Wings of shadow, p.1
Wings of Shadow, page 1
part #3 of The Obsidian Order Series
Contents
TITLE PAGE
Synopsis
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Also by Katerina Martinez
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CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
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About the Author
Also by Katerina Martinez
Copyright
WINGS OF SHADOW
The Obsidian Order
Book Three
By Katerina Martinez
Find my brother. Learn the truth. Remember my home.
The Obsidian Order is tough, they have to be if they want to turn prospects into elite agents. I want to be one of those agents, and right now I'm closer than ever to achieving that goal.
Hunting Valoel down is my primary goal. The word on the street is he's recruiting mages to fight for his cause. I'm not sure what his cause is, but I know it's not good. Draven would have us just kill him outright and be done with it, but Valoel said he was my brother. Maybe he can tell me about my past? My parents? My old life I have no memory of.
I need to find Valoel, and I need to find him quickly, but that means navigating a dangerous web of mages, none of whom are naturally friendly toward my kind. To make matters worse, I run into someone who turns my entire worldview on its head. Now, more than ever, I need to learn who I truly am. It's the only way I'm going to survive what's to come.
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Also by Lee Dignam & Katerina Martinez
The Obsidian Order Series
Book 1: Wings of Light
Book 2: Wings of Night
Book 3: Wings of Shadow
Magic Blood Series
The Warlock
Book 1: Demons and Deception
Book 2: Mages and Masquerades
Book 3: Scions and Sorcery
Book 4: Hellfire and Homicide
Book 5: Warlocks and Wickedness
Magic Blood Series
The Primal
Book 1: Hunter’s Calling
The Blood and Magick Series
Book 1: Magick Reborn
Book 2: Demon’s Kiss
Book 3: Witch’s Wrath
The Half-Lich Series
THE HALF-LICH BOXED SET
Book 1: Dark Siren
Book 2: The Void Weaver
Book 3: Night and Chaos
The Amber Lee Series
THE AMBER LEE BOXED SET
Book 1: True Witch
Book 2: Dark Witch
Book 3: Shadow Witch
Book 4: Red Witch
Book 5: Devil’s Witch
The Cursed and Damned Series
Book 1: The Dead Wolves
The Order of Prometheus Series
Book 1: Smoke and Shadows
Book 2: Cloak and Daggers
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CHAPTER ONE
The fiend had gotten the drop on me, and now his hand was around my throat.
It was dark where we were, the moon hidden behind a thick mantle of clouds in all the shades of an aged bruise. New York loomed in the distance, tall buildings sparkling against the night. Police sirens echoed through the cluster of old buildings I found myself in. A sickly, skinny dog barked from behind a fence.
We’d been tipped-off that Valoel had been spotted in the neighborhood, and I’d come to investigate the sighting. I was a gold prospect now, on my way to becoming one of the Obsidian Order’s enforcers. This was kind of my job. Still, I hadn’t expected to find fiends here—none of us had.
I struggled with the fiend, but he was a lot stronger than I was. Effortlessly, he picked me up and got me off my feet. The light from my hair touched his face, and I saw the anger in his eyes, his sharpened teeth, the swirling red marks on his ashen skin.
He didn’t know who I was, but he was about to kill me anyway.
Seline, Seline can you hear me?! Felice’s urgent voice beamed into my mind through the wing charm pinned to my collar. What’s going on?
“I’m having a tea party with the president,” I croaked, “What do you think?”
“Who are you talking to?” the fiend barked.
“Your dad. He wants to know if I’m DTF.”
He wrapped another hand around my neck and started squeezing my windpipe. I couldn’t speak now, so I also couldn’t do magic. But I didn’t need magic. I tensed my core, pulled my legs up around his torso, and drew my knife from its sheath in my boot.
With a quick motion, I jabbed the knife into his side and pulled it out again. The fiend groaned and let me go, but with my legs wrapped around him, I didn’t fall. Instead, I threw my other fist into his face, making the fiend stagger a few paces, and then I let myself fall.
I hit the ground on my back, hacking and coughing and clearing my throat. The fiend inspected the wound in his side. His hand came away bloody.
“I’m sorry, did that hurt?” I asked.
“You whore! How dare you?”
“See? Saying stuff like that makes me wanna stab you again.”
The fiend roared, his wings stretched to full extension, and he charged at me. I flipped up to my feet again and prepared myself. He was a big target, those wings of his were huge and black, and his body was all thick chords of tight muscle. A hit or two and I’d go down. I knew that. But I was faster than him.
Or, at least, I hoped I was.
