I had taken Ameana’s wings and powers, but the girl was bad all by herself. She has had extensive training in self-defense. She has studied the human body and knows where to strike to inflict the most pain. And she has an air about her that says she is not to be toyed with.
“Meana, come on. Let’s go get Snaps. I hear there’s a good shop around here,” Jay says.
“Maybe later. Hi, everyone,” she says to the crowd. Everyone smiles politely but they were waiting for a show. Everyone knew about the showdown that had happened before between Meana and Emmy. Most just couldn’t believe their luck: they were around for what they hoped would be round two.
They never would have let them actually fight. They are angels, after all. But I’m guessing they would let it go as far as they could before Omnis punished all of us. By then Emmy would be a wave of dust of the side of the mountain. And I couldn’t allow that.
“Hello, Emmy,” Meana says nicely.
“Hi,” she says in barely a whisper.
“Look, I didn’t come to pick a fight or anything. I’m cool. I just came to dive,” she says as she walks toward the edge of the mountain. I follow her.
“You can’t jump—you have no wings.”
“Well I guess you better give them back to me then,” she says, daring me not to.
“I will not be forced into giving you what you have yet to earn.”
“Well, I’ll just have to leap and hope a net appears.”
Then without wings or power of any kind, Ameana jumps off the side of the mountain. The crowd gasps loudly. I was already halfway down the mountain after her. I cut through the air with every ounce of power I have.
She was falling steadily a few feet below me. She looks like a bird after the hunter first shoots it down. In a matter of seconds she would land straight on the Port.
I will my wings to stay to my side. I don’t care if I hit the Port. I would rather go faster than she and get there before she does. That way I could break her fall. The Port can only take one person at a time. I either save her or go instead of her. I could not, and would not, lose her.
Just when we are about even, I realize that that was as close to saving her as I was gonna get. We could be even but I would never pass her. The others dove in after us, but there is nothing they can do to help. The only one who can save her is me. But I’m not close enough.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the bird was no longer falling. She had tricked the hunter. She was taking flight. Ameana had sprouted wings and was pulling up. I am stunned. I am seconds from the Port when I come back to my senses and pull my wings out.
I fly up with such fury, I change the wind pattern on the mountain. It starts blowing out of control. I land on top and there stands Ameana, her wings gone.
“Guess my Snap is used up. Oh, well,” she says simply.
“Get off the mountain,” I say to everyone but Ameana. Everyone looks at each other.
“GET. OFF. NOW!!!” My voice causes the mountain to shake. Rocks fall off the side. Rio takes Emmy and everyone flies away immediately. It was just me and my second-in-command.
“What the hell are you doing?” I ask.
“Did you think I was just gonna die for you? Did you think I wouldn’t have a backup?”
“Back up? You call a Snap a backup? What if it was faulty?” I blare.
“Well, then, that would be perfect because then you could rescue me. I know you have a weakness for weaklings.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I want you to stop wanting her.”
“How do I do that?”
“You were supposed to choose me.”
“I did! I choose you. What more can I do to make you understand that? You’re the one I just risked my life for. You’re the one I gave my Rah to.”
“I know how you feel about her. Don’t make me out to be crazy.”
“You jumped off the mountain with no damn wings. What do you call it, huh? What the hell do you call this?”
“A promise that’s been broken.”
“What did I promise you?”
“It’s what I promised myself. I said I’d never love anyone. Ever. But I broke that promise for you. And now…I can’t even remember why.”
“Get this straight: you are my second and you will not be this reckless again. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“You do anything that puts this team at risk again and I’ll strip you of your wings permanently and leave you on earth. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
I walk over to the edge of the mountain.
“Will you take me home?” she asks.
“You found your way here. So find your own way back.” I fly off the mountain, leaving her there.
I never would have left my girlfriend alone on the top of a mountain with no way to get back home. But right now she is my second in command, not the girl I love.
