The Toren: Fate & Fury (The Toren Series, Book 5): The Toren

By Lola StVil

*****The final battle is here and blood will flow…******

The team is still trying to cope with the sudden and shocking actions of their leader, Summit. They are deep in chaos and grief but ready or not, evil is here. This battle isn't like any they have ever faced. Their loyalty will be tested. Their strength and courage will be challenged. Yet no matter what dangers may come, like the Noru and the Guardians before them, the Toren will rise to the occasion… 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lola StVil
• Release date: May 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386119913

Lola StVil

Lola StVil was seven when she first came to the US from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She attended Columbia College in Chicago, where her main focus was creative writing. She is the author of the best-selling Guardians series and the Noru series.

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Copyright © 2018 by Lola StVil

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.

Formatting by Dallas Hodge, Everything But The Book

Dedicated to the Tics (The readers)

This is the last book in the Guardian world.

It took six years to get here and you made it worth the trip.

Thank you for being such faithful Tics!

Enjoy!

Xo

Lola

Quick reader’s reference guide:

PARENTS: Pry & Silver

CHILDREN: Summit & Dylan

PARENTS: Diana & Bex

CHILDREN: NIX & LUCAS (Nix is Malakaro’s son but raised by Bex.)

PARENTS: Easton & Mel

CHILDREN: Parker & Ryder

PARENT: Swoop

CHILD: RJ (Raised by Jay & Miku)

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I turn around and see Pryor standing a few feet away, holding a bundle in her arms. I can see Summit’s gray wings peeking from the blanket. I should hurry to greet them, but I don’t. I just stand there, too afraid to move. Pryor has never looked more beautiful than she does right now. And she’s holding my daughter, my second chance. Yet, I can’t move. Diana comes up to me. She takes my hand and whispers in my ear.

Silver, it’s real. It won’t move away if you get closer. The Center is gone. The great evil is gone. And over there is what you have wanted all your life—a family. I have mine; now you go get yours, she says as she gently nudges me to move.

I finally make my way towards them. I am inches away from everything I’ve ever wanted. Pryor smiles warmly and wipes tears away from my eyes, tears I didn’t realize I had shed.

Aaden, this is your daughter, Summit Avery Case, she says with a catch in her voice.

I look into the bundle and see my daughter for the first time. She has purple eyes and black hair with a few soft purple highlights. Her cheeks are full, and her rosy lips are open wide as she explores her surroundings. Her beautiful eyes land on me for the first time. They glow with excitement. She looks at my wings and reaches for them.

I bring them closer to her, and she touches one with pure fascination. I laugh, and she recognizes the sound. She moves around excitedly as she reaches for me. I take her into my arms and cradle her. She’s so light it’s like holding on to air. She looks up at me, filled with wonder and enthusiasm. I lean in close to her and speak to her in a soft voice.

Hi…I’m gonna teach you how to fly. I’m gonna show you how to get your mom to laugh when she’s down. I’ll show you how to protect yourself. I’ve waited so long to meet you, Winnie. I promise to protect and love you every day of my life—oh crap; I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Aaden. I’m your dad.

The scene before me fades out, replaced by a new one. Pryor and I stand over our daughter in her nursery. I can hear her cooing and giggling in her crib.

I watch in horror as the blanket she is wrapped in bursts into flames and the cooing stops.

I rapidly try to put the fire out, beating at the blanket, but it’s no use. The flames get bigger, brighter, hotter. I try to unwrap the blanket, but it won’t give up its hold on Summit. I can only watch, tormented and broken as Summit disappears from the crib.

Roslyn is nothing more than a pile of ashes and broken glass, and the beautiful forest that once surrounded it is nothing but a desolate wasteland of smoke and bones. The cooing and laughter has turned to a sinister cackle. Summit stands in front of me, wearing tight black jeans, with black high-heeled boots and a leather jacket, and standing by her side is Quest. He leans in and kisses her. I turn to Pryor, who is now on fire.

As I try to put out the fire, I turn and see the bodies of my team lying around me on the ground in a heap of rotting flesh and bones. I can still hear Summit laughing, but it’s changed.

This is all wrong. I’m seeing things that can’t be real. Summit would never do this. I must have misunderstood, or maybe I died, and I’m in Hell because this sure feels like damnation.

