Nebulous (Order of the Fallen Book 2) Read online

  Nebulous

  Order of the Fallen - Book Two

  Jenna Wolfhart

  Nebulous

  Book Two of the Order of the Fallen Series

  Cover Design by Methyss Digital Artist

  Copyright © 2019 by Jenna Wolfhart

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Also by Jenna Wolfhart

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  About the Author

  Also by Jenna Wolfhart

  Order of the Fallen

  Ruinous

  Nebulous

  Ravenous

  Dark Fae Academy Series

  A Cage of Moonlight

  A Heart of Midnight

  A Throne of Illusions (Coming Soon!)

  Otherworld Academy Trilogy

  A Dance with Darkness

  A Song of Shadows

  A Touch of Starlight

  Protectors of Magic

  Wings of Stone

  Carved in Stone

  Bound by Stone

  Shadows of Stone

  The Bone Coven Chronicles

  Witch’s Curse

  Witch’s Storm

  Witch’s Blade

  Witch’s Fury

  Prologue

  There used to be six of us, but now I was alone. The Order of the Fallen was no more.

  Chapter One

  Erela

  TWO WEEKS EARLIER

  One of the big perks of angelic existence is having a pair of wings that can take you anywhere your heart desires. Unfortunately, the universe decided that fallen angels, on the other hand, wouldn’t be that lucky. We had to rely on our own two feet. Or human vehicles that had been outfitted to operate even through the demon apocalypse, of which there weren’t many. For example, planes weren’t exactly flying through the clouds, not with the shortages of the necessary gasoline to power them. This meant that if we needed to cross the vast ocean, we had to find a boat with sails.

  Of course, that turned out to be easier than you’d think. Surprisingly. Things didn’t tend to be easy here in Lower Realm, the realm of the humans. Instead, things tended to ere on the side of total shitshow. But Samael, who had come over to the states from Ireland, had brought a boat along with him. Not so luckily…demons had stolen it as soon as he’d docked. At the time, he’d been alone and had just let them have at it. But now we needed to get it back.

  I assumed that was where the shitshow part of this scenario would come into play.

  So, the six of us that now made up the new and improved Order of the Fallen stood on the docks in New York City. My best and oldest friend, Lizzie, stood by my side. She’d been thrown down here to Lower Realm by the same jackass demon who had sent me here. Ramiel, our leader, stood just in front with his signature scowl and wide shoulders. Az rounded out the back with Sam and Uriel. He looked just as dangerously delicious as he always did, his dark eyes now pools of black in the darkness. Uriel was sporting his lopsided grin, his long brown hair rustling in the soft breeze. And Sam. I couldn’t even look at Sam without blushing. He and I were so much alike. We both had demon powers inside of us, and…well, we’d shared far more than that.

  With a deep breath, I turned back toward the situation at hand to watch about a dozen demons scurrying like ants across Sam’s old boat. It was an actual yacht with a gleaming black hull, and it must have cost a million bucks back when money had been a useful currency here on earth. It could probably house twenty or more, and it was the kind of thing that would definitely require a crew. The demons, of course, had transformed its beauty into something much less breathtaking than it must have been once upon a time. There were splashes of red across every surface, red that was most definitely not paint. Dirt had built up over the years, and the deck was faded and pockmarked.

  Sam swore underneath his breath. A rarity from the angel of few words.

  “So, I guess the demons thought your boat could use some improvements,” I said, trying to keep my voice light. But, in fact, a kernel of disappointment had seeded in my gut. The thing was an absolute wreck. The boat bobbed in the water, but it was docked. There was no telling if it would sail anymore.

  “She’ll sail,” Sam said, voice firm.

  “No matter,” Ramiel said before clapping a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “We’ll have time to make some repairs if need be. We still don’t know exactly where we’re headed yet.”

  “Yeah, about that,” Lizzie spoke up from beside me. “Erela and I are getting close to finding some answers. Don’t you think?”

  Her question was directed toward me. In the past few days, Lizzie and I had been appointed an important—albeit boring—task that would directly lead to our next steps as an Order. After Berith had opened the portal to hell, our little rag tag team had searched the entire eastern United States for any sign of it or the amulet that could close it. All we found was a pile of old, musty books up north by the Canadian border. A pile of old books might not sound very exciting but said books just so happened to include a full, detailed history of good old departed Berith. We figured there must be some tidbit in there that would help point us in the right direction.

  The problem, of course, was that the books hadn’t been written in any modern human language or in Celestian. It had been written in Old Enochian, a language so ancient that it was rarely ever used anymore. At the Academy, it was considered a dead language. We’d studied some Enochian, sure, but it had been the Classical Enochian. Old Enochian was something else entirely. It had been buried along with the dead.

