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bedeviled & beyond 03 - bedeviled & beleaguered

Page 26

by Sam Cheever


  I cringed. At least I hoped they were unrecognizable. I wasn’t keen on everybody finding out what a truly horrible surrogate parent I was.

  My father was sitting at the long, wooden table in the center of the room. He looked appropriately worried.

  Myra sat across from him, a steaming mug in her hands and a violent expression on her face. She looked like she was ready to go all ethnic on somebody’s ass.

  Flick was sitting on the counter next to the drink valet with something pink and fruity looking in his pale, freckled hands.

  A girly drink. Maybe I needed to reassess the having balls thing.

  Snatching the fruity drink away from him, I handed it to Glynus. She burbled happily and stuck the straw up her nose.

  Flick glared at me and another drink appeared in his hand.

  I punched a black cup of coffee into the drink valet and waited for it to dispense. Then I carried it to the table and sat down next to my father, across from my aunt. I took a sip and closed my eyes in pure bliss.

  Setting the mug down, I glanced at Flick. The wretched expression on his face told me things were bad.

  My father turned to me. “How did your session with the prophet go?”

  I shrugged, “She wasn’t very helpful as usual and she said the summons would count against my lifetime limit. That’s just not fair.”

  He frowned. “Astra.”

  I sighed. I tended to take the long road around things that made me uncomfortable or unhappy. It wasn’t one of the personality traits I was particularly proud of but at least I recognized it as a failing.

  I figured that was worth something.

  “She told me Dialle is dying. The veil is pulling him away from the light and it’s killing him.” Frowning, I took another sip of coffee. But it had lost its appeal.

  “And your sister?”

  I chewed my lip and thought about a way around the stab of panic that hit my gut every time I thought of Darma in that monster Prince Nille’s hands. I couldn’t find a way to avoid it so I just plunged in. “She didn’t say. But you and I both know it can’t be good. The only good thing is that they will keep them all alive to perform the locking ceremony. They’re safe until that’s done.”

  Myra looked at me, her pretty blue eyes nearly unrecognizable in a face that had turned full on warrior since I’d last seen her. “They can’t perform the ceremony until the last three conduits are in place.”

  I nodded. “I hope you guys have a plan because I haven’t been doing so well keeping conduits out of the Serpent’s hands so far.”

  Flick slid off the counter and walked over to sit beside my aunt. “What else did the prophet say?”

  I grimaced, thinking about the parenting advice I’d ignored to my current dismay. “Some junk about conduits working together but not working together but not being able to be at cross purposes...It made no sense at all. Per usual.”

  My father suddenly pounded the table with his fist and stood up to pace. “We can’t just sit here while Darma’s in danger. I’m going after her.”

  I leapt to my feet and grabbed his arm. “I agree, we need to go after them but we need to have at least some idea what we’re gonna do when we get there. If we just barge in there and they manage to force us into the ceremony everything will be lost.”

  “What else, Astra?”

  I glanced at Flick. “What do you mean?”

  “What else did the prophet say?”

  I shrugged, “Nothing.”

  He stared at me hard for a moment and then shook his head, frowning. “I was sure she would tell you what we needed to know. There’s always a key message in their communications. Something that you need to decipher to solve the problem.”

  I scowled at him, “Who does that?”

  They all looked at me.

  “Who comes up with these rules? Why can’t the prophets just tell us what we need to know. What’s with the frunkin’ riddles?”

  From the floor at my feet a high pitched warbly voice said, “Frunkin’!” Clear as you please and with much enthusiasm.

  “Shi...” I slammed a hand over my mouth and looked at Myra.

  She scowled. “You shouldn’t swear in front of the child.”

  I huffed out a breath, “I know that now! Why didn’t somebody tell me that before I went through my whole repertoire of colorful language?” I forced the prophet’s warnings from my memory and glared at my aunt, who scowled back at me as she’d been doing since I was old enough to remember.

  “What else, Astra?”

  I turned to Flick with fire in my eye, “She told me to wonder why the angels healed!” I said angrily.

  His brown eyes widened. He looked at my father. My father looked at Myra. Myra looked at Flick.

  My father turned to my guardian, “Go, Flick. Go now.”

  Flick nodded and popped out.

  I turned to my father, “What?”

  “We’ve suspected all along that there is some connection between the plague and the veil but we haven’t been able to discover what it is. Your friend Raoul has come very close to finding it for us but there’s something we’ve been missing...something important.”

  I glanced at Myra, “Like what?”

  “Like why Flick and I both healed fairly quickly and no one else has.”

  I frowned, “But they found nothing out of the ordinary in either of you.”

  Myra nodded, “Maybe they shouldn’t have been looking at us. Maybe they should have been looking at those who haven’t healed for the difference.”

  I nodded, sliding back into my chair and picking my mug back up. “But what if they do discover that you carry something the others don’t, how will that help?”

  “It won’t,” my father said, his beatific face dark with worry, unless we can figure out where the difference came from.”

  “Or who,” my aunt added. She was looking at me very strangely.

  “What?”

  “Did you try to heal me when I was sick, Astra?”

  My face reddened with embarrassment. “I-I don’t...”

