Guardian Revealed

by S. A. Moss

  If that was the case, why had she assigned me to guard over him in the first place?

  Pushing open the door to the Seer’s chambers, I hesitated. I’d had some vague idea of marching in here and demanding answers, but as soon as I stepped inside the room, awe eclipsed all my other emotions. I’d forgotten how hauntingly beautiful this place was.

  A long carpet led from the door up to a raised dais where an altar sat, bathed in sunlight from the three large windows behind it. As it had last time I’d been here, the light from the windows shined down on the Seer’s body, casting a bright radiance over her still form. It was like the windows concentrated the light from outside, making it look as though it were full day.

  “Come closer, child.”

  I jumped when the Seer’s voice broke the silence. Nothing moved except her mouth, and her eyes remained closed. But I had no doubt she knew who I was and probably had a pretty good idea what I wanted to talk about.

  Winding my fingers together nervously, I crept forward, stepping slowly up the stairs until I stood next to the altar where she lay. The Seer was the first Guardian ever born, and she had a strange, otherworldly beauty. Her brow was large and her bone structure was heavy, like images of early man I’d seen in history books. Her voice, though a bit rough, resonated with wisdom and intelligence.

  “Hi,” I said, then corrected it to something a bit more formal. “Er, hello. I hope it’s okay that I came here. Nobody sent me or anything, I mean. I just wanted to talk to you.”

  “You should never have to ask permission to seek clarity,” she assured me, her eyes still closed, face still impassive.

  I blew out a breath. “Okay, good. Because that’s exactly what I need.”

  “Ask me your questions, child, and I will do what I can to answer.”

  “I think I blew it!” I blurted. “I was supposed to watch over Alex, but I got him caught up in this whole mess instead, and I’m worried he’s going to get hurt, and I’m afraid I just broke his heart and mine, and I don’t know how to help fight Akaron when I can’t even fight my own father.”

  The Seer’s eyes blinked open slowly, and I almost stepped back as the weight of her gaze settled on me. The sheer number of years of her existence made her eyes look almost alien, as though universes were contained within them.

  “That wasn’t a question,” she said softly.

  I sighed, rubbing my hands over my eyes. “I know, I know.”

  Too many questions, doubts, and worries spun through my head for me to articulate them all.

  “I guess I’m just wondering…” I thought of Alex kissing my neck, half asleep. Of my father, and the power he’d wielded over me so easily. Of the mountain cavern full of bound Guardians, and the Fallen man with the heavy hood who wanted to come to Earth so badly he’d orchestrated all of this. “Is there any hope?”

  The Seer’s eyes warmed, and her wide mouth tipped up at the corners. “Ah, that is a question. But you see, it’s the wrong question.”

  I frowned. I had immense respect for the Seer, but talking to her was a little like having a conversation with a Magic 8 Ball. I half expected her next answer to be, ask again later. “Why?”

  “If I told you there was no hope, what would you do?” Her voice was gentle. “Would you stop fighting? Give up?”

  I thought about that for several beats before replying. “Well, no.”

  “Exactly. The most worthy pursuits are undertaken with no guarantee of the outcome. We don’t fight only when we know we will win. We fight when we decide we cannot do anything else.”

  That stopped me.

  Shit. She was right. On more than one account.

  In the silence that followed, the Seer regarded me steadily with her strange eyes. Then she added, “I could not promise you an outcome anyway. The visions I see are not certain and can always be changed.”

  “So… when you told me that I’d either save the world or destroy it, that might not’ve been true?” I asked, hope flaring in my chest.

  Her eyelids drooped, as if keeping them open this long was physically taxing her. At her age, it might be. “I can feel the turmoil in you. The different sides pulling at you.”

  Ugh, she had that right. Between my father and the Council each trying to sway me, I wasn’t sure what I believed anymore. I knew which side I wanted to be on, but I couldn’t seem to get my brain and heart to agree to it. But did that mean I belonged on the other side, with my father and the Fallen?

