“I need to go home. Marcus, please. I need to go home now.” Tears streamed down Reese’s face. Marcus nodded.
Caleb turned to Marcus. “You get Reese out of here, I’ll make sure Quinn gets home.”
Marcus nodded, wrapped his arm around Reese, and ushered her out of the restaurant.
“Quinn. Come on. It’s time to go.” Caleb tugged on her sleeve.
Numb, Quinn let Caleb guide her outside and into the passenger seat of his white pick-up.
“I’m so sorry, Quinn.” His sincerity broke the dam, and she cradled her head in her hands, letting the tears pool in her palms. Caleb pulled her head to his chest and ran his fingers through her hair as she cried.
“Better?” he asked, kissing the top of her head.
Quinn nodded, wiped her tears, and pulled away.
“You saw them too, didn’t you? The demons. They killed them, Caleb. And we’re the only ones who know the truth.” Quinn balled her fists, digging her nails into the palms of her hands. If only she had been there, if she hadn’t antagonized Kerstin this morning, maybe she could have stopped it. No matter how she felt about Kerstin, she never wished her dead.
“It’s not your fault. There wasn’t anything you could do to stop it.” Caleb turned on the engine and the radio blared to life. Another reporter interviewing a witness. He pressed the power button, silencing the news.
What good was being Eol Ananael if she couldn’t protect the people she cared for? And where were all the warriors Azrael kept going on about? They were supposed to be protecting human kind. How could The Light let this happen?
“The world has never been a safe place, but this? I’ve never seen so many demons in one place before. God, Quinn, what the hell is happening?”
Azrael’s words floated in her mind through their psychic link. Things are accelerating much faster than anticipated. Elite forces are engaged on all fronts, your entire realm is under attack. This incident doesn’t even compare to the devastation and darkness going on in the rest of your world. Do you see why your role is so important now? The power in the Underworld is growing.
Azrael reached through the window and switched the radio back on.
“Hey. Just because you’re an angel doesn’t give you the right … ”
Azrael opened his wings to their full span, casting a shadow over the truck, and Caleb’s mouth fell open. “Okay. The radio is yours.”
The stations began to flip from news report to news report. A child murdered in Chicago, girls kidnapped in Nigeria, genocide in Sudan, nuclear threat, each account worse than the last.
Quinn covered her ears. “Please, Azrael. I don’t want to hear anymore.”
This is what we fight against, Quinn. What happened to your friends today is happing all over the world. This is what I’ve been trying to impart to you. Humanity depends on you defeating the darkness and re-sealing the veil. Azrael pressed the urgency into her mind, and the magnitude of the situation started to sink in.
I am being called to help push back the hordes. In the meantime, stay home. As soon as I’m back, you must go to Arcadia. We must begin preparations.
“Fine, when you get back, I’ll go.” She might not be able to ignore her calling much longer, but she wasn’t going to Arcadia without at least trying to get through to Aaron. She would have to put her plan into action now, before Azrael got back.
I will be back soon. If you need me, I am just a call away. You will always be my first priority. Azrael bowed to her then shot upward and into the sky.
“Go where?” Caleb asked.
“To my destiny.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Quinn looked at her watch. Half-past six. They had agreed to meet here half an hour ago. Where were they? It would be dark soon, and she wasn’t sure how long Azrael would be gone on his mission for The Light. No doubt, he would put a stop to her plan if he found out. This might be her only chance to contact Aaron before Azrael whisked her away to fulfill her destiny, whatever that meant.
The sound of tires on gravel made her turn around. Marcus’s Jeep appeared around the corner and pulled up next to her, the tinted windows obscuring the sight of any passengers. Quinn’s heart sank when he got out. Reese hadn’t come.
“I can’t believe you picked this place for our experiment. It has some seriously bad juju.” Marcus kissed the gold cross hanging around his neck and mumbled a prayer of protection.
“Where’s Reese?”
“The whole thing with Kerstin and Jeff really freaked her out. I still can’t believe it. She says sorry, but she can’t face anything else tonight.” Marcus looked away and shoved his hands in his pockets. “To be honest, I’m not sure I can either. Maybe we should have ordered pizza and watched funny movies. Try to forget all this pain.
