Page 81 of Feathers and Scales

She glanced back as if sensing his posture.

He dropped his hand.“You got this.”

00:00:10

Turning back to the task, she followed a cord with her fingers. Three wires met her careful consideration. She bent a white one between her index finger and thumb. She exhaled and lifted her blade to place it under the wire. “This one.”

“Yeah,” Simon whispered. He took an abrupt breath and closed his eyes.

Daxton clenched his jaw.

00:00:01

Izzy swiftly yanked the knife up.

Izzy opened her strained eyes.

00:00:01

We’re alive!

Her long exhale joined Daxton’s and Simon’s in the underground garage.

Daxton tensed at her side. “Someone’s here.”

A shadow shifted in her periphery. She whipped to the right. Daxton had already positioned himself between her and the ominous figure.

The male Archfiend, shrouded in baggy tan robes, stood far enough away that Izzy could barely make out his blotchy skin. His tucked-back wings hung like melted plastic ligaments.

He wasn’t the same Archfiend who’d attacked her.

Energy saturated the air. Indigo light surrounded them; a powerful barrier to keep them trapped. The hair at the back of her neck stood on end.

The Archfiend brought his hands together in a slow clap with an enunciated back end. The familiar sound tugged at her memories.Daxton moved as if to attack, but Izzy grabbed his arm out of curiosity, halting him.

“I’m so very disappointed in you, Isi.” The Archfiend’s guttural voice echoed in the parking garage. “I see you have learned nothing from me. Caring for this man has led you straight into a trap.”

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Ah, yes.” The Archfiend stepped closer to the barrier, the light bathing his features in indigo. His greasy brown hair curling at his nape didn’t move. “I have become quite something to behold.”

His thin lips spread into a knowing smile she’d never forget. One that laugh lines had once framed, but now the wrinkles held a cruel note of malice. His once dusky blue eyes had become black.

It couldn’t be.

“F-Fotios?” Heat built behind her eyes as she stumbled backward. “It—you—you—”

Her mind reeled, not from simple disbelief, but from the sheer impossibility of it within her understanding of Archfiend genesis. Archfiends came from Fallen killing their own kind and siphoning their power. How could Fotios, her cherished Coheart, become one, andafterdeath?

Her scientific brain searched for contradictions, for any logical flaw in the horror before her eyes. A cold dread, born of violated logic, tightened her stomach. Her spirit sought a rational explanation. She had to be hallucinating again. That was it. She struggled to force his image back into her mind. Why would her brain sabotage her? She squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears.This isn’t real. I’m—I’m asleep. Have to be. There’s no way.

That gaping chasm of darkness in her mind threatened to wash over her. Warmth surrounded her, pushing away the shadows. Hands grabbed hers and drew them away from her head. She focused on Daxton’s drawn face and determined gaze.

He gripped her fingertips, bringing sensation to their numbness. “It’s real.”

“Yeah, I see him, too,” Simon said.

Panic shuddered through her. Daxton turned back to their adversary.