“Okay, so we have one of three. That’s a start.”
“I’ll go get it and bring it to the fountain and then come to help you.”
Charlie nodded. “Where do you think I should look?”
“Try Michael’s stuff first. By the look of the sky, we don’t have long.”
***
“Charlie, did you find anything?” I asked almost crashing into him in the hall.
“Mm,” He had a pouch hanging from his beak.
“Which one is it?”
“Black one. Come on.”
We both flew the palace with ease. just before we got to the last few doorways we turned into the closest room flying out the window. We dove down from the window bringing our speed down as we got to the fountain.
“The watch is on the top.”
We stood on either side of the edge of the top tier as he placed the pouch down beside it.
“Now what?”
I looked up to see that there was now a massive hole in the barrier. “We don’t have much time to find the last one by the looks.”
“Where do you think it would be?”
I shook my head. “Look everywhere. You start at that end I’ll start at the other. Look thoroughly everywhere, but quick.”
He nodded and off we went.
***
This makes no sense. How in the world do they expect us to just find these stupid stones just by luck? Who do they think we are?
I turned out of Chase’s room flying into Abigail’s.
Okay, if she was to have it I bet that she has no idea that she does. So where would someone hide something in someone’s room so they even wouldn’t know where it was? Does that even make sense?
I looked around the room. Nothing looked out of place to me, there wasn’t very much in her room.
Wait a second, what is that?
I flew over to a small vanity that was sitting in the corner. It looked like no one had ever sat there. In the corner of the desk was a small jewelry box.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her wear a piece of jewelry.
I landed in front of it folding my wings in. I looked it over before taking my claw and pulling the cover off.
“Charlie! Go to the fountain now! I found the other stone!”
Just like the other one it was in a small black pouch too. I grabbed it tightly with my claw taking off towards the main doors.
When I got outside the hole in the barrier had tripled and what was left of it was now bright white.
“Where was it? How did you find it?”
“Abigail’s room. Come on take the other stone out.”
We each took a stone out setting it on either side of the watch.
“You open the watch,” Charlie said pointing his beak it.
“I really hope this doesn’t hurt Ryan.”
“That’s what the orange stone is for.”
“Are we sure though?” I asked hesitating.
“You have to open it or none of us will ever find out if Ryan is okay or not.”
I hopped over to the watch. I took it in my claws. Struggling at first I pushed the button making the face pop open. I set it back in its place. We took our spots on the edges of the top tier of the fountain watching them. The stones began to give off a dull glow. We turned our gaze to the sky to see the barrier slowly began to heal. We turned to the left to see the leader appear in front of us again.
“Well done boys. You’ve done it. We are truly grateful. You have given your friends a little more time. By nightfall, the barrier will be healed. Be on guard until then, but you should be okay. Make sure you return the stones and watch back to their spots at dark.”
We both flapped our wings at her.
“And don’t forget to put the stones back in the pouches,” As she turned from us she disappeared.
I looked over at Charlie. He stared off where she was standing before turning to me.
“Good job, buddy. We did.”
“Thanks, friend, for your help,” I nodded. “If only the humans knew the things we do for them.”
We stared at each other before laughing. It was nice to have a friend like Charlie.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE - ABIGAIL
It had already been a day into our journey back to Ether and none of us had hardly spoken a word in that time. We had all been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting. What was going to happen next? What were we going to do next? Is there something we were missing?
“Are you okay, Abigail?” Chase’s voice scared me.
“Yeah, are you?”
“I think so,” he nodded.
“Are you okay Ryan?”
“Yeah, still worried about Owl though.”
“He’ll outlive all of us. I’m sure of it,” Chase chuckled.
Ryan laughed. “I believe that.”
“Abigail, was that really your tree at The City of Spirits? And what happened when you touched it? Why did you have a vision?”
“It is my tree. Well, I think anyway. They both react the same. And I’m not sure why I see things when I touch it but every time I do that seems to happen. There’s one in Limbo too. That one I still don’t fully understand.”
“There’s a tree like that in Limbo?” He pointed to my arm.
“Yeah. That what did those horrible things to my arm.”
“Wow.”
“Hey,” I paused. The boys stopped a few paces ahead. “Chase, what is your mark again?”
“A book.”
We all stood in silence.
“How come we have both found what has related to our marks and he hasn’t?” Ryan asked.
“Good question. Chase, can I see your arm?”
He pushed his sleeve up so we could see it. I took a step closer holding his arm in my hands.
“Abigail, have you seen it before?” Ryan asked.
“I never noticed before, maybe we weren’t meant to, but I think I have.”
“What do you mean?” Chase dropped his arm to his side.
“I think I know where the book is.”
“Where?”
“I think it’s the book my mother has.”
The rest of our trip seemed to go much faster. We were all eager to get exploring. When we got to the main gates of Ether we could hear the birds on the other side of the door.
