Broken Hearts: Kaleigh's Revenge (Broken Wings Series) Read online

  I pulled from Gabe’s arm to nod at Cameron. “Kay, I will help Cam do it. You just sit here with Bridget.”

  He walked with Cam around to the back of the statue and I sat next to Bridget, who was sobbing loud. I wrapped my arms around her and held her while we both cried.

  She finally spoke up. “Kale killed my brother Eddie. He came into our home and just brutally killed him. He had no reason to do it. That was his best friend and he murdered him. Now this happening with Lerza—I don’t know how much I can take before I go insane.”

  “Hey… Do you remember when we were nine and we tried to steal flowers from Lerza’s yard? He came out and yelled at us. But not even five minutes later, he said we could take as many as we wanted.”

  She looked at me and we both laughed. “Yes I do. I was so afraid he was going to turn us into fairy dust.”

  “I remember you freaking out,” I said with a nod. “But, see, I got you to laugh. We need to remember our love ones during happy times. Your brother is watching over you right now, he is going to protect you, just as my parents are protecting Cam and I. So let’s stop thinking about death and think about life, because we still have a long road ahead of us. We need to find and save Cordelia. Can you do that?”

  She nodded as we watched Cam and Gabe carry Lerza’s body. About 10 minutes later they came back and told us it was done.

  “So, do you all think we should wait here for Dean and Daniel? They should be here shortly.”

  We all agreed to sit and wait for them. I let them all get some sleep behind the trees while I looked out for any intruders. Seeing what those mutant creatures could do frightened me, but if we all used our powers and protected each other, we could win. We needed to win. We needed to survive.

  Chapter Ten

  Dean

  On our way to the castle, Daniel and I witnessed more deaths. We saw a pack of wolves demolish a clan of fallen angels. Even though I wanted to help, drive the blade of my sword into the dogs’ skin, I knew that it would only get me killed and Cordelia needed me—I couldn’t die yet. We hid behind a tree and watched the massacre play out. The group was laughing and having a good time together, despite the war that was going on around them. They weren’t welcome on either side, so they weren’t part of the battle; which was why I was confused as the wolves leaped out of the bushes. Why did Amelia want to hurt them? They weren’t fighting her.

  I could hardly blink before the wolves attacked, ripping the fallen ones limb from limb. They hadn’t seen it coming and had absolutely no chance to defend themselves.

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I looked away from the gruesome scene and listened to the mix of screams and growls.

  When the wolves were gone and the air grew silent, I took a deep breath as Daniel and I peered around the tree. I hung my head at the sight. Heads, arms, legs, feet, and organs were strewn about the ground. After a moment of silence, where I prayed that an Earth Fairy would come upon the dead bodies and make them one with the Earth so they did not die in vain, Daniel put his hand on my shoulder and we continued our journey.

  “Dean, are you sure you want to do this; just storm into the castle?”

  “Yes, I do. I don’t want any more deaths on my hands. This is what I have to do, even if it will be the death of me.” The closer we became to the castle, the angrier I got as I saw even more mayhem and destruction.

  “You know, sometimes I wish you didn’t try and be the hero. It kind of get on my nerves.”

  We both laughed, but then I sobered. “If I die, I want you to help Cordelia rule this country.”

  “Of course I will, but you will not die anytime soon. I won’t have that.”

  We walked in silence, and then I started to feel very sleepy. Before I knew what was happening, I blacked out; Daniel’s shocked face being the last thing I saw.

  “Dad, wake up. We don’t have much time.”

  I sat up to see I was looking at my beautiful daughter. “Cordelia, what are you doing here? Where am I?” I smiled, realizing what she’d just said. “Did you just call me Dad?”

  She giggled lightly. “Yes, Daddy. I’m in your dreams. I needed to talk to you before you stormed the castle. I need to warn you of what’s going on.”

  I grabbed her up into my arms and practically sang inside my head: my daughter is alive! “Are you okay? Has she hurt you?”

  “I’m okay, Dad. I’m just a bit beat up and strapped to a table. Zane and True come in to bite me occasionally; they said something about turning me into a vampire. But I don’t think it’s working, even though it hurt really bad.”

