by Jerel Law
“You want to see it again, don’t you, Vitaly? What I showed you last night?”
Vitaly swallowed, trying to look away. He couldn’t. His head nodded yes.
How long Vitaly stood there, whether it was a few seconds—or an hour—he didn’t know. But as he remained under Mr. Prince’s gaze, he felt everything inside him come to a halt. There was only one thing he wanted—power beyond imagination. It flooded his mind and body, tingling him with electricity. He was overcome with the thought of it, and his mind began to spin.
“Have you seen enough?” Mr. Prince said, already knowing the answer.
Vitaly shook his head. He wanted more.
But just like that, once again Mr. Prince blinked, and the image went dark again, like running water turned off at a sink.
“You will have more,” Mr. Prince said. “You simply must continue to do what I say. It’s easy, really. You help me, and I’ll help you.”
Vitaly’s heart was suddenly a cave of darkness and despair. He craved what he’d seen, even more than last night. He nodded. “Yes.”
“Hand me the paper, Vitaly,” Mr. Prince said, his voice silky smooth. Vitaly’s hand shot out to him. He couldn’t get it into Mr. Prince’s hands fast enough. Mr. Prince reached his hand out to grab it, and for a moment, neither one of them let go.
Mr. Prince’s eyes flashed, and for a moment, Vitaly thought, Could it be? Were they really red? His mouth dropped open, and the intoxicating possibility of power vanished into emptiness. Mr. Prince blinked, and his eyes changed back to cool black.
Vitaly let go of the paper, and as he did, he gasped. It felt like a part of him left too, some piece of him on the inside that had been cut loose from the rest, choosing now to exit. Given to this man along with the folded paper.
Somehow, Vitaly knew that Mr. Prince felt this too, that this transfer was more than just names on a list.
“That was easy, wasn’t it?”
Vitaly drew his eyes away, down to his own shoes. “This is a list you could have gotten a variety of ways,” he said. “Why did you need it from me?”
Mr. Prince cocked his head to the side. “Look up at me again, Vitaly.”
Vitaly’s eyes popped up quickly.
“Yes, perhaps I could have gotten this somewhere else. In fact . . .” He held it up, and then began to tear it into pieces. In an instant, there were a hundred tiny scraps in his hand, and he let them fall to the ground.
Vitaly felt his anger rise. “Why did you do that? Why make me go to this kind of trouble for you?”
Mr. Prince smiled, stuffing his hands in his pockets again. “I didn’t really care about the list, Vitaly. I already know who’s coming to your party, and yes, I will be there too, by the way. I have something special planned for this party, you see.”
Vitaly stood, bewildered, as Mr. Prince turned and began to walk away. He spun back around, though, his eyes gleaming. Red again. “Just one more thing. You did that for me. Is that clear? You did it for me. Did you feel that? When we held the paper there together?”
Vitaly swallowed hard, not believing this man could know how he’d felt in that moment. How did he know what was going on deep inside of him? “You . . . you . . . ?” He couldn’t even put a sentence together.
“Yes, Vitaly,” he said. “I have a part of you now. Soon, I’ll have all of you. I own you. Isn’t that cool? You’ll get what you want too, remember?” Mr. Prince held his arms out wide, looking up to the heavens. “I own a piece of this guy’s soul! How about that?” It was as if he were shouting it not at Vitaly as much as to an unknown face in the sky. He stepped back closer to Vitaly again, leaning right into his face.
“And when the time comes,” he whispered, “you’ll again do exactly as I say. You’ve already proven you would, by getting me this worthless sheet of names. And now, I have you in my back pocket. I can’t wait to have the rest of your friends there too.”
Vitaly crumpled against the trunk of his car. “My . . . my power?”
Mr. Prince seemed to barely hear him as he walked away. He waved a dismissive hand in the air. “Yes, yes, you’ll have what you crave. In a manner of speaking.”
Vitaly’s heart leaped and sank, all at once, knowing that his relationship with Mr. Prince was nowhere near over.
