Better off Dead Book Four

by Odette C. Bell

  For Hilliker to have secretly stolen them from the church didn’t necessarily surprise me. For him to have stolen all of them, however, was a revelation.

  But how exactly could they help me?

  I had three and a half minutes. Presumably Hilliker would have kept those charms back in his monastery. I didn’t have the time—

  “You want Santini charms – you must be planning a compulsion spell, right?” the priest spluttered, suddenly helpful.

  I just clenched my teeth and stared back at him, too smart to let anything show.

  “You must be. You’re looking for your sister, aren’t you? You’re trying to pull her to your side, right?”

  At the mention of my sister, I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off his feet. It didn’t matter that he was a lot taller than me. I was very much motivated.

  His eyes widened again. But frankly, he just looked thankful for the fact that he was no longer stuck in the floor.

  “Do you know where my sister is?” I growled, my voice so low, it could hardly be heard.

  “No. Only Hilliker and his highest level priests do. But you’ll be able to find her with angel charms easily.”

  “Where are they?” I didn’t want to be led around by the nose, but I didn’t have any other option.

  I fully expected him to tell me that they were back at the monastery, but that’s not what he did. “Here. In the tunnel system. Somewhere,” he spluttered with a shiver that told me he didn’t want to consider this place ever again.

  “Where?” I didn’t want hope infiltrating my tone in front of this bastard, but I couldn’t stop it.

  “I don’t know. But they give off a specific kind of power. Someone like you,” his eyes widened in awe, “will be able to find them.”

  My better judgment told me that this guy was just faking it. He had to be. He was a frigging priest of Hilliker. But for me to actually conclude that, I would have to ignore the look in his eyes. The terror. The hope. The pain. I didn’t know what being stuck in chaos space had done to him, but it wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to conclude that it had converted him back away from the Banished to reality.

  “If you are lying to me,” I began with a deep growl.

  He shook his head hard. He now somehow looked even paler. “No. I’m not lying to you,” he stammered. “The angel charms are here. You’ll be able to find them if you concentrate. Use that.” He nodded at my cross. He looked awestruck as he stared at it.

  I placed him down. I took a step back from him and clutched my cross. I just didn’t have the time to mess around with him.

  The only way to figure out if he was telling the truth was to actually find out if it was true.

  I kept a half-open eye locked on him. I waited for him to attack. He didn’t. He stood there, as pale as a ghost, shaking all over. He clutched his body. It was still changing out from underneath him. His clothes momentarily disappeared to be replaced by the leaves of a tree. I didn’t know who was keeping a tree in this vault tunnel system, but it didn’t surprise me much. As I’d already said, this place was so old and so big, every valuable object in existence would be down here.

  “Concentrate on the light. Angel charms have a very specific glow. They look like angel wings.”

  That was all very helpful, but I’d never actually seen angel wings.

  “Angel wings have a similar glow to resurrection magic,” he added.

  I opened my eyes fully then narrowed them at him. This guy was messing with me, right? He couldn’t honestly be helping me.

  He clutched his hands and started to work them back and forth. It was a nervous move, but it also looked as if he was just trying to keep his hands solid. “Hurry. I don’t... I can’t go back to chaos,” he said, his voice shaking with total fear. He suddenly clutched his brow and bent his crooked fingers in. “It destroys the mind, over and over and over again.” As he hissed that, he became so pale, I thought he would turn into bone dust and drift away at my feet.

  I decided... as stupid as it sounded, I decided to trust him. I closed my eyes completely. I would still be ready for an attack, but I no longer thought one was coming.

  Angel light was similar to resurrection light? Okay. I’d give that a go. I did not need to concentrate to remember what resurrection light looked like. It was a glow I had seen numerous times throughout my life. It was a light that was always locked in my body somewhere.

  Now all it took was a single second before I drew it up.

  The light of resurrection glowed in every spectrum. It shone through every object. Nothing – nothing could get in its way. I concentrated on that now.

  I called on my Deep magic. I clutched Lilly’s ring. I grabbed my cross. I did every conceivable thing I could think of. All the while, I knew that time was ticking down. I barely had any of it left. But I didn’t let it get to me.

  I concentrated on my resurrection light until finally I thought I could see something.

  It was hard to say. While this section of the tunnel I was in was solid, I knew for a fact that the rest of the vault system around me would be completely formless.

  I didn’t know how or why I’d come to a solid section. Maybe it was a gift from the minotaur. Or maybe it was my own power leading me forward. But the point was as I concentrated I started to pierce through the apparent solidity around me.

  So I just concentrated more and more. I let the light of resurrection fill me. It was so much that I almost thought I would accidentally call on my resurrection power and be brought back to life again, even though I wasn’t dead.

  I heard the priest splutter. I ignored him. I thought magic was picking up around me, but I just continued to concentrate.

  “If you’re out there,” I muttered to myself, calling on the angel charms even though I’d never met them and had no clue if this would even work, “come to me,” I commanded.

  At first it did nothing. But as I tried harder, thrusting my attention into a point, I started to see something manifest before me.

  “It’s working,” the priest spluttered.

