Chapter 5
Eutopia had no idea as to how long they were airborne and the solid flump of the ground beneath her bare feet as they landed was just as much of a surprise to her as it had been when she’d been whipped away from it. After holding her arm to steady her, the guard at her side moved behind her to take hold of her wrists once more as Jinn addressed him.
‘Take her inside, Jackson. Put her upstairs for now. Make sure she’s secure and post two on watch, one front and one back.’ Jinn gestured to the tallest of the four guards, who was leaner than the others, with messy light brown hair and similar eyes. ‘Jonathon right outside and Jackson, I want you up top.’ He gave a little grin. ‘Not that I think we’ll be interrupted anytime soon, but nevertheless. I’ll be back.’
Eutopia watched, half in terror and half in awe, as Jinn stepped back from the little group where she stood, made insignificant by the height of the others around her. A strangely muffled creaking started to invade the silence that settled upon them, quiet at first but growing gradually louder. A flash of brilliant white, made all the more radiant by the dull stone of the broken buildings that blended into the deep green of moss and undergrowth surrounding them, left her fixated. Though Eutopia had seen the Angels flying and had just flown with them, she had never seen one actually take flight. A huge wall of feathers barred her vision of the trees and brush that were clustered either side of the worn path they stood on
‘Wow,’ she murmured under her breath, taking in the huge span of the Commander’s wings. She couldn’t help it. Eutopia had never seen anything so terrifyingly beautiful before. Jinn laughed, a cold, mirthless sound, before the taut muscles of his chest flexed and a rush of cool air washed over her face, along with grit from the ground which was stirred in a flurry. It forced Eutopia to close her eyes for a few moments and when she opened them again, he was gone.
‘You heard the Commander,’ Jackson said, sounding amused as he gave Eutopia a little shove and made her stumble towards the building in front. It was the tallest standing structure as far as the eye could see and had at one point, though never in Eutopia’s lifetime, been a ten-storey building in the middle of a very up-market shopping district. Six of those floors had survived the last seventy-five years or so.
Surrounded by the oak and ash trees and claimed by the wild undergrowth it had been the perfect forward-operating-base for the Angels stationed in the Wolds. ‘Jonathon with me, Adrien and Blaze, you’re to stay out here. One take the front and one take the back. I’ll be up top once she’s inside. Seems pretty pointless to me, am I right, Blaze?’ Blaze scoffed, his golden eyes flashing with a glint akin to that of a sword catching the sun and Eutopia knew he’d been the guard Mike had clashed with. Her stomach flipped, sickeningly.
Inside was much cleaner than Eutopia had been expecting. The floor was a worn, smooth stone that she had no name for. It was cool beneath her feet and tiny flecks caught the light on its surface as she was ushered inside, down a small but wide flight of steps into an open space supported by thick pillars of the same stone as the floor and bordered by a myriad of tall windows that had long since lost their glass.
‘This way.’ Jackson tugged her to the left and deposited her into a little room that was devoid of any furniture. A thin, slitted window provided just enough daylight for Eutopia to see by as a solid clunk behind her made her jump and turn around.
‘Sorry, did we startle you?’ a low voice asked, amused. Eutopia could make out the vast shape of Blaze and Adrien framed by the grey metal door that was her only way out of the cell-like room.
‘No,’ she lied, her heart in her throat. Blaze’s golden eyes were yellow as he moved towards her. ‘Shouldn’t you be out the front?’ she asked, sounding braver than she felt as she backed further into the room. There wasn’t really a great deal of space, especially with the two enormous angels squeezed in with her, and for every step back Eutopia took she found Blaze closed the distance. In the blink of an eye, he was beside her and her back was pressed against the smooth stone of the wall behind, her hands still bound behind her were crushed between her body and the cold stone. The window was directly above her the long, thin slit letting the gentlest of breezes blow through, caressing the top of her head as Blaze began to trail his fingertips along her cheek.
‘I don’t think we’ll be going outside just yet, will we, Adrien?’ Blaze said with a grin.
‘The air’s sweeter in here,’ Adrien agreed as he crowded further into the room. She could feel their breath crawling slowly over her skin.
