Chapter 1

-Martin-

Something I quickly discovered, is that Yvo doesn’t shut up. He keeps talking, and talking, and talking, and literally nothing makes him stop.

“Can you be quiet?” I say, but his bloody nattering is louder than my voice, and he doesn’t even realise.

If I didn’t need him to find the angel, I would’ve kicked him off his horse long ago. Unfortunately, I need him. So that I can find this angel, and bring him back to the Duchess, and finally, she’ll be my mother.

That’s all I’ve ever wanted.

“Shit-“ Yvo swears, and I glance behind me to his horse, right as his eyes roll back into his head and Yvo sways dangerously on his stallion. I pull roughly on the reins of my own horse, making her slow enough that the two horses are parallel.

I grab Yvo’s arm, holding him up right as he topples off his horse, and into my chest. I sigh, grabbing the reins of both horses, and tying them together. Positioning Yvo securely in front of me on my horse, I let him do his weird Diviner stuff, whilst I make sure he doesn’t get trampled to death by his own horse.

He suddenly sits up straighter, rubbing his eyes. “Fuck, my poor head feels like it’s going to explode,” he whinges, trying to shove my arms out of his way. I roll my eyes; if it wasn’t for me desperately holding onto the horses’ reins, we’d both be sitting in the dust.

Yvo continues to grumble, before craning his neck around to stare at me. “Oi, can you stop like, touching me? Personal bubbles exist, and you’re all up in mine.”

Please let me throw him down the handy ravine next to us.

I merely sigh, slowing my horse to a stop, and gently lifting him over onto his own horse. Or no, it’s not really a lift, more like a scramble. I tried to be helpful and lift him over, and he tried to swat my hand away with a look of petulance, and as a result, getting back on his own horse was far from graceful.

“Well, I saw the angel. Not really a good look at it- her. I hate calling a living being it, I guess the Duchess is rubbing off on me.”

I grunt, not wanting to call the angel anything other that ‘it’. Doing so would stop reminding me that this is a job, and I can distance myself from the fact that I’ll be handing over some poor kid to my evil mother, who will sell said poor kid off to either be chopped up, or kept as a pet.

Neither are ideal scenarios.

Hence why being kicked out by the Archangels is never a good idea.

“How are you sure it’s a girl?” I ask after a while, keeping my gaze rigid on the road in front of me. Yvo is now riding parallel to me, rather than slightly behind, and I can see him glancing around, enjoying the scenery.

“Well, I don’t technically know, but there’s never been a boy angel fallen to earth before. Plus, from all the visions I’ve ever had, all the angels have been women, except for the Archangels, who have no gender. Not sure why this particular fallen angel would be any different.”

I only grunt in acknowledgement, it’s not like I actually cared. More like, morbid curiosity, because I shouldn’t want to know anything about the thing I’m about to kidnap, but oh well.

“Oh, we need to start heading more to the right now, we’re going to end up further away if we keep heading this way,” Yvo eventually says, and literally just walks his horse in front of mine. I pull on the reins hard, my horse whinnying as if to say ‘watch it, fucker’.

Well, no. I’m sure that’s not what she was saying, but it doesn’t matter.

“Oi Hunter dude, can you hurry up?” Yvo calls, his horse picking up speed into a run rather than a leisurely walk.

I stroke my horse’s mane, patting the side of her neck. “Let’s run, shall we?” I say gently, and she throws her head back as I dig my heels into her, urging her onwards.

“Woah this place is pretty!” Yvo calls after a while, when we stop at a lake to let the horses drink. “We’re high up, so I wasn’t expecting there to be this big of water body up here!” He exclaims, tucking a sandy-blonde strand of hair behind his ear.

It’s at times like these, seeing the untainted excitement in his eyes, that I remember he’s a lot younger than me, at only 18 years old. He’s practically a kid, but, like me, has been forced to work since he could stand.

Or no, probably before then, because he’s a Diviner. And Yvo? He’s a powerful one, even someone like me knows that. And power like that doesn’t come naturally, he’s had to work for it. And he’s worked hard.

So, I do sort of respect him, despite also finding him a pain in the arse.

I’m curious to see what this fallen angel looks like, because since the first time I set eyes on Yvo, I’ve thought he looked like one. His fair skin and hair, coupled with the fact that he always wears white clothing - well, that sounds stereotypical angel to me.

But, then again, I’ve never seen an angel, in person or otherwise. Yvo however, has. With his weird Diviner visions. I don’t envy that part of his job, having constant headaches sounds like shit.

No, I prefer to fight things and people. That’s more my style. In particular, using a bow. That way, I don’t have to get too close to the enemy, and I can rely on my own skill, rather than my skill plus the enemy’s skill.

Not that I can’t use swords and whatnot, but…I just prefer my bow.

“Oi Hunter dude, let’s get going. I’m pretty sure those horses in the distance don’t look massively friendly, and I’d rather not get in a fight with them instantly.”

Glancing to where Yvo points, I squint into the distance. Five horses. Great. I quickly untie our horses, giving Yvo a boost up onto his horse, before getting onto mine.

“We’re going to need to go fast. I hope you know how to ride properly,” I say, already digging my heels into the stallion beneath me, and taking off into the forests ahead. 

A/N

yo, tis me, nev. sooo, i worked out how to stick pics in here, and i made an avatar thingy for my boys in this story, so thought i'd share them with you all :)

the first one is Martin, although he looks about 12 years old haha i couldn't make him look older so just use your ~imagination~

oki doki and this is my son Yvo look how sweet he looks :') idk what the fuck is going on with their outfits ok i made it up haha. the one i'm happiest about is my angel boi but i'll wait to show you until we meet him ;)