  I finally opened my eyes.

  He was right – it was working. The tunnel system in front of us was breaking apart. Lines of light escaped along the walls and floor and ceiling. They coalesced underneath me. I did not jerk back. I stared at them as I continued to clutch my cross.

  The priest fell down to his knees. He started to pray. Unsurprisingly, he was pleading for forgiveness.

  I watched charms begin to appear in the air in front of me. I had to concentrate. If I didn’t, other things would appear instead. There was a solid gold horse. There was enough bullion, you could build a castle out of it. There were guns. There were books. There was even a sarcophagus.

  But I just grit my teeth, and I gave it my everything until finally the charms manifested in full. There were eight of them in total. They appeared like little gold halos.

  I wasted no time in thrusting my hand out to grab them.

  The priest got in front of me.

  I snarled at him. “I thought you wanted forgiveness? If you attack me—”

  “When you touch an angel charm, you activate it.”

  I frowned at him. “Then how do I move them?”

  “By connecting to them. They will circle you until you use them. They are more like wings.”

  I really did frown at him now. I wanted to deny what he was saying, but again, I couldn’t get past how genuine he looked.

  All of the other priests I’d faced hadn’t been great actors. They had worn their emotions on their sleeves – incidentally where they kept the blood of their enemies.

  The guy just looked at me entreatingly.

  I sighed. “How do I connect to them?”

  “Pray for forgiveness.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “I’m hardly the one who needs forgiveness here, buddy.”

  He gestured to them again. He was pale, and he still looked scared as Hell – or Heaven, considering who he’d pissed off.
But the point was he knew he had to get this done if he were to have a chance. “Pray to them. Ask them for forgiveness and help. If they share your wishes, they will join you.”

  This was wasting my time. But what other choice did I have? With a sigh, I got down on my knees and clamped my hands in front of myself.

  “That is not how you pray,” he admonished.

  I arched another eyebrow. My look was really hard this time. “Then how do I pray, priest of the Banished?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “With your heart. What your hands are doing is irrelevant.”

  He did have a point.

  I did not stare down at my watch. I knew full well that I’d gone over my 10-minute limit.

  I began to pray with my heart. I gave it everything. All the love. All the fear too. I just let every single damn emotion spill into the prayer.

  “I don’t know what to say,” I hissed quietly enough that he wouldn’t be able to hear me. “But I need this. I need this opportunity. Just one more chance. Let me do what I couldn’t do back then. Let me save my sister. Let me fulfill my destiny.”

  I opened one eye. It was in time to see the angel charms light up.

  “You’re doing it. Now pray for forgiveness and claim your reward,” the priest commanded.

  Pray for forgiveness and claim my reward? That right there was one of the problems with organized religions. You didn’t get to stuff up, say sorry, and then get divine forgiveness. You actually had to be sorry.

  I knew I could not continue to waste time, but that distinction got to me.S

  I knew what it was to be sorry. I knew what it was to be filled with frigging gut-wrenching grief at what you’d done. So the thought that someone could just come along, shrug their shoulders, and ask for absolution was maddening.

  “You must ask for forgiveness, or the angel charms will not come to you. You are running out of time,” the priest pointed out.

  It was goading to have my enemy say that.

  Though I didn’t want to, I parted my lips. “Forgive me,” I whispered in a voice he would not be able to pick up. “Forgive me for not being able to fight sooner. Forgive me for never understanding who my true enemy was. Forgive me,” my heart felt like it would explode, “forgive me for breaking Sonos’s dream.” Tears filled my eyes. “Forgive me for not being able to save him. Forgive me... forgive me for forgetting my sister.” Once I started, it all just flooded out.

  Even as I asked for forgiveness, I didn’t want it. I knew I didn’t deserve it. I never would. The only damn way to make up for my mistakes was to physically make up for them with actions, not words. I allowed that thought to settle in my heart.

  And it was enough. A second later, I had to open my eyes as light blasted out everywhere.

  “You have done it,” the priest stammered in an awestruck voice. “You have managed to claim all of the eight charms at once.”

  I rose in time to see the angel charms drifting toward me. Each one of them possessed its own little set of wings. They started to fly around in concentric circles.

  Surprised, I opened my hands and tried to touch one, but I couldn’t. It drifted away.

  “You... have to stop Hilliker. Take your sister back. He needs her power to feed the Banished. Do not let him kill you again,” the priest stammered. Emotion took him over, and he fell down to his knees. He began to shake. He stared at his hands, but he blanched and dropped them. “What... what have I done? What have I done?”

  I stared at him. “You have committed grave crimes. You will have to be punished.”

  He gazed up at me. I assumed this was where he would snap. If I’d pointed this out to any other of Hilliker’s priests, they would’ve taken the opportunity to wrap their hands around my throat and scream that they were the ones in charge. This guy just collapsed his hands over his face and started to sob.

  I turned away.

  I grabbed my whistle. It was time to get out of here.

  But time was not something I had.

  As I took a step forward, something suddenly grabbed my ankle. It pushed out of the floor quicker than I could see.

  I was thrown onto my face.

  The priest jerked up to his feet. “You need to get out of here now. They’re coming.”

