by Nikki Kelly
I RETURNED FROM DUBLIN late in the evening. I’d fed from a dark-souled human and spent the rest of the day alone, staring out over the Irish Sea from the port in quiet reflection. I’d thought about Gabriel and Iona, how I hoped that he would allow himself to love her and that she would be able to save him in time. I’d thought about Brooke and Fergal, and how they now had a chance of living a normal life together. I’d thought about Phelan and his men, about Riley, Claire, and Iris, about the families like them all over the world, who, if I was able to defeat Zherneboh, could once again walk their streets when the sun went down. For a second I’d thought about my own mother, and feelings of regret had flooded me that I was about to leave without having found her. Where once I had wanted to seek her advice, now all I cared about was knowing that she was safe.
I hadn’t wanted to think about Jonah. All that did was bring about self-pity. And now was not the time for that. As for Ruadhan, I’d struggled. I understood better now what Iona had said, how it was hard for her to picture the faces of the ones she’d loved and lost, as I, too, had found it difficult to see Ruadhan’s face when I had tried.
The lights were off when I stepped inside Little Blue, but Brooke was awake, sitting on her own at the small table. I flipped the light switch.
“Hey,” I said.
She turned. “Hey.”
I eyed the candy wrappers strewn messily on the tabletop. “Not a bad way to celebrate getting your humanity back—having a midnight feast, I mean. Must be nice to be able to eat sweets again.”
“Yeah, well, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh,” she said with a mocking tone. She lowered the sunglasses she was still wearing and blinked heavily. Her eyes were frosted over, and I couldn’t discern her pupils from her irises. “Not sure I’d swap a sugar rush for my sight,” she added, putting her shades back in place.
“Oh.” My breath caught in my throat.
“Yeah, oh.” She got up and made her way to the sofa, where she snuggled beneath the throw. I’d never seen Brooke wobble, not even in the highest of stilettos. I followed and sat down next to her, tugging the blanket gently. She gave up some of her warmth.
“How do you feel otherwise?” I asked.
“Not really got past the being-blind part quite yet.” Her voice quivered, a sadness sounding through her sarcasm. “I already miss Fergal’s smile. Jeez, it’s only been a few days and I can’t even imagine it, in my head I mean.” Thinking once again of Ruadhan, I knew exactly how she felt. Bringing the blanket up to her ear, she curled into the fetal position, and though she tried to stifle it, she sobbed. “It’s kinda cruel to get something back, then to have to lose it all over again.” Once more, I knew exactly how she felt. “I mighta been a Vamp, but do you know what? I have never felt so in the dark as I do right now.”
My heart broke for Brooke. From a strained, barely there relationship, through our ups and downs, we had become unlikely friends. No matter what she was, Vampire or human, I knew who she was. I knew the color of her soul. And right now, I didn’t think it could get any bluer.
I didn’t have to search hard to find a way to remedy Brooke’s affliction. Not long after I had found Gabriel, he had tried to take away my scars. He’d said I had to remember for him to be able to remove them. I hadn’t known at the time how he was able to do something like that, but now I was in possession of my own Angel abilities, and like the rest, it was second nature. I didn’t need a tutorial.
I couldn’t bring Ruadhan back, and I couldn’t have a future with Jonah, but I could make it so that Brooke could see Fergal’s smile again. I could give her back what she had lost. I could take away her scars.
“Brooke,” I said, pulling her back into a seated position. “Let me help you.”
* * *
BROOKE WAS ONCE AGAIN marveling at her butterflies on my cheek.
“I would never have believed it if I weren’t able to see it with my own two eyes,” she said.
“Well, know that now your wonderful work will dress my skin no matter where or when I am.” I checked the small clock on the sideboard. “Speaking of, it’s nearly time.”
“You don’t have to go.” Brooke batted her lashes; her eyes were still adjusting to the light.