  “Did you try to heal Flick?”

  Embarrassment fled with the memory of standing over him in his cloud and sending my power into him as he lay unaware and unresponsive on his bed.

  “I-I hit a barrier...”

  Myra looked at my father. “It is her. She’s the missing piece!”

  My father’s face split into a smile that lit up the room. “Well I’ll be damned!” he said as my aunt grinned back at him across the table.

  “Me danned!” came a sweet, warbly voice from under the table.

  “Now look what you did, you taught the little tadpole another swear word!” I felt, once again, like the only one in the room who hadn’t been brought in on a secret and it was making me cranky.

  Especially when my aunt just laughed and pulled me into a very rare hug.

  “It doesn’t matter, Astra. Don’t you see, you healed Flick and me of the Devil’s Plague. That’s never been done before.”

  “But I didn’t...”

  “And the prophet confirmed the connection with her instruction to you. If you can heal the plague my guess is you can stop the veil too.” My father looked so happy I hated to point out to him that I had no frunkin’ idea how I’d healed Frick and Myra let alone how to dispel the veil.

  The air changed and Flick shimmered back into view. His pale, freckled face looked excited. “They tested a couple of the others and it’s true, there is some magic residue in Myra and I...and you too, sir...that the others don’t have.”

  My father frowned, touching his lip.

  “Something Astra did definitely triggered an accelerated healing process.” Flick looked at me and grinned.

  I scowled back at him. “But I hit a barrier.”

  Flick shrugged, “You probably could have blasted through it if you tried hard enough.”

  I shook my head, “I know I’m kind of new at some of this stuff but I have a very good sense of
what I’m capable of and that barrier wasn’t going anywhere.”

  Myra frowned, “But you healed us?”

  I shrugged, “Not right away. It took a while for you to heal.”

  “She’s right. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that you healed fairly quickly after her attempt.” My father’s face looked worried again. I felt bad about that but if we were going to beat back the veil we couldn’t waste time chasing rainbows.

  Flick shook his head. Stubborn damn angel. “I know Astra’s magical interference had something to do with my healing. Maybe the barrier just stopped her from healing us immediately but she set into motion something that was able to heal us within a couple of days.”

  “Then it makes sense that I can’t take down the veil all by myself. Obviously something’s missing in my powers.”

  My father touched my arm, his beautiful blue eyes filled with intensity. “Astra, it’s very important that you tell us exactly what the prophet said to you.”

  I sighed. “Okay, I’ll try.” I stood there for a moment, trying to reach into my memory to grab the prophet’s exact words. “Something about the choice having to be made by Dialle. And that he might have to choose death...but that doesn’t make any sense. Then she said the conduits couldn’t stop the veil if they worked together but we also couldn’t fight each other.” I shook my head, frustrated. “None of it made any sense to me.

  My father laid his hand on my forehead. Where he touched me, warmth spread and my skin began to tingle pleasantly. Suddenly the words tumbled through my mind. “She said the magical plague festers and grows, calling to the special gift. All rests on those who wield it.”

  Myra stepped forward, excitement written large across her pretty face, “Are you certain she said “those who wield it” Astra?”

  I frowned, “I guess, yeah, that’s what she said. Why?”

  My aunt looked at my father, “It has to be Darma.”

  He nodded.

  “What has to be Darma? What the hell are you talking about?” I was oh so sick of being the only one in the room who didn’t know what the hell was going on. And, of course, being the one tasked with fixing the thing I knew nothing about.

  My aunt turned back to me. “Darma’s the missing piece for blasting through the barrier. You and she are the ones who wield the special gift but hers is weighted more to the light and yours to the dark. Apart you lack what it will take to stop the veil. But together...”

  Suddenly I understood, “Together we can stop it. Together we can stop the veil?” I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from my chest. But then the weight dropped again, nearly smothering me with its mass. “And he who unites must decide whether death is necessary...” I looked up at my father, horror swimming in my eyes with a fresh wash of tears. “It wasn’t Dialle’s death the prophet was talking about. It was mine and Darma’s. He has to decide whether he will let us stop the veil and, as a result, stop his people from taking over the world, or kill us to keep us from interfering.”

  My knees buckled and I dropped into the nearest chair. Of course. It all made a twisted kind of sense. Emo’s warnings to me about Dialle. Dialle’s recent coldness.

  “Oh shit!” I murmured as I listened to my heart break. “Dialle’s gonna kill me. Literally.”

  “He might try, Astra,” my father said in his most soothing voice, “but you won’t let him do it. You must stop him.”

  I looked up into my father’s eyes, as filled with pain as mine were. “Yes, Father, I’ll have to stop him. I’ll have to kill him...before he can kill me...” my voice broke and I couldn’t say another word.

  Never in my life had my future been filled with such horror.

  And I’d been immersed in horror almost since I’d popped from my mother’s womb.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Go Time!

  She walked upon familiar ground, her senses on alert,

  Around the altar evil stalked, not easy to avert.

