Tempest and Steel - Caim and Veda (Book 2): Delta Underground Operatives by S.W. Clarke

Author:S.W. Clarke [Clarke, S.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-13T23:00:00+00:00

I couldn’t extend my wings in the cave’s mouth. I stepped half-crouched with my feet apart, straddling the water lapping in as I walked on the rock edges until I’d reached the edge of it. Here the cave opened up, extending deeper in still. I stepped onto the sand and straightened, unsheathing my blade but leaving it unextended.

I listened. No sound returned to my ears except the water and the echo of its passage in and out. Farther in, a cave wall stared back at me; the tunnel took a sharp turn.

I moved forward on slow, silent feet—a skill Veda had taught me, though I’d never admitted it to her—until I was nearly at the turn. It still wasn’t wide or tall enough for my wings to extend, which always made me uncomfortable. They had been my original, best defense—and my last—against whatever I faced.

Without them, I was just a man with a sword.

The tunnel curved left here. I pressed up against the cave’s cold wall and peeked around the curve. The tunnel only continued on, empty, but I saw a glow against the wall.

This was the right place. And I had no choice but to go deeper in.

I came around the corner, both hands on the grip of my unextended blade, and took slow steps forward, keeping silent. The glow grew as I neared it, and I sensed I would find whatever I was looking for at the end of this passage.

I came to it, and I had one glimpse of a dead-end room with a brilliant bloom at the center before my vision was blasted with white, searing light.

Fuck. A winged surprise was right.

A blade rang in my ears, and in my blindness, instinct took over. I extended my blade with a flick. My sword came up just in time to block a swing that would have taken my head off my shoulders.

The two blades hissed when they met. The other was coated in flames. Through my almost-blindness I could see them licking at the metal, the heat off them almost scalding.

With a grunt, I shoved the blade back. My wing came up by instinct, wrapping around my head just in time to deflect another blow from the flaming blade. It clanged and hissed, jarring me from my wingbones right through my skeleton.

I leapt into a sidelong roll, my wings shielding me until I came up to a crouch facing the doorway I’d been standing in.

My sight was coming back. A white-robed figure stood six feet away, his sword a length of flickering light. His pale skin was lit from below, blue eyes enormous on me. The halo of blond hair around his head looked like someone had affixed a million strands of sinuous gold thread.

Behind him, his pearlescent wings were half-extended like a bird ready to strike.

“Malakhim,” I growled.

He was of the lowest order of the angels. Still divine. Still a pain in my ass.

“Fallen.” He swept the sword out, its tip pointed at the glowing plant growing at the center of the cave.

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