monsters that roamed the sandy lands, attacking anyone who ventured into this barren domain.
I needed to rest. I limped over to a red rock and sat down on it. If I’d been at full power, I’d have healed myself too. But as it was, I had to settle for a few moments of peaceful silence.
My head was so heavy. I must have dozed off. I nearly toppled off the rock when a loud, monstrous roar jolted me awake.
I spotted something through blurry eyes. Something hazy. It growled loudly, like a tiger. It looked like a beast coming across the desert.
But when it got close, I saw it was not a beast at all. It was a man riding a motorcycle.
He parked beside my rock. “What are you doing all the way out here?”
He was wearing all leather. In the hot desert. My tired mind tried to process that information.
“Do you need help?” the man asked me.
He dipped his chin, and bright blue eyes peered at me over the tops of large sunglasses.
“My name is Raven.”
Raven like the beasts covering the ground. Something about him felt off. He just seemed wrong.
“You don’t look so great. You should come with me.” He patted the seat of his motorcycle. “I’ll help you.”
Those eyes. I finally realized what was wrong with them. They were the eyes of a hunter closing in on its prey. Could this man be one of the hunters who were on a mission to exterminate every single last descendant of the Immortals?
“You can’t stay out here.” He stepped toward me, hand outstretched.
He was too slow. He didn’t move like someone who could take down an Immortal. I listened to the thump of his heart. To the uneven rasp of his breath; he had the faulty lungs of someone who’d smoked a few too many cigarettes in his lifetime. He wasn’t an Immortal hunter at all. He didn’t even have magic. He was human. And from the looks of him, he was nothing but a common criminal.
His eyes swept over my body, assessing it. He was calculating my worth. He was tallying every feature, adding them up to the final sum. His gaze locked on to my wings—and widened. He thought he’d just hit the jackpot.
“A storm is coming,” he said as smoothly as one could with blackened lungs. “I’ll take you someplace safe.”
The sky was quiet. There was no storm coming. He was the storm.
“I am not going anywhere with you,” I said firmly.
He grabbed for me.
I dodged. But I was too slow.
I’d handled Colonel Holyfire, an angel, with ease, but that was then and this was now. Right now I was too weak. Too weak to fight a human. Oh, how this angel had fallen!
I managed to free my arm from his grasp, and then I ran.
Something hit me in the back. I reached for it, pulling it out. A tranquilizer dart. And judging from the way the ground was suddenly swimming beneath my feet, a strong one.
“Stop,” I said groggily as the man cuffed my hands and feet. “I’m not going with you.”
His greedy grin dominated my view. “Yes, you are, sweetheart. And you’re going to make me very rich.”
Something hit me hard in the head, and I blacked out.
When I came to, I was locked in a cage. And I was in agony.
The scum Raven had broken my wings so I couldn’t fly away. My hands were cuffed together. Metal chains linked my ankles. He stood out there, watching me through the bars, admiring his handiwork.
“Release me at once,” I growled.
He shot me a crooked grin. “You aren’t in any position to be making demands, sweetheart.”
Raven had a homemade cigar wedged between two fingers. Whatever he was smoking, it was positively rancid. The foul-smelling magic herbs made my empty stomach flop and my head pound, like a drill was boring through my skull. It hurt so much, I thought I might throw up.
But I swallowed down the rising bile in my throat and met my captor in his beady little eyes. “When I get free—”
“You don’t get it,” he cut in. “You won’t get free. Not ever. You are too weak to free yourself, and no one will be coming for you. You’ve obviously gone rogue from the Legion, or you’re a dark angel. Honestly, I don’t give a damn. All I care about is that some angel-like being practically fell into my cage. Do you even understand what that means?”
“Money,” I growled.
He countered my growl with