Godric stood behind her.
He was pale as ever, with long sinewy arms. The ruddiness of his cheeks had vanished. The look in his eyes was the same. Predatory. Focused. Fanatical.
“You came alone.” It wasn’t a question.
I nodded. “I don’t want her to die.”
Margot grunted, straining at her bindings. Though her mouth was glued shut, she screamed at me. I could almost hear what she was saying, too. “Go. Run!”
I met her gaze until she stopped straining. “You saved me once,” I whispered to her, the sound barely leaving my lips. “Let me save you now.”
Her eyes were wild. She screamed again and again, her chest heaving. Behind her, Godric was unmoving. Cold and clinical. He had no life in him at all. Only death.
I shook my head sadly. Margot squeezed her eyes shut, wailing beneath her gag.
Turning my head away from Margot, I met Godric’s gaze. “How did you get here?”
“I was called,” he replied.
Something clicked in my head. “Through a circle?” Before this was over, I had to know who betrayed me. “Who called you?”
“An angel,” he replied, his voice rough. “The ghost of one of God’s favorites.”
“A Percuitait? One of the lesser angels?”
“They are not lesser,” Godric growled. “They are more mighty than the ones called archangels,” he spat the last word out. “The Percuitait follow God’s law. The Percuitait work towards the greater purpose, they uphold the Almighty’s plan. Without them, we are all doomed.”
“Agree to disagree,” I whispered. Now was not the time to argue. Behind Godric, floating through the jungle, another katadonis hovered, peering beadily into the foliage around him. Godric had sentries everywhere. There was no way my friends were getting through to rescue me. Not without Margot dying.
I swallowed roughly and carried on. “But Vane is still in Europe. The other two are just wisps. The last we heard, Loera was missing. And Ailo was attached to you,” I pointed at him with a shaking hand.
Godric’s lips curled up in a cold, heartless smile. He closed his eyes, moving his head gently, twisting his neck from side to side.
“He is still with me,” he whispered, his voice ecstatic. “Ailo gave me strength and power, and now he stays with me, whispering to me the Lord’s plan.”
He opened his eyes, his pale blue pupils glowing. “He shows me the way. He gave me the strength to come through the circle.”
“Then that means that Loera is attached to someone else.” I let my gaze drift into the forest, thinking furiously. “He was with Mags. He was attached to her, giving her directions.”
Godric nodded once, still smiling slightly.
“And she lost him when she ran from Revelations.”
“She didn’t lose him,” Godric's voice ran cold. “It was the path we chose if she was unable to lure her brother away from you.”
“She attached Loera to someone else,” I whispered to myself. “Oh!” Suddenly, I realized.
Godric watched the realization dawn on my face, and he smiled again. With a slight nod, he gestured down, pointing towards the lawn beneath our feet.
My heart in my mouth, I edged sideways until I could see over the balcony.
There was a figure sprawled face-down on the grass, just on the edge where the jungle crept in on the manicured lawn. Flannel shirt, cargo shorts. Lank hair.
It was Andrea. And she was dead.
I choked back a cry, staring down at her body.
Of course it had been her. I should have known. It was so obvious now that I thought of it. Mags had fled past the stables, and Andrea would have been there. All the dud salt circles that I found around Revelations - that was her, giving in to the voice that whispered to her.
“You killed her,” I whispered. “You murdered her.”
“She sacrificed herself,” Godric replied, his voice cold. “No one killed her.”
I flicked my gaze back at him, then back down to the body on the lawn. Next to Andrea's body, I could see the outline of a salt circle. “She didn’t know what she was doing, though,” I said with fierce certainty. “She had no idea.”
“In her heart, she knew,” Godric said. “Loera instructed her to draw the circles, to call Ailo through a portal.” He shivered again in bliss as he said Ailos’ name. It revolted me. “She knew she was calling the angels,” he went on, his voice soft. “She knew we had a mission. She wanted to help.”
I stared at him furiously. “Did Andrea know that the nature of the mission was to kill me?”
His dead eyes narrowed.
“You manipulated her,” I snapped. “You lied to her. And you needed the extra power, didn’t you? That’s why that dead bird was in the first circle, and the rat in the second.” I snarled at him. “You figured out how to drain energy from living things.”
“God arranged the offerings. They were in place when the circles were drawn.”
“They were just random creatures in the area! And you murdered them.”
“They were offerings,” he snapped. “God bequeathed them to us.”
“God did not! You lured in some helpless animals, and you drained them of energy. You killed Horace. You also killed Andrea. You drained her energy until she was so sick she could hardly move, then you used the last of her to finally come through the portal, didn’t you? That disgusting parasite that’s attached to you did all that, Godric.” I lifted my chin, so furious I could only spit out the words. “Lies. Deception. Murder. Does that sound like something that a holy creature would do?”
“Enough.” He drew the blade in his hand closer to Margot’s throat. She flinched back, trembling from head to toe, her eyes fixed on me, begging me to run.
I stopped talking.
