by Mary Ting
The conversation stayed with me clear as the day sky. I had pulled back from our embrace and told her to be careful, that I would find her.
Abigale had kissed me, a kiss I still remembered and felt on my lips. She had told me to find her as soon as I was able. She had something important to share. Something that would change our lives. Then she’d bolted out of the forest to hide with her part-witch cousins.
Could it be? Had Abigale been pregnant? I would have picked up on the life inside her womb unless she’d hidden her pregnancy to keep the baby safe from the watchers.
Even when I had seen her on the day the Book of Watchers sucked my brothers to another realm, she hadn’t told me. She hadn’t looked pregnant. But years had passed by then, so she would have had the child. Perhaps she had hated me for not finding her and didn’t want to tell me.
I had so much hatred for Samyaza back then. But when he had asked for forgiveness and showed he had changed, I’d given him a second chance.
Had it not been for Samyaza’s unforgivable actions, perhaps things might have been different for Abigale. No, either way we wouldn’t have ended up together.
I had never searched for her. The guilt stayed with me all those years. Many times I had thought about finding her, but I knew in my heart I was doing right by her. I couldn’t give her the life she wanted—a husband to love her and a family. Besides, I had made a vow to my brothers, so loving and living a human life was not possible.
I had to set an example and let her go. The past was the past. Nothing I could do about it now.
Wouldn’t I know if Keira was my daughter? And if she truly was mine, the guilt of knowing I had abandoned Abigale during the most precious time would gut me.
I’m a coward.
“Uriel, are you okay?” Someone grabbed my shoulder, bringing me back to the present.
I flinched. “Jonah.”
“You looked like you spaced out.”
“How long was I standing here?”
“A few minutes. Can angels blackout in a standing position?”
Keira.
Ignoring his question, I searched for her. Her friends were helping her up. I should go to her, but I couldn’t.
“Keira fainted. The light was too much for her,” Jonah said.
“She can’t control it.” Samyaza glanced at Keira and then back to me. “You need to teach her, or she’ll end up killing herself or us. This could—”
I didn’t hear the rest. I dashed to Keira.
“Are you hurt? Do you feel ill? Can you get up? How many fingers am I holding up?” I fired off a barrage of questions when I reached her, feeling suddenly nervous in her presence.
“I’m fine.” Her eyes rounded as if she couldn’t believe I cared. Then a scowl.
From that expression alone, Abigale’s face flashed in my mind. The resemblance was so uncanny.
Holy—
What do I do?
Chapter 9
Sin
Keira
Samyaza paced down the narrowed path. “We can’t stay here out in the open exposed. More demon spirits might come. And Keira won’t be able to save us twice. She would need to rest up to gain that much power back.”
Samyaza made it sound like only I could save them. Uriel angled his eyebrows like his ego was bruised. He probably thought he was the one who should have saved us. And he would have if I hadn’t intervened.
But I wasn’t the type to wait around for someone else to do the job. Uriel should have reacted faster. Besides, I wanted to show off my powers. Show him I was more than a mere Nephilim.
Samyaza didn’t know how weak or strong I was. These angels needed to stop thinking Nephilim were fragile. We might be more breakable than an angel, but we held our own.
What was up with Uriel? After seeing my light, he seemed different. Asking if I was okay like he cared. Did he believe he was my father?
Please don’t let it be him. I didn’t like him. In fact, at that moment, I didn’t want to know anything about my parents. This was far more difficult than I had thought. This was not how I had expected to react when I found out who my parents were.
“I’m fine.” I dusted off dirt from my pants.
“That was powerful.” Suri blinked, adjusting her eyes.
“Can you not make it as bright next time?” Kai chuckled. “Thanks for saving our asses, though. That was pretty awesome.”
“Can you walk?” Daniel examined me from head to toe like always after a battle.
I took a quick glance at Jonah, who tried not to show he was looking at me, and then I met Daniel’s gaze and nodded.
