The firework show ended, and the crowd was silent. They’d been cheering and talking for the entire time before now, so the silence felt strange. Heavy.
Noah and Darra had already joined Jacen, Thomas, and the mages in the center box. I would have loved for Noah to be standing on the platform with me right now. Weeks ago, I’d asked Annika if it would be possible. But because of strict protocol, it wasn’t allowed. The only person I was supposed to be close to during the ceremony was the Earth Angel.
And as much as I wanted Noah by my side during this moment, I didn’t want to test fate. This was my Trial, and mine alone. Once I drank from the Grail and survived, I would go right back to his side.
And once I ignited my powers and become Nephilim, the two of us would finally be able to mate. Fire burned through my belly as I looked into Noah’s soulful brown eyes. He might not be physically close to me right now, but he was still there, watching every moment.
I knew it was going to be like this. I’d been prepared.
But at the same time, I yearned to reach for his hand so he could assure me it was going to be okay.
He did the best thing he could in the circumstance. He sent a surge of strength, confidence, and most importantly, love through the imprint bond. The emotions warmed my soul, reminding me that I was strong and ready for this.
Well, as ready to potentially face my death as anyone could be. Because I couldn’t deny that there was a part of myself that was scared. No—I was terrified. But I pushed that feeling down, forcing it away with the knowledge that what I was about to do would give me the power to save my loved ones, and the world.
“Congratulations on completing your second Angel Trial.” Annika’s sharp voice pulled me back to the present. She was staring at me, her golden eyes that matched the Grail shining with a mix of hope and concern. “Now, it’s time for your third Trial. Drinking from the Holy Grail.”
She stepped up to the Grail and pulled a dagger out of her weapons belt. It was a gorgeous, steel dagger with a large green gemstone at the bottom of the handle—a jade. I recognized the crystal from my time working at Tarotology. It mainly represented luck and strength, but it also fostered courage and love.
Those were all things I needed right now.
Annika held the dagger above the inside of her wrist. She took a deep breath, and then slid the tip of the weapon in a straight, clean line across her skin. From the way she pressed her lips together, I guessed it hurt her as much as it would hurt anyone. But she was doing a good job at hiding it.
The gash slit open, revealing golden blood underneath. Her blood was the same color as her eyes. I never thought of blood as something that could be beautiful. But hers was.
She flipped her wrist over and allowed the golden liquid to flow into the Grail, like some sort of holy waterfall. She must have allowed at least a pint to spill inside before she pulled her wrist back toward herself. When she did, the gash healed, leaving her porcelain skin flawless once again.
“Whenever you’re ready,” she said. “Lift the Grail, and drink the entirety of the contents inside.”
Everyone in the crowd stared at me. It was like they’d all stopped breathing at once. Their fear rippled out toward me, feeling like it might crush me where I stood.
But then my eyes found Noah’s. And just like that, the crowd didn’t matter anymore. It was just Noah, the Earth Angel, and the Holy Grail.
I reached for the Grail and picked it up. It was heavier than I’d expected. Probably because it was solid gold. But I didn’t falter, thanks to the muscles I’d developed during all those weeks of training.
Staring into its contents, it struck me for the first time that I’d be drinking blood. Weird. At least Annika’s blood was gold instead of red, so it didn’t look like blood. It literally looked like melted gold. At least that made it slightly less strange.
I lifted the Grail closer to my face and took a deep breath in. Her blood smelled sweet—like honeysuckle and nectar. My mouth watered at the delicious scent. Something about it called to me. Like it was begging me to try it.
Unable to resist the blood, I held the rim of the Grail to my lips, tipped it upward, and drank.
The angel blood exploded in a delicious burst on my tongue. No fruit in the world could compete with such a perfect flavor. It was like it ignited every one of my taste buds at once. Incredible.
I drank and drank and drank, chugging it down until there was no more blood left in the Grail. At least I didn’t think there was any more. I tilted it nearly vertically to get the final drops, not wanting to miss a bit.
If this blood was going to be a poison that ended my life, at least it tasted divine.
When there was no more blood left, I lowered the Grail, licking the last of the delicious liquid from my lips.
The crowd stared at me, shocked silent.
They were waiting for me to die.
7
Raven
Nothing happened.
My stomach felt full, like I’d just had a large meal. But that was the only change I noticed.
“Well?” I looked to Annika nervously. “What’s next?”
“You did it.” She spoke quietly, but with everyone so silent, her voice filled the arena. “Your body accepted my blood.”
“But I feel the same as I did before.” I still held onto the Grail, hugging it close to my body. “How can you know it worked?”
“The others died after their first few sips.” She gazed out to the hilltops in the distance, as if remembering them. Then she refocused on me. “They could barely force any of my blood down before it killed them.”
“Oh.” I shifted awkwardly from side to side. “Well, I definitely didn’t have to force it down. Your blood tasted amazing.”
Annika chuckled at that. There were laughs in the crowd, too. “Thank you,” she said. Then she glanced at Jacen with heat in her eyes, and I had a feeling I wasn’t the only person in this arena who’d had a taste of her blood. But I guessed that was normal when your fiancé was a vampire.
