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‘Holy, crap! That could have been us, Ebony. We gotta get down.’

‘But it wasn’t us,’ she says stubbornly. Clearly she is not planning to withdraw any further yet.

Below, Jezelle is helping the injured, sending the more critical Brothers back to the monastery.

But the Dark Prince isn’t finished. He bellows an order to attack, and angels from both the dark and light forces suddenly take to the air.

The opposing winged forces are an incredible sight, but it quickly turns ugly as the two sides clash. Isaac collides with a Prodigy right in front of us. They wrestle in the air, where their wings tangle and they both struggle to keep airborne. The Prodigy gets the upper hand, hurling Isaac head first towards the earth. Isaac rolls in the air, loses his equilibrium and plummets. He only just regains control in time to prevent himself smashing into the ground. I let out my breath as he starts flying upwards again. Once he’s high enough he does a somersault with his knees tucked into his chest, then he straightens out, kicking both feet into the Prodigy’s exposed gut.

Boom!
The air vibrates with the collision.

It’s a powerful hit, and this time the Prodigy goes down.

Boom! Boom!
Others go down as angels pair off. Sparks from clashing swords shower down over the lawns. Small fires break out all around. It soon looks like the end of the world.

Neither side makes any significant gains because the angels are too evenly matched.

Michael sees an opportunity to bring an end to the battle
by taking out Prince Luca himself. He selects an arrow with a gold tip and carefully takes aim from across the yard. The arrow slices the air and would be a direct strike were it not for the Prodigy called Ezekeal, who dives in front of his master, taking the hit instead.

Prince Luca goes berserk. He points one of his lethal flame-throwing hands at Thane, but Thane’s wings are an impenetrable barrier, so the prince shifts his attention to Gabriel and shoots out white-hot flames. He strikes Gabriel in the chest, lifting the big guy into the air, holding him there with just the force of the flames, then he flicks his wrist in a downward motion, sending Gabriel careering to the ground. Jezelle rushes to his side.

Ebony covers her face with both hands.

I tug them down gently. ‘Are you OK?’

She whispers, ‘I heard his spine crack, and his leg break in three places.’

‘
ENOUGH!
’ Thane roars. ‘Withdraw now!’

‘Withdraw?’ Prince Luca glowers at Thane. ‘I don’t answer to a foolish nonentity.’ He raises his hands to the stars, twirling his fingers in an anticlockwise direction. Great clouds, black as oil drawn from the bowels of the earth, gather overhead, swirling at terrifying speeds. They obliterate the moon, submerging us into an inky darkness, until electricity begins sizzling inside and the clouds start hailing lightning bolts on everyone.

Jezelle leaves Gabriel to attend to a Brother who is writhing on the grass with terrible burns. She’s working hard at healing the injured, but the number is rising.

Everyone scatters except Thane. He stands straight and
still in the centre of the yard, his eyes closed as he draws on his powers. He doesn’t allow anything to distract him, not even the lightning hitting the ground and erupting into fires around him.

Michael commands the remaining Brothers to withdraw into the forest and then flies through the lightning and fires to stand behind Thane. The other angels follow, also falling in behind Thane, their faces sombre because they know what’s about to happen.

Thane raises his hands with his palms facing Prince Luca. The Dark Prince and his soldiers have regrouped. They appear curious to see what other powers Thane might have. One or two even laugh mockingly. Clearly they think he hasn’t got anything more powerful than what he’s already revealed.

It’s like watching the eye of a cyclone passing directly overhead. This is the pause before the storm returns its full fury. And then a silvery wind bursts from Thane’s palms.

Ebony notices what’s happening before me and points to the gardens. The lawn and everything in front of Thane is drying up. The flowering shrubs around the house are shrivelling up too, as if all the moisture inside them is evaporating. Overhead, the full moon reappears, bathing everything in its bright light. I watch as the wind passes through the forest like a wave, and every tree it hits drops its leaves. The sound of thousands of dried leaves falling to the ground combined with the hissing of Thane’s wind is so eerie it will probably haunt my dreams for a long time.

Ebony’s eyes have turned to the Dark Prince and his soldiers. ‘The Prodigies are dehydrating like the trees,’ she says. ‘Their flesh, muscles, organs, everything is shrinking.’