  I kicked at the hand. At first I couldn’t dislodge it, but as I let magic blast around me, I managed to thrust it off.

  That was hardly helpful. Another hand burst up. It grabbed my shoulder and held me in place.

  I punched at it.

  But another hand grabbed my other shoulder.

  Desperation began to pound through me. “Angel charms,” I began, reasoning I could use one to get me out of here.

  “No,” the priest screamed. “You’ll need them later. Let me.”

  In a moment I’d never forget, he pushed down to his knees. He used his own magic to pull one of the hands away from my throat. Then he grabbed the whistle and shoved it into my lips.

  I looked at him, and he looked at me.

  Then one of the priests pulled themselves up out of the floor. They saw what he was doing. They crunched in close, and before I could do anything or say anything, they snapped the guy’s throat.

  A hand grabbed my face. It tried to pull the whistle out. As tears filled my eyes, I blew.

  Before the priests could consume me, I felt a strong set of arms wrap around my middle, and I was yanked back out of the tunnel system. Back to safety. For now.

  Chapter 6

  I landed back down in the minotaur’s arms outside in the foyer. I screamed. It was bloodcurdling. Everyone around me stopped to stare.

  “You called on me just in time,” the minotaur said in a calming tone. “You are alright now.”

  “But that priest isn’t,” I spluttered.

  “Priest? You were attacked?”

  I pulled myself out of the minotaur’s arms. I stood shakily. Pressing a white-knuckled hand across my brow, I dragged my nails down my face. “Never mind.” I began. I shook my head. “One of the priests helped me. He repented. They killed him for it.” I didn’t know why I said that. I just... had to share the guy’s story, I guess.

  I also had to get this done. I nodded at the minotaur. “Please take me to the closest transport node. I need to head back down to Hell.”

  The minotaur took a step back. He looked me up and down. “Something is different.”

  I looked at myself. I couldn’t see the angel charms. I freaked out, but as I opened my hand and swiped it to the side, one of them became visible. They’d become invisible on their own but could be activated easily.

  The minotaur could have dropped his teeth. His jaw opened so quickly, I thought I heard a clang. “That is an angel charm. Where did you get that?”

  “It’s not just one.” I flicked my hand in a circle experimentally and revealed the rest. They spun around me. They had a unique light. That priest had been right – it was somewhat similar to my resurrection magic. But it didn’t come with as much baggage.

  “You have all eight angel charms in existence. How did you get them?”

  “They were in the vault system. Apparently Hilliker had stolen them from the church.”

  The minotaur continued to stare at them. Then he darted his hand down to my wrist. He stared at my watch. It now read minus two minutes. “The transport node is just this way.” He turned and got ready to lead me there, but there was a sudden scream. The way it ripped through the air was unmistakable. It was fear. Bloodcurdling, soul-crushing, and obviously scared of imminent death.

  “What the Hell was that?” I stammered quickly.

  “It appears we are under attack again,” the minotaur roared.

  He jerked to his left.

  I turned and faced the doors. I thought I saw something outside. This... blackness was descending.

  As terror gripped me, it told me it could be Hilliker.

  I grabbed my cross. I spread my hand to the side and got ready to fight.

  “It is
a darkness storm,” the minotaur spluttered.

  “What the Hell is that?”

  “It seems Hilliker has tried to possess the very clouds. You must run. Follow me now.”

  I did as I was damn well told.

  The staff ran for the doors. They linked hands in front of them. They began to chant as the darkness tried to batter its way in. It smashed itself against the windows. It managed to seep in through several cracks, but other staff members scooted forward and chanted to hold it back.

  The floor shook. So too did the walls and ceiling. Dust began to hail down from everywhere. It was no mere dust, however. I sensed Hilliker’s power within it. It alighted on the minotaur. I watched it try to seep down through his skin. Screaming, I jerked forward and swatted it off.

  “Thank you,” he spat quickly. “But run,” he reminded me with a shaking scream.

  I didn’t need that reminder. The whole foyer looked as if it was about to crack. There were massive windows that reached the high ceiling above. They showed nothing but darkness outside now. It was all-encompassing. It looked as if we’d blasted off into deep space.

  We turned down another corridor just to see more staff running toward the windows.

  I heard an earsplitting crack. I jerked my head over my shoulder to see one of the windows exploding. Darkness spilled in. Before it could thrust forward and swallow everything, more concierges joined hands.

  They used their bodies to hold it back.

  What they were doing was remarkable, and they were surely strong practitioners, but they couldn’t keep it up forever.

  “Just run,” the minotaur said, obviously reading my mind.

  I put on a burst of speed. The minotaur was right beside me. While my footfall was relatively light, every single pounding step he took made the entire corridor shake.

  I heard a scream from further down. It was earsplitting and made my spine lengthen. “What the hell was that?” I breathed.

  “The darkness is in. You must run. No matter what happens, get out of here,” the minotaur said.

  “I’m not gonna leave people behind—” even as I said it, I realized it wasn’t true. I had no option but to get back to Hell, find Lilly, and use the last few minutes I frigging had to stop this.