  I’d spent a lot of time studying languages at the Academy, but the manuscript had been slow to translate. We’d get there eventually though.

  In the meantime, there was no reason why we couldn’t get ready for our inevitable trip across the ocean. We’d all come to the conclusion that Berith probably opened the portal somewhere else. He would have wanted to do it far away from the Order of the Fallen, so that it would take us much longer to close it, and he would have chosen a place that would cause the most chaos. A city, most likely. That didn’t narrow things down much though. There were hundreds of cities in the human realm.

  Or, at least, there used to be. The old human cities were hardly more than ruins now.

  “Good.” Ramiel gave his signature solemn nod. “We need to move out as soon as possible. The longer we wait to make our move, the worse things are going to get.”

  Because an open portal to hell meant one thing and one thing only. Demons. And lots of them. They would swarm into the human realm when they realized the portal was open, partially because the thing had been shut for years. Humanity was already in crisis mode as it was. This world couldn’t take many mo
re demons.

  “So, what’s the plan, boss?” Az asked, shifting closer so that the six of us formed a huddled circle. “How are we going to take the boat?”

  “We’re going to jump into the water, scale the boat from behind, and catch them by surprise.” Ramiel looked to each of us in turn. “We don’t need to kill every last one of them in order to take the boat. Knock them out. Throw them overboard. Take them prisoner. Do whatever you deem best. We just need to get Sam a path to the wheel so he can get us out of these docks and back to Rhode Island.”

  It sounded easy enough, but…I’d quickly learned to expect that nothing would be easy in the human realm.

  Quickly, we all slipped into the freezing water. I shivered, despite the fact that I was part fire demon and mostly immune to cold. Mostly. Not that I was a big fan of my whole cold immunity thing. In fact, it kind of sucked. Being immune was just another reminder of what I was, and I definitely did not want to be part demon. I didn’t want to have that evil churning inside of me. Fire demons had destroyed this world. If my Archangel father hadn’t taken me to Celestia after I’d been born? I could have been one of those demons.

  The murderers. The destroyers.

  Shivering, I pushed through the water. Luckily, we didn’t have to go very far. We reached the bottom of the boat within moments, and my fingers brushed up against the rough hull. Uriel popped up from below the churning water, bobbing along beside me.

  His violet eyes sparkled as he shot me a wink. “You okay, Erela? Or does all this water remind you of the time you provoked a Hydra?”

  I scrunched up my nose in a mock scowl. “Very funny. Does it remind you of when I dropped a bucketful of ice water on top of your head?”

  “Hmm.” He cocked his head. “Actually, no. When did that happen?”

  “Now,” I said with a laugh as I shoved my hands against the water to send a massive splash right into his grinning face.

  If he’d been anyone else, he might have gotten angry. I probably wouldn’t have been too thrilled myself. But Uriel was different. Not just from the other Fallen, but he was different than anyone I’d ever met. Nothing seemed to anger him. And nothing ever seemed to get him down. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. I’d seen his face cloud over once. When talking about Arkas, the Fallen they’d lost many years ago.

  “Erela. Uriel.” Ramiel gave us both a sharp look. As the de facto leader of our group, it fell to him to keep us all in line. Sometimes, I felt kind of sorry for him for that, but secretly, I was pretty sure he enjoyed bossing us all around. “Can you please contain yourself until we’re done taking control of this boat? Honestly. We’re right below them.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him. “Party pooper.”

  His face softened, but only slightly.

  My relationship with Ramiel was…complicated, to say the least. There was no doubt that I had feelings for him, and our shared kisses had made it seem as though he had feelings for me, too. But he was constantly taking his title as boss man so seriously that he pushed and pulled and pushed again. It was like he couldn’t decide whether he wanted to punish me or kiss me. Or maybe both.

  “Come on,” he said, clearing his throat. “Let’s climb.”

  And so we did.

  When we made it to the deck, everything erupted into chaos. The demons spotted us just as we were pulling Lizzie over the rusted railing, her fingernails knocking off faded chunks of paint. There were about a dozen of them, but none of them were armed, and we’d definitely taken them by surprise. Their mouths were open in wide expressions of shock, and high-pitched squeals swirled into the night air. On the other hand, every single one of us were armed to the teeth.

  Grinning, I pulled my twin daggers from the sheaths I kept strapped to my thighs at all times. My fellow Fallen followed suit, and an impressive array of weapons were lifted into the air. Still, the demons screamed and ran straight at us, their dry yellowed hair trailing behind them.

  I came face-to-face with a male demon whose greenish skin matched the color of his teeth. His leg kicked out toward my stomach and I jumped back to dodge the blow. Gritting my teeth, I ducked and swung my dagger toward his right leg. I expected it to land with an ominous crunch that would cause a roll of nausea to go through me. As much as I loved the adrenaline shot of a good fight, I had to admit that I hated the gore that often came along with it. Demon blood? It wasn’t my favorite thing on the planet.

