The Artifact Reaper Saga Box Set

by Jen L. Grey

  Ugh, so this should be simple. Asshole.

  A hand rubs my shoulder. "It's fine. Do your best. I believe in you." Dax smiles at me.

  Now that makes me feel even more pressure for some reason. I don't want to disappoint him. I close my eyes and remember what Margaret told me. When warded, look at the object at eye level not bird's eye like I always do. I picture the flame as if I'm standing next to it as she taught me. It comes into view for a second but blinks out as some black barrier comes up. Uh ... that's not part of what she taught me.

  I reach out my hand and touch the barrier. The magic feels familiar and not cold, but I can't freaking place it. Shit. Whoever is warding this is powerful and strong. I'm not sure I know how to undo this.

  Needing something to help me, I reach down into my earth powers and use it as I touch the wall. I'm not sure why, but it just seems like what I should do. The black wall begins to shake as if I'm unsteadying it, so I increase the brown magic into it.

  The barrier begins to rattle, and pieces begin to fall out. It's almost as if it's experiencing an earthquake. Soon the wall cracks and breaks apart, crumbling to the ground. Once this happens, the flame is back in all its glory.

  "Okay, we're in." I jump to my feet ready to go. "Let's get this over with."

  They follow behind me and I rush into the wide room that's empty and then turn right following a path to a large decadent door. It has flames drawn all the way around it and there is a large handle.

  "It's pretty safe to say this is it." Dax points to the drawings.

  "Come on. We're just wasting time. Let's go." Luke's eyes are focused on the door and he's rubbing his hands. "We're so close."

  Yeah, I'm not so sure I like his reaction down here, but whatever. I'm in agreement because I want to get home. I walk over and pull open the door. When it opens, a hot and cool breeze descends upon us that smells of brimstone and snow.

  "What the f..." Dax grumbles.

  He can say that again. It's the oddest combination. Not wanting to waste any more time, I step in and find a horde of demons waiting on us.

  Shit, they are blocking the way to the flame. "I need to get through them."

  "We've got this." Luke steps up and pulls his sword.

  That, I was not expecting. He didn't want to fight and now he's going in balls to the walls? "What..."

  Before I can finish, both he and Dax run off to the demons, but running to the left. Since they attacked first, the demons chase them, leaving me an opening to get through to the flame. Well, okay. It's good they were on the same page.

  Not wanting to waste any time, or for the demons to realize I'm left alone, I rush down the opening and up some large stone steps to a black stone archway that the flame is kept under. Yes, there it is.

  When I step on the landing, a large angel lands in front of me with dark, black wings. Shit, it's the one I fought the first time we came down here. I should have just killed him then. I should have known it would come to bite me in the ass.

  His dark eyes flash with anger. "How the hell did you get through my ward?"

  Oh, so that's who was protecting it and why his power felt familiar. I fought him not too long ago. "I have skills. You should know this by now." The best way to interact with angels, even fallen ones, is to act like them. Right? I sure hope my logic isn't wrong.

  "If you want the flame, you have to fight me and trust your magic." His grin is condescending. "You would have had it the other day if you hadn't stopped what comes naturally to you, being a reaper and all."

  Wait. Is he saying if I had killed him the other day, I would have already had the flame? But reapers don't kill, they reap.

  He attacks me before I can even process what's going on. He grabs me and throws me hard against the stone archway.

  My back comes into contact, but I'm more worried about it falling. However, it stands tall and I clamor to my feet. I grab my sword and hold it out. "Let's do this."

  Not wasting a beat, he attacks me again and I swing the sword cutting into his arm.

  "Shit, you'll pay for that." He grabs me by the neck and gets ready to throw me down the stairs.

  Oh, hell no. This can't happen. My black reaper powers begin thrumming inside me and what he says resonates inside my head. Instead of fighting him like he expects, I place my hands on his arms and my powers begin to suck. Holy crap, do even fallen angels even have souls? I thought they didn't.

