“No, Charlie is,” He pointed.
“Well, we think.”
“I don’t think you should question the Spirits,” Ryan warned.
“So now is it your turn to give advice?”
Ryan shrugged.
I hadn’t realized it, but we were now far outside the main part of town.
“Oh no,” Ryan whispered, slowing his pace.
“What? What’s wrong?” I asked dropping my speed to stay beside him.
“No, no, no. I can’t go back there. No way,” Ryan stopped, shaking his head.
Charlie flew back circling around us.
“Go back. What are you talking about?” I asked trying to catch his eye.
“No. I’m not doing it. Owl can stay there,” Ryan turned, starting back from where we had just come.
“What?! What do you mean you are leaving Owl? Ryan, you can’t do that! What’s wrong?” I asked running in front of him to stop him from going any farther.
“Abigail, move.”
“Ryan, no,” I replied, crossing my arms. “What’s your problem?”
Ryan sighed, looking down at the ground as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “He’s taking us to Granddad’s.”
I froze. “He is? How do you know that?”
“This is always the way I go. When I use to go. But I can’t go back yet. It’s too soon,” Ryan shook his head.
I was sure that I checked every house. I didn’t know which one was Granddad’s but I was sure I checked every house in Ether.
“I’m with you though. You have to go get Owl back.”
“That’s not that point, Abigail!” He yelled, pushing past me.
“What is the point then, Ryan? I know it’s going to be hard on you I understand that. But you need to go get him.”
“Why? Do I really need him?”
“Do you feel complete?” I asked.
Complete? Where the hell did that come from?
“Complete?” Ryan questioned. “What the hell does that mean?”
“When I touched the tree something felt different for a second. Do you miss him?”
“Yeah. Why would you even ask that?”
“Do you feel like you’re missing something?” I questioned.
“I feel like I’m missing a lot of things.”
“Okay, well all you have to do is walk down that path and get one of them back it’s that easy,” I couldn’t hide my annoyance anymore.
“What is Owl going to help with?”
“Are you serious?” I asked in disbelief. “What is he going to help with? He has helped with so many things already. Half of the things that we have done wouldn’t have gotten done without him.”
“So, why do I need him now?”
“Are you sure Aaron hasn’t gotten to your head?”
“No,” He snapped.
“Well then you better walk you ass down that path right now,” I said pointing behind me.
“No.”
“You are acting like a child now. Remember we are in a war right now! I don’t have the time to be fighting with you about this.”
“Well, then you go get him your damn self!” Ryan yelled back turning and walking again.
“Ryan! Are you really going to leave family behind?”
Charlie flew in front of Ryan’s face snapping his beak at him.
“Whoa!”
“He’ll leave if you just go get him,” I said. “And who knows, maybe Chase will be there too.”
Highly unlikely.
“And what if he’s not there?”
“Who? Owl or Chase?”
“Either one.”
“Well if Chase isn’t there, then maybe Owl will know where he is. If Owl isn’t there then maybe Chase will know where he is. And if neither of them is there then we’ll just have to keep looking won’t we?”
Ryan waved Charlie away as he turned to face me. “Fine.”
***
“Go.”
“No.”
“Ryan. Go.”
“No.”
“Ryan, you finally made it here. Now you’re going to let Charlie bang his head on the door?” I asked pointing my hand at Charlie who was knocking his head against the door.
“I can’t go in.” Ryan shook his head. “I can’t do it. Nope.”
“If you turn around I swear to God.”
“Abigail, you go in then,” Ryan sighed.
“He’s your owl, not mine,” I crossed my arms as the knocking continued.
“But—ow!” Ryan yelled grabbing his arm.
“What’s wrong now?” I asked as Charlie landed on my shoulder. I looked over at the bird, confused.
“My arm.”
“Owl?”
“I don’t know but it hurts like hell,” He grimaced.
“Maybe you should go inside then.” My tone was less than supportive.
Charlie crowed in agreement.
“I hate both of you so much right now,” Ryan growled reaching for the doorknob. Placing his hand over it he quickly retracted it. “Ow!”
“Oh, for the love of God,” I growled turning the doorknob, pushing the door open to the dark house. I felt pain shoot up my arm but I wasn’t going to let Ryan know that. “Go.”
“How do we know that this isn’t a trap?”
“We don’t,” I answered pushing on his arm making him lose his balance. “But we don’t have time to find out.”
Ryan turned just in time for Charlie to fly past him. I shrugged walking past Ryan.
“I can’t believe I’m here right now. I shouldn’t be here.”
“Okay,” I turned making Ryan stop. “I know this is hard. And I’m going to pull that card out right now and you’re not going to like it, but what would Granddad say to you right now? I’m sure he wouldn’t be impressed, now would he?”
Ryan broke our eye contact as he shook his head.
“And what would he say?”
“Probably to grow up and walk inside,” Ryan replied. “But the chair.”
