Tears stung the back of my eyes as happiness swelled inside my heart making me choke on the tears. She was perfect, she was our daughter, and she was here. She was real, she was alive, but I knew immediately it was an alternate reality.
I brought my eyes back to Illarion, when he cupped my cheek, with that same warm smile.
‘We can still have this; you just have to go to him.’
My heart stopped. What?
Before my mind could keep up, Illarion was gone, and I was outside, in the dark, wind whipping my hair around my face as torrential rain lashed my cheeks. I was screaming, crying hysterically on my knees, my white wedding dress dirtied in the muddy soil beneath me.
His wide, unseeing eyes were glued to the sky above, blood stained his body, spilling endlessly, as his dark suit grew redder.
As my heart raced inside my chest, a guttural, all-consuming scream erupted from me, from the darkest, most shattered parts of my soul, and then it was all gone.
I was back in the alley, back in New York, Aurel’s wide eyes found mine. He was desperately shaking my shoulders, trying to bring my attention back to him. All I could do was let out a broken whimper.
“You know what I can do. Don’t push me.”
Bile rose in the back of my throat.
“I can end him before he even makes it past that street.”
No one else was dying because of me. I was done being a coward. Getting up, I pushed past Aurel.
Before he could stop me, I stopped him. Aurel was silent, and his eyes flared and the aura surrounding him grew brighter as he struggled to break my hold.
Throwing him a quick glance, I moved with a heavy heart. I broke into a slow jog trying to control my breathing. But no matter how much I thought I’d prepared myself, my breath caught in my throat as I spotted him up ahead.
With each step, my breaths grew shorter and sharper, panic was hastily rising and I was close, so close now, I could end this. I could kill him, I had my gun. But I knew that wouldn’t do a damned thing. He could make me shoot myself, or Illarion before I even raised it at him.
No, I wouldn’t risk his life like that. I needed a plan, something that didn’t involve me becoming a slave again and killing innocent people.
His grin widened, and when I was about ten feet out, he was knocked down by Illarion. No! What the hell was he doing?
Speeding up, I closed the distance between us, the two of them grappled on the ground and my hold on Aurel broke, before I knew what was happening there was a shootout across the street. I didn’t know who fired first, but the war had begun.
Dalca’s agents were shooting at our men and Aurel was now fighting another one of his recruits who’d been hiding in the shadows. I raised my gun and shot two who came running at me, I dodged a third and threw myself behind a clutter of trashcans.
Illarion and The Taker were out in the open now. He had Illarion pinned to the ground in a chokehold, but Illarion was quick to move and pulled Dalca’s arm down leaving his jaw free for an open palmed strike.
He stumbled backward and Illarion got to his feet. He lunged forward, kicking him in the chest. He was fueled by rage as he kept landing blow after blow on him. He was a skilled fighter and in hand to hand combat. I’d never met anyone better than him, but Dalca had other skills, skills that Illarion couldn’t match.
He found a moment in Illarion’s defence that was blinded by his rage, and lunged at him again.
I deflected another attack and screamed for Dalca as he came at Illarion.
Whatever strength he had was nothing compared to the brute force Dalca was throwing behind every hit. Illarion kept fighting; he kept getting back up after every violent hit threw him down.
Dalca looked amused; he was toying with him. He could end his life with a single thought, but he was relishing in the pain.
As I ran toward them, an explosion rocked the street about a block away and my attention was pulled to it as a group of panicked people ran from the street. Tourists, locals, everyone was forced away in terror-stricken chaos.
Illarion and Dalca squared off again and, somewhere between that and the all the noise in the street, I was pulled away in the disarray. I drew my gun and fired at another two who were running toward me.
My heart sunk as I ran across the street and knelt beside Simms, the female agent I’d met just yesterday. She was dead, blood spilled out beneath her, painting the street.
A strong arm pulled me back, behind a car.
‘Stay down!’ Aurel shouted, firing off a few rounds over the roof of the car before dropping back down beside me.
‘He’s killing him!’
‘I’ll help Illarion, you stay here!’
When I shook my head, Aurel pulled me back down, and forced my eyes to him.
‘Are you hurt?’ he asked, looking me over.
I shook my head.
‘Stay here,’ he said, firmly. ‘Do not move!’
I glanced over, across the bonnet. Aurel reloaded his weapon and fired off another round, this time at a female shooter.
She went down and my eyes followed to where she had just been standing.
Right behind her, another shooter raised his gun and aimed at Illarion, he wasn’t even looking because he was too preoccupied with Dalca. When the shooter pulled the trigger, a heart stopping scream erupted from within me as Illarion went down and Dalca roared in anger at the shooter. He was one of his own men, but it didn’t stop him from killing him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ace
He fell. I watched in slow motion as time slowed around us. My breath came out in a staggered, broken scream.
The sound was drowned out by the gunfire exploding.
Ignoring Aurel’s warning, I ran across the street. Nothing mattered but reaching him. My eyes watered, hindering my sight as I ran away from the safety of the car we’d been using as cover.
