The three of them stood in silence. Wordlessly, Milo sheathed his spirit sabers, turned and strode off. He crossed the bar and disappeared through the lobby doors.
Alexa tossed the sword and made to move after him, but Lance’s words brought her to a halt.
“Let him go, Alexa,” said the dog. “Just give him some space. He won’t go far.”
Alexa and Lance shared a long look. After a few moments, they set off together following the angel warrior.
CHAPTER 8
THE SUN WAS WELL TO the west by the time Alexa, Milo and Lance reached the next town. A large red and green sign read Henderson, Nevada, and welcomed them to a vast, mountainous region with grasslands and rolls of sandy deserts.
The sky was lined in navy blue and pink. Sunset was coming on fast over the silhouette of the city in the distance. They moved fast in silence and made good time, meandering through the city. If it weren’t for the Scout, Alexa would be completely lost.
Lance prided himself in knowing all the oracle safe houses on the North American continent. It was a hobby of his, and it was the only thing that actually cheered her up a little. But not enough to still the ache in her soul.
They trudged along Boulder Highway south as cars and humanity bustled around them. There were no bodies of the dead from what she could see, but it didn’t stop the unease that crept into her soul. Only a few miles away, it had been a Nephilim apocalypse, yet here, it was as though nothing had happened.
A feeling of foreboding gripped Alexa’s throat and choked her. Something wasn’t right. But she didn’t know what it was. Did Lucifer only pick designated spots to unleash his darkness? Why was Vegas hit and not this neighboring town?
She cut a covert glance at the tall angel. With his eyes on the street, he seemed far away, like his body was here but his spirit was elsewhere. Alexa felt a little hurt by his lack of enthusiasm at her being with him and the way he’d barely acknowledged her presence.
While in Tartarus, Alexa had played the scene over and over in her head, the day when she’d finally meet him again—the way-too-long-stare, the pause before the tackling embrace, and the passionate kiss that followed. Yes, she knew it was very immature, but those dreams had kept her company in Tartarus. The thought of Milo had kept her warm, inside and out. He had been her rock. Part of her, the crazy part, had wanted to crash into his arms and kiss him all over his face until he was covered in lip-bruises. The other part wanted to scream, “I’m right here!”
But she found herself unable to approach the gloomy angel. The way he walked—the tightness in his shoulders, the tight line of his mouth, his never-ending frown—said he didn’t want to talk.
Milo had been silent the entire trip, which only made Alexa’s unrest worse. It was clear from the look on his face that some kind of struggle was taking place inside him. Whenever she looked at him, her insides twisted and stretched as she struggled with her own war of emotions. More than once, Alexa had opened her mouth, ready to ask him what his problem was, only to shut it again, feeling abashed. Where would she start? What would she say? What would he answer?
She unclenched her sweating hands and wiped them on her pants. Her heart thumped painfully inside her chest, and she felt out of breath, like she’d just run a long distance. The sensation was too close to being mortal.
For the entire duration of her incarceration in Tartarus, Alexa had thought of nothing but Milo—his sacrifice, his kiss, the times he’d been a royal pain, and of the ache on his face when he’d let her go and stepped through the black mist behind Lucifer. She also remembered all too well her pain at watching him go.
Alexa had always known Milo was the silent type. He hid his emotions well and seemed to be guarding them all the time so they didn’t interfere with his job. It had always been difficult to read him, unlike Erik who wore his emotions on his sleeves, plain for the world to see.
Why hadn’t he spoken to her? Why wouldn’t he even look at her? She didn’t think he regretted the kiss. She knew Milo didn’t do things without first carefully thinking them through. He did it because he had wanted to. So why wouldn’t he look at her now?
But then she realized how selfish she was being. Milo had just killed his own family. No matter how evil they had been, they were still his brothers.
“What happened after you left? With your father?” Alexa questioned, sending her gaze to his face.