  I was growing angrier by the second. “They will pay for that,” I seethed. “I wish I didn’t give you away, Angel, but you see why I did it.”

  “Great choice on the wife, Dad,” she quipped. “Your parents must have been proud of you.”

  “Hey now, she wasn’t always evil. Believe it or not, she was shy once.”

  “What happened to make her the way she is?”

  “She was bullied at school, just like you were. The kids would put gum in her hair, trip her, and even dumped ice water on her. I think it scared her for life.”

  She had tears in her eyes. “Dad, what if I turn out like that—evil and power hungry?”

  “You’re way stronger than your mother. I don’t think you could hurt a fly.”

  She nodded. “She knows I’ve visited people in their dreams, so I need to be quick. She has sent wolves, vampires, and even Kale and Anna out to capture you all. I do know Cam escaped, because she took it out on me. They are not going to kill you, but they are to kill everyone else. Her plan is that she needs your wings for the ritual. That’s the last ingredient she needs for the spell. Then after the ritual, she will have all my powers, Dad.” I looked at her in shock as her words sunk in. She chuckled. “Yes, I have your powers as well. If that happens, I’ll never be able to defeat her and save Ithaca. So please, I beg you, stay away from the castle until the blood moon passes in 12 hours. If she cannot perform the ritual, she will have to wait 13 years for the next blood moon. Then we will have time to take her down. Please, Dad, just find everyone, hide out, and wait. I don’t want to lose you either. I love you.”

  I squeezed her tight; I didn’t want to let her go. “Okay, I will do as you wish. I will stay away. I will go find Kaleigh and the gang, and we will lay low.” She looked up into my eyes and I wanted to cry because I knew my baby girl was getting hurt because of me. “I love you, too, sweet girl.”

  “Dean! Come on, Brother. You need to wake the hell up.”

  I woke up as I felt Daniel’s palm connect with my face in a hard slap. “Dude, I was talking to my daughter. She came to me in my dreams and told me to stay away from the castle—that my wing is the last ingredient Amelia needs for the ritual. We have 12 hours, or so, and the blood moon will be gone. Once it’s over, Amelia can’t do the ritual for 13 more years.”

  “Dean, I know she is your daughter, but are you sure this isn’t a trick?”

  I was taken aback by what my brother just said. “Yes. I believe my daughter. She is up in that damn castle, being used as a toy in my wife’s games. So, yes, I will believe what she says to me. If that bothers you, then leave and don’t come back.”

  “Whoa! I didn’t mean to get you upset. At this point, I’m having a hard time believing anyone. Tell me what we need to do.”

  We started to walk to where I told Kaleigh to meet us and explained to him that we needed to find them and hide for 12 hours or more. Then we would storm the castle and fight. I just wanted to keep us all safe and I hoped everyone was okay. On the way there, we ran into Arabella walking on a path. She explained to us that death was all around us. Angels had their wings torn out. Fairies had practically been obliterated. Witches had been disintegrated by lightning bolts. Even some of the gnome servants, who were employed by some of the higher beings to care for their homes had been killed.

  “I’ve seen it, Dean. One of us will die. My vision wasn’t cl
ear, but someone close to us will die.”

  We stopped walking, and I ran my fingers through my hair. “When does this happen?”

  “When the blood moon is at its highest and most powerful. Blood will spill and it’s all over your hands.”

  “So, you are telling us that Dean will murder someone?”

  “I’m not sure, Daniel. My vision wasn’t very clear.”

  “Okay. Enough of this talk. We need to find the rest of the gang.”

  We walked together in silence. When we rounded the castle to come up on the statue I could see people milling about. We started to run that way, because we knew it was the kids. Kaleigh was asleep on the ground with her arm wrapped up. Arabella ran to her to start healing her. I saw Cameron and Bridget all banged up and I walked to the nearby tree to catch my breath and calm my anger. I couldn’t see that right now. I would wait until Arabella healed them all. I stared up at the castle and hoped that this would be over soon and we could move on with our lives. I looked back to see everyone hugging Arabella and Daniel, except Gabe. He was walking over to me. I swear, that boy needs to wear a shirt. Every time I see him, he’s half naked.