“Come on. We’re wasting precious time.” Samyaza trod faster. “We need to hit the precise temperature or we have to wait another day.”
“Well, I guess—”
Daniel’s word cut short. When I turned to him behind me, he had disappeared. I whirled to Suri for help, but she disappeared too.
Then I spun to Kai.
“Kai!”
My friends had been yanked through the holes nearest to them. With my sword out, I posed to dive into the nearest one when Jonah grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back.
“Are you crazy? You can’t go in there by yourself. You don’t know what’s waiting for you.”
“My friends are down there. I don’t care. They need me. I’m the only one cursed with this light.” I glanced at Uriel when I said the word curse.
Uriel had the light, but he wouldn’t help. It was up to me.
“What do you see? Anything?” Jonah asked Uriel.
Uriel stared down the hole Daniel had gone through. “I’ll go with Keira. You stay here with Sam just in case more come back out.”
I was shocked he’d even offered.
“The veil is too thick. I can’t see a thing, but I feel malice, and they’re running out of time.” Then he turned to me. “I’m going down first. I can see in the dark, so you’ll have to hold onto me.”
I cleared my throat. “Where do I hold you? I’m not holding your hand.”
Uriel furrowed his brow. “From behind, Keira. Hold onto my shirt. Let’s go.”
When I gripped Uriel’s shirt, he dove in. It happened so fast, I didn’t feel my stomach drop.
Sticky mist coated my face. I shivered from the cold. The stench of dank, rotting soil stung my nostrils. We had to crouch, like a gopher finding its home through a burrow.
The tightly packed tunnel hardly gave me any room. Good thing I wasn’t claustrophobic.
Uriel didn’t know I too could see in the dark, but I wasn’t stupid enough to let myself get separated from him.
The flat ground became uneven. Pebbles?
“What is this?” I picked up something small, cold, hard and … a human tooth. I dropped it. “What the hell?”
“Don’t look at anything. Don’t touch anything.”
His vexed tone didn’t settle well with me. Then we crept forward again.
“I think we’re almost there.” Uriel slowed down.
I held tighter to his shirt.
The tunnel split three ways.
I groaned. Of course, it had to be complicated.
“Which way?” I tugged Uriel’s shirt.
He didn’t answer. After he halted, he dashed to the left. Then at another split, he went to the right.
Every turn, every intersection, felt as though we arrived back at the same place. Though it was hard to tell when the only landmarks were soil and roots.
When would it end?
Uriel must have felt the same. He stopped at about the tenth fork.
“We’re not going anywhere. I feel their presence, but I can’t seem to reach them,” he murmured.
“I think this is a trick of the mind. Whoever is behind this is playing us.”
“Show yourself, or I will blast the whole underground,” Uriel barked, the palms of his hands glowing.
“Not if you want the three little ones to live. Although I think I might keep them either way. They�
��d make fine snacks.”
Its voice was tender, like a mother’s, and yet seductive and cruel.
When Uriel released his light from his hand, I did too. It wasn’t as bright as earlier, when, in my terror, I’d accidentally let too much go; this time I had it under control.
“You killed my babies. I want revenge. If you release your power, I will release mine on the Nephilim. They will be dead before you can rescue them.”
“Is she telling the truth?” I squeezed around to stand in front of Uriel.
Uriel’s blue eyes lit up like two high beams. Beautiful. Odd. And cool at the same time. His gaze roamed around the packed perimeter and then landed on me.
“Your eyes. You can see in the dark?” He arched his eyebrows.
I never knew my eyes glowed, but from his surprise, I guessed they did.
“Yes.”
“Can all Nephilim do the same?”
“Yes. But never mind that. That’s not important. How do I get to my friends?”
Uriel swallowed.
“What do you want? Let’s bargain. After all, your vermin attacked us first. We’re just passing through, and we mean no harm.”
“Very well. I want three drops of angel blood.” His voice rumbled through my bones.