“But I don’t feel different,” I repeated. “Shouldn’t your blood have turned me into a Nephilim?”
“You now have Nephilim blood,” she reminded me. “But you still haven’t ignited your powers. You won’t feel any differently until you do.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I was born Nephilim, but I thought I was human until I made my first supernatural kill,” she answered. “Not even supernaturals could sense the difference in me. It’s what kept young, not ignited Nephilim children safe, back before we nearly went extinct.”
I nodded, her statement reminding me that even though I’d survived drinking from the Grail, my journey was far from over. So I placed the Grail back onto the stand.
As I did, the crowd rose to their feet, clapping and cheering. Noah, Thomas, and Jacen were the first three up.
My cheeks heated at the realization that they were cheering for me.
Because I’d done it.
I’d drunk angel blood from the Holy Grail and survived. It felt unreal. But I’d really, truly done it.
Suddenly, the ground started to rumble and shake. At first it was only a bit, but it got more and more intense.
An earthquake.
I dropped to the floor and gripped the rail of the platform. When I looked at Noah, I saw he’d also dropped to the ground and was holding onto the rail of the box.
Others in the stands were trying to run out in panic, although they were falling down, since the ground was shaking like crazy.
Idiots. Earthquake 101 taught that when a quake started, you needed to drop down, hold on, and wait it out. Growing up in California, it was practically drilled into my head as a kid.
The shaking got stronger, although by some miracle, none of the surrounding structures were breaking. Even the Holy Grail stayed centered on the table, exactly where I’d placed it down. It had to be magic. That seemed to be the only explanation for all strange happeni
ngs on Avalon.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something appear from the center of the lake beside the obstacle course. I turned my head fully to check it out, awed at what I was seeing.
It was the tip of a mountain. The water rippled around it, flowing down the sides of the mountain as it rose. It soon grew into a full mountain that took up the majority of what remained of the lake. The shiny brown, ridged surface of the dirt looked like it had been underwater for centuries.
Once the mountain emerged, the shaking stopped.
I stared at the mysterious mountain in wonder. Because the fact that a mountain had just risen out of the lake wasn’t the strangest thing I saw before me.
The strangest thing was the moss-covered boulder in the center with a glimmering golden sword hilt sticking out of the top.
8
Raven
Noah, Jacen, and the mages joined Annika and me on the platform. The supernaturals were able to scale the chimney climb way faster and easier than I had, making the obstacle look like a piece of cake.
“Are you okay?” Noah looked down at me in concern, studying every inch of my body to make sure I wasn’t injured.
“I’m fine.” I moved toward him and wrapped him in a hug, thrilled to just be alive. “I’m more than fine,” I said once I pulled away, staring up into his eyes in amazement. “I survived drinking from the Grail.”
“I knew you would.” He smirked.
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow in challenge. “Because you seemed worried beforehand too…”
“I’ll always worry about you.” He placed his hands on my hips, holding me strong and steady. “I love you. But worrying about you doesn’t mean I don’t believe in you. It just means I care about you. Always.”
“Thanks.” I beamed. “Right back at you.”
He pulled me into a short kiss, although it ended quickly, as he turned his attention to the mountain that had just risen from the lake. Then he looked to the mages. “What do you make of this?” he asked them.
“It appears to be the sword in the stone,” Iris said.
“Not just any sword,” Dahlia added. “The Holy Sword.”
“Excalibur,” Violet finished up. “King Arthur’s sword itself.”
The three sisters gazed at the mountain in disbelief. I also studied the hilt of the sword embedded into the stone. Now that they’d mentioned it, I noticed it was the same shade of gold as the Holy Grail.
Iris cleared her throat and faced the questioning crowd. They looked shaken after the earthquake, but supernaturals healed quickly. No one was gravely injured. “Citizens of Avalon!” She raised her hands, a burst of green magic shimmering around her palms, and everyone went silent. “After Raven survived drinking the Earth Angel’s blood from the Holy Grail, we received a sign from King Arthur. He has gifted us with his Holy Sword Excalibur, which has been missing since his generation of Nephilim defeated the demons centuries ago. But like it was when he first stumbled upon it, Excalibur is embedded into a stone. Only the one worthy of the Holy Sword will be able to free it and claim it as his or her own.” She spoke like she’d expected this, although from the way she’d gazed up at the mountain a minute before, I knew she was as surprised as the rest of us.
Enthusiastic chattering filled the crowd. All the terror from earlier was gone. The earthquake was forgotten now that something more exciting was happening.
Had I caused this? After all, the mountain had only risen after I’d survived drinking from the Grail. It had to be connected.
Jacen took Annika’s hand and stepped forward. “I can think of no one better to try freeing the sword than our leader of Avalon, the Earth Angel,” he said, sneaking a glance at Annika. “If that’s what she wants, of course.”
The crowd cheered, apparently in agreement with that plan.
“I’m more than happy to try,” she said once they’d quieted enough so she could speak.
They cheered again, which appeared to please her.
