Wingless (21 page)

I run to her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

A Secret

My Annie is so close to me. But as I run closer and closer to her, I notice the glass box she's trapped in. Then, when I look up into her eyes, I can see the pain in her, the tears that threaten to spill out of her.
 

When she finally distinguishes that it's me, she begins to bang against the thick glass. Her fists are balled up so much that her knuckles are sheer white. The tears fall, and she cries and yells for me to save her.
 

I get to the box and try to break it. I slam my first against it and then punch it, using all of the strength that I can muster. The glass doesn't crack. It doesn't even budge.

When I know it's useless to keep expending my energy, I stop and look at Annie, trapped and broken inside her cage.

"Are you okay? Annie, talk to me!" I yell as I look at her in there. I try to search her body to see if she's been hurt, but I can't tell from out here. She looks weak, but she's alive.

"You have to leave! He'll kill you!" she yells at me, urging me with her eyes to run.
 

"No!" I yell back, shaking my head from side to side.

"He's going to kill you, Micha."

"I don't care," I say back honestly.

"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I'm so, so, sorry!" she chants, resting her hand on the glass, palm out. I stand in front of her. Despite the thick glass between us, I rest my palm against hers and try to feel her heat through the glass. I rest my head against the glass and she bends forward. I can almost feel her forehead against mine.

"Well isn't this the most adorable thing I've ever seen," Luke's voice comes into the room again.
 

"Let her go!" I yell, looking up, but he's nowhere to be found. I start walking in circles, as I have no idea where he is. Since I'm not focused on Annie any longer, I take a second to look the room we're now in. It's similar to the last, small and circular with no windows or exit. I can't seem to find him anywhere, and it frustrates me that he won't show his face. He's a coward.
 

"Another test to save the girl you love?" Luke asks, humor in his voice.

"Anything," I answer back sternly. "Just don't hurt her."

"You mean don't do this?" Luke plays back. Before I can object, Annie screams. I run to the box. She falls to the ground, clutching her head between both hands. She screams again, the most agonizing noise I think I've ever heard.
 

"Stop!" Gabe yells at Luke, dropping the weapons bag and coming towards me. "What do you want us to do?" he asks Luke.
 

"Okay, okay. You've got me," Luke says. As he speaks, Annie stops screaming. She remains on the ground, curled into a small ball. Though she's not screaming anymore, she's crying, small tears falling against her skin as she cradles herself. "Read the note, do what it says, and she'll live," Luke says as if he's bored with the conversation.
 

Gabe and I both rush over to a small, black table where a white piece of paper is folded in half. Gabe reaches it first and reads the note aloud. "What can one not keep, two hold, and three destroy?"

"Air!" I yell as loud as I can. It's the first thing I can think of, and I want to get this test over with so that I can save Annie.
 

"Wrong-o," Luke drawls. A loud buzzing rings off in the room and Annie screams again. She leans against the glass walls and cries as Luke tortures her.

"Stop hurting her!" Gabe yells, his body rigid.
 

"I forgot to mention that for every wrong answer, she'll pay with pain," Luke says. "Happy riddling!"
 

"Hurry, Micha. We have to think this through," Gabe says, clutching onto the note. "What can't one keep, hold, or destroy?" He reads again, trying to fid a clue.

"It's not going to be obvious," I tell him. I look back at Annie as my brain repeats the riddle over and over. She's lying against the side of the glass box, cradling her head. But she's trying to be strong. "Annie, look at me," I try to coax her to turn her head. She does. "Are you okay?" I ask her, making eye contact and showing her that I'm confident and strong for us both.

"It hurts so much, Micha," she answers me. Her voice is soft, ragged, and whimpering. My heart clenches in my chest.
 

"Gabe, help me out here!" I yell at him.

"I don't know the answer," he admits, turning over the note in his hand. We bounce ideas off of each other, but with each wrong guess, Annie is zapped. She pants so loud I can hear her breath through the glass. I leave Gabe at the table with the note and run to the box. I bang my fists against it again, praying there's a weak spot, but it's useless again.