  “How do I choose? How do I know what’s right?”

  “You’ve spent so much time searching for a belief system to adopt. If you can’t find one, make your own.”

  That thought bolstered me. Maybe there was some value in a new way of thinking, as much as the Council resisted it.

  “I don’t think Guardians should have to exist in secret,” I told her, voicing the one belief I was sure of.

  She closed her eyes, the milky blue of her irises vanishing. “You are so much like your father.”

  My chest clenched. No!

  “That’s not true! I don’t—”

  “Don’t deny it, Camille. It can be either a weakness or a strength, but it is true. The connection between you is strong.”

  “Is he the reason I’ll either save the world or destroy it?” I wanted desperately to ask her if I would end up joining him, but it was silly to ask someone else what I would do. I was the one in charge of that, right?

  Then why did it so often feel like I wasn’t? Like I was sliding headfirst down a steep slope—and although I might change course slightly, the end destination would always remain the same?

  “You are the only one who can make him let his guard down,” the Seer said softly. “He holds out hope even now.”

  Her words settled over me, and I swallowed.

  And suddenly, I didn’t need her to tell me what I was going to do.

  I already knew.

  32

  The wind had picked up by the time I left the Seer’s tower. I crossed back over the narrow walkway and entered the main keep. My footsteps seemed incredibly loud on the stone floor as I wended my way through the halls of the Haven.

  Unfortunately, the only route I knew to the portal room took me right past the Council’s meeting room. The heavy wooden doors were closed, and muffled voices sounded from within. I tiptoed by as quickly as possible, reminding myself of the one time I’d ditched out of school to go take my driver’s exam—I’d had to sneak right by the principal’s office on my way out. Just like that time, my cat-burglar-like reflexes served me well, and no one burst out of the room demanding to know where I was going.

  As I pushed open the door to the portal room, a Guardian I didn’t recognize turned the corner, walking quickly toward me. I averted my gaze and darted through the massive door into the portal room. Hopefully, the Guardian hadn’t recognized me either. I wanted at least a little head start before the Council realized what I’d done.

  What I was about to do.

  Hugging the wall, since it felt less exposed than walking through the center of the room, I headed toward the door marked Chicago-Downtown.

  As I stepped through, something wet hit my face. Another wet drop hit my shoulder, and I glanced up. The sky was dark, even though by my best guess it was only late afternoon here. Fat raindrops plunked down on the grease-stained asphalt of the alley, and the air was humid—exacerbating the garbage and pee smell I had come to know so well. It wasn’t raining hard yet, but the threat hung heavy in the air.

  Hunching my shoulders, I headed out of the alley and down the street toward Michigan Avenue.

  With every step I took, the lump of cement in my belly seemed to harden. If I’d been touching Alex—no, don’t think about him—my heart would’ve been hammering hard against my ribs. As it was, the unnatural stillness in my chest only made me more anxious, as if there was no release for my nervous energy.

  Was I really doing this?

  Was it the right choice?

 
; In the flash of clarity I’d had while speaking to the Seer, it had all seemed so obvious, so inevitable. But now that my feet were on the path, my brain and heart were rebelling again. I didn’t have to do this. There was still time to back out. I could run back through the green door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY and no one in the Haven would ever know I’d left.

  But even as those thoughts raced through my mind, my feet kept marching forward, step by step.

  The rain picked up, more large drops joining their friends until it was impossible to separate each individual drop anymore. I ducked into another alley and faded out, not wanting to get soaked. Having rain pass through me was a odd sensation—not that I could actually feel it, but it was strange walking through a torrent of rain without getting wet.

  By the time I rounded the corner of Michigan, and the Hancock building came into view, rivulets of water were coursing down the gutters along the sides of the road. The storm had sprung up suddenly and intensely, and thunder rumbled in the sky.

