“Claire!” James snarled.
“Alex!” Claire countered, grabbing her friend’s hands in both of hers. Wordlessly, she let the ball of paper fall into Alex’s hand.
Alex looked from her hand to Claire’s face. “What do you want me to do with this?”
James opened his mouth to voice his demands again, but he was suddenly propelled backwards, the black particles spilling off him like water. Claire cringed away from the mess, pulling Alex with her when the smaller girl tried to grab for her boyfriend.
“No!” Claire shrieked, shoving her away from James and diving away from the tidal wave behind them. She knew all too well what it did to mortal people and that they could only hope that he would be alright. “Don’t touch it!”
Alex didn’t even look at her. “Let go! James!” she screeched, shoving against Claire.
“There’s nothing you can do to help him now!” Claire insisted, shoving back as hard as she could.
Tears welled in Alex’s eyes. “I can’t let him die!”
Ziba knew the feeling. Love. Helplessness. Her stomach roiled with nausea when she thought of her initial sense of unadulterated…anguish when she found Bomani, lying cold and unnaturally still on the floor of the temple. If Alex was suffering through even half of that, it could destroy her. Ziba had to put a stop to it.
“There is something you can do to help!” Ziba exclaimed, straightening out the page in Alex’s hand.
Alex sniffled, blinking away hot tears. “What?”
“Ziba!” Mainyu bellowed, nearing the two girls with murder coloring his face.
The blonde didn’t look back at him, keeping her hands closed around Alex’s wrists. “You have to read it.
Alex glanced quickly down at the scrawl on the parchment. “But…but Claire, I can’t read this.”
“We have a few things to discuss!” he continued tauntingly, waving his hand.
Claire screamed as her feet left the ground, but she managed to recover enough to form words. “Alex, you have to remember!”
Grinding her teeth as she looked from Claire’s floating body to the black, tar-like mass hardened around James’s body, Alex tried to think of what she was supposed to remember. Wincing when she realized that he had to be suffocating in there, Alex glared impatiently at the faded characters on the yellowing paper. When no miraculous remedy arrived, she let the paper hang at her side. “What, exactly, am I supposed to be remembering?” she growled.
Claire flailed through the air, trying to swim into a better position. Her body smacked harshly against the wall, once, twice, a third time until she went slack, the slight drip of blood trailing down her chin. Mouth curled in a grimace, she sobbed under her breath, spitting red. “Stop,” she mumbled, above begging, for the time being.
“You can make the pain stop, Ziba,” the god said. “You know what you have to do.”
She shook her head, bracing herself for the impact with the wall. Her head spun, thoughts muddled.
“Hey!” a voice suddenly yelled, breaking her daze. Ziba’s head slowly lifted, vaguely recalling the deep timber from the memories of the girl she shared a body with. The man who’d yelled stood behind Mainyu, the shiny black weapon he was so fond of held tightly in one hand. The business end was pressed firmly to the back of the god’s head.
“The arrogance of you mortals knows no bounds,” Mainyu chuckled. “I have already proven to you that your earthly weapons cannot injure me.”
Kierlan ignored him, squeezing the trigger in retaliation.
Just as he expected, Claire fell to the floor as the back of Mainyu’s head exploded in a bloody mess. The god collapsed forward, the remnants of his head stitching together while he lay, corpse-like, in the dirt.
Ziba rubbed her shoulder as agony exploded through her upper body. She scrambled to her feet, getting some help from Kierlan when he ran, panicked, across the room. “What are you doing?” she demanded hoarsely. “You know it just makes him angry!”
Kierlan pulled her face abruptly to his, crushing her lips to his in a bruising kiss. It only lasted a second, but the heat that traveled up into her face burned eternally. His fingers twisted into her long locks while her hands caressed the back of his shaved head. She was familiar with the elation coursing through her veins.
She’d felt it before.
By the time he, reluctantly, pulled away, Ziba was pleasantly surprised to realize that she hadn’t needed to visualize Bomani. Claire could only lay in wait in the back of their mind, enjoying exactly what she’d wanted for so long.