“Ryan, listen. I understand this is hard. I really do but things are just going to keep getting harder. The faster you go in the faster we can move on... if you want. If you want to stay here for a bit we can do that too but please, for the love of God, just make a decision.”
Ryan ran his fingers through his hair. “I just don’t know.”
A faint hoot came from inside the dark house.
“You’re taking too long,” I chuckled, pointing down the hall.
“You heard that too?”
On cue—just as Owl always was—he came flying from the darkness twisting to push his little feet into Ryan’s arm as if trying to push him over. He flew only inches away from Ryan’s face and hooted louder then I had ever heard him before. He then turned to me and hooted at me before hovering between us.
“Hey! What are you yelling at me for? I tried to find you. You didn’t listen to me!”
He hooted.
“I think I like Charlie better,” I mumbled.
Charlie crowed as Owl hooted.
“What? Are you two now best friends or something?” I asked crossing my arms.
“Abigail! We found Owl!” Ryan cheered trying to grab the bird.
“Yes we did,” I should have been more excited but after the long debate with Ryan, I couldn’t bother. “Now are we going to stay or go?”
“Just one minute!” Ryan turned running down the black hallway.
Are you kidding me? We just spent 15 minutes arguing and now he just runs in?
The birds hovered in front of me.
“What?!” I yelled. “Are you just going to let him go in there?”
They squawked at me.
I growled, dragging my feet down the hall. “Ryan, turn a damn light on!”
“It’s over there.”
“Whe—Ow!” I took a step back from Ryan covering my nose. “Go. Turn. The. Light. On.”
Seconds later light flooded the room making but of us squint.
“Sorry.”
“Mhm,” I nodded, dropping my hand. “You know, it’s a beautiful house.”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, Granddad built it himself before my Dad was born.”
“Wow.”
The birds came flying in and sat on the top of a large chair that sat next to a large window and small side table.
“The chair,” I said when I saw Ryan freeze.
Ryan nodded. “Granddad always sat there. One day when I was little I asked him why he always sat there. He told me it was because Dad always wanted to go play on his own so Granddad would let him go and he would sit at the window and watch him and Dad never knew.”
Owl hooted.
“Go,” I nodded.
“What?”
“The chair. Go.”
Ryan hesitated but slowly walked over to the chair staring down at it. Owl hopped off the top of the chair to sit in the seat. He hooted jumping around in circles.
“Move,” Ryan waved his hand in front of Owl. Owl jumped back up to the back of the chair beside Charlie. Ryan lifted the chair cushion letting it fall to the floor. “No way.”
I took a step closer looking over his shoulder. “Is that your watch?”
“Yeah. I had totally forgotten about this. Wasn’t it in my pocket during the battle? Hm, I don’t know. I didn’t realize I didn’t have it. I could have used this down in Limbo,” Ryan exclaimed as he held the pocket watch carefully in his hands.
“See and you didn’t want to come here,” I replied hitting his arm with the back of my hand.
“But, this doesn’t make sense,” Ryan said turning to face me.
“What doesn’t make sense?”
“How did this get here? How did Owl get here? And why was it so easy to get to?”
“Easy?” I laughed. “Nothing about any of this has been easy. Take finding the watch and Owl as a gift because it’s probably the only one you’re going to get for a very long time.”
“I just don’t know,” He shook his head. “I feel like someone should have jumped out of the closet or something by now.”
Owl started to hoot and wouldn’t stop. His usual angelic tone wasn’t there, instead, it was one of fear.
“See!” I yelled over him. “He agrees. Just shut up and take what we can get!”
Owl continued to make a noise as he started to fly circles around the room.
“Oh great,” I said dropping my hands to my sides. “You had to say it, didn’t you?”
“Come on, maybe we should just leave. Maybe he doesn’t want to be here anymore,” Ryan said shoving the watch into his pocket.
I cautiously began to cross the room as Charlie landed on my shoulder.
“Owl, come on,” Ryan yelled, waving at him.
Owl flew over to Ryan and landed on his head.
“Not on my head,” He growled, holding out his arm. Owl jumped down staring at him finally not making noise anymore. “What’s your problem?”
Owl hooted.
“Ow!” Ryan yelled looking down at his arm.
“He missed you,” I laughed looking back as I walked down the hallway.
“I’ll be outside in a minute, okay?”
“Okay,” I sighed. Walking outside I looked up to see that the sky had lightened slightly.
Early morning?
Charlie crowed jumping from my shoulder. I grabbed my shoulder trying to dull the pain from where his claws dug in.
“What’s wrong?”
He crowed again twisting around me before flying up into the air.
“Where is he going?” I heard Ryan’s voice behind me.
“We found Owl. That’s all he was supposed to do. He’s going back to The City of Spirits now.” I said turning around to see Ryan with a backpack stuffed to the brim with things. “What is that?”
“Stuff. Come on, we have to get going. I can hear something and Owl keeps sending weird pains down my arm every time he makes a noise,” Ryan said walking past me.