  He stumbles back and loosens his grip on me. His dark eyes widen. "What the..."

  I take the opportunity to move my hands from his arm to his chest so the process can work faster. The closer to one's soul the faster it works.

  When that happens, the blue angel’s breath mixes with the black and the suction increases and a deep chill fills my body as he passes through.

  He jerks one last time underneath me and then falls still. Oh God, what have I done?

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  My heart beats as I stare down at the angel realizing what I've done. Soon, he begins to fade into dark, black feathers and float away.

  His words echo in my ear from earlier. I sure did do what was natural to me. My black reaper magic began thrumming and I followed its lead. I hope that wasn't a mistake. I catch a feather that's blowing away and hold it in my palm. It pricks my finger and I almost drop it. The feather isn't as soft to the touch as it looks, but more like razor soft and prickly. No wonder they can use these as weapons.

  Something shrieks behind me and I turn my head to find Dax and Luke circled by demons. They are fighting them off but are very outnumbered. I need to hurry.

  Just then something weaves into me and circles around my powers. It's a thick red strip of line and it tugs me toward it. My magic reacts to it and begins to surge, but it's different from earlier.

  My legs move on their own accord, and I stand under the archway again. The flame is on a stick and its power is so hot it can steal your breath away. It's strange and intriguing. Half of the flame is bright red and the other half is neon blue. They flow into each other cascading and colliding which calls to me.

  Being this close, my power surges again and it's as if the flame's motion begins moving in my direction as if I'm the beacon. Not able to withstand it any longer, I head over and grab the stick, electricity running through me causing me to reach out and touch the actual flame.

  That's crazy. I can't touch it, that'll burn me. Maybe this wasn't a good idea, but once again, my hand reaches up on its own. I can't control it. Holy shit. What's going to happen when it absorbs into me? I didn't even get to say goodbye to Charlie and my parents.

  When I touch it, it's hot, but it doesn't burn. It's as if it's hot water in a shower. The flame begins pouring into me, filling me whole.

  My body fills with heat and my senses come alive. My vision goes out, and I can't smell a thing. What is happening to me? This can't be normal. My body buzzes and it causes me to fall to the ground and curl up. It doesn't hurt, but it doesn't feel good either.

  The red energy flows through me brightly and enters my core. When it hits, thousands of sparks jet off in every direction and burn me from under my skin. It wraps around me and seems to be healing all my internal scars. How is that possible?

  When I open my eyes again, my vision is beyond restored. I'm able to see things better than ever and I can even hear things I hadn't been able to hear just moments before. It's as if I hadn't been able to see anything before now. Everything is so clear now.

  This is what the artifacts are meant to do. Help a person see things in a different way and make them strong enough to better the world. I don't know why it's taken me till now to realize that I'm not a pawn in this game. Why am I acting like I am? This is my destiny to find these elements and restore the balance of the souls, so no one has to suffer.

  Me being the weaker person is over. People will now begin listening to me. I'm tired of them thinking they can control. I'm here for myself and for the greater good. The rest can kiss my ass if
they get in my way.

  A groan resonates in my ear. Crap, that's Dax. Did something happen? I stand sturdy on my feet and turn towards the battle scene. Right now, my magic is charged and balanced since I absorbed this element so I'm ready to kick some demon ass.

  Taking one last look at the archway, I turn and jog down the stairs taking them two at a time. When I get to the bottom, I look at the mass of demons and grin. This should be fun.

  Pulling out my sword, I attack one of the demons from behind slashing him in half. It shrieks alerting some of the others of my whereabouts before he disappears into thin area.

  Something grabs at my arm and its nails digs into my skin. However, it doesn't hurt at all with the power thrumming through me. My skin heals right before my eyes and I swing my knife at its shoulder.

  It tries to get out of the way, but some of the flames leak out as I swing, nabbing it. It catches on fire before my eyes and jerks away from me.