“That’s it?” I shut my mouth after I said it. But I realized there was more to that request when Uriel didn’t jump at the chance.
“Why?” Uriel stiffened, mumbling words I couldn’t hear.
“You know why, archangel.”
The wicked voice told me this was bad news.
“You want angel blood. I’ll do it. I’ll give it to you,” I said.
“No. You are a mixed-breed, little one. I want his.” The voice boomed, and the sudden wind would have knocked me over had Uriel not held me.
The soil and roots shifted and pushed back. The space grew bigger as if the tunnels had never been there. My friends materialized, their hands bound and mouths gagged with … what was that? Dirt? And surrounding them were piles of human skeletons.
I gasped.
“Never mind my collections. I like to snack here and there. Human blood is so sweet, their meat delicious.”
My friends’ eyes reflected my unadulterated terror. That fear grew when a dark shadow emerged behind them. Not another demon ghost, but something much worse.
The evil being’s head—a cross between a snake and human—poked out underneath its hooded black cloak. I grimaced and wondered about the rest of its body. Regardless, it was the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen.
“Three drops, Uriel. That’s all I want in exchange for these fine, lovely creatures.” Its fat, worm-like fingers wiggled near my friends’ faces.
How did the demon know Uriel’s name? Had they met before?
“Don’t touch them.” I pulled my weapon from my boot and pointed the sword’s tip at the creature. My blade illuminated. It had never done that before.
The demon hissed and pulled back. “Don’t test me, little one. You will be next. I sense something special in you. Perhaps I will take your blood too.”
“No.” Uriel nicked his palm with my blade and curled his fingers tightly as if to hold the blood from falling. “Where do you want it? Let’s get this over with.”
“But this is so much fun. Tell me, Uriel. Why do you protect the little one? Do you feel it? Do you feel that bond only a father can?”
“Shut up! He’s not my father. Now, stop fooling around before I bring down your stinking sand castle.”
The demon’s cloak undulated like an ocean wave, and it came closer. “Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Let me remind you. You do not test someone like me. Do you know who I am?”
“No. And I don’t care. Just let my friends go, and you can do whatever the hell you were doing.”
It shook its head. “Oh, my. Such bad manners. Kids these days have little patience. Kind of like my children. You remember my sons?”
Uriel posed to attack, his wings slowly gathering, but still tucked behind him. “You should think about your own actions. I don’t blame Malum and Dominic for the way they are.”
Malum and Dom? This creature is their father?
“Funny thing. They are just like me. Perhaps if I had a father like me, I would have done the same to him. They locked me up in this realm. I’ll never be able to take a physical vessel, so I do what I can instead. Since I’m going to take your blood, I might as well take the little ones’ too.”
“You can’t. A deal is a deal.” Uriel’s eyes glowed a little.
“No, Uriel. You light up, I kill the Nephilim. Before you decide, let me tell you this. You see the dirt inside their mouth? At a wave of my hand, it will turn to maggots. Poisonous ones. The kind that kills instantly.”
“You’re lying.” I tried to call his bluff, but when Uriel shook his head, I backed away hastily. I didn’t want to be the cause of my friends’ deaths.
The demon glided from Daniel to Suri to Kai, its wormy fingers curling up their hair. So disgusting. My stomach coiled, and I wanted to vomit. Then one of the fingers landed on Daniel’s cheek. That finger had a mouth. Razor sharp tiny teeth showed and sucked from his face.
Daniel bellowed in pain.
“Stop it. Stop it. I’ll do it. Please. Just don’t touch them.”
The demon gave me a wry grin. “Do you know who I am?” it asked again.
“No. And I don’t care.” I pulled my sword close to my chest, hoping it wouldn’t light up again. I didn’t want the demon to use that as an excuse to hurt my friends.
It hissed and yanked Suri’s hair, tilting her back and baring her throat.
“Okay. Okay. Tell me.”