TWENTY-ONE
NO TIME FOR REUNIONS
Jonah reached his hand down to his sister. She stared at him for a few seconds, started to scowl, but then let him help her to her feet. He knew she had so many questions, and he wanted to answer them all.
But right now, they were still under attack. And so were their friends.
“I know, Eliza, there’s a lot you want to know, and a lot I want to say,” he said. He wiped a swath of the silvery liquid off her arm and onto his finger. “Gross. I had no idea those lizards would turn into gray goo.”
Lania hugged him tightly. “Jonah! I can’t believe it’s really you!”
He blushed. “Hey, at least somebody’s glad I’m back.”
Eliza frowned at him. “I can’t believe you . . .”
“Let’s go help the others first, okay?” he said. Grabbing Eliza’s and Lania’s hands, he began to run after the bus.
“Hang on tight!” he said as his feet became a blur. He lifted them up in each arm, and they sped down the road in search of the bus.
It wasn’t hard to find, since it was the only one under attack.
“Griffins!” he exclaimed as he saw the half-bird, half-lions. “I should have guessed.”
He came up behind the vehicle and slowed down just enough to drop Eliza and Lania at the back.
“Eliza, see if you can take care of the rest of these lizards, just like I did back there,” he said, looking upward to the sky. “I need to do something about these bird brains.”
“I’ve got it covered,” she said. Jonah was struck by the new confidence he heard in her voice.
They both pulled out their angelblades at the same time, Eliza moving around the bus and Jonah climbing up the back. Within seconds, he’d pulled himself up.
“Need some help?” he asked, but everyone was too busy to even notice he was there.
The creatures were swooping down one after another and were very adept at dodging arrows. They were descending, claws first and outstretched, and Jonah knew exactly what they were trying to do. He’d seen it before.
The griffins wanted a piece of their hearts.
Jonah had no idea if they could actually reach inside a quarterling and latch onto that deepest part of him with Elohim’s protection. But he sure didn’t want to find out.
He raised his sword in the air and stood beside the others, who finally noticed he was there.
“Jonah! It’s about time!” Andre shouted, fending off one of them.
“Where have you been?” demanded an exasperated Rupert from behind his shield.
Frederick called out to him from across the top of the bus while he shot a flaming arrow. “Nice of you to join us!”
“Yeah, yeah!” Jonah shouted. “Save it for later!”
The bus turned to the left, and Ruth fell backward, her head dangling over the side of the bus. Jonah quickly reached down and grabbed her foot, yanking her back to the middle.
But he’d taken his eyes off the griffins, and they were fast, faster than he anticipated. He felt claws tearing into him before he could turn around.
“Aaaahhh!” He felt searing pain in his shoulder and something digging around inside him. The weight of the creature pushed him flat on his stomach. The griffin’s claws were reaching, searching, and trying to pry something loose.
As it did, suddenly his vision grew blurry. He was no longer on top of the bus. He was in the backyard, throwing the football with his father on a sunny, warm day beside the pond. Then he was kneeling in church at the altar, with his mother and father standing behind him. The church was filled with the soaring voices of the choir. He was in the neighborhood pool, being baptized by his dad, watching his mother’s face fill with tea
rs of joy.
Then those scenes all began to fade at once. They were being pulled, prodded, and tugged until he felt as if they were going to be somehow yanked out of his heart, like batteries from a remote control. He was losing them. They were disappearing, fading away from him like they were falling slowly into a deep hole. He felt hazy.
I have to get up. I have to get up . . .
Jonah kept telling himself to move, but all of his limbs were suddenly made of lead. He barely had enough strength to turn his head to the side and open his eyes.
He saw a foggy scene in front of him. All the quarterlings who had been fighting on the rooftop of the bus were down, lying either on their backs or stomachs. Each one of them had one of the griffins digging inside of him or her.
A flash of green light caught his eye. The bus had stopped at another light, and Eliza had climbed back up onto the roof. Her blade was in her hand.
Jonah’s eyes opened a little wider, and he tried to will his hand to move. But he couldn’t do it.