Quinn couldn’t blame either of them for wanting to hide. She’d been doing plenty of that herself over the last month, but this couldn’t wait. Tomorrow Azrael would drag her kicking and screaming to her destiny, and any chance of finding Aaron would be gone.
“What about Caleb?” Marcus asked.
“He’s not coming either. His mom’s out of town, and he didn’t want to leave his younger sister alone, not with everything that’s going on.”
“Yeah, I can’t blame him.” Marcus scratched the side of his jaw.
“Marcus.” Quinn took his hands in hers and squeezed, looking him dead in the eyes. “I know it’s going to be painful, but I need to do this. Aaron needs me, but you don’t have to be here. Give me the spirit board and go back to Reese. She needs you, and there’s no reason I can’t do this myself.”
“No. Aaron wouldn’t want me to leave you.” Marcus shook his head. “Reese wants everything to be the same, to ignore the possibility that he could be out there, hurt, or worse. She doesn’t get it. I can’t stop replaying every second of that night over and over.”
“Me, too. The guilt is like a swarm of ants crawling over my skin. Every time I think I’ve shaken them off, another one bites me.” Quinn stared at her hands. They’d fit perfectly in Aaron’s. She should never have let go.
“Right? I know it’s not my fault. It’s definitely not yours either, although I know you think it is. If I’m thinking it, I can’t imagine how you must feel. Do you play ‘What If’?” Marcus leaned against the doorframe of the Jeep and ran a hand across his scalp.
“All the time,” Quinn admitted.
“The thoughts always start with him telling me we should separate to look for you. I should never have left him, I should have run faster, swam harder, tried to carry both of you.” Marcus balled his fists. “I should have insisted, seen how weak he really was. Sometimes I can’t sleep because I’m analyzing every moment. My brain knows I did everything I could, but my heart—my heart’s broken.”
“Mine too.”
“That’s what Reese doesn’t understand. You’re the only one who gets it. Did you know I haven’t been back in the pool since? I can’t face it. The thing I’ve trained for, worked for my whole life, it’s meaningless. If I couldn’t use it to save my best friend, what’s the point in it?”
“You saved me.” She smiled and Marcus looked away, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand.
“Aaron saved you,” Marcus corrected.
“You both saved me. I’m the reason he’s gone, Marcus. Not you. None of us should have been in that river that night. If I had followed my heart and gone to Homecoming with Aaron, this never would have happened. It’s my fault. He should never have come after me. I wish he had let me die in that water. I would give my life for his if I could.” Confessing to Marcus freed something within her, gave her hope. Knowing she wasn’t alone in her grief, in her contrition.
“Don’t say that. You don’t mean it.”
“I do mean it. I can’t go back and change the past, but I need to make peace with him, somehow.”
“Me, too. That’s why I’m not letting you do this alone,” Marcus co
ntinued. “I’m scared that it won’t work. Or that it will work, and he’ll give us some terrible message from beyond the grave. But no matter what happens, we do this together. He needs us both now. I can’t explain it, but I have this feeling I can’t ignore. This can’t wait; we have to try to get to him.”
“Thank you.” Quinn rushed forward, tackling him in a hug. “I’m scared, and I didn’t really want to do it alone.”
“If there’s a chance to save him now, we have to try.” Marcus stroked her hair and then let go. “Let’s do this before we both change our minds.” Marcus grabbed a backpack from his passenger seat and locked the Jeep.
Shadows darted through the trees, demons, following at a distance as they headed down to the riverbank. The dagger tucked into her boot pulsed against her shin, and her hand itched to pull it from the sheath. A steady breath fortified her shield, and the glowing bubble surrounding her solidified. She reveled in the power of her gift. Controlling when and where she spoke to the demons made her happy. Well, maybe not happy, but their distraction kept her from curling up in a ball and sobbing into her pillow every minute of every day.