"I'll be right back. Please, hang on." I move from Annie's box to Gabe's side. He's writing with his finger on a piece of paper his different ideas since he refuses to say it aloud and possibly hurt Annie more.

He looks up at me with wide eyes, and then points his eyes to the paper. He traces letters very slowly and large so that I can put them together and see what he's thinking. After all the letters are done, he taps his finger against the paper, insinuating that this is his final answer.

I repeat the letters in my head and when I piece it together, I try to see if it works for all three. Can't keep, hold, or destroy. I chant that in my head as I think about his answer.

"Can you hold it?" Gabe asks me, his face pinched together. I've never seen Gabe so torn up before. I've never seen him worried or tremble before. Now he's a bundle of it.
 

"I don't know," I say as I drop my head in my hands. "Just say it. It's the only one that's even possible."
 

"Are you sure?" Gabe asks. "I don't want to hurt her more. I don't know if she can handle it."

"She's strong," I state. "A secret!" I yell out for Luke to hear. A moment of silence passes where nothing happens. I look around for a sign, but the room stills along with all of us in it. Annie lies on the bottom of the box, passed out. She's not writhing in pain, so that must be a good sign, but I worry that something's wrong.

"I have to admit, I'm impressed." Luke's voice returns to the room, very unwelcome.

"Let her go!" I yell to him, begging to save Annie.

"Not just yet," he says. I look over at Annie and just then, the floor to her box opens and she's swallowed into the earth. I rush to it, thinking that I can save her, but just as fast as she appeared, she's gone. I slam my fist against the glass in one last bout of anger, but, of course, nothing happens.

"Are we done yet?" Gabe asks, his voice much calmer and clearer than mine. He's very persuasive, but even his best efforts are wasted on the king of Demons.

"Not quite." Luke laughs, and then a door across the room from us appears and opens. I start to walk forward, but Gabe grabs my elbow and stops me. I look back at him.

"Whatever is behind that door is going to be worse than this. Can you handle it?" Gabe asks me, his eyes probing me.

"I can handle it," I sternly say and pull my arm back from him.
 

"Okay," he relents. He picks up the bag of weapons, and then follows me through another door. Hopefully, it's the last.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

A-Maze-ing

Instead of stumbling into a dark room, we're in a way-too-bright room filled with fluorescent yellow light. I raise my hand to shield my eyes and step forward when I hear Lucifer start to speak in front of us.

"While this has been utterly enjoyable, we have to move this along. I have other things to attend to. Meet me at the end, Archers." A loud bang vibrates through the cavernous room, and a black wall springs up in front of us.

"A maze?" Gabe questions as we look at the narrow, black walls. There's only one way to go, forward, and through something that's like a tunnel and very high, double my height.
 

I don't wait for Gabe to inspect the walls. I walk straight ahead into the maze. It's not as easy as I thought. After walking forward for about twenty feet, we're faced with a dead end. We decide to go left and find another dead end, so we turn around and walk back the way we came.

There are tons of curses and dead ends and confusing circles. But I just keep walking, Gabe close behind, knowing that if we keep moving, we have to find what we're looking for eventually.

I think we've hit yet another dead end when we stop in a square room closed by the walls. I start to turn around, but Gabe places his hand on my forearm and stops me. I look back over my shoulder and see a table in the middle of the room.

There's a small white note, similar to the riddle, on the table with one letter on it.
L
. I flip the card over and sideways trying to figure out what it means when Annie walks over to us. She comes through the wall, but that doesn't even register to me.

I don't hesitate.
 

I run to her and lift her into my arms. I squeeze her tight, as if to make sure that she's real. I pull back and look into her eyes. I can't tell what she's thinking. Instead of her normal emotion-filled eyes, she's empty. I don't understand what's happened from earlier, but she doesn't seem to care that I have her.