And I suspect the guy who left her on the mountain wasn’t the guy she loved. He was just her boss and he had given orders. The only thing Ameana and I had in common at that moment was that both of us were in love with people we no longer liked.
**
CHAPTER TWELVE: TONY-TONE
The next morning, I was going to cancel going to the concert. But I realized Jay would have killed me. So I let them go to the concert and I stay behind to go see Tony-Tone.
The moment Tony spots me, he takes off. I pull out my cell as I take off after him. The fact that he’s running means he’s done something; suddenly, having our only clue partying in a crowd a country away feels like a very bad idea.
“Rio, get Jay to take Emmy home. The rest of you get back here. Tony’s up to something. Hurry!”
I hurl myself at Tony, we crash down to the ground. I strike him hard in his chest. He gasps.
“Okay, okay. This guy came in. He said he was a GW but there is a small chance he might have been a Runner working for Akon. I was gonna turn him down but he offered me three third-coats. That’s a lot of money.”
“I will put my hand through you and pull out that waste of space called you heart right now if you don’t tell me what you sold.”
“Let’s not get violent. There’s a good chance I did nothing wrong,” he says desperately.
“He paid you three third-coats and he doesn’t even have wings! Where did you think he got them from?”
“Hey, like the humans say—don’t ask, don’t tell.”
I pick him up off the floor with one hand and slam him into the nearby tree. I hold him there and reflect a quick flash.
“Please, no.”
“Talk, rat.”
“I sold him something I got from the market.”
Hun’s market is run by seamy Sellers who are always on the run from the council. They sell items that have been outlawed by both Omnis and the council. The founder of the Market was Hun Moorland. Hun was a ruthless terrorist with a background in chemistry and biology.
Hun was killed when the bomb he was making to blow up a building in the heart of downtown Tokyo accidentally went off in his face. Hun had made a deal with Atourum: in exchange for not burning for all eternity, he would invent things to help Atourum wage war against good.
He invented a number of things for Atourum. Among them, Quips, which are bullets filled with a liquid substance that attacks an angel’s soul.
The other invention Hun is known for is the Zan. Zans are boxes that keep a soul alive without needing a body. Hun invented the Zan and gave it to Atourum, who then used it to store the darkest of souls before re-releasing them on humanity.
Hun’s most famous invention is called the Peel. It is a black-powdered substance that peels away the face and soul of an angel and impresses them on someone else. Think of it as identify theft for angels. The Peel lasts a few hours and then the soul will be returned to the angel from whom it was taken.
A few cycles ago, a demon used a Peel and took the appearance of a Traveler. The demon got as far as the gates of the council. Soon, Paras came with word from Omnis that there was a darkness in the light. The demon was punished and Atourum was made to destroy Hun.
Many have theorized that Atourum never got rid of Hun. The conspiracy nuts think that he’s still on Earth. They go so far as to say he’s still inventing things for his master. Everyone claims to have seen Hun at some point. Hun sighting are as common among angels as Elvis sightings are among humans.
“What did you sell from the Market?” I ask, fully intending to carry out my threat.
“Okay, but don’t get mad.”
I ram my hand into his chest. He gasps as the pressure I am putting through his chest becomes more than he can handle.
“I sold him a Peel.”
I pick him up from the ground and throw him across the street.
“You sold a Peel to a Runner?” I ask.
“He paid me extra not to say anything. He may or may not be a Runner. And anyway, it was Human Peel. The Runner can only pretend to be another human being, not an angel.”
“Why would an Akon send a Runner to impersonate a human?”
“I don’t know. What can a human get Emmy to do that an Akon or Runner can’t?”
“Trust,” I say as it hits me right then. The Runner is going to Peel into someone Emmy trusts and take her to the Akons.
Once I land on the roof back at the house, Jay comes running up to meet me. His face is dark with rage, which is not a common thing to see on Jay. It alarms me instantly. Ameana comes up behind him.