Savage Wings: Book Three of The Whitechapel Chronicles

Chapter 41

The pounding on the gallery door was incessant now, like a nightmarish cacophony of tribal drums beating again and again and again.

But it was the silence in the annex that bothered me more. How could silence be so deafening? How could silence make you want to clap your hands over your ears so you never had to hear it again?

I'd expected thunderous anger. I'd expected great tornados of fury but instead, Michael said nothing although the air crackled, invisible sparks of tension flashing all around us.

"Will you swear?" I said.

Garrick gripped my arm, his fingers digging in hard. "Megan, stop this! Stop this now! You don't know what you're doing!"

Weird little strangling noises were coming from his throat as if somebody were throttling the life out of him and in his eyes I saw everything I hadn't wanted to see – confusion, anger, disappointment, hurt. I'd known it was coming, of course, but that didn't mean I was okay with it. I didn't want him to look at me like that, I didn't want to feel the weight of his disapproval, after all this time, but I'd had no choice. It had to be this way.

"I do," I said. "Believe me, I do."

"If you did then you wouldn't do this. You wouldn't even contemplate doing this. Do what you came here to do, Megan. Free him and let's end this, once and for all."

"Garrick, I am doing what I came here to do." My gaze flickered to Michael who was watching our exchange with solemn interest, not a single scrap of emotion on his face. "I came here to protect Lucius. I came here to protect what's mine."

"Megan," Michael said, calmly – too calmly. "The boy is not yours. You have no claim over him."

Heat fizzled dangerously under my skin as I fought the urge to scream.

"Why?" I said. "Because I didn't give birth to him? Or because I didn't conjure him up in some celestial cooking pot and breath him into existence? Is that what constitutes parenthood these days, Michael? I couldn't give a damn where he came from or how he came to exist, because I claim him. He's mine and I will do whatever it takes to protect him, because it's pretty obvious that no one else is going to."

"I understand your feelings – "

"You understand nothing!" I cut him off, my voice echoing around the annex. "If you did, then you would never have created me and just left me to figure it all out by myself. If you did, then you would never have made me become this."

"Believe me, if there had been another way ..."

"If there had been another way, you wouldn't have needed me at all and I probably wouldn't exist, so don't give me that crap about how you understand! You did this for you, Michael. No one else."

"On the contrary, I did this for everyone but me. I did this for our Father."

"Your Father, not mine."

His eyes narrowed. "Tread carefully now, child."

"Why?" I snarled. "Why should I? After everything I've had to endure and you don't even have the balls to admit why. You can't even be truthful. Even now after everything I've done to find you."

The banging was getting louder, only now I wasn't so sure whether it was the demons trying to get in or the angel trying to get out. Frustration hammered at my temples, anger firing up my veins.

"One thing I will never do is lie to you, Megan. I will never flatter you with falsehood. I will never tell you what you desire to hear the most if it is a lie. Truth can be the ugliest of things at times. It can shatter hearts and minds. It can even twist and destroy souls. But whatever the consequences, I will always speak nothing but truth to you. I am not my brother." He sighed heavily, almost as if it pained his chest to do so. "Trust me when I say that I did not do this lightly. I did not do this without care or sensitivity. I did this because I had no choice left. I did this to protect all our Father's creations from the darkness that Lucifer wants to unleash on this world. And rest assured that is what he shall do if you do not complete the task you were created to do."