by Paula Weston
‘Micah saw him up the mountain, and Simon knows—’
‘But Taya doesn’t, not yet.’
‘Maggie, she’s living with Simon, she’ll find out sooner or later. This is too important—we have to warn them. I’ll do it; tell Jason to come here to Simon’s as soon as he can. And keep trying Rafa. Okay?’
When I go back inside, Taya is on her feet, waiting.
‘What now?’
‘Hang on.’ I move away, call Rafa. Voicemail.
‘Rafa, we’ve got a problem. A big one. Call me as soon as you get this. Let me know you’re okay.’
I take a steadying breath, face Taya.
‘What problem?’ she asks.
I tell her about the farmhouse and what we found under the plaster in that room. And then I tell her about Zarael and the Gatekeepers. By the time I finish, she’s pale, furious.
‘How could you keep something like this from us?’
‘I didn’t mean to—’ I stop myself. She’s right. We should have warned them.
‘How did Rafa know about the farmhouse?’
‘He didn’t. Jason did.’
She opens her mouth. Frowns. Closes it.
‘He’s one of us, Taya.’
I wait for the explosion but she looks at me as though I’m speaking a foreign language. Simon is still on the couch, watching her.
‘I thought you knew,’ he says. ‘He’s the one who got Mags and me out of the cabin.’
‘But…’ Taya looks at him, not really seeing him. ‘Is he with the Outcasts?’
‘He’s not with anyone,’ I say. ‘He’s been on his own all this time. Until now.’
She studies me. The pieces finally fall into place. She snatches her phone off the table and storms into the next room.
One down.
I run my fingers over dry lips, fight the urge to try Rafa’s number again. I have to call Ez, but I need a second to get my head around all this.
‘You can sit if you want.’ Simon gestures to the other half of the couch.
I don’t realise how shaky my legs are until I cross the room and sit down. I leave plenty of space between us. Taya’s voice carries from the other room, but I can’t hear what she’s saying. Not that I need to. I sink back into the soft leather.
‘I’m sorry you got dragged into this,’ I say quietly.
‘Me too.’
‘In my defence, I did try to keep you out of it.’
‘I know.’ He runs his thumb over a rough patch on the leather seat. ‘I wasn’t thinking straight that night.’
Does he mean kissing me at the falls or insisting on coming with us up the mountain to get Maggie back?
‘Are you scared of me?’ I ask him.
‘No. Not really.’
‘Do you trust me?’
His gaze skitters away.
‘Nice.’ I turn sideways, find a loose thread on a hand-knitted cushion cover. It looks like something Maggie might have made.
‘You don’t trust me but you’re okay with Taya living under your roof? I guess you’ve forgotten she’s the one who snatched Mags from the party and I’m just the one who got torn up trying to get her back.’ I fling the cushion down between us.
He swallows, looks at me. ‘What would have happened if we hadn’t been interrupted at the party?’
The question surprises me. I remember his hands, tentative under my shirt; his lips whispering against my neck. I never should have let it get that far—not when it wasn’t really him I wanted to kiss.
I shrug off the question. ‘You probably would have finished getting my jeans undone.’
‘And then what?’
‘I don’t know, Simon.’
Taya walks back in and for the first time ever I’m happy to see her.
‘Daniel’s coming,’ she says.
‘Here? Why?’
‘Why do you think? To find out more about this iron room and decide what to do about it—and to have a chat with the Rephaite who’s just crawled out from under a rock.’
Jason’s going to love me for this. I go back to the balcony doorway, glance at my phone again. Why hasn’t Rafa called?
‘How come this room is such a big deal?’ Simon asks.
Taya sits on the arm of the couch again. ‘We can’t be captured or forced to shift—not by each other or by demons—but a room like Gabe describes changes all that.’
Simon frowns. ‘Does that mean it could trap demons too?’
Taya looks at me, her mouth slightly open. I hadn’t thought of that. Neither had she.
‘Is that possible?’ I ask.
‘Maybe.’ She lands a light punch on Simon’s arm. ‘You’re a genius.’