“Elohim . . . ,” he whispered. “Help.”
His hand suddenly felt a little lighter . . .
Jonah reached toward his side and made a pulling motion with his hand. He felt the angelblade appear. The blade was in his hand, the tip right in front of his face, casting a soft glow. The griffin had his arm pinned down with one of its claws, though, and he could barely move it.
He strained against the monster on his back, trying to summon all his strength, focusing it into his right hand. Pushing as hard as he could against the roof, he was able to move it just a little. One inch, two inches, just a little more . . .
Jonah flicked his wrist backward, slicing into the claw of the creature. Its awful scream filled his ears, but its grip loosened. He turned around as fast as he could and ripped his blade across the chest of the griffin. Its scream faded, and it fell into a pile of feathers and fur beside him.
He stood up, wobbly, gathering himself, and turned to the closest quarterling, David.
Jonah moved as fast as he could, swiping at the creature on top of David with his sword. Eliza worked from the other side of the bus. He just hoped they weren’t too late.
They met the last griffin in the middle together, and both of their swords tore through it at the same time. It fell off Rupert, who looked dazed.
Slowly, Rupert pushed himself up on his elbows. “I was . . . it felt like I was dreaming about something . . .” He rubbed his bleary eyes. “Thank you.”
But then he looked past them with horror, and words had stopped coming from his mouth.
Whipping around just in time, Jonah met one last griffin. He drove his blade through its chest, and they watched it flop lifelessly to the ground.
“Everyone all right?” Eliza called out. They all nodded their heads.
The bus was still picking up passengers underneath them.
“Let’s get out of here,” Frederick said, hitting himself on the side of the head, trying to shake the grogginess out. They hopped down from the bus just before it pulled off.
They were still in the hidden realm as they gathered together on the street, invisible to passersby. The quarterlings surrounded Jonah.
“You’re back!” Julia said with a huge smile, hugging him tightly around the neck. “We were all worried sick about you.”
“So good to see you again, finally, my friend!” David said, hugging Jonah too. “It wasn’t the same around here without you.”
“I think even I missed you,” said Frederick with a wry grin. They all chuckled.
“It’s good to be back, everyone,” Jonah said. “I can’t wait to tell you what’s been going on. But there’s no time now.”
He noticed one person hanging back from the rest. He stepped away from the others and walked toward her.
“Eliza, I want to explain . . .”
She crossed her arms and turned away from him.
“I know you’re upset . . . I can only imagine what you’ve been going through here . . .”
“You can only imagine? Only imagine?” she shot back. “I’ve been worried sick! I’ve been taking care of Jeremiah. I’ve been trying to hold myself together . . . I’ve been trying to fill your shoes around here. I don’t think you could even imagine what that’s like!”
Jonah kept his clear, blue eyes trained on her. “I know, Eliza. It’s just that, when Mom died, I needed to get away. You know that. I wanted to run. I tried . . . believe me,” he said, thinking about his adventure on the bus.
“You’re not the only one who lost a mother!” she said, hot tears spilling down her cheeks.
It hit him like a basketball to the nose. Of course he knew it, but he had been so wrapped up in himself that he’d forgotten—Eliza and Jeremiah were going through the same things he was. They had just chosen to deal with it differently.
All of his defensiveness and desire to explain himself melted away. It could wait. “I know,” he said softly. He felt tears of his own fall, and he didn’t stop them. “I’m sorry.”
Instead of pulling herself away, she leaned toward him. He pulled her shoulders to him and held her close. They were quiet for a few seconds, and then both of them pushed back and quickly wiped the tears off their faces.
The rest of the quarterlings were watching their reunion, and Frederick began a slow clap.
Eliza snorted into her shirtsleeve and glared at them. “What are you all looking at?”
TWENTY-TWO
THE BIG BOAT
How did you find us, anyway?” Eliza said, having cooled a little.