  A few of the other demons move far away, not wanting to get close and they watch as the demon goes up in flame. Two of them turn their eyes to me.

  Okay so they are afraid of the fire. I guess that makes sense. Maybe that's how I should be fighting them instead of with the sword.

  Three of them come to attack me from behind. It's crazy because I don't even need to use my seeker powers to see them. I can now sense everything all around me. It's as if I'm on overdrive.

  I spin around and hold my palm out, letting the flames shoot out of my palms and straight into one if the demon’s chest.

  It lurches away, but I keep it locked in with my power grazing a few other demons in my way. Every demon that touches the flames bursts into flames.

  Shit, that's all it takes. I move forward, using the flames to break through the hordes of demons to get to Dax and Luke. I'm sure they were struggling this whole time and now we need to get out of here. I'm ready to get back and find the fourth element.

  As I make my own path, I keep the flame flowing out of my hands hitting every demon I come across. If I had thought the screeching was awful before, I was wrong. I would normally feel awful, but they are wanting to keep souls that should be going to their peaceful afterlife. They are keeping me from the Flame for a reason, and it's not okay with me.

  It doesn't take long until I'm next to the guys. Now each one is fighting two demons each. I grab my sword and stab the one in front of Luke through the chest. As it disappears the other three demons back away when they realize I'm there.

  They turn to move away, and I call the flames out again. I light each one of them on fire. Their red eyes bulge and they scream as they burn to their death.

  "Uh..." Dax clears his throat and puts his sword away. "Are you okay?"

  Why would he be asking that? I'm more than okay. For once, I have a clear path I want to be on. "Yeah, why?"

  "You have fire coming out of your hands." He raises both hands up and he chuckles. "That's not normal so just wanted to check."

  It's kind of surprising Dax is the first one to speak. I figured it would be Luke. I glance at him.

  His eyes are full of concern and the corner of his eyes are wrinkled. "Do you feel all right?"

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” Okay, now I'm surprised. His first question isn't about the flame? What's his play?

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I stare at Luke still reeling in my shock from his first question. "But I got the flame so we're good to go." I mean, he was going to ask that.

  "Good." He nods and lets out a breath. "Thank god. I don't want to think about having to come down here again."

  Ha. But yet Dax and I had to come down here twice. So there still is a little of the pretentiousness in him; good. I don't want my world to be rocked more than it already is.

  "If we're done down here, we better get going." Dax glances around and takes a step closer to us. "We're in the clear now, but more could come at any second."

  Dammit. He's right. "All right, I'm on it." Since Luke is with us, I picture his office at the mansion.

  They circle around me and Dax reaches out and touches our arms. I project the image out to him and we're soon out of hell. The swirling doesn't bother me like it has in the past and it almost feels as if I can control our destination if I want... but that has to be crazy.

  Soon our feet hit ground and we're back in Luke's office. The room is sharper than ever before, and there are footsteps walking past the door I didn’t hear before now.

  Luke walks over and puts his swords back in place and drops the backpack on the ground. "Oh, thank God. I'm so glad to be back."

  "You don't have to say that twice." Dax walks over next to him, putting his swords and knives up as well.

  Yeah, I'm keeping mine. I'm not giving them back. I might need them again. "So... I'm going to borrow these for a while."

  "Uh... Christina, they aren't..." Dax's head snaps my way.

  "No, she's right." Luke nods and scratches his neck. "You do need to be protected at all times and you're more than capable with them. Take them for as long as you need."

  Huh, that was easy. "Cool. All right, well I'm going to head home." I turn to head out the door.

  "Wait, please." Luke's tone isn't the usual command. "I'd like to talk to you. After what just happened, we need to get you on the council as soon as possible, so can we talk for a minute."

  Here we go again. I've got the artifacts so let's lock me into the council. I want to ignore him and walk out the door, but something is keeping me there. "Is this all about the balance or is there something else you want to share with me?" I cross my arms and stare him down. I'm tired of games and bull shit. "Why don't you just level with me for once?"