“You know I do.” I got up and straightened the black, sleeveless jumpsuit Brooke had given me to wear. I hadn’t protested. Paired with black sneakers, it seemed as appropriate as anything else for traveling to another dimension and onto a battlefield.
“Jonah spent all day looking for you. So did Gabriel.”
I hesitated. “The only thing left to say is good-bye, and this is one I’d rather skip.”
Brooke pulled me into a hug. “Thank you, Lailah.”
“No need to thank me,” I said, pushing her to release me. Being able to give Brooke her sight back had made me feel as though, for once, a member of my family had somehow benefited from having me around. “Enjoy your life, Brooke,” I said, and squeezing out a tight smile, I left her behind.
Outside, the day began to dawn and I breathed in the fresh dew hanging in the morning air, knowing that this would be the last time I would ever smell it. The sky was clear, and the sun was burnt orange, matching the autumn as it climbed higher. And as it rose, so did the microscopic crystals on my skin. They were like beads of ice as they twinkled with an opulent white light. And with an almighty surge, my energy was renewed.
I decided to stroll to the church, but I didn’t get far before Gabriel was at my back. “Lailah—” he called. I stopped at the end of the dirt track, just short of the main road.
He came to my side and seemed ready to voice the thousand things he must have wanted to say. But he simply stared at me instead and, cupping my cheek, planted the lightest of kisses on my forehead. Then, without looking back, he walked away.
A lump formed in my throat. He’d finally accepted that our paths had diverged.
I watched his every step until he was safely inside the motor home, before continuing toward the church. As usual, the gates were locked, so I jumped over them in a single bound, making my way up the long path. There were sounds coming from inside, and the main door was slightly ajar; I wondered if Iona had broken her promise to me and come here alone again.
I was careful as I maneuvered around the silver, but inside, it wasn’t Iona I found. It was Phelan.
He was on his knees at the foot of chancel, his gun beside him, his head bowed. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I turned to leave, but he called out, “Kinda rude not to say slán, it’s not as though you’d have to go outta your way, like.”
He was still facing forward when I joined him. “Sorry. Good-bye,” I said.
Sliding his gun farther away, he beckoned for me to come in closer, and at first I stayed put. But he gestured again. Only this time, he accompanied it with his usual impatient expression.
I plonked myself down, sitting cross-legged beside him.
“Iona texted me, said you healed Brooke of her blindness.”
“So you know Brooke’s human again?” I said.
This time he didn’t argue with me about the semantics, and I wondered if that was because he didn’t want to waste his breath, or because he was starting to think I might be right. “Do you know who else healed the blind?” He stared up at the stained-glass window.
I followed his gaze to Jesus on the cross. “We both know I’m not the Savior, Phelan.”
He scratched his stubble. “Christ healed a man born blind, and his disciples asked him about the cause of the blindness—whether it was because the man had sinned or his parents had. Christ told them that it was neither, and he said, ‘This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” He paused and then, looking at me smugly, added, “John 9.”
“Your point?” I said.
“So, ‘this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him,’” he repeated. “You’re not the Savior we were waiting for, but I think the Lord has delivered us someone infinitely better.”
&nbs
p; From the minute I arrived in Lucan, Phelan and I had done nothing but bump heads. And now, he was showing me respect. And so I made the same promise to Phelan that I had to Ruadhan. “I will try.”
“Let me say a prayer for you before you go on your way, like.”
Accepting his gesture, I bowed my head and clasped my hands together.
“May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. Amen.”
“Amen,” I murmured.
I thought myself away before Phelan had a chance to say anything that might ruin the moment.
Arriving at the orchard, I pushed past the drooping branches of the apple trees that were, despite the time of year, in full bloom. The cold had been exchanged for a sticky heat that clung to me as I sought out Malachi. I found him beside the allotment, and he wasn’t alone.
“Lailah.” He turned away from the women he had been conversing with, removing his homburg hat in greeting as I approached.
