Lilith wiped her face frantically. She lifted her hands for everyone to see. “What is this? What’s this liquid coming out of my eyes?”
Kara let go of David’s hand and edged closer to Lilith—and stopped dead in her tracks.
Lilith’s eyes were blue, a sparkling blue. Tears spilled onto her cheeks, and her skin was a natural pinkish mortal color.
“Why isn’t it stopping?” cried Lilith as she rubbed her eyes. “It keeps coming out. It’s disgusting!” She wailed.
A smile appeared on Kara’s lips. “Those are tears. That’s what happens when people cry. When mortals cry.”
Lilith froze. She stared at the tears on her hands. “No, you’re crazy. I’m a demon princess! I’m not mortal, you stupid monkey-lover. This must be a temporary glitch because of the Arath. It’ll go away. You’ll see.”
Kara laughed. “You’re now mortal through and through. Demons can’t cry; even angels can’t cry. It’s one of the advantages of being mortal—to feel emotions. You’re mortal, little sister. Get used to it.”
“Impossible!” spat Lilith. “That makes no sense, I can’t be mortal. There must be an explanation for this. It’ll go away, I’m sure of it.”
Kara examined Lilith closer. Her hair had become more blond than white. Her face was flushed from crying, and her chest rose and fell as she gulped down buckets of air. “I think that when the weapon was destroyed, it must have changed you into a mortal. It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”
David grabbed Lilith’s hand and poked her palm gently with his blade. She cried out. A blob of red seeped from her palm. He looked up and beamed. “Blood. She’s mortal all right. Kind of ironic, don’t you think?”
Lilith pulled her hand away and backed up, shaking her head. “No! No! No! This can’t be happening! I’m a demon! Not a mortal!”
With a flick of his wrist, David sheathed his weapon inside his jacket. “How does it feel to be amongst the living, Snow White?”
Lilith threw herself at Kara’s feet and grabbed fistfuls of her pants. “Oh, please, Kara. Change me back, I beg you! You’re my sister...don’t you care about me? Please don’t leave me like this. I smell. I can’t smell. I’m disgusting. I can’t live like this! I’ll...I’ll die!”
Kara knelt down and grabbed Lilith’s hands in hers. “I think this is the best thing that can happen to you, Lilith. Being human is a wonderful thing. You might even grow to enjoy it.”
“No, please, Kara. I’ll do anything you want, anything!” wailed Lilith. “I will never hurt you, I promise. I want us to be sisters. Please don’t leave me like this.”
Part of her felt sorry for Lilith, but she knew Lilith couldn’t harm anyone anymore as a mortal. “Even if I could change you back I wouldn’t. And I can’t. You’re going to be fine, dearest sister. You might even learn to love and appreciate being alive. It’s more of a blessing than a punishment.”
Kara let go of Lilith and stood up.
“No! Don’t leave me here with these monkeys! I am a demon princess! I have powers! I’m immortal!” Lilith threw herself on the ground in a tantrum, punching and kicking the ground in a fit of rage.
“She’ll cool off once she starts to get hungry,” said Jenny, and her face brightened. “I never thought this day could end so perfectly. I can’t wait to see the look on Ariel’s face when we tell her about Lilith. God I love my job.”
“Kara, what was it you wanted to say earlier?” asked David as he stood beside her.
Kara stared at the faces of her friends. They all waited for her to answer. It was time to tell them—to tell them everything.
She reached inside her shirt and pulled out the crystal timer. She let it hang over her chest. With a quick glance at the nearly empty top glass, she knew that her time as a guardian was in its last seconds.
Jenny grasped the timer gently. “What is that?” She rolled it in her hand, examining it. But when Kara didn’t answer, she let it go gently and took a step back.
Kara stared at her feet. She opened her mouth, but the words died in her throat. How could she tell them that it was all over for her? The oracles had warned her not to tell anyone, so she hoped they could figure it out.
“I knew it wasn’t an ordinary necklace,” said David fearfully. “You had it with you when you came back, after you killed the Seir. This is what you’ve been keeping from me, isn’t it? There’s something bad about this necklace, isn’t there? Isn’t there?”