I turn to look for Pryor. She will make me see it’s not real. That it can’t be real. When my eyes find hers, I know I was right. This is Hell. Pryor is still by my side, but her body is on the ground, the flames have died down, and she is now a pile of charcoaled ash. I take a step towards her, and suddenly Summit is engulfed in the same burning orange flames. As I frantically glance between the two, trying to work out what I’m supposed to do, I catch Quest’s eye. He winks at me. I take another look around.

She’s mine now, daddy, he says.

I’ve lost everything.

The flames that consumed Summit disappear as quickly as they appeared. There is no sign they hurt her. Her skin and clothes are not burned, and her mane of thick black hair tumbles around her shoulders, not even singed.

Summit smirks as I reach out a hand to her.

Come back to us, Summit, I shout.

She makes no move to take my hand. She just keeps her smirk in place and fires at me. It happens in slow motion. My hand is still outstretched, my cry of her name frozen on my lips as her Powerball comes towards me. I can’t move. I can’t even think. Summit’s Powerball finishes its graceful arc and makes contact with my chest.

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I shoot up from recharging, the silent scream still on my lips. I try to get oriented, to convince myself none of it was real.

I try to remember how things got so fucked up. The dream I just had might not have been real, but it showed me a sequence of events that were all too real.

It seems like just yesterday I met my daughter for the first time and felt that all-consuming love, and now I have to try and stop her from ending the world. And I don’t have the faintest idea of how to do it.

I rub my hands over my eyes and temples, trying to push the images away. Pryor sits up next to me.

Are you okay? she asks.

Yeah, I’m fine, I lie, forcing a smile. You need to recharge.

I need her to just lie back down and not ask questions. I can’t lie to her and tell her everything’s going to be okay, because it’s not. But I don’t want to tell her what I saw. And she does need to recharge. We all do.

So do you, baby, she answers, her brow creased with concern.

I do, but more than that, I need to figure this shit out.

I’m okay, Pry, really. I just need some air, I tell her in what I hope is a firm but convincing way.

I slip out of bed and pull on my jeans and head for the door. I pull it open, welcoming the fresh breeze that blows over me, ruffling my hair as I step out onto the porch. I’m no stranger to safe houses, and this one is a great choice. It’s located deep in the Tibetan Mountains, and there are only two ways in, which makes it a fairly easy place to guard. Never did I consider that one day I would need to be in a place like this to hide from my own daughter. Perhaps to hide her and keep her safe, yes, but not to hide from her. I still can’t fathom how the fuck we got here.

I step forward and rest my elbows on the rickety wooden railing that encases the makeshift porch. The sun is just coming up, and the view here is remarkable. The snow-capped mountains surround a crystal-clear blue lake, and with the sun teasing over the mountaintops, everything is bathed in a yellow glow. The water of the lake ripples gently in the breeze, catching the first few rays of the sun.

I sigh. The beauty of this place is at odds with the reason we’re here. It’s disconcerting to look out on such wonder and to have my only thought be about how to stop my daughter from burning the world.

I tense slightly as I feel something brush against me. I relax when I realize it’s Pryor. Her hands caress my sides and then wrap around me, linking against my stomach. She leans into my back, pressing her face against me.

How did it come to this, Aaden? she asks quietly, her voice partially muffled by my back.

I wish I knew, I respond.

I can feel the familiar impotent anger burning inside of me. How have I failed my daughter so spectacularly that she has taken this course of action?

We missed so much, didn’t we? The birthdays. Her first steps. Becoming a teenager. Her first boyfriend. Everything. I know we were there in a sense, watching over her, but it wasn’t the same. She didn’t even know we existed, much less that we cared about her, Pryor says.

She leaves her question unasked. How much of this is our fault? I leave it unanswered because I fear the answer might be all of it.

We did what we had to do, Pry. We tried our best to keep her safe, I reply.

I feel Pryor nod against my back.

Yeah, I know. But what if it wasn’t enough?

It’s another question I can’t answer. Instead of empty words that we both know are just that, I remain silent. I place my hand over Pryor’s.

I was so happy when we got her back. I knew it wasn’t meant to happen that way. I knew it would bring catastrophic events, but at the time, I didn’t care. I was just so happy to see her again, Pryor says.

