Her eyes narrowed to slits.
And then I was sprinting toward one of the glass panels on the wall. I slammed my head through it, peeling off a chunk of my face. I collapsed, screaming. There were over a dozen shards of glass wedged into my skin.
Rage devoured the pain. I lunged at her and she backed up, looking very surprised. Apparently her little mind trick wasn’t working anymore.
I tackled her and we hit the wall of the solarium with a boom. Samnaea flailed and clawed at my face as I wrapped my hands around her neck and squeezed. She choked, struggling harder. The whites of her eyes turned bloodshot and her skin blued. We stayed like this forever, until the pain crept back into my skull. It escalated until I couldn’t see anymore and fell atop her, a line of pink drool trickling from the corner of my mouth. Samnaea pushed me off, leaving me writhing at her feet.
“Tell me what I want to know!” she cried. “I don’t want to kill you! Please!”
Here was the Samnaea that everyone had warned about; eyes smeared with black mascara, arms covered in self-inflicted cuts, tears streaming down her face.
“Blow me, you cunt.”
I snatched up the closest piece of glass, bringing it to my crotch. Icy fear plummeted down my spine.
“Don’t!” I screamed.
The glass sliced the fabric on my inner thigh, pausing at my groin. I fought her, hand shaking.
Samnaea crouched in front of me, mesmerized. “Sing, little bird.”
The glass nicked the space between my thigh and right testicle.
I couldn’t do this. I wouldn’t castrate myself.
“T-They were having an affair! Samael w-was in love with her!”
I threw the glass away and fell forward on my hands and knees. Samnaea wiped the tears from her eyes, looking off.
“I didn’t want to do that,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”
I stayed down, panting, waiting for my body to regenerate. If Samnaea knew what was good for her, she’d start running now.
The solarium door suddenly flew open. Leid entered, scythes unleashed.
Samnaea had severed my telepathic link. It had taken the others half an hour to realize I was missing.
The demoness turned, fury twisting her face. “You.”
Leid’s knees buckled as Samnaea speared her with psychokinesis. My noble grabbed a metal beam, staying on her feet. She gritted her teeth and her eyes flashed red.
A pulse rocked the solarium, the shockwave so fierce that it actually threw me against the wall. The Archdemoness was flung through one of the panes before the whole structure collapsed; glass and metal beams rained everywhere.
I coughed, ejecting debris from my lungs. Leid dug through the wreckage and pulled me out. She laid me on the ground, kneeling at my side. Her expression relayed that I looked as bad as I felt. “Are you alright?”
“She knows,” I said, trying to sit up. Leid pushed me back down.
“No, rest a second.”
“Samnaea knows! She made me tell her!”
“She’s gone,” Adrial announced from somewhere nearby.
“Probably on her way to the cephalon,” Zhevraine said.
“Zhevraine, take Alezair back to Cerasaraelia. Adrial, you and I are going to—”
I grabbed Leid’s arm as she rose. “No.”
She looked back, confused.
“No more. I can’t do this shit anymore!”
“Alezair, stop—”
“I quit!” I screamed. “I fucking quit! I hate you!”
She backed away, stung. Adrial stepped into the wreckage, watching uneasily. He placed a hand on Leid’s shoulder.
“She’s probably gone by now. There isn’t anything we can do.”
“Right,” Leid murmured, looking away.
But moments later, as Adrial and Zhevraine helped me to my feet, Leid had vanished.
***
“Stop scowling.”
“I was almost castrated. I have a right to scowl.”
Adrial and I sat on the couch in the living room. I looked out the bay window while he leaned against the arm, hands resting behind his head.
“Hell hath no fury like a psion scorned.”
I glared. He smiled.
“You look like you need a drink,” he ventured.
“I already drank everything.”
“You drank fourteen bottles in three days?”
“Hasn’t exactly been an easy week.”
“True.”
“Where did Leid go?”
“Not sure. Probably out doing some damage control. How is anyone’s guess.”
I felt bad for freaking out on her. In my defense I’d just nearly castrated myself and wasn’t in the right state of mind. I knew I couldn’t quit. The Jury wasn’t something you could simply walk out on. Then again, neither was the Nexus.
“What are you staring at?” he asked.
“The road. Waiting for the Obsidian Court to march down it and skin us alive.”
“It’d take more than the Obsidian Court to achieve that.”
Adrial was right, but still. “I can’t believe you’re being so calm about this.”
“What else can I do? Worry? You’re doing enough of that for the both of us.”
The incisions on my face had faded to pink lines. Another half an hour and they would be gone. In the meantime the itch of them was driving me crazy.
Zhevraine emerged from the kitchen, carrying a silver tea tray. She placed it down on the coffee table, handing us cups. We were too polite to decline, even though neither of us wanted any.
“Leid isn’t back yet?” she asked.
I eyed the clock. It was two in the morning. “I guess we’re not going to work today.”
“Zhevraine and I will go in. Not sure if it’s safe for you or Leid to, though. You’ve been marked. I imagine every Sanguine Court member will be out for your heads.”
“Thanks for the comforting words,” I muttered, scratching my face.
