Guarding the Angel

Chapter 14

All of the air is knocked from my lungs as I slam into the cave wall. I hear a faint ringing sound in my ears and everything slides back and forth for a moment before coming back into focus.

Latif runs up to me and ties my hands together  with a rope. The rope is slimy and smells like grease.

"This rope is enchanted so all of your powers can't be accessed," Latif explains. "I could kill you now, but someone wants to see you. Once he's done with you, your fate will be far worse than anything I could come up with."

Latif then ties a gag around my mouth and sticks a bag over my head. He leads me forward, in a direction I didn't see any exit. Nevertheless, we don't stop.

For the next hour or so, I'm prodded along with a stick as the pelicans fly along, making happy popping sounds. The light outside of the bag around my head increases and I start to smell greenery. Finally, we come to a stop.

"Now, we fly!" Latif yells, shoving me forward.

I free-fall for what feels like at least ten minutes. Instead of smashing into a body of water or a bunch of pointy rocks, I land on something soft and squishy. I bounce a couple of times, trying to figure out what this surface is. 

Wind whooshes past my head as the substance beneath me constantly shifts. I crawl forward. Suddenly, my hands meets empty air. I try to reverse my direction, but too much of my weight is forward. I continue to tip forward, hands finding nothing but air.

 Something grabs the back of my shirt. "You don't have the honor of ending your own life," Latif says as I'm dragged backwards. My shirt is released.

I sit back and grit my teeth together while trying to still my shaking hands. The moment after I finally regain some composure, the wind stops and I lurch forward. "We've arrived," Latif says grandly, grabbing a hold of my bound hands and leading me forward. 

As I'm dragged along, I listen for the pelicans, but they have either learned how to be perfectly silent and well-behaved or they have left. 

"Kneel," Latif demands, coming to a halt and pushing down on my shoulders with all of his weight.

I sink to my knees and the bag is pulled off of my head. At first, all I see is blinding light. Then, my eyes begin to adjust and I start to make out shapes. A silhouette of a large chair with wings takes form. I blink several times and then I realize that the large chair with wings is actually a throne. The wings belong to the young man sitting on it.

"Your majesty, I have brought you the mortal stupid enough to fall for your brother's charms within twenty-four hours. She is powerless in the realm of---" Latif begins.

The young man on the throne raises a hand. Latif bows his head and is silent instantly. "Thank you, General Latif," the young man says. His voice comes out low. Each one of his words is said slowly, with great gravity. "I will deal with things from here. You are dismissed."

Latif bows and exits the room. Without the weight of Latif's hands on my shoulders, I leap up and dash for the door. 

"Stop," the young man demands.

I freeze in place, unable to move. 

"Turn back around," he says.

My feet move against my will, spinning me until I am facing the young man. He stands up from his throne and slowly glides over to me. He stops before me and stares at me. I'm mesmerized by the deep purple color of his eyes. He raises a hand and reaches for my face. He lets his hand hover an inch above my face for a moment and then he moves it back again.

"Why do you mortals fall for my brother so quickly?" he asks.

Since the gag is still in my mouth, I can't answer him. The question seems rhetorical anyways since the young man continues to go on with his soliloquy. 

"Your feeble mind only saw the beauty of my brother's form. You were undoubtedly transfixed by his black wings. To keep your life, all you would have had to do was to resist succumbing to my brother so quickly. If you only held the morals your kind goes on about so much, none of this would have happened."

Somewhere in the middle of the young man's speech, I begin inching backwards. He's so caught up in the sound of his own voice, that he doesn't notice that the distance between the two of us is growing. Whenever he looks back at me, I freeze and try to make my expression as blank as Cloud's. 

"Tell me, why did you let your desires ruin everything?" the young man demands, stepping towards me. 

Once again, I still can't say anything because of the gag. 

"Ha, so pathetic. You don't even have a voice anymore." His words lack inflection and his gaze is passive.

In one smooth motion, he reaches inside of the flowy jacket he is wearing and unsheathes a sword. The blade gleams silver as the light bounces off of it. Then, it is plunged straight through my chest.