I watch, speechless, as they shrivel up, until their loose skin hangs off their bones. Their deep eye sockets look gruesome. Even their wings hang awkwardly, their feathers dry and brittle like hay. I am horrified but mesmerised as the fierce wind still pumps out of Thane’s palms. His power overrides everything Prince Luca is doing to try to stop him.

One by one the Prodigies fall.

Thane knew it would come down to this. He warned Prince Luca, gave him plenty of opportunities to withdraw.

Prince Luca stares at his Prodigies, aghast. So far he’s resisted the wind, but it’s too powerful even for him, and everything he tries only ends up tiring him more. His resistance finally fails. Horrified, his eyes take in the shrinking flesh of his arms, first one, and then the other. He touches the shrivelling skin of his face, the loose skin hanging at his throat, and releases an ear-shattering scream.

The Dark Prince drops to his knees among the soldiers who have collapsed around him. But Prince Luca is not one to stay down. He climbs to his feet and wraps his cloak around his skeletal body. His eyes are gaping sockets in his gaunt face. He collects his weakened soldiers, helping them to stand, then turns to Thane with a dark warning in his eyes. ‘You have earned yourself a victory this night.’ He looks around at the devastation with something like awe. ‘I underestimated your powers. But I will come back to collect my bride before she reaches her eighteenth year, that I promise. Nothing will stop me. Heed my warning, Prince Nathaneal. I don’t make the same mistake twice.’

He closes his eyes, his gaunt face intense with concentration. I wonder what he’s doing until I spot the slight tilt of Thane’s head. Prince Luca is mind-linking. Ebony gasps. She’s hearing it too. In his weak state, the Dark Prince is probably unable to select who hears and who doesn’t.

‘Um, Ebs, what’s he saying to Nathaneal?’

She says softly, ‘He’s ordering him to …’

She stops and her face turns red.

‘To what?’

‘Protect my virtue.’

I glance at the two enemies facing each other, the victor and the fallen who both want the same girl – the girl who strangely shares a bond with
me
. Well, I may be just a simple human, but I’d like to see their faces if she picked me. If only she would.

But Thane’s not the type to gloat over a victory, and even though he has put the Dark Prince out of action for a long time, he doesn’t look happy. His face is pained as he looks around the forest. Did I say forest? There’s not much left.

‘I will ensure that you
never
make Ebony your bride,’ Thane says. ‘And I may not have permission to annihilate you completely this night, but the next time we meet I will end your free roaming of the Earth.’

‘Until you become king, which will never happen, you don’t have the right to break a treaty.’

‘Call your Death Watchers home, Luca. Your time of gathering human souls is coming to an end.’

Under the first rays of a new dawn, with his weakened soldiers supporting each other, Prince Luca begins his long journey home.

As soon as the weary group disappears from view, Ebony looks for my hand, the one she sunk her teeth into earlier. She lifts it and gasps at the sizeable indentation her teeth made. Taking it to her mouth, she kisses the wound softly, her face wet with tears of relief, and a million other emotions, I suppose.

‘You’re a good friend, Jordan Blake. You’re a rare breed and there should be more of you.’

‘One more of
you
is all I want.’

She is surprised at the emotion in my admission and searches my face. What am I supposed to do now? Deny what my heart is saying? I can’t exactly walk away or pretend I was joking. She reaches up and pats the side of my face.

Now that it’s out there, I may as well give it a shot. ‘There’s something strong between us, Ebony. I feel it.’

‘I do too,’ she admits. ‘When Jezelle was healing you, I “saw” you with my mind; that’s how strong this bond is.’

‘Don’t you think there’s a reason you can do that with me and not with Thane?’

She shrugs and her eyes become teary. ‘There’s so much I don’t understand, but …’

‘But what?’

‘I love Nathaneal.’

‘You hardly know him, Ebony.’

‘It doesn’t matter. It’s as if my life began with him and ends with him. And I’m sorry if that sounds melodramatic, it’s honestly how I feel.’

‘What if it’s a mistake, and you just got swept up by all of this?’

‘It’s not a mistake.’

‘But how do you know?’

She shrugs and points to her heart. ‘It’s in here. I’m sorry, Jordan.’

