by Mary Ting
“Jack!” My heart thundered. No. No. No. Not Jack. Not Jack. Not Jack.
I searched high and low and in every direction. Finally. There. A body. Jack! I darted across the space with all my might. How did he get so high in the air? Where was his dad? When I extended my arms to catch him, Uncle Davin swooped in.
“I got him,” Uncle Davin said, his expression gloomy. Too much blood.
Exhaling, I blew away the ashes on Jack’s body.
“Jack. I’ve got you. You’re going to be fine. Uncle Davin is here.”
“Is he… Is he… Is he…?” I was freaking out, and I couldn’t get my question out.
“He’s still breathing. Let’s take him to our home. His father is below. Tell him where we’re meeting.”
I flew off to get Jack’s dad and spoke to Zach in my mind as I descended. We’ve got Jack. He’s not well. I don’t know if he’s going to make it.
He’s a fighter, Lucia. If anyone can make it, it’s Jack.
I wiped my tears. I didn’t want to face Jack’s father crying. I hope you’re right. I don’t know what I would do.We’d lost Abel. Please, not Jack, too. I choked on a sob. Go find Brody and Milani. Tell them about Jack.
Chapter 34
Lucia
Uncle Davin laid Jack on our sofa and checked for a pulse as he examined Jack’s wounds. Jack had his eyes closed, his breath labored, and I prayed he would be fine.
Uncle Davin held Jack’s hand. “Jack. I know you can hear me,” he said sternly, but his voice broke. “Don’t you dare leave us today. I can’t lose another one of my knights. I won’t be able to bear it. You stay strong, you hear? Come back to Uncle Davin.”
I let out a sob when pounding footsteps drew my attention.
Jack’s father rushed in, clothes rumpled and covered with ashes. Uncle Davin moved to give him space. “How is he, Davin?” Jacques examined his son, tears glistening.
Vampires cried?
Uncle Davin shook his head, his chin down, unable to meet Jacques’s eyes.
“There’s gotta be something you can do,” Jacques pleaded.
“He’s lost a lot of blood, and the demon’s weapons or nails were dipped with poison. I’m afraid we’re too late.”
No. I refused to believe it. I dropped beside Jack and held his hand to my cheek. “I know you can hear me, but I need you to live. You promised you would be here for me, for keeps, do you remember that? You better keep your promise, Jack. Please.” I squeezed my eyes and let the tears fall on his hand. Feel my presence, Jack. I’m here. It’s time to wake up.
“How about the Snow Queen? She’s powerful. Can’t she heal him?” Jacques asked.
Oh crap! He’d offended Uncle Davin.
Uncle Davin angled his eyebrows to the center, his fists rounded as hard as bricks. “An angel is not powerful? I assure you if there were anything that would help, I would do it. You’re a vampire, can’t you do anything besides bite peoples’ necks and drink their blood? Geez I don’t know, maybe you can make him drink your blood to heal him, like in that television show. You know, about the good-looking vampires? Too bad you don’t fit in that category.”
I waited in silence, preparing to break those two apart if they began to brawl.
Jack’s father exhaled a deep sigh, paced about the room, and then stopped. “Okay. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’ll try.” He bit the tender part of his wrist, parted Jack’s lips, and allowed the blood to drip into his mouth.
We waited.
No change.
“It’s not working,” Jacques growled in frustration, his eyes a glowing amber.
“Maybe you’re not handsome enough.” Uncle Davin raised an eyebrow. He was still sore from being offended.
Either Jack’s father didn’t hear Uncle Davin or he was too busy thinking. He didn’t retort. Instead he said, “Did you say poison? Demon poison, right?” He pulled out an edelweiss flower from his front pants pockets and placed it on Jack’s chest.
Uncle Davin’s eyes beamed. “Good thinking daddy-O. Just maybe it will work. Edelweiss flowers suck up demons, but I don’t know if it will work on their poison.”
When nothing happened and I could feel Jack’s life slipping away, I panicked. “What do we do next? There’s gotta be something we can do. Agnes. Can’t she fix Jack?”