“I think this is it.” Marcus rubbed the back of his neck and swatted at a fly. “I haven’t been back here since that night. Everything looks so different now.”
With the river back to its soft, trickling pace instead of bursting its banks, it was hard to tell. In her best guess, this was roughly the spot where Aaron disappeared.
“Close enough.” Quinn settled on a rock outcropping, folding her legs in front. Cold seeped through her jeans, sending a shiver through her bones, and she zipped her black hoodie all the way to her neck.
“And why does the man always have to carry the bag? This doesn’t even go with my shoes.” Marcus tossed a pink and purple backpack to Quinn and settled across from her, taking the same cross-legged position.
“You’re always going on about your muscles. Wouldn’t want them to go to waste, right?” Quinn unzipped the backpack and took out a rectangular wooden board, roughly the size of a laptop, and placed it on the flattest surface of rock she could find.
All the letters of the alphabet were engraved in two arching lines across the middle, with a line of numbers at the bottom. In the top corners, the words Yes and No were printed beside illustrations of a sun and a moon. Hello and Goodbye completed the spirit board’s bottom two edges, along with a weeping angel and dancing imp.
“What about the planchette?” Quinn asked
“I thought it might be better if we used something personal.” Marcus fished in his pocket, bringing out a rectangular bit of white plastic with the artwork from John Lennon’s Imagine album printed on the side. “His favorite, from his guitar case.”
“Now what?” Quinn asked.
“Well, in the movies, they always put their fingers lightly on the planchette and then ask the spirits if they want to communicate.”
Quinn placed her index finger on one of the three sides of the guitar pick and frowned. “It’s too small for both of us to touch at the same time.” She studied the board, unsure where to put her hands. “Maybe we touch the edges of the board instead? That way, we know the planchette is moving on its own and not because one of us nudged it with a finger.”
“Worth a try.” Marcus picked up the board and scooted forward until his knees touched Quinn’s. Setting it back down across both their laps, he positioned his thumbs at the halfway point, long fingers slightly curling around the edge. Quinn positioned the pick in the dead center of the board and placed her thumbs opposite his. They both stared at the board.
“Should we close our eyes or something?” Marcus asked.
“How should I know? I’ve never done this before.” Quinn suddenly felt awkward and silly. She wanted to believe that, somehow, this piece of wood and plastic could boost her own gift and reinforce a connection with Aaron, but doubt ate away at the edges of her faith.
“Well, since you seem to be the one he’s trying to contact, I think you should call out to him or something. Urge him to manipulate the board and let us know where he is.”
“Okay, tell me if it starts moving.” Quinn shut out the world around her and tried to relax like Azrael taught her. Tension in the body led to tension in the mind, which led to less control over her abilities. Breath by breath, she moved through the defensive layers of the barrier that separated her from the unseen shadow world and restricted her sight. It had taken weeks to master holding her defenses in place. What had once been like a thin, delicate bubble, ready to pop at any minute, became an intricately woven, invisible shield, which she manipulated to reveal as much or as little of the other world as she wanted.
The air around her took on a slight hum. The essences became clearer as she stripped away armor, leaving herself naked and vulnerable. A strong scent of sulfur made Quinn jerk her head and cough. Sweat beaded on her temples and dripped down her cheek while the hot, moist air stilled around her. She felt a strange shift in the surrounding energy, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Electric sparks exploded beneath her closed lids, a fireworks display of orange and yellow against the black. Marcus’s hands froze beneath hers with the sound of plastic scraping across wood.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kaemon did know, and now so did Aaron, but together they managed to bury the image of the box being thrown into a vast ocean seconds before Lilith seized it. An ocean whose water receded over millennia, leaving fertile land in its wake, land the founders of Westland had called home, and so did Quinn.
When the tears of Eve have turned to blood and her sins have turned to flesh, the key will fall. Quinn’s flesh contained the very essence of Eve, her tears, her blood. The words of the prophecy took on a terrible new meaning. Fate, destiny, none of it was coincidence. Loopholes upon loopholes, the universe aligned as prophecy predicted, and it was only a matter of time before the box made its way back to her, if it hadn’t already. No denying the dramatic irony of it all—Aaron was trapped in the middle of it, tortured, helpless.