He shrugs, but I catch a small smile.
I check up and down the esplanade. Still no sign of Jason. Damn it. I pull out my phone.
‘Who are you calling?’ Taya comes out.
‘Ez. The Outcasts need to know about this too.’
She doesn’t argue: this is bigger than Rephaite politics.
Ez doesn’t speak for a few seconds after I give her the news. Then: ‘I’ll let Mya and the others know.’
‘Thanks.’
‘She’ll want to talk to Jason.’
‘Tell her to get in line.’ My eyes are drawn to the orange blossom scattered across the road. ‘Have you seen Rafa in the last hour? He’s not answering his phone.’
‘No. I haven’t.’ There’s a long pause, and in that moment the possibilities crowd in. Frightening possibilities. ‘He wasn’t talking about going back to that farmhouse, was he?’ Ez’s voice is tight.
The sun beats down. A bead of sweat trickles down my neck. ‘No…’ But I know how much that room shook him up. And how agitated he was after what we didn’t find on Jude’s laptop. ‘He wouldn’t go alone. Even Rafa’s not that reckless, right?’
‘Gaby,’ Ez says, quietly, ‘reckless is his thing.’
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
Simon mutes the music and we wait. Outside, the surf breaks on the beach, again and again.
‘I’m making coffee. Anyone want one?’ Simon stands a little shaky on his feet.
‘Take it easy.’ Taya’s fingers go to steady him. ‘You’re probably still concussed.’
Is that concern in her voice? Neither of them lets go straight away.
‘I stood up too quickly, that’s all.’
Her hands linger for a second and then drop to her lap, and he leaves.
A moment later there’s a rap on the door. My heart misses, but then I realise it can’t be Rafa—he wouldn’t knock.
Daniel is waiting on the landing. His eyes go straight to me. When I first saw him earlier in the week, I was disarmed by how unnervingly handsome he was, how immaculately groomed. Now all I see is a half-angel bastard who had no qualms watching me suffer. As usual he’s detached, carefully composed. What the hell did that other version of me ever see in him?
‘Gabriella.’
‘Daniel.’
Given everything that’s gone on in the past week you’d think we’d have moved past formality.
‘May I enter or does your threat still stand?’
It takes me a second before I remember: the last time I saw him—after we got Maggie back—I promised to cut off his head if he came near me or my friends again.
‘That depends.’ I stay in the doorway, don’t lower my eyes from his. ‘Are you a threat?’
‘To you? No.’ He glances at Taya behind me. ‘What happened?’
Her fingers stray to the bruise blooming around her eye. ‘Bar fight last night. I had to step in.’
I try not to react. Does that mean she hasn’t told him about Mya being here—or me leaving? I glance at her, but she won’t look at me.
‘It looks sore. You should get it seen to.’
‘I will.’
‘Where’s the boy who lives here?’ Daniel asks.
‘In the kitchen, making coffee,’ I say. ‘And he’s not a boy.’
‘Taya,
would you join him for a moment?’
She leaves the room without arguing—a little too quickly. Still I don’t move. Daniel is watching me, waiting.
‘Gabriella—’
‘Gaby.’
He pauses, looks beyond me into the apartment. ‘Can I at least come inside?’
I leave him hanging for a few seconds and then finally step aside. He comes into the main room, spends a moment looking around. I move past him, keeping distance between us. He’s never raised a hand to me himself, but that doesn’t stop me feeling uneasy. I’ve seen what he can do with a sword.
He turns to the open balcony door. ‘It shouldn’t surprise me you are so attached to this village. You’ve always been drawn to the sea.’
Demons have a Rephaite trap and Daniel opens with small talk. I fold my arms, refuse to be interested in what he knows about my past, about who I used to be. ‘I thought you were here to find out about Iowa?’
‘I am. But there are things I need to speak to you about first, things I need you to understand.’
‘Like what? That you’re devoid of emotion? That you’ll obey Nathaniel no matter the cost? It’s okay, I’ve got it.’
