The Chronicles of Fire and Ice (The Legend of the Archangel Book 1) (15 page)

“
I didn’t wear it for you.”

“
I know. You’re wearing it for my brother. But guess what? He won’t dance with you.” He leaned in close so that she felt his hot breath on her face.

“
I won’t dance with you if that’s what you’re asking.” She stepped back.

“
You should stop pretending you’re saving yourself for him. We both know you’re not a virgin anymore,” he smirked, taking hold of her arm.

“
Bastard. You know that it’s the biggest regret of my life, sleeping with you,” she spat. She tried to pull away, but his hold was tight.

“
But you did it anyway. You sacrificed your virtue for the hope of saving your guardian angel. Poetic,” he chuckled

“
Do not mock me. Let me go.” She pulled harder.

“
You heard her, let her go,” said Dyston, who had just appeared beside her, his hard brown eyes not leaving his brother’s face.

“
Oh, look, reinforcements have arrived,” joked Lakyn.

“
Stop being an ass and let her go now, before I make a scene in front of the whole school.” Dyston’s words were fierce and cold. They chilled Scarlett to the bone. Lakyn finally dropped his hand, but his eyes never left Scarlett.

“
Have a nice night,” he told her, and then he was gone. She turned to thank Dyston, but he was also gone. She looked over the sea of heads and spotted him retreating out the doors leading to the garden. Scarlett pushed her way through the gyrating bodies and ran after him.

“
Dyston!” she called. He was standing on the stone steps that led down to the pergola. It was covered in twisting greyish-brown vines, its blossoms long dead for the winter. He had his back to her, and he didn’t turn as she approached. He just continued watching the array of fairy lights twinkling throughout the garden.

“
Dyston?”

“
You look stunning tonight. Did he buy you the locket, as well?”

“
I found it with the dress. Look I know I shouldn’t have worn it, but I didn’t have anything else.”

“
It’s all right. Did you really want to dance with him?”

“
No, I wanted to dance with you. I was looking for you,” she whispered. That was when he looked at her.

“
I had a duty to fulfil.”

“
A duty? To who?”

“
To the Academy. Look I have to go.” He unfurled his wings.

“
Wait, can’t we just… I would like to dance.” She took him in, his pristine black suit with tails, his slicked-back dark hair, which was now starting to curl at the sides and over his forehead. He wore a black wire mask that held diamonds in either corner above his eyes. It made his chocolate irises stand out immensely. He was tall, dark, and mysterious.

He clenched and unclenched his jaw then let out a sigh.
“All right, one dance.” He took her hand and led her to the pergola. Someone had hung a red Chinese lantern from the roof. It set a seductive mood. He held her close, his hands positioned in the traditional ballroom pose. Scarlett grabbed them and set them on her hips, putting her own around his neck.

“
You’re pulling away from me,” she told him.

“
You wanted me to.”

“
No, I didn’t. I just felt we were moving a bit fast.”

“
You didn’t move too fast for my brother,” he muttered under his breath, but Scarlett caught it.

“
Look, that was a ploy, I had a plan. And I knew you were in denial over this,” she told him. He took his hands off her waist and put them on her face, his lips only millimetres from hers.

“
I just wish that I could go back in time to before I had met you, so we could start over,” he whispered, his words felt like a punch in the gut.

“
Maybe we
can
start over.”

“
Yeah.” he let her go and walked to the entry of the pergola. “Maybe.” Then he took to the sky and never looked back.

Scarlett didn
’t want to return to the ball. She felt soulless, like Dyston had ripped out her soul and had flown away with it. She wandered back up the steps towards the ballroom but didn’t go inside. Instead, she kept walking alongside the building until she came to a set of French doors. She heard a voice coming from inside. She pressed her ear up against the door and listened.

“
Has production started?” asked the voice, which sounded a lot like Lakyn. There was a pause where someone on the other end spoke, and then Lakyn spoke again.

“
But I need five thousand in a week.” Another pause. “Yes, just the tips. I have a way of getting the tears.”

Scarlett
’s heart leapt into her throat. He was manufacturing Tear Tips.

