Fallen Embers (Fallen Guardians #9)

Chapter 25

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Michael? This exhausted, unshaven stranger was the archangel, Michael?

Oh, boy! Nia rubbed her clammy palms down her jeans.

She hadn’t known anything about the angels or their hierarchy until she met Lore, but she had heard about the archangels. Heck, why she imagined they’d be all white-robed and shining with light since Lore appeared like Death had come calling when she first saw him?—

Sword guy’s words penetrated her tumultuous thoughts.

“What mate?” she asked, frowning at him. “Wait, you mean me?”

His eyes burned a molten silver as they met hers. Then, a terse nod.

“Nia, it’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Lore said.

“Nia?” The man’s eyes narrowed. He stepped closer, his gaze skimming her face as he studied her. “I don’t fucking believe it!” He rounded on Lore, the white glow of rage back in his eyes. “You fucking knew?”

A knock sounded.

“Not now!” he snarled.

Michael countered, “Come in.”

“Well, shit’s about to go everywhere.” Lore sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Nia frowned at his messed-up idiom.

The door opened, and a petite figure slipped inside. In the firelight’s dim glow, Nia could only make out that the woman was about her height and age, but something about her made Nia’s skin prickle with an inexplicable familiarity.

She blew overlong bangs away from her eyes to glare at the sword-wielding guy. “Tyr said to find you here, and you tell me not now ?”

A tic pounded on his jaw. “I didn’t mean that for you.”

“Aethan,” she breathed. “Why is your Gaian sword free?” She slammed the door shut and rushed to his side, her short, spiky hair jumping in all directions. She touched his biceps, then his face. “I know that’s like ripping off your skin! What happened? You have blood on your face!”

Her otherworldly, bicolored eyes glittered in the gloom. She cast them all a lethal glower as if she would hurt anyone who’d caused this horror to occur to her man. Her gaze landed on Nia, and her brow furrowed.

Nia had the oddest feeling that she’d seen the woman before.

“Aethan, what’s going on?” she said without looking away from Nia.

“Good question,” he growled and drew her to him, pressing his face in her hair as if to calm himself. Then he looked up, his glacial stare matching his tone. “Lore, Michael, why don’t one of you fill us the fuck in?”

With a wave of Michael’s hand, the wall sconces came on, light flooding the place.

Nia blinked at the sudden brightness and couldn’t stop staring. Sword guy—Aethan—his hair wasn’t dark , but a deep blue, as if an artist had layered all the colors of the blue spectrum, along with some light hues, into his messy, tied-back hair.

Michael leaned against his desk, his gaze shifting between them. “There’s a lot to explain.”

“You don’t say?” Aethan bit out, sarcasm heavy. “If you think I’m going on patrol with this shit hanging over us, yeah, not happening.” His dangerous weapon shifted in a smoky flash and resettled on his thick biceps in the form of a tattoo.

Nia blinked, feeling as if her eyeballs would pop out and ping-pong between everyone.

A gasp flooded the room. Then she was yanked away from Lore, and the woman, whose name Nia didn’t know, grasped both her arms, staring at her. “You…”

Nia gaped. The blood drained from her head. It was like looking in the mirror, except for their eyes and hairstyle. They even had the same shallow chin dimples. A wrecking ball slammed into her chest, demolishing all the air in her lungs. “You…you’re me ?”

“We’re the same,” the woman breathed.

“Echo, maybe we should let Michael or Lore explain this secret, one they doubtless protected for decades since they’re the only ones who seem in the know.” Aethan drew her back to him.

“How is it that we look the same?” Nia demanded, her gaze whipping to Lore. His expression remained inscrutable; she didn’t care. She’d get her answers. “Lore?”

“Let me explain,” Michael interceded, “before this becomes a tangled mess.”

“Because this isn’t already one?” Aethan bit out. “Yeah, my bad. But go on, explain this simple, straightforward occurrence of how my mate has a twin she never knew about, but you apparently did.”

Michael ignored him, his attention on both Nia and Echo. “When your parents died?—”

“Died? I didn’t even know I was adopted,” Nia said, expression tightening. “Until recently.”

“That’s because, after the attack that killed your birth parents, an angel found you wandering the alley, bleeding from a gunshot wound. He healed you and took away your memories of what happened,” Michael said. “He left you with a couple, a childless couple who longed for a babe. Memories were implanted that they adopted you from an agency.” He circled the desk and dropped heavily into the swivel chair. It squeaked beneath his weight.

“Why were we parted?” Echo demanded. “Why didn’t they leave us together?”

“Echo,” Aethan murmured. “Let him finish?—”

“No.” She spun to face him. “I told you something wasn’t right. And you said I should rest, and I’d feel better. Better?” she breathed, rubbing her arms. “You meant I wouldn’t sound like I’m losing my mind, like some mental case.” Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

His tawny features paled. “You know that’s not true, me’morae .”