“The offerings have been accepted, that much is certain. The sacrifices are almost complete.” His blue eyes seemed to pale further, until they were stark white. “You are the last one, Chalice. Step forth, become the final sacrifice, and I will release your guardian.”
I knew that there was little hope in getting him to question his actions. He was a mad fanatic; logic wasn’t going to do anything. My fierceness drained away.
Margot screamed, over and over, straining against the steel strength of Godric’s arm across her chest, flinching back as the knife cut a tiny line into her throat. He held her in an iron grip. There was no escape.
“She’s not my guardian,” I said slowly, my voice shaking. “She’s my hero.”
My hands trembled. I looked down at them, my vision watery at the edges. Slowly, I put them behind my back.
“She saved me once,” I squeezed my eyes shut, and took a deep breath in. “Now, it’s my turn to save her.”
One tear ran down my cheek. I opened my eyes. Godric smiled, his expression victorious, now that my capitulation was complete. He straightened up, and stepped away from Margot, ready to come towards me with the knife.
I took one step forward.
And I whipped Mickey’s gun from behind my back and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Chapter Sixteen
The bang was deafening; my ears rang with a loud chime. It was so loud it was bewildering. I’d never heard a gunshot without earmuffs before.
The loss of hearing only heightened my sight.
Godric’s neck snapped back for a millisecond, then forward again. There was a hole in his forehead.
It confused me. I’d been aiming for his chest.
You always aimed for the chest. It was the biggest part of a human, a better target. It wasn’t necessarily a kill shot, but you’d stop the assailant in his tracks. That’s what I’d learned.
I hadn’t wanted to kill him. I was obviously a worse shot than I thought. Then again, it wasn’t easy to focus when someone was coming at you with a knife.
Instantly, dark red blood flooded out of the hole. Godric's pale eyes were sightless, his mouth open. He slumped to his knees, crumbling like a marionette wit
h its strings cut, face-first on the floor. The blood spread out underneath his head, staining the wooden slats beneath him.
He was dead.
I let out the breath I’d been holding; it came out in a loud sigh. Dropping the gun, I ran to Margot and ripped the tape off her mouth. “Are you okay? Margot, are you okay?”
She flinched when I pulled the tape off. “Ouch. I’m fine! Oh, Eve, honey,” she gasped, clutching at me desperately. “Who the hell was that? What in the hell just happened?”
Suddenly, the wind blew around us like a vortex.
“I think you’re about to find out everything,” I told her, pulling her close. For a second, I held onto her for grim death, feeling the relief seep through me.
The wind blasted again, and then, like an avenging angel, Alex appeared in front of me. His focus shot to me first, assessing, then moved to Godric’s dead body on the floor, and finally, to Margot wriggling out of her wrist bindings next to me. Satisfied that the danger was gone, he came to me and kneeled beside us.
“Eve,” he said in a low, rumbling tone, his expression pained. “You ran from me again? You ran to him, to Godric, to sacrifice yourself?”
“You read all that from the bodies, huh?”
He groaned slightly. “Will you not take anything seriously, woman? Why must you torture me like this?”
He swooped down, leaning closer, running his hands through my hair, finally holding the back of my head. His eyes were desperate. “I adore you,” he growled. “My love for you is undying and eternal. I’ve pledged to remain by your side until my last days, and far beyond the boundaries of this existence. Why do you keep trying to destroy me like this?”
“Honey,” I said, giggling a little hysterically, my voice still shaking. “You’re a little intense. Has anyone ever told you that?”
Alex huffed out a laugh, the relief in his eyes shining like a bright light. He took a second to turn his head towards the east, and called out softly. “She’s here.”
“Nate?”
“On his way.” Leaning forward, he kissed me on the head. “I’m so sorry we were fighting, and you had to go through this alone. I’m sorry I wasn’t with you,” he mumbled into my hair.
I shrugged. “Godric would have killed Margot.”
“I understand. You did what you had to do.” He pulled back and looked me in the eye. “Including killing Godric. It’s what had to be done.”
“I didn’t want to kill him. I’m just a terrible shot.”
“Sure.” He grinned at me.
Margot was on her knees above Godric’s body, checking his vitals. As she started to examine the scars on his arms, I turned to tell her not to bother.
A movement from Godric’s body caught my eye. A pale mist, like an ethereal skin, was detaching from the back of his head.
“Alex…” I pointed.
Alex cursed in an ancient tongue. A sharp wind blew my hair back, and suddenly, Nate had joined us.
Margot gaped. “Holy-”
“Leave this to me,” Nate said. He bent down on his knees above Godric’s body, his hands outstretched. The pale mist detached from his neck, squirming, floating in the air. I sensed a feeling of urgency coming from it; a panic. Nate circled his hands around the mist; creating a barrier in mid-air. He began to chant, a low whisper, weaving a spell around the pale mist. He moved his hands away, leaving a golden circle in the air, encasing the spirit inside.
He nodded up at Alex. “Brother, would you?”