  Unbidden, my gaze drifted over from the Hancock to the Westin, sliding quickly up to the seventh floor. Was that Alex’s figure standing at the window? Or was my imagination just putting him there because I wanted to see him again?

  Either way, he couldn’t see me.

  This is for the best, Cam. Remember that.

  I swallowed slightly, then faded the rest of the way over to the Shroud. The rain stopped as the Wild appeared around me—apparently the two dimensions weren’t tied closely enough for the weather to cross from on to the other. I was grateful for small favors, because if it’d been raining here, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from getting soaked.

  I did not want to meet my destiny sopping wet.

  When I appeared near the same rock I’d hidden behind last time, I peeked around it toward the cave entrance. Dim light shone from the small opening. Several Fallen marched into the cave, carrying large, bulky objects between them. I squinted into the darkness, trying to make out the shapes.

  Bodies.

  They were carrying bodies on small stretchers between them. The bodies looked dead, but that didn’t mean much here. More likely, they were bound by my father, the last of the Guardians being brought to the encampment to complete the portal.

  Which meant I didn’t have much time left before his offer expired.

  Welp, here goes nothing.

  Stepping out from behind the boulder, I approached the group of Fallen bringing up the rear of the party—one was a pig-faced demon, one looked like a werewolf, and one resembled the lovechild of a snake and a rat.

  “My name is Camille Prentice!” I called loudly, holding up my hands, palms out. Belatedly, I realized that might look more threatening to supernaturals than it did to humans, since it was almost the exact pose someone would strike when they were about to unleash a blast of aether. So I laced my fingers behind my head instead. I immediately felt more vulnerable, which I supposed was the point. But man, I hated it.

  The Fallen turned slowly, their sharp eyes boring into me. There was a predatory gleam in the snake-rat’s eyes I didn’t care for one bit. Quickly, I added, “I was invited here by James Prentice—er, Sirius. The fallen Guardian. I need to speak with him.”

  I was hoping that a reference to one of their leaders would help stave off an attack, but I braced for a fight anyway. I wouldn’t put it past a bunch of Fallen to attack first and plead ignorance later. I also wasn’t sure about the hierarchy of power around here—did any of them actually answer to my dad, or were they all slaves to Akaron?

  “Sirius?” The snake-rat hissed. He definitely didn’t say the name with respect.

  “Yes. He’s my father. And I guarantee you, he’ll be pissed as hell if he finds out his invitation wasn’t honored.” I loaded as much threat into my voice as I could.

  “What if he never finds out?” The werewolf stepped closer to me, sniffing at my skin like I was a steak dripping with butter.

  “I’ll make sure he does,” I snarled, lowering my hands from my head and clenching them into fists. If they weren’t going to play nice, neither was I.

  “Oh, little girly,” snake-rat hissed, advancing on me. “You aren’t—”

  He didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence, because his body was suddenly thrown to the side by a massive blast of energy.

  I blinked.

  Did I do that?

  I’d been about to throw a blast at him but hadn’t actually formed the thought yet.

  The snake-rat hauled himself to all fours, shaking his head slightly to clear it. Before he could regain his feet, a huge hole appeared in his torso, followed by another in his stomach a second later. Aether blades.

  Okay, I definitely didn’t do that.

  My eyes tracked to the cave entrance where the pig-demon lingered, his head lowered slightly before the man who stood in the mouth of the tunnel.

  33

  “Camille. You came.”

  My dad’s face lit up in a broad smile, and my chest squeezed. He looked so much like my memories of him in that moment. I could’ve been standing in the kitchen as a little girl, watching his face glow with joy as he gazed at my mother.

  Instead, I stood in an alternate dimension above the body of a supernatural with two holes in him. Holes my dad had put there.

  The wounds were barely bleeding and had already begun to close slowly. He wasn’t dead—obviously—but snake-rat was definitely down for the count.

  I looked up from the body, meeting my father’s bright eyes. “Yeah, I did. I… I thought about what you said.”