“That’s more like it, little one.” It floated several feet off the ground, phantom wind billowing its cloak. “I am Sin. I am the king of darkness, born before mankind. I manipulate. I make you crave and want desire and power. I am who made Eve take the first bite of the forbidden apple. Even Lucifer fears me. I appear everywhere. You cannot kill me. Not even God can destroy me. I live among His creatures and inflict their lives with misery.”
Chills racked through me. This monster had too much power, but every being had a weakness. I didn’t know what would happen when it took my blood, but I would give it for my friends.
Uriel tensed beside me, his fist clenching and unclenching.
“Fine. Now that I know who you are, release my friends and I’ll give you my blood too. How do I give it?”
Something spun in front of us and stopped. A small wooden bowl.
“Drop it in there,” it said. “Do it now.”
Uriel hesitantly uncurled his fingers and allowed three drops to fall. I had never known archangel blood was silver until today.
I did the same after I nicked my palm with my sword. In the blink of an eye, the bowls were in the demon’s hands.
Chapter 10
Seventy-Seven
Keira
“Now let them go.” Uriel pulled out his sword from his back where the wings had unfurled.
“Fine. So impatient.” It snapped its fingers, and the bindings released.
My friends ran toward me as they coughed up dirt.
The demon disappeared.
Then the earth quaked. The ground undulated like a stormy wave, and soil rained from above.
“We don’t have much time. Stay close and follow me,” Uriel said.
We made a chain, linking hands to ensure we wouldn’t get lost. Minutes passed, then Uriel slowed. I thought he was lost, but he stumbled backward, shoving us the wrong way.
Not good. Something was wrong.
Uriel collapsed to the ground on all fours.
“Uriel. What’s wrong?” Panic struck as I dropped to my knees. When he didn’t respond, I shook him. “Uriel. Uriel.”
“He gave his blood, Keira.” Daniel kneeled beside me. “It’s forbidden for archangels to give blood. When they do, they become very weak.”
“I don’t think that’s the reason. I gave blood too
.”
“One drop for him is like a pint for us. He gave three.”
“Uh, guys? Something is coming.” Kai tapped Daniel’s shoulder.
“Make it quick.” Suri shook my arm.
“I need your light, Keira.” Uriel’s voice was just above a whisper.
“My light? Tell me what to do. The demons are coming.”
Uriel slowly guided my hand to his forehead, palm-down. I blasted my power, but I didn’t know how much he needed. He jerked once, his back arching. Then light from my hand dimmed.
“I can move, but you’ll have to guide us out.” Uriel pushed off the ground and stumbled backward.
Daniel and I caught Uriel and dragged him forward.
“I don’t know how or where to go.” My heart raced.
“Hurry. What’s the holdup?” Suri’s demand interrupted my concentration.
“Use your light and your inner guidance.” For the first time, Uriel looked at me with reverence. “You can do it. Call upon the witch and angelic power within you. You have your mother’s gift.”
I swallowed hard, heart pounding faster. Not now, Uriel. Don’t go all soft and weird on me. I had no time to process his words.
Closing my eyes, I willed the angel spirit within and pushed deeper through my core to pull up any other source of power. Using my angelic power and speed, I moved us through the tunnel just as the worm demons reached us.
Suri and Kai sliced through the ones that plowed through the earth at us. These vermin took on a solid form below the ground. They had made their own burrow and slithered through the soil. As the ground rumbled and more dirt shifted and rained down on us, I followed the beacon guiding me from within.
“Watch out!” Suri shouted. “To your right.”
That warning was meant for me. With my left arm still coiled around Uriel’s waist, I flashed my right palm. My light hit the demon’s face, making it retreat. When a demon showed on Daniel’s side, he cut through it with his sword.
Faster, Keira. Faster.
Just as the ground sucked at our feet, attempting to bury us deeper, we burst out and landed on solid ground. Sin bellowed Uriel’s name. The trees and undergrowth had vanished, leaving an undisturbed flat land.