‘Forget it. I knew I couldn’t compete with an angel. I’ll just have to wait until he goes home to his fiancée.’ It just comes out, and once it’s out, I can’t take it back.

‘What did you say?’

‘Nothing. Let it go.’

‘Tell me. Is it true? Nathaneal has a fiancée back in Avena?’

‘That’s what he told me.’

‘Did he tell you her name?’ Her voice sounds as if it’s coming from far away.

‘No, only that he has to complete his quest here before he’s free to marry her.’

‘And that “quest” is finding me, right?’

I nod and look down. I feel awful for telling her like this, but Thane should have told her himself before he kissed her.

On the ground everyone is congratulating Thane, with embraces and pats on the back. Gabriel, walking slowly and with a limp, gives his brother a big bear hug. Jezelle throws herself into his arms with a mega-million-bucks smile.

‘Is it … is it
her?
’ Ebony asks in a husky, breaking voice.

‘I don’t know, Ebony.’ It’s the truth. ‘We should get down from here now.’

‘In a minute,’ she says. Her bottom lip is trembling.

The last of the night’s stars are giving way to a new dawn. In the yard below us Thane finds himself momentarily alone. He closes his eyes, throws his head back. He’s
savouring the taste of victory, and by the smile spreading across his face, that taste is pretty darn sweet.

But then he opens his eyes and spots the two of us in the tree. For a second he can’t believe what he’s seeing. He’s shocked, but his smile is indulgent, and his expression says he should have known better than to think Ebony would run away and hide. The victory is making his thoughts more generous than they otherwise would be, I can tell. But his smile gradually dissolves and a frown takes its place.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.

Just one look at Ebony’s devastated face.

Getting down the tree proves harder than climbing up. This could be because my legs feel oddly powerless, as if they don’t belong to my body any more.

Jordan scoots down around me in a big rush to get away, but when we hit the ground I grab his hand.

Of course, Nathaneal is waiting at the bottom. I take a deep breath and look up to his face without connecting with his eyes. I can’t do that
and
say the words I need to say. ‘You were amazing out there. Thank you.’

He continues to frown at me, knowing there’s more. His eyes lower to my hand holding Jordan’s tight, and his frown deepens. Jordan tries to pull away, but I don’t let him. He’s not going anywhere. If he really loves me, as he just professed, he should be willing to hold my hand during a few difficult minutes of my life.

‘You’re welcome,’ Nathaneal says, his eyes shifting from mine to Jordan and back again.

‘I suppose you and your, um, colleagues will be leaving now,’ I begin by saying.

‘The others will be leaving shortly, yes, but I will be
staying. I thought you understood that I would remain here on Earth to train you.’

‘But your mission is complete so I thought –’

‘Ebony, what’s this about?’

‘I’m releasing you from the rest of your mission or quest, or whatever you call it. You found me, you eradicated the danger, and so your job here is done.’

I take a deep breath, a
very
deep breath. I can’t stand to see his face racked with confusion.
I
put that look there.

But no,
he
did this to
me
, especially with that kiss!

That kiss!

My lips tingle with the memory. I bite down on my lower lip hard in an attempt to exchange the pleasure of that memory for pain. It works, but only after I taste blood. ‘I’d only require training if I were planning to return with you. But I’m not. I’m staying here on my farm, to run it in my parents’ absence. It’s … it’s … my obligation.’

Nathaneal looks at Jordan and says, ‘Will you leave us for a moment?’

‘He stays,’ I say.

‘Ebony, is this about what just happened? I sent you into the forest so you wouldn’t see … to protect you –’

‘It’s not that. It has nothing to do with that. It’s just that your job is done here, and I’m not going to live in a foreign world all by myself.’

He takes a step towards me, but I lift up my hand to stop him.

‘Ebony, you would soon make friends. You have family there, and I would be by your side as much or as little as you wish.’

‘I don’t know how it’s done in your world, but here, at least for the most part, humans have one partner for life.’

He addresses Jordan, his voice growing dark. ‘What did you tell her while you were perched in your little nest together?’

It’s then that Isaac, Michael and the other angels join us. Instantly they know something is wrong. The big smile on Shae’s face drops. ‘What’s going on, Thane?’ When he doesn’t answer, she turns and asks me directly, ‘Ebrielle, what’s going on?’