by Lola StVil
“I see you came to accept my offer and save your wife. But, Marcus, did you really need to bring backup? Well, given who you were coming here to meet, I can understand your need for protection. Although I don’t think that my little sister and a human boy will be of much help,” Malakaro says, amused.
“We didn’t come to accept anything. We came here to tell you face-to-face what you can do with your ‘offer,’” Dad lies.
Randy is about to speak when I take his hand and squeeze it, warning him to stay quiet. He silently objects but thankfully says nothing.
“Do you think your daughter will ever look at you the same way, knowing that you could have saved her mother but refused?” Malakaro asks.
“Pryor knows why I have to do this. She understands,” Dad replies.
“Right now, yes. However, in time, I assure you grief will corrode that layer of understanding, and once that’s gone, the only thing that will remain is a small but powerful thought: Did my father do everything he could to save my mother?”
“I know my father is doing the right thing, a concept you know nothing about,” I inform him.
“In about three minutes a small pathway will appear and you will ascend into the light. Then you will go up there and find your dead wife. Or you can tell me what I need to know and go into the light as her hero.”
“Go to hell,” my father orders.
“You now have two minutes,” Malakaro informs us.
“You would really do this, Jason? You would really just let her die?” Dad asks.
“I’m the one with the solution to saving Emmy’s life. Her husband is the one standing in the way,” he says.
“DAMN YOU!” My dad rages, on the verge of attacking Malakaro.
“Do you know what the last stage of your wife’s illness is like? There is an onset of sudden madness. It will show itself in a variety of ways: some victims eat their own tongues,” Malakaro says with a smile.
My dad gasps as if he’s been struck, hard. I want to fall apart, but I refuse to do it in front of Malakaro. However, Randy can feel my hand go ice-cold. He knows I am on the verge of losing it.
“You have one minute,” the evil Noru says.
“No! Please, save her,” Randy says.
“And who are you?” Malakaro asks.
“He’s just some human like you said,” Dad says.
“I’m the—”
“Randy, no!” I beg.
“Sorry, Pry. Look, I’m the one you’ve been looking for. I am the Blue Rose.”
“Is that so?” Malakaro asks.
“Yes, and now that you know who I am, you will give the eye to Mr. Cane,” Randy says bravely. Although his words are strong, his voice shakes and the terror behind his eyes grows with every passing moment.
“I must admit, for a moment, I was worried about you, Randall,” Malakaro says.
“What are you talking about?” I demand.
“You knew who Randy was all along, didn’t you?” Dad shouts.
“Naturally. What I didn’t know was how far he would be willing to go for the ones he loves. And now I do.”
“How the hell did you know?” I ask.
“On your sixteenth birthday you threw a party, a masquerade ball.”
“Yes, and you killed everyone,” I remind him bitterly.
“Yes, that was special for me too,” Malakaro replies.
“You knew since then?” Randy asks, growing even more fearful.
“As I was leaving, I could feel the power within you waiting to be unleashed. The sheer force of the two of us combined can’t be contained. I just needed to be sure it was you. Everyone tells you that once you drink the mixture and become the Alago, you will be evil. However, what they don’t tell you, Randall, is that you will also be able to do what you have longed to do all your life: protect the ones you love.”
“Do not listen to Jason. He just wants to trick you. He knows that the only way you can drink the vial is if you do it willingly, and he’s trying to manipulate you,” Dad warns Randy.
“What I am doing is something you, Marcus, have no concept of: I’m keeping my word. I said if the Blue Rose was revealed to me that I would give you the eye, and now, I will.”
Malakaro opens his hand and reveals the same small box he held earlier. It floats over to Dad. Randy and I look up at each other, not sure what will happen next. Before we can collect ourselves, a stream of light appears in the sky and lands on the ground a few feet away from us.
“You are on Earth for exactly twenty-four hours. You only have thirty seconds left of that. Take the eye and go,” Malakaro warns him.
“No. I don’t trust you. I will not leave you here with Randy and my daughter.”
“Then your wife will die needlessly,” Malakaro warns.
“Dad, please, don’t worry about us. Go and help Mom,” I plead.
“Pry, I can’t leave you again,” Dad replies, torn.
“Mr. Cane, please go. We got this,” Randy assures him.
“Twenty seconds,” Malakaro announces.
“How can I leave you in Jason’s hands?” Dad agonizes as he reaches out for the box. It lands in his hand, but he does not head for the light.
“Ten seconds.”
“He won’t come after me, Mr. Cane, he needs me. And he doesn’t have the power he needs to kill Pry, at least, not yet. So it’s okay,” Randy reasons.
“Five seconds.”
The light that beams down on us is beginning to fade. In less than three seconds my dad will be stuck here. My mom won’t get the help she needs and I will lose her forever. So without thinking, I push my dad into the stream of light.
“No!” the First Guardian screams.