My uncle shook his head. Angels were not to interfere with humans’ lives. Footsteps thudded. Zach, Brody, and Milani entered and went straight to Jack.
“Is he… Is he?” Zach said, the same as I had.
Brody’s body went rigid, and Milani placed her hands over Jack’s chest. Closing her eyes, she mumbled a few words in her magical language. Green and blue lights glowed from his chest, and then one single white light beamed up like a beacon. Milani opened her eyes and waited. Jack did not wake up. Even the edelweiss on his chest did nothing.
“I’m sorry, Lucia.” Milani dipped her head, sniffing.
Milani tearing up was not a good sign. “No. Milani, do something,” I demanded, shaking her. “Jack can’t die. Jack can’t die. Do you hear me?” My voice quaked, and my body trembled. I was out of control. Then I lost it when Jack’s chest no longer lifted and his face turned ashen. “No!” I screamed, kneeling beside him as I held his hand. “Nooo!” I screamed louder, my agony ripping through my heart and tearing me to pieces.
I failed him. I failed Jack. I was supposed to watch over him. That precious beautiful human, my best friend for keeps, was gone. I’d felt grief. I’d known loss. But this was something much stronger, more powerful, and more dangerous. I wanted to hurt something or someone. Revenge, hatred, anger, and every horrible emotion I could possibly feel ate through my soul.
My face burned, and heat consumed me. Not just me but everyone around me, and the entire space in the house. I felt as though I’d lost myself somewhere in another realm.
Then the light burst, and tiny little lights floated around us like fireflies, and then one by one, the lights flowed back into the edelweiss flower, pulling inky tendrils from Jack’s chest. His chest wound began to slowly mend until he no longer had the marks, as if he had never been sliced open by the demons.
At last, he gasped a breath.
“Jack.” I stood up, baffled by what had happened, as happy tears poured like a broken faucet.
Jacques placed an arm on me. “Thank you, Lucia. Your love for Jack and your angel light triggered the edelweiss to work as it did for the Snow Queen. You saved him. I’m forever in debt to you.”
I smiled, not because of what Jack’s father said, but because Jack opened his eyes.
“Did we win the war?” he asked groggily and then asked again. “Why are you all staring at me like that? And why are you all crying? And why am I on the sofa all bloody?”
We laughed. A joyful sound indeed.
“We have so much to tell you, Jack,” I said. “You’re going to be just fine.” I choked up again, thanking God for the miracle and my light.
Chapter 35
A Week Later
Eli
“Eli, come eat with us,” my mother said, shuffling the plates around on the dining table.
The aroma of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and beans made my hunger pangs worse. I let the curtains fall and headed to the dining table, thinking about Jack and Lucia.
Milani had told me everything that happened. I couldn’t believe Jack almost died. Our team wouldn’t be able to handle another loss after Abel. I had so much guilt and regret over Abel, but there was nothing I could do to fix it. All that time being mad at him and blaming him for my mother’s death should have been spent being friends. I blamed myself for being an idiot. But the strange encounter I had with Abel, whether I was dead or had astral traveled to him somehow, gave me some peace and closure.
As I rested and healed, I would look out the window and imagine Lucia walking through the forest to visit me. Had she gone back to Crossroads without saying goodbye? Perhaps it was better that way.
She dese
rved someone better, someone who hadn’t tried to kill her. But I still missed her so much. I would do anything to see her again. To tell her how sorry I was. And to one day live with her in one of the secluded cabins where no one could find us except for our friends and family.
Though Cyrus no longer controlled me, I felt a strange emptiness, like a part of me was missing. It took one week to regain my strength and get back to myself after being frozen by my mother, the Snow Queen. I still couldn’t wrap my head around that. Sitting down next to her, I picked up a fork and smiled at Milani sitting across from me.
Milani’s face beamed. She gazed at her mother to her left, and that cheeky grin took me back to our younger days, except Sabina wasn’t with us then.
