'Are you okay?'

Drunk Fabian narrowed his eyes in confusion, lowering his face to meet my own. He presumably realised that his ear whispering stunt had caused me minor paralysis, and was unhappy with my lack of response.

But maybe I should have given him more credit, because he wiped away the tears on my eyelashes with a gentle and non-judgemental hand.

I looked away.

'I'm fine,' I lied without thinking, and I saw him give me a hard stare. He knew I wasn't okay.

His gaze flickered from my face to the sky, and back again. A lopsided grin rose, and I watched it grow along his jaw.

'Do you want to get out of here?' he asked.

His voice was low with anticipation. I almost took a step away. He was so close.

'Get out? As in, go? Where?' I replied, glancing around us. Aside from the people at the fairground, still mingling in the stalls, there was no one nearby and nowhere to go.

At least, nowhere I could think of.

But obviously Fabian had another idea. His grin continued, unfaltering.

'Let's run,' he said.

'What? No!'

'Just for one night,' he pleaded, and I wondered again how much he'd drank. 'Together. Promise.'

I didn't say anything. What did he mean?

He proffered a hand to me. 'Will you trust me, Mina?'

Mina. Heat flushed my entire body, and my hand reached for his without question. Our fingers laced together, his touch sending my belly flipping with the mad desire to fling myself at him.

'I already do,' came my hoarse reply.

Grinning now with excess energy, Fabian pulled on my arm, dragging me closer.

'Then let's run!' he cried, quickening our pace until we jogged, hand in hand. We burst through the caravans and fair tents, disgruntling the crowd watching Kitty.

We nearly collided with Sakura, but Fabian sidestepped with the grace of a panther excusing himself, and the poor girl looked shocked.

'We're going out to have fun!' Fabian told her, gesturing at me. 'See you tomorrow!'

Sakura's own grin caught from Fabian's. She glanced between us two, wiggling her eyebrows as Fabian tugged me on.

'About bloody time!' I heard Sakura yell. 'Be careful!'

The sun was setting fast now, and Fabian's grip on me tightened. He ran faster, the people angrily stepping aside before he could barrel into them. The wind whipped around us, enough to urge us forward.

'Where are we going?' I cried, glancing back at the disappearing stage of our travelling troupe. 'Aren't we coming back?'

Fabian gave me a sheepish smile. 'Not tonight, no. Hurry, before it gets dark!'

'Hurry?' I repeat in astonishment, 'Where are we hurrying to?'

Squeezing my hand, he said, 'You're coming to meet my friends, dear.'

Did he just call me "dear"? I missed it over the noise!

Deciding not to question my tipsy friend any further, I did exactly as he asked - and trusted him. He led me beyond the fields, towards the shanty towns, where crude settlements made of metal and clay stood hobbled against the red embers of the sun. The smell of earth and mud and rust filled my nostrils with each shuddering breath.

As we drew nearer, it became more obvious that figures were settling down for the night, crossing between their houses and putting out fires. Children were screeching, running half dressed around their huts before fathers and mothers and siblings plucked them back to where they belonged. There were hundreds of people, all crammed within a few miles. A few glances were spared our way, looking hard at our decent clothes and clean faces.

'Are they safe in those?' I muttered to Fabian as we passed some of the most worn huts. Slabs of rusting metal compiled the door and walls, and cloth was drawn to cover the windows. I was thinking of the horrific monsters that lurked at night, and whether these shelters were enough.

'No,' Fabian said darkly, 'they're not. Daemons are mostly blind, but they have excellent hearing and smell. If anyone makes a noise in that shelter, if it can rip the place apart, it will.'

Daemon, I thought, letting the word run across my mind. The image conjured up memories of fear, blood and rotting flesh. I shivered.

'Are there many near here?' I whispered.

Fabian thought for a moment. 'The prison is nearby. Rumours say they guard the prison, and from time to time prowl the village for extra snacks.'

That's horrible.

'What can the people do?'

'See those bizarre instruments? They create background noise equivalent to radio waves. They help to dampen the daemon's senses, so that angel noise doesn't seem as noticeable.'

'That's ingenious, but these people should not have to put up with this.'

'I know,' Fabian said, stopping our walk in front of a row of better constructed buildings, made with stone and iron. A red cross, presumably a doctor, had a small building on the end, which then expanded into an inn and pub. Their own decoration was a little less sophisticated, and more like the smell of piss and brewery.

'People come here when they need to trade, or to sell food, etcetera. And the pub...well that's right where we're headed.'

I tried hard not to wrinkle my nose at the offensive smell as he pulled open the iron door with an enigmatic wink.

'Ladies first,' he said.

I stepped through the doorway onto sticky metal floor. The noise of rowdy angels bit my ears, and I flinched. My heart beat steadily increased as I surveyed the smoky tavern.

A makeshift bar was selling cheap food and foul smelling liquor. The bar woman was impressively small but raced along the customers with tankards of ale, yelling curses as she went. Her customers seemed to adore her; a group had clustered in the far corner of the bar, whooping for service. The woman, who was roughly middle aged, with small muddy gold wings and a pixie cut, joked and laughed as she served them, and the rest of the room joined in.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped.

'It's just me,' a familiar low voice said, and I inwardly sagged, relieved that it was Fabian.

'Why are we here?'

Nobody had noticed our arrival. Angels filtered around, smoking and drinking and a couple were even making out in the corner. I watched woth morbid fascination as the man's teeth pulled at his partner's bottom lip, wondering what the attraction was.