“It would be my pleasure.” Alex stepped forward and snapped his fingers.
The pale mist burst into flames.
I wasn’t prepared for the unholy shriek it made when it burned. The fire blazed so brightly I had to shield my eyes. It only lasted a few seconds; the golden circle faded away, and the flames dimmed, dropping to the wooden slats below. Soon, there was nothing there except for a couple of scorch marks left on the wood. Margot crawled forward, examining the spot, her eyes wide with astonishment. She was absolutely speechless.
I got to my feet slowly. “Is… is he gone?”
Alex nodded, standing and pulling me close. “For at least a thousand years,” he amended. “Immortals never really die. But he’s less than mist now, just a fraction of spirit.”
Nate joined us, placing a hand on Alex’s shoulder, forming a comfortable huddle with the three of us. It felt perfect. “Ailo is no further use to his cause,” he said.
“And Loera? He was attached to Andrea,” I pointed down to the lawn. My heart ached for her.
Nate looked at me gently, his warm dark eyes filled with compassion. “He’s gone. I checked her body.” A little crease appeared between his eyes. “Loera is not in the area; I cannot sense him anywhere. There is no way at all he would have been able to go very far in his current form. Rux and Phil are both checking the forest.” He frowned. “I suspect he disappeared through the portal when Ailo came through it, so he’ll probably be hiding on the Astral Plane. He would have known that Andrea was dying.” His expression darkened. “He would have abandoned her when she was no further use.”
My eyes filled with tears and overflowed immediately. “Poor Andrea,” I sobbed. “She didn’t deserve any of this.”
“None of us do,” Alex said quietly. “Especially not you.”
“Excuse me.” Margot’s tone was filled with ice. She’d finally found her voice. “Can you please tell me what the hell is going on here?”
I sighed. “Yes. Sorry, Margot.”
I glanced up at Alex, who nodded, then at Nate. He gave me a tiny smile. “First things first,” I said, facing my aunt. “I’m pregnant. One of these two guys is the father, I’m not sure who,” I shrugged, and grinned like a maniac. “And the end of the world is coming.”
THE END (FOR NOW)
A note from the author
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Read on for a sneak peak at Revelations: The Last War
The Last War
The woman’s face twisted. When she spoke again, her eyes shimmered like sparkling diamonds, threatening to spill over with unshed tears.
“I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am,” the woman said, her lips trembling. “The crystal caves were a wonder that I’d never thought I would see in my whole life. I am truly blessed to have been able to experience them.” She placed her hand on her chest and bowed her head towards me.
I had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing. I felt like I was in an alternate dimension, where everything had turned on its head. Exactly a year ago to the day, another woman, who looked almost the same as this one - blonde bob, cuddly body, brown eyes - had stood in precisely the same place, and screamed and spat on me because she was furious we’d lost her jacket.
The first woman had been an insanely rich heiress. She’d had enough money to wipe out the debt of a third world country, yet I’d never met a more miserable person in my whole life.
This woman - the one standing in front of me now, quite literally bowing at me - was a penniless charity worker from Ohio. She had started a homeless shelter by begging for funds from corporates, and scrounging grants from the government. She was one of the loveliest people I'd ever met in my life.
Usually it was only the very wealthiest people in the world who could come to Revelations, the exclusive, secretive billion-star resort where I worked. It cost close to a hundred thousand dollars a night to stay here. With that, you got unparalleled se
rvice, complete privacy, and the strictest confidentiality.
But it looked like things were changing. Mrs. Croxford was the third ‘poor person’ we had staying here in the last couple of months. Her vacation was a gift from a billionaire, a patron of her charity. He’d intended on coming himself and had made the booking months ago, suddenly, he’d decided to treat Mrs. Croxford instead.
Of course, she tried to refuse. She even sneakily attempted to auction it off to raise money for her charity. However, the billionaire patron bought the vacation back at the charity auction and insisted Mrs. Croxford take it.
“I’m glad you enjoyed the caves, Mrs. Croxford,” I told her, letting my smile shine as soon as the impulse to laugh had left me. “I agree, they are truly beautiful.”
“That Crystal Cavern is spectacular!” Mrs. Croxford gushed, her eyes filled with tears. “It was so nice of you to suggest the chorale tour.”
“My pleasure."
“And you are so blessed to work in such an amazing location,” she went on, stepping closer to the desk. “The caves have such amazing energy to them. Inside them it was like I could feel my soul tingling.”
My smile wobbled slightly. With a bit of effort, I plastered it back into place.
“They truly do have amazing energy,” I managed.
Amazing. Yet not in a good way.
At the lowest level of the Develian's cave system, a sharp descent called the Devil’s Drop tunneled down into nothingness. Revelations used to have guides that would take the more serious thrill-seekers a few meters down there, however, they’d all quit, muttering about voices and dark thoughts getting louder every meter down. It was a well-kept secret at Revelations, and management often dismissed it as being a byproduct of the weird electromagnetic activity around the caves.
Revelations: The Fallen Page 20