‘Get away from me,’ Eutopia growled and her eyes blazed. With the solid frame of Adrien pressed against one side of her and Blaze close against the other, she had nowhere to go as a forearm rested across her chest.
‘I know this is an entirely new concept here, this whole business of arrest, but I’ll put it in simple terms for your simple human mind. You cannot leave until we say so.’ Blaze’s hand moved to curl a thick, dark lock of Eutopia’s hair around his finger as his wrist rested heavily on her shoulder and his arm still barred her way. ‘We give the orders. So if I were you, I’d do everything we tell you to do and get acquainted with the locals.’ His yellow eyes glinted with amusement as he looked over at Adrien. ‘Am I right?’ he asked.
Adrien’s hand grabbed at the girl’s chin, her cheeks squeezed between his fingers and thumb. His eyes were an icy blue that reminded her of the Commander’s, cold and unfeeling, and his light brown hair, much like Jonathon’s, fell in disarray around his ears as he tilted his head down to Eutopia’s. His fingers were pressed hard into her face, causing her lips to pucker. His smiling mouth was only inches away from hers.
‘You’re right indeed. It goes against everything in our nature to leave you here still breathing, so you’d better make sure it’s worth our while.’ Adrien’s lips were so close to Eutopia’s that she thought he was going to kiss her. Her cheeks were silently protesting at the blood being squeezed from them and her teeth were digging painfully into the inside of her mouth. She squirmed a little fearfully. The door clicked open which caused all three of them to turn their attention to Jonathon.
‘Commander’s back,’ he said, taking in the fingers tight around Eutopia’s chin. ‘Jackson said you’d better get outside.’ Eutopia found her head flung backwards, causing it to strike the wall behind with enough force to make her wince as Adrien and Blaze stepped outside without a backward glance. She found herself rolling her eyes as a sigh escaped her and she sank back against the wall.
‘Please, I don’t need to hear whatever it is you’ve got to say.’
Jinn blinked in surprise, his large frame practically blocking out what ever light could filter through the doorway with his large frame. He took a moment to recover himself.
‘I’ve got no idea what my… men… have said to you, but you’ll be here until we have what we need from you. No harm will come to you.’
‘Well maybe you should have passed that message on to your ‘men’?’ Jinn took a step inside and placed a plate of bread and cheese down on the floor, along with an open flask. His dark eyes flickered for a moment and seemed confused as they lingered on her face, but he turned without a further word and closed the door tight behind him.
Eutopia was at the door in an instant. It was as solid as it looked and with her hands still secured behind her back she wouldn’t have managed to do much anyway.
‘What’s been happening?’ Jinn demanded. His eyes were a bright crimson as he glared at the other Angels gathered before him. ‘How is it that you ended up in the same room as our prisoner?’
‘Adrien and I thought we should just let her know what was going on. No one in the Wold has ever been arrested before. Death is all these people know,’ Blaze offered, shrugging his shoulders in a blasé way.
‘And just exactly what is going on?’ he asked and was answered by silence. ‘Exactly. You don’t actually have any idea. I am the Commander. I command. I rule. Got it? And if any of you so much as look at her again without my permission, let alone touch her,’ his words were slowly enunciated, dripping with danger and the sudden snap hiss of the half-drawn Alastor at his side made all four Angels shift uncomfortably. Nothing else was needed. Jonathon took up his position by the door as the other three left through the front of the building to carry out their original orders.
‘Give her an hour with that food. Then I’ll question her.’ Jinn sheathed Alastor, but his fingers lingered on the pommel that beat like a faint heart in his hand.
‘Should I untie her?’ Jonathon asked.
Jinn shook his head, a tiny smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
Those sixty minutes were the longest Eutopia had ever endured. What was it they wanted from her? Surely they couldn’t have guessed what Horace had been planning meticulously for as long as she could remember? It was the not knowing that was the worst thing really, and the terrifyingly close proximity of the Angels that she had suddenly began to make a habit of. Eutopia had felt the strength in Adrien’s fingertips as they squeezed at her cheeks, probably with very little effort. The emotionless glaze to their cold, unfeeling eyes made her shiver. Alone in who-knows-where with five of Them made her hold out very little hope on leaving with her life. But then her mind kept on repeating the same question.