When he stepped into range, he kicked out with his foot, the tip of his boot searching for my stomach. I jumped to the side, easily dodging his attack, then I swung my knife at him in a wide arc. The knife bit into his arm, drawing a trail of blood that splattered to the floor, but he didn’t seem too upset by it.
He spun around on the spot, his fist cocked and ready to launch into my face. I ducked, and his fist instead went through my brilliant white hair. That was a close one, or at least it had been until he grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me toward him.
“Is that all you’ve got?” I said, snarling at the fiend.
The fiend growled, flashing his sharpened teeth at me. He wound back his arm and splayed his fingers, showing me his razor-sharp claws. I clutched my dagger more tightly and aimed the tip into his ribs. I had a clear shot to his heart if I went underneath his ribcage.
That was what I was about to do, when the fiend stiffened. He sucked in a deep breath of air. Blood trickled from the sides of his mouth, and slowly, the life went out of his eyes. The business end of a longsword stuck out of the fiend’s chest. It was coated in blood that glistened against what little light there was.
The sword pulled back, the fiend fell to his knees. I managed to work his fingers out of my hair just before he toppled to the floor, limp and dead. Behind him stood Draven, his sword at his side, his long coat flapping against the wind. I could feel his powerful aura now, his magic. It pulsed out of him like the heat from a sun, only it hadn’t been there an instant ago.
I frowned at him. “I had that under control, you know,” I said.
“Did you?” he asked, angling his head to the side and cocking an eyebrow.
“Yes, I did. I also didn’t want to kill him, just in case he knew something.”
Draven looked at the fiend, his black eyes narrowing. “I didn’t think he’d die that quickly.”
I shook my head. “What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were out of town.”
“I was, but then Aaryn told me about the tip-off. I came as fast as I could.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not to engage Valoel on your own under any circumstances. You’ve proven yourself to be formidable, but we don’t know what kind of power he has.”
By the way, Draven’s there. Felice’s voice in my head was like having two brains, one lazier than the other.
“Thanks,” I said, “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Felice?” Draven asked.
“She says hi.”
No, I don’t.
“Anyway, as you can see, I’m not on my own. Felice is nearby providing recon. She’s not very good at it though.”
Hey, that fiend surprised us both.
“So did Draven, apparently.”
Draven sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. If I had to guess, he was probably tired of
I nodded at the dead fiend. “That guy,” I said, then I looked around. This place was a slum; a poor, forgotten neighborhood on the outskirts of New York City. Why Valoel would’ve been sighted here, I didn’t know. I was starting to think this was all some kind of trap, like maybe the tip-off hadn’t been accurate. “I don’t know what else I’m looking for.”
“Maybe you’re not looking closely enough,” Draven said, gesturing across my shoulder with a nod.
Movement, six o’clock, Felice said.
I spun around on the spot. Someone had come running into view around a corner, only it wasn’t a fiend—it was a kid. She couldn’t have been more than a teenager. She had straight, black hair, pale skin, and a dirty face. Her clothes, if you could call them clothes, also looked tattered and ratty. She wasn’t wearing shoes, she had black sweat pants on tied at the waist with an extension cord, and a black t-shirt ripped up in places.
A set of manacles hung between her wrists. Was she someone’s prisoner?
She stared at me, wide-eyed and stunned. The girl had stopped next to an artificial creek, the greywater from a busted pipe flowing through cracks in the asphalt and concrete ground. A rat scurried about searching for things to eat. I probably wouldn’t have paid this girl too much attention, were it not for the fact that her magic aura slapped me across the face.
I stepped away from her, instinct repelling me, and stretched my hand out. “Hey,” I said, “What’s your name?”
The girl’s eyes flitted from me, to Draven, then back to me. A second later, she turned around and started running.
We’ve got a runner! Felice said.
I broke into a sprint to chase the girl. I didn’t know who she was, but she was brimming with magic. Someone with that kind of power shouldn’t be left to roam around the streets of New York alone. There was no telling what they could do.
Draven grabbed my shoulder as I started to move. “What are you doing?”
“Going after her!” I said, “Isn’t that what you would’ve done back in the day?”
“This feels like a trap, Seline,” he said, “I won’t allow us to fall into it.”
“And if it’s not a trap? What if that girl needs our help?”
“If she needed our help, she would’ve asked for it.”
She’s getting away, Felice said, I’m gonna try and stay with her.
I clenched my jaw. “Did you sense her power?” I asked.
“I did,” he said.
“Then prove to me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Prove to me that the Obsidian Order is truly willing to help all supernaturals, and not just those it can control.”