“Wh—?” she gasped, breathing heavily as she recovered from the searing kiss.
Kierlan shook his head. “Get rid of him. You said she could do it, so tell her how!”
Ziba nodded dumbly leaning forward in an attempt to kiss him again. Before her lips could meet his, he backed away, pointing his gun at Mainyu’s head so he could shoot him repeatedly each time he tried to regenerate.
Shaking her head to clear it, Ziba strode back to Alex while the brunette tried to decipher the words before her. Ziba cleared her throat, snatching the paper away.
Hearing Claire approach her, Alex mumbled, “I can’t read this!”
Ziba looked between Alex and the page, trying to find some hint of her lost sister in the human before her. “You’re the only one who can use this page, Alex. Shireen’s powers are still inside you, and if you can read the spell three times, he’ll be sent back to limbo.”
Alex spat through clenched teeth, “Which is useless information if I can’t read the goddamn thing!”
Ziba glanced down at the paper, easily reading the words in her native language. “Just repeat what I say three times. Everything will go back to normal.”
Alex’s eyes flashed to the dome surrounding her boyfriend. “What about James? Will that thing let him go?” she pleaded.
A click behind them echoed through the room. The silence following it seemed louder than the roar of the bullets that had greeted their ears moments ago because they all knew what it meant.
The girl’s spun to face Kierlan, whose terrified gaze was turned exclusively to the worthless gun in his hand. Watching Mainyu’s skull knit together, he dropped the gun, backing away from the body on the floor.
Out of bullets.
“Claire?” he whimpered, wondering how the god was going to kill him when he finally stood up. “Anytime now.”
“Yes!” Ziba gasped. “Everything will be back to normal! Quick, before he gets up!”
“Say it, say it!” Alex said, her back finally pressing the jagged edges of the wall.
Ziba watched Mainyu pull himself slowly to his knees, his arm reaching out to support himself on Kierlan’s shoulder. The mortal man instinctually backed away. “Elle ot bill ogg nah ooh tna wah ee.”
In a questioning tone, she repeated the words.
Mainyu’s head snapped up, recognizing the words. “No!” he growled, immediately forgetting Kierlan and striding toward the girls.
Kierlan followed his path with his eyes, realizing immediately where Mainyu was heading. “Say it again!” he ordered, running to catch up with the god. He grabbed Mainyu’s shoulder, trying to spin him off his path, but he barely budged. “Stop! Leave them alone!” He continued to uselessly pull at Mainyu’s shoulder, but his efforts were in vain. “Son of a bitch!”
Abruptly, Mainyu stopped and Kierlan knew immediately that he was in trouble. Mainyu placed his hand on Kierlan’s shoulder, forcing him erect while he pulled his other arm back. Ziba and Alex watched in horror as Mainyu’s free hand shot out like a spear, stabbing Kierlan cleanly through the stomach. Kierlan, doubled over and breathing harshly, made no sound but a strangled cough as he fell onto his back, tearing Mainyu’s arm from his flesh.
Ziba felt like she was watching history repeat itself. Horrorstruck, she stared down at Kierlan on the floor.
“Kierlan!” she cried, wishing she could run to help him. Unfortunately, her cry made Mainyu turn quickly on his
heel to face them. Narrowing her eyes, she whispered, “Say it again.”
As Mainyu swiftly approached them, Ziba swept across the floor toward him, propelling herself at his body. Behind her, Alex spoke the line again, watching Claire. She couldn’t pinpoint the cause but, whoever the blonde in front of her was, it was not her best friend.
Ziba curled her legs around Mainyu’s face, frantically flailing her fists into his face.
“How could you? You are a monster! You have killed everyone I love! Now, you will die!” she screeched, clawing at his eyes as he shook his head pathetically away from her nails. “Alex, one more time!”
Confidently, Alex said it a final time.
“Now banish him!” Ziba shrieked.
Alex stared incredulously at the blonde. “How do I do that?”
“Just say, ‘Angra Mainyu, I banish you!’” she ordered.