‘That’s unfair.’ There’s the smallest hint of frustration in his voice. He unbuttons his shirtsleeves and rolls them up over toned forearms. ‘Your…predicament is unprecedented. We had to err on the side of caution. Your situation would have been very different if we’d found you first. You must realise how it looked when Taya and Malachi found you with Rafael.’
I blink. ‘That’s why you ordered me into a cage with a hell-beast—because of how it looked?’
‘I didn’t order anything. The Five made decisions about how to access your memories. My role was to oversee the actions we agreed to take.’
‘Stop talking like a politician—those actions nearly killed me.’
‘For god’s sake, Gabe, stop being so irrational. Stop being like him.’
‘Like who, Rafa?’
He gives me a dark look. ‘Your brother.’
‘What’s so bad about being like Jude?’
‘The way you are with me, this disrespect for the Five, for the structure at the Sanctuary—it’s not you.’
‘Yes, it is. This is me, Daniel.’ I tap my finger on my breastbone. ‘It’s the only me I know.’
‘No, someone has made you think this is who you are—it’s not the same.’ He rolls his wrist until it cracks, momentarily forgetting himself.
‘Can you hear yourself? How do you expect me to react to a statement like that?’
‘I expect you to use your considerable intelligence to think for yourself.’
‘For fuck’s sake—enough.’
I need air. I kick a magazine across the floor and go out to the balcony. I stare at the beach in the distance and wish I was down there with the sand between my toes, burning off this nervous energy.
Footsteps echo on the floorboards. Daniel’s not giving me space. He really should.
‘The Five made decisions about you, not me alone. There was no pleasure for me in seeing you hurt,’ he says.
‘You’ve come to the wrong place if you’re looking for forgiveness.’
‘Gabe…’ There’s a catch in his voice, enough to cause me to turn around. ‘Don’t think for a moment any of this is easy for me. You…me…This isn’t us.’ His eyes are softer, willing me to understand.
‘Really.’ I look at him again—still can’t see any trace of the ‘us’ he’s talking about.
‘We had a life together.’ He thinks for a moment. ‘A few months before you disappeared, we went up to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery in Bhutan. We didn’t shift there: you wanted to hike up that mountain. It took us two and a half hours, sidestepping tourists and donkey manure. We stank by the time we were at the top. And then you made us hike all the way back down again. You made me promise that we’d make the trek every year. And then four months later you were gone…’ For a moment I see a hint of who he might be with his guard down.
I can’t imagine being in a place like that with him. I don’t want to think about why he’s telling me this. I sigh. ‘What do you want from me, Daniel?’
He opens his mouth and I think he’s going to say something real. But then he presses his lips together and the moment passes.
‘What I want is for you to remember who you are. I want you to tell me if you found the Fallen last year. I want to know how much damage you and your brother have done so we can rectify it before the Angelic Garrison decides we’ve failed in the single task they’ve given us.’
Ah, yes, the reason the Rephaim exist: to find and deliver the Fallen to the archangels. To win the favour of the warrior angels Nathaniel served with before he, Semyaza and the rest of the two hundred fell from heaven: warrior angels nobody but Nathaniel has ever seen.
‘If I was so loyal before, how can you believe I would have done anything to jeopardise the Sanctuary?’
Daniel gives me a steady look. ‘Because you were with your brother.’
Prick.
This conversation is going nowhere.
I go to step past him but Daniel doesn’t move from the doorway. ‘Are you going to make me fight my way back inside?’
His expression is one I now recognise well: weary condescension. He goes inside and sits on the couch.
‘Regardless of how you feel about me, you’re not safe now Zarael has the means to imprison us. It’s time to come home.’
‘Pan Beach is my home.’ I say it without thinking.
‘The Sanctuary is your home and you won’t be safe until you accept that.’
I make a noise in my throat. ‘Do you seriously believe I could ever feel safe in that place?’
‘When you remember who you are, yes.’
‘Then I don’t want to remember.’ I say it to spite him and something flickers in his face, too fast for me to catch. But it’s not entirely true—I do want to know who I used to be, what I’ve done. But I don’t want to be Gabe. I don’t ever want to be the person who chose the Sanctuary over her brother.