She shook her head and turned away. It was instinctual for Nia to offer comfort, to put her arm around her sister’s—her twin’s—waist. Her pain, Nia’s own.

Echo sagged into her. They were strangers, and yet it felt so right.

“Finish this!” Aethan moved to the fireplace, his stare like daggers aimed at the archangel. “Why weren’t they left together?”

“Yes, why?” Nia asked, tightening her hold on Echo.

Michael sighed and rested his forearms among the scrolls on his desk. “Because the angels wanted the Curantii back in the Celestial Realm?—”

“The fuck they did!” Aethan slammed his palms down on the desk, causing the scrolls to jump.

Michael didn’t move, impassive in the face of Aethan’s fury.

“Those bastards let my mate suffer because they wanted her? I will slaughter them all—” Aethan went motionless, his expression turning lethal. “Tell me you knew nothing of this, Michael.”

The archangel rose from his chair. “I didn’t…until two years ago after you resurrected Eshana.”

In a blur, Aethan moved, punching Michael in the face. He pitched back a step, didn’t defend himself. Lore watched, arms folded. No rescue from him either.

“You fucking assholes left her alone to endure a torture no child should ever face,” Aethan snarled as Michael rubbed his jaw.

“Aethan, don’t,” Echo whispered, wrapping her arms around her middle.

Nia stood there, utterly helpless, with no idea what was happening between Aethan and her twin. She asked, “Who’s Eshana?”

“Me,” Echo said with a wan smile. “I took the name Echo when I lived on the streets, trying to escape my foster parents.”

“What?” Nia gasped. She might have grown up in a cold, unloving environment, but at least she’d been safe.

“That was her life,” Aethan growled. “Four years old, and she was left all alone to endure terror, pain, and torture!” He pivoted to Lore, looking as if he would kill him. “Did you know about this?”

Lore shook his head. “I didn’t know until Nia’s glamour wore off.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Her gaze sought Lore’s, her hurt expanding. “All this time we’ve been together, and you didn’t say a word. You knew how I felt. Knew about everything that happened to me.”

“At first, I couldn’t, Nia?—”

“Oh, right. Your loyalties were to the seraphs,” she shot back, and his jaw tightened. She hardened her expression, unable to forgive him for keeping this from her. He knew how much she longed to find her family, how alone she’d been. Always unwanted.

“Partly. But I didn’t say anything because you were already hurting from your grandmother’s death,” Lore said, his stare boring into hers. So handsome…so remote. “There was never a right time. Too much happened too fast.”

“Right. When one of your pals abducted me?—”

“They are no friends of mine, you know this.”

“They wanted me dead, thinking I was super-powerful!” she cried.

“What?” Echo frowned at Lore, her gaze bouncing back to Nia, her bicolored eyes filled with questions. Nia just shook her head, unable to control her reeling emotions.

“What do you mean?” Aethan asked.

Nia laughed, but it held no humor. “I mean, they wanted me dead, but it had to be of ‘ natural causes .’” She air-quoted the words. “So, some angel tied me to a tree in the ruins of a snake-infested forest. They wanted to make it look like I’d taken off after my grandmother’s funeral because I was upset, got lost in the Himalayas, and died from snake bites. You know, because that’s what us humans do when upset.”

“The jerk,” Echo snapped. “And you didn’t help her?” She glowered at Lore, hands clenched.

“He did,” Nia said quickly. As mad as she was with Lore, she didn’t want anyone else to think he was like those other horrid angels. “He saved me.”

Lore’s stare remained on her, but something moved in those metallic green depths, powerful and intense, before blanking out. “Michael, she’s safe and in your care,” he said.

Nia froze. He was leaving?

“Now your job is done, you can leave, free from your burden?” Despair swamped her that she was so easily dumped aside. The brief moment when she thought he wanted her had been just another whimsy. “I guess I should thank you for not following through with your order to kill me.”

“What?” Echo gasped, face paling.

“It seems I’m too dangerous to live,” Nia said bitterly. “But since Michael also asked him to protect me, guess he was in a fix.”

Lore’s mouth thinned. Still, he remained silent.

“You have nothing to say?” she demanded.

“What difference would it make? You know the truth?—”

“Today! Only today, I learned everything. Not from you but from the angel sent to kill me! You should have told me.” The hurt she’d tried so hard to rein in broke free. “Fine. Go. Leave! I don’t care.”

Before her tears fell, she yanked open the French doors and hurried out into the night, inhaling trembling breaths. Once out of sight, she halted and shut her eyes.