  "Fine. The reason I've been telling you is the politically correct one." He licks his lips and then stands tall. "The main reason, the one that stays here in this room, is I want to clean up the council."

  What? Did he just say that? That wasn't what I was expecting to hear. "What do you mean? You are part of the council."

  "Margaret and I..." he begins, but stumbles for a second, "we started out thinking we would come into this position and work with people that had the best intentions for not only the reaper community but the whole supernatural world. What we found was the opposite."

  Dax doesn't seem surprised by what's being said, and he goes to sit down on the couch.

  Wow, these two are closer than I realized, and finally I'm being told what I always thought about this council. I don't understand why everyone else is blind.

  "At first it was Margaret and I trying to work together to make changes until something shifted." Luke's eyes stare off into the distance and he rubs at his chest. "She went away with the Eldest Lady for some one-on-one training and when she came back, she had changed. She said she was shown things and that we were wrong to be against them, and that's when she began focusing on you."

  "On me?" What is he talking about? She seemed pretty far gone the past few years when I saw her in just passing.

  "Dear sweet girl, do you not think you've been on our radar the whole time? Margaret even told me she explained that's why we kept your family close." His gaze lands on mine and his face is lined.

  "Yes, she told me that." But honestly, I thought she was bluffing.

  "The elder couple do not have our best interest at heart. If anyone goes up against a view or has a differing opinion, they cast them out, instead of hearing their side. If you don't blindly follow their lead, they will threaten you with your family or hold you in the prison under the mansion. That's why I need you to join the council and help me make a stand." He holds his hand out toward me with his thumb up. "Will you help me?"

  Most of everything he says resonates with me. That's what happened to me. I didn't follow exact protocol and they threatened and jailed me. That's what confirmed how evil they are. I don't think he can be pulling the wool completely over my eyes right now, the Eldest wouldn't allow anyone to speak this way about them.

  The door of his study op
ens, and the other two council members enter. They are both dressed in their formal attire. The lady is wearing a long, red gown and the man is wearing a suit. She turns to me and frowns. "Oh, I see you haven't learned any manners yet. You stink, child."

  I wonder if she's evil enough to burst into flames? "Well, I just came back from Hell, so pardon me if I'm not up to your high standards. I'm trying to save the world after all."

  The elder male jerks his head to Luke. "Wait ... she went to get an artifact and we weren't made aware?"

  Huh, maybe I like this guy after all. "Well, I made him go with me. I mean, if the council wants the glory they should be part of the process, right?"

  A faint chuckle comes from behind me and I glance over to find Dax staring ahead with a straight face.

  How is he able to laugh and keep a straight face? This is a technique I need to learn.

  "Who the hell do you think you are?" The eldest lady's jaw clenches and her nostrils flair. "I can put you back down in the dungeon if you aren't careful."

  Awe, we're back to our old threats. "No, you can't, and whether you like it or not, you need me." I take a step toward her and lift my chin. "Remember, right now you need me, not the other way around." If what he said hadn't convinced me to join his cause, this has. I'll be wary until I know I can trust him. I turn around to Luke and wink. "I'm in."

  He nods and grins. "You won't regret this. Go home and get some rest."

  Now that sounds perfect. I turn around and ignore the elder couple as I walk past them and wave to Dax as I open the door. "See you around."

  "Bye." He nods.

  As soon as the door is closed, the eldest lady asks, "What the hell was she just talking about?"

  Holding back a laugh, I close my eyes and transport home.

  When I arrive back at the house, I find Charlie on the couch.

  He’s sitting with his hands in his hair and he's hunched over. He jumps up as soon as I appear. "Oh, my God, Chris. I've been trying to get ahold of you."

  Shit, I haven't checked my phone in forever and I'm sure I didn't have service in hell. I pull my phone out and see it's dead. I hold it out to him. "I'm sorry. It's died and I had no clue."