'Pervert,' came a whisper in my ear, and I shot Fabian, the speaker, a glare.

'I was just curious,' I said, turning away. Unfortunately, Fabian followed me, stepping in front of me with an evil look upon his face.

'Curious...about kissing?' he said.

I stared at him.

I blinked.

And I stared at him again.

When he continued to look at me boyishly, I rolled my eyes. Drunk Fabian must be flirtatious.

But before I could reply with a witty one-liner, a guy strolled up to us, clapping a hand on Fabian's shoulder.

'Fae!' he cried, his words slurring into a shortened version of Fabian's name. To my glee, Fabian blushed pink, shooting me a thoughtful look to gauge my reaction.

I was biting back laughter more fiercely than the lovers attacking each other in the corner.

And did Fabian know it.

'He's drunk,' he told me, almost ignoring the man giving him a bear hug. The angel- who was around my height but looked a little older than us- had white blond hair and a handsome, rugged face. His wings were icy grey.

I frowned, thinking fast.

'Don't be so mean!' the angel told him, and he looked at me for support.

I responded curiously, 'Are you Fabian's brother?'

Fabian did not look shocked at my intuition, but his brother did. He drew back, his mouth opened and pointing at me in surprise.

'You're smart,' he said, sliding sideways into Fabian. 'Fae's my little brother, yes...my half brother.'

I thought for a moment once more. Fabian's mother was supposedly the ruler of the underwater sector of the island, and the only child I'd heard of was Fabian.

'Same Dad?'

'Whoa! How do you do that?' the brother said, and Fabian was smirking. 'She's scaring me, Fae. Does she know everything about us?'

'Only told her that I found our allies,' Fabian replied proudly.

'Not your name,' I said, smiling and extending my hand. 'I'm Lumina.'

His brother took my hand, and pulled me into a huge hug. 'I'm Frederick. Welome to the family, Lumina!'

Both Fabian and I reddened.

'It's not-'

'We're not-'

Frederick chuckled. 'Whatever, you guys! You need a few beers down you and you'll be like them in the corner!'

He nodded towards the passionately kissing couple, who had taken residence leaning over the bar whilst nibbling on one another's necks.

I avoided looking to my left, where I could feel Fabian beside me. Frederick took no notice of our discomfort, and instead dragged us over to the crowd nearest the bar, which consisted of a few men and women, their faces badly cut and bruised. Frederick cheered as they looked us up and down.

'Party's arrived!' he announced, and they all clashed their drinks. 'Now we can go kill ourselves a daemon!'

What?

I stared at this young man who was completely smashed and thought that he was rambling. But when the group all began to chant, 'Hunt! Hunt! Hunt!', my head slowly did turn to catch Fabian's eye.

They want to go outside now? After curfew?

To confront one of those things?!

Fabian was cheering with them.

I pinched my arm, to check that this ridiculousness was not a dream. When I did not awaken, I resigned myself to the fact that Fabian had led me to a group of people who could barely stand upright, but wanted to go tackle a monster.

I didn't believe that they'd do it. I thought that despite the big talking, the group of men and women would end up with more liquor than bloodthirst and I'd be free from the experience.

So when they all began to stand and stretch their limbs and assemble weapons, I could have fainted.

Fabian, on the other hand, grabbed my arm and said, 'Let's go! We're going to catch us a daemon!'

Why did they all think it was so damn easy? They were raving!

'This is not a good idea,' I warned him, 'You're all drunk, how on earth are you going to fight?'

I was speaking loudly; as the group stood around, downing their drinks and belching, one of the men turned towards me and grinned.

'Beggin' your pardon, milady, but I can't fight unless I am drunk!'

Taking the lead, the man bellowed a call to arms, raising his own spear above his head. A woman behind him curled an arm around his belly, growling appreciatively as she rattled chains in her other hand. Frederick was handing me my own drink, encouraging me to try the local speciality.

'I promise, it helps you forget that you're fighting the zombie hellish corpse of a fellow angel,' he said, cheerful.

The liquid in the tankard he gave me looked faintly red. I blanched, sipping it tentatively. It stung my throat and fizzled against my poor tongue.

'Drink fast,' Fabian advised me, knocking back what Frederick had given him. 'If you do, you taste less...'

He sat down his cup, before helping me with mine.

'On three,' he advised.

'No! I'm not doing this,' I protested, but he smiled.

'One...'

'I can't do this! I don't like alcohol!'

'Two...'

'Only a little bit, okay? For bravery?'

'Three- go!'

Burning liquid filled my throat as Fabian knocked the tankard upwards, and the speed numbed the pain of tasting the horrible ale. But as soon as it hit my stomach, I could feel the disgust emanating from my stomach.

'Fantastic,' I groaned, rubbing the horrible fizzing that was contorting my abdomen. Fabian laughed before taking my hand again, with gentleness.

'Together,' he reminded me of our promise.

Now I knew its meaning.

We're in this together.

'Let's go investigate the prison,' I agreed.

And find a way past those guards.

--

A/N...So, I feel like this chapter maybe bridges a little but hey, I hope you enjoyed it. A little more Lumian for those of you that requested it! I officially reached 7K views and counting, and that makes me so so so so so happy. I love each one of you that takes the time to continue reading Equinox, and I'd appreciate all your feedback and what you'd like to happen!

lots of love

Larissa xxxx