Mother told me she had planned it all out with my father to capture Cyrus. If plan A didn’t work out, plan B would be in place—Kalani would stay behind to watch me, and Sabina and Halina would hide in a cabin that had been placed under a protection spell. Two unexpected incidents turned even plan B upside down: They hadn’t planned for mother to get captured, and they hadn’t expected Halina to be a traitor. She was the one who ratted my mother and father out to Cyrus.
Nobody knew what happened to Halina and her daughter. Mother assumed Cyrus killed them after he got the information he needed. We also didn’t know what happened to Mortem. Mother figured he was happy to be free from Cyrus and took off to form his own group. As for Clarissa, giving Lucia the true cross dagger was a huge surprise and a turning point in our battle.
Mother also explained how she came to be the Snow Queen, which I already knew, and then she told me about what she went through after she escaped the castle. We didn’t know where Lilith and Cain went, but we didn’t care. I assumed they would stay clear from Kauai, away from my mother.
“Eat your beans, sweetheart,” Sabina said to her son.
“I don’t like beans, Mama.” He pouted with his lips pursed. Connor only being five at the time plans were in motion, he was the lucky one that got to stay with his mother. I wondered who his father was, but that question would have to wait for another day.
“Eli, aren’t you hungry? You’ve been picking at your food,” Sabina said, sounding like a concerned mom.
I glared at Milani when she kicked me under the table. “I…um…I’m not hungry.”
“Well you’re sure an artist.” Sabina giggled, hooking a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
I glanced down where she had gestured with her eyes. A letter L had been shaped in my mashed potatoes. Oh God. Shoot me now. My cheeks burned. I had never been so embarrassed in my life. Milani smirked, and I almost gave her the bird, but instead I gave her a don’t-you-dare glare when she flapped her hands to mimic Lucia’s wings.
Mom placed her fork down and cleared her throat. “Eli. You’re better, so you may visit whomever you want. You’re not a prisoner. You’re allowed to see your friends.”
Every time I looked at my mom, my eyes focused on the crystal pendant on her necklace. My father had been extracted from Cyrus’s body into that crystal. Until either mother regained her full strength or found a way to bring Father out of there, he would be stuck. At least for that moment, he was safe.
Mom and I hadn’t spoken about Lucia yet, but she knew how much I cared for my angel. She would be fine with it, eventually. It didn’t matter. Lucia would go back home, but I wanted to see her one last time before she left. The thought that I couldn’t broke my heart, and I felt so broken, my heart crumbled like the demons did when they died.
“I have some friends I’d like to see,” I announced. “I’ll eat later.”
After a smile of approval from my mom, right where I sat, I altered into my demon form and misted away. I never cared for my wings, nor would I use them if I didn’t need them. They served their highest purpose when I took Lucia to the stars. How I longed for that moment again.
I appeared at Lucia’s front door and knocked. The neighborhood seemed to be untouched by the volcano, or the angels had cleaned it up. I hadn’t looked beyond the premises, so I didn’t know how close the lava came to wiping them out. The whole island’s population had dwindled down to a handful of people that decided to stay and fight instead of getting off the island. It would be some time until everyone came back home. Ashes continued to fall, and the air wasn’t healthy for the humans yet.
“Eli. It’s good to see you.” Zach opened the door wider and let me in. “You look well. We wanted to visit you, but we couldn’t get in touch with you. Milani told us you were resting.”
“It’s fine. I’m glad everything is fine.” I lacked words as I glanced about my limited view. No sight of Lucia.
“Eli?” Davin practically ran to me from the kitchen and tackled me. When he let go, a genuine smile spread his face. “I’m glad you’re back to yourself.”
“I’m better. Thank you.”
“Lucia is not here. She’s at Jack’s place. He almost didn’t make it.”
I raked my fingers back over my head. “Yeah. I heard. I’m glad he didn’t…um…”
“Yeah,” Davin said. Seemed like we were all having a difficult time finding the proper words to say.
I cleared my throat, getting choked up. “Abel?”
Uncle Davin led me to the sofa, and we sat down for a chat.
“We wanted to wait until you were healed,” Zach explained. “The funeral is in three days. We confirmed the date with Milani. She was supposed to let you know.”
I nodded.
