Page 28 of Wings of Valor (Silver City University #4)

I wake without an alarm, and it feels as though I’ve slept for all of five minutes.

Hayliel is already up and dressed, with imbued daggers strapped to her thigh and a sunblade sheathed at her hip. The rune-stitched clothes she wears have me wanting to drop to my knees and pray at her feet.

But I can’t. Not now. Later I will, though. When we’re back and know everyone is safe.

She’s pouring coffee into a cup when I approach.

“Morning,” I say, pressing a kiss to her temple while I reach for a mug.

“I see you slept about as well as I did,” Hayliel replies, her tone filled with sarcasm.

She’s not wrong. I hadn’t had a nightmare in a few weeks, but they came back with a vengeance last night.

My dad. Serah. Their faces all morphed and changed until I saw Zeke’s face as he took his last breath.

The next face I saw was Hayliel’s. In my dream, she looked at me with so much blame and disappointment that it felt real.

Without thinking, I pull her into me, needing the reassurance that it was only a nightmare and nothing more. This is real.

Raphael joins us wearing a similar outfit to me—yesterday’s shirt over a pair of shorts—and grabs a mug of his own deliciously hot coffee before we sit on the couch for what might be our last few moments of peace. Today is the day we bring our friends home, and I suspect it won’t be easy.

Castiel exits his room at the exact moment I hear a knock at the door. He opens it to reveal Kirach, Zeke’s father, standing on the other side with Azrael. They’re each carrying several bundles of clothes.

“Oh, we’re all set, actually,” Hayliel says, pointing at what she’s already wearing.

Azrael shakes his head. “I’m afraid not. It would seem the Archangels gave strict orders to the sanctuary guards not to let anyone pass without wearing the chosen gear.”

Raphael says what I know Hayliel and I are thinking. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Why?” Hayliel and I ask at the same time.

“I can’t say for sure, but I suspect it’s an optics thing. If they sanction a mission with you wearing whatever you want and things go sideways, it could look bad on them.” Azrael sets his bundle down on a small side table.

“I guess I’ll go change then,” Hayliel says, clearly annoyed as she takes the outfit Kirach hands her.

“We’ll worry about hitting them hard, you guys just focus on bringing them back safely,” Azrael says to us, then he leaves to prepare his team. The plan is for them to act as our distraction while also causing as much damage as possible.

Auriel takes our angels? We ruin his secret base. It’s a simple exchange.

Raphael and I grab an armor set and change. By the time we head back out to the main room, Mira is there and Hayliel damn near squeals.

“I knew you’d escape without getting caught!”

“It’s only one of my many talents.” Mira winks at Hayliel.

“Where did you escape from and what the hell are you holding?” Raphael asks, peering down at the velvet pouch Mira passes to Hayliel.

Unable to hold back, our girl tosses an excited glance in our direction as she unties the string, keeping it closed. “These are the potions Mira made for me to suppress and dampen my power signature. I figured everyone in our group should drink them to give us some added stealth.”

I eye the glass vials she extracts from the bag and notice that Raphael looks like he’d rather pass entirely. “Great idea,” I tell her, taking one. Turning to Mira, I add, “And very cool that you can make these. I’d love to talk once we get through this.”

“Naturally.”

Raphael watches the shimmering blue vial with skepticism. “So, uh, what exactly do these taste like?”

“Like not getting caught by demons and killed before we manage to rescue anyone,” Hayliel says in a teasing tone, but it’s no joke. Once Mira passes the vials around to everyone on our team, including Castiel and Kirach, Hayliel shouts a quick, “Bottoms up!”

The blue liquid is smooth as it goes down my throat, but the taste it leaves behind isn’t pleasant. Like artificial blue raspberry gone wrong.

“That is foul,” Kirach says with a grimace.

“Thank fuck someone else said it,” Raph adds through a cough.

Even Mira shudders, looking at the now empty vial in her hand. “Look, ensuring these have the intended effect is easy, but the taste is never something I’ve been able to figure out.”

“We’ll make that our top priority after all of this is over,” I tell her, half joking. My mind races with different options she could use to make them taste better, but without knowing the full list of ingredients, I can’t be sure if they’d counteract whatever else is inside.

“I’ll hold you to that. Now, these will only last a few hours—eight tops, but probably closer to six.”