“I’m ready,” I said, focusing intently on the surrounding land, looking for the join in the invisible seam of the magic cloak.
“See beyond my design, Lailah, and you’ll know what to do.” He guided me ahead of him.
“Wait.”
“Yes, child?” Malachi said.
“My mother, she was an Angel.”
“Yes,” he said, as though I were merely stating the obvious.
“She became fallen.… Is it possible that you may have helped her? Would you know if she is safe?”
“I have delivered a good many Angels to the sea. It is very possible she was among them. What was her name, child?”
“Aingeal,” the fair-haired woman at Malachi’s back said, stepping forward.
Malachi’s brow dipped and he shook his head, confusion spreading across his face. But then the lines on his forehead ironed out, and as he regarded the fallen Angel coming around his side, he grunted to himself as if he had missed something that had been glaringly obvious all along. “My deputy,” he said.
I stifled a breath. All the Angels I had met had a similar look about them, blond-haired and blue-eyed, but taking in the fallen Angel before me, I saw my once self staring back.
She approached me, offering a reassuring nod. Having parted with her crystal, she had lost her light a long time ago, but as she brought me into an embrace, it didn’t stop an unearthly warmth radiating from her to me.
This was the first time I would ever hug my mother, but it was also the last. Somehow, she knew it, too. With reluctance, she released me. Her smile fell away and her sadness showed with the quiver in her rosy lips. “My little girl,” she whispered. “Did you have a good life?”
My mother was an Angel. When I was still in her womb and she here on Earth, Zherneboh had infected me with his venom. I had been born here, into human skin. It was only when I died at seventeen that I inherited my supernatural lineage, having woken immortal. I had the barest of memories of that existence—of my first life—but the glimpses were enough to let me know that I had lived the happiest life any person could hope for.
“Yes,” I said. “And you?”
“I got to live,” she replied, her body angled toward Malachi, and I realized that she had him to thank for that. “I couldn’t be known to you, for fear the Purebloods would discover you through me,” she explained. “I couldn’t risk that happening.”
“You sent the Sealgaire.” I wanted her to know that I was aware of her efforts to look out for me from a distance.
“Yes. You have lived many lives, and I have always been on the fringes of them, where I was able.” With a tremor, she said, “I’m sorry.”
“What happened, what Zherneboh did, wasn’t your fault. You have nothing to apologize for.” I assured her that I understood, that my feelings toward her were only loving. The wave of warmth I’d experienced when we embraced washed over me again and I wished that things could have been different, that I could have known her. But there was no point in wishing—things were what they were. Though life was a gift, it wasn’t always one that was given in equal measure. And I was grateful that I had met her, even if it had been just once, before the end.
With one last look, I nodded and made my way forward. The red-roofed cottage appeared, as did the overhanging branches concealing the fixed gateway to the first dimension. I wasted no time pulling them back.
The shining silver and glowing golds were awe-inspiring, rippling with streaks of light like the sun beating down on waves. The very nature of it was inviting, offering a refreshing coolness in the humidity. I dipped my toe into the water. Submerged completely, I didn’t hear Jonah calling my name at my back as I was pulled from this world and delivered to the next.
TWENTY-THREE
IT REALLY WAS LIKE walking toward a bright white light. This place was what Phelan and his men called the Kingdom of Heaven, and interestingly, their description of the transition between one world and the next was surprisingly accurate.
At first, on the other side of the gateway, there was simply luminous light.
I tuned in every sense, searching for signs of life, but found none.
As my sight adjusted, I found myself in a circular room with a diameter of no less than one hundred and fifty feet. The room was like a halo, with nothing at the center but a dead drop.
Forty thrones, each twice my height, were positioned along the edge of the outer ring. They were clear but had a sheen that made them look as if they’d been carved out of ice. On first glance, they were facing what appeared to be windows made from frosted glass. But as I pressed my palms to the curved window, it rippled at my touch. The entire sheet turned to liquid and then cascaded like a waterfall. Now there was nothing separating the inside from the outside.
