Phantom Pain (trilogy)

Leader

Chapter 28: Leader

The first thing that drew my attention was the rustle of wings.

The second was its source. One of my brothers shot down the passage at top speed. She was one of the angels I'd sent after the strange movement. Her heels skidded across the stone as she came to an abrupt stop, her white wings shaking a little from the strain.

“Ramiel!” she gasped. “What is happening?”

Beside me, Dariel began to explain.

“What have you found?” I interjected, cutting off the end of the story.

She shook her head. “No demons.” Her eyes flickered to the corpses on the ground. “The group with Raphael, they came in through a different entrance. The rest are with them.”

Relief spread through my body, and maybe a little disappointment. I no longer had to call the shots. I was no longer the leader.

“What are his orders?” I asked. “Should we rejoin them, move as one group?”

“That-” She swallowed. “That is the problem. He-he is not there.”

I didn't understand.

“What does that mean?” One of the other angels asked the question for me.

“They are leaderless, unsure,” she explained. “They do not know where he has gone. There was no confrontation, no way he could have been injured.”

“Raphael is missing?” I asked.

Ripples of uncertainty made their way through the group.

There was no time for this. I struggled to regain hold of the situation. “No matter. If he has been captured, me must move on. All will become clear when every single demons has been snuffed from existence!” I sucked in a breath, eyes traveling over as many faces as I could manage. “Take me to them. We will move as one legion.”

Gavyn and I were picked up and carried to the nearest bridge. At first I was confused. This was not the way they had departed. Once we exited the hall, I understood. The area we entered was identical to the one we'd left, except higher. The doors we entered through were at floor level like the ones through which the demons had come. The passage was equally large.

My brother flew ahead, back towards the entrance. Just as it had in the lower hall, the space ended in a set of steep stairs. This was where the rest of our legions clustered. Worried murmurs echoed, then slowly quieted as they noticed our approach.

Coming to a stop so that I faced all ten thousand, or at least those I could see, I spoke. “I need someone to tell me what happened.”

A coarse of voices erupted all at once, but after a few repeated questions I got the gist of it. They'd scoured the mountain, but the only other entrance they'd been able to locate was an identical arch, higher on the same side of the mountain. That was where they'd entered. Much to my annoyance, there was argument as to when exactly they'd lost Raphael. Some said it was before they'd even gone into the cave. Some said it was before the shaking. Hoel argued fervently that he had vanished during the earthquake.