I turn in her arms, leaning my back against the railing, and wrap my arms around her. She snuggles closer to me, her head on my shoulder. I can feel the tension in her body.

Me too, I agree. Especially when she finally started to accept us. It felt right. Like maybe everything would be okay after all. Like we could somehow make up for all the things we missed.

Do you regret any of it? Pryor asks me.

Only that we didn’t see this coming, I reply.

It’s true. On some level I regret not seeing Summit grow up, of course I do, but deep down, I know we did the right thing for her. To keep her with us would have been selfish. We put her needs before ours, tried to give her a normal, happy life. We couldn’t have known it would end this way.

Pryor pushes herself away from me far enough to look directly into my face.

Silver, what if we can’t save her? she says.

Her voice is quiet, and I can hear the pain she feels for even having to ask the question. Her eyes are haunted, and for the first time, I see a little patch of gray in her hair. I touch my hand to her cheek and lean towards her, pressing my forehead against hers, trying to suck the stress and worry out of her. I don’t have the words to answer her question. I can’t visualize what it would be like if we can’t save her. But I also can’t conjure up what we can do to save her at this point.

I feel Pryor stiffen as a loud, insistent beeping starts blaring up from her pocket.

That’s my alarm. It’s time for the meeting, she says.

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We’re gathered in what we’ve come to know as simply the main room. It’s a big open room, surrounded by hallways that lead to the bedrooms, which is good considering how many of us regularly cram into it. The room is furnished in a style that can only be described as understated luxury. This place was formerly used as a retreat for millionaires who wanted to get back to nature or whatever it is those guys do when their consciences catch up with them.

The main feature of the room is a huge, wraparound, black leather couch that can seat twenty people comfortably. There are matching armchairs and two-seater sofas dotted around the room, and in the center of it all is large black-and-tan marble-topped table. The table is huge, at least five feet by six feet, and I wonder fleetingly what use it had for those troubled millionaires. We use the space to spread out maps, charts, and various sheets with all kinds of information on sightings of Summit, Quest, and the things they’ve done. Barely any of the tabletop is visible. It’s a visual reminder of how much has happened.

I look around the room, noting to myself that even now, in the heart of a crisis, everyone is still in their own little cliques. In one corner of the couch are Emmy, Rage, Winter, Jay, and Miku. They are joined by Time, who sits, looking fretful.

Next is the Noru, my family, the people who I grew up with and the people who have been there for me every step of the way. Pryor and I sit in the middle of them, flanked on either side by Diana, Randy, East, and Mel.

Next come Bellamy and Knight, her husband and Sabrina’s father. They hang in a kind of limbo between groups. Bellamy’s loyalty is to Lucas, the Kon, but she also answers to Diana, and the couple sits between our group and the Toren group.

The Toren group, Summit’s team and her lifeline through all of the craziness she’s experienced since she was dragged into this life, sits a little removed from the rest of us. I think in some ways they resent our presence—they feel it is their duty to save Summit themselves—but in other ways, I think that deep down, they’re grateful for our guidance. Not that we’re much use.

Sabrina sits in stony silence beside RJ, who keeps throwing her furtive glances that she pointedly ignores. Next is Parker, who sits glaring into space. She looks ready to explode, and I wonder if she feels the same impotent anger that I do. Of course, she is grieving her brother too, and while this isn’t easy for any of us, I think she feels it the hardest.

Milo sits in the center of the group. Milo looks exhausted, black circles lining his eyes. He hasn’t stopped searching for Summit since she disappeared, and Keys has been by his side the entire time. I’m glad he has Keys because I think facing this alone would have been too much for him. I wonder to myself where Keys is now, but brush it off; he’s probably checking on his mom.

Next are Nikki and Fish. Fish wears her usual casual expression, but I can see by the tightness of her fists in her lap that she is feeling anything but casual right now. Looking at her stony determination, I’m glad she’s on our side. Nikki just looks broken. It’s funny in a way because, with everything that happened with Lucas, Nikki and Summit should hate each other, but they don’t. If I ever doubted that, that doubt is long gone now. I think if anything, everything that happened with Lucas brought them closer in a weird way.