Kara only nodded—frightened that she would disappear if she spoke.
“Kara, what’s he talking about?” asked Jenny, her eyes wide with fear. “Why is that necklace bad? What’s going on?”
Kara’s eyes flicked to David’s, but she remained silent.
“So what happens when the sand runs out?” Peter inspected the crystal timer more closely. “It’s almost empty.” He eyed Kara worriedly.
But Kara didn’t answer; she couldn’t. She could see terror and recognition reflected in David’s eyes. She pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling.
“This is because of what you did to Ranab, isn’t it?” said David, his voice rising. “That second chance the oracles said they gave you...it was only for a few hours? You were on a freaking timer! But...but what’s going to happen to you once it’s empty?”
Jenny’s eyes widened. “Kara, you’re scaring me. What is that thing?”
A warm sensation tingled inside Kara, like warm rain. Her M-5 suit started to glow until it was consumed in brilliant little particles. She lifted the crystal timer—all the crystals lay at the bottom of the glass.
It was over. Her time was up.
“Kara, what’s happening to you? What’s going on?” said David, fear increasing in his voice.
Kara gazed at her friends and smiled painfully. She forced the words out of her mouth. “I’m not supposed to talk about it, but seeing as my time is up, I might as well let you know what I can.”
Jenny sobbed, and Kara smiled at her comfortingly. “It’s all right, Jenny. It’s not as bad as it looks. I messed up, and I have to accept the consequences. The oracles gave me a second chance with a time limit. I only had twelve hours to get the mission done. My hours are up, and it’s time for me to say goodbye. I’m going to miss you guys terribly.”
“No!” cried Jenny. “We’re a team; you can’t go. I won’t let you, I won’t!” Her bottom lip quivered. Peter held her hand and stared at the ground.
Kara’s soul was breaking, but she put on a brave face. “You’ll be fine, I promise. I love you guys dearly, and I’ll miss you...more than I can say. I just can’t find the words.”
“Are we ever going to see you again?” asked Peter, his voice trembling.
Kara shook her head. “Not as a guardian angel.”
“This is not happening. The legion has to do something,” said David, as he pulled his hair. “I mean, after everything you’ve done, how can they do this? They owe you. I don’t accept this. It’s screwed up. I’m going to give the High Council a piece of my mind! I swear to you, I’m not letting them get away with this!”
“This is my fault, David. I did this. It’s not the legion’s fault—it’s mine. I broke the rules, and I have to pay for what I’ve done.”
“But it’s not right! It’s not fair,” shouted David. “How many times did you save the legion—and the mortal world? You only killed the mortal to save another mortal’s life? This is ridiculous! You saved an elder’s life. What are they thinking? I won’t let them do this to you.”
“It’s over, David,” said Kara. “There’s nothing you can do to change this. It’s time for me to go. Promise me you won’t do anything too stupid after I’m gone. Okay?”
David didn’t answer. He kicked the ground with his boot and turned around. His shoulders shook.
Kara stepped closer to him. She cupped his face into her hands and kissed him on the mouth gently. For a moment, she felt as though she was in her mortal body again and back at the bookstore with David, having a no
rmal life. But after everything that had happened, she wasn’t sure she could return to the mortal life she had before she had killed a mortal. The rules had changed. Perhaps she would never see David again...
Finally, Kara pulled away. She looked into his pained blue eyes. “Don’t forget me,” she whispered.
David frowned and reached out to her, but his arms fell through the air.
Kara’s body had disappeared.
Chapter 21
A cold shower
After the grogginess had lifted, Kara stood in front of the four doors again. It had been quite an adventure, and she had no regrets. She knew deep down that she would have killed Ranab again and again to save Elder Otis. It was just who she was, a guardian of the mortals, and she had chosen to take the life of one mortal to save the life of another. She’d accepted her fate, and now it was time to move on.