Milo answered without looking at her. “He took me to his home with Sabrielle. Of course he built himself a castle. It reminded me of the Elder Guild’s Icefall Castle, but without windows. I didn’t find one window in that damned place, and I searched everywhere… except my father’s quarters. It even had a dungeon. But this castle shifts and moves like a portal. It’s never solid.”
Alexa saw Lance’s ears turn back towards them, though he kept his head straight, and she knew he was listening.
She turned her gaze and studied Milo’s face. “Do you think you could find it again? If we knew where he was, it would make our lives so much easier.” She knew if they could find Lucifer’s lair, they would find him, and then all they had to do was open the vacuum rift.
At Milo’s quizzical brow, she handed him the oracle’s note and quickly told him about the tools they needed to open a vacuum rift and send Lucifer back to purgatory.
“No. It moves around.” Milo gave her back the piece of paper. “It never stays long enough in one spot. It’s not in Horizon or anywhere on Earth. It’s another dimension, a portal within a portal. And it wasn’t long after I got there that I discovered only he controls it. Think of it like a great vessel, docking at different ports around the world only for short periods of time. Whenever I felt a shift, I knew the castle had stopped somewhere. Sometimes demons would board, sometimes angels.”
Alexa saw the tension on his face. “What happened to you in there? I mean, what was it like to be with your father again? It must have been tough to be with him, after all… you did distance yourself from him.”
The frown on his face grew deeper. “Well, for one thing, I was guarded all the time, so I didn’t get to have any real time with him alone. I was never allowed anywhere near my father’s quarters where he discussed all matters of war with Sabrielle and other Greater demons I happened to see. He wanted me with him, but he didn’t trust me enough to share his plans with me. Rightly so. I was planning to take all the information I gathered back to the Legion with me. Father never talked openly about his plans to me, but Sabrielle, well, she’s proud and a fool. She told me that soon everything would change, that the mortal world would never be the same. She called it the transformation.”
Alexa frowned as she walked. “You mean the destruction of the Veil? It’s already happening. It’s going to collapse soon if we don’t stop Lucifer in time. All those demons… without the Legion to protect the mortals. I don’t even want to think about it.”
Milo looked fretful. “The collapse of the Veil was my first thought, but now I’m not so sure.”
Alexa glanced up at the tall angel. “What do you mean? What other transformation could there be?”
“I don’t know.” Milo exhaled warily. “It was the way she said it, like she knew I had no idea what it was—this transformation—and I knew all about the Veil. She knew that I knew. I could be wrong, but I had the feeling she was talking about something else.”
Sabrielle’s smiling face flared up in Alexa’s mind eye, and she felt a hot anger bubble inside her. “You don’t think Lucifer wants to destroy the world and all the mortals in it? I thought that’s what bad guys did, destroy worlds and everything in them.”
“It’s what we were taught to believe,” answered Milo. “That Lucifer seeks the destruction of the mortal world and the Legion. To destroy what is good and infect it with his madness.”
“And it’s not?” Alexa studied his face. “What are you getting at?”
Milo’s gaze traveled to the sky. “The natural disasters have stopped, right? Since I’ve been back
, I haven’t seen any hurricanes, tornadoes or forest fires. I think it stopped when Hades was destroyed.” Milo hesitated for a moment. “I don’t think my father wants to destroy the mortal world.”
Alexa stared at him incredulously. “Then what? Kill all the mortals and let the animals roam free? It doesn’t make any sense. He still infected the Veil with something. He’s killing it. Whatever he’s planning, it has something to do with the Veil—or at least, he needs it out of the way or something.”
Milo glanced away from her as though searching for an answer but finding none. For a moment he looked even younger than his years, despite his spirit sabers and the stubble on his cheeks.
There was an intent look on Milo’s face. “I don’t know,” he answered finally. “But whatever it is, it’s worse than anything we can imagine.”