I can’t help but notice who’s missing: Lucas, who has never stopped in his quest to find his wife. He has followed up every lead, regardless of how far-fetched or unlikely to pan out it is. He’s interrogated angels, demons, Quos, and even the occasional human, desperate for answers that just aren’t coming. I don’t think he’ll even show up today. He’ll be too busy searching another blind alley.

Nix is missing, and that one does surprise me. Nix has been a vocal part of the group, always rallying to keep everyone’s spirits up and remind everyone who Summit is and why she’s worth saving.

And finally, Ryder and Dylann are missing. Their fates are a strange parallel of each other now. Dylann murdered by Quest to send a message to the Toren team, and now Ryder, killed by Summit to send the team a similar message. I shudder as I remember the moment Summit killed Ryder: the horrified silence in the room as he fell to the ground, lifeless.

I blink the image away, replacing it with another one, one that cuts me even deeper than the first. Dylann’s face flashes before my eyes, her eyes sparkling with joy as she throws her head back and laughs. We can still reach Summit, but Dylann is gone, lost to us forever. I just hope she’s found peace.

That image of Dylann’s face, lit up with laughter, keeps me focused on this. I won’t lose another daughter. I won’t.

The door bursts open, pulling me out of my head. Nix walks in.

Sorry I’m late, he says.

He doesn’t elaborate on where he’s been, and no one asks. What’s the point? If he had good news, he would have told us. He goes to the Toren’s section of the couch and sits down beside Fish. She unfurls one of her clenched fists and takes his hand in hers and gives him a worried look. He gives a barely perceptible shake of his head. Whatever he isn’t telling us hasn’t given him anything to go on.

Should we wait for Lucas? Randy asks Pryor.

She shakes her head. I’m not the only one who isn’t expecting him to put in an appearance then. Randy nods and gets to his feet.

Thank you all for coming, he says.

I suppress a smile. Even now, in the midst of all of this, Randy opens his speeches like he’s addressing a lecture room of eager students.

First, I’d just like to say how happy we all are to have Emmy back with us, healthy and ready to join us once more, he says.

Jeez, Randy, can you get on with it? This isn’t an Oscar acceptance speech, you know, Rage barks.

Randy looks nervous for a second. He nods and clears his throat.

So, as you all know, the Angel world is pretty shook up by what happened, Randy begins.

That’s an understatement. The Angel world as a whole is calling for Summit’s head on a plate after the string of murders and the destruction she’s wreaked on the world.

I know this is hard, given what’s happened, but we need to figure this out, and I’m sure we can all agree that there has to be a solution to this mess. We just need to find it.

Given what’s happened? Parker interrupts him. You’re talking about my brother being murdered like it’s a minor inconvenience.

Randy looks at her, and his face softens, losing the lecturer expression he wears and looking decidedly more compassionate.

I’m sorry, Parker. That’s not what I meant to do. I just didn’t want to rehash that moment again. I don’t think anyone needs me to do that. No one has forgotten Ryder, and no one thinks of his death as an inconvenience.

Parker nods, seemingly placated by Randy’s words, but I can see she’s still seething beneath the surface. Sabrina reaches across RJ’s lap and takes Parker’s hand. Parker gives her a grateful half smile as Randy continues.

As we now know, Quest used Summit all along. He goaded her to the point where her mission to take him out became her sole purpose, and when he let it be known that he was in alliance with the Collective, he ensured Summit would take them out. It was genius really. He knew the pendant wouldn’t work without her present, and he engineered a plot to get both the pendant and Summit. And once he killed Fate, The Face, the plan came to a head. And now, he has both Summit and the pendant.

We know all of that, Randy. Why don’t you spend your time doing something useful instead of telling us the same thing over and over again? Lucas says angrily from the doorway.

I didn’t even see him appear. He strides towards the Toren team and perches on the arm of the couch beside them.

Just get to the point, Randy. The whole purpose of this meeting is so everyone can share what they’ve learned and we can work on a real plan for finding Summit, Lucas adds.

Of course, Randy says. He looks uncomfortable, but he holds up well under Lucas’s piercing gaze. I have reports of more angels going missing in the last week. Five, to be exact. And one body was found. Of course, that’s being blamed on Summit, but there’s no actual evidence to support such a notion.