  But, that moment never came. Instead, the demon anticipated my move and slammed his fist straight into my wrist. Pain lanced through my entire arm. My fingers, the traitorous things, loosened my grip on my blade, and it scattered across the wooden deck. Before I could catch my breath, his fist slammed into my other wrist. More pain. More growling. And my second blade joined the first.

  “Much better,” the demon said with a grin, bouncing on his feet as he raised his fists. “Let’s see how you fight without your crutches, Angel.”

  Dammit. I was a good fighter. With weapons. Ramiel had been training me to be better with my fists, but I was still a work-in-progress where that was concerned. I needed my damn blades.

  Wasn’t going to let this demon know that though. If he wanted a fight? I’d give him a damn fight.

  “Go on then,” I said, matching his grin with one of my own. “Bring it.”

  He just grinned, still bouncing on his massive feet. Swallowing hard, I risked a glance around at the fight. All my fellow Fallen members were busy with their own demons. Swords whooshed through the air, fists punched stomachs, and daggers bounced off tiny plates the demons were using as shields. I’d have to deal with this demon myself.

  An idea sparked in my mind. A pretty terrible idea, actually. I might be at a disadvantage on the whole fists thing, but there was definitely one thing I could do to give myself an edge. No, my mind fiercely hissed back at me. You can’t use the fire demon powers. While Ramiel and I had been working on my fighting skills, Sam had been taking me through what it meant to have fire demon blood running through my veins. I’d improved with my fireball aim. Kind of. From a far distance? Well, I sucked ass. But this close? I could totally send this demon screaming in the other direction.

  The only problem was…I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to be embracing these powers. Like I said, fire demons meant murderers, meant destructors, etc, etc. You get the point. They sucked. And I did not want to be one of them.

  But…

  Narrowing my eyes, I raised my fisted hand before me, letting the anger boil in my veins. Heat quickly spread from my core and shot down my arm, sparking every single cell in my body. The demon’s eyes widened, and that irritating toe bouncing finally ceased.

  “You’re a Nephilim,” he said in a whisper just as I hurled the fire at his face.

  If I was the kind of hero I’d always dreamed I would be, the fire would have hit my mark. And then I would have saved all my fellow Fallen before sailing the boat off into the glowing moonset waters. Unfortunately, my life wasn’t that kind of story. The fire ball flew straight up in the air. And then it hurled back down to where every single one of us stood. Toward the demon, yes. But also toward Uriel.

  The fire ball actually fell on Uriel, a fact that made my heart split in two. His eyes widened and his mouth opened into a silent scream. As he jumped off the edge of the boat, he met my gaze. I reached out just as he fell, and our fingers brushed. Tears streamed down my face as I sunk to my knees. I should have known not to use my demon powers. I should have known that no good would come of the fire.

  A strong hand landed on my shoulder. “He’ll be okay. See?”

  Down below in the water, Uriel’s head crested the soft waves. He let out a laugh, shook the water from his hair, and beamed—actually beamed—up at me. “Thanks for trying to keep me warm, Erela! But I think I’d rather stay cold if that’s alright with you.”

  Relief shuddered through me, but it didn’t shake the horrible twisting in my gut. I could have killed him. I could have scarred him beyond reco
gnition. Hell, I could have killed any of them. Any of us.

  “And look,” Ramiel said with a nod in the direction of the fight. “You scared the shit out of the demons. They’re fleeing. The boat is ours now.”

  Yay?

  Chapter Two

  Erela

  “Now that we’ve got this boat, we need to figure out where we’re going.” I plopped into one of the wing-backed chairs in the library. Yes, Lilith had even sorted out a library for her Rhode Island getaway mansion. It was complete with two long walls of built-in oak shelves packed full with reading material. There was a fireplace at the far end of the room, sandwiched between two floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out at the beach. Scattered throughout the room were several comfy reading chairs with their own little tables and footstools. It reminded me of the library back home, one of the few things I missed about Celestia.

  I felt a twinge in my heart. Even though I’d gladly do everything all over again, and even though I’d choose to fall again if given the chance, there were still things about my situation that made me feel less than fantastic. The fight at the docks had reminded me of that.

  The whole half-demon thing, for one. Sure, I’d learned from Lilith that not all demons are horrible monstrous creatures that want to destroy everything that is good in the world. And Az, with his horrible history, had taught me that there are a heckinbob lot of angels out there who are the absolute worst. So, I knew things were a little bit more complicated than black and white. Logically, I understood that being a demon didn’t mean I deserved to be locked up for the rest of eternity.