Hayliel checks the clock on her slate, and when her gaze meets mine, I know it’s time to make our move. “Let’s head out.”

When Kirach opens the door, we find another angel waiting for us on the other side.

“Are we ready to go?” the unfamiliar angel asks.

He’s dressed in the same armor we’re all wearing, but over it he’s wearing a similar wing jacket to the one we bought Hayliel.

Either he’s a secret Seraphim too, or the poor guy has trouble regulating his temperature. Something tells me it’s the latter.

“You’re on the council,” Hayliel says, stepping forward and eying the newcomer with confusion.

“Darok. I am but a gift from the Archangels, sent to help you achieve your goals.”

Right. As if we needed some random council member to save our friends.

Hayliel sighs, and I feel her frustration flow down our mental pathway. “Well come on then, Darok. Try to keep up.”

Examine the blueprints , they said. It’ll help you , they said.

Except the blueprints we have are clearly outdated since the entrance we’re supposed to be standing in front of is nowhere to be found.

“Dammit!” Hayliel whisper-shouts, letting her fear and frustration seep into the air.

This can’t be it.

Reaching into the bag on my back, I pull out the blueprints and look at them again. Kirach comes up beside me, surveying the paper over my shoulder while Raph does his best to comfort a very frustrated Hayliel.

Darok doesn’t move to help. He just stands there with a smile on his face like we’re not paddling up shit creek with our hands. What the fuck is his deal?

“It should be here,” I mumble to myself, tracing the lines marked into the paper.

There should be a door right here, but instead there’s only a tall sand dune that isn’t marked on the map like all the other ones.

A thought hits me, and I almost keep it to myself, but now isn’t the time to shy away.

“Could they have built this dune to hide the entrance?” I ask Kirach, whose eyes light up as he follows my train of thought.

He studies the pile of sand, then reaches toward a spot that looks perfectly normal to me. “Only one way to find out.”

When his hand makes contact with the sand, it doesn’t tumble to the ground or shift the thousands of grains. It presses in by half an inch, and the dune shudders as a door slides open, revealing the entrance we’ve been looking for.

No one moves for several seconds as we listen for any sign of movement from within.

Finally, when we sense no immediate danger, Hayliel says, “We all know the plan, right? We get Zeke and my parents out while the others distract and destroy as much as they can. We’re short on time, so we can’t stray. Does everyone understand?”

I nod along with the others, a smile threatening to tilt my lips as I watch my firefly take charge. Raphael sends me a look that screams, fuck, she’s hot, isn’t she? and I’d have to agree.

But this isn’t the time for ogling. I tuck those thoughts away until after.

Once we have her parents and Zeke safely secured within the sanctuary, then we can shower our girl with all the love and praise she deserves.

But right now, she needs my head in the game.

And with demons most likely crawling all over this place, I’ll need as much of my focus as possible to keep from converting to the shy, scared little boy who only wants to protect those he loves.

I will not lose focus today.

As silently and swiftly as we can, we make our way through the maze-like hallways en route to what we think—or hope—is where they’re keeping Zeke.

We found two areas on the blueprints that would be perfect for holding hostages.

The first one is at the end of the hall. Let’s just hope we’re not wrong.

A commotion up ahead has my body tensing. Is it coming from the room we’re heading for or one of the doors that branch off the hallway?

A booming, raspy laugh echoes from one of the side doors.

Demons. But how many? My eyes lock with our group as I ponder our options.

We can try to sneak past them, but that means we may need to fight them on our way out.

Is it better to get it out of the way now than try to do it with our friends in tow?

A rock skitters down the hall and smacks into the door. The same door the demons are behind. We all turn to look at Darok, who starts fucking whistling. He stops when he notices us staring at him. “What?”

All fucking hell breaks loose.

Two demons rush into the hall. They barely spare us a glance before attacking. As fast as they are, Kirach is faster. He drops to the ground, sliding between the legs of one beast and thrusting his sunblade up through the demon’s fucking taint, turning him to ash.

The other one doesn’t go down as easily. He’s a brute of a demon, but seven on one is no match. Castiel and Kirach keep him busy with their blows, and when his focus is on them, Mira drives an imbued dagger into his back and twists.

Hot damn. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

We confirm there are no more demons hiding about, then rush to the room at the end of the hall. No sound escapes from behind it, but that doesn’t mean anything. It could just be an empty room.