  “So word from Daniel is we need to lay low for 12 more hours?”

  “Yes. Then we will storm that castle and take down anyone that gets in our way.”

  “Sounds good to me. I want to end those vampires. I want to drive a stake into their cold hearts.”

  “You do what you have to do.”

  I turned to walk back to my family. We decided that we would hide out behind the statue, so we could be nearby when it was time to attack. I looked up at that statue and the name hit me. I walked closer to get a better look. Abigale Foreman.

  “Yes,” Gabe began, “this is Amelia’s relative. This could explain some of why she turned evil.”

  Cameron walked over to us to join the conversation. “Lerza gave us a history lesson before he died.”

  Shaking my head, I thought of how many of us had died in the last day. All the people around me were luck to be alive, and I was glad to be sitting with them. As we sat and waited for the moment to strike, we shared out tales of our long journey so far. It was going to be a long wait, but it was worth it because we’d get to kill our evil enemies.

  Chapter Eleven

  Kaleigh

  The wait was just about killing me. I didn’t know how long we had left, but it seemed like we had been sitting around for twenty hours. Gabe was pacing around for most of the time, and I felt like slapping him and telling him to sit down. Cameron hadn’t really talked to anyone and wouldn’t explain to me what happened to his arm. Bridget was lost in her own little world—if the wind blew she hit the ground as if we were about to be attacked. Daniel and Dean had been talking among one another, and I decided not to bother them because who knew what they were saying. I watched them talk and I swore they could be twins. Both of them had that dark brown hair, were very muscular, and I will admit, were very attractive. They both had light brown eyes, long eyelashes, and high cheekbones. They looked my way and I turned my head, feeling embarrassed that I was caught staring at them. My eyes lay on Arabella, who was sitting far away from the rest of us. I got up and went to sit beside her. She had been very kind and caring. She had risked her life to save ours. I didn’t realize that she had a healing power, but I was so glad she did.

  “That’s because I love you all, Kaleigh.”

  “I really need to watch what I am thinking about around you.”

  We chuckled. “Kaleigh, can I trust you with something?”

  “Do you really need to ask? Of course you can trust me with anything. You did just save my ass back there.”

  “Okay here goes… if I don’t make it today and you do, please give Dean a message. Tell him that I love him.”

  I was confused at what she was saying. “I think he knows that you love... wait a minute, are you trying to say something? That… OH MY GODS! You and Dean?”

  I think I made her blush. She turned to look at Dean, and I turned as well to see the spark between the two. It was as if the universe was pulling them together. She looked me in the eyes and I saw how happy she was. “Yes. Where do you think he was hiding?”

  Dean came up behind us and scared the hell out of me. “So you told her, Arabella?”

  “Yes. I want the world to know that we love each other.”

  “Whoa,” Gabe exclaimed. “Dean, you and Arabella, huh?” Gabe wrapped his arms around me and kissed my neck. “So glad there is so much love going on with our little group.”

  “Well, I see my husband has moved onto the next witch he saw. Go figure—but watch out, Bella, he might try and keep your son and make you believe he’s dead.”

  We all gasped and jumped back at the sound of Amelia’s voice. As I stared into her eyes, all I could see was pure evil. “Arabella’s pregnant?”

  “You’re a genius, Kay,” she said sarcastically.

  That pissed me off. I didn’t like her calling me Kay. “Don’t call me that! You lost your privilege to call me that the day you turned evil.”

  “Well, since I have you all in one place, let’s have some fun.” She whistled and I saw Kale, Anna, True, Zane, and other creatures show up. The wolves came in from the other side of the castle, howling and snapping their teeth. Then those horrible creatures she created. They were walking like zombies toward us. We all backed up into a circle. Bridget was so scared I could sense her fear. Cameron was ready to go and I knew exactly who he was going for. Gabe leaned over and gave me a kiss on my cheek and I could tell he did it to make Kale angry. He succeeded. Kale practically snarled “How dare you, Gabe? You are my cousin and you go after my ex-girlfriend. Way to have family values.”