“What could be worse than killing every last living soul?” Alexa studied his face, and when he didn’t answer, she pressed. “And what about the Nephilim? We saw the devastation of what a few Nephilim could do. What would happen if a hundred of those creatures were loose in the world? Maybe that’s what Sabrielle meant by the transformation. Maybe she meant your father was brewing an army of Nephilim. Those were only four. What about all the others?”
Milo was quiet, and then, “That’s just it.”
“What is?”
“There aren’t any more Nephilim,” Milo explained. “My father hasn’t… spawned more. He hasn’t resurrected the others, or maybe their souls were destroyed all those years ago. I can’t be sure, but what I do know for sure,” he looked at her. “Those Nephilim were the last.”
Lance glanced over his shoulder. “If I wasn’t still sore, I’d be doing my happy dance right about now. But I’m smiling, even if you can’t tell. This is me smiling.”
Alexa lifted her gaze to Milo. His face was expressionless—made of stone—and she couldn’t tell how the death of his brothers affected him. But he had gone rigid all over, his stride stiff, as though his legs were bars of iron. Her eyes moved to his lips. Heat rushed to her face at the memory of them against hers, his hard chest pressed against her. She stifled the urge to pull his face to hers.
Milo turned his head, and their eyes met. Alexa quickly averted her eyes. “Was there an attack on the Legion?” he asked. “I heard Sabrielle boasting about how she would soon be reunited with the banished archangels Barakiel and Sorath.”
“They attacked Tartarus.” Alexa stared at the street as she walked, gathering her thoughts. “It’s how I got out.” She could still feel Milo’s gaze on her, but it was her turn to avoid his eyes. “Before we left, the Legion evacuated everyone. Lance said they’d heard rumors that the order was going to attack Orientation, so they moved everyone from levels one and three and put them on levels two and five. They shut it down, Milo. The Legion of angels is on lockdown.”
They walked in silence for a long while. The only sounds were Lance’s nails scratching the pavement and the clanking of their boots.
“I’m sorry that happened to you.” Milo’s voice was soft. All of the hardness from before was gone. “You didn’t deserve to be cast out to Tartarus. The Legion knew Sabrielle was acting on my father’s orders. She tricked us.” He was silent. “It was wrong of them to do so.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Alexa kicked a small pebble in the road, trying hard to quell the anger that was forming in her gut. “I got out, thanks to my friend Nathaniel and his buddies. I thought he was going to kill me. But he didn’t. The idiot actually thanked me. Thanked me for rescuing Lucifer.” Alexa felt sick as the words came out of her mouth. “According to Lance, the Legion says I’m a fugitive working with Nathaniel.”
“They can’t think that. Surely the archangel Ariel doesn’t.”
“Maybe not.” Alexa gritted her teeth. “But I’m willing to bet Metatron and the others do. I made a mess of things. I just want my chance to fix it, that’s all.”
“We both did. We both made a mess of things.”
When Alexa moved her gaze over to him, he looked at her for a while before a smile touched his lips.
Despite herself, Alexa found herself smiling back and had to pull her eyes away before they revealed too much. She couldn’t help it. He had that effect on her. It didn’t help that he was stilling watching her as they walked in silence. Alexa didn’t trust herself to speak.
They were quiet for some time, and then Milo asked, “Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“What my father said,” inquired Milo, watching the street. “About your gift.” He paused. “About not having the soul channeling ability anymore.” His voice was hollow and urgent, like he didn’t want to admit it and thought the loss of her gift lessened their chances of stopping Lucifer.
Heat rose to Alexa’s face. “Yes.” She averted her eyes as soon as she saw him turn back to her.
“How do you feel about that?” Milo asked. “I know how you were questioning it. You weren’t sure if it was light or dark, good or evil. It frightened you, not knowing how to use it properly. I also remember a part of you was excited at the prospect of having something unique and powerful. What I’m trying to ask, very inarticulately, is how are you coping? It’s a loss, in a way. A part of you is gone.”
He was way too perceptive, and that was still as irritating as hell to Alexa. Her lips pressed tightly together.
