Wings of the Wicked - By Courtney Allison Moulton Page 0,2

Will flipped us in midair so that he was below me and I stared into the blinding green blaze of his eyes.

Then we hit—Will’s back cracked pavement beneath us as I buried my face in his chest. We lay frozen, clinging to each other, his arms still tight around me as if he thought I’d keep falling if he let me go. At last I lifted my head and looked into his face, my body shaking violently. His eyes were closed and he was breathing raggedly, his chest rising and falling dramatically under my body. His wings were splayed flat out on the ground, but they looked unharmed. The falling sensation still sickened my gut as I looked around in disbelief and found the smashed remains of the nycterid littering the area around us.

“Are you okay?” Will asked up at me, his warm breath on my cheek.

I nodded, taking long, slow breaths to put myself back together, my hands still clutching him. I needed my head in the game, but I didn’t want to let go of Will.

I climbed off him weakly, my legs trembling on solid ground, and looked around for my fallen swords. I picked them up, and the angelfire sparked once again. The two remaining nycterids loomed over us. My body screamed at me, begging me to run, but I had to stay and fight.

Orek took a step toward me, dipping his head and curling his lips back into a freakish smile. The talons on his wings grabbed at the pavement, hooking into cracks. “We were not supposed to lose one of our own.”

“Sorry, but I always leave a body count,” I said, tightening my grip on my swords.

Orek laughed, sending splinters of ice through me.

A form dropped between us and I stepped back on my heel. It was one of the humanlike vir reapers, like Will. This one’s back was to me, and his sparrow-brown wings folded behind him. Another reaper descended—a girl—and she landed facing me. Her wings, the feathers dark silver like pencil lead, spread wide and gave a shudder. Blue-black hair fell around her shoulders, and she stared at me with a hardened gaze. I didn’t think I’d ever seen anyone so terrifyingly beautiful. She looked from Will to me and back again.

For a moment, I felt like I was still plunging through the air. More of them? Had half of the demonic reapers in Detroit been sent to kill me tonight?

The girl’s eyes brightened to an iridescent blue-violet, and she held out her hands. I sucked in a sickened gasp as her fingernails all lengthened into horrible foot-long talons made of pale bone. If I had to fight her, I’d have to chop off her hands before things got too serious.

“What is this?” Orek hissed, backing away. “You called for reinforcements?”

Weren’t the new reapers demonic? I took a step toward Will, just to feel his comforting presence.

“We didn’t anticipate this,” Orek’s remaining companion growled in a strangely feminine voice.

Orek snarled. “Come, Eki. We’ll return when we have a greater advantage.”

The two nycterids spread their massive wings and took to the air like a pair of misplaced dinosaurs. But I couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief that they were gone. I raised my swords to the mysterious newcomers, prepared to keep fighting.

2

THE GIRL SAID NOTHING, AND HER NAILS SLIPPED back into her skin as the boy turned to face Will and me. He had sharp, handsome, tanned features, and his dark hair was shorter than Will’s. I studied his face and noticed that covering the right side of his neck and creeping up his jaw was a vicious line of tangled, marbled scars. It looked as if the scars might continue down his shoulder, but they were covered by his shirt and leather jacket. His wings folded and vanished.

“That was about to get a little too serious,” he said, and a lazy smile spread on his lips. Something about his face was so uncannily familiar.

“About to?” Will’s shoulders relaxed, and he let out a long breath. “It’s good to see you, Marcus. Surprising, but good. I’ve never been happier to see you.”

Marcus? Where had I heard that name before? Memories suddenly flooded back to me, memories of a smiling face, happy times, and of … fire. Why fire? I thought back to the scar on his neck.

Marcus laughed. “We were in the neighborhood.”

“We have been tracking Orek for some time now,” the girl said, folding her wings. She paused and smiled at Will