In a flash, she teleported from where she was standing with us on the platform and onto the top of the newly raised mountain. She wrapped her hands around the golden handle of the sword and pulled.
It didn’t budge.
She braced herself and pulled harder, putting her entire body into it. But no matter how hard she pulled, the sword stayed where it was.
Finally, she let go of the handle and turned back around to face the group of us on the platform. “Raven,” she said, her golden eyes focused on me. “The mountain didn’t rise from the lake until after you survived drinking from the Grail. I don’t think it rose for me. I think it rose for you. So you should be the one to try freeing the sword from the stone.”
I nodded, since it was the same thing I’d thought earlier. But unfortunately, I couldn’t teleport to the top of the mountain like Annika had done. I wouldn’t be able to do that even after igniting my Nephilim power, since teleporting was limited to angels, greater demons, witches, and mages.
Which meant I needed to climb the mountain myself. It wasn’t what I’d planned on doing after completing the challenging obstacle course and drinking from the Grail. But luckily, my training had prepared me for situations like this.
Annika teleported back over to my side. “Want me to bring you to the top of the mountain?” she asked, holding a hand out to me. “You’ve more than proven your capabilities today. There’s no need to exert yourself further.”
I glanced at the top of the mountain where the sword in the stone waited, to her hand, and back again. “Thanks,” I said, keeping my hands by my sides. “But if you’re right that this mountain rose for me, I want to get to the top on my own.”
“Very well.” She nodded, and I swore I saw respect in her eyes. “Go get that sword.”
The crowd cheered again and started chanting my name over and over, until it sounded like a song of its own. I suspected this might have been the most exciting thing to happen on Avalon since, well… since Annika and Jacen had arrived and claimed the island as theirs.
The climb down from the top platform was easier than the way up, since I was able to take the ladder. Once I was back at the lower platform, I eyed up the distance between it and the bottom of the mountain. Only a few feet of water. I could either swim, or jump for it.
I didn’t love swimming, and jumping would make a better show. So I backed up as far as possible, got a running start, and leaped from the edge of the platform to the bottom of the mountain.
I landed perfectly on my feet.
The crowd cheered again, and I turned to beam at them. I’d never been the type of person to seek the spotlight. But their energy was so contagious that I couldn’t help getting pulled into it.
However, I needed to focus on getting up the mountain. So I turned away from the crowd and studied the possible paths up. Once I picked one, I started to climb. All I had to do was get my hands and feet in the right places. It was challenging, but not as challenging as some of the obstacles I’d just completed on the course. My training had more than prepared me for this.
As I made my way up, I couldn’t help thinking about a kids reality show I used to watch when I was younger, where three contestants would race up a glowing mountain called the Aggro Crag. The mountain I was climbing now looked about the same size as the Aggro Crag. It was probably about thirty feet tall—slightly taller than the spider climb.
It didn’t take me long to reach the top. Maybe it was the new angel blood running through my veins, but the climb was invigorating. These past few weeks, I’d pushed through training, but I’d never enjoyed it. Now I was loving it.
It had to be the angel blood. There was no other explanation for my sudden attitude change toward exercising.
Once I reached the top, I came face to face with the sword in the stone. The golden handle gleamed in the sunlight just as intensely as the Holy Grail. The stone was slightly taller than my waist, which put the handle at the perfect height for me to grab.
My body
pumped with nervous adrenaline. But there was no time to waste. I was either going to be able to pull the sword from the stone, or I wouldn’t be. I might as well stop staring at it and see what happened.
I stepped forward, gripped the handle, and pulled.
The sword slipped free of the stone with no resistance.
As the blade left the rock, red magic surrounded it—just like the sword I’d used in King Arthur’s simulation. I raised the beautiful weapon above my head, and the magic swirled around the blade, bright and full of life. My body surged with strength. It was like the magic was traveling from the sword, through my palms, and into my soul.
It felt just as perfect in my hands as it had in the simulation. I gave it a few quick swishes through the air, watching in awe as the magic swirled around the moving blade. It was like this sword and I were meant for each other. Like we’d been separated my whole life, and were finally being reunited.
And this wasn’t just any sword. It was Excalibur. The same sword King Arthur had used to fight off the last of the demons in his time. Incredible.
Before I knew what was happening, Annika and the three mages teleported to my side. They all stared at me with wonder—and with respect.
Annika held the Holy Grail to her side. Now that the Grail and the Sword were so close to each other, it was clear that the gold on them matched exactly. Like they’d been crafted together and made up a pair.
“Raven Danvers,” Dahlia said my name, and with her words, the crowd quieted. “King Arthur has chosen you to wield his Holy Sword Excalibur. His weapon belongs to you now. Use it wisely.”
“I will,” I said, although the weight of the responsibility bore down upon me like bricks. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was taking on by being chosen by this sword, but it had to be something big. And judging by the way the sword pulsed with power at the thought, I was right.
“I know you will.” Annika smiled at me, and then she turned to Iris. “And I hope there’s enough time between now and nightfall for you to plan a party,” she said to the mage. “Because tonight, we’re celebrating Raven.”
The Angel Trials- The Complete Series Page 95