“I think someone is excited your home,” I laughed, looking back at Ryan.
“I guess so.”
Both boys pulled on the doors, opening them just enough for us to squeeze through, but before we could Charlie and Owl came storming through.
“Well hello to you too! Did you two behave while we were gone?” I asked looking up at them. They both flew in a circle together before hovering in front of us.
“Good. Come on Owl we have to go. Say goodbye to your friend,” Ryan waved his hand through the air.
Owl and Charlie turned to each other and chattered at each other for a moment before flying opposite circles of one another. They hovered in front of one another before Charlie turned and started to fly before disappearing into thin air.
“Where did he go?” Chase asked. We had filled him in earlier on who Charlie was.
“Back to The City of Spirits, I assume,” I shrugged. “He’s safe wherever he is.”
“Okay, well let’s get going then. We need to get down there before nightfall.”
The sky had tones of pink and orange as the sun sank past the skyline.
“It’s a beautiful night,”
“I feel like I haven’t been here in a lifetime,” I said as I took in everything happening on my street. I felt like I was coming back after years away. Everything looked the same, but everything felt different.
“Is the door locked?” Chase asked as he held his hand over the doorknob.
“I—I think so.”
Owl let out a disagreeing hoot.
“Never mind. Just try the door,” my voice was harsher than I meant it. I didn’t want to be here. Flashes of the night I was here alone came to m
e all at once.
Chase didn’t seem to notice though. He opened the door and they all walked in. I, on the other hand, stood in the doorway frozen. It took a moment for the boys to notice that I had not followed along with them. They were standing in the hallway when they turned to look back at me.
“Are you okay Abigail?” Chase asked as they all stared at me.
Where they were standing all I could see was a pool of blood. I could see the man lying beside their feet. On the other side of them was the knife I killed him with. The longer I stared at the ground the more the blood seemed to spread.
“Abigail,” I jumped at the sound of Chase’s voice. I hadn’t noticed that the boys were now standing directly in front of me.
“Are you okay? What’s a matter?”
“Why are you crying?” Chase added. I quickly brought my hand to my face. There were tears on my cheeks. I hadn’t noticed that either.
“I—”
“Come on, it’s okay. Come inside,” Chase put his hand around my back guiding me into the house. I pushed back though not allowing him to move me.
“I killed a man there. Right there. There was blood everywhere. I slit his throat. He was lying right there. I had to clean it all up. Took me hours to get every drop of blood. I think the garbage bags are still out back. I can’t remember where I put them. I dragged his body out to the car after. In a bag. I stuffed him in the trunk. I drove to the woods and dropped him down one of those black holes that appear sometimes. And something weird happened with your notebooks. There was weird writing in the back but then it caught on fire. Then a smoke chased me around the house. I only got rid of it because my mom’s mirror is magic.” I paused looking up at them. I could feel the tears in my eyes wanting to spill over. “It was quite the day.”
I could see the shock in both of their eyes, but they were trying to hide a smile on their mouths.
“I’m so sorry, Abigail,” Chase’s voice was low.
“I know you don’t want to but why don’t you come inside. We don’t want too many people to notice that we’re here,” Ryan added.
My eyes widen. He was right. I looked over my shoulder before turning back to them and pushing them inside, quickly shutting the door.
“Are you okay?”
“Can we just not stand here? Go upstairs. We need to find the book anyway. I have no idea where she would have put it.”
The boys turned and started up the stairs. Owl was at the top already, waiting.
“I’m not sure where Mom would have put the book though.”
“Well, we’ll just have to find it,” Ryan turning heading towards her room.
“Wait a minute,” I stopped when I saw the door to the room they claimed as theirs.
“What’s a matter?”
“Did you guys know the symbols that appeared in The Tunnels when we were training?”
They looked at each other with a bit of confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. They appeared at the door. No one could read them but me. Did you guys lie to me? Did you know what it said? Do you have that power too or were you all just fooling me to make a joke out of me?” I wasn’t sure where my sudden anger was coming from.
“Abigail, we wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Where is this coming from?” Chase’s voice was low.
“When I was here…alone… I was trying to find something. Anything that would help me. I didn’t know what I was looking for I just knew that I had to look. I’m sorry but I went through your things. I looked at your notebooks first. It was the first thing I saw. I had picked yours first Ryan. I flipped all through it and nothing until the last written page. It had Ether’s symbol on the top and then a bunch of those symbols or letters or whatever you would like to call them from The Tunnels. Before I thought to read it I went through your notebook, Chase. On the last written page, there were the symbols again but your page had Limbo’s symbol on the top.”
They took a minute to digest what I had said before Chase spoke: “And what did it say?”
“I don’t know. Before I had the chance the books went up in flames and then black smoke attacked me.”