“If you want, you can head to Jack’s place. They would love to see you,” Uncle Davin said.
“Sure.” I rose from my seat, but before I opened the door, I asked, “When do you go back?”
“After the funeral.” Something in his eyes told me he didn’t want to go.
“That’s so soon,” I said softly, unable to meet his somber eyes. Then I said the unthinkable thing. “I’m sorry for causing so much trouble. I wish you didn’t have to go. I’m going to miss you.” I rushed through the door, feeling like a huge dork for being so emotionally unstable.
“Elmo!”
I stopped after a few steps, smiling at the stupid nickname he had given me. Funny how before it pissed me off, but then, I cherished it. Uncle Davin appeared before me, gripping my shoulder, forcing me to meet his eyes when he spoke.
“It wasn’t your fault. Cyrus killed Abel, not you. He’s the evil monster, not you.” He poked my chest, his eyes dancing in fury. “He controlled you, but you fought back. You’re a good person. Do you hear me? Don’t you dare feel sorry. We almost lost Jack, and we almost lost you. I…I know how you feel.” His grip on me tightened, and I felt his pain. He pretended he didn’t care at times, but he truly cared about us. I guess in a way we all did that, pretended not to give a shit so our heart wouldn’t break. A broken heart hurt like hell.
“I hear you, Mr. Pre—“
“No. You call me Uncle Davin.” He shook me lightly.
“Okay.” I grinned as if I had been finally accepted into a club or something.
“Okay.” He patted my shoulder.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay,” he said. “Stop saying okay, okay?”
“Okay.” I chuckled.
Then he tossed me a set of keys. “Your bike. I guess I have to return it sooner or later.”
“Thank you.” I chuckled lightly.
As fast as he came, he left. Taking in a breath, I strolled ahead as lingering ashes fell from the volcano. I froze. My senses whirled at the sweet scent I knew all too well. Lucia stood still not too far from me, looking straight at me. It seemed as though she was in shock and didn’t know what to do.
I took the first step, another step, and then another, until I was running to her in human speed. Slow and deliberate, taking all of her in.
Lucia
Every second of the day, I thought of Eli. I wanted to see him, but I needed to give him space. In truth, I wasn’t sure if his mother would welcome me. Milani gave us updat
es on his progress, and that had to be good enough.
After Abel’s funeral, we would head back to Crossroads. A part of me missed my home, but a part of me would always belong in Kauai. Living among the humans had changed me. I could see why many angels blending in with the humans had a difficult time going back home. Elders ordered us not to get attached, but it was nearly impossible.
After I visited Jack, I decided to walk home, to replay the good memories from before the volcano erupted. The air seemed to tease me. Sweet coconut and an earthy scent filled my whole body, reminding me of Eli and our times together.
The world stopped.
Eli stood near my home, on the sidewalk of all places. I stilled, wondering if I had imagined him there. Perhaps I missed him so much that I saw a memory of him.
My Eli wore jeans and a black T-shirt. The wind ruffled his hair. He appeared exactly how I remembered him from the cafeteria—a bad boy with a beautiful heart, too gorgeous for his own good. My heart thundered, and for a moment I forgot everything. I lived in that moment with my imaginary Eli.
The image began to walk faster, faster, until it was running. Not an image—Eli! I ran in human speed, savoring the bliss thundering in my heart, expanding so much I thought I would burst.
Finally, our bodies collided in desperation. His arms lifted me up, my legs wrapped around his hips, and my arms circled his neck. As I held onto him tightly, I sobbed into the crook of his neck—for all the time lost, for missing him, for all that he endured, for all the unfairness in life, for being there with me, and finally for being alive.
“Lucia. My Lucia. I’ve missed you so much,” Eli breathed.
The sweet words I’d longed to hear. “I missed you so much, Eli.”
Eli lowered me. Cupping my face, he kissed my forehead, my cheeks, my eyes, my nose, and then finally my lips. Slow at first, burning through every fiber of my being, and then fireworks exploded from the intensity of his kiss. His kiss showed me how much he missed me and how much he wanted me.