  The Serpent walked beside me again, his evil countenance shrouded in a mist of his own making. We moved toward the cliff edge, high above a pounding Angel City River. The waters far below our feet swirled with angry energy, bursting over rocks worn smooth from the flow of water over time and dashing against the jagged cliffs that rimmed the river.

  He hadn’t spoken. He walked with head down and hands clasped behind his back, pensive and maybe a little angry.

  I waited, content to let him stew in his own thoughts.

  His frustration was my victory.

  Finally, we stood at the edge of the cliff and I gave fleeting thought to my safety. But he needed me yet. I now knew how very much he needed me. Darma and I were special, with unique powers and without us I wasn’t sure he could lock the veil in place.

  The conduits await you.

  I shrugged, saying nothing.

  You have no choice, halfling, I will kill them all if you do not serve me in this.

  I turned to him, praying silently that my bluffing skills had improved with use and time. I’d been bluffing my way through my dealings with the dark world since about the age of five. If I wasn’t good at it by that point I never would be. I’m pretty sure most of them would rather die than do what you’re asking them to do to the human realm.

  It was his turn to shrug. Life is precious to those of the light. They will hold to it with every fiber of their beings. And go to their deaths cursing you for your failure to protect them.

  And there, unfortunately, was my greatest fear. It was as if he’d pulled it from my brain and was whacking me upside the head with it...impossible for me to ignore.

  I sighed. There is that.

  He smiled. You will come to me?

  It was fish or cut bait time. As much as we’d struggled against it, the only way to fight the battle was from within. I steeled myself against the fear and hatred running through me and turned to him. I will come.

  He nodded once and turned to me. The mist slid away and his features were revealed to me. I didn’t recognize the face he showed me but in so many ways it was familiar. It was a handsome face, filled with the light of victory. But its beauty was marred by the evil intent beneath the surface.

  Like a beautiful rose, with mildew on its vibrant petals.

  Come to me then.

  I woke up in my father’s house. My cheek rested on something hard and crunchy. I’d been drinking a cup of coffee and had apparently fallen asleep with my head on the table.

  Something warm and squishy leaned against my arm.

  I sat up and blinked at Flick.

  Glynus opened her bright eyes and said, “Bleurp?”

  Flick looked up from the map he was perusing. “You have crumbs on your cheek.”

  I swiped at my cheek and yawned. “We have to go.”

  He nodded, “I know. Your father and Myra have already left.”

  Fear punched my heart rate into overdrive. “They’ve given themselves over?”

  My guardian nodded.

  I gulped. It was up to me then. It seemed like it was always up to me.

  I cleared my throat and stood up. “The celestial army?”

  Flick stood too. “They’re being gathered now. The sick ones too.”

  I nodded. Then I blew out a breath and tried to smile. “I guess there’s no reason to put this off.” Glynus fluttered her wings and sailed smoothly into my arms. I smiled at her, “Nice flying, tadpole.” The baby dragon gave me a wide dragon grin.

  I turned to Flick, “Shall we go?”

  Flick grabbed my hand. “I’ve just been waiting for you.”

  We entered the sphere without time or space, landing in the woods near the clearing where I’d fought my mother and the angel Enoch for control of the Earth and humanity. The place still showed signs of the battle we’d fought there, months earlier.

  It gave me the creeps to be there.

  Glynus tucked her head under my chin and wrapped her tiny wings around my neck. She was shivering and I could feel her heart
pounding against my chest.

  The woods were eerily silent but filled with a malevolence that coated the skin along with the thickening mist.

  Flick dropped my hand and we started walking in the direction of the clearing. The same unnatural wind I remembered from when I’d been there before with Emo swept through the trees, filled with the tension of black magic being spun nearby.

  Though the wind swung my hair away from me and pulled at Flick’s robes, it did nothing to displace the mist around us.

  My heart pounded and I glanced at Flick. His freckled face looked drawn and pale. I knew the effects of all the black magic on his light soul would be terrible. His forehead already glistened with sweat from the effort of putting one foot in front of the other. I put a hand on his arm. “You need to stay back, away from the conduits.”

  He nodded, “I know. I need to keep a clear head so I can call the army at the right time.”

  “And protect the tadpole.” I handed Glynus to Flick and she squawked in alarm, flapping her tiny wings toward me as if to grab me back.

  “Hush, Glynus!” I told her sternly and felt my heart rip as her sweet face reflected my reprimand. She sagged back into Flick’s arms with a final, sad “Bleurp.”

  I looked at Flick and he said, “I’ll take good care of her, don’t worry.”

  Nodding, I started to turn away. But I realized I couldn’t leave without saying something more to him. I hesitated, staring into his nondescript brown eyes. “Whatever happens, I want you to know it’s been fun working with you. Even if it’s only been for a short while.” I leaned in to give him a kiss on his freckled cheek.

  He actually blushed. “Stop talking nonsense, Astra. You’ll be fine. You don’t have any choice. You have to be.”

  “You sound just like Myra.”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere, Astra.”

  I shook my head, chuckling and turned away. The last thing I heard before stepping through the final line of trees rimming the clearing was Flick’s mumbled supplication, “Go with His love, Astra and bask in His protection.”

  “Amen.” I whispered. Then I looked up into the hell that was my future.

 

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