No sooner had Alex obliged that Mainyu cried out, outstretching his arms. A light began in the center of his chest, growing larger and brighter while he screeched louder. Ziba closed her eyes, a pleasant smile on her face while she enjoyed the radiant warmth shining off him.
Alex covered her eyes, backing up as the light mixed with an unnatural wind that blew her hair back. Beside her, the shell covering James began to chip away and his flesh showed through the darkness.
Mainyu’s yelling abruptly ended with a final explosion that sent Alex flying into the wall, again, and crashing to the floor. However, it wasn’t that that forced her into her second fainting spell in two days. When she peeled her face from the floor, looking up to find Claire in Mainyu’s place, she found an empty space.
Both Claire Strong and the god of destruction had vanished.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Paris, France; July 1st, 2012
Alex was pulled from a deep sleep by the nagging feeling that she was forgetting something very important. She picked up on the sound of deep, even breathing before anything else, but the incessant beep of her heart monitor was quick to follow. She opened her eyes, wincing when she was blinded by the burning light above her. With a groan, she turned over, instantly freezing when she felt something protest.
“You’re awake,” the unmistakable voice of an angel sighed, yawning through the deep sleep in his throat voice.
She forced her eyes open, searching for him through the sleep crusted in them. Finally, his honey-blonde hair shone out of the corner of her eye. Grunting and adjusting herself, she glared distastefully at the IV in her arm before her gaze settled on James, her face turned up in a smile. Despite how glad she was to see him, she couldn’t help but grimace, wondering how she’d ended up in that unfamiliar room, aching in places she’d never felt before. What did she need to remember…?
It all came back in a flood.
“Don’t move, baby,” James advised, pulling himself onto the bed beside her, careful not to disturb the IV protruding from the inside of her elbow. “You won’t be getting anymore morphine for a little while.”
Alex couldn’t help the tears that formed in her eyes, silently spilling over her cheeks. All she could see in her mind’s eye was Claire’s face, twisted with a small, pleasant smile before she disappeared into thin air, banished to a place she wasn't sure existed. Her head slumped back into the immaculate pillows, her body finally shaking from violent crying. Every bone in her being objected.
James leapt to his feet, leaning over her to fervently press the call button. “I’m sorry!” he pleaded, continuously pressing the button. “I know, it hurts. I’m sorry! I’ll get you a nurse. I’ll get you pain medication, anything you want.”
“It’s—” she sniffled, trying to hold back her need to wail. “It’s not that!”
He hesitantly retracted his hand, taking a seat beside her on the hospital bed. Planting a kiss on her head, he said, “I know, sweetheart.”
“I just,” she wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand, “I can’t believe she’s…gone!”
“Shh, shh,” he murmured, hugging her tightly into his side. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
“How can you s…say that?” she blubbered. “We…I killed my best friend!”
“Alex!” James demanded, staring hard into her tear-stricken face. “Claire isn’t dead. And she’s not gone.”
Jerking her head up so fast she had whiplash, her sobs suddenly died away. “What do you mean? I saw her disappear, James, just like him,” she spat venomously.
James rubbed his hand comfortingly up and down her back. “We didn’t kill Mainyu and Claire. We couldn’t do that even if we wanted to.”
She shivered, leaning into him. “Then, where are they?”
“They were only banished. To another plane, one of emptiness,” he explained, gauging her reaction.
“She’s trapped in another world with him?” she exclaimed, trying to sit up again. “What are we waiting for? We have to get her back!”
He, gently, restrained her from getting out of bed. “That would be impossible, right now.”
She laughed, letting herself fall back onto the mattress. “Impossible? I don’t believe in that anymore. We just have to use the page again…right…?” she trailed off when he solemnly shook his head.
“They took the page with them,” he muttered. “The last page.”
“Oh.”
“I have everyone…up there,” he gestured sharply toward the ceiling and cleared his throat, “working on it. As soon as we can think of a way to get her back…without bringing Mainyu with her, we will get her back.”