She forced David’s sad eyes from her mind and gazed at the four doors. Tall and elegant as they were, they looked as though they belonged in a grand hotel, not as portals to the end of her supernatural life. Which one to open? She wasn’t back here because she had unintentionally or intentionally killed another mortal. Her twelve hours were up, and there was just one door to be opened.
Kara wrapped her hand around the golden handle of Door # 4, Other. She pushed it open and stepped to the other side.
There were no other guardians lining up in front of the showers in the giant bathroom this time around. A single cherub held a large glass and waited for her soul.
She avoided his eyes and looked around. A drop of water fell from one of the showerheads and disappeared down the drain—that would be her body soon—melting away until there was nothing left of her but her hovering soul.
She looked to the right side of the room. She hadn’t seen them when she first came in, but the same three oracles that Kara had met before sat on their crystal balls in front of a long wooden desk. They busied themselves with paperwork once again. Unconsciously, she grasped the crystal timer in her hand and squeezed it tight. The oracles looked up as she approached them.
“Ah, Kara Nightlinder,” said the oracle on the left, “Here you are at last! We’ve been quite anxious to see you.”
“You have? You’re happy to see me?” Kara frowned as she studied the oracles’ faces. “I wasn’t sure you would be after what happened.”
The oracle clapped his hands excitedly. “Of course we are, dear girl. What nonsense!” He leaned forward, and his crystal ball rolled and tapped the edge of the table. “You’ve succeeded in your mission and within your restricted time limit. You stopped Lilith from getting the other piece of the Arath and have saved the mortal world. This is tremendous! You’ve broken all the records!” He puffed out his chest proudly.
Kara screwed up her face. “I have? But I accidentally destroyed the weapon. I thought you’d be mad.”
This time the oracle in the middle spoke. “Mad? Of course we’re not mad, Tara. The events have turned out better than we had envisioned. With your personal touch, the Arath has been destroyed, and no entity, good or evil, can ever use it again.”
“Good has prevailed over evil, once again,” said the oracle on the right, and he stood up on his crystal ball with his fist in the air. “Evil is like a storm—it may have its day, but in the end it will pass.” He turned and looked to the others. “I should be on stage.”
“Indeed. I’ve always told you so,” said the oracle in the middle. “You’d make a brilliant actor.”
The oracle scratched his beard. “Yes, I believe I would.”
Kara lifted the chain over her head and placed the crystal timer on the table. The sand crystals glimmered and cast little specks of white light along the great desk.
“Um...there’s something else I need to tell you. I don’t think I’m good, well not entirely. I think there’s evil in me...I felt it.” She lowered her head.
The oracles were silent. She could see that they were looking at her very carefully. She felt relieved now that she could finally speak of it freely.
“There’s darkness in me,” she continued. “Morthdu told me so when I was in the netherworld. I felt a connection to it then, and it became stronger. The darkness came out of me when I fought Lilith. It took over my elemental power. Part of me liked it. I guess it’s good that I can never be a guardian anymore, because I think I might not be able to control it again. I think I’m evil. I think that’s what my father had planned all along—that I should be a creature of darkness.” Kara stared at her boots. Her head fell heavy, and she thought she might tip over.
“You are certainly not a creature of evil,” one of the oracles said. She peeked up at them through her eyelashes.
“I’m not? But I felt it take control over me . . .”
“But you resisted.” The oracle in the middle interlaced his fingers and watched Kara with gentle eyes. “Only an angel of pure soul could resist temptation from the dark powers of the netherworld. And you my dear, shattered the link.”
Kara shook her head. “I don’t understand. How did it get there in the first place?”
The oracle on the right answered. “Because it existed in Asmodeus. He became a creature of the netherworld because he embraced its darkness until it consumed him. And so he passed it on to you. The darkness lay dormant for a while inside you, until the power of the elemental woke it. We’ve seen it happen before; we just didn’t know when it would.”
Kara wished that the oracles had been more open about this when she first came here. Perhaps she wouldn’t have been so freaked out.
“It tried to draw you in,” said the oracle in the middle. “To consume you, to make you a slave of its power—but you resisted.”
