could see his words bouncing off a skull as thick as steel.
“You know I want to reach the False Gate?” Fuck. “That’s how you found me, I guess. Figured where I’d be after our run-in in Death’s Grip.”
“Run-in? Do not make light of murder. You killed two angels. And your sister has killed hundreds. I should–“