Rebellion

“MALLORY.”

Nothing.

“Mallory.”

“Hmm?”

“Mallory, now.”

“What?”

“Something’s...” Castor’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

“I feel it.” Mallory sat up, sliding one of his guns out from beneath his seat as he stared through the windscreen. “There’s one of them out there. Pull over...”

He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence.

There was someone standing in the road.

“Don’t...” said Mallory – but it was already too late, and Castor wrenched the wheel to the left.

ALICE HAD BEEN asleep, of that much she was sure. She had been asleep, and now she was being tipped and tilted and shaken around... Her head cracked against the metal of the wall of the van – or maybe it was the floor. Or the roof. They were rolling. The world turned over and over and over, and they were all thrown about, smashing into the unforgiving metal, into each other, in darkness.

And then it stopped, and there was only the sound of groaning steel and of the van’s engine.

“Alice?” Vin’s voice was shaky.

“I’m fine. I think.” Hers sounded just as bad.

There was a creak, and the sound of glass breaking from the front of the van... or possibly the back. She couldn’t tell any more.

“YOU ALRIGHT?” MALLORY peered at Castor, who had a streak of blood running down the side of his face. His hands were still wrapped around the steering wheel, and his eyes were closed, but he nodded in reply.

“Go,” was all he said.

Mallory’s door had taken the worst of the impact, and was bent in on itself... but it had held. It had held so well that it was never going to open again – but the window had cracked clean across, and it only took one sharp jab from his elbow to shatter it altogether. Broken glass scattered as Mallory hauled himself out through the frame and dropped down onto the grass verge. The figure was still standing in the middle of the road, holding something by its side. A rod, with a chain attached to it – and as Mallory straightened up, it let the chain drop. At the end, swinging like a malevolent pendulum, was a large, spiked metal ball.

It had been a while since Mallory had seen Phenex.

He could have done with it being a little longer.

ALICE FELT A hand on her sleeve in the darkness.

“That your arm?” asked Vin.

“Believe me,” she said, pulling herself into a sitting position, “if it wasn’t, you’d be the first to know.”

There was the sound of someone moving around, then a thud... then another thud, and the van filled with daylight. Alice blinked as her eyes tried to adjust to the sudden glare and her head pounded. Once she could focus, she realised that the thuds had been Pollux kicking the back door of the van open, and that he was now standing outside, looking back in at them. Florence had huddled as close to Xaphan as she could: both of them were pale and battered and Xaphan had a fresh cut above his eye... but there was something about the look on his face that Alice did not like. It was more than self-satisfied; it was almost triumphant.

And that was when she understood. This wasn’t an accident.

This was an attack.

MALLORY ROLLED HIS head first to one side, then the other. Phenex just stood and watched him, the lethal- looking spiked ball swinging gently back and forth beside his knee.

“So, do you want to make the morningstar joke, or shall I?” Mallory shouted at him, waving his gun at the Fallen’s weapon. Phenex sneered. He’d never had much of a sense of humour.

“Flail. It’s a flail. Not that it’ll make much difference what it’s called once I’ve caved in your head with it, will it?” The voice that answered him was gravelly.

Mallory rolled his eyes. “I thought it was funny,” he muttered, sizing up his opponent.

ALICE GROANED AS she straightened up, and – looking past Pollux and seeing Mallory facing down the figure in the road – moved to step around the open door.

“No, you don’t,” Pollux said, never taking his eyes off his prisoners. “That’s Phenex. And however happily you might have dealt with Murmur, Phenex is out of your league.”

“Out of my league?” She made sure every single word conveyed her displeasure.

“Leave this to us.” Pollux nodded towards the front of the van, where Castor had finally clambered out. He took one look at Mallory and then walked around the van to them, his baton already in his hand. Blood was smeared across his face like war-paint. He peered around the side of the door and into the van, then glanced up again – first at Mallory, then at Pollux. “Go. I’ve got them.”

Pollux didn’t hesitate. He shook out his wings and, opening them wide, swooped over to land behind Mallory on the road.

Castor rubbed at the blood on his face, then peered into his hand and grimaced. “Ouch.”

“Are you okay?” Alice stared at him, feeling her fingers prickle.

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On this.”

Alice turned towards the figures on the road. She could see Mallory, and Pollux a step behind him – and the others. There were three Fallen there now, squaring up to the angels: the one Pollux had called Phenex, and two more behind him. All three were dressed in the same dark clothing and heavy boots – although only Phenex was built like a tank.

“Twelve, right?” she asked Vin, who wrinkled his nose in the direction of the Fallen.

“Phenex is. He’s... not very nice.”

“Out of my league. I got that, thanks.”

“No, really. Don’t take that the wrong way: Pollux isn’t just being a dick – not this time, anyway. Phenex is... yeah.” He blinked at the figure with the ball and chain. “You see that thing in his hand? It’s a flail. A big, heavy metal ball covered in big, sharp metal spikes and attached to a big, heavy metal chain...”

“I’m seeing a pattern.”

“Right. I’ve seen him take Descendeds’ heads off with that thing. Whole heads, clean off. Well. Not clean, exactly...”

“You do have a point, don’t you Vin?”

“My point? My point is you stay out of Phenex’s way.”

“And the other two?”

“Them?” He squinted at the two Fallen standing behind Phenex. “I couldn’t tell you from here. But if they’re hanging around with Phenex, that tells you something about how much they like hitting people with things. Oh, look.” He pointed to the Fallen on the left. “A baton. What a surprise.”

“Problem?” hissed Castor – spinning his own baton around his wrist, glaring at Vin.

“No problem.”

“Good.”

“I’m just going to...” Vin ticked his head towards Mallory and Pollux and stuffed his hands into his pockets, looking for all the world like he was going for an afternoon stroll as he stepped out from behind the shelter of the van and took his place beside the other angels.

“You have something of ours.” Phenex eyed Vin, Pollux and Mallory as they formed a line between him and the van. “We’ve come to collect.”