Pain and embarrassment constricted her. How could she let her shields crack and reveal her emotions to everyone in the room? But she was aware, too, of the dead silence behind her.

Unable to bear Lore witnessing her utter devastation if he came after her, she hurried down the terrace steps and took off. The sobs lodged in her throat broke free. Tears flowed as she followed the footpath around the castle, cutting across the glaring, snowy grounds toward a body of water.

She neared an enormous lake and stumbled toward a bench, brushed off the snow, and sat. Choking back a sob, she dashed her wet face with her fist. She might have found her sister, but her heart was shattering into pieces.

He didn’t come after her.

Lore’s entire being shuddered as Nia dashed outside, the emptiness within seeping through every inch of him. But not by a twitch did he reveal his own anguish. Or how the need to pursue her ran hot in his blood. It was futile anyway. He couldn’t promise her anything when nothing was resolved.

“What did you do?” Echo demanded, looking so much like the woman he couldn’t live without.

He just shook his head. “I need to speak with Michael.”

“Is that all you have to say?” she snapped, looking like she’d stake him. “I will find out the truth, and God help you, Lore!”

“Hold on,” Michael told her. “I sent Loráed to protect her because of who he is—a Power. While his orders can supersede my request, I know he wouldn’t act without finding out all the facts. I trust him completely. And I asked him not to say anything to your twin.”

With another glare at them, Echo stormed after Nia.

Aethan stepped onto the terrace but didn’t follow his mate, apparently giving the sisters time alone. Then he glanced back into the study, his troubled expression morphing to one of contemplation.

Guess I am having an audience for this, then . Lore faced Michael. “I need a favor. The seraphs haven’t rescinded the termination. There’s still a target on her. She stepped out of the abbey earlier today, and a throne abducted her to finish the job. They are watching the place. It’s why I had to bring her here.”

Michael’s eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”

“Keep her safe.”

Aethan straightened. “Any of those winged asses try and break in here for a psionic, we’ll send them back in a white light.”

Lore exhaled deeply at what awaited him now.

“Are you sure about this?” Michael asked.

He wasn’t surprised the archangel already knew what Lore had planned. With the charged emotions between Nia and him, even a blind man would figure it out.

But the distance between them ate at him like an unending wound.

He slid his clenched hands into his pants pockets so he wouldn’t punch something. “I’m not one for indecisiveness regarding something this important. I have hurt her enough, unable to give her a proper answer while I figured things out because of the laws that bind us,” he said. “I’ve made my decision, but I request that you not tell Nia anything.”

“Damn,” Aethan drawled, leaning a shoulder against the doorjamb. “Who would have thought this day would come, witnessing how the mighty has fallen.”

Lore ground down on his teeth. Yes, this was payback for all the times he and Aethan had words about his work schedule and especially his toughness on Echo.

“What happens if it takes ages?” Apparently not done tormenting him, Aethan cocked an eyebrow. “I mean, in the Celestial Realm, time’s irrelevant. A few days there might just be years here before you reappear. She could move on, start a life with someone else—wait, Race is unattached. And she is psionic. They’d be perfect together.”

Lore wanted to ram his fist into the warrior’s jaw, but he reeled in his ire.

“As long as she’s happy,” he said, tone flat. “Her happiness will always come first.”

Aethan snorted. “How did it even happen, an emotionless being falling in love?”

Lore froze. The words hit him like a sledgehammer straight in the chest.

He already knew he couldn’t live without her.

But love?

Is that what this is?

All these emotions consumed him, making him feel as if he couldn’t breathe at the thought of her not in his life—and that she could move on with bloody Zayn or that infernal Guardian, Race. Or when she’d dismissed those incredible, intimate moments between them as if they were nothing, it gutted him to the core. And why, when she cried, discovering his betrayal, the pain had been unbearable, as if someone had carved out his heart with a celestial blade.

Lore shut his eyes. Stars! He was…so deeply, desperately in love with her.

“Hell!” Aethan murmured, and Lore glanced at him. The warrior shook his head, his smirk dropping. “You’ll want the 411 fast. You need to fight for her, not let her walk away, man. Go tell her what you plan to do.”

These immortals had no idea what the angels had to endure.

“I cannot,” he muttered, and Michael inclined his head, aware of what he meant. “It’s better for her to think I’ve returned to the Celestial Realm.”

Aethan frowned, then swore, apparently realizing the truth of Lore’s situation. “That’s some fucked-up shit. Even when you leave, freedom still isn’t guaranteed.”

“Indeed.” Lore walked out of the study onto the darkened terrace. Instead of flashing back to the Celestial Realm, his feet were already taking him in the direction Nia had gone.

He shouldn’t, but he longed for one last look at the woman who’d claimed his heart.

The stars only knew how this would end.

Because not all angels survived the fall from grace.