Before Dad can fly away from the light, he starts to ascend. I call out to him that I love him and ask him to tell my mom how much I love her. As he fades into the light, he says he loves me more than anything. He then looks over at Randy and gives him a final warning.
“Jason cannot offer love or friendship; he doesn’t know how. Do not trust him. Ever.”
And just like that, my dad is gone again. Randy pulls me into his embrace and I do my best not to lose it. I know that I need to be the daughter my dad raised. I need to regain control of my team and myself.
“How will I know if my mother is okay?” I ask the dark being before me.
“A bird will appear to you with a symbol that you will recognize. Marcus will have sent it.”
“She better be okay or I swear to Omnis I will finish you,” I vow.
“So much anger,” Malakaro quips.
“If I understand correctly, you can’t force me to drink the vial,” Randy says.
“No, I can’t,” Malakaro replies.
“So what now? You try to hold me hostage or torture me until I agree to fake it?” Randy dares.
“No. A brilliant scientist created the Rye vial. It will pick up on false emotions.”
“Then I guess you’re out of luck,” Randy replies.
“Randall, you and I are not enemies.”
“Yeah, we’re best friends,” Randy says sardonically.
“Perhaps not best friends, but maybe in time. There is much I need to tell you, Randall; it may be that you are not ready.”
“I don’t want to hear anything from you,” Randy rants.
“I’ve always been more for actions than words, myself. There is no sense in telling you that I am on your side—I can simply show you,” Malakaro says as he sends a ruby-colored box floating in the air towards Randy. It lands inside Randy’s palm.
“What the hell is that?” I demand of Malakaro.
“It’s a gift to Randall, from a new friend,” he replies as he takes to the air.
Randy is prepared to throw the contents of the box on the ground and destroy it. But curiosity gets the better of him. He looks down at the small blood-colored box and then up at me.
“It’s okay to open it if you want. He needs you alive, like you said.”
“I don’t care what that lunatic gives me. I will never turn evil. Pry, you know that, right?” Randy promises.
“I do.”
Randy then opens the box. A red stone the size of a grape gleams back at us. In the center of the stone a pattern emerges.
Crap! How the hell did Malakaro get his hands on that?
“It’s some kind of stone,” Randy says.
It’s so much more than that…Shit!
“Pry, what does this stone do?”
“I’m not sure I should tell you,” I admit.
“Why?”
“Because once you find out what’s in your hand, Malakaro won’t just be your new friend, he’ll be your best friend.”
Chapter Nine:
Numbi
Randy’s eyes are wide with curiosity; they seem to take up his whole face. Telling him what he holds in his hand may be a mistake. Very few beings are strong enough to possess an Untin stone and not use it.
“Pry, what does the stone do?”
“It doesn’t matter. The point is you can’t keep it.”
“Don’t I at least get to know what it does?”
“If I tell you, it will make it that much harder to get rid of. And no one can get rid of it but you. It’s bound to you, so only your will can send it away.”
“Nice! But what does it actually do?” he pushes.
“It’s called an Untin stone. It’s illegal in the angel world, and there’s only three in existence.”
“And I’m holding one of them?! Oh my Omnis!”
“What the stone does is—”
“Wait, let me guess. This stone will give me powers,” Randy says, brimming with excitement.
“It doesn’t give you powers, it steals them for you.”
“What?”
“The only way for the Untin stone to give you powers is if it syphons them from someone else,” I explain.
“So I can take a demon’s powers and use them for my own?” Randy asks eagerly.
“No. It was created by demons to steal powers from angels. It can only take away powers from beings that are good. So you can’t use the Untin stone to strip Malakaro of his powers because, while he’s an angel, he’s also evil.”
“Yes, but I can get powers from an angel, right?”
“Again, you don’t get the power, you would be stealing the power. And power syphoning is illegal in the angel world.”
“Pry, I’m not in the angel world,” Randy reminds me.
“You say that like you think it’s okay,” I scold.
“I know, I know. I’m just talking things out with you.”
“There’s nothing to talk out. If you use that stone, it will start to take powers from an angel. It will do that until that angel is stripped of all its powers. That’s all you need to know.”
“How does the stone choose the angel?”
“It goes off of your desires. If there’s an angel whose powers you have coveted, the stone will read that in you and begin to strip that angel of his or her power.”
“For how long?”
“The stronger the angel is that you’re stealing from, the longer their power lasts on you.”
“That’s so cool!”
“No, it’s not, Randy. You can’t use it.”
“Fine, I’ll give it to you and you can throw it away,” he offers.
“Fine, hand it over,” I reply, already knowing he won’t be able to do so.
Randy places the stone in the palm of my hand. Before he can pull his hand away, the stone is back inside his palm.
“You don’t throw an Untin stone away. You have to will it away.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means so long as you still desire it, the stone will stay with you. You can place it in my hand a hundred times, you can throw it in the ocean or send it into outer space, but it would still come back. The only way to get rid of it is to no longer desire it.”