Dodging men with guns raised, I ducked, evading the bullets that sped past me, narrowly missing my body. Fear should have been on the forefront of my mind, but it wasn’t even close. The only thing that kept repeating was that I’d told Illarion that I didn’t love him.
I jumped up onto the bonnet of a grey sedan that was discarded on the side of the street, slid across it, landing heavily on the sidewalk.
Dropping to my knees, I grabbed his arms and pulled him back, behind the car, taking cover.
His eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay open, to focus on me. His dark lashes fanned across his cheeks and closed momentarily. A fine sheen of sweat broke out across his face, dissolving in the trickle of blood spilling from his mouth.
He coughed, choking on the blood.
‘Keep your eyes open!’ I shouted, cradling his head in my lap.
His eyes slowly found mine, and I saw the desperation in them to hold on, to keep looking at me. I knew he was memorising my face, trying to commit it to memory.
‘Don’t you dare leave me!’ I shook his shoulders.
The pull of the connection between us pulsated, weakening with every breath. Tears spilled from my eyes as I felt the wetness spread under my hand.
There was too much blood.
I let out a stifled sob as his body tensed in my arms. A low, painful sound escaped his lips as I pressed my hand to the wound. Why wasn’t he wearing his vest?
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered, a thousand times. ‘Just hold on, please, Ila. Please fight.’
He smiled weakly as he looked up at me. Tears fell from the corners of his eyes as he tried to reach up, but he’d lost so much blood, his strength was depleting. I pressed my cheek to his, breathing in his scent.
‘Please don’t leave me. Oh God, Ila, I’m so sorry. Please hold on.’
A warm, fierce feeling began to spread inside me. First, I felt it start from the mark on my back then it made its way up through my heart and into my arms, finally reaching my fingers where they touched his skin.
Desperation consumed me. If I lost him... No. I wouldn’t l
et my mind go there. I needed him. God, I needed him to survive this.
I had no idea what I was doing, but it felt so right, my hands moved on their own, one resting on the wound while the other reached for the nape of his neck. I desperately ignored the seeping blood that spilled through my fingers, wetting my gloves.
He understood what I was doing before I did.
‘No…,’ he stammered, in barely a whisper. ‘Don’t, you’ll die… Ace….’
Ignoring his pleas, I closed my eyes and focused. As soon as I did, the heat inside me intensified. It grew hot, unbearable as my fingers burned on his skin.
A violent shudder rocked his body and his rasping screams lacerated the air around us.
Or were they mine? I couldn’t tell where time ended and where it began, I couldn’t see anything but I saw everything, at once.
The static around us began to crack and all the surrounding colors intensified, everything flowed into me like I was seeing and hearing everything in high definition.
Cold air twisted inside my lungs, coiling and bucking, burning for an escape as searing pain sliced through all my nerve endings then fused them back together.
My grip on him tightened until I saw it as though I was watching in slow motion. I saw the bullet lodged in his heart. Tears spilled through my closed eyes and the sobs wouldn’t stop coming, his heart was slowing down far too rapidly, and there wasn’t enough time.
I pressed my palm down on his chest with urgency, pushing harder against the gushing blood and as the heat spread through me, the bullet came free.
As it fell from the wound, the damaged muscle began to repair itself and the hole in his chest closed up, stopping the flow.
I let out a shaky breath.
He moved.
It was the last thing I saw before I blacked out. He was alive.
***
Silence.
Unforgiving silence deafened me, as I stood in the streets of New York alone.
I was still behind the grey sedan, but the crumpled bodies and the attacking shooters were gone. Illarion was gone. Great. I was dead.
‘You weren’t really alive to begin with.’
I turned on my heel, recognizing the voice immediately.
Aaryon stood in the middle of the street with his hands stuffed neatly in his pockets.
Today’s outfit consisted of a dark, well-fitting suit. The kind that made Illarion look amazing.
‘What do you mean? And where is everyone?’
He smirked. ‘Well, you don’t just survive an accident like the one you had, do you?’
‘I know I died.’ I paced the street impatiently, remembering Donna’s confession.
Shaking his head, he stepped forward.
‘That’s not the accident I’m referring to.’
What the actual-
‘You died on the operating table. Your aunt has a brilliant ability to compel even the most powerful Sensitives. So, you see, it wasn’t hard to keep your condition hidden.’
‘I—I thought my spine was….’
‘There were complications, things the non-Sensitives didn’t foresee.’ He paused for a moment and came to stand beside me. ‘When they gave you adrenaline to shock you back to consciousness, your already weakened body shut down.’
That was like a slap to the face.
‘You didn’t just heal my body? You brought me back to life?’
His silver eyes narrowed, letting a smirk to the surface.
‘I gave you a new life, a better, stronger one. You’re what you were always meant to be now.’
Transcendence. It all made sense now. My heart raced in my chest—I immediately felt the change in me when I woke up, only I didn’t know to what extent.
‘What is this?’ I looked around at the empty streets of mid-Manhattan. ‘My own personal hell? A concrete jungle?’
He laughed a cold, unnatural laugh.
‘You’re now able to move between planes, like us,’ he said, simply. ‘Normally this wouldn’t be possible. But you’re powerful. We haven’t seen that before. At least, not for a few centuries.’