“
The Archangel? Yes, I have the girl. I can do it.”

Scarlett couldn
’t believe her ears. He was planning to harvest tears from her. She peered into the room. It was dark apart from a desk lamp that cast a halo of light over Lakyn who sat with his feet on a desk.

“
Tomorrow I will have her.” He hung up and looked in her direction. Scarlett threw herself against the wall, making herself as flat as possible. She felt his presence nearby and realised he must be at the glass. She inched back towards the ballroom doors hoping that she hadn’t been noticed.

Weapon

Scarlett had been having dreams the past few nights where she was in a pool and a dark figure kept swimming closer. She was now in desperate need of caffeine. She dressed in gym gear for her first class that morning, not bothering to shower. She made her way down to the dining hall, yawning all the way. Angels rarely slept or felt tired, but being Nephilim, the human blood that still lingered craved rest. She grabbed a bowl of warm, lumpy porridge, drizzled a decent amount of honey on it, grabbed a mug of good strong coffee, and walked to her seat.

“
Mm. Coffee. Yes, please,” said Kat, after Jacob had handed her a mug. She looked worse for wear, her hair untamed, and she had no make-up on.

“
Turbulent night in the bedroom?” asked Thomas, clearly amused. Kat just shot him a glare and continued to inhale the coffee her hands were wrapped around. Scarlett then noticed that Jacob was sitting at their table, one arm around Kat, the other holding his own cup of coffee. Scarlett gazed over at his usual spot at the Fourth Year table, hoping to find Dyston, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“
Where’s Dyston?” Scarlett asked Jacob.

“
I don’t know,” he said. “I was hoping you would.”

“
I haven’t seen him since last night.”

“
He wasn’t in his room this morning. Either that, or he didn’t feel like answering the door.”

Tha
t was strange, Scarlett thought, even with his usual reputation for being elusive. She replayed Lakyn’s words over and over in her head—the reason for not getting to sleep last night—and now they were eating her from the inside out. Knowledge was a very powerful weapon, especially if it could put everyone you loved in danger. She could no longer keep it to herself. She had to tell someone.

“
I have to tell you guys something,” she finally said. Everyone’s eyes lifted to her.

“
I overheard Lakyn talking to someone on the phone last night during the dance.”

“
Where?” asked Thomas.

“
What was he saying?” Emer asked whose hair was pristine this morning.

“
I heard him say that he wanted five thousand Tear Tips made and shipped out by the end of the week.”

“
Tear Tips? Are you sure?” Jacob asked, perking up at the mention of it.

“
Yes, certain. We have about six days.”

“
Now I understand why we had to have classes on a Saturday,” whined Emer.

“
Maybe all the professors know, and they’re training us for the upcoming war,” said Delilah. She rarely said a word, but when she did, it was pure intellectual genius.

“
It’s possible,” said Jacob.

“
Can you tell Dyston?” Scarlett asked.

“
I think he knows. I saw something about the Michaelites with his books, during
Chronicle 101
on Friday,” said Jacob

“
The Michaelites? What would he want with the Michaelites?” asked Kat.

“
They’re
human
,” added Thomas, almost saying the word like it was poison in his mouth.

“
Yes, they are human. In fact, they are the only remaining humans on this earth,” Jacob told them.

“
How’d they stay that way? I thought all humans were wiped out after The Fall,” said Scarlett

“
They live in a protected sanctuary and have somehow invented a ward to prevent angels from entering,” Jacob explained.

“
Why would they want to do that?” asks Kat.

“
I don’t know. To keep human blood pure I guess.”

“
You said they were wiped out, the humans, what do you mean?” asked Emer.

Jacob answered for her.
“They weren’t
wiped out
, as in obliterated as you say. After the fall, angels bred with humans, and over time, as the angel bloodlines grew stronger, the human ones grew weaker, until they were almost non-existent. Except for the Michaelites, that is.”

The cathedral bells tolled signalling the start of classes for the day.

“If you want to learn more about the Michaelites, take
Chronicle 101
next semester,” he told them as he stood. Kat joined him. “See you in combat,” he added with a smile and left. Scarlett wasn’t sure if he meant their first class, or the raging war that she knew was coming.