When Alexa didn’t reply, he continued. “I know I said I would help you train—”
“Guess you’re free of that obligation.” Alexa wasn’t sure where the bitterness was coming from. She was ashamed as soon as she realized what she’d done. Milo was the last person she wanted to be spiteful to.
“I got my memories back” she said quickly. “At least, there’s that to be thankful for. I remember all of it—the good and the bad. I remember my mother most of all, the life I had with her.”
“Do you miss her?”
Alexa was surprised to feel her eyes burn. “I do. She’s got no one to look after her now that I’m… you know… dead. I wish the Legion allowed us to check up on our family members once in a while. Not that it matters for me anymore. As soon as the Legion is up and running again, it’s prison for me.” She suppressed a shiver. “What will happen to my mother if the Veil disappears?” Her voice was low and harsh, and she swallowed to soothe the ache in her throat.
Milo didn’t answer for a while. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Alexa knew exactly what he meant—the destruction of mankind, the demon rule, the Lucifer rule. In her mind’s eye, she saw the mortal world burning with death all around, like the devastation of what was purgatory, a world of ash and fire and monsters. The mortal world would eventually be empty of life. Only darkness would remain.
“How did you end up with your brothers anyway?” asked Alexa, as the last rays of the evening sun warmed her back. “If you say your daddy didn’t trust you, why send you off with them? Why not keep you locked up in his moving castle?”
Milo’s stride became stiffer. “It was another one of his tests. He wanted to see how I would react when my brothers decided to play ‘how many mortals can you kill in under a minute.’ He doubted my loyalty. I think he knew what my brothers would do if I’d tried to stop them. I tried to fake it for the sake of the Legion. I even had Sabrielle convinced. I endured their mockery of the Legion and the angels. But when the killing started…” Milo’s jaw tightened. “It was like my childhood all over again. You got a glimpse of what it was like in purgatory. Once they tasted blood, they didn’t stop. I tried to stop them, but when I stopped and tried to save a mortal girl of about ten, they overtook me.”
“They beat you, didn’t they?” came Lance’s voice from ahead.
“They did worse than that,” said Milo. “I slipped away when Hadaz was sewing his new kill to her chair. It sickened me. But I knew I needed to leave to let my body heal… as much as it could before I went back.” The last of his words came out sounding forced, like he scar
cely believed what he was saying.
“To kill them,” said Alexa, and she knew it to be true as soon as the words escaped her lips.
Milo nodded. “To keep them from hurting anyone else ever again.”
CHAPTER 9
THEY WALKED IN SILENCE FOR another mile until Lance led them to a small strip mall just off the highway lined with small, one-story gift shops, a gas station, local diners and a McDonald’s. It was a far cry from the glittering and impressive buildings from the Vegas strip.
The Scout stopped abruptly before a small bookstore nestled between rows of shops. A sign above the door read JP’s Curiosity Shop. The bookstore had a single red door snuggled between two large windows displaying teetering pillars of books and faerie figurines, dragons and very large mushrooms. A handwritten sign taped to the window read Closed for Pixie and Gnome Removal.
Alexa looked over her shoulder. Mortals were locking doors and turning over their open signs to closed. As far as she could tell, no one had noticed them. A bakery stood on the right of JP’s Curiosity shop, and Alexa could still smell the scent of fresh baked breads and pastries.
“This is it,” said Lance as he stood before the red door and scratched the threshold with his paw. “The oracle’s safe house. They’re pretty easy to spot once you know what you’re looking for. The oracles seem to have a fondness for bookstores.”
Milo moved past Lance and tried the door handle. “It’s locked. You wouldn’t happen to have a key, would you?”
“Do you see any pockets on me?” said Lance, a little irritated. He caught Milo’s annoyed face and added, “I thought you could use your fancy swords to cut our way in.” Lance looked at Alexa. “I heard they cut through metal.”
Alexa moved her gaze over to Milo. “Everyone’s closing up. No one’s even looked at us since we arrived. You could use your sabers, and no one would even know.”
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