The floor began to move.
The halo rotated, and I went with it. As it turned, I was offered a 360-degree bird’s-eye view of the world, and I breathed in its sweet citrus scent.
Below me, the building misted with white cloud, which spiraled out into the land, transitioning from white, to blue, to orange, until the last ring circled red. The colorful clouds dispersed only when they reached the ocean.
And the ocean was just how Gabriel had once described it: iridescent blue, crystal clear, and unspoiled. The third dimension might have a sea of souls, but the sea that belonged to this world twinkled like a sea of stars, reflecting everything above it like a mirror. In the sky, the most beautiful galaxies in the universe converged. The new stars being born provided a backlight to the planets cast in shadow, and they popped in 3-D, their rings glowing green and yellow neon. Spiral galaxies bounced off one another as though an invisible hand were pushing them aside to make way for the birth of new wonders.
An infinite number of planets, moons, and stars scattered in the sky, layered on top of one another like glitter, so bright, so bedazzled, that this world’s day was also its night.
It was as though I had a front-row seat to the greatest show there ever was or would ever be. And the stage was set to magnify every beauty Emit had created. This dimension was a looking glass.
And I had come here to shatter it.
The plate beneath my feet slowed and then came to an absolute stop, and what looked like a glass door manifested in front of me. As I stared at it, a green arrow pointing down flashed and the door opened.
An elevator.
If I was going to bring this world to an end, I would first need to locate the crystal being fueled by the light souls of humans and find a way to switch it off. With no sign of it here, I got inside the lift. The glass box dropped down an invisible shaft, and my view of the ocean disappeared as I descended into a white cloud.
The elevator bounced as it came to a stop, and with a ding, the doors opened and I was outside. The layer of white mist that hung in the air clouded my sight. As I adjusted to it, the building’s steels grew like long arms from the ground, twisting upward until they sprea
d like hands, holding the halo, which was now high above me.
The fast drum of a heartbeat echoed as something moved to my left. I closed my eyes, and splitting my soul in two, I willed the darkness. My eyes grew wide as the mist thinned, and finally, the creature it belonged to bounded ahead of me.
I gasped as a beautiful baby beast that resembled a snow leopard ambled and fell on its new legs. It had a white fur coat and eyes of blue sapphire. Slowly, one by one, more appeared until there was a small litter of cubs playfully tumbling over one another as they passed by me.
The animals moved as though I weren’t there, but then two shining blue eyes were on me, and the mama cat came forward. She sat on her back legs, watching me, and my heartbeat quickened. I had to restrain my darkness from seeping through my skin, but as I did, suddenly my shadow appeared.
The cat jumped back and rushed behind her cubs, nudging them forward in a bid to escape my presence. I hadn’t meant to scare the creature. As her jaw dropped and as she whimpered, I realized she had no teeth.
Here in Styclar-Plena, there was only one tier to the food chain. The light from the crystal sustained the inhabitants entirely. The cat didn’t have teeth because she didn’t eat.
With no sign of the crystal or Orifiel, I looked to the dense woodland encircling the building’s footings and made my way toward the two large trees that bowed over one another, creating an arch. With the frost on the trees and the snow on the ground, it could have been December, but it was warm.
It may have looked like winter, but it felt like summer.
A winding path led the way through the forest, and with every step I took down it, I began to feel strange. A sense of weightlessness washed over me until I could no longer discern my limbs from one another. I was simply floating.
As I drifted like a lost leaf washing downstream, more creatures appeared, weaving and bobbing around the tree trunks on either side of me.
A bird that resembled a white peacock, but with long legs and a neck like a flamingo’s, appeared on my right, skipping across my path as though it were jumping from pebble to pebble. As the bird stretched its elongated neck and fanned its feathers, glistening crystals speckled and then burst like a golden firework.