  “You’re a funny man, Kale. Are you jealous that I got the girl and you didn’t? It shouldn’t come as any big surprise, considering what an idiot you are.” He squeezed me against him. “I will break every law to be with this girl.”

  Amelia got pissed just then and she started to glow black. She was eyeing Dean. I knew we needed to protect Dean, because if she got him, Cordelia was dead. Just as I was about to step in front of him, our backup arrived. More angels, white witches, fairies, and even fallen angels came up behind us prepared to battle.

  That’s when all hell broke loose.

  I ran toward Kale and shot out a lightning bolt. He dodged and then lunged for me. He landed on top of me and started to choke me. I raised my foot and kicked him between his legs. He jumped up and hollered in pain, and I got up and knocked him in the head. He fell to the ground. I saw a sharp rock beside me and I grabbed it. Not caring what was going on around me, I lifted the rock in the air and I started to slam it down to get my revenge, but someone grabbed my hand and stopped me.

  “Kaleigh, don’t. I know he broke your heart, but do you really want to end up like that? Let him lay there in pain. Cameron needs you. He’s surrounded by Anna and Zane.”

  Gabe was right. I looked over to see Anna on top of Cam, holding him down as Zane was biting into his neck. His screams went right through me and it was as if I felt his pain. I ran so fast, running into wolves and knocking them over with my speed. When I made it to Cam, I kicked Anna in the head and she fell limp to the ground. Zane got up and stared at me with his bright red eyes; blood running down from his mouth. I glanced at Cam and he gave me a thumbs up. I didn’t realize that Zane leaped over Cam and knocked me on the ground. He got hold of my neck and bit down. I screamed and tried to break free, but he was too strong. I tried to fight him, but it was no use. My vision started to blur and before blackness overtook, blood from Zane sprayed all over me and he went limp. The veins in his face greened and his skin sunk in. I got the strength to kick him off me, and when I sat up I saw Bridget standing there with a tree branch. She looked to be in shock.

  “I had to do it to save you.” She staggered back and dropped the branch. “I killed a man.”

  “Bridget, snap out of it. He was going to kill me. You saved my life.
Now, concentrate. We have other lives to save.” I looked around to see Arabella’s force field up. Cameron was blasting creatures with his lightning. I looked at Amelia, who was just standing there, laughing, like all of this was a game. I looked around for Dean, but he was nowhere to be seen. I started to panic and ran to where Daniel was snapping the necks of wolves.

  “Daniel, where is Dean?” I asked in a panic. Daniel knocked me to the side, and I looked up in time to see Amelia blast him with a fireball, followed by a dagger that hit him directly in the chest. My world just stopped. I couldn’t breathe. I watched as Daniel’s body fell to the ground. He was burning, untilGabe and Cameron ran over to snuff the flame. But the sounds of his screams were permanently embedded in my brain. That bitch! I looked at Amelia and I got up to run to her, but Dean appeared in front of me.

  “Kaleigh, don’t. She came here for me. Please, look after my brother. I will give Amelia what she wants.”

  “What about Cordelia?”

  “Gabe knows what to do. Now go. Let me do this.”

  I watched as Dean walked over to Amelia. She had that stupid grin on her face, and I wished I could smack her. I ran to Daniel and grabbed his hand. He was shaking and I knew death was in his future. Arabella was working on him, but it was pointless.

  “Hang in there, Daniel. You can’t die. Please, don’t die.” I looked to see what was left of the creatures were walking back to the castle, and Amelia and Dean were gone. I looked around to see Gabe, Cameron, and Bridget all in tears. They, too, knew Daniel was about to die.

  “Arabella, please attend to the—the…” Daniel coughs, “the other ones. Please, you can’t save me now.” She nodded and walked away.

  I took Daniel’s hand I held it. We all sat there with him in his final moments. To know he was dying because he saved my life... It was a lot, almost too much, to handle.

  “Daniel, I’m so sorry. I don’t want you to die. Please don’t go; you have so much life and love in you.”