“Oh yeah, you said that. And something about your mom’s mirror.”
“There’s an Ether’s symbol on the top of her mirror. It comes out, I flipped it over and the smoke went through the mirror. I assumed it went back to Limbo.”
“Yes, it probably did,” Ryan nodded.
“Wait, do you know what it was?”
“I think so. The smoke definitely came from Limbo. Those notes in the books were probably trying to tell you something. Maybe even a message from the Creator’s if that’s even possible. Aaron sent a Shadow to come and most likely kill you. But with Shadows, if you show them darkness they’ll go back to where they came from. That’s why it went through the mirror. They say if you ever have the misfortune of crossing paths with a Shadow that you need to think of your darkest thoughts. We all have them, things we lock away to tell ourselves that we’re still good people. You need to think of those thoughts. If you do they can’t see you.”
My eyes widen. “Oh, well doesn’t that just sound lovely. Don’t tell me what could have happened to me. I don’t want to know. I don’t ever want to know.”
“But—”
I put my hand up. “Nope, let me be naive about something, please. Come on, I’ll show you the mirror.”
They dropped the subject, following me to my parent’s room. Owl waited patiently there for us. Opening the door it was the same as I left it, after the Shadow. I took a deep breath, it made me sad to think about my parents and the thought that they might be dead. Walking over to the mirror I glanced around the room, I didn’t see what I was looking for.
“See, that’s our symbol.”
“And you flipped it and it went through.”
“Yes, and I don’t think it went to Ether because I haven’t seen it since that day. But you can’t get through it now. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe the mirror isn’t magical at all, maybe Aaron just summoned it back.”
Before Ryan and I had time to react Chase shoved me out of the way, ripping the symbol from the mirror throwing it to the ground and stomping on it. When that didn’t seem to work he knelt over pulling one of my knives from the strap on my thigh hitting it with the heel of the knife.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I yelled. Ryan grabbed his wrist before he could hit it again.
“This is how Aaron got to your parents. This is how he knows so much. He can send anything he wants through that mirror. Because of this,” he pulled from Ryan’s grip hitting it again.
“Does that mean that he may have the book?” Panic rushed through me.
“I don’t know,” he seemed satisfied with the hundreds of pieces left on the floor. He stood sliding my knife back into its place.
“Search everything. The whole house if you have to. If it’s in this house we will find it. If not we have a huge problem.”
***
It felt like we had been searching for ages. The sun had gone down and the moon now lit up the room. Everything was out of its place.
“I’ll go start on our room,” Ryan started across the room.
“Wait,” Chase put a hand on his shoulder stopping him. “Something is happening.”
“What do you mean?”
“My arm is burning,” I closed the small space between us. We all looked down at his arm to see the pages flipping. “It’s in this room. We just haven’t found it yet.”
“Where else could it be?” I threw my arms up. “We have looked through everything. Look at this room!”
“No, not everywhere,” it was like Chase was put into a trance. He pushed between Ryan and me making his way over to the bed. He ran his hand across the mattress when he got to the headboard he stopped. “It’s in there. Help me move the bed.”
Ryan and I ran over, using all of our force we moved the bed that was on a massive oak b
ed frame that had a headboard that went halfway up the wall. Chase reached behind holding onto the top of the headboard for support. Something clicked.
“What are you doing? What’s back there?”
He struggled a bit more before standing again with the leather bound book stuffed with papers in his hand.
“Well, there’s a hiding spot for you!” Ryan said, surprised.
“Do you mind if I see it?” I asked holding out my hands. “We never got to look at it that night.”
As Owl came to join us as Chase handed over the book. I flipped it open. Looking at the front page I frowned. I turned a few pages farther and I still couldn’t understand the writing. I did this a few more times before slamming it shut looking up at them. I held the book out for Chase, who took it from me. “I can’t understand any of it.”
“What do you mean? You could understand the other writings,” Ryan was just as confused as I was.
“You look at it. See if you understand,” Chase flipped open to the first page for him. He stood his head. He couldn’t understand either.
“Chase, you try.”
He looked down taking time to study the first page. “To the owner of this book, great trouble comes in your future if you choose to read on.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Chase wrinkled his nose in disgust.
“Ryan, he can read the book!”
Ryan paused, thinking. “It makes sense. Your parents thought that it was for you. This is probably been passed down for centuries, that’s why your mom brought it out she thought that it would help you in your journey. But it actually didn’t belong to you at all. It’s for Chase… obviously.”
“Thank you, Ryan. That was very helpful.”
Ryan chuckled at my sass.
“Guys, guys,” Chase never heard any of the conversation that just took place. He looked up at us. There was a hint of fear in his eyes.
“What’s a matter, Chase?” He was a few pages into the book now.
“It says that there is a fourth world.”
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO - ABIGAIL
The Divine Fallen Page 14