“Okay, I don’t want this stone. I don’t want to take anything from anyone,” he says, speaking into the stone. The stone stays in his hand. He looks up at me and then shakes his head.
“The best way to get rid of the stone is to stop thinking about it. Think about something else. For example I’m thinking that it’s been nearly half an hour, my dad is gone, and I haven’t heard anything. Maybe the eye didn’t work. My mom could be dead right now,” I remind him.
“You’re right. I’m sorry, Pry. We should focus on the message coming from the light.”
“What if it takes days to make her better? I can’t wait days to find out if she’s—” Before I can finish my thought, a white dove careens across the sky and lands on my shoulder. I hold out my hand and it flies into the middle of my palm.
“She’s okay! My mom’s okay!” I shout as I embrace Randy.
“Pry, was that it? Is that the message?” Randy asks.
“Yes.”
“How do you know the bird has anything to do with your mom?”
“Look into her eyes,” I reply.
Randy looks closer and sees that the dove has one thing in common with my mom—purple eyes.
The relief that washes over me makes me feel like a weight has been taken off my shoulders. My mom isn’t going to die. It’s so rare that we get to avoid grief, it’s all I can do not to burst into tears.
“Randy, thank you for what you did for my mom. I didn’t want you in danger, but I’m so grateful for your sacrifice,” I admit.
Randy doesn’t reply. Instead, he’s studying the stone with increasing fascination. He holds it out in his palm and watches, dazzled, as the sunlight beams down on it.
Something tells me the sooner we get that stone out of Randy’s hand, the better…
When Randy and I return to the house, we find the rest of the team there (everyone but Diana and Aaden). We tell the team what happened, and I ask Key to find a way to get the stone away from Randy. However, given the look on her face, she’s not too happy about helping Randy with anything right now.
“Key, is everything okay?” Randy asks as we look on.
“Oh, so now you see me? I thought I was invisible to you,” she replies.
“Key, of course I see you,” Randy says.
“Then how could you go off and give yourself to Malakaro without talking to me?” she demands.
“I had to; it was the right thing to do,” Randy insists.
“You went off on your own and didn’t even consult me, Randy.”
“What was there to consult you on? There was no other option.”
“Oh, so if you had to do this all over again, you would do the same thing?” Key asks.
“I would go with ‘no’ on that,” East whispers under his breath.
“Well…” Randy begins.
“Argh! You make me sick! You could have been hurt,” Key snaps.
“Yes, but he wasn’t. He’s okay,” I remind her.
“That’s not the point,” she informs me.
“No, the point is you were worried that frail little Randy couldn’t handle himself.”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Yes, it is, Key. You think what everyone else here does: Randy needs to be looked after. You think I’m weak.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Fine, tell me this: If Bex went over to Malakaro, would you be as afraid for him as you were for me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Bex is not human.”
“You’re saying I’m not as strong as Bex because I’m a human?”
“No! You’re not as strong as Bex because you’re not as strong as Bex.”
“Then why are you with me?” Randy demands.
“I wouldn’t pull on that string, man,” East says, shaking his head.
“Agreed,” Swoop says, suppressing a smile.
“Enough! Key, I need you to find out how to unbind Randy from the stone. Now go.”
She glares at Randy and stumps up the steps to
her room. I order Swoop and East to get back to work on finding out more about the Raven. I then turn all my attention to Randy.
“I was being an ass before when I said it wouldn’t last with you two. I think it can. But if you guys are going to make it work, you have to do it together,” I say gently.
“She thinks I’m—”
“Randy, whatever Key thinks of you, it’s enough to make her choose you out of all the other guys out there. But you keep going off on your own and things won’t end well with you two,” I warn him.
“You know I had to help Mrs. Cane.”
“Yes, I get that and I’m grateful. But she’s your girl, Randy. You should have talked to her before you went off and faced certain danger.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Randy says as he studies the stone in his hand once again.
“You know you are important to the team, right?”
“Yeah, I do,” he says.
“Good, now help me make things right with everyone. My dad suggests that we pull together as a family. I think he’s right. We need to hang out together before we go off on another mission. I mean, we need to hang out as a team. What can we do?”
“Key’s been begging me to take her to the place where humans pour sauce on hot animals. It took me like an hour to figure out she was talking about a BBQ,” Randy says, teasing. I can’t help but laugh along with him.
“Okay, great! We will have a BBQ here at the house. Get everyone on board and get all the human supplies you need. East will take care of the angel food and snacks,” I reply as I head for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to force a demon off her butt and back onto the team where she belongs.”
When I get to the clinic, they already have Diana dressed and ready to go. I called them just before Randy and I came back from the bar. Diana is quiet and sullen. She’s not happy to be out of bed, let alone flying. She asks where we’re going, but I tell her she will have to wait and see. Not long after, we land in front of the Good Shepherd Hospice just outside of Baltimore, Maryland.
“What are we doing here?” she asks.
“There’s someone I want you to meet.”