Several more Omari soldiers have vanished too, Bellamy puts in. And while again there’s no concrete evidence to point to Summit, I can’t think of anyone else powerful enough to overcome them.

The whole group is talking as one now, sharing stories of missing angels, safe houses being blown up or torched, Quos being tortured for information then brutally murdered, and a Quo sanctuary being blown up too. It’s a long rap sheet, and listening to it spoken aloud like this makes me want to run from the room and never look back. It’s so hard to equate the crimes being listed with Summit. Even when she hated Pryor and me, and wanted nothing to do with this world, she didn’t hurt anyone. She stood with the team, fighting for good, and now she’s been reduced to this.

Emmy stands up and holds up her hands for silence.

Okay. Enough. I think it’s fair to say that Summit isn’t acting like her usual self. She’s done some bad things. Can we leave it at that?

Her face shows the strain she’s feeling at hearing her granddaughter’s crimes. The noise dies down in the room, and when Emmy is satisfied that her words have been heeded, she turns to Rage.

What happened with the Quos? she asks.

A rumor reached us that Summit killed The Jackal, the son of the Quo ruler and the bastard who took Nikki prisoner and tortured her in ways I can’t even imagine. The rumor is that Summit took him out in a very public Quo event which was attended by all of the major Quo officials.

I warned those bastards, Rage adds. They were too stubborn to cancel because they didn’t think Summit had the balls to go through with it. And their stance was that if she did, there would be war. They didn’t care that we were trying to prevent it or that we warned them, and then they saw the video.

That’s why she’s targeting The Jackal. She knows the consequences of an angel killing him. Even a disgraced angel. She wanted the war to happen, Diana says.

Nikki jumps to her feet, excited suddenly.

No, that’s not it, she says.

For the first time since Summit killed Ryder, I see it on her face. Hope. All eyes are on Nikki now, and she paces excitedly, unable to keep still as she explains.

I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. She’s sending us a message. She chose The Jackal as a target because of what he did to me. She’s telling us she’s still on our side. That we have to keep fighting. She’s still on our team.

I watch the Toren team as Nikki speaks. They exchange looks, and I see the hope Nikki feels on their faces. It’s infectious. I feel a spot of hope burning inside of me too. What Nikki is saying makes perfect sense. There are a hundred and one people Summit could take down if all she wanted was a war. But she didn’t choose any of them, and in some cases, they would be much easier targets. She chose The Jackal for a reason, and I think Nikki has just hit the nail on the head. She wants us to know she’s still with us. She’s asking us not to give up on her.

The hope the Toren feel, the excitement on their faces, is missing from Parker’s face. Rage fills her until she finally bursts. She gets to her feet and faces off against Nikki.

Are you fucking kidding me, Nikki? she says, her voice low and dangerous.

Nikki handles it well. Instead of shouting, she goes to Parker and puts her hand on Parker’s shoulder.

We all lost him, Parker, she says gently. But we can’t just stand by and lose someone else.

It does nothing to appease Parker, who shrugs Nikki’s hand roughly off her shoulder.You talk about the team. Her team. Well, you know something? Ryder, my brother, our friend, he was a part of that team. And Summit killed him in cold blood to send a message. So excuse me if I’m not overly receptive to her new message.

Her calmness is gone, and she’s shouting now, barely in control. Mel and East exchange a look and get to their feet. They go to either side of Parker.

It’s okay, honey, Mel says.

It’s not fucking okay. How can you stand there and say it’s okay? Parker yells. That crazy bitch killed my brother, and no one seems to give a fuck about him.

East reaches out, and Parker smacks his hand away.

No. I don’t need to be coddled. What I need is to know why Summit is getting away with this scot-free. Why everyone is so quick to want to rush in and rescue her like she’s the victim in all this. Because the last time I checked, Summit could handle herself against Quest or anyone else who got in her way. She chose to do this.

Nix half rises from the couch.

Parker, just calm down, he says.

No. I won’t fucking calm down, she yells.

Nix falls back onto the couch. It is instantly clear to him that Parker isn’t ready to hear what he has to say.

"I am sick and tired of everyone sugar-coating this shit. The truth of it is Summit is out of control, and rather than sending out feelers, trying to lure her back