He sighs. ‘Tell me about Jason and these women in Iowa.’
‘Are my friends here safe? My human friends?’
‘They’re safe from us. I can’t speak for the Outcasts or the Gatekeepers. Now, please, can we have an adult conversation?’
I open my mouth, think better of telling him to piss off. ‘Fine.’ I sit at the far end of the couch, leaving plenty of space between us. ‘What do you want to know about first: Jason or the women?’
‘Jason.’
That surprises me. Jason’s existence really is big news for the Rephaim. Bigger even than the iron room. I give him the edited version on Jason, the detailed one on the room.
‘You and Rafael were trapped in there?’ Daniel asks. ‘Just the two of you?’
Unbelievable. After everything I’ve told him, that’s what he’s most interested in. Still.
‘Do you want to see what we found or not?’
He rubs a palm over his jaw, realises what he’s doing and drops his hand. ‘Yes. Please.’
I take out my phone and he moves closer to get a better look. His knee touches mine. There are faint scars on the back of his hands—a reminder that he wasn’t always a politician. And then it hits me: those hands knew my body not so long ago. Is Daniel thinking about that right now? Is that why he’s so obsessed about me being with Rafa? I swallow, suddenly self-conscious. I quickly find the image of the wings and hold it out to him. He takes the phone but doesn’t move away; studies the photo for what feels like a long time. Finally, he frowns.
‘That’s—’
Daniel doesn’t finish because Rafa and Jason materialise in front of us.
I feel like my whole body breathes out. Whatever Rafa’s been up to, he’s safe, though in the second it takes him to get his bearings, he looks washed out, hollow. And Jason looks more vulnerable than I’ve ever seen him. They’ve arrived in the middle of the room, separately, which me
ans they’ve both been here before. I’d put money on Rafa’s other visit not involving an invite. I don’t care: he’s here.
I want to go to them. I’m about to get up when something crosses Rafa’s face. Anger? Jealousy? Daniel is still sitting close to me.
‘I was hoping to go a few more years before I had to see you again,’ Rafa says to Daniel. He doesn’t meet my eyes.
Daniel stays seated; his knee brushes mine again. ‘I see your ability to focus on a task hasn’t improved. You told Nathaniel you’d watch out for Gabriella and yet here she is alone.’
‘I didn’t realise you wanted me by her side every waking moment. She’s going to need a bigger shower.’
Always a pissing contest with these two.
Taya emerges from the kitchen at the sound of Rafa’s voice; Simon hangs back, watches over her shoulder.
‘Did Gaby tell you what we did last night?’ Rafa asks Daniel.
Daniel stays still, but his nostrils flare a little. I catch Rafa’s eye, try to warn him off. I don’t know why Taya hasn’t told Daniel I left Pan Beach, but I’m happy for it to stay that way.
Rafa’s eyebrows go up, mocking. ‘What, he doesn’t know?’
Taya looks ready to tear Rafa’s head off with her bare hands. Rafa follows my gaze. He measures Taya—has a fleeting moment of surprise—and laughs.
‘Ah, Pretty Boy. I’m just messing with you.’
Daniel is many things. Unobservant is not one of them. ‘What happened last night?’
‘The brawl at the bar,’ I say before Taya can answer. ‘Rafa was there.’
Daniel is still focused on Taya. ‘You didn’t think to mention that?’
‘Hey!’ It’s Jason. His eyes are red and his mouth is set in an uncharacteristic hard line. ‘Demons have a way to trap us. Shouldn’t that be the priority right now?’
He looks terrible. ‘Are you okay?’ I ask.
‘Not even close,’ he says.
Daniel finally registers there’s someone other than Rafa in the room. ‘You. It was you with Rafa in the infirmary on Tuesday, wasn’t it? I didn’t notice it up the mountain, but now—’
‘Does it matter?’
‘Of course it matters. How many times have you been to the Sanctuary?’
Jason’s laugh is short, bitter. ‘I went to get Gaby back after you let a hellion tear her up. It was my first and last visit. I have no intention of ever going back.’