"I'm sorry," she says. Before I can speak, she plants her lips over mine. At first, I don't move. I don't know how to react to this. I've been kissed before, of course. Never like this, with such passion and fervor. But also filled with regret.

I place her down on the ground when she comes up for air and stare down at her. "Please, Micha. I need you," she moans, swaying from side to side. She runs her hands up her sides and tilts her head back seductively.

"Something's off, Micha," Gabe whispers from behind me.
 

I try to listen to his words, but Annie holds my complete attention. She steps towards me and trails her finger from my neck to my stomach. My eyes flutter shut and goosebumps emerge on every inch of my skin.

I know that I shouldn't let her kiss me again. I shouldn't kiss her back. I'm mated; despite my feelings towards her, I really can't act on any other feeling. That's against the rules. But as she stares up through her eyelashes, I can't control myself. I'm overcome with need.

I reach for her and kiss her. But the very second our lips touch and my decision is made, she runs from me. "Annie!" I call after her, but she's through the wall in a split second. I run to the wall, but it's hardened. There's no way I can get through it.
 

"Follow her," Gabe says and starts to run out the way we came in. I don't see her, but I can hear her steps pounding against the hard, black ground. We fly around every corner and with each turn, hope springs that she'll be there. But she's not.

And then we realize that we've been herded into another square portion of the maze. On this table, there is another card. On it, a simple
G
is printed. As I'm turning over the card in my hands, Gabe taps my shoulder, but I ignore him.

"What?" I ask him, when he refuses to stop.

"I think we have to eat that," he says, pointing behind us.

"What?" I ask again, but my answer is there when I turn around. Behind us is a table filled with human food piled a foot high. "No way," I say as I step towards the table.

I've never seen such an immense amount of food in one place. Nor have I witnessed anyone eat this much in all of my time on Earth. Surely that can't be safe. I notice that underneath a round pie, there is a little white note sticking out. I grab it.

"Enjoy your meal," I read aloud. Just as I finish reading the note, a wall springs up at the opening and we're boxed in the room. I don't even think as I lunge for the food. I just start shoving it all into my mouth so we can get out of this trail and get to Annie.

If this is all it takes to get Annie free, then so be it. I hear Gabe sigh next to me and drop the weapons bag on the floor. He starts eating, too. Pie after pie, sandwich after sandwich, drink after drink, we devour the meal.

After I take one final bite of cheese and bread, I sit back on the ground and digest. My stomach aches with each breath as I force it to expand and allow the food to stay put. Gabe sits next to me, patting his stomach like he's trying to make room. His face is a bit green, and I'm sure mine is similar, because I feel awful.
 

As we sit on the ground, the walls around us fade away, and we're left with two options: left or right. "What do you think?" I ask Gabe as I start to stand up.

"Left?" he says, but he doesn't sound so sure.
 

"Your guess is as good as mine."
 

We start to fly again. Only this time we aren't sprinting, because there's no reason to. It's clear that Luke has planned this and we'll only get to see Annie when he allows it. I decide to just lay the game, and then we'll be rewarded. Rem always awards good deeds—unless of course you're an Archer named Michael.
 

We turn a corner and I audibly groan when I see the familiar black, square room with a table in the middle. I grab the note off the same exact table and it has the same
G
on it as the room before. I get this weird sense that we're going in circles. But before I can express my concern to Gabe, two screams erupt from behind us.

At first I see Sara, stuck in a similar box to the one Annie was in during the riddle. She's standing, but crying, her body hunched over in defeat. Our eyes meet, and I immediately run to her. I bang and try to get her out, but by now I know I can't.

I look to my left and see Annie sitting in the opposite corner. She's also in a box and crying. I'm utterly torn on what to do. I step towards Annie, but Sara screams from her box. I turn towards Sara, but then Annie screams.

"Choose one, choose carefully," Gabe reads from the back of the note. I look at him, and he shrugs. The walls of the boxes fall down, but both girls remain rooted in their spots, neither coming towards me, as if they're frozen.

"How can I choose?" I question out loud.