“I really think you should give him a proper name,” I said taking a few quick steps to walk comfortably beside him. “Hey wait. What do you hear?”
“I don’t know, but after not hearing anything but you and Charlie for days, I’m picking up on weird noises.”
“I’m going to let that one go,” I said holding a hand up between us. “Can you explain what your hearing?”
“I don’t know. It’s just muffled noises really. But this doesn’t make sense either because you said that there was no one here.”
“There’s not.”
“Then why can I hear things?” Ryan asked.
“How am I supposed to know that? Maybe you’re going crazy.”
“That could be a possibility but I don’t think that’s it.”
“Then I have no idea, Ryan.”
“We need to get back to the Palace then we’ll figure out our next move.”
CHAPTER TWELVE - ABIGAIL
“Whoa, I didn’t expect it to look like this,” Ryan whispered looking around.
“I told you.”
“I just couldn’t picture Ether like this. I mean there’s no one here. There’s nothing.”
I nodded. “It’s weird.”
“Unsettling,” he corrected.
“Why are we here? Wasn’t the next step going to talk to Aaron?”
“Not while it’s dark. Come on Abigail. It’s already going to be hard enough,” He pulled one of the doors to the Palace open, letting me step in. “Plus I wanted to see all of this for myself.”
“There’s nothing to see though,” I replied. “Where did Owl go?”
“He’s in the courtyard. I can hear him.”
“Are you still hearing what you hear earlier?”
“A little. It comes and goes. I have no idea where it’s coming from though,” Ryan held the second door opened for me.
“Great,” I nodded.
“It could just be my mind playing tricks on me too. After being around so much noise I think the silence is making me hear things.”
“I’m sure you’re not going crazy,” I reassured.
If anyone is going crazy it’s me.
“Maybe. I can’t believe how dark it still is. Shouldn’t it be morning by now?” Ryan stopped at a window leaning out to look up at the dark sky.
“I’m not sure, it looked as if it was getting light earlier but now it’s just dark again,” I shrugged. “Does your watch have the right time?”
“Yeah, but we would have to open it and I don’t want to do that unless I absolutely have too.”
I nodded. “I’m sure will find something that tells time somewhere around here.”
“Something doesn’t feel right,” he said as we continued down the hall.
“Great. Thank you for that!” I threw my hands up in the air.
“What?”
“Now something is definitely going to go wrong.”
“Isn’t it the other way around? When you say something bad is going to happen it doesn’t and when you say it won’t it will?”
I stared at him. “Did you understand what you just said?”
“Yes?”
“Regardless, it’s been too long since something has happened. Too many things have gone right.”
“Beautiful,” He clapped. “Now it’s your fault.”
“Where are you taking me anyway? You have taken me down every corridor in this place it seems.”
“Not even close,” he laughed. “We’re going to the courtyard.”
“Oh right,” I nodded.
Ryan suddenly stopped grabbing onto my arm to stop me. I looked over at him. He placed his finger over his lips shushing me. I nodded. He pointed to the other side of the door leading out to the courtyard. I stood on the other side waiting for the next direction. He seemed to stare off into space for what seemed like an hour, finally, I rolled my eyes and pointed to myself then pointed to the door.
Ryan grabbed my arm pulling me as close as he could so I could hear him. “What a
re you doing?”
“If there is anyone from Limbo out there and they see you what do you think is going to happen?”
“Okay, you’re right,” He let go of my arm.
Owl is out there. How bad could it be? Ryan is probably just going crazy. That’s an option, right?
I took a deep breath as I pushed the door opened. Pain ran through my right arm. I covered the mark hoping it would make the pain go away.
Not good.
As I stepped through the door Ryan took another step down the hall making sure not to be seen.
“Owl?” I walked out into the darkness. It would have been hard to see if my eyes hadn’t already been accustomed to the dark.
He hooted circling around me.
“What’s going on? How come you didn’t follow me?” I asked, hoping he was smart enough to connect the dots.
He began to circle faster, hooting louder.
Oh, my God.
He flew straight up in the air and into the darkness before I could say anything else. I slowly turned in a circle to see what Owl was going on about.
Men. A lot of them. Ten? Twelve? Twenty?
“Well, look who it is.”
I closed my eyes.
No.
I turned a hundred and eighty degrees to see Aaron with his arms outstretched as if he wanted a hug. The smile that painted his face made my stomach turn.
“What are you doing here?”
Come on, Abigail. You could have come up with something better than that.
“Why wouldn’t I be? Who’s here to stop me?” He laughed.
“What did you do with them?”
“I didn’t do a thing, my dear,” he replied, walking towards me. “This was all because of you.”
Without realizing, his men had made a tight circle around him and I giving me no chance of escape.
“What is it that you want from me?”
He laughed. “Well, there are many things I want, but I think you know what it is that I’m looking for.”
My eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry, what? What do I have? I have nothing. You took it all from me. What would I have that you want?”
The Divine Fallen Page 8