“You mean there is a way to get them back,” she said, gazing hopefully up into his face.
“There is, Alex,” he explained, “but it’s not something we’ll be doing. We can’t risk the world again. Even for Claire.”
“But I thought she was your responsibility to save?” Alex demanded. “Shouldn’t we be doing something…any—?”
“I don’t want to fight with you,” he interjected. “Claire isn’t my responsibility. I had to keep her safe so that Mainyu couldn’t get her and—”
“But he does have her.”
“And take over the world,” he finished as if she hadn’t interrupted.
She bit her lip, feeling tears rise again. “So there’s nothing we can do, then.”
“Not yet,” he confessed. “We just have to wait for my bosses to tell us where we go from here.”
“Bosses?”
He winced, realizing he hadn’t intended to tell her about them. “The people who assigned me to this case in the first place. The other angels. My bosses.”
“What do they do?”
“They deal with all the guardian angels. They make sure that we’re all following the rules,” he said.
She took a deep breath. “You have rules?”
“Of course. And they’re the ones that punish anyone who breaks the rules,” he continued.
“And I suppose bringing Mainyu and Claire back would be breaking those rules, right?” she demanded bitterly.
Jaw dropped, he retorted, “You shouldn’t even be thinking about doing that, Alexandria.”
“So it’s against the rules?”
“Of course it’s against the rules,” he enthused. “That’s probably the worst thing they could possibly make a rule for.”
“What would they do if you…broke that rule?” she asked, barely able to meet his eyes.
“We’re not talking about this,” he snapped.
“Why not?!”
“We can’t endanger so many people for our own selfish desires. Getting Claire back isn’t gonna do us any good if we die!” he explained.
“We’ll just send him back, again,” she challenged.
“And what if we can’t?” he spat. “Nothing good can come from resurrecting Mainyu.”
She glared at him incredulously. “Then why did Natalia do it?”
He shook his head, remembering something else he’d have to break to her. “I have no idea.”
“Well, we can
ask her. Where is she? I knocked her out in the catacombs, what’d you do with her?” she inquired.
James ground his teeth. “She got away.”
Alex blinked, hoping she just hadn’t heard him correctly. “What?”
James shifted uncomfortably. “When you passed out, I had to get you and Kierlan out of there before he bled out. The place was collapsing. Taran took the car. So, I left her there while I brought you two here, by…otherwordly means, I guess you could say. I went back to find her when you were under, but she was already gone.”
“Where’s Hayden?” Alex gasped, noting his emphasis on you two.
“She’s fine,” he replied matter-of-factly. “I had her checked out and she’s waiting downstairs while your parents come to see you. She’ll be here ‘til you’re better.”
She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, until she returned her thoughts to more pressing matters. “So Natalia’s just walking around out there?! A dangerous criminal! She’ll kill us!”
“I won’t let her, Alex, relax,” he pleaded. “She doesn’t matter.”
“You say that a lot, James!” she accused stubbornly. “Telling me that some things don’t matter! And when it does matter, you won’t tell me anything!”
“I—”
“I love you, James. That’s why I wish you’d let me in on whatever this…second life is you’re living.”
“There’re just some things I can’t—”
“What do your bosses do when angels break the rules?” she demanded.
“Alex, don’t make me answer! Please,” he said softly. “I need to ask you something—”
“Just answer the question. What would they—?” she halted when a nurse entered the room, a sugary-sweet smile plastered on her face.
“Is everything alright?” she inquired, looking from Alex to James and back again.
“I think we’re ready for some pain medication,” James replied, all evidence of duress gone from his face.
“Alright,” she nodded absently, leaving the room to retrieve the medicine.
“They would clip my wings,” he finally replied. “They’d make me mortal.”
“That doesn’t sound so—” she said.
“Don’t you dare say bad,” he hissed. “I’m an angel, Alex. That’s who I am. That’s what I’ve been for thousands of years. And this is what I was always meant to do, help people. Without that, I have nothing, I am nothing! And I won’t do it, Alex, not even for Claire.”
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