No, not helpless, Kaemon whispered. We can do this. We must do this. Quinn has no idea what’s coming.
And then what?
We find Quinn. Warn her.
How?
“I taste your fear, sweet and full of flavor. You know something. I sense the answer flitting in that tiny brain of yours. I will find it, Aaron.”
Hurry! I can’t keep her out much longer. You have to help me shield the location of the box and Quinn’s connection to it.
Aaron’s breath came in quick spurts as he focused all his energy on hiding the information she sought. Using his gift to turn the psychic link back on her felt like banging his head against the side of a mountain, but even the slightest vibrations had an effect. A speck of dust, a pebble, a boulder, a landslide, enough to pull her attention elsewhere while he transformed the vision of the box into a hummingbird, sending it on a whirling, frenzied path through his mind.
“Clever, very clever. Your ability to manipulate the psychic plane is impressive, but you won’t keep it from me for long.” She charged the memory, and it dashed away. Charge, zig, chase, zag, always staying half a step ahead. Mind against mind, will against will.
“You saw for yourself. That’s all there was.” Aaron had to convince Lilith, throw her off the path no matter what.
“You think you can fool me? Your deceit, your manipulation, will get you nowhere.” She grabbed his chin in her hand and squeezed.
Aaron braced himself. Her lightning bolts seared his veins, turning them into a thousand crackling wires beneath his skin. Convulsions rocked his body with each new shot.
“Bring it back, and I’ll make the pain stop.”
Aaron gritted his teeth. “I will never give you what you want!” He had to keep her from finding this box of Agathe. Quinn’s life depended on its secret staying buried. Not just her life, he feared, but all of humanity.
“You will give me what I want in
the end. Kavash!” Mauling his mind, she clawed and ripped at every thought that bubbled to the surface until long strands of thick red blood dripped from his nose, his ears, his eyes. Such agony, torture, screams bringing him to the brink of madness.
“I tried to be gentle, but you had to fight me. Tell me!”
The hummingbird zoomed in chaotic patterns just out of her reach, but she would catch it soon. There wasn’t much left of his mind to search, nowhere left for it to hide. Even Kaemon’s power waned. She was too strong.
Lilith’s laugh rolled and thundered as her power wrapped around the hummingbird and ripped it from his mind. A thousand volts of energy exploded through Aaron, and he lolled to the side, foaming at the corner of his mouth. Nothing but pain and screams and more screams, and a memory of her face. He failed. Quinn would die, the box would be opened, and Lilith’s demon horde would be unleashed. The human realm would become another Eden, tainted, ruined, and it was his fault.
Quinn. I’m so sorry. If I had known. Quinn. Her name, an apology, a mantra, a ward, but nothing could protect either of them now.
Lilith retreated from his mind, and he sagged against his bonds, sucking in shallow breaths to clear his thoughts. Her pale face swam before him, the venom making it hard to focus. Blood dripped from Aaron’s nose, the tang of copper filling his mouth, making him gag.
“So, that little bitch is even more than she seems. Eve’s blood runs through her veins, does it? No wonder The Light sent his best Elite to protect her. I should be angry that you hid that from me for so long, but never mind. Your good intentions have paved her way to hell.” Lilith’s touch prickled his skin as she patted her new pet. “Now that I know where to find the box, I can move fate along as it suits me.”
Lilith pulled her cloak from her shoulders and laid it on the ground in front of her. Faceless skulls writhed within the smoky fabric, moaning, pressing against it.
“Hello, my pretties,” she cooed at the shadowy, featureless souls trapped within her cape, willing slaves that would do anything for their master’s attention. “Find her for me. Go. Find me Quinn.” The cloak rippled, and at her command, the spirits trapped inside whispered louder and louder to one another, swirling in a frenzied circle. Then, one by one, they disappeared back into the depths of the inky black fabric until it was still as obsidian glass. Lilith cocked her head, silver eyes intent on whatever her minions were showing her.
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