“Good luck convincing Leid to stay home,” Zhevraine said, sipping her tea.
I caught movement in the window from the corner of my eye. Leid was sulking up the steps to our front door.
“She’s here,” I announced, straightening.
Leid stepped into the living room, surprised by all of us staring at her.
“Where were you?” asked Adrial.
“Walking around, clearing my head.” She nodded at me. “You look better.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“I was just telling Alezair that it would be best for you two to take a day off. In case things get hairy.”
Leid frowned. “Things are already hairy.”
“Okay, hairier.”
“Adrial, it would look even more suspicious if I didn’t show up to work.”
He sighed, eyeing Zhevraine. She cleared her throat. “With all due respect, Commander,” she began, “as your guardians, I think it would be best to listen to—”
Leid fell stern. “We are no longer in the Court of Enigmus. Your formal duties as guardians are null.”
The Court of what?
Adrial bristled. “Then what’s your plan?”
Leid sat on the floor, chin on her knees. “Don’t know.”
“We should come clean to Yahweh. We don’t have any choice,” Zhevraine advised. “He’d be the more lenient of the two.”
“Forget it. I’m not listening to Seyestin’s shit again.”
“Alright, so we’ll just sit here and wait for the war,” muttered Adrial.
Leid looked at me. “Alezair?”
“Yeah?”
“What exactly did Samnaea say to you? What were her questions?”
I glanced away, thinking. “She kept screaming at me to tell her about you and Samael. Actually, she wanted me to verify it.”
The others exchanged looks.
“She already knew,” Adrial sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Fucking lovely.”
“Samael must have told h
er,” Zhevraine said.
Leid shook her head. “No, he didn’t. He wouldn’t have told her.”
“Then who?” Adrial asked.
“What about that other general?” I asked. “What’s his name?”
“Caym Stroth,” Zhevraine replied.
“Could Samael have told him? When Seyestin showed that ledger to the courts, it looked like they were arguing about something.”
“That’s not important anymore,” Leid said, returning to me. “Did she say anything else? Anything that you can recall?”
“Uh, yeah actually. She said something about a statue.”
The room went dead silent.
Leid’s eyes filled up with dread. “Oh, wonderful.”
“A statue, you say?” Adrial inquired, casting our noble a venomous look.
I was getting the idea that I probably shouldn’t have said that. “Yeah.”
“What did she say about the statue?”
“Something about a statue being somewhere. I can’t remember what she called it. Uh… Attis Arcane?”
“Atlas Arcantia,” Adrial finished, shifting all attention to Leid. “Care to tell me what that thing is doing there?”
Leid said nothing.
I lifted a brow. “Wait, so there is a statue? What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
Adrial gave a bitter laugh. “There was a statue, or so we’d all thought. You see, that statue should have been destroyed centuries ago. But for whatever reason, it’s in Atlas Arcantia.”
Leid looked up at him in tired defeat. “I couldn’t destroy it. Not after—”
“Not after what?!” he screamed, taking a step toward her. “You promised Calenus that you’d destroy it!”
Zhevraine and I jumped. Never had Adrial shouted like that before.
“I couldn’t go near it!” she screamed back. “I wasn’t going to risk an infection again! He should have destroyed it himself! He was being cruel to me! It was my punishment for something I had no control over! He was always punishing me!”
Zhevraine grabbed the tea tray and fled the dining room. I didn’t blame her. If I’d had somewhere to go, I would have bailed too. Instead I sat there, staring at them like a deer in headlights.
“And you told Samael about it?!”
“I needed his trust.”
“So you told a demon about private Vel’Haru affairs?! One of which could get us killed if anyone else found out?!”
“I didn’t think that was going to happen.”
Adrial laughed in spite of her. “Yes, absolutely right; key phrase being that you DIDN’T THINK. I’m starting to wonder if you ever do!”
Leid whirred in front of him, clenching her teeth. “Careful with that wagging tongue, Adrial. You might lose it.”
Adrial leaned in. Had Leid not been five foot nothing, their noses would have touched. “I dare you to try.”
Whoa, whoa.
I forced myself between them. “Hey, chill out.”
Adrial shook free of me. “Chill out? You know nothing.”
“Yeah, well, I totally wouldn’t mind being clued in if either of you have a fucking second.”
“That statue is the reason why we’re here. It nearly caused our extinction.”
I blinked. “A statue nearly caused our extinction?”
“It’s not a statue.”
“Uh, but you just said—”
“The threat is in the statue. The one Leid failed to destroy. And now the Sanguine Court knows about it. If that thing is unleashed again, it could mean the very end of us all.”
Eyebrow. “So there is a monster in the statue, then?”
Before he could respond, Leid left the room.
“Where are you going?” barked Adrial.
“To change,” she muttered, heading for the stairs.
“For what?”
“I’m going to Atlas Arcantia to destroy the statue so everyone will shut up.”
“You can’t go now. It’s too dangerous. Who knows how many demons are crawling around there, trying to figure out how that thing works.”
“All the more reason to go sooner than later.”
“Leid, you’re not going. I forbid you.”
She paused on the top step, brows arched. “You forbid me? Funny.”
And then she left. Five seconds later we heard her door slam.