What did they want to know?
Obviously they would have to keep her alive until then. And after that? What use would a poxy, insignificant human be to them?
She didn’t really want to find out.
After turning her back on the door and desperately scrabbling at the handle with her fingers, she had given up when the wire loops that secured her wrists began to bite painfully into her wrists.
When Jinn returned it was to find her slumped in the corner nearest the window. The flask was on its side, the water it had contained puddled around the plate. One of his fingers slipped beneath her chin, tilting her head carefully to one side and then the other.
‘I said you would not be harmed,’ his dark eyes narrowed as he noticed the bruises on both her cheeks where Adrien had grabbed her face. ‘I will talk to my men.’ His fingertips echoed Adrien’s earlier grip, though he applied little pressure. Lifting his hand brought the girl easily to her feet as she followed the upward motion, half afraid that to resist him might result in her head being wrenched from her neck.
‘You’re thirsty. Hungry too, no doubt.’
Eutopia’s eyes, still flickering with an angry flame, were drawn to the small metal flask she had knocked over in her struggle to drink without the use of her hands.
Jinn produced something with his free hand; another flask, smaller than the first, but Eutopia could see the drops of water glistening on the rim as he flipped the stopper off with his thumb. He held it up to her lips, tantalizingly close enough for her to see her own distorted face reflected back at her from a tiny bead of moisture clinging to the top. Eutopia knew if she flicked out her tongue she would feel the cool wetness of that little droplet. But she also thought there had to be a catch, and there was.
The flask was tipped towards her mouth so that the smallest amount of water, barely even enough to moisten her lips, crept slowly over her tongue. Then Jinn pulled it back. His hand left her chin to replace the stopper and the flask was set down on the stone floor with a soft chink.
‘When you’ve told me what I need to know, you can have more. What is being planned in the Wolds?’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Jinn grinned, mirthlessly.
‘I wasn’t born yesterday.’
‘You weren’t born at all, if my understanding of your kind is correct. But still, I don’t know what you mean.’
‘What is it that’s being planned? We know something’s going on and we cannot allow it to pass.’
‘The last thing we planned was what we were taking to Market Square from the farm. We only have a small cart, so we have to be quite selective.’
Jinn stared, incredulous, at the girl. Though he had stepped back a few inches from her, his arms folded across his imposing chest, he could see she was trembling. If it wasn’t for the fact she had positioned herself in a corner he would have thought her legs would struggle to hold her up. But her head was raised high, her dark hair gleaming in the thin beam of sunlight that played through the tiny window and her eyes, such a startling sapphire colour, were hard and defiant. She was afraid, but she was strong.
He admired that, though he had a job to do.
His arm extended and his fingertips very deliberately closed upon each faintly blossoming bruise left there by Adrien’s hand.
‘I am not playing games.’
‘I doubt I could play anything with my hands behind my back,’ she retorted.
‘Your life is at stake here. Does that mean anything to you?’ He was ever so slightly disturbed by the lack of response. The girl remained still and silent, wincing only a little at the sharpness of his fingers upon her fresh bruises. ‘Your family will be missing you.’
Jinn caught the glimmer of something deep in her eyes. He smiled, inwardly.
‘I bet even now they’ll be weeping over the absence of your body. How will they ever grieve for you properly, not knowing where you may be?’
It was cruel but it sparked something inside Eutopia.
‘Tell me what it is I want to know. What are you planning in the Wolds? Don’t make them suffer for your silence. What were you doing outside the night I saw you?’
Her answer took them both by surprise.
Eutopia spat at him and then flinched back as though expecting him to strike her. With her eyes closed she didn’t see Jinn’s fists clench at his sides before he wiped the spittle from his face. His own eyes blazed red, his jaw set as he struggled to contain his anger. He turned away, leaving the girl still bound and trembling in the corner.
He had all the time he needed with her. He wouldn’t push it now as it would more than likely end in a result unsatisfactory to them both.