‘What am I?’ My voice came out in a quiet, pathetic little whisper.
‘You’re nothing and you’re everything,’ he stated, stepping forward.
Normally, I would have instinctively pulled back, but I didn’t feel the need to with him. He took hold of my hand and turned it over, looking at my palm.
‘You needed the final piece to complete your evolution, and now you have.’
‘Death,’ I stated, a morbid curiosity rising inside me.
He nodded, trailing his translucent index finger along the middle of my palm.
‘And life.’
‘The Giver and the Taker.’
He nodded as the pieces clicked into place.
‘What does it mean?’ I followed his finger as it lingered, hot to the touch.
‘It means that you’re one of us, Acacia. You’re exactly where you were meant to be, since you were born.’ He looked at me, narrowing his silver eyes. ‘You were meant to go through everything you did because it led you to this moment, right here, right now.’
A shaky breath left my lips as his eyes which were now completely white, found mine.
I didn’t understand. Was I meant to stay here forever? Was I going to stay with them? Could I never go back to my life, to Illarion?
‘Only when your mortal body dies, will you come to us.’
My heart hammered in my chest. That was somewhat of a relief. At least I could still spend whatever was left of my mortal life with him.
‘How did this happen? How am I… how was I made?’ Obviously, the notion of making babies was something familiar, but how could I be a descendant of these Beings?
‘Your mother was offered a gift. After what happened with the man who made her conceive Damon.’
His name burned like acid inside me.
‘Once we saw how she handled such evil, our council knew she would be the perfect Sensitive to raise you. The purity in her soul was unmatched.’
‘Why?’ I was frozen. ‘Why me?’
‘We needed a mortal who was strong enough to survive these gifts you’ve been given. We thought that the prophecies were referring to you and once we heard from Faith, we had our answer.’
When I remained silent, he stepped around me, the same static charge that I felt when I was calling on the Darkness, sparked around him.
‘You were born of fear and evil to hope and goodness,’ he said, quietly. ‘The power of Darkness rules you, the essence of the Celestial Beings is strong inside you—you’re neither good nor evil. You’re a perfect balance. The perfect Divine Sensitive.’
I took a deep breath and folded my arms across my chest.
‘What do you need from me?’
‘We need you to defeat the Taker.’
There it was, the kicker.
‘You knew that jerk would be born and that he would eventually give you all hell, why didn’t you just kill him in the womb or something?’ I shook my head. ‘You could have gone all Terminator and just killed his mom or something.’
Again, he laughed.
‘Like I said, you needed to go through everything in order to complete your evolution. That is how this works.’
‘That sounds convoluted.’
‘To a mortal mind, yes. But we don’t live and abide by linear rules.’
‘Right.’ I sighed. This conversation could go on for days and I didn’t have days. ‘Fine. How do I do it?’
‘We don’t know.’ His white eyes glistened with amusement.
My mouth gaped. ‘You transcend space and time but you don’t know how I’m meant to kill him?’
‘We don’t know everything.’
How convenient. I rolled my eyes.
‘You are Hart of Darkness and he is Dalca of Light.’
When I shook my head in utter confusion, he smiled and the smile creeped me out much more than I cared to admit.
; ‘You’re a descendent of the Moon, of me—you have an affinity for the Darkness. He is a descendent of the Sun, Solaris—he has an affinity for the Light. Because of this, you cannot kill him. You complete each other. But there can only be one.’
‘That doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Like I said-’
‘Yeah, I know, you don’t obey linear rules.’
He smiled, nodding.
‘Is there anything I should know?’
‘Keep your mind strong. He can show you things, he can take your soul to places where only we would normally be able to.’
‘The things he made me see… they’re real?’ My heart sunk as the words grew heavy on my tongue. A newly formed ache settled in my heart, crushing it.
‘Real in another plane, another dimension. Not yours and not this time.’
‘Can’t it still be real?’
‘I think you know the answer to that question.’
‘Why couldn’t you fix that?’
His breath kind of stalled, if he even breathed, before looking at me.
‘Fixing what happened to you is as impossible as replacing a limb which is gone, or a mind that is lost.’
When I remained silent, he stepped closer.
‘There are limitations to what we can do, I’m sorry.’
My brain couldn’t keep up. Dimensions and timelines, planes and transcendence. I felt my heart rate pick up. This was too much. I was just a girl, no one special. I couldn’t go up against him. Hell, I froze when he spoke to me.
‘We wouldn’t have cared for you if we didn’t believe that you could do this.’
‘What if I can’t?’ I stammered, flicking my eyes up to his.
The cool, white light from within grew warmer until a slight smile adorned his lips.
‘You can,’ he said, simply. ‘You must face the fear which holds you back. When you do. You’ll be unstoppable.’
‘Will you be with me?’ I asked, my voice barely audible.
‘Until the end.’
***
My eyelids were heavy, too heavy, everything was dark again. I couldn’t move or focus. Everything rolled into one like crashing waves of confusion. Voices, echoes, screams. There was gunfire exploding around me and somewhere out there I heard my name being called.
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