Kara raised her brows. “So...I’m not evil? Really?” A hint of a smile reached her lips.
“Of course not. Would we have entrusted such a delicate mission to you if we thought you were evil?” the oracles shared a look and laughed.
Kara rolled her eyes.
The oracle on the left spoke. “You see, you could have chosen to embrace the darkness, but you chose not to. Power in itself isn’t evil—it’s what you do with it that determines whether it is good or bad.”
Relief washed over Kara. What the oracles said made sense. Her actions spoke for themselves. She was a badass guardian angel—but now her career was over. Emptiness welled inside her like a giant hole.
Something nagged at her in the back of her mind. “Um, if I’m made mortal again, what about the terrorist thing?”
“All taken care of,” said the oracle to her right. “The events caused by Lilith and the Arath have been wiped out, so to speak. They have been erased from the mortal world. It’s as though they never happened. All is well in the mortal world, once again.”
“So...that’s it then,” she said as she fought down the emotions that threatened to take her over. “I’ll never be a guardian angel ever again. It’s all over for me.”
The oracles nodded sadly, “It is.”
The oracle on Kara’s left shifted uncomfortably on his crystal ball. “I’m sorry, but the law is the law. You killed a mortal, and you must suffer the consequences, as other angels have done before you. But know this, Tara—only an angel of pure heart would have sacrificed their soul for the life of a mortal. It speaks greatly of you, and we will never forget it.”
“Thank you,” said Kara, not knowing what else to say.
“You have served the legion well, and we thank you,” said the same oracle. With a smile, he lifted a grubby little arm and pointed it to the shower stalls behind Kara. “And now your mortal life awaits you.”
“Right.” Kara sighed and looked over to the showers. She remembered the grim faces of the angels that stood in the showers. Her time had come. The cherubs waited silently by the showers, their eyes all fixed on her.
“May the souls protect you, Clara Nightingale,” said the oracles together.
Dragging her feet, Kara walked over to the first shower stall and step
ped in. She saw her sad face reflected back on the glass walls. In the corner of her eye, she saw the cherub with the glass jar move closer towards her. She raised her head and looked up at the large showerhead, wondering if the water would hurt.
Even in her saddened state, Kara was glad to have had the experience of being a guardian angel. Angels existed, and they existed to protect the mortals from demons. It had been a supernatural experience of gargantuan proportions, and she had loved every minute of it. She would do it again in a heartbeat—if she’d ever have the chance again.
But now she looked forward to a normal life. A mundane life with David, she hoped.
“See you on the other side, David.”
Kara reached out and pulled the chrome lever on the right of the shower. Sparkling water gushed from the shower head. It hit her face and washed over the rest of her body. The water was warm and smelled sweet, like sugar, not at all like the salt water from the pools in Horizon. Tiny crystals formed over her body until her skin was completely covered in a coat of glittering diamonds.
Drowsiness came over her. She tried to keep her eyes open, but her heavy lids fluttered shut. As the particles started to dissipate, Kara finally allowed herself to drift into sleep. The water spilled over her and disappeared into the drain.
With a last shimmer Kara, the guardian angel, was no more.
Chapter 22
A Mundane Life
“Mr. Patterson? Where does this one go?” Kara held up an old book. She wiped the layer of grime from its cover and read the inscription. “Uh…Nineteen Eighty Four, by George Orwell. Where do you want me to put it?”
“In the classic novel section, dear.” Mr. Patterson gently polished a fist-sized crystal ball. He raised it above his head and twisted it in his hand slowly, marveling at its brilliance. Placing it back gently beneath the counter, he reached in and pulled out another identical crystal from his collection. He started polishing it with a piece of white cloth.
The crystals were the only things in the entire bookstore that Kara wasn’t allowed to touch, which only made her want to touch them more. As she watched him gloat over the crystals, she wondered what his attachment was to these brilliant spheres. Why were they so important to him? Were they priceless? They looked like regular crystals you could buy at the local new-age shops. So why couldn’t she touch them?
Seirs, Soul Guardians Book 5 Page 16