Adrial kicked the table over, cursing. Tea and shattered porcelain covered the floor the floor. “I can’t fucking stand that woman! Nothing but problem after problem!”
I wisely kept my mouth shut, sinking to the couch.
“I’m not going with her this time. I can’t. I won’t ever go near that thing again. She’s on her own.”
Without another word he disappeared into the hall, leaving me alone in our trashed living room. I looked at the stairs, recalling their fight. The things they’d said didn’t make any sense. I’d been dying to know more about us—where the Vel’Haru came from, what had happened to them. Why were we stuck in Purgatory, playing police to a bunch of incompetent, winged sociopaths when we were the cream of the Multiverse?
I supposed there was one way to find out.
***
Leid left Cerasaraelia in a tan duster, black leather pants and knee-high boots. I was waiting for her on the steps.
“Where’s your horse?” I called, grinning at her attire.
She wasn’t amused. “What are you doing here?”
“I want to come with you.”
“Don’t you think you’ve been through enough for one day?”
“Nope,” I said, following her.
“Alezair, this is dangerous.”
“So is playing with broken glass.”
“No. Go inside.”
I grabbed her arm. She spun.
“You think I can’t handle myself?” I asked.
“That isn’t it.”
“Then what?”
She glanced away, saying nothing.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
She still said nothing, but her expression softened.
“I didn’t mean what I said in the solarium. I wasn’t thinking straight. Let me make it up to you by doing this. I know you don’t want to go alone.”
Silence.
Leid pulled away. “Fine, but you have to do everything I say. Is that clear?”
Victory. “As crystal, Commander.”
We walked to the cephalon, side by side.
XV
COLLEA
I COLLAPSED WITH A GROAN, HITTING the sand face-down. Leid stopped twenty yards ahead.
“Get up. We need to keep moving.”
I didn’t say anything. My mouth was too dry.
For two days we had walked through a desert that never seemed to end. I was going to die before we ever reached that statue.
Atlas Arcantia had two suns, the furthest one about to go nova. The planet was slow-cooking in solar radiation, leaving half the world in desert. The other half I hadn’t seen yet.
“Alezair, come on.”
I winced, getting to my feet. “You know, a warning would have been nice.”
“A warning?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe a ‘by the way, the world we’re going to has sandstorms every twenty minutes so you might want to bring a jacket’ could have been helpful.”
“You made fun of my clothes.”
“Since when have you cared about my opinion?”
“We’re almost through. We can find a place to rest, but not here.”
The days were too hot and the nights were frigid. Sandstorms raged at random. I’d seen three so far. My lips were blistered and cracked, my face so dry that my skin tore whenever I cringed. Being Vel’Haru was the only reason either of us was alive.
Atlas Arcantia wasn’t an Atrium controlled world. This place had never even heard of angels or demons. Heaven and Hell controlled only a tiny sliver of the Multiversal Expanse. There were thirteen known universes; each universe held hundreds of
worlds. The Atrium only surveyed forty planets. Do the math.
I staggered around while Leid was perfectly fine. It was humiliating. I’d gotten over the fact that she excelled me in practically everything, but this was a hard one to swallow, especially since I was supposed to be protecting her. I bet she’d laughed at that one.
Since The Atrium wasn’t established in Atlas Arcantia, there was no cephalon link. We had to use the Apaeria Minor portal system to a place called Sylon, and then take an actual continuum tear.
Vel’Haru could move through tears in the space-time continuum. Angels and demons later developed a teleportation system called cephalon that wasn’t connected to the tears. Adrial once told me that the space-time continuum tears were how non-Jury Vel’Haru traveled on a regular basis. The cephalon was just convenient tech.
The tears didn’t simply take you anywhere you wanted to go. It brought you to the world, but the exact location was random. We’d landed on the other side of Atlas Arcantia, a four day trek from where we needed to be.
Leid eventually found an underbrush of thorny vines. I crawled into the shade and Leid sat beside me, knees to her chest, surveying the landscape.
“Twenty minutes is all we can afford,” she said. “We need to reach the west by nightfall.”
“I didn’t realize we were on a time limit.”
“We’ve been MIA for two days. I’m sure the courts have noticed.”
I caught a glimpse of something through the underbrush; a silhouette. I leaned in, squinting.
A corpse.
“Hey,” I said, nodding. “Look.”
Leid glanced over, dismissing me seconds later. “A dead person. Exciting.”
I crawled toward it. The corpse was propped against a vine, mummified by the heat. It appeared human, surprisingly. A worn duster draped its withered figure, flapping in the wind like a flag. A hat lay several feet from him. It seemed the clever fool came dressed.
Leid was staring at me. “Are you going to put those on?”
“Gross. I’m not wearing some dead guy’s clothes.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. On fucking principle?”
“Are you trying to look nice for the sand?”
She was right. It was either wear those clothes or spend another day getting sodomized by sandstorms. I stripped him, reluctantly, threw on the coat, then the hat. I noticed two metal contraptions strapped to each of his legs. I held them up to my face, unable to believe my eyes. “Hey, he has pistols.”
The Antithesis- The Complete Pentalogy Page 14