Draven’s expression hardened. We’d been partnered ever since the incident with Valoel, he as master, and me as his apprentice. One of the first things I’d done when the pairings were official was bring up the one burning issue I had with the Order; an issue Valoel had also highlighted.
He seemed to believe the Obsidian Order wasn’t interested in bringing in people who were more powerful than their top brass. He suggested they were deliberately withholding information to keep the people under them in line. Docile was the word he’d used, and the glove definitely fit from what I’d seen so far.
Draven had been quick to deny it then. Now was his chance to prove it.
He took a deep breath and nodded. “Fine,” he said, “Let’s go.”
I didn’t have to be told twice. I turned around and ran, skirting around the creek and staying away from the skinny dog barking its lungs out. I wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t go for us if it managed to break out of the chain-link fence only just keeping it contained.
“Felice, where is she?” I asked.
She’s ahead. This girl moves fast. Make a left at the banged-up beater and keep running.
I followed Felice’s instructions, taking the corner just past the broken-down husk of a car. Its windows had been pulled off, its engine had been stripped; its wheels, too. Spray-painted on the side of the car were words, “The fires will rise here also. This world is ours.”
The message was chilling, but there wasn’t any time to stick around and examine it. Instead, I kept running. Now that I was a gold prospect, and an enforcer at that, my uniform had been given an upgrade. I no longer wore the black jumpsuits I’d been wearing since I arrived in the Order. Instead, I’d been issued with military-grade combat boots, black fatigues, and a long, black coat just like Draven’s.
They’d offered me a pair of sunglasses, and I hadn’t declined them. Once upon a time, joining the douche squad as I’d called them would’ve been a laughable offer. Now, though, I’d decided to don my shades in honor of our fallen friend, Crag. He’d given his life so a whole bunch of children could live on, and that meant being in the douche squad was a good thing.
She’s heading into a busted old low-rise, Felice said, I’m losing her.
“What building?” I asked.
A spot of light showed me the way. Felice had landed on top of a building where every available window had been boarded up, and had summoned a glowing ball of magic. Some of the building was crumbling, other parts of it were covered in graffiti tags. None of them made sense to me.
“Can you get inside?” I asked.
Door’s jammed. This thing probably hasn’t been opened in years.
“We’ll go in from the bottom. You fall back and make sure no one spots our dead fiend.”
“Are you giving me orders, now?” Draven asked.
“Maybe. I feel like you could do with a little guidance sometimes.”
“Guidance?”
He sounded a bit unbelieving, but he took my meaning pretty well. To say Draven and I had gotten close over the last few weeks would probably have been exaggerating a little. We had, however, spent a lot of time together. Even though most of that time had been spent training, I felt like I’d gotten to know him a little better, and him me.
The building the girl had ducked into was up ahead. Two guys stood nearby with their hoods up, one of them buying drugs, the other selling. The moment they spotted us, they scattered to the winds, leaving no trace they’d been there a second ago. At least they weren’t fiends.
I stopped at the door to the slum. It was boarded up; a giant “CONDEMNED” sign had been pinned to it. The lower half of the door, though, looked like it was frequently pulled open, bits of it were splintered and cracked. I tried it with my foot, and the wooden panels gave just way just enough for either of us to slide through. I scanned Draven’s face and saw the concern in his black eyes.
“Should we call for backup?” I asked.
His jaw clenched. Draven then drew his sword up and held it tightly in his hand. “No,” he said, moving toward the door. He crouched, and I pulled the panel back to allow him to slide inside. I followed him, slipping through the crack a lot more easily than he had. I was up and ready to strike with my dagger in a manner of seconds.
The entire place was pitch black. My skin crawled, and my heart started hammering inside of my throat. My hair did what it could to bring light into the world, slowly illuminating Draven’s back, but it wasn’t enough. I made a cup shape with my hand and whispered “Lune,” and a moment later, a soft bubble of silvery light was born.
The light expanded just enough for me to be able to see how much of a dump this place was. Columns supporting the structure had started falling to pieces, and the ceiling was coming down in places. Opened cans of food lay scattered around, along with bottles of water, candy bar wrappers. All of the other signs of inhabitation, human and otherwise, were present, too. I held my hand over my nose.
Draven turned around and winced at the brightness of the magic ball in my hand. He shielded his eyes. “Someone’s living here,” he said.
“Not someone, a bunch of people.”
“Can you sense her?”
I shut my eyes and concentrated. Sensing other supernaturals—at least for me, anyway—had never worked like that before. I’d always been able to feel Draven’s power when he moved close to me, but that probably said more about his magical strength than it did about my ability to detect it. How powerful was she that I’d been able to sense her magic from at least a hundred yards?