It felt good to let her frustrations out
. Each hit of the punching bag was knocking away her worries like chisel to stone, but they still chewed at her brain, especially Jacob’s words. What he had said about Dyston wanting to know more about the Michaelites who kept themselves hidden for a reason—scared of angels or scared of being bred out, she didn’t know. Whatever Dyston wanted probably wasn’t good.

“
Pretend that punching bag is your enemy,” yelled Jacob, who had taken over teaching duties since Lakyn was also M.I.A.

Both Blackbell brothers missing
. Was it a coincidence? Scarlett thought not. She didn’t believe in coincidences, only fate. She had to find out what Dyston wanted to know about the Michaelites, but she also had to stop Lakyn from manufacturing thousands of deadly angelic weapons. She wished she could split herself in two and do both, but she couldn’t. She had to choose one. And she knew which one she had to choose.

Scarlett trained until her muscles burned and then she hit the showers, letting the warm water cascade over her body
as she contemplated walking into Lakyn’s factory and demanding him to stop. It would be easier said than done. After a few minutes, she turned off the water and grabbed her towel. As she dried, her vision began to blur. She thought it was water so she wiped her face with the towel, but it wouldn’t go away. Then she received a vision. She leaned against the wall and let it take over.

Dyston tagged closely behind a priest as they walked up the
aisle towards the front of the church.

“
Thank you for dropping the ward so that I could talk to you,” he said.

“
It’s all right. As long as you mean us no harm, you are welcome here,” said the priest, lighting a candle.

“
I don’t. I just wanted to ask you something.”

“
Say what you have to say and leave us. We are busy people,” the priest told him.

“
My brother is planning something, something dark. I wanted to ask if we could seek sanctuary within your wards if ever we needed it.”

“
We don’t owe you anything, Nephilim,” said the elderly priest.

“
I know, but I am asking if you could help us. You could stop a war.”

“
There is forever a war brewing amongst your kind. We want no part in it.”

“
All we ask is for a safe place to hide when the time comes, and in return, we will protect you.”

“
What makes you different from those in the past who have tried to destroy us?”

“
We are the good guys,” Dyston told him, and the elderly Michaelite priest hesitated, but eventually put his hand out for Dyston to take. The two shook hands—angel and man.

  The haze lifted and Scarlett could see again
. A smile made its way to her lips. Dyston was trying to save them, and she knew she had to do the same.

Scarlett stepped off the tram at the Dockla
nds and ran the rest of the way. She knew exactly where the factory was, but what she didn’t know was a way to stop the production. She was glad she had brought along Dyston’s dagger. She pulled it out now as she ran down the side of the factory to the side door. She crept through the unlocked door and into the dark. She knew this place very well, because her grandfather had worked here when she was an infant, and she had seen it on the news. It was a famous cigarette company, after all. She wondered if the news journalists would soon be reporting about something more sinister coming out of this building.

Once inside
, Scarlett kept close to the wall and listened for signs of life. She heard shouts somewhere ahead of her, but she couldn’t see a thing. She closed her eyes and called flame to her fingertips, creating an instant flashlight. She saw a metal staircase and decided to climb it so she could get a clearer view of the layout of the factory. She climbed the two flights of stairs to the top floor and looked around. There were offices to her left and a platform that looked over the factory floor to her right. Scarlett crouched down and duck-walked over to the platform railing so she could listen.

“
What’s the count?” said one. He sounded familiar.

“
Three thousand five hundred,” said another less familiar voice.

“
Mr. Blackbell wants five thousand by Friday. Better getting cracking,” said Voice One. Scarlett remembered where she had heard him before. He was one of the angels who had kidnapped her, Abel. Then she heard more voices, this time closer.

“
How do we immerse the Tear Tips once we get the Archangel tears?” asked a young Nephilim. Scarlett peered through the railing. He looked to be about seventeen or eighteen.

“
The tips are dipped into a vat containing the tears. Now, we won’t have much, so try not to waste any, okay?” said an angel whose back was facing her. He turned a little and Scarlett recognised him immediately—Lakyn.