  “And?”

  “And you’re right. We’re not the same as humans. We’re better. We shouldn’t have to serve them.”

  His eyes closed briefly, and he looked so happy I almost couldn’t bear it. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Cam. You are saving yourself so much pain.”

  I nodded. “I see that now. But”—I fixed him with a hard glare—“I’m here because I want to make sure that humans aren’t mistreated too badly when supernaturals rule Earth. You should be able to understand that. You loved one of them once.”

  My dad jerked his head toward the body on the ground, and the other two Fallen stepped forward. Snake-rat’s wounds were almost entirely closed, and a soft hissing moan escaped his lips as his cohorts picked him up and dragged him inside.

  As they disappeared into the tunnel, my dad held out his hand to me. I stepped forward, and he rested his hand between my shoulder blades, ushering me in after the them. The tunnel was just barely wide enough for us to walk side by side, and it forced us closer together than I would’ve liked. Standing this near to my father, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to reach out and hug him or punch him.

  “You always were a sweet-natured soul, Cam. Even as a child, you insisted on saving every injured bird, every trapped moth, every helpless creature you encountered.”

  “Is there something wrong with that?” I asked sharply.

  He smiled indulgently at me. “Of course not. And you’re right, I did once love a human. In honor of her memory, I will do what I can to make sure humans are treated well under supernatural rule. Of course, there will be… sacrifices that must be made. Not all the Fallen have a soft spot for humans like you do. But you and I can work together to make this next era a peaceful one.”

  My stomach twisted. “Good. That’s what I want, Dad. Peace.”

  Ahead of us, the opening to the larger cave appeared. The two Fallen dragging their friend—or, I guess, work colleague?—rounded the corner and disappeared into the cavern. As my dad and I stepped through, my eyes widened. This was nothing at all like the last time I’d been here.

  Then, the atmosphere had been relaxed, if overwhelmingly creepy. Fallen had lounged around the large bonfire that still burned in the middle of the cave.

  Waiting.

  But they weren’t waiting anymore.

  Now the place buzzed with excitement, and Fallen dashed to and fro, arranging the last few Guardian bodie
s around the perimeter of the fire.

  I gulped, staring at the still forms on the ground. My gaze tracked up to the other bodies tucked into pockets in the stone all the way up to the top of the cone-shaped cavern. The gray smoke from the fire wended its way hundreds of feet upward to the hole in the ceiling. As I watched, the smoke seemed to brighten a bit, becoming more of a light gray.

  My dad pressed gently on my upper back. “You arrived just in time. We’re almost ready. Come.” He steered me toward the base of the stairs, and we began climbing the long staircase. We walked in silence for several minutes, and as we wound higher and higher, the smoke continued to filter up through the center of the space. Every few yards, we passed another alcove carved into the stone with a Guardian resting inside it.

  “Are these all the Guardians you guys stole?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder at my dad, who trailed a few steps behind me. He hesitated, and I rolled my eyes. “Look, I already told you, I’m here to work with you. And it’s not like you’d let me walk away now anyway. Your secrets are safe with me.”

  His steps slowed, and I matched my pace to his. When I looked back again, he was watching me intently. As happy as he’d been to see me, my dad clearly still had some reservations about trusting me.

  Finally, he nodded. “Nearly all. Enough for our purposes. A few evaded capture or slipped away.”

  He didn’t mention Asha, but I knew he was thinking of her.

  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he doesn’t trust me.

  “How did the Fallen get them here so fast? Weren’t they snatched from all around the world?”

  That question had been bugging me for a while now. Sure, it’d taken the Fallen several weeks to gather all the Guardians in one place. But if they were coming from all over the world—and by extension, all over the Shroud—it should’ve taken some of them much longer than three weeks. I didn’t think high-speed jets existed in this dimension.

  My dad smiled up at me. “There are portals within the Shroud. You didn’t know that?”