“You’re welcome for saving your rear end, by the way,” answered Jonah. He couldn’t help getting in a little dig to his sister, even under these circumstances. “I got to the convent just after you left. The rooftop angels have a pretty good sense of what’s going on. It wasn’t hard to get them to point me in the right direction. And once I was in the hidden realm, it was easy to see where you guys were fighting.”
Several of the quarterlings sitting down were holding their heads in their hands. The confrontation with the beasts had shaken them up. Jonah was still feeling a little groggy himself.
“That was a weird feeling, wasn’t it?” David said to Jonah as he leaned over to comfort Carlo. “It wasn’t just like someone was reaching down into my chest. It was like they were digging around in my soul or something.”
Jonah nodded. “I saw these creatures at work back in Peacefield, when I was home.” He felt awkward as he said it, knowing he’d been there only because he left them behind. “An angel there showed me what they were doing. Trying to tug at hearts and souls, all under the direction of Abaddon, of course. It was an awful thing to watch. They are dangerous creatures. If they’d gotten to us, it would all be over.”
“Those bird-like creatures, as well as the lizards . . . I remember some places in the Old Testament that refer to both. Isaiah and Leviticus come to mind,” David said. He turned to watch the quarterlings sitting in front of him. “But what concerns me now is that I’m not sure all of us can make it to the yacht.”
Jonah knelt down in front of them, placing a hand on Lania’s shoulder. “Why don’t you take everyone injured back, David?”
David blinked at him. “I want to help find your brother, Jonah,” he said. But he looked back down at the quarterlings again. He sighed. “But maybe you’re right. Our friends here look like they could use the attention of the nuns.”
Eliza nodded. “I agree. Take them back and protect them on the way. The rest of us can handle this, can’t we, Jonah?”
He nodded, slapping his sister on the back. “That’s right. Now, time to go.”
“Bless them, Elohim,” David called out, eyes pointing upward in spontaneous prayer. “Be with them, guard their path, direct their steps, and ensure their victory. And mine as well.”
After they said their good-byes, Jonah, Eliza, Frederick, Andre, Julia, and Hai Ling moved down a dark alleyway together.
“I’m glad you are coming, H
ai Ling,” Jonah said, unable to hide his surprise at her decision to forge ahead.
She shrugged and scratched the corner of her eye. “Whatever. I’ve kind of . . . grown attached to your little brother.” She glanced away, and Jonah wondered if it was so he wouldn’t see her tears.
Quickly, Eliza filled him in on the information they had gathered, repeating the story she had told for what felt like a hundred times to the police about Jeremiah’s capture, and then the Russian ambassador and the man she saw on television.
“I know it seems like a hunch,” she admitted, “but it was more than that. I felt like Elohim, somehow, was showing me that he was the same guy I saw take Jeremiah.”
“Sounds like it’s all we have to go on anyway,” said Jonah. “And if you think Elohim was leading you, how am I going to argue with that? So, lead the way, E.”
She eyed him cautiously, and he realized it would probably take some time before she would accept that he was back. He hoped they’d have time to really talk later. But for now, the plan was simple—find Jeremiah and get him back, unharmed.
“Do you think he’s really seeing her?” Jonah asked as they walked. “Seeing Mom?”
“Jonah, how is that possible? We both saw her die, didn’t we?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We did. It’s hard to get too mad at him about this, though. Maybe it’s his way of, you know, missing her.”
“Well, maybe someone’s tricking him,” she said, darkness in her eyes.
Jonah pressed his lips together. He’d already thought of that. “Let’s don’t assume the worst.”
“Be very careful, everyone,” Eliza said, keeping her eyes trained on the rooftops above. “We need to move as fast as we can and get to that yacht before anyone—or anything—else sees us.”
The wind was picking up, and the sun had completely set. It was cold, a blustery frozen winter night that sent chills up and down Jonah’s back. “Wish I’d remembered my coat,” he muttered, rubbing his bare arms with his hands. He was still wearing the T-shirt he had changed into after the game. After the bus accident, he had caught another bus, directly to New York, poring over